The Other Sister (Sister Series, #1)

by Leanne Davis

  “Have a seat, soldier.”

  Will sat near her, his eyes focused only on the general.

  “You lied to me.”

  Will didn’t even flinch. “Yes, sir.”

  “You know everything about Jessie, don’t you?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Why did you lie?”

  “She asked me to, sir.”

  “And you would disobey me, and lie to me, just because some girl asked you to?”

  Will held her father’s gaze. “Not normally. It was extraordinary circumstances, as I understand you are now aware of.”

  Jessie was following the conversation from a tunnel. Her vision was fuzzy, her head dizzy, and her stomach full of nerves. Bile climbed up the back of her throat.

  “Sir, I’m not feeling well.”

  Both men turned towards her, their eyes wide as if neither remembered she was still in the room. Will turned his head to stare at the flags behind her father. Her father gave her an irritated scowl. “Just shut up, Jessie. I’m trying to prevent you from further destroying my life.”

  “I know, but I really don’t feel well.”

  “What is it? The drugs you took last night? Sit there, and shut up until I figure out what to do with you.” The general turned back to Will, offering Jessie a view of his perfected stony profile.

  Jessie grabbed her mouth as she got up and stumbled to the garbage can near her father’s feet. Falling to her knees, she threw up. She half missed the trash can and got a chunk or two on her father’s shoe. Her tears were falling as she got sick, mingling with the knot in her gut. She finally emptied her stomach. The ringing in her ears stopped, and her head cleared. Then she was back to the silence of her father’s office, and her father staring down at her in absolute fury. Will still sat calmly in position. She fell back onto her heels, feeling so wretched and alone that she wished she could die.

  She saw her father’s foot move back, before it swung forward. She closed her eyes, wincing, waiting for the blow. But nothing. She opened her eyes, and looked up. Her father was staring down at her in a rage that instantly had her scrambling back. If they’d been alone, her father would have swung his boot hard and kicked her in the stomach as she sat curled at his feet in total humiliation.

  “You’re pathetic. Get up. Get that out of here.”

  She nodded. Of course, she should get up. Her legs shook, and her stomach felt hollow. She rubbed off the pointless tears of humiliation and shut her eyes, glad that Will couldn’t see her crouched behind the desk. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and opened her eyes. There stood Will beside her. He knelt down and gently lifted her up, pressing a tissue into her hands. Her mouth fell open to speak, but the utter shock she felt at seeing Will get up, and come to her defense, despite her father’s obvious disdain, left her speechless.

  Will carried her back to the chair where she nearly collapsed on her shaking legs. She dared not look at her father. Then Will disappeared momentarily, and came back with two wet towels. One, he handed to her, and the other, to her father. Then he took the offensive waste basket and shut it inside the bathroom. Methodically, and wordlessly, he sat back down on his chair as if he knew he could do as he pleased in the presence of the general.

  Daring to finally look at her father, she saw him staring down Will, before leaning over and wiping his shoe. He put the soiled towel in the bathroom before sitting back down at his desk. He looked at Will, then at Jessie. She had no clue what to expect next, never mind what her father thought. She feared how much trouble Will would get in for showing her any kindness or compassion.

  “You seem to think Jessie needs your help, don’t you, Will?”

  “Yes, I think Ms. Bains needs help. Any kind of help.”

  Bold. God, Will was so bold and terrifying to go up against her father, on her behalf. Why was he doing this? It would do her no good, and could only jeopardize his career. The general was petty, and would not easily forget this.

  “And the bastard she carries? What do you think I should do about that?”

  Will didn’t look at her. “I think it’s Ms. Bains’s choice to decide that.”

  “Wrong, soldier. I have every say in it, because I stand to lose the most from it.”

  Will was quiet at first. Then he raised his eyes to her father, as surely as if he raised himself to his full height. “Why did you call me in here? What do you want?”

  “I considered abortion. But what if it ever comes out? And knowing Jessie, she’d advertise it just to get to me. So now, that leaves me with her having it. Problem is: who’s the daddy going to be?”

  Will was silent. He didn’t turn his head, but held the general’s stare. “You want me to be the father.”

  “That’s exactly what I had in mind.”

  Jessie sat up straight. “No, sir. No. I never agreed to anything like this. No. There’s no way Will can be the father.”

  Her father swiveled his chair towards her. The glint in his eye went from cold to furious. “Shut up, Jessie. I’ve heard more than enough out of you.”

  Jessie ignored him, and turned towards Will, who was staring at her father, and didn’t turn to look at her.

  “Will, he can’t make you do this. You’re a soldier, but you’re not honor-bound to help out in a personal situation. He can’t possibly make you take responsibility for a baby that isn’t yours. He can’t. Even he isn’t that powerful.”

  Will finally looked at her and held her eyes. Then he turned back to her father as he spoke. “Why don’t you excuse us for a few moments, Ms. Bains?”

  She looked helplessly from her father to Will and back. What was this?

  “It’s my baby. You can’t tell me to have it, or not to. And you can’t make me pretend someone else is the father. Not even you can do this to me.”

  She stood up, but her father circled around his desk, and stepped towards her, towering over her. She retreated slightly as he nearly trampled her. His intimidation was very real to her. “You want to repeat that to me?”

  She swallowed her fear, and stepped back a little more. He followed her forward and would eventually pin her to the wall. “I-it’s just not something I can do.”

  “You will do whatever I tell you to do. Is that understood?”

  His fists were clenched at his side, but she was safe this time because he wouldn’t touch her in front of anyone. Judging by the anger in his eyes, the only reason he wouldn’t was because of Will Hendricks’s presence. And weak as she always was, she couldn’t defy him, no matter how hard she tried. She could never escape her father. “Y-yes sir,” she finally replied. Seeing the rage in his eyes made her fear that one day it would land her in the morgue.

  “Now get out of here.”

  ****

  Will quietly closed the door of the general’s office as he left. He wanted to slam it, rattle the doorframe, and stomp out through the waiting room. But he knew better. He knew how to choose his battles. Now, he knew that the general was on the warpath. The conceited bastard thought Will was his ally, like so many of his other soldiers, his minions, who looked up to him as a god. Their misguided adoration was for a man more suited to be called a devil. What did the general think? That he didn’t see him poised with his foot back, ready to kick his pregnant daughter for retching at his feet? Will jumped up, prepared to tackle the general, before the general suddenly shifted his weight to both feet.

  That’s when Will came to Jessie’s side, as if to assist her only, not to protect her from her father’s physical abuse.

  Of course, he only came to her defense after she was verbally abused by being called names, intimidated, and bullied. Will finally understood what was really wrong with Jessie Bains. Quite simply, her father often beat the shit out of her. Will knew it now in his gut. The general was pinning her, through his intimidation, against the wall. The way Will saw her cower, and be victimized made him think she was used to such treatment. He was sure Jessie didn’t even notice it, as it was normal for he
r.

  But it wasn’t normal for Will. He sat there watching, his hand pushing into his knee to keep from rising up, and slamming his fist in the general’s face. He imagined throwing him to the floor, and standing on his chest while telling him to try intimidating someone his own size. Will couldn’t stomach bullying or cruelty, especially when it was directed to those much weaker, and whom you were supposed to love most.

  But as in Mexico, Will did nothing. He stood by and watched Jessie getting humiliated. He followed the protocol of his rank, his career. He allowed a young girl to be terrorized, raped, and now abused in his presence.

  Now, however, he decided he wasn’t going to ever do it again.

  He made the decision when Jessie obeyed her father’s order to get out, and saw how the general yelled at her like she was no better than a stray dog he’d just as soon kick as look at.

  General Bains did not give one thought to what Will witnessed. He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. He had no problem with Will seeing how poorly he treated his daughter, and that worried Will more than anything. What then, did bother the general? What must he do to Jessie behind closed doors?

  “You understand I can’t make you take responsibility for Jessie’s bastard. I’m down on my knees here, soldier, I hope you see that. I need your assistance. I thought, perhaps you could pretend, only for a short duration, that it was your kid, marry her even, and then we’ll send her away to have the kid. We’ll say it died, you two can divorce, and you can go on with your life.”

  Will was silently astonished at the cold, strange, scenario the general seemed to have already decided on.

  “You must be wondering why you should do such a thing. Of course, you don’t have to, soldier, you really don’t. But as before, I would be indebted. And, as you know, I pay my debts, Will, I pay them in full. And this would be a huge obligation for me.”

  Will wanted to tell General Bains to shove it up his ass. That he couldn’t pawn his daughter because she was an inconvenience, or might damage his reputation further. Will would never consider the offer, if he didn’t know what he now, unfortunately, knew about Jessie.

  He wished he didn’t know anything about her. As always with Jessie, he wished he hadn’t observed the truth. But now that he had, how could he ignore it? Didn’t he ignore everything else that Jessie suffered? Now he would finally pay for it. He felt so guilty, he feared an ulcer might develop in his gut. At least, he could pay a debt he now felt he owed Jessie. She deserved to be safe.

  “What is it Jessie does?”

  “Does?”

  “As in every day? She lives at home. Why? She’s twenty years old.”

  “I have to keep her close, if only to minimize her damage to my career. Surely, you’ve seen or heard her press of late, you can understand that. She does nothing. She flunked out of college, after barely scraping through high school. She can’t do anything right. Except of course, blowing my soldiers. That’s the only thing in which she excels.”

  Will kept his mouth shut, and as usual, allowed Jessie to be tarnished some more. The general had complete and utter control of Jessie. She couldn’t buy anything without her father’s permission and couldn’t escape whatever hell she had to endure at home. She was her father’s prisoner.

  “She’ll have to live with me.”

  The general’s eyes focused on Will’s face as a gleam of interest and eagerness suddenly lit them up. Will was actually considering his offer.

  “Of course. You can have her. For the gestation, that is.”

  Will didn’t like talking about Jessie like she was livestock for sale. But he did it anyway, just to get her away from the general.

  “I’ll marry her, and I’ll pretend it’s my baby. But the thing is, General Bains, she acts out in rebellion of you. In order to keep her from embarrassing me, if she’s going to be my wife, then my say over her is final. Not yours. You just try to be nice to her, and keep your distance. I’m sure she’ll stop if you’ll stop.”

  The general’s face shifted, and he leaned back. General Travis Bains didn’t like surrendering control over anything, especially Jessie. But the general needed Will in order to save face.

  “Agreed?” Will pressed.

  The general stood up and stuck his hand out. “Agreed, soldier. You aren’t like most of my men.”

  Will stood up and met the general’s gaze. He nodded. “No, sir, I am not. Don’t forget that.”

  Will saluted, spun on his heel and left.

  Now, all he had to figure out was what to do after becoming engaged to Jessie Bains.

  ****

  Jessie couldn’t believe her father not only completely embarrassed her in front of Will, but also tried to convince Will to say he fathered her baby. He was delusional. He was stupid. He was wrong. Jessie left the building and wanted to die. It was horrible. Her father. Will. The baby. The rapes. She walked down the front steps of her father’s office, her head bent down, her heart as hollow as her stomach. She hated her father so much, she was shaking. He managed to ruin the only good relationship she ever had in her life. He totally tarnished Will’s association with her. Will could never glance at her now without having this between them.

  Blackness began to overtake her, swirling her into a vortex deep in her stomach, inside her soul. The spot where her heart should have been.

  She went home, and crawled into her bathtub. Quickly and easily she released the pressure. Suddenly, the world was much less, and her father’s angry words started to fade. Even Will’s face slowly receded from her mind.

  ****

  Will finally left the post, and could not believe the day he’d had. Nothing could prepare him for today, other than maybe, Mexico. Never-ending, fucking Mexico. He wanted to drive away until he forgot he ever met Jessie Bains. The problem was: nothing could ever let him forget what he saw and knew about Jessie Bains.

  Beyond the shock of what he now knew, he had to reconcile what he finally, totally, and fully realized about General Travis Bains. The general regularly abused Jessie. He bullied Jessie until there was nothing left of her. Not even an ounce of self-esteem could survive what General Bains did to her.

  The general was only a second away from kicking his pregnant daughter while she was sick at his feet, and the only thing that prevented him was Will’s presence. Will could not stop replaying the scene in his mind. Will saw now that the only thing that would ever end General Bains’s abuse of Jessie would have to be Will.

  Will parked his truck a few blocks from the general’s house. He jogged easily through the side streets, around the yard, and to the back of the Bains’s home. Effortlessly, he climbed up a tree and got onto the second story. He quickly tiptoed towards the bedroom window where he saw Jessie before. He looked inside, but saw no one. The window easily slid open after he popped the lock. Child’s play. He slipped into her bedroom, and saw a sliver of light from underneath the bathroom door. There was no movement or sound.

  Then he heard the soft swishing of water. He was about ninety-nine percent sure what Jessie was doing at that moment in her bathtub. This time however, rather than breaking down the door to rescue her, he simply backed up, sat down on the bed, and waited until she finished.

  ****

  Jessie opened her bathroom door after the water became frigid. She quickly put Band-Aids over the latest incisions before opening the door.

  “Better grab a towel, Ms. Bains.”

  Jessie almost screamed at the voice coming from her darkened bedroom. The open shades allowed a faint glow of moonlight, while casting shadows over the floor and furniture. She ducked back behind the door to hide.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “We’re going to talk.”

  “Who let you in?”

  “I did. Special Ops, remember? Not exactly rocket science to get in.”

  She shut the door and went to her pile of clothes. She found her underwear and a shirt, and slipped into a pair of sweat pants she left in the bathro
om. When she came out, there sat Will in shadows, on her bed.

  “You can’t just break into my room.”

  “Get a bar to put in your window, the lock is crap. It’s easy as pie to climb up here.”

  “Okay. I will,” she said, suddenly at a loss of what to do. Why was he there?

  She finally came closer, and sat at the end of the bed, a good two feet away from him. He was looking at her. His eyes moved over her wet head and onto her sloppy clothes. The room was so quiet, she could hear the tapping of a branch on her window.

  “Did it help?” Will finally asked.

  “What?”

  “Cutting? That’s what it’s called, isn’t it? What you do to yourself?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “There’s a couple thousand articles on the internet. There are even support groups you can join.”

  “You looked it up?”

  “What you do to yourself? Yeah, I looked it up. So does it help?”

  She glanced down at her bedspread, and traced one flower with her finger. “Yes.”

  “If I hadn’t been in there today, your father would have kicked you, wouldn’t he?”

  She was quiet, and didn’t care to answer. She traced the flower again. Finally, she said softly, “Yes.”

  “What else does he do to you?”

  “How did you know?”

  “How did I know? I watched him move his foot back, totally poised. The only reason he stopped was when he saw me stand up. He totally forgot I was there in his rage toward you. And that’s what it is, isn’t it? Complete and unreasonable rage toward you.”

  “Yes. I always make him mad.”

  “You make him mad?” Will’s voice was silky. Strange. She wasn’t sure what he thought. Maybe he believed it was all her fault, and well deserved, and hated her finally. “That’s what he has you convinced of, isn’t it? That it’s all your fault. That you’re bad. What else does he do to you?”