“What’s going on here?” River suddenly asks behind me.
“Nanna?” I mouth the word to her. She gives me a smile and nods her head. Nanna is fine! Thank God!
I point to the two on the floor. “Well, from what I can understand Beverly and Colby are in some sort of relationship. Apparently he’s been sneaking her in and out whenever she felt like she wanted go to town. It’s been going on for months. That’s how she knows where the plantation is.”
I shove my hands through my hair, feeling that all too familiar rage burning inside of my chest. I feel like shit for not noticing Colby and Beverly sneaking out. If I was doing my job none of this would’ve happened!
“I’m sorry, River, I was so caught up in Sophia, I never saw this coming.” I fucked up badly!
“Just let us go,” Beverly moans, “we won’t tell a soul where you are.”
River turns to me and whispers, “You know what we have to do. They can’t talk. We have too many lives that depend on us.”
I give her a firm nod.
“You can’t just off us!” Colby screams as River walks away. “River! I swear it’s all her. She made me do it! The fire was her idea! I never wanted to hurt anyone!”
“We gave you the choice! This is all on you,” I snap at him. “You knew what would happen if you turned on us. I told you that the day you started working here. You knew! Don’t blame her for your mistakes.”
Beverly starts to cry and for once I feel nothing at the sight of a woman crying.
“Get up and into the truck,” I order them. Beverly moves quickly, but Colby is another story. I have to shove him into the truck before I get in too.
Beverly is a blubbering mess and Colby keeps pleading. I drive them away from The Sanctuary before I say, “Would you calm the fuck down! I’m not going to kill you!” They both shut up, except for the sniffling coming from Beverly. “I’m going to drop you in the next town over. I’ll pay an amount into your account as soon as I get back to The Sanctuary.” I give them each a hard look. “You will fucking disappear! If I so much as get the feeling that you’re close by I will kill you. Do you understand me?”
Beverly nods quickly and Colby starts to cry from relief. I hope the scare was enough to keep them away for good.
“Thanks, man,” Colby starts to ramble. “We’ll disappear. I promise, man.”
“Shut up!” I growl at him. I just want to drop them off and get back to the plantation.
~*~
When I get back to The Sanctuary, I go straight to Nanna. She’s lying on the couch, fighting with doc. It’s clear she’s fine.
“Nanna,” I kneel down next to her and take her hand. “How are you feeling?” I look up at Doc. “She’s gonna be fine?”
Doc makes a snorting sound through his nose. “She just needs to rest for a couple of days but the old woman is too stubborn to listen to me.”
“Old woman,” Nanna shrieks. “I’ll show you who’s old!” She looks at me. “Adam, go fetch me a pan so I can knock some sense into the old fart!”
I start to laugh. Yeah, there’s nothing wrong with my gran. “I’m going to leave you in the capable hands of Doc.” I kiss her forehead and then go look for Sophia.
I find her out by the stables, or what’s left of it. When I get close enough I see her shoulders shaking and then I hear her sniffling.
“Sweetheart,” I say and I quickly take her in my arms. I hold her tightly to my chest. “It’s okay, no one got hurt.”
“The wood,” she cries, “it’s all gone.”
Fuck, the stables meant so much to her. I quickly glance around until I see a piece that I can salvage. I pick it up and dust the soot off of it. “It’s not all gone. Look, here’s a piece. There are lots of pieces lying around here. I’ll come get them tomorrow.”
“You’ll save them?” she asks in that innocent way that has a way of burrowing deep into my chest.
“I’ll do anything for you.”
I take her back home and get her into the shower first.
~*~
I get up early so I can go gather those pieces of wood for Sophia. I’ll make something for her so she can always keep it close.
There’s a knock on the door and when I open it, Jack is standing in front of me. He still looks like shit. “Jack?”
It’s clear the man is losing it. He’s shaking and I almost reach out to him but I don’t know how he will react to my touch.
“I need your help,” he whispers.
I make sure Sophia hasn’t come out of her room before I step outside. I close the door behind me.
“Let’s go look at the damage that’s been done to the stables and then we can talk.” We walk in silence until we reach the stables. I start to pick up some pieces of wood and then ask, “What can I help with?”
Jack starts to help and then he says, “I want to go back to Cameron.”
My head snaps up and I feel the shock hit hard.
Jack quickly carries on, “The past few weeks I’ve been living in a trance. I need to go back and make them pay for what they’ve done to me.”
Fuck, at least he doesn’t want to go back for other reasons! “So you want revenge?” I ask.
“I’m going to go back and kill them. You can come with and help me or I’ll go by myself, but those monsters need to pay for what they have done.”
I can understand where the man is coming from. I’d do exactly the same thing if I was in his shoes. Fuck, I want to kill them for what they did to Sophia and Jack. But what Jack is asking of me is huge. It’s a risk.
“How do you plan on making them pay?”
“That’s why I need you. I want to go when it’s one of Cameron’s busy nights. I want to get as many people as possible. You can take me as your slave. Just get me in and I’ll do the rest.”
There is no way in hell I’m putting Jack at risk like that. River will have my balls on a silver platter!
“You still haven’t told me what you’re planning to do once I get you in.”
He points to the stables. “Did you see how quickly it all burned down?”
I nod and my mind starts to race with ideas of how I can help Jack.
“They burned my mother so I want to make sure every last one of them burns the same way.”
I take a deep breath as another wave of anger hits. My heart goes out to Jack, but I need time to think this through. It doesn’t help we rush into this and in the process we get ourselves killed.
We work in silence and when we’ve gathered pretty much all the wood that could be salvaged, I say, “I’ll do it.”
I move close to Jack and whisper, “I’ll do it because I can’t imagine what you and Sophia must have gone through. But you need to understand what you’re going to be doing. You’re going to kill people. I’m doing it to stop them. There is no right reason for killing another human being, but when they are so far above the law then it’s up to people like us to stop them. I want you to make sure that you can do it. I don’t want to get there and you freeze up on me. We’ll be endangering everyone here if someone sees us.”
I can see Jack’s thinking about what I just said. “If we’re going to a party or scheduling a meeting they will see us.”
“We don’t have to attend the party. We just go, set the place alight and make sure no one leaves alive. Then we get our asses out of there.”
We have to be quick. The longer we take the higher the risk of us getting caught.
“As long as they die.” Jack says with a hard bite to his words.
“They will.” I wipe the sweat from my face and then look towards the manor. “We have to tell River.”
“No!” Jack shakes his head.
“She’s my business partner and best friend, Jack. I will not go behind her back. Secrets only destroy trust.” Yeah, and then there’s the secret that I let Colby and Beverly go. I’m a fine one to talk!
“Let’s go now and get it over with,” I say and I don’t wait to see if Jack is
coming.
We walk into the kitchen and I shake my head when I see Nanna is already back to work.
River gets up and I can see she’s going to make a run for it so I quickly say, “We need to talk.”
She stops and looks nervous when she asks, “We do?”
I just nod and then we follow her to the study. I don’t want anyone else hearing about this.
She leans against the desk. “Don’t you both want to go clean up first?” She’s trying to buy time, but there is no way. I want to get this all over and done with.
“Jack wants to go back.” I just spit it out.
Her mouth drops open and she looks at Jack. I see the flash of worry and pain in her eyes. “You can’t go back, Jack.” One emotion after the other plays off on her face. “Cameron will kill you!”
She pushes away from the desk and I quickly hold up my hand. “Hear the man out before you jump to conclusions.”
Jack’s eyes are hard when he says, “I’m going back so I can kill every last one of them.”
River’s eyes snap back to his and she shakes her head slowly. “You wanna what?”
I feel the tension roll off of Jack. His breathing quickens and he takes two stumbling steps backwards. River reaches for him but he slaps her hand away from him. “Don’t fucking touch me!” he hisses.
He throws both his hands behind his neck and he starts to pace the floor. His body is wound so tightly with the emotions that’s clearly overwhelming him right now.
He stops and takes a shuddering breath and then he hisses, “They are going to pay for what they did to me! I want them all dead. That’s the only way I’ll be able to live with myself.”
River starts to cry and I feel my own heart breaking for this man. I can’t blame him for losing it. I would too if I had to go through half the shit he went through!
“Why now?” River asks. “What changed?”
He keeps moving, his actions jittery as if he’s on a high. “The fire,” he snaps. “I want them to burn the same way they burned my mother.”
She covers her mouth, the words clearly hitting her hard. “It won’t bring her back, Jack.”
He stalks right at her and I move fast. We all end up standing in a close circle. The tension in the room can be cut with a knife. I know the man is in a world of pain but I won’t let him take it out on River! I send up a silent prayer that Jack can control himself.
“I watched them burn her,” Jack hisses. He slaps his hand hard over his chest. “I’m the one who was beaten. I was raped. I was used and abused for any sick fantasy they had!” His voice keeps climbing with the rage that’s busy consuming him. I know that feeling all too well. This man is close to exploding.
“I was degraded and betrayed.” He turns away from us and snaps, “They will pay! They have to pay.”
River chokes the words out, “Your brother too?”
I open my mouth to give my piece of mind on that piece of shit but Jack beats me to it. “Especially him!” he roars.
He takes a step back and sucks in a breath. Then he whispers, “Especially David and Cameron. To them I was nothing but a way to fill their bank balances with. I want it all to burn down around them and then I want them to die.”
“Jack,” River whispers hoarsely. “Killing people … it’s not just flipping a switch and they’re gone. You’re killing humans … taking another’s life. That’s a huge deal.”
I look at River frowning. I really didn’t expect her to say that. She was quick to give me the order last night and now she’s telling Jack that he can’t kill the people who tortured him? Hell fucking no!
“They’re not human. No human will have a nine year old boy gang raped. They are monsters and they deserve to die like monsters.”
The emotion in this room is thick and pulsing with Jack’s pain. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
River starts to cry and as much as I want to hold her, it’s not my place right now – not while Jack is standing here spilling his heart out to us.
She doubles over as her emotions tear through her.
“I’m doing it. Nothing you can say or do will change my mind.” Jack says vehemently.
“What about the other slaves that live there?” she cries out. “They are innocent. You can’t just kill people!”
Jack shakes his head hard. “I would rather have died a thousand deaths than remain a slave. The slaves are just as bad as Cameron and David. I’ve seen them hurt each other. They killed the weaker ones! I’ve been raped and beaten by them so many times! They tried to kill me every time a guest would favor me instead of one of them. That house is filled with monsters! They all deserve to die! I will do this with or without your help.”
Jack storms from the room but what he just said makes me want to help him even more. Sophia told me about what happened with Tiffany before Cameron made Sophia kill her. Sophia told me how she was replaced with Rosa, someone she considered a friend – some friend she was! The second David showed Rosa attention Sophia was left to be beaten. That place is a nest of vipers!
I pull River into my arms and we both just stand together for a while. We’re both upset but this is about Jack, not us.
“Let the man have his revenge. It’s what he needs to feel that he did something to fight back. It’s the only way he’ll be able to have some self-respect.” I pray to God that I’m right as I tell River this.
Sophia~
I can feel something is wrong. Adam has been keeping busy and at night he’s distant. I know he’s upset because of the fire, we all are!
I keep telling myself I just need to be patient with him.
The days crawl by slowly. I try to do more in the kitchen so Miss Ella’s not on her feet so much. I can see where Adam gets his stubborn streak from.
I plan on talking to Adam tonight. I need to know what’s wrong, just maybe I can fix it.
I sit on Adam’s bed as I wait for him to come out of the shower. When he comes out and he sees me sitting on the bed, he stops and just looks at me.
“When is your birthday?” he asks suddenly.
I frown and shake my head. “I think it’s in February. I’m not sure.”
There is a flash of pain in his eyes and I quickly scramble off of the bed. I go stand in front of him. “It doesn’t matter. What matters,” I place my hand on his chest, hoping he’ll talk to me, “is you telling me what’s been eating at you. I’m worried. You’ve been distant.”
He takes my hand and we walk out of the house. I’m only dressed in one of his shirts, but he doesn’t seem to notice.
We walk quite a distance, all the way to the barn. We go inside and it’s even darker. I move closer to Adam, holding onto his hand with both of mine. I don’t know how he can see in the dark.
We move deeper into the barn before we stop. “Close your eyes,” Adam whispers.
“Why? It’s dark already,” I say.
“Just close them for me,” he laughs.
I pinch my eyes shut. “There, they’re closed.” I cross my arms over my chest and wait to see what Adam will do next.
Even though my eyes are closed, I can see when a light goes on. Adam comes to stand next to me and then he whispers, “You can open them.”
I open my eyes and for a moment I can only stare.
There is a box in front of me with my name carved on the top.
“I used the wood from the stables to make you this box,” he whispers. He picks it up and brings it over to me.
My hands are shaking as I take it from me. “You made it for me?”
He smiles softly and says, “I was thinking you could write your bad memories down and then put them in the box. Once you’ve written the last of your memories we can bury the box.”
Tears start to spill over my cheeks and I give Adam a shaky smile. “Thank you for making me a memory box.”
He lifts his hand to my face and brushes a tear from my cheek. “Anything for you, Sweetheart.”
He’s just star
ing at me and I wonder what he sees. The look on his face is tender. He takes the box from me and he looks down at it. “The tree might’ve died when it was chopped down, and the wood might’ve burned in the fire but look at it now – it’s been shaped into something beautiful – just like you.”
Adam is right! Laughter bubbles over my lips and I throw myself into his arms. “Thank you so much!”
For a moment Adam’s intense gaze holds mine and then he whispers, “I am going to kiss you.”
When he lowers his mouth to mine I think he’s going to kiss me, but then he goes lower until he presses a kiss to my neck. Just as I think Adam is going to kiss my neck again he dips lower, and he presses a kiss dangerously close to my breast.
“What are you doing?” I whisper. I’ve never been kissed like this and it’s making my insides tremble.
Adam lifts his head, the look on his face is determined. “I didn’t say which part of you I was going to kiss.”
“Oh,” I whisper.
He takes my hand and he leads me over to a ladder. “Up you go.”
I climb the ladder quickly and I’m surprised by what I find. There’s a blanket and pillows scattered right by a window.
Adam climbs up after me and I turn to him with a smile. “Did you plan this?”
“Oh, I hoped for it,” he laughs.
As he walks to me the smile disappears and I see the heat in his eyes. He takes my hand and he pulls me down to the blanket. His hands go around my waist and with one hard tug I’m flat on my back.
“Right where I want you,” he whispers hoarsely and then he leans over me. He kisses the base of my throat where my pulse is racing like a wild horse. “I am going to kiss every inch of you. I’m going to make you mine, Sophia.”
“You are?” I swallow nervously. I’ve never felt so nervous before! The feelings rushing through me feel foreign but good at the same time.
I want to squirm and my stomach is filled with tiny flutters.
When his fingers skim over my hip, my heart sets off at a wild pace. His lips find mine, and when his tongue slips into my mouth, I feel myself melting into him. This must be what desire feels like!
Saved By Him (The Monster Series Book 2) Page 12
