CHAPTER TWENTY-TWOMary Jo #2
“Good girl Jo. You did so well.” His voice is tense, and he shudders in me.
He picks up his pace. He pounds into me, and I realize just how gentle he was being with me before.
His pounding now is brutal, relentless, and claiming.
He’s huge, and it feels like he’s splitting me apart.
He groans in my ear, sounding breathless.
“Fuck kitten, you’re going to make me come. ”
He slams a few more times, then pushes all the way into me and groans deeply. I feel him pulsing, and heat fills me.
We’re both breathing deeply. He pulls my forehead back to his and looks at me.
“Fuck.” There’s a slight pain in his eyes.
I close my eyes. My body relaxes. Fatigue fills me, and the haze returns to my mind until I see nothing but static, and I fall asleep.
***
I’m warm. Deliciously warm. I nestle deeper into that warmth and let out a sigh.
Something shifts behind me. I crack open my eyes. It takes me a second to recognize where I am. Jayden’s bed. In the loft. Why am I here?
I roll over. Cole’s right there. He smiles. “Hey, little one.”
He’s the warmth. I frown. “What am I doing here?”
“Cuddling. Which I must say is very uncharacteristic for my snarky girl, but I love it.” He pulls me into his body and kisses my forehead.
I push back against him. It is uncharacteristic. How did I get here? I try to remember what happened before.
He sees me furrowing my brows. “Uh oh. Snuggling is about to be over, isn’t it?” He grasps my hands and pins them together. “Please don’t scratch me, I’m weird about my skincare routine, and you’d put me back at least a week.”
I stare at him. He winks.
Flashes of memory roll over me. It comes in bits and pieces, full of fog. I stiffen. Jayden and I did something. Cole was there. Sage was too. Sage. New Year’s Eve. My video message to her ex…was Jayden. Him all over me. Touching me. Making me feel good. Making me come.
Cole’s grip on my hands tightens just slightly. I cut my gaze around the room and back to him.
“Where is Jayden?” My voice is cold, even to me.
“Out.”
“He’s too pussy to face me after last night?”
“No. We were running out of groceries since you insisted on feeding that woman.”
I glare but I see the truth in his eyes.
“Let me go.”
He hesitates but does.
I sit up. I’m wearing a big black T-shirt. It smells like Jayden. I stand and walk to the balcony, needing space. I see it’s snowing outside. The ground is already covered.
“What exactly did he do to me last night?”
Cole is quiet. I turn to look, and he’s watching me from the bed. It looks like he’s evaluating whether I’ll jump from the railing. I think about it. It would ruin whatever plans they have for me, but it’s not high enough to do any real damage.
“Why don’t you ask him?”
“I’d like to, but like you said he isn’t here right now so I’m asking you.”
Cole slowly gets up and approaches me like a wild animal. So he is afraid I’m going to jump.
“He didn’t hurt you.”
I grit my teeth. “I asked what he did, not what he didn’t do.”
“Little one…”
“Do I need birth control?”
“What?”
“Do. I. Need. Birth. Control.”
He crosses his arms. That’s all the answer I need. I feel sick to my stomach. At the same time, I remember the blinding pleasure from last night. How I’ve never felt like that, not with Kyle, not with any of my exes, and not even giving it to myself. And that scares me.
“I’m going to shower.” I don’t wait for his reply.
I stand in the shower for a long time. The sick feeling doesn’t go away.
I’m in dangerous territory. I hate these men.
Clearly, they are just using me for whatever fucked up plan of revenge they have.
But they make me feel better than I ever have, more alive than I ever have.
It’s intoxicating. It will be so easy for them to lull me into complacency.
And they will. They’re trying right now.
Why am I still here? Why haven’t I tried harder to leave? Something is clearly very wrong with me. Is this Stockholm? It has to be. The thought makes me feel better.
I clean up and get out. I see the tattoo on my back. Their names. It’s healing nicely. It makes me mad. It’s okay. I’ll get it removed as soon as I get away. I know a good place. Kyle had to get a hand tattoo removed for his job. It’s not a big deal.
I wrap a towel around myself and run up the cold steps to my room. I get dressed and come back out.
Jayden is back, and he and Cole are bringing in and unloading groceries. The breeze through the door is brutal, and my wet hair makes it worse.
“I got you more of your meals.” Jayden shuts the door and drops off the last of the bags on the island. They’re Walmart bags. I wonder how far away the store is. How long has he been gone?
“Thanks.”
I see him throw me a glance while wiping the snow off his hair. I ignore him and start helping put the groceries away.
“You’re going to need to let her in,” I state.
He grunts.
“It’s too cold outside. She’ll die before you can fuck with her anymore. I’m assuming that’s why I’m still alive. You aren’t done with either of us.”
Jayden calmly pulls out a bag of apples. “No. You’re alive because you belong to us.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m yours, whatever.” I stop and catch his glance. “Oh, I forgot. I have HIV. Serves you right.” I don’t, but I want him to live in a little fear.
He laughs a deep gravelly sound. Cole chuckles too.
“And I expect you to go back and get me Plan B.”
Silence. Jayden has stilled. I look at him, and his demeanor has totally changed. He looks deadly. He doesn’t move toward me, but I feel I need to take a step back.
“No.”
“No?” Outrage flushes my cheeks. “You don’t get to decide, no,” I sputter. “It’s my body. I won’t want to be pregnant, especially with,” I wave my hands at him, “you.”
He snatches me up around the neck. His hand is firm but not painful.
His voice is measured and angry, and it makes me shiver.
“You’ll do whatever I decide, kitten. If I want to see you carrying my child, then I will.
If I want to get you birth control, then I will.
You belong to me. And I said no. Don’t question me again. ” He lets me go.
Fear and anger mix in a heady cocktail. That and…lust. Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with me? I tamp those feelings down.
Jayden continues with the food. “Cole, bring Sage in. We’ll move the kitten to my room. She makes a good point. Don’t want her freezing to death just yet.”
Cole nods and whistles as he goes outside.
***
In the evening, Jayden makes me stay in bed with him since Sage is in my room.
Cole also joins us, so I’m sandwiched between the two of them.
Jayden said he can’t trust I won’t run again.
He’s not wrong. I lay awake the first night, tense, ready for them to make a move.
But they don’t. And they don’t the next night or the next.
They keep a close eye on me, always having one or the other within hearing distance.
Anytime I try to snoop around, they follow me.
I keep trying to talk to Sage, but they keep her doped up.
Maybe so she won’t talk to me, I’m not sure.
She stares at the wall with a glazed expression.
She doesn’t even want to eat. I worry. She doesn’t have much weight to drop.
I try and force water down her, and she sometimes accepts that.
They’ve also taken my paper clip and all the rest in Cole’s room.
Cole lets me whittle when he’s around. I use the knife that he seems to have an emotional connection to. I pry him for more information, but he says he’ll answer if we fuck. So I leave it alone.
This becomes increasingly difficult as every time I’m around either of them with their strong bodies and handsome faces, my cunt practically purrs. I try to get her on board with the kidnapping and lack of morals, but she doesn’t get the message.
I mostly sit in Sage’s room, staring at the wall, wondering what I can do.
I fight the realization that their defenses are down the most when mine are.
Which means I have to let my guard down to get anywhere.
Or at least pretend to. Carefully, because they seem to be able to sniff out a lie from a mile away.
I fight the idea of getting in bed with the devil.
I’m worried I won’t make it out if I do.
But I also worry I won’t make it out if I don’t.
Clearly, I haven’t gotten anywhere by fighting them.
Well, I have gotten somewhere. Fucked. Maybe it’s time to try something else.
It’s not just me I’m fighting for anymore. It’s Sage too.
On the evening of the fourth night, since Sage came inside, I convinced them to let me help her shower. She’s started to smell, and I can tell it annoys Jayden. He helps carry her downstairs and sits her down on the shower floor.
“Make sure she doesn’t drown. She doesn’t get to get off that easy.” He stalks off.
Sage raises a weak hand and flips him the bird. But he’s already gone. I try to get her out of the shower so I can warm up the water, but she’s dead weight.
“Sorry, girl, it’s going to be cold at first.” She doesn’t even flinch when the water hits her. Soon it warms and fills the room with steam. I consider Jayden’s words. If he has worse plans for her than drowning, maybe it would be a mercy to let her go.
I widen my eyes, realizing where my mind went. Did I just consider murdering someone? I feel like throwing up.
“He’s a dick,” Sage slurs out.
I startle and look down at her. “Yeah.”
She has her eyes closed, lashes dark against her cheek, and her head leaned back against the wall. I shampoo her hair as best I can, getting soaked in the process.
I can’t take the silence anymore. I ask, “What did he do to you?”
The water patters down on her face. For a while I think she’s going to ignore me like every other time.
Until she speaks. “He told me he didn’t want me,” she grimaces.
“He couldn’t stand to look at me. That I’m a whore and a slut, and the world would be better off without me.
” She cracks her eyes open and looks at me.
Really looks at me for the first time. Her eyes are slightly glazed.
“Don’t let him hurt you. He’ll get close to you and then break your heart.
” She closes her eyes. “It’s a game to him.
You need to get as far away from him as you can. ”
I swallow. “How long were you together?”
“Nine years.”
A pang shoots through me. It almost feels like jealousy. I stamp it down.
“Nine years.” She goes on, her voice wistful. “I met him before he went to the police academy. He convinced me to quit my job and live with him. Said he’d provide for me.” She laughs softly. “I was an idiot.”
I stare at the steam that billows off her body and the floor.
“When he dumped me, I had nothing.”
The water falls like rain for a while. It starts to cool.
“Why are they giving you drugs?”
She laughs. “I got clean a year ago. Broke my back when I was a teen and got prescribed Percocet. Got addicted. Cleaned my life up before he broke up with me. Apparently, that makes him mad.”
Rage fills me.
She looks at me with tired eyes. “Girl, you’re hot. You could have anyone. Why him?”
I grit my teeth. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Ah yes, love will make you do crazy things.” She closes her eyes.
“It’s not love!”
She doesn’t answer. She’s clearly not going to believe me. And I don’t know that I entirely blame her. Jayden seems to be doing his best to convince her we are together.
Which we aren’t.
We sit in silence for a while. The water gets icy, and I turn it off. I get Cole to help me carry her back upstairs.
Sage is not doing well. What else does he have planned for her? The dread that has been lurking the past few days fills me. What else does he have planned for me?