CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTMary Jo #3
Cole snatches me off Jayden and pulls me back. Jayden continues to punch him; in his torso and back and head. All because of me. Because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I tremble in rage and scratch and swipe at Cole. He picks me up and throws me into the back of the truck.
“Stay, little one. Or we’ll kill him. He’s lucky we aren’t.
” He slams the door so hard that the cab shakes.
I scramble to the window. The man isn’t fighting anymore, just curled up on the hood of the car.
Something in Cole’s hand glints in the light.
A knife. Jayden moves aside, and Cole snatches up the man’s hand.
There’s a flash and a scream, and I see blood on the man’s hand in a long gash across his palm.
The voices are muted. “If you breathe a word of this to anyone, we’ll kill you, Mr. Joe Robinson of…214 Main Avenue.” Cole slaps something into the man’s hand on top of the gash. A driver’s license. “As far as you’re concerned, you lost a bar fight, yeah?”
The man nods his head, his whole body shaking. I make out him saying, “I didn’t know, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I have a wife and a dog; please don’t kill me.”
Cole slaps his back like they’re friends. “What bar were you at?”
“T-The Rainbow.”
“What happened?”
“Got in a f-fight.”
“Good. Now get out of here.”
He scrambles into his car, and it peels off. I’m shaking. My vision is tunneled on the two men. They wait until he’s driven off and then get back in the truck.
I stare blankly ahead. My body is strangely still and emotionless. “You are monsters.”
Cole throws me a blinding grin. Jayden doesn’t look at me.
“God, I’m hungry.” Cole looks into my eyes then his gaze dips down to my crotch.
Anger fills past the fog, and I seethe, “No.” How could he be horny right now? Cole turns on the radio and kicks his feet back into the dash. He flicks his knife around in his fingers.
“You can’t do this.” My voice is droll, “We can’t keep living in this…bubble. I have a boyfriend. A life. A house and a car. I have a life. You have to let me go.”
The car goes silent except for the radio. I feel the energy shift. Fear spikes through me.
“Man, I thought she had more sense than that.” Cole looks to Jayden.
Jayden cuts a glance back to me. “If you want that piece of shit to keep breathing, you’ll stop talking about him. He doesn’t deserve your attention.”
Who, Kyle? “No! You can’t just threaten everyone around me!”
“Yes. I can.”
“You’re going to get caught! You can’t keep getting away with this. Your luck will run out, and you’ll get caught.”
“Will I?” He looks at me. There is no emotion in his gaze.
“Yes,” I hiss.
“Hmmm.” He leans back and keeps driving. When we get back I run to the shower again. It’s become my safe space. I shower and plan and think about the dangerous men and how, like it or not, they’ve become a part of my life.
***
For the next few weeks, I listen to them detox Sage, only to force her to get high again. Over and over. It’s excruciating. She won’t talk to me. They won’t talk to me about her.
They edge me constantly. They fuck me separately and together but don’t try anything they haven’t already done.
They refuse to let me come unless I beg, and I’d rather die than let them make me beg to come.
It’s like I’ve made this my last line in the sand.
Like I can’t be guilty of any of this, I can’t enjoy their presence, I can’t be held responsible if I don’t allow myself to come.
They even shower with me to make sure I don’t play with myself when they’re not around.
I feel like I’m going crazy. I’ve never been more turned on in my life.
It feels like I’m hitting puberty all over again, except multiplied by ten.
I’m pretty sure I’ve come from my dreams, but when I wake up to chase that high they stop me, fuck me, and put me to bed wet.
They’ve always been attractive to me, but now my cunt wants to jump all over them every time I see them.
One afternoon Jayden tosses me a jacket. “I’m going out on the ATV. Want to ride?”
“Sure.” I jump up from the couch. We fixed it a few days ago. I feel like if I sit in his cabin any longer, I’ll go crazy.
We walk outside, and the day is much warmer than it usually is.
It snowed the day before, but it’s starting to melt.
The sun even peeks through the clouds. Jayden has already pulled the bike out of the garage.
He hops on, leaving me to slide on behind him.
I glower about it. As soon as I’m on, he hits the throttle, the lurch forcing me to grab his torso. I feel his chuckle.
We drive down the driveway. We don’t talk over the sound of the engine. I just watch the trees go by and feel Jayden’s warmth soak into me. I can feel his abs through his hoodie. He flexes every time he turns the bike. The intimate position has blood flowing to my pussy.
At the end of the driveway, he turns left. I perk up.
Jayden doesn’t seem concerned, which tells me no cars will probably drive by. We drive for a bit, seeing rabbits and squirrels startle away at our sound.
A grown-over dirt driveway appears on our left, and Jayden turns into it. There’s an old mailbox as well. We pull up to a clearing and an old, two-story cabin. It’s clear it’s abandoned, with the front door standing open and no glass in half of the windows. Jayden stops the bike.
“Where are we?”
Jayden gets off and turns to me. “One of my favorite places to come with Cole as a teen.”
“You knew him when you were teenagers?”
He grunts and starts towards the house. I get off the bike and follow him up the steps. They wobble as we walk.
“This doesn’t seem safe.”
He laughs, “It’s not.” He throws a devilish look over his shoulder. “But I’ll protect you.”
“Jesus.” I glare at him, but he’s already walked inside. I follow. It takes my eyes a second to adjust. The inside is just as run down as the rest of it. It looks like whoever used to live here just left all their things and trash behind too.
“We own the place now.” Jayden looks back.
I cross my arms. “I thought cops didn’t make a lot of money.” I know this place is junk, but land is so expensive.
He laughs and reaches out a hand. “I’m not a cop anymore. And Cole’s family has a lot of money.”
I don’t take his hand. “I thought he said they grew up poor.”
“They did. That’s why his mom married his stepdad when we were teens.” He starts up the steps. They’re dingy and lean a little toward the right.
I follow. If they can hold his big-ass body, they can hold me.
He leads me to the end of the only room upstairs, toward a window that faces the front of the cabin.
The ceilings are slanted in with the roof, and he has to walk in the middle to avoid bending down.
This area is a lot more cleared out than the others, with a space heater and other junk pushed against one wall.
The window is open, and under it sits a bag of bird food.
Something skitters in the hallway and I jump. Jayden smirks, throwing out a handful of food on the window ledge and some in the room as well. He snaps out two camping chairs and motions for me to sit.
“You feeding all the rodents in here as well?” I move stiffly next to him and sit.
“Just cause they’re ugly doesn't mean they don’t deserve to eat.”
He sits quietly, looking out the window. We sit like that for a while, watching the wind move the bare trees outside. The sun glints off the ATV in the yard.
I break the silence. “Why did you become a cop?”
He lifts his lip in a half smile like he’s amused by the question. He looks so beautiful when he smiles.
“I don’t know. I was young and wanted to save the world. I didn’t realize that saving the world still doesn’t help you save yourself.”
I glare at the floor.
“Why did you become an influencer?” His voice sounds bigger in the small room.
“For fun.” I wrap my arms around my legs against a breeze that comes through the window. He glances at me.
“It gets cold in here, but the birds don’t mind.”
At that moment, a finch lands on the windowsill, its wings and the scrape of its feet loud. Jayden sees my small jump and chuckles quietly. “Easy kitten. No one’s going to hurt you.”
The bird seems unconcerned with us being there and pecks away.
“You already have,” I mutter under my breath.
The mood grows dark. The bird flies away, and I grow uncomfortable with the silence. I ask, “Why’d you leave? Being a cop.”
He looks at me again. He pulls a cigarette out of his pocket and lights it up. He takes a long draw, then hands it to me.
I wave him off.
He exhales the cloud of smoke, blowing it away from me, and finally answers. “Got tired of all the bullshit. Tired of the hours. Tired of the people. Someone tried to kill me one night, and I shot him. That was the beginning of the end for me.”
I stare at his side profile. He looks unaffected, pulling on the cigarette. I can’t help myself; I look down at his waistband. He didn’t bring the gun today. That I can see.
“Tell me,” he says. “Why did you date Kyle?”
The room grows silent.
“What?” I sputter.
“You knew he could never make you happy. He bored you, even. And yet you stayed. Why?”
My mouth drops open. “I loved him!” I correct myself, “Love him.”
His dark eyes flash to me. “Loved? Do you even know what love is?”
I cross my arms, anger flashing through me. “Do you ?”
He takes another draw, letting the smoke out slowly. “No. I suppose I don’t.”
Another bird drops on the windowsill, pecking at the food, spreading it on the floor. We watch in silence.
Eventually, he speaks again. “He’s not worth it, you know.”
“Why? Because you’re jealous?” I hold out my hand for the cigarette. It’s almost done. He hands it to me. It’s been a long time since I’ve smoked, but I need something.
“Just trust me.”
I laugh, then cough around my lungful of smoke. I grind out the butt on the floor. “I don’t think you need me to explain how rich that is coming from you.”