“She was nice, not better than you sweetie,” Ariel was not getting the details that would ease her mind, she tried asking again as she tried to appear casual about it by taking small sips of her wine.
“I mean, how did you handle going out with Jon being around all the time? He clearly liked her enough to ask her out for his prom night,” her mind was now rushing in a thousand directions.
“He was hardly ever around when we used to hang out, and we broke up after a couple of months,” he uttered in a weird way, “She was the first girl to ever cheat on me and then, something similar to what happened with us happened with him, me and her. But it was way back”
“I am sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” apologetically, she stood up and started to rub his shoulders.
“Now you tell me sweetie, what woman in her right mind would marry a scary drunk like him?” he said teasingly, ignoring her apology, “I sometimes doubt he’ll ever get married, with his destructive habits and all, this is long before the guy settles down honey trust me on that one.”
“Maybe he has a girlfriend,” she said to herself more than him.
“I hope he does… that ought to do him some good,” Jack replied.
“So did you enjoy being cheated on?” she teased as she massaged the back of his neck.
Jack leaned back and said, “Young love leaves deep scars,” and started looking at her for traces of insecurity, she didn’t budge. He smiled and said, “How tired are you? I’ve never known you to be so indifferent about my previous love interests,” he smiled tenderly as he lifted up his arms, taking her hands in his and kissed one of them, she leaned in and kissed his forehead from behind and smiled at him, feeling knots in her stomach as she thought about what had happened between them and Jon earlier. She felt like the intimacy she and her husband shared had somewhat transformed.
“Well, they all wanted you, and I am the one who got you, how can that make me jealous?” Ariel spoke flirtatiously as she collected herself, she couldn’t afford Jack getting concerned and inquiring about what was troubling her.
Jack held out her hand and made her sit on his lap, his body felt so familiar to Ariel, and she started feeling the dreadful nagging feeling again. She ran her fingers through his hair, combing it and feeling the thick brown hair that she was utterly used to.
“So what was her name?” she asked him in a way that made her seem sort of insecure, but she had no other way of finding out.
“Who? That girl from school?” he asked, eyeing her in the personal way he always did, with a teasing smile.
“Yes! ‘That’ girl from high school you liked so much you wouldn’t even give up a date with her for your own flesh and blood,” she asked messing with his hair playfully.
Jack let out a chuckle, “Amy.”
Chapter 7
Jon came home really late that night; he had to make sure both Jack and Ariel were asleep so they wouldn’t spot the supplies he bought from downtown. He had a couple of contacts that sold specific equipment required for a quick fix like the one he had in mind, and that’s exactly what he needed. But guns were not what he had brought, ‘All set’ he thought to himself as he opened up the small but heavy suitcase he was carrying and looked inside.
Earlier that evening Jon had received another call from his son’s kidnappers, they made him hear his voice as they slapped him repeatedly; Aaron was hardly even crying anymore, he let out small whimpers with every blow. After the disturbing ordeal, Jon had immediately left to look for supplies that will speed up his plan, ‘Aaron doesn’t have much time’.
Jon never even tried to consider taking Jack into confidence about this, every time he thought about his stepbrother, flashes of an overshadowed childhood started passing him by. Jack was always better at everything, basketball, making Pa proud, and he got all the girls, even Amy, at first. He now lived in a mansion uptown with an uptight slut of a wife and Jon was a distraught gambler with a kidnapped son whose life was in terrible danger. Their mother, who Jon had been incredibly close to, had passed away when they were very young, ‘She was my only family,’ he had thought to himself the day they put her casket down six feet under the ground.
He had found his life again in Amy, his stepbrother’s girlfriend after high school. He still remembered how they used to secretly meet, how devastated Jack was when she left him for Jon and how she ended up cheating on Jon too later. ‘Sluts, sluts, sluts, that’s all you get these days,’ he thought thinking about how similar Ariel and Amy seemed right now.
Although Amy had left Jon, she was still Aaron’s mother, and even though things had gone terribly sour after that, they still used to meet once in a while whenever she missed her son, until…
Jon thought about that day and shuddered. Flashes of Amy’s limp and lifeless body started crowding his mind; Amy had been battling with severe depression and drinking problems when her dead body was discovered in her apartment one morning. The doctors explained that traces of heroin and alcohol were found in her body, which is a dangerous combination. She had passed out the previous night, to never wake up again. Jon was aware about her drinking, but he could have never imagined her pumping drugs up her veins. The black spots and scars on her skin near the inside of her elbow spoke for themselves though.
Bringing up Aaron hadn’t been easy ever since then, with the nature of work he was involved in, but he could not risk losing him too. ‘And now they have him,’ he thought as he broke into helpless tears thinking about the kind of people he was dealing with, the gambling den was good while it lasted, but his sour affairs with some of his clients always posed certain risks. Killers and billionaires alike came to the den regularly to play, but he would have never imagined the extent to which these people would go to get their money back. Jon had learned through his experience in the den that there is no such thing as fair play when you have heavy pockets that you want to make heavier.
‘I can’t be weak,’ he said to himself, coming back to reality. ‘I’ll save you Aaron, no matter what the cost, I’ll save you.’
Overwhelmed by the reminiscing, he quietly slipped under the covers and rested for a while, he knew tomorrow would be a life-changing day, and not in a good way. He may have to hurt a lot of people in order to save one, but he couldn’t care about anybody but his son. ‘I’ll do anything to save you Aaron, anything,’ he thought as he drifted off to sleep, unaware of the serious consequences he will soon be faced with.
Chapter 8
Ariel thought all night about Jon, trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle that he was together. She knew he was hiding something, but could not figure out what. ‘He barely seems like he cares about money, something’s troubling him… something more serious,’ her mind rambled on about all the things that had happened since her husband’s notorious stepbrother had arrived.
She wanted to help him despite the fact that he was a little unorthodox, scary and seemed deviously dangerous. She didn’t know when she drifted off to sleep but when she woke up it was past noon.
She was getting out of the bed slowly when she saw Jon standing in the doorway smirking at her.
“You look adorable when you sleep,” he said in a flirtatious manner.
“Uh… Hi… I guess I slept in, has Jack gone to work already?” she inquired, completely ignoring the fact that he was eyeing her intently. Suddenly he came into the room and held Ariel by the waist as she was heading towards the bathroom. Awkwardly, Ariel forced his hand away and looked at him.
“This… this isn’t right,” she said pulling herself back.
“It felt pretty right to me yesterday,” suddenly, Ariel noticed a bit of anger in his tone.
“Jon… I am married to your stepbrother, I am his wife, I made a mistake yesterday but that doesn’t mean we should start doing it all the time, it’s your brother I love,” she tried very hard to explain but couldn’t even convince herself. Jon seemed tense and angry now, the veins in his temple started to swell.
“Well, that makes this whole thing a lot easier for me,” he practically spitted those words and leaped towards her, Ariel fell to the ground with a shriek and Jon landed on top of her.
“No! What are you doing Jon? Jack will find out and kill you!” she was fighting with both her hands and feet but she knew how strong he was.
Jon came really close, pinning her to the ground, “I’d really like to see him try,” he whispered in her ear and pulled back to look at her, he looked like he was about to bash her face in. Ariel barely knew what hit her when with a loud thud, everything went pitch black.
Chapter 9
When she finally regained consciousness, Ariel found herself bound to a chair with the help of chains, in the middle of her bedroom.
Jon was sitting right across her on the bed side table, smoking a cigarette. She tried to move but the chains hardly left enough space for her to even breathe properly.
“There’s no point in exhausting yourself, if you want to survive this, you’ll do exactly as I say,” Jon spoke in a menacing tone.
She looked around and saw everything scattered on the ground, her bedroom looked like it had just been ravaged.
“See… I thought I knew my stepbrother well, so I started looking for his safe, I thought to myself, he must have a hidden safe somewhere in here, and I was right,” Jon was acting like the situation did not occur to him as disturbing at all. Ariel started praying that Jack would show up soon, she turned her head around as much as she could with the heavy chains to see their secret safe in the wall exposed. The wallpaper that disguised it had been torn off, but the safe was still locked.
She faced Jon again, he walked towards her suddenly and she flinched. “I want you to be the sweet little slut that you are and give me the combination before your precious husband gets home, or you die,” the way he uttered those threats made her shiver. She glared back at him with tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Why are you doing this? Jack is your own brother! Please Jon, We can help you! Please just don’t…” Ariel knew she had terribly misjudged this man and his intentions, and she was looking for any way out of this alive.
Jon put his pistol on her forehead and she let out a frightened shriek, “Nooo! Please don’t Nooo!”
“Tell me the fucking combination! Tell me or I’ll blow your head off!” Jon yelled at her, his finger on the trigger, ready to pull at any second. Ariel was not trained for pressure tactics and soon gave up. She told him the combination and he kept his pistol aimed at her till he managed to open the safe. Inside, stacks of cash were piled on top of each other which Jon had started transferring into a suitcase.
Jack never used a bank; he hated the processing of transactions and found them tedious. All he had ever earned and accumulated was inside this safe. Ariel begged Jon to reconsider as he filled up his suitcase and emptied the safe.
“This was clearly easier than I thought,” Jon smirked at her.
“Please, don’t… you’ll never be able to get far with this money Jon, I can help you! Let me help you,” she tried to make sense to him but failed miserably.
“How about a last roll in the hay? That might help me,” he was completely ignoring everything that came out of her mouth.
Jon took the suitcase out of her bedroom and kept it somewhere Ariel couldn’t see. He came back in and sat across her once again.
“Now, we are left with the biggest question…” he lit another cigarette and looked at her, “what to do with you.”
Ariel realized there was no reasoning with him; she started crying loudly and begging him to let her go. Jon got infuriated with her shrieks and started stuffing a piece of cloth he picked from the dressing table in her mouth when someone came rushing into the room, and toppled him over.
Chapter 10
The pistol slipped from Jon’s hand and landed on the floor. He wrestled with Jack rolling around, trying to push him off of himself, but Jack kept him pinned to the ground. Jon tried to make him lose his balance and kicked with all his strength. Jack lost control for a split second and he was on the floor. Jon crawled towards the pistol but Jack pulled him back by his leg and started punching him, to render him unconscious. He punched with all his strength till Jon was heavily bleeding and almost cataleptic.
Ariel watched as the stepbrothers struggled with each other, she couldn’t believe how the day had unfolded. She was a hostage in her own house and potentially, they all may end up dying today. Jack punched Jon to a pulp and stood up. He came hurrying towards her and tried to unlock her chains.
“Where are the keys? Did you see where he kept the keys?” Jack was speaking in an urgent tone, which complemented the current situation.
“No… but, the safe! He has all the cash… he put it in a suitcase and took it out,” Ariel looked towards the empty safe as she uttered these words.
Nobody noticed Jon moving on the floor when he got up, and retrieved his pistol from where Jack had kicked it. He pointed the gun towards Jack and Ariel as Jack got up and stood in front of him, blocking Ariel out of his sight.
“You’d be more careful about saving this bitch if only… you knew more,” Jon pointed the pistol straight at his stepbrother’s forehead.
“You little fuck! This is between you and me! Keep Ariel out of it!” Jack yelled at him, he was scared but he knew his little stepbrother couldn’t hurt him, or so he had assumed.
“Okay, let’s do that, let’s keep your lying and cheating slut of a wife out of this, let’s talk man to man,” Jon sneered at his older stepbrother.
“You’re not going to get away with this, you know you’re not gonna get away with this,” he took a step closer to Jon and Jon just stood there, with a look on his face that revealed his determination.
“And who is going to stop me? You? Or your chained wife?” Jon threatened him, he hadn’t planned it this far. Jack was supposed to come home later and find his wife bound to a chair and his safe empty. But things had not unfolded in his favor.
“You don’t have to do this Jon…” Jack started to seem helpless. His reckless stepbrother was holding a pistol pointed at him and he couldn’t figure out how to convince him to stop this madness.
“Oh… but I do,” Jon started to move sideways so that he can make his way out of the room. As he moved, his feet touched a toppled lamp and he lost his balance. Just then, Jack leaped at him and tried to disarm him when the sound of a gunshot rang through the entire house. Jon suddenly pulled back to see Jack, holding on to his bleeding chest and looking at him as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Jon could barely think, ‘I shot him, I shot my stepbrother,’ he knew he had gone too far.
Ariel shrieked and cried out for Jack who fell to the ground near her feet. She started yelling uncontrollably and shook Jon out of his thoughts.
Aaron’s face popped up in Jon’s mind and suddenly, he sprang back to reality.
He picked up the same piece of cloth, which was now drenched in his stepbrother’s blood, back into her mouth when he realized he couldn’t spare her either. His stepbrother’s lifeless body lay next to his feet.
‘She’s an eyewitness,’ he backed up and pointed his pistol at her as if he was no longer in control of what his hands and feet were doing.
“Noo! Please don’t! Please don’t kill me,” she begged him.
“I’m sorry,” and with that he shot her in the forehead.
Chapter 11
Jon hurried out of the room and retrieved the hidden suitcase. He could barely think anymore, he sent a text message on the kidnapper’s number just like they had instructed him. His mind was still rushing, trying to get Jack’s face out of his mind when the kidnapper replied with the details of the location he was supposed to come to.
He sped up as he tried to consider the evidence he left behind. ‘I had to save my son, I was only trying to save my son,’ but no amount of reasons could justify what he had just done. ‘Worst comes the worst, I’ll end up in jail; at least Aaron will b
e safe and alive.’
He started feeling emotional; he couldn’t believe how things had turned out, he had killed his own stepbrother, his own blood. Flashes of memories from his childhood started passing by in front of his eyes as he drove way over the speed limit. He realized he had blocked all the good things about his elder stepbrother out of his memory since he had developed feelings for Amy; he despised him because Jack was always a better man than him.
He was closing in on the location when the kidnapper called.
“Change of plans,” said a coarse voice at the other end of the line.
The kidnapper had told him he had to deliver the ransom to a different location because it was not safe here. Without even considering the fact that the kidnapper might be manipulating him, he agreed hastily. He couldn’t wait any longer to see his son. He had never even imagined himself committing all these crimes, and if he does get caught, which was highly unlikely, he wanted to see his son before he went away to pay for his crimes.
Jon reached the specified location to find a black jeep, parked in the rubble of an old, abandoned building. He got out of his car and slowly started walking towards the masked men who were standing behind the jeep. They were talking about something in hushed tones, but Jon couldn’t hear. When they saw Jon approaching, they gained their composure and walked towards him.
“Where’s my son?” Jon asked bitterly
“He’s upstairs,” one of the masked men said pointing towards the 2nd floor of the old, devastated building that barely had any walls anymore. A small form was bound to a pillar, he recognized his shoes. Aaron looked unconscious, but he was sitting up with his back towards the pillar. Jon handed the suitcase over to one of the men; he had counted the sum he managed to obtain and stacked the extra cash under the passenger seat of his car.
The masked men eagerly checked the contents of the suitcase, satisfied; they cleared his way and hurried towards their car. Jon broke into a run and hurried up the flight of stairs. As he reached the second floor he saw the pillar and small boy sitting with his back towards it.
Romance: Stepbrother's Drilling with the Billionaire (A Stepbrother Billionaire Romance with Menage Bisexuals Threesome Historical Romance Collection) ... Menage Historical Romance Collection) Page 3
