by Mandy Rosko
"I wish I hadn't heard any of that. You both need to warn me when you want to have a conversation like that," Ethan said.
Jack shook his head. "Won't happen again, buddy, don't you worry."
He hoped saying that wouldn't hurt Jessica's feelings.
Jessica sighed. "All right. Keep in touch, though. I'm worried about you with her in the house."
Jack didn't blame her for that.
"Actually, before you hang up," he said.
"Yes?"
Jack bit down on his bottom lip. Hard. Then he squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She told me it wasn't her."
"What do you mean?" Jessica asked without hesitation in her voice.
"I'm not surprised," Ethan said.
Jessica snapped at him. "Shut up. Jack, what's going on?"
Jack leaned against the nearest wall. He spoke through his teeth. "I mean, she said she didn't do it."
"Do you believe her?" Ethan asked. He sounded genuinely curious.
Honesty was always the best policy here, so Jack wasn't sure why he felt like he was lying. "No."
Now Jessica and Ethan seemed to be hesitating again. Jack was sometimes stunned the two of them weren’t twins, sharing a single mind between them.
"I mean it," Jack said. This time he felt better about his answer.
"Look, I didn't know her then, so whatever happens, whatever you choose to do, just be careful," Jessica said.
"What do you mean?"
"Yeah, what do you mean?" Ethan asked.
At least he was on the same page as Jack. There was no choice involved here. The choice was already made. Cindy was going with the collectors when they came.
"Just take care of yourself, Jack," Jessica said, and he hated the fact that she sounded like she knew something he didn't. Then she hung up and Jack was alone again, staring at the screen.
What did she mean by that? Jack set the phone down on the table.
He reached for his tablet so he could check his e-mail. When there was nothing from Head Office regarding a specific time for the pickup, Jack looked into his banking.
Bringing in a pyro, especially an unregistered one who had been on the run for so long, would bring in enough money for him to completely pay off this house three times over, with enough left for a new truck and then some. People with elemental powers weren't as common as vampires and werewolves. Only mermaids were as rare and hard to bring in, and they were mostly left alone.
His account was still healthy, however, even after all the cash he'd dropped on weapons, hiring private investigators, and taking classes to better learn the trade he thought he'd never completely devote his life to.
Hell, he should probably just give Cindy to the collectors for free after what she did to him. Jack had no outstanding debts, and he could even take a nice long vacation if he wanted to.
Maybe he would take a vacation after Cindy was gone. He could use one. He might even convince Ethan and Jessica to come with him.
Jack gave that some serious thought as he took a seat at the kitchen table and rested his chin in his hands.
What if she was telling the truth?
If Cindy was telling the truth, and he still didn't believe that she was, then he didn't want to send her to a lab.
If he didn't bring her in, then where was she going to stay? With him? Yeah right. If he was wrong about the entire thing she would just finish what she had started years before.
He was so fucking stupid for even considering this, and it wouldn't matter anyway because he'd already called her in. The collectors knew he had a woman who could light fires with a thought. No one wanted someone like that on the loose.
Jack opened up a file full of pictures. His father, Sean, was there, holding up a fish he'd caught on his honeymoon, and Jack's mother was at his side, an equally big smile on her face.
Aidan and Liam weren’t born yet. Jack got to their pictures next, with the most recent one having been taken the day before they were killed.
It gave him chills to look at this picture, how they were all smiling, not knowing what was coming. He missed the smiles on their faces. It had been taken right after he'd told them his plans of attending school with the love of his life. Sometimes he was glad he'd gotten one last picture, though. Something with all of them together.
He'd given them his decision. He wasn't going to be a hunter, and they'd been genuinely happy for him.
They'd always supported his passion for art, though Sean's support came with a lot of reluctance. The man hadn't been happy about one of his sons choosing a profession where a paycheck was hard to come by.
Jack hadn't drawn more than a doodle since the fire.
He opened the last folder. He usually avoided looking at this particular photo. It was a picture of him and Cindy. Her hair was as wild as ever, and her arms were around his neck as she smiled into the camera he held above their heads. They were in bed in this photo, and though it wasn't immediately obvious, they'd both been naked. They'd just finished having sex. There was a pink glow still on their faces.
It all looked so damned normal. Jack suddenly found it hard to breathe as he stared, particularly at the smiles on their faces. He sighed.
He only looked at this picture to get his bearings straight. He needed that right now. This smiling woman didn't exist. Jack had once thought she was something that she wasn't, and when he told her about his family profession, confessing his secret just as she had confessed hers, she'd clearly panicked and become consumed with self-preservation.
The worst part about all of it was that even if she was lying, which he knew she was, it was still his fault his family had burned alive. She'd told him she was a pyro, and a few days later, he told her he was from a family of hunters. He'd been so stupid. He thought sharing something like that would make her feel better, and prove he trusted her.
What the hell had he expected a pyro to do? Did he honestly think she'd be okay with the fact that her boyfriend had confessed to having the means to put her away for life if he wanted to? Christ, his father had always said not to trust anyone with powers. Wars were started by people like that and hundreds of thousands of men and women were killed or murdered each year by paranormals.
Despite all that, Jack had placed his trust her, and once he did, everything had gone to shit, and that hurt so bad that he couldn't even sleep most nights.
That was all on him. It didn't matter if he handed her over to the collectors, it wasn't going to bring his father or brothers back. He was still going to be alone.
Jack got up walked away from the tablet. He couldn't look at it anymore. He was still hungry after his lunch had been ruined, and he was going to have to see about tending to Cindy eventually, which wasn't just an excuse to see her again.
Chapter Seven
Cindy realized she shouldn't have drunk the entire bottle of water so quickly because now she really had to pee. Jack had been gone for several hours already, so she was hungry again, too. Body functions had to come first, and she wasn't about to wet herself because Jack had thoughtlessly left her down here. It was like being torn between the idea of humiliating herself, or risking Jack's wrath.
The risk of his anger won out. She didn't want to wet herself like a child. Cindy slapped her palm on the concrete wall and yelled his name.
It took a few seconds, but eventually there was a response. He came running down the stairs, his feet banging on the steps the entire way. He could sometimes be as graceful and silent as a cat, and other times it was like he was like a wild horse kicking around in a Swarovski shop.
His blue eyes were wide when he burst through the open door and looked at her, then he scanned the rest of the room, as if he were expecting a monster to pop out at him. Considering his line of work, maybe he did.
"What?" he demanded when it was obvious that nothing was there.
She stared back at him. He was completely disheveled, hair messed up and his shirt was wide open, exposing his perf
ect chest.
She'd forgotten about that little line of hair that went down from his flat navel to his pubic hair, which, if his loose jeans had ridden any lower, she'd definitely be able to see a lot more of right about now.
Her blood was starting to feel warm in her veins, and it had nothing to do with her powers. She felt her clit respond as her nipples hardened. She completely forgot about needing the bathroom.
Jack's fingers snapping in front of her face pulled her out of all the bad thoughts she'd just been having.
"Hey, are you okay? What's wrong with you?" he asked, though he was quickly buttoning up his shirt, which suggested he had an idea of what her issue was.
Cindy frowned but really, all she felt was humiliation that her body could betray her like that when Jack had her in chains.
"I have to pee," she said. "And I'm hungry again."
Jack ran his hands through his hair. The act messed up the strands and made them stick out at odd angles, which made him look even more handsome.
He wasn't even trying to look good. It was just how it was. How the hell was he doing that?
"Alright, I'll be back down with a bucket and some more food. Guess I didn't give you a whole lot the last time."
Cindy hardly paid attention to the food comment. All she heard was bucket. "You can't be serious."
Jack stared at her. "What?"
She couldn't believe it. "A bucket Jack? Are you serious? That isn't even humane."
"Well, to be perfectly fair, you're not a human, so it doesn't matter."
That hurt so much it was like he'd physically slapped her. Again.
It must have shown on her face because Jack didn't say anything. His entire body was tense as he stared at her.
Cindy shook her head and turned away from him. "Fine! Whatever, it doesn't matter! Go get the damned bucket!"
She couldn't look up at him. She was shaking with the helpless fury that consumed her. Her eyes burned as she sniffed and rubbed at her eyes.
It wasn't actually crying if she wiped the tears away before they could fall, right?
Jack quietly left her little prison, his footsteps light this time as they disappeared up the stairs.
He was gone for a little while. The worst part was that she now had to go even more, and the idea of humiliating herself and going right there made her all kinds of anxious, and made her situation seem that much worse. Yeah, she was definitely crying a little now.
Jack returned, and she still didn't look up at him. She didn't want to look up at him and see the bucket in his hands.
He knelt down next to her, but he barely touched her as he grabbed onto her chains and did something to them. there was a metal clicking noise.
She finally looked at him, and was stunned to realize he had keys in his hands, which he was using on the locks that kept her chained to the wall.
The chains themselves fell away, but the shackles stayed in place with their enchantments still working their magic over her.
She didn't understand. Her first thought was that the collectors had come for her. "What are you doing?"
That was when he pulled a whole different set of chains out from where they'd been hanging on his belt. They were thinner, but still metal and looked just as strong.
Right. Of course he wasn't actually taking her chains off. He was just putting her into a whole new set of them.
He clipped and locked one side of the chains onto one of her shackles, and the other side around his own wrist so they were chained together. "This chain is longer and lighter than those ones," he said, nodding down to the heavy things on the floor. "It'll be easier for you to walk around the house with."
"I...walk around?"
"Don't get any ideas," Jack said. "You're still chained to me, and if you try something I will have to act. Now come on, I'll take you to the bathroom."
"Thank God," Cindy said, and she immediately pushed herself to her feet.
Jack didn't seem overly worried about how she was running up the stairs, probably because she was forced to stop halfway and stare down at him when he yanked on the chain.
He just gave her a look when she glared at him. "I said it was longer, but not by that much."
"Well, I wasn't joking when I said I needed to go, and I need to go right now," Cindy replied.
Jack jogged up the stairs, and Cindy was still keeping pace with him. Every step he took was one more step until she could get to the bathroom.
"It's the second door on the left. Just don't get any ideas in there. I already cleared it out of all my razors, and anything else you might think of using as a weapon."
The last thing Cindy's as thinking about was escaping when her bladder was about to explode. "Yeah, great, whatever, just stay here," she said, and she tried to slam the door on him, but of course, the stupid chain prevented that.
Whatever, it was mostly closed, the door wasn't slowly opening on her. She had her toilet that was relatively close to the door, and she could still keep it from opening back up with her foot. Cindy got to work doing what needed to be done and felt so much better after. She sighed and washed her hands when she finished. She stared down hatefully at the shackles on her wrists, and she really hoped she would get them all rusty just to spite the man outside.
"You almost done in there?" Jack asked.
She looked at the door, which was open just a crack thanks to the small chain that was in the way, leading to him.
"Almost," she said, and then she wet her face, her hair, and scrubbed her arms in the sink, trying to clean up as much as possible without taking her clothes off and sponge bathing herself.
She grabbed one of his towels beneath the sink and dried herself off. She then sniffed under her arms. At least she didn't stink anymore.
"Hurry up in there," Jack said, but he wasn't barging in to check on her.
"Asshole," Cindy muttered, and because she wanted to annoy him, she took another minute as she wet her hair just enough to get rid of some of the frizz.
Because she was curious, she also very carefully opened one of the drawers, as silently as she could, just to see what was inside of it. She found an electric shaver, some cotton swabs, spare hand towels and so on. In the drawer below that, there was the odd bottle of cologne, some body wash, and a few other necessities that a man would need for his morning routine.
He hadn't been lying, however. There wasn't a real razor in sight. There wasn't even a hand mirror that she could steal and break for later on. She really was stuck.
Jack knocked on the wall, probably because he knew that if he knocked on the door, it would open. Maybe the only reason why he didn't do just that was because he worried about seeing her on the toilet or something. "Cindy? You okay?"
She sighed. Of course she wasn't okay. The man she'd loved was going to ship her off to a lab the second the collectors came to pick her up. She was utterly and totally screwed.
But then she looked herself in the mirror. Really looked this time, instead of just staring ahead in a daze.
"What are you doing in there, Cindy?" Jack asked.
"I'm, uh, brushing my teeth," she said, and then clenched her eyes shut. That was dumb. She quickly went looking through Jack's drawer again, sure that she'd seen a toothbrush somewhere.
"You're brushing your teeth?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I found one of your toothbrushes," she said, and then sighed when she found them. He must've stocked up from Costco or whatever because there were extra unopened toothbrushes inside, and she quickly opened one and reached for the toothpaste.
"Oh," Jack said. "Sorry, I didn't think about giving you one."
What was he sorry for? He was going to sell her. Not giving her a toothbrush seemed pretty low on the list of things that were insulting in comparison to that.
She started brushing her teeth, because she really did need to clean her mouth out once she realized it.
Then a thought came on to her, that same one that had been brewing as she stared at her
reflection, and it built and built until, within seconds, she had a solid plan.
Despite getting kidnapped and locked into a hunter box for the night, she didn't look half bad. Her hair was now wild and all over the place, despite her attempts to tame it, but that had its own sexy sort of appeal, especially when it was as damp as it was. Her eyeliner was a little smudged from sleeping while wearing it, but her expensive brand of mascara hadn't run, even when she'd cried, and that gave her a smoky-eye sort of look she'd always tried and failed to get on her own.
She looked pretty damn good, all things considered. Jack had loved her at one time, and he'd often complimented her on her looks. He'd loved her wild red hair, the heart shape of her face and her lips, and he'd touched both every chance he got. He hadn't even minded the freckles that dotted her cheeks and shoulders.
The fact that he'd fed her, let her out of the box so it would be easier to breathe, and then brought her upstairs to use the bathroom instead of giving her a pee bucket meant he didn't completely see her as an animal. There was some sympathy inside of him for her. She could use that.
No, she was going to use that. This was her way out.
She finished brushing her teeth and rinsed her mouth with his mouthwash. She even pinched her cheeks and bit down on her lips for some added color. She thought she saw that Jack had some hair gel as well. She could use some of that to keep the wet effect in her red-orange mess on her head.
Everything had to be perfect for this to work.
Jack had taken her power away from her, but she still held a very strong power over him. Herself. She wasn't going to the labs, and she was getting out of here, no matter what she had to do to accomplish that.
She'd even seduce a man who hated her.
Chapter Eight
Jamie turned off his phone immediately after checking for messages. He wasn't ready to ditch it just yet, but it was tempting to take the SIM card out and just squash the thing so he couldn't be traced.
She must have been picked up. She didn't show up last night and she wasn’t answering his calls, or the emails he was sending to her private account. He didn't expect her to just blindly text him either. They had little codes for each other that they used in every message, to prove they were who they said they were, and that no one was coercing them into writing or saying anything.
