by L. Grubb
Four years ago
That was a close freakin’ call! Jay’s look of absolute anger as Louis grabbed my arm had my heart beating wildly in my chest. Thankfully, he didn’t make a move and sat there gripping the table, his jaw tensed to the point of it snapping. Once Louis has dragged me from the burger bar and shoved me into the back of his truck, I send a text to Jay on the sly, who I have in my phone as Jolene, to say that I was sorry and I’d explain when I next see him but he needs to leave. Hopefully he bothers to look at his phone instead of hunting us down.
I’ve already left. What’s going on?? J xx
Will explain when I see you again. Don’t worry about me! Jas xx
Thank God he actually listened. I release the breath that I was holding and Louis turns to look at me. “What were you doing there, princess? Not meeting a guy I hope. You know I’ll beat him to a fucking pulp…”
“Don’t be stupid, who would be interested in me?” I whisper, my eyes squeezing shut against the pain that’s travelling down my arm from where he squeezed tightly to prevent me from running. “Plus, do you think I’d ever go near someone knowing what you have done to me?” I rub at the violent red mark on my arm and narrow my eyes at him before turning to look out of the window. I lean against the truck’s door and take gulps of air, trying to calm my racing heart. He’s never grabbed me in public before but I don’t even think people paid much attention. Thankfully.
Why couldn’t I have been graced with a brother that would look after me and protect me? In a normal way, I mean because this is by far is not the norm for anyone. I should certainly hope not.
Tears slide down my face because I feel like I’m at an impasse. I don’t know what to do and my mind and body have had enough of this life, this torture. I’m not sure how long my body and mind can carry on with this.
As soon as Ryan has disposed of Frankie’s body, we start planning our next move. Marco is one sick SOB, his reputation is a bad one, no, it’s worse than bad. The things he’s done makes me sick and it’s always to innocent women and children. He tortures them, violates them, and then drowns them in their own houses, it’s his signature but he always covers his tracks, making sure that he’s not caught by the authorities. But people on the streets, they know that it’s him.
They say that his childhood made him who he is, that his own mother and sister tortured him, turning him into the monster that he is now. Me? I say he’s always been that way.
People that evil have to have been born that way.
My hands clench into fists at the thought of Jas in the hands of not only Louis, but Marco too. I can’t let my mind wander to her, to what they could be doing, I need to focus or I’ll spiral.
“My guys are fifteen minutes out,” Ryan tells me, his hands leaning on top of the map we have sprawled on the shitty dining room table.
“Good,” I say, shaking my hands out. “We’re gonna need every last bit of help we can get.”
My brow furrows as I go over the plan that we’ve already come up with, but it seems too easy for Louis to have Marco’s help. Everyone knows where Marco lives but maybe that was Louis’ plan? Nobody would dare attack Marco’s place.
Or so he thinks.
Once Ryan’s men turn up, we all suit up and file out in several SUV’s, I just hope that we have enough firepower and men to take them on.
There’s eight of us including me and Ryan, let’s hope we all make it out alive.
My thoughts drift to Jas on the drive to Marco’s place, on how she’ll be when I find her. Will she be broken beyond repair? Will I ever get the Jas back that I fell in love with all those years ago? I wish I would have done something more back then, I wish I would have taken her far away. I can’t stop replaying the past, it plays in my mind like an old movie, the reels shooting through my head.
Four Years Ago
She sits next to me, her hands fidgeting in her lap. I know this is a nervous thing and I desperately want to ask her what’s up, but I don’t, I wait until she looks at me, her eyes full of sadness. Whatever it is that she needs to tell me needs to come from her and only her, I can’t make her tell me but I can be here if she does confide in me.
Tears spring from her eyes but she doesn’t move to wipe them away as they make tracks down her cheeks.
“Jas?” I move forward, cupping her face in my hands and wiping the tears away with my thumbs. No sooner do I wipe them away, do more spring free.
“I have to tell someone,” she whispers, her eyes taking on a haunted look. “I can’t keep it inside anymore.”
“Okay.” I frown, shifting in my seat. “You know you can talk to me about anything.”
She nods, her head not able to move much in my hands.
“You have to promise me one thing though.” She waits for me to answer and when I don’t, she continues, “You hear me out and then don’t do anything. Promise me, Jay.”
“I promise.”
She closes her eyes briefly, taking a deep breath and then opening them back up. “You know I have an older brother, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well… he… oh God, I can’t say it out loud.” She visibly crumples and it takes all my strength to not wrap my arms around her and hold her tight.
“Just take your time,” I whisper, letting go of her face and clutching her hands instead.
She takes a shaky breath and looks over at the TV, focusing on the crappy sitcom that’s playing on repeat.
“The first time was when I was eight.” She shakes her head and laughs, but not a humorous laugh, a sad one. “He came in my room and… hurt me.”
She pauses and then turns to me and then back to the TV again. “It never stopped, I thought that was the worst it could get but I was wrong. It gets worse every single time.”
I move my hands from hers, springing up off the sofa and pacing the area in front of the TV. That motherfucker puts his hands on her and thinks he can get away with it? I don’t fucking think so!
“Jay,” her soft voice calls. “You promised.”
“I… Fuck!”
“I just needed to tell someone.”
“I know, sweetheart,” I say, crouching down in front of her. “You need to tell your mom and dad though, they can stop him hurting you.”
She doesn’t say anything for a long while, her eyes focused on the floor. The thought of her own brother beating on her has my mind in a fuzz, I can’t think clearly. I can’t stand the thought of her being eight years old and him hurting her like that.
“Yeah,” she says all of a sudden, pushing up off the sofa. “I need to tell them.”
Her face fills with determination and I smile. I’m so proud of her, she makes out like she’s a nobody, like she’s just a normal person, but she’s not. She’s the strongest person that I know.
“You want a ride?” I ask.
“Please.”
Present
We pull up at the edge of the woods, smack bang in the middle of nowhere. If only I knew now what I didn’t know then. I never would have given her that ride home. I would have got us the hell out of there and made it my life’s mission to protect her.
“Jay?”
“Huh? What?” I shake my head, ridding it of the memories and concentrating on the here and now.
“We’re ready to go in,” he tells me, passing over a rifle.
I grip onto it, feeling the weight of it in my hand. Tonight, it ends, I’ll kill that motherfucker if it’s the last thing I do.
We all walk single file through the woods, coming to the edge of the building.
“One guy out back.” Comes over the earpiece. Then, “Two guys out front.”
I hear a quick succession of three pops and then a loud bang. My hands lift to my ears, the ringing almost knocking me off my feet. I lift my eyes from the ground and see the door on the floor, smoke flying around it. He could have fucking warned me he was going to blast the door off its hinges.
Ryan smirks and tilts his head and
I follow close behind. More gunshots ring out as we make it inside the property and I walk past Marco on the floor bleeding out.
“Should have known it’d be you,” he sneers.
“Bye, motherfucker.” I grin, shooting him between the eyes.
He deserves so much more than that for what he’s done to the countless innocent people, but the fact of the matter is, I’m only going to torture one person from here on out and I’ll be making sure he screams and cries like a baby before I put him out of his misery. I don’t have time to focus on Marco, I need to get Louis and make him suffer beyond belief.
We head to the steel door toward the back of the room, Ryan turning to me with a look of concern on his face.
“What?” I ask.
“We need to try and breach it.”
“So fucking breach it then!” I shout, feeling so close but so far away all at the same time.
He walks away, heading to his guys as they talk in rapid fire and then tilts his head to me. “Stand back.”
I do as I’m told and watch as he clips something to the door, covering my ears and waiting for the loud bang.
The door swings open and I rush forward, heading in first, needing to see if we’ve found her.
“Not so fast, fuck face!” Louis practically screams, holding Jas in front of him as a shield, a gun planted against her temple.
“Louis, let her go.” I try to keep my voice even but I know he can hear the shake in it. I don’t move my eyes from Louis, if I do, I’m afraid he’ll kill her right here, and I don’t want that. I want to get Jas to safety so I can make this motherfucker suffer, even if it’s only a fraction of what Jas has suffered.
He throws his head back, laughing maniacally as his evil eyes focus on me. “You can’t have her…” He whispers something in her ear and then says, “She’s mine, I made sure of that.”
A loud bang echoes throughout the room and he goes tumbling to the floor, blood spurting from his leg. His hand lifts up, the gun aimed for Jas when another shot goes off and his gun goes tumbling to the floor, blood spurting out of his hand at an alarming rate.
Two men rush over to him, pulling him out of the room and that’s when I allow myself to finally look at Jas.
Fear grips my heart in a vise like grip, my eyes are squeezed shut as the loud boom of the gun shakes my brain. I feel no pain and Louis’ hold loosens and I tumble to the floor, tears making tracks down my face. Cold hands grip my shoulders, pulling me up but I scream and struggle, frightened to death that Louis has me again.
“Shh, it’s okay, Jas, I’ve got you.” Jay’s soothing voice has me instantly collapsing into his arms as loud, maniacal sobs fly through my mouth. My limbs are shaking so bad that Jay has to practically carry me out of the room. I’m still completely naked, and the cold air hits my skin like needles are piercing me. “Here, put this on, baby.” Jay hands me a long trench coat and helps me put my numb body into it. Warmth seeps through me as the coat envelopes my shivering body. I almost forgot what it was like to have some sort of clothes on me.
“I hurt, Jay,” I whisper against his chest as he helps me along the gravel path toward a black SUV.
We instantly stop and Jay holds me a little away from him, his gaze sweeping over the length of my body, presumably looking for any injuries. “Where?”
I look at him, lost in the swimming sea of his eyes. “Everywhere. I’m… I’m still not healed from the crash. My jaw is broken but nothing hurts more than my heart right now.” Another sob wrenches from me and I cry out as Jay’s hand strokes my jaw. “Please… I want to get out of here.”
“You’re safe now, beautiful, let’s get you out of here.” Jay kisses the top of my head before draping his arm over my shoulders to continue holding me, helping me walk the few more paces to the SUV.
He opens the passenger side door and lifts me in gently. I grimace at the pain between my legs as I sit down on the plush leather seat, biting my lip to stop yet another sob escaping.
“Jas? Look at me, beautiful,” Jay says, sweeping a stray of greasy hair from my face. My eyes find his and my body slumps a little, knowing I’m safe, knowing that Jay survived the crash as well. “You’re safe. Louis will never be able to hurt you again. I promise you that.” After saying this, a loud gunshot resonates through the air making me jump a few paces in the air and smacking my head on the ceiling of the car. I can see Jay trying hard not to laugh at me so I smack a hand against his chest fighting a smile of my own. It hurts to smile, not just because of my broken jaw, but because I can’t remember the last time my face actually produced a smile. “See? He won’t hurt you again.”
I sigh deeply, wringing my hands in my lap. “It doesn’t matter. The damage is done, Jay. No one, and I mean no one, should ever go through what I’ve just been through. What I went through when I was just eight years old.” Taking a deep, shaky breath, I continue, “But at least I know now that women everywhere are now safe from his evilness, though I expect he only ever did it to me. He was obsessed. I mean, you heard what he said. I’ll forever be his.”
“Stop that train of thought, sweetheart. You’re not his, you never ever were. You’re mine. I’ll look after you, babe, I promise.” He kisses my forehead and I let another bundle of tears fall from my face. I’m safe now, I tell myself, Louis can never hurt me again.
“I hope they tortured the fucker before they released that shot,” I mumble.
Jay stares at me like I’ve just told him pigs can fly. “Jasmine, did you just curse? I don’t think I’ve ever heard expletives fall from that pretty little mouth before.”
I blush furiously, my face heating up. “I guess this time was an exception, though I can think of a stronger word for that… that... douchebag.” Jay throws his head back and laughs, the rumble coming from deep inside his chest. I love that sound, it makes me feel safe. Don’t ask me why, it is just how it is. “Please, take me home, Jay.”
“Let’s hit the road, babe.” A kiss lands on my lips softly, barely touching but it heats my whole body, making me warm and tingly. I don’t know if I’ll ever trust a man to come near me intimately, but I’m hoping with some help I can let Jay in. He knows my deepest secrets, secrets that I never even told Callie, my best friend, but it will take time to let him in again. I need to know that I’m perfectly safe. I know he won’t hurt me, not like Louis did, he’s not that sort of man. But I have no idea if he’ll even stick around while he waits for me to sort my shit out. Only time will tell.
I sit in the chair beside the bed, watching as Jas sleeps. Her chest rises and falls with each breath and I watch it intently, hardly believing that she’s back with me and safe. It’s my mission to protect her, it has been since I first laid eyes on her in that coffee shop, only I haven’t done a very good job of it, have I?
I can’t help but blame myself for her being taken. If I hadn’t have tried to take her to that hotel that day and I just took her back to my apartment instead, then maybe none of this would have happened.
My mind swirls with what ifs, but all I can do now is concentrate on the here and now and try to make things right.
My hand flutters down to hers, bringing it to my mouth and placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles.
“I’ll keep you safe now, love,” I murmur, looking back up to her face and smiling gently.
I know she thinks that he’s dead, that one gunshot would make her think that, but he isn’t and I don’t intend to tell her. I’m gonna make him suffer twice as much as she has. I’ll make him beg and plead with me to kill him and put him out of his misery. But I won’t, I’ll keep him alive as long as I can, just to make him feel an iota of what Jas has been feeling from his hands all these years.
What goes around comes around and he’s gonna get his, I’ll make sure of that.
A soft moan comes out of her mouth just before her eyes flutter open and connect with mine. My heart beats faster as she stares at me, her beautiful brown eyes surrounded in sadness with a ray of happiness t
rying its best to break free.
“Hey,” she croaks out, sitting up and wincing at the movement. “Could you get me some-”
“Water?” I ask, picking up the bottle off the small bedside table and opening it for her.
“Thanks,” she smiles and winces again, taking it from me and swallowing several gulps before she hands it back to me.
I lean back in the chair, letting my head roll back so that my face is parallel with the ceiling as I blow out a deep breath. A breath that feels like it’s been stuck in my chest for months, and maybe it has, but at least now I can relax and be certain in the knowledge that she’s going to be okay, eventually.
“What happens now?” she asks.
I lift my head back up to her and look around the room, my mind working overtime on what to tell her. Do I say what all my plans are, what I’m going to do to that sick son of a bitch? Or do I stay silent about it and keep her none the wiser?
“You need to get checked out,” I tell her.
“No,” she gasps, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. “No more hospitals.”
The fear in her voice is loud and clear and I quickly shake my head as I move to the bed and sit facing her, placing each of my hands on her outer thighs.
“No,” I say, agreeing with her. “No more hospitals. I’m having a doctor I can trust fly out to us. She’ll check you over and we’ll go from there.”
“O-okay,” she stutters, closing her eyes in relief.
“But for right now,” I tell her, rubbing my thumbs in slow circles. “You need to sleep.”
She nods her head in answer and moves her hands from her legs, lifting one up and placing it against the scruff on my cheek. “You need sleep too.”
“I know.” I lean into her touch, relishing in it. It’s been so long since I felt her skin against mine, it almost feels like a dream, but I know it’s not. She’s here with me and that’s how I intend for it to stay.
“Come lay with me,” she says, patting the space next to her on the bed.