by J Paton
“He’d put down that he had no next of kin,” I muttered before I could stop myself.
Phil’s expression turned grim. “Yes. I’ve come to believe that that’s how subs are picked by the club, to use—”
“Use? Use for what?” The alarm in my voice couldn’t be prevented, not with the way my heart was jackhammering against my ribs. This cannot be happening! Not again.
“Yes, use. Either to sell, or to use in the part of the club not openly advertised on their website.”
I stood, unable to sit still any longer, my chair flying back over the tiled floor with a loud clatter. I groaned in frustration at the sound of rapid footsteps overhead. “Shit. Listen, can you give me a few minutes?” I got no further before there was a loud cry followed by a thud.
I took off at a run, as if the hounds of hell were chasing me. Had someone got into the house? I dismissed the thought immediately, but it didn’t stop me from flying up the stairs in record time, with Phil behind me. I didn’t have time to stop and explain, or to prepare him for what we were about to find.
My hands shook as I pushed the bedroom door open as I passed, finding no sign of Jup. I went to the bathroom next. There on the floor, in a puddle of what looked like piss, lay Jup. His face was ashen, his right temple smeared with blood from what looked like a nasty gash. The sink edge held a matching red smear that had me swallowing back bile at the thought of his head hitting the porcelain.
I dropped to my knees to check on Jup, ignoring the piss as best I could.
“Shall I call for an ambulance?”
I jerked, glancing over my shoulder. I’d forgotten that the other man had followed me. “No, we can’t go to the hospital.” I pointed to the towel rail. “Can you pass me that large bath towel?”
Phil handed it over. “Let me help you. It will be easier to lift him with two of us.”
I was about to refuse, but then I looked down at the mess on the floor. “Okay, grab the other towel. The bedroom is on your left as you exit the bathroom. Can you lay that on the bed? Then come back and we’ll lift him.”
Phil left the room. He was gone for no more than thirty seconds, but they felt like forever as I waited for Jup to open his eyes. Did he have a concussion? A brain injury? Fuck! Should I take a chance and take him to the hospital?
With each unanswered question, my anxiety levels shot up without any hope of them subsiding while Jup’s eyes remained closed.
I eyed Phil’s clothes. “You sure you wanna help? You might get wet.”
The chuckle Phil released was humourless. “I’ve had worse on me. A little piss won’t hurt me.” He crouched at Jup’s feet. “If you take his top half, I’ll lift his legs.”
“Okay, that will work.” After slipping my forearms under Jup’s armpits to encircle his upper body, I met Phil’s gaze head on, doing my best to hide my fear. “If Jupiter wakes and starts to freak out, just let go and leave the room.”
Phil’s nod was slow in coming. He stared at Jup, his expression thoughtful, but he didn’t say anything as he waited for my signal.
“On two, lift. One. Two.” The angle was awkward as I moved around the toilet and tried to avoid both the sink and the piss. With Phil’s help, I maneuvered him out of the bathroom and we carried him down the hallway and into the bedroom. I let out a sigh of relief as we placed him on the bed.
“—if you want, I can check him over?”
I was so concerned for Jup, that it took a second to register what Phil was saying. I frowned. “Sorry, you want to do what?”
“I’ve had some medical training. If you want, I can check him over?” Phil’s response was patient, something akin to sympathy in his eyes as he stared at Jup.
“Oh, erm, yeah okay. But again, if he wakes and starts to freak out, you must leave immediately.”
“Got it.” Phil glanced at the door and then back to me. “I’ve got a medical bag in my truck. Let me go grab it.”
I nodded, Phil disappearing out of the door and leaving me feeling useless. The wet shorts clinging to Jup drew my attention. I started to remove his clothing for something to do. Once he was naked from the waist down, I glanced around for something to clean Jup’s skin with. The stack of face wipes Jup liked to use were sitting on the dressing table. I reached out to grab a packet and then quickly cleaned Jup’s soiled, scarred skin.
Thankfully, I’d already covered Jup with a pair of cotton pj bottoms and was in the process of removing his wet T-shirt when Phil returned carrying a medical bag. My eyes widened at the size of it. It resembled something a paramedic might have in the back of an ambulance. I finished removing Jup’s top while Phil pulled out a bunch of stuff and laid it on the bed—a pen torch, a stethoscope, and what looked like a blood pressure machine.
I stepped back and gave him room as he examined Jup. He didn’t mention the puckered scars that covered Jup’s rail-thin body. They were extensive, so there was no way he could have missed them.
By the time he’d checked Jup’s pupils, his pulse at both neck and wrist, listened to his heart, and then checked his blood pressure along with his oxygen levels, I was starting to panic.
“Is it normal for someone who’s hit their head to remain unconscious for so long? It’s got to have been at least five minutes or more.” I had some first aid training, but I couldn’t think past the fear of what it might mean if I had to take Jup to the hospital.
“As we don’t know what caused him to hit his head, that’s a hard one to fathom.”
“It will have been panic. The loud noise will have made him faint and hit his head on the sink. I should have known better than to make a fucking noise like that.” I ran my hands through my hair, the ache at the back of my eyes worsening as I stared down at the pale man, willing him to wake up.
“If he doesn’t come to soon, I’d suggest he needs to go to the hospital.”
“Fucking hell! Hospital’s not an option.” Distress had my stomach heaving.
“Why can’t you take him to a hospital?”
The quietly spoken question had several bombs going off in my head. I swallowed hard. “Because it’s not safe! The men I took him from are still out there and possibly looking for him.”
The only warning that Jup was awake was the sound of a sharply indrawn breath, and then all hell let loose.
Tucker
“Leave,” I shouted at Phil, who stood motionless as Jup started to scream the house down. His hands flew out and he started to fight for all he was worth, scratching and clawing anything that was within reach. His face was a mask of blind terror, his eyes seeming to look right through me.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
“Jupiter, listen to my voice, you’re safe,” I repeated over and over as I tried to get a hold of the man now clawing at his own arms and legs. Keeping my voice even with difficulty, I continued to repeat the words that normally worked. But, all they seemed to do was make him worse.
I carefully wrapped my arms around Jup, his fingernails gouging my bare arms, but I continued to hold him, attempting to talk him back into the present.
When Jup had first moved in with me, I’d lived through endless months of situations just like this. It had taken patience and commitment to stop Jup from jumping at every sound, to reduce the number of flashbacks that pulled him from the present back into the nightmare of his past.
It was painful to acknowledge that I’d caused this by one stupid action. My heart rate matched the fighting man in my arms as I glanced around the room, trying to find something to calm the situation. I cursed at the sight of Phil stood by the open door. “Fuck’s sake, you need to leave. Jup won’t calm down with a stranger in here.” I had to shout to be heard over Jupiter’s terrified wailing.
“I’ve got a sedative that might help him. I know they don’t recommend it with a head injury, but he needs something before he does some real damage, to you and him.” Phil’s gaze lowered to my bloodied arms before meeting my gaze. “I won’t hurt him.”
One
look at Jup’s frothing mouth and crazed expression had me agreeing. “Get it.” Being careful not to hurt Jup, I continued to try and talk him back to the present, hoping he wouldn’t need the sedative. But as the tortured screams turned to howls of distress and Jupiter turned his attention back to attacking himself, that hope faded. As strong as I was, when Jup was like this he fought like several tigers protecting their cubs.
Phil approached with a needle in his hand. I gulped hard. “Jup, this is Phil. He’s a friend. He’s going to give you something to help you calm down. He isn’t going to hurt you.”
Jup thrust his head back, striking my jaw hard enough for me to see stars. My teeth clashed together, my mouth filling with blood from having bitten my tongue, but I held on. “Do it now,” I rasped out.
“Noooooooooooo, pleaseeeeee noooooo, I’ll beeeeee good,” Jup cried out in a panicked voice hardly recognisable as human.
Phil’s voice when he spoke was full of authority, as well as something else—compassion. “Jup, look me in the eye. Jup, I need you to look me in the eye. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to help you and Tucker. I’m going to keep you safe. Can you hear me, Jup? I’m going to help you.”
Whether it was the underlying sincerity, or the compassion that came through, Jup seemed to take notice, collapsing against me. He started to shudder while mumbling nonsensical words. At least it was better than the screaming.
“Jup, this is a mild sedative. It’s going to make you feel a little sleepy, but nothing more than that. You won’t feel out of control or spacy, okay.” Phil waited for Jup to show some sign that he understood before touching Jup’s arm.
Expecting Jup to freak out at Phil’s touch, I braced myself. But Jup remained perfectly still as Phil injected whatever was in the syringe into Jup’s biceps muscle. It only took a second, Phil slowly moving away after checking Jup’s arm.
Phil glanced at me. “It won’t take too long to kick in.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Phil looked back at the man in my arms. “Do you want a hand to get Jup settled on the bed? Then you can go clean up. I can stay with him until he falls asleep.”
I was about to refuse when Jup shifted so that he could look up at me. His eyes no longer held terror. Instead, there was remorse. “I’m sorry… Sir, I—”
“Shush, it’s my fault. I should have been more careful. It’s been a hard few days, and you were already anxious.”
Jup’s chin wobbled as a fat tear rolled down his cheek. “I know.” His gaze shifted to the ripped skin on my arms. “But I hurt you.” Another tear followed the first, dripping onto my arm and making one of the scratches sting.
“I’ll survive.”
Jup’s chin quivered some more. He looked at the silent man stood watching us. “Go and wash. I’ll stay here with…”
“Phil, my name is Phil.”
Too tired and stressed to argue, I let Phil help me clean the cuts on Jup’s arms and bandage them before I covered him with the fleece blanket he liked to cuddle. We worked in silence, Jup’s eyes struggling to stay open.
Phil gave me a nudge. “Go clean up. I’ll stay until he drifts off.”
Conflicted after spending the last two years as his sole carer, I dithered for a few seconds. With one last look at Jup’s heavy-lidded expression, I spun on my heel and walked out of the room.
Once I was cleaned up, I went into my bedroom to change the T-shirt that held the scent of urine and was smeared with blood. After Jup’s tortured screams, the house seemed eerily quiet. I prayed that the neighbours had been out and hadn’t reported the fracas.
The loud sigh I released filled the room as I sat on the edge of the bed and buried my face in my hands. A tight band encircled my chest, refusing to take the hint and release even as I worked to get my breathing under control. The scratches on my arms throbbed, a reminder that life was a bastard.
There was a knock on the half open door, Phil walking in once I’d given him a nod. “It looks like the sedative I gave him has worked. He’s asleep. He’ll need to be checked every hour for signs of concussion. The sedative will make it a little harder to determine, but with him freaking out like that I couldn’t think of any other option.” Phil sounded regretful and tired, the mattress next to me depressing as he sat down.
I gave him a half-hearted smile. “Thanks.” It was the best I could come up with under the circumstances. I was grateful now that Phil hadn’t done what I’d told him and left. “Jup doesn’t normally do well with people, so I’m doubly grateful that you helped talk him down off the cliff.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “I’m usually able to get him to calm down.”
A hand touched my forearm and I lifted my gaze to Phil reluctantly. “You want to know his story, don’t you?”
“I don’t pry into people’s business unless I’m being paid to. But you look like you could do with offloading…” A look of indecision crossed Phil’s face as he trailed off.
Was he regretting his offer?
Whether he was or not, I did need to share some of the burden. “I’ve not spoken about Jup, about what happened, to anyone. I’ve been real careful to keep it that way because of… the risks to us both.”
“Trust. Yeah, it’s a risky business.”
I gave a wry chuckle. “That it is.” I stood, my gut suggesting that Phil could be trusted. The question was, how much. “Come on, I need a drink.”
Back in the kitchen, I pulled out a bottle of ten-year-old malt whiskey and two glasses. “You want a nip?”
Phil shook his head. “I never drink if I’m gonna drive.” His expression didn’t give anything away, but his voice held a hint of steel.
“Fine.” I placed one of the glasses back in the cupboard, pouring a liberal amount of whiskey in the remaining glass. Tumbler in hand, I turned and leaned against the counter, Phil sitting at the table.
I let out a sigh. “I’m not sure I’m ready for any more drama tonight, but I’m on a countdown. I’ll be back in the field soon and I need to know what I’m getting into.”
Phil inclined his head towards the same chair that had caused all the problems. “Sit, and I’ll give you a brief rundown. If you have a computer that’s safe, I can send you an encrypted file with the more in-depth stuff about the club.”
I sat, holding up a hand to stall Phil. “Why are you being so helpful? Normally security firms hate working with police.”
Phil’s forehead furrowed. “First off, I’m not working with the police, am I? Also, I’ve got a feeling that the information I have will be familiar to you, and it might take away any remaining doubts about trusting me. I meant what I said to Jupiter, you can trust me.”
“That remains to be seen, but as I don’t have any other option but to trust you, I’m going with it.” I reached out to take hold of Phil’s forearm, my knuckles whitening as my grip turned punishing. “If you betray my trust, Jup’s trust, there won’t be a place on the planet you’ll be safe from me.” The steel behind the threat was met with nothing but a nod from Phil, a gleam of what looked like respect in his eye.
I released him, satisfied that I’d made my point. I took a sip of the whiskey, heat spreading through my chest and removing a little of the chill that had been left after Jup’s distress. Phil opened his laptop and logged in.
I shut my eyes for a moment, considering whether what was happening was my penance for stepping over the line and breaking the law I’d sworn to uphold.
“Right, this is what I know.”
My fingers tightened around the glass as I met Phil’s stare and listened to what the other man had to say.
Phil
I stared at Nix, trying to gauge how much of what had happened the day before I was willing to share with him. He’d been the first to arrive for the monthly team meeting, the one I used to keep the men who worked for me up to speed on all the contracts. I’d figured out early on that it made sense to share information in case I needed someone to step in and help out on another job. It
saved time and energy to not have to repeat myself.
Given everything I knew about the men in my employment, it was easy to build friendships. Nix had easily fitted into the team. He had a big heart that many didn’t see, focusing instead on the harder exterior of tattoos, muscles and the edge of danger. He was a trained killer and nothing could disguise that. The man was a vault of secrets that the government had trusted him with, so I knew I could trust him.
A wave of tiredness had me reaching for the coffee Nix had made for me. I’d slept for shit, the memory of Jup’s abused body remaining on replay like the button had got stuck inside my head. I wanted to say I was clueless why, but after Jup had fallen asleep and I’d shared everything I had on Dom’s Haven, Tucker had told me his story. Tucker’s compassion for Jup, who’d obviously been through a huge trauma, had left me defenceless.
Jup’s body was reminiscent of others I’d seen tortured to gain information. But I recognised the pattern of scars. It was the same as on Ferron’s arms. There were others hidden under Ferron’s clothes. When he’d told his story he hadn’t held back on detailing how Devon had abused his body.
I swallowed to moisten my mouth. Was that how Jup had got his?
The reason for Tucker’s distress about going to the hospital, along with pointing out that it was too risky for both of them, had remained a mystery. However, it didn’t take a genius to work out, given that Tucker had asked if he could hire my team to stay overnight with Jup, that the threat to one or both of them was real.
“You gonna talk about what’s on your mind or sit and brood?” Nix asked while lounging in the seat, a drink in front of him that he’d made himself.
“Can you keep this between us for now?” The nod came without hesitation. “I went to visit a police officer, Tucker Parks. He works in armed responseꟷ”
“Hang on. Why would you talk to an officer who works in armed response? Have you found out something else that we need to know about Dom’s Haven?” It was the obvious assumption to make, given that was the biggest case we were working on currently.