by Raine, Alice
My eyes flew open as a cackle echoed around the room. Mr Jackson tipped his head back as he laughed, presumably at the gawking look of utter horror on my face, but the sound held absolutely no humour, just a sickening, cold emptiness that made me shudder.
‘Why don’t you ladies take a seat?’ he suggested, jerking the gun towards the sofa and speaking in a tone that left no room for argument.
As much as I wanted to move away from him I found that my legs were frozen to the spot. All I could seem to do was clutch William to my chest and stare at the carpet.
‘I said, sit down,’ he barked, getting irritated with my refusal, even though I wasn’t being deliberately awkward. I literally couldn’t persuade my shocked body to move. I couldn’t even breathe properly because my lungs were starting to seize up, making a full breath almost impossible, but as he dropped the gun towards William’s sleeping face I yelped, jerked from my trance, and twisted away from Mr Jackson to protect my son.
‘Take. A. Fucking. Seat. Don’t make me repeat myself a third time.’
Marion practically fell into the end seat of the white leather sofa behind us, and I felt a tug on my elbow from Rebecca who had taken the other end and was willing me to obey and join them both. Gradually sinking down to sit, I curled myself around William as protectively as I could, and noticed that Rebecca had one of her arms subconsciously curved across her own stomach, too.
She snaked her free hand across my thigh and found mine and we linked our fingers together in support, which I really needed right now to ground me, because my God, this was fucking horrific. It was all so much to take in that I could barely find words to describe how petrified I was.
‘You, too, sit the fuck down,’ Mr Jackson snapped as he gave the older woman a sharp prod with the gun in the ribs, making me look at her properly for the first time since we’d arrived home.
Who the hell is she? Her face was ashen, and her eyes were red-rimmed and glassy. She definitely didn’t appear to be a willing assistant in all this, whoever she was. Whatever the fuck “this” was. He jabbed her again with the nose of the gun and she wailed quietly and turned her teary eyes onto him.
‘Don, this is going too far … please, let’s go …’ Mr Jackson – Don – sneered and pulled the gun back as if he were about to strike her across the face with it. She practically crumpled into the armchair as she raised her hands defensively.
‘Shut up, you stupid bitch. Apart from persuading the nanny to let us in you’ve been a fucking waste of space, just like you always were when we were married. Don’t fucking move,’ he spat, as she adjusted herself on the seat.
They had been married?
So that woman was Nathan’s mother?
I could have sworn that Nathan said they’d split up years ago and she’d moved to America. Fucking hell, this just got a heck of a lot weirder. Flashing another glance at the women, who was now openly sobbing, I realised that her features did indeed hold some of the brothers’ characteristics. Shit. I felt like I’d opened my front door and stepped into a fucking incomprehensible nightmare.
The movement of Mr Jackson turning back to us pulled my attention to him as I focused on the real threat in the room. He drew in a loud breath and ran a hand across his hair to smooth it in a move that was chillingly similar to how Nathan flattened his own hair.
Mr Jackson lifted the gun, weighed it in his hand for a second, and then smiled arrogantly, looking ridiculously pleased with himself.
‘Isn’t this nice? Bit of a family reunion, but without my irritating boys to get in the way and break up our fun.’
The way he had smoothed his hair had been eerily similar to Nathan, but now I had time to really look at him I saw that they both shared the same wide stance and broad build, too, and their eyes were almost the exact shade of icy blue. Nathan had gained his stature and looks from his father, that was for sure.
The similarities were purely physical, though, I was sure of that. Nathan had proved himself to be a good man: loving, considerate, protective and the best father for William that I could ever have hoped for. When we’d first started a relationship, he had worried that he was like his father, and yes, he had inherited some kinky tendencies, but I would place my life on the fact that he was nothing like the monster stood before me.
Mr Jackson took a step to the left and lowered his body so he could stare directly into Becky’s eyes. ‘You’re Nicholas’s feisty one, aren’t you? I remember your little outburst from the last time we met, my girl. Don’t think I’ve forgotten.’
Rebecca tightened her fingers around mine, but she remained silent. Glancing across at her, I saw her eyes were wide and trained on the gun in his hand. The appearance of the weapon had stunned her into silence, which was hardly surprising. It was scaring the crap out of me, too.
‘Not so mouthy today, I see,’ Mr Jackson murmured smugly, briefly tracing the barrel of the gun down her jawline before turning his attention back to me.
Last time we’d had an encounter with the hateful man, Rebecca had been the brave one, standing up to him and yelling right in his face, but I’d been a complete state. I’d been so terrified that I’m not sure I’d even made eye contact with him.
My reaction today was almost a complete reversal of that. Instead of feeling petrified and useless, I was furious. How dare he come into my home and threaten my family with a gun? How fucking dare he?
My heart was pounding in my chest, and my muscles twitching with the need to do something, anything, to get him out of our house. Perhaps I could leap up and get in a lucky punch? Or I could use my legs. I was in the perfect position to kick his knee out from under him. The fact that it wasn’t just me in the room stopped me from trying either of these options, because I knew without a doubt that I would never forgive myself if someone else got hurt as a result of my gung-ho actions.
Pulling in several slow, quiet breaths through my nose to calm myself, I raised my chin defiantly and linked my gaze with his. I might not be willing to risk an attack on him, but I would not let this fucker intimidate me for a second time.
‘Well, well, that’s quite a glare you’ve got there,’ he murmured, his eyes glimmering with amusement that only upped my irritation to near-nuclear levels.
Raising one eyebrow, I stayed quiet but gave him as much of a death stare as I could manage.
‘You were quite the timid little thing, from what I can remember. Quaking in your boots the last time we met. No doubt why Nathan likes you so much. He takes after me, that boy.’
‘He’s nothing like you!’ I spat, unable to hold back a second longer. Mr Jackson looked momentarily shocked by my outburst, then smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant smile, though; his lips had pulled tight and thin, giving away the hatred that simmered beneath the surface.
‘Tell yourself that if you want, but I bet I know my son better than you do. I bet he likes to control you in the bedroom, doesn’t he? Spank you? Flog you until you’re perfectly pink and crying out his name?’
‘You’re sick!’ Rebecca exclaimed in disgust. Little did she know exactly how accurate Mr Jackson’s description was. I’d let her in on some of the things that Nathan and I did together, bondage and the like, but she was way more vanilla than me, and I’d always known that she wouldn’t understand the more extreme side to our relationship.
‘So what if he does? At least everything we do is safe and consensual. I submit to him because I respect him, not because he forces me to.’ Ignoring the shocked gasp from Rebecca, I felt my nostrils flare as I darted my gaze to the pathetic figure of Mrs Jackson. I sneered as I looked back to a visibly shocked Mr Jackson. ‘ Can you say the same? Or are you nothing more than a glorified bully?’
He snorted in anger, my words apparently hitting a nerve, and his face reddened with fury. I suspected respect was what he craved, but instead of earning it, he had tried to force it, which would never get the same outcome.
I was about to say as much when Rebecca clamped her fingers so tightly
around mine that I felt a crunch of my bones. It made me snap my mouth shut. Fuck! What the hell am I doing winding him up? He was clearly unstable, and wielding a gun at not only me, my best friend, and our nanny, but my beautiful boy, too. I needed to shut the hell up. Right now.
‘You’ve got quite a mouth on you now. Come out of your shell since we last met, haven’t you?’ He gave his hair another slow brush back with his palm. Once again, it made my skin crawl.
This time I was sensible enough to keep my mouth shut, and simply opted to lower my eyes away from his in what I hoped was enough of a submissive gesture to calm him slightly.
After a tense silence, Mr Jackson drew in a deep breath. ‘ So, this must be my grandson.’ My throat constricted with terror as he reached down with his left hand and rubbed his knuckles across William’s chubby little cheek.
Letting out a startled gasp, I tried to twist William away from his touch only to have Mr Jackson raise the gun again and point it directly between my eyes. The snout of the gun pressed against my forehead, the coolness of the metal oddly calming against my flushed skin.
‘Behave. We wouldn’t want him having any accidents, would we?’ His threat made my blood run cold, and my head spin, but I managed to hold still as he gave Will a more thorough examination. Surely he wasn’t wicked enough to hurt a child?
At the touch to his cheek William began to wake, his little eyes opening, then scrunching up as his face crinkled into a frown. It was as if, even in his innocence, he could already sense the danger nearby.
Praying he wouldn’t start crying and irritate Mr Jackson, I quickly calmed him with some gentle rocking and, thankfully, he fell back to sleep. Mr Jackson seemed relatively indifferent to William. After grunting out some indistinct words he stood back up and crossed his arms, the gun still gripped ominously in one hand.
‘So where are my sons, then?’
For a moment, I couldn’t decide which way to answer. If I said they’d be home soon would he leave now? Or was he here for them, not us? Taking a punt on the fact that he wanted Nathan and Nicholas, I gave a casual shrug. ‘Out for the day. They won’t be back for hours.’ This was a complete lie. Nathan had told me they were planning on getting home by two for a late lunch with us, but there was no way I was telling his father that.
‘Hmm. Looks like we’ve got a wait on our hands, then, doesn’t it?’
Damn it. That totally backfired.
Beside me, Rebecca shifted on the sofa, moving her hands over her stomach again, as if instinctively trying to protect her baby from the hell that surrounded us.
Mr Jackson turned his attention to her and narrowed his eyes. ‘That’s the third time I’ve seen you do that. Why do you keep covering your stomach?’
Oh God. His words made the blood in my veins turn to ice. Please don’t let him work out why. I felt Rebecca’s entire body tense through the cushion of the sofa, as he held a hand out to her.
‘Give me your hand.’ Rebecca shook her head, but Mr Jackson pointed the gun straight at William with no hesitation whatsoever. ‘Don’t push me, you know this gun is already cocked. Now, let’s try that again, shall we? Give me your fucking hand.’
Retaining his grip on the gun, he accepted Rebecca’s unwilling hand and pulled her to her feet. Stepping back, he ran his gaze down her body, and then back up again. She was wearing a tight tunic top and leggings today, which highlighted the bump now showing on her belly.
My heart sunk as his gaze narrowed in to focus on her stomach, before an evil grin spread on his face. Fuck. His expression was pure wickedness. He stepped forwards and used the back of his knuckles to stroke her stomach, causing Rebecca to visibly flinch as he touched her.
‘Oh, this is just perfect!’ He grinned as she wrapped her hands around her midsection with a small, frustrated moan. ‘You’re pregnant, too?’ Before Becky could confirm or deny his words Mr Jackson let out a humourless bark of laughter. ‘ Fucking hell. Well at least my sons know how to do something right, I suppose.’ Spinning away from us, he glared at his wife, or ex-wife, and nodded with apparent glee on his features. ‘ This will be a double whammy for them. They’ll never recover from this …’
His disturbing rant was interrupted by the sound of a key in the front door and I tensed with the realisation that Nathan and Nicholas were home. I couldn’t for the life of me decide if I were thrilled or terrified by that fact.
Chapter Fifteen – Stella
As I frantically tried to come up with a plan to warn Nathan and Nicholas of the danger inside the house, Rebecca reacted first.
‘Nicholas! Call the police …’ she yelled, but her warning was cut short as Mr Jackson spun back around. He jabbed his hand forcefully forwards, punching her right in the stomach.
The sound that came from Rebecca’s throat was a mix of agony and pure terror as she was thrown backwards into the seat beside me. She clutched her stomach, her eyes wide and face instantly bleaching of colour. Holy shit. He’d hit her really hard.
Knowing she was pregnant, he’d still punched her. This man was even more evil than I’d first thought. If I hadn’t been holding William, I would have been on the bastard in a second, regardless of the gun in his hand. As it was, I had to think of my boy, so I cradled him as far away from Mr Jackson as I could and reached out my free arm to protect Rebecca from any further blows he might throw.
‘Back off, you fucker!’ I yelled, before turning urgently to my friend. ‘Becky? Are you OK?’ I asked desperately, but she just stared at the door with tears streaming down her face. Turning in the same direction, I watched as the lounge door finally opened.
Nicholas and Nathan obviously hadn’t heard our yelling because they were chatting happily as they appeared in the room. It took them a moment to clock what was going on and they paused. Well, Nathan paused. Nicholas took one look at his father standing over a sobbing Rebecca and leaped into action, flinging himself across the room with a roar in a desperate attempt to get to his wife.
I don’t think he had even seen the gun, but the next second Mr Jackson swung around and smashed his fist into the side of Nicholas’s head, using the weapon’s handle like a club to his skull.
Rebecca’s scream seemed to chill the temperature of the entire room. The vicious blow had an instant impact on Nicholas, sending him staggering sideways. He touched his bleeding temple and looked at his crimson-soaked fingers in shock, before making a disorientated attempt to grab his father again. He missed completely, teetering on his feet and crashing down sideways onto the coffee table in a heap.
The glass and metal gave way under his weight as Nicholas writhed around and groaned his frustration. The sound of the glass smashing woke Will and he let out a loud cry in my arms. Bouncing him on my leg, I quickly tried to calm him so that he wouldn’t draw Mr Jackson’s anger.
Holy fuck. This is insane!
Trying desperately to soothe Will, I swung my glance to Nathan and saw his face so tight with fury that it looked as though his temples might explode at any second. His teeth were bared as he advanced on his father, his fists clenched with whitened knuckles, and his eyes bulging. I’d never seen him so full of anger.
‘Stop right there, Nathanial,’ Mr Jackson warned in an ominously low tone. ‘On your knees, over there next to your brother.’ Spittle flew from his mouth as he yelled at his son, his face contorting into an ugly mask of hatred.
Nathan hesitated for just a split second, which was apparently too long for Mr Jackson, because he flicked the gun towards a vacant armchair beside him and fired a warning round into the back cushion. The muffled noise made me, Marion, and Rebecca scream as Nathan and Nicholas both lost even more of the colour from their cheeks.
So the gun was definitely real. The shot had barely even finished discharging before he had swivelled the weapon back to point at William and me. Once again, I tried to hunker my body around Will to protect him. When I turned my head, my gaze connected with Nathan’s and I watched as one single tear slid from his e
ye. He dashed it away before his father could notice, but looked utterly defeated, and the sight sent shivers of fear skating across my skin.
‘I’m not fucking around, son. The next bullet won’t be aimed into an armchair. Get on your fucking knees.’
There was no pause this time. Flashing me a pained, apologetic look, Nathan moved beside the sprawled body of his brother and dropped to his knees.
The sight of him looking his usual slick self in one of his stylish three-piece suits, kneeling in broken glass next to his blood-covered brother, was so incongruent that it seemed to finally bring home to me exactly how serious the situation really was.
Fuck. I really couldn’t see a way out of this.
‘Stay down there, Nick, hands behind your head, or I’ll hit your pregnant wife even harder next time.’
At his father’s cruel words Nicholas howled his frustration and thumped the ground in anger, before throwing his hands up behind his head as requested. Rebecca let out another cry, beginning to sob even harder.
Nathan grunted something inaudible, but thankfully both brothers were just about in control enough to stay down and not enrage their father further.
Once everyone around him was still and silent, Mr Jackson threw his head back and let out a triumphant yell before pulling in a deep breath and glaring down at his sons. ‘I am in control! Understand? I’ll always control you!’
Nathan made a snorting noise in his throat and spat at his father’s feet, an action that infuriated Mr Jackson. Without any words of warning he advanced on Nathan and kicked him in the stomach with enough force to make me scream and clutch Will to my chest as Nathan reeled forwards onto his hands with a low grunt. His father kicked him like you would a penalty in a football match, which must have really hurt, even to someone with abs as solid as Nathan’s, but there was no evidence of pain in his blank expression as he looked up.
