Shocking Heaven

by Sidebottom, D. H.

After a long moment I opened up to the man I loved.

  “When I was twelve I was madly into all things criminal and spies and CSI and all that kind of crap.” Jax smiled softly and I nudged him humorously. “Hey, I was twelve” I defended.

  “Well, for Christmas that year my Dad bought me all kinds of spyware. You know invisible pens, booby traps and stuff but one present was a video camera and it was disguised as a book.”

  I climbed off the bed and walked into my walk-in wardrobe and grabbed the item off the shelf and took it back to Jax.

  I regained my position next to him but held the book in my lap, smiling at it and also hating the thing with my very core.

  Jax noticed the pain on my face and rested his hand on my thigh.

  I smiled at him and continued. “When I became thirteen I became addicted with movies like any normal teenager and many nights I’d hole myself up in my room and watch DVD after DVD and I built up a supply of sweets and chocolate to divulge in whenever I watched.”

  Jax’s brows rose and I grinned mischievously “My mom would have killed me if she knew I had that much stash so I hid it.”

  I puffed out a nervous breath and Jax patiently waited for me to carry on, his thumb now spinning patterns gently into my bare thigh.

  “I noticed after a few nights that my hoard was depleting quite rapidly and I knew either Cam or Aaron was stealing it so…”

  I paused and Jax clicked his tongue.

  “You set up the camera and recorded your room.” he answered for me.

  I nodded slowly and sucked on my teeth. Jax’s eyes closed painfully and he hissed through his teeth.

  “You taped them didn’t you” he said quietly and slowly, more of a statement than a question.

  I nodded again. “Y...Yeah...” I near choked out.

  I reached over for my laptop and plugged in the USB and fired up the video, my heart beating way too rapidly when it started.

  A sob tore from me as it showed my dim bedroom the night of my father’s death.

  Jax grabbed my hand tightly and shuffled nearer so his thigh was resting against mine as he watched a thirteen year old me asleep.

  Voices were heard through the tiny speakers of my laptop as it displayed my bedroom door open and my father and a man enter.

  Teenage me scrambled backwards on the bed as the man sat beside me and stroked my cheek.

  Jax stiffened beside me whilst he watched but I couldn’t keep my eyes off the fuzzy image of my wonderful Dad, the man who had loved me unconditionally, beside my many flaws as a child.

  The footage continued to show the man fondle my under-developed breast whilst discussing something with my father, then my Dad left the room.

  Jax growled when it displayed the young me shoot off the bed and flatten myself against the wall as the man shouted at me.

  He near roared when it revealed the man grab my hair and yank me back on the bed when I made a run for it.

  “Shit babe” Jax snarled and squinted at me, as though the image of what was happening on the laptop screen burnt his eyes.

  “Keep watching” I grated out.

  He closed his eyes for a moment then returned his agonised gaze to the screen.

  It was now showing the man trying to force my small nightdress over my chest. Jax began to shake “I can’t watch this babe…shit…it’s…”

  I palmed his cheek and nodded in encouragement “It’s okay, it stops in a moment. Just after the point where I scream…”

  And it did. It stopped showing me being molested as it now showed my Dad rush back into the room, another man close on his heels as if to stop my Dad entering back in the room.

  I was now struggling to breathe as I watched in horror as my father yanked the man off me and a fight ensued.

  I watched in tortured silence as my Dad struggled with the two huge men.

  I made a funny gurgling sound when my father suddenly dropped to the floor and the two men stood over him, one with a knife in his hand and one with a gun pointed at my head.

  “Ooh Christ…” Jax choked on his own sob.

  I was becoming a little hysterical. It had been near five years since I had watched it and it brought back so many…just so many…

  It then exposed one of the men yank my hair and hiss at me that if ever I told they would hunt me down and torture me painfully slowly.

  Jax was struggling with his composure beside me and I climbed onto his lap to offer comfort to both of us.

  The men left my room and it then revealed me kneeling beside my Dad, my ear to his face while he choked out his last words.

  “What did he say?” Jax asked on a whisper.

  I swallowed down the lump in my throat and touched my father’s face on the paused screen. “He told me he loved me so much and then he said…he said… ‘be careful Eve. Use it as insurance only because they will hurt you princess, they’ll hurt you real bad if they know you have it’.”

  The tears streamed down my face as I heard my Dad’s final words loud and clear in my head as I watched him die on a fucking computer screen…over and over again!!

  Jax placed the laptop on the floor before he scuttled me in tightly. “He must have known I was recording it, it used to show a red light as it taped so I presume he noticed it” I divulged between heart-broken retches.

  “Shush babe” he whispered in my ear whilst he let all my emotion flow as I finally freed my final secret, to the first person ever, but to a man I trusted impeccably. The secret that had tortured me for years, the secret that, if ever revealed would no doubt cost me my life.

  Jax rocked me and whispered loving things to me and we remained like that, just rocking and loving until we both fell asleep emotionally and physically exhausted.

  CHAPTER 28

  My mumbled brain registered a noise but I couldn’t fathom out if it was in my dream or outside of it.

  Opening my eyes, I soon found out the reason.

  I couldn’t move, my body and brain both froze as I watched my mother sat on the floor beside my bed with my laptop on her knee whilst she watched my home movie.

  I choked out an incoherent noise as my brain finally kick-started and I shot off the bed, completely and utterly naked and snatched it away from her horror-struck face.

  Glancing at the screen I was horrified to find she had watched the whole film.

  Her eyes lifted to mine and they widened in shock. “E…E…Eve…”

  “Shit Mom” I shouted “What the fuck are you doing in here?”

  Jax shook himself behind me then groaned when he realised what was happening.

  “Fuck!” he hissed.

  I spun on him. “You shouldn’t have fuckin’ left it there. You shouldn’t have let us fall asleep with it…there” I pointed harshly at the floor as I screamed at him.

  He grimaced and nodded his head painfully “Babe…”

  I shook my head wildly and turned back to my mother. “Well? What the fuck are you doing in here?” I barked at her.

  She seemed to be in shock as she remained immobile and silent. I approached her and placed my hands on her shoulders as I shook her hard like a rag doll.

  “Fuck!!!” I screamed as I pulled on my jeans and t-shirt, foregoing any underwear.

  Then something occurred to me and I narrowed my eyes on her. “Did you sneak in to catch a glimpse of Jax?” I asked coldly and calmly.

  Her eyes flashed and I knew I had her sussed.

  “Fuck Mom!” I spat in disgust and she finally scrambled to her feet and floored me in one punch.

  “Don’t you ever fucking talk to me like that again, you ungrateful little whore.” Spit flew in all directions and I realised she was high as I scurried back towards the bed, knowing exactly how violent she became when she’d scored.

  Jax was off the bed in one large movement before he grabbed my mother by the back of her shirt and carried her out of the room, leaving me sat on the floor stunned by both their actions.

  What the hell was I go
ing to do?

  I knew she would use this to her advantage so before she returned I quickly hid the USB back where it had rested silently for five years.

  Jax came back in and it wasn’t until that point I realised he was in all his glory. “Christ Jax. That’s exactly what she came in for and you have just given it to her on a fucking platter” I shouted at him as I pulled out our bag and stuffed everything we had brought into it.

  His brows raised and he sighed. “I take it we’re going back early babe.”

  “Aren’t you a clever boy?” I snarled at him, absolutely furious with him even though I knew he wasn’t at fault but he was just there…

  I was pinned under him on the bed within a fraction of a second. “Calm the fuck down babe” he said gently but I shook my head at him and punched his arm, as the familiar itch vibrated my veins.

  “Do you even realise what she will do with this?”

  He reared back and frowned at me “What? What can she do with it babe?”

  I scoffed incredulously as I stared at him “Fucking leverage Jax. Fucking great big drug sharks and she now has info on them. Info that could get me killed! What do you think she’ll fuckin’ do with it?”

  Realisation crossed his face and he knelt back, releasing me from his hold. “Shit.” he hissed as he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.

  I nodded slowly at him.

  “You put it back babe?”

  I nodded again and sighed as I saw the guilt cross his face. “I’m sorry Jax. It’s not your fault and I shouldn’t have…shouted at you.”

  He shrugged but nodded “I hear ya’ babe.”

  He pulled on his clothes then turned to me with a serious expression. “She hit you a lot babe?”

  I pulled in a breath “When she’s high, yeah. Or when she’s withdrawing, or when she’s craving, or when I won’t open my legs for her dealers, or when she’s in a mood…”

  He clicked his tongue and swore under his breath as he stroked the new bruise on my cheek.

  “You ever wish you could go with them Jax?” I asked quietly.

  He frowned and drew breath, understanding what I was saying.

  “Sometimes babe.”

  He palmed my cheek; the emotion on his face broke my heart. “I miss her more and more every day but…she’s gone babe. Just like your Dad, and there aint anything we can do to get them back.”

  I sighed as a tear slid free and he tilted my head back “But following them doesn’t mean you’ll join them babe.”

  I gazed at him as his words penetrated my brain and I nodded. “You hear me babe?” he asked softly as his mouth rested against my forehead.

  “I hear ya’ Jax.”

  “You still mine babe?”

  “Lock, stock and barrel baby” I whispered as his lips found mine.

  His kiss was everything I needed at that moment, soft, tender and so full of love it forced the tears to drip free.

  “Love you Eve Hudson” he breathed against my mouth as his hand settled on the nape of my neck “So fuckin’ much babe. You’re inside me E, you own me, possess me and fuckin’ rule me…every god damn fibre of me, every beat of my heart and every fuckin’ breath I take. They’re yours babe because I’m yours.”

  I gripped his hair and pulled him back to me. The emotion in his kiss and the words he had just spoken, drown out all the vibrations in my blood, all the electric surges that had been building in my brain and all the cravings for the release in the pain.

  “And I’ll always be yours baby. Wherever I am or whatever I’m doing. I’m yours. All of me, every inch of my body, every fragment of my soul and every piece of my heart because I love you right back Jaxon Cooper.”

  CHAPTER 29

  3 MONTHS LATER

  “Oh My God. I can’t do this Bri” I choked out to Brian, Room 103’s new Tech guy.

  They had hired him part time to tune all their instruments, now more and more bookings were coming in for gigs.

  Room 103 had been so popular a lately, even the local TV and radio had dragged them in for interviews and performances and the guys were lapping it up.

  Luckily I still only sang ‘Shocking Heaven’ with them and I was so grateful for that as I stood stage side, waiting to join them in mine and Jax’s song, whilst they sang their first four songs at the festival.

  The place was heaving, the noise levels were astronomical as was the atmosphere and I smiled as I watched Jax lap it up. He was in his element and had interacted and rocked the crowd with ease.

  There were at least 70,000 people out there and Room 103 had enraptured each and every one of them and I was so proud of them.

  “You’ll rock their fuckin’ socks off sugar” Bri inspired as he stepped aside whilst a festival sound man checked my mic and earpiece. I nodded to him when it tuned into the action on stage.

  Aaron squeezed my arm and I gave him a wobbly smile to which he chuckled and then he stuck his thumb up as Jax reeled in the crowd ready for me.

  The stage set guy motioned me up the stairs so I was nearer to the stage and he grinned and winked when I let out a whimper.

  “It will all disappear when you get out there. Don’t worry love.”

  I nodded and checked myself over.

  I had chosen tight low rise black jeans and a cool white leather Basque and everybody had lifted their jaws off the floor when I stepped out of the changing rooms in one of the porta-cabins.

  I had left my hair loose but Luce had mashed it up before applying my make-up for me as my hands had shook so much I couldn’t apply any of it without resembling a clown.

  The stage team were frantically trying to set up our props below the stage as Jax started to introduce the next song.

  A woman with a stern glare ushered me over and I sat on the small wrought iron table that was part of our set.

  I was to be sat outside a cardboard café, on a little table, drinking coffee alone while Jax would be perched on a motorbike on the other side of the stage, surrounded by girls.

  It had cost a fortune to hire the dancers and choreographers but it had been worth every penny when we’d hired a professional to film our music video, and at the last count it had received 817, 592 hits on YouTube.

  I raised my hand and made an okay sign to the sound guy when he asked if I was ready through the little earpiece stuck in my ear.

  He started counting down to me with his fingers and as he put each one down my pulse went up.

  And then the middle section of the stage started to rise and so did my stomach.

  “Give it your all, for the fuckin’ amazing Eve Hudson…my beautiful fuckin’ woman, and let’s start shocking those fucking angels!”

  I rolled my eyes at Jax’s introduction but the crowd roared when I appeared from below and Jax strode across the room and straddled the bike whilst the stage filled with gorgeous women in skimpy outfits as they surrounded Jax around the bike.

  I bet they were frozen…it was bloody February!

  I glanced over at Jax as Romeo started the song with a small slow riff, and he gave me a small wink. I picked up my false coffee cup and pretended to drink whilst Jax sang his first verse, as I looked the other way and he watched me whilst he sang.

  When Boss hit a rock rhythm on the drums to bring Jax in to the first chorus I could feel myself calm as my section approached.

  Jax diverted his attention to the girls at the same time as I looked over at him and sang my verse.

  I could feel myself flow and open up as my blood surged through my veins when the crowd roared their appreciation to my part, and I recognised our loyal fans start a trend when the crowd started the regular chant of ‘E, E, E, E…”

  Jax and I looked at each other across the stage as we both delved into the chorus together, his smile was awesome as he sang and I couldn’t help but smile back.

  I diverted my gaze again when Jax sang another solo verse and then after another chorus, Romeo came in with his solo riff and I stood and took a st
ep towards Jax. He mirrored my movement after climbing off the bike and we slowly made our way over to each other just in time to come in with the middle 8 section.

  The mass of people all swayed as we sang and then when Jax finished with the outro, the crowd roared and whistled and cheered and Jax grabbed me and kissed the damn life out of me.

  He was primed and pumped “Gonna fuck you so hard babe. Fuckin’ epic.”

  He always had such a way with words.

  I laughed loudly as the crowd continued to cheer and Boss, Romeo and Bulk came forward to take the applause now their set was over.

  We all walked off the stage to Cam, Luce, Aaron and Brian as they popped the cork on a bottle of champagne and we toasted Room 103 success.

  A tall man approached Jax and held out his hand “Jaxon Cooper?”

  Jax nodded to the bloke and he smiled “Hi. Harry Galloway, RMG.”

  Every single eye in our group widened as we stared at the man from the hottest British Recording label.

  “Oh…Hey…” Jax stuttered.

  Harry smiled at Jax’s stunned expression “I’m wondering if we could go somewhere for a discussion about signing you up with us.”

  Jax’s jaw dropped and Boss kind of whimpered whilst I just stood immobile.

  Harry turned to me “This involves you too Miss Hudson. We want to promote your duet, Shocking Heaven.”