Aftermath (The Deceptions Trilogy Book 2)

by Dana Mansfield

  Eventually, though, the pressure became too much for both of us and desperate thrusts replaced the steady tempo. Our sensual moans and grunts changed in tone and became cries of need. I hooked my arms around Jack’s now sweaty shoulders and brought my knees up closer to my own and the change in position exposed my sensitive spot just enough I came hard with Jack’s next thrust. I cried into his neck and rode wave after wave of release as Jack’s tempo increased even more as he climbed towards his own. Another orgasm hit and I let go of his shoulders and grabbed the headboard.

  “Oh, Ivan,” I moaned.

  “Chto?” he asked in an almost pained voice.

  “Ne ostanavlivaysya,” I cried as my body shook again in pleasure. “Please do not stop.”

  “No, no, no,” he repeated and with a massive thrust and his own cry of pleasure, he came. Three more times he cried out with accompanying thrusts and then our movements as one were over. We were breathing hard and sweaty and I still felt the pleasure waves rolling through me. When Jack pulled out of me, I came one last time with a whimper.

  He moved off of me but not much and our legs entwined together and I wrapped my arms around him. I kissed him and he moved to my neck where he snuggled. It warmed me up inside as he whispered into my ear.

  “You are incredible, so beautiful…”

  I replied with my own tender words. “You showed me love doesn’t have to hurt.”

  We lay in each other’s arms and kissed and nuzzled and eventually fell asleep.

  . . .

  When I woke up, I was warm as the morning sunlight shone on me. Jack lay next to me, smiling, and his fingers in my long hair. I took a deep breath and let it out in happiness. My happiness was short lived as the question once again left my mouth.

  “What happens next?” Jack still did not have an answer and again, I understood.

  We left the bed and showered. Jack scrambled eggs for breakfast and together we packed up to go back to Voorhees. I was so sad to leave the cabin because something so scary yet magical happened. As the miles between us and the cabin grew, I felt my depression creeping closer. Jack must have noticed my mood change and he took my hand and held it the rest of the way. As we approached the guard shack at the entrance to Hidden Hollow, the gated community the Petrov family lived in, he let my hand go. It was the last time he touched me.

  Our reunion with the children was short lived as Emerson called and said the PBS producers needed Danny and Jack in Atlanta, where the family lived after escaping Soviet Russia, as soon as possible. I worked to get Jack ready as Emerson sent his private jet to Philly to pick the brothers up. It was Crystal who took Jack to the airport and the long gaze we shared as he got into her Lexus was heartbreaking for me. It was a gaze of confusion and longing and something else I couldn’t identify.

  I didn’t see Jack again until we rendezvoused with him in Washington and we barely spoke or texted as we were both busy preparing for the trip. The piece on Jack and Danny was beautiful and I wanted to cry when they showed the brothers visiting their parents’ graves and leaving small rocks on their headstones. The band was allowed two songs. They performed the first single off the new album and I could tell Jack was nervous but he relaxed and rocked it out. Then came the second song and I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. It was a new song, one I hadn’t heard before, and Jack explained to the audience it was a last-minute addition to their new album. It was a ballad with a melody I recognized from him plucking away on his guitar at the cabin in June. The song spoke of a fearful moment in love, a love that felt so correct. The last lines caused me to step away from the kids who were watching from the side of the stage and I vomited into a secluded garbage can. I thought what I had was true/but then it was just me and you/A beautiful moment, a crossroad/I felt and followed/But now my thoughts swirl and are strong/And I think I was wrong…

  Things were not the same between Jack and me and by the end of July, Jack spent more time in Atlantic City with Crystal when he was home from work. My depression roared back and settled in deeper than it ever had and for the first time ever, I broke a promise to Jack. I started running whenever I had a free moment and I lost my appetite. I ate just enough to keep me going on my downward spiral.

  Chapter 1

  Danny Petrov, Jack’s younger brother by two years, took a deep breath of the crisp air. He wished for it to calm him before he entered the house. It was imperative for him to have control of his emotions as the kids were on their way back from school and he wanted to make sure he could attend to any issues they might have. One thing that helped him was the fact that it was Shabbat. Danny noticed right away when he and his sister, Millie, began taking care of Jack’s children that they were calmer on Friday nights which ended up making the weekends a little easier.

  He loved Shabbat and his first memory was of his mother lighting their secret Shabbat candles in the little gray apartment in the secret Siberian city. As he stood in the early May air, he closed his eyes and brought the image up. Mama looked beautiful even in the simple blue dress she wore and her hands were so graceful as she touched the match to each wick and then circled the flames three times before covering her eyes.

  In his ears, he heard her soft voice and on his forehead, he still felt the kiss she always gave him afterwards. She wore no perfume – it was too much of a luxury to be found in the gray city – but he always remembered the scent of the bath soap she used. There was a touch of lemon scent to it and even now, whenever he drank lemonade or ate some lemony treat, he thought of her. Even though almost twenty years had passed since she died, Danny missed her with all his heart.

  But his heart ached even more with Jack’s disappearance and the fact the investigation was once again stalled did not help. Agents Reynolds and McLey had stopped by for their weekly briefing and when they said nothing had changed, Danny blew his top. He got so angry he yelled in Russian for a good three minutes until he realized what he was doing. It reminded him so much of Jack which acted like a slap in the face, calming him down and bringing him back into focus. He apologized to the agents and then thanked them for all they were doing. They left and Danny began the struggle with his emotions.

  Jack was not just his older brother but also his best friend and he missed him. Growing up in fear in the secret city, Jack watched over Danny when they were on the scary streets. Jack knew which shop owners were real and which ones were secret KGB agents and told Danny never to say anything around them. He taught Danny to throw a ball, nothing more than a pair of rolled up socks, and then even taught him his first guitar chords once in America. When Danny was bullied by some bigger kids who called him a commie, Jack didn’t fight the fight for Danny. Instead, he fought with him and then accepted the punishment for fighting from Mama and Papa without complaint. They were close all through public school and Jack helped Danny prepare for the big test he had to take to graduate high school early when Jack made the decision everyone was moving to New Jersey.

  When it was time to graduate Princeton, Jack talked the dean into letting him walk first even though alphabetically Danny should cross the stage first. He wanted to be able to shake Danny’s hand as he walked down the stage’s steps and when Danny saw the tears in his brother’s eyes, he saw their mother’s eyes also and he lost it. It had been an incredible four years that Jack could have easily not included Danny in when he sat down with the guys in high school and formulated the plan that would become the Ivy Brothers. But Jack recognized he wasn’t the only one with musical talent and from their second rehearsal on, he considered Danny part of the band.

  They went on to become the two main songwriters in the band and when they won Song of the Year the same year they won Best New Artist at the Grammies, it was a special moment for them. In fact, for Danny, it was the best moment. He and Jack had been throug
h so much and to see their dream acknowledged was amazing. Danny never thought during the scary days they spent being smuggled out of Siberia that one day, he would be living the life of a rockstar with his best friend and brother.

  But now, his best friend and brother was missing and there were no clues as to where he was. All they had were the two proof of life videos and Jack looked horrible in them. It was May and he found himself wishing it was June. The first two videos came in months that could be divided by three so he assumed June would be the next one. Would there be another one though? Danny was torn about this. He wanted another video as proof Jack was alive but he hated the fact that if whatever network received orders to show it chose not to comply, Jack would be hurt. Plus, it was hard to see his brother looking so awful. It was confirmation whoever had him was not treating him very well.

  Danny felt anger rise again within him at the unknown assholes hurting his brother and family. And Penny Shepherd. They still did not know if she was with Jack but there was no proof she wasn’t. They didn’t even know if she was alive. Although the FBI found all her money accounts, except for one, had been transferred overseas, this did not indicate to Danny she was part of the plot to kidnap Jack, her best friend. Crystal believed she was even though Agents McLey and Reynolds tried to convince her they no longer believed this to be the case. Crystal wouldn’t listen to them and threw away every last belonging of Penny’s and had her car towed away. When Danny tried to stop Crystal, she threatened to go to court for a restraining order.

  Seeing all of Penny’s things thrown out had been terrible for the children. They didn’t understand why their mother was doing that and they rebelled against her more with the exception of Natalya, Jack’s oldest living daughter. She even helped in the tossing of Penny’s things which caused even more rifts between her and her siblings. That had been six weeks ago and things had cooled a bit but the pain of what Crystal did was still there. Little Sofie, so withdrawn and uncommunicative, became even more withdrawn which he didn’t think was possible. Danny hated seeing how this hell was affecting his littlest niece. He missed her laughter and her smile and the day they thought she wandered away from the house had been the scariest moment since the abduction.

  They found her, thankfully, in Penny’s empty room. She was laying in the middle of it holding onto Teddy and the picture of Jack and Penny and fingering Penny’s bracelet around her wrist. These three things always had to be in her possession. Both he and Millie had been so upset with the incident, which had taken place during the school day so none of the other kids knew about it, they couldn’t even calm down enough to go get the kids from school and had to ask Carlos and Matty, fellow bandmates, to play taxi.

  Danny took another deep breath as he heard the garage door opening. The kids were home and in a couple hours, Millie would light the Shabbat candles. As they had done on almost every Friday since the kidnapping, they would all ask God to watch over Jack and Penny and ask they be reunited as soon as possible.

  Chapter 2

  Jack and Penny sat next to each other, quiet and waiting. Crystal’s ascending footsteps on the basement stairs still echoed in Jack’s soul for many minutes. He was… He didn’t know how he was. Stunned, shocked, flabbergasted, flummoxed. He could have gone on with a list of synonyms but none of them described to a perfect T how the last twelve hours left him. Crystal, his own wife, had orchestrated Jack’s kidnapping hell and although he saw her, felt her hit him and smelled the perfume he smelled on her for over twenty years, Jack found it unbelievable his pain and suffering was caused by her. The words she spoke, the violence and torture she advocated… It was too much and he shut part of his brain down. He could not think about her at the moment.

  “Penny?” Jack called to his best friend. In the hour or so that had passed since Crystal’s departure, he had tried to talk to Penny but she would not acknowledge him. He could tell from the look on her pale face – a look that was far away and so painful – that she was not with him in the cell. All she did was lean against the outside brick wall, her legs broken beneath her like a ragdoll. Her arms were bent up before her trying to hide her nakedness. He could see her shivering. She needed warmth and they both needed medical attention.

  And they both needed saving from their hell.

  More time passed and Jack’s body pulsed harder from the pain of the long beating he took. He was thirsty; it had been a very long time since either one of them had any water. How long would they be made to sit in agony before they were given any medical care? They. Jack knew he would receive care for his injuries but would Penny? Vivienne had stitched her up once from Crystal’s stabbing but his wife’s words repeated in his mind – If she dies, she dies. Do not go out of your way to save her. Penny couldn’t die; Jack had to make sure once they were out of this hell, she received the proper treatment to help her overcome the terrible things her mother allowed happen to her and what she went through with Shane. He wanted to fix her; he owed that to her.

  Plus, Jack wanted to love her.

  The pain in his burned left arm, where Vivienne had used a torch to burn off the forced tattoo of his children’s names, was the worst. Not only was it physical pain, it was emotional. Gone were the reminders he could see of his beautiful children. When Landon tortured him with the forced tattooing, Jack cursed him in his mind but over the months, he grew to rely on seeing the names. Now they were gone. Closing his eyes, he focused what small amount of energy he had left and pictured each child. When he burned those into his memory, he brought up Millie’s face and then Danny’s. I will get back to you, he promised, I will.

  He just didn’t know how.

  Jack rested his head against the wall and took several deep breaths to try to control his pain. For maybe the first time ever in the last five months, he actually wanted to see Vivienne, a doctor and lover of the head of the kidnapping operation. Actually, that’s not true. He wanted to see her when Penny was sick with her urinary tract infections and when she was beaten by William. Despite hating Ms. Mengele, they needed her. He hated to admit that even in his mind but it was true.

  He looked back over at Penny. She had moved her gaze towards him and there was awareness in her battered face.

  “I… I can see,” she whispered. Her voice was no longer child-like. “My vision is back.”

  “That is wonderful,” replied Jack and moved closer to Penny. “A small miracle in our hell.” She focused on him and then reached a shaky hand to lightly touch his bruised cheek.

  “They hurt you so bad,” she noted.

  “Yes,” he replied with honesty since his voice easily expressed how he felt, “but I am more worried about you. You were put through so much.” Penny turned her head away, shaking it.

  “My secret, you weren’t ever supposed to know,” she said, her voice shaking.

  “I know, my Pretty Penny,” Jack said, keeping his words soft. He reached out and touched her cheek, then gently pulled her towards him into a hug. “You put yourself through hell to keep your secret from me and Crystal betrayed you.”

  “Burdened… Sorry…,” she wept.

  “No, I am not burdened at all,” Jack insisted, “and I am honest when I say that. I am glad to know so now I can help you. Penelope, I understand you so much more now. And I am so sorry for getting mad at you. I forgive you for keeping Crystal’s indiscretion from me so that your secret was safe.” Penny’s secret she had vowed to herself never to let Jack know was that her own mother had allowed her daughter to be molested for almost four years. The molestation only ended because Penny became pregnant but lost the baby due to complications of giving birth just past her thirteenth birthday.

  He would have continued to try to console her but the door opened and William and Vivienne entered.

  “Time for some First Aid,” Wi
lliam replied.

  “Please see to Penny first,” Jack said. “Please.”

  “Demanding still?” inquired William as he walked to them.

  “I’m sorry!” Jack yelled out but it was too late. William pulled Jack and Penny apart and then kicked her hard in her left side where Crystal had stabbed her. Penny slumped over, unconscious.

  “You just haven’t learned anything during your stay with us, have you?” William growled.

  “William…,” Vivienne warned and knelt next to Penny. The bandages covering the stab wound, which had been stitched shut, were now soaked with fresh blood. “Let her bleed or do you want me to take care of her?” William crouched next to his love and chief torturer. He reached out and petted Penny’s matted and very short hair. Jack hated when the madman did that to Penny but there was nothing he could do to stop him.

  “Yes, fix her up,” he said with a sick smile.

  “You heard Crystal…”

  “I know what I heard, Vivi,” he replied, “but I don’t know if I’m done with her. I don’t know if we’re done with her.”

  “Please, do not hurt her anymore,” Jack begged. He had to even if that meant William may inflict pain on him. “You have put her through so much…”

  William stood quickly and held up his index finger. “Don’t you dare blame me for what we did, Jack. She could have avoided it all if she just would have talked on day one.” For five weeks, Penny had been tortured for information about the weekend he and she spent at his cabin in the Poconos. She was also forced to talk about what her mother allowed done to her.