by Evie Harper
“I can’t wait. I need to fuck you right now. I can’t even get all my fucking clothes off.” He pulls himself out through his unbuttoned pants and pulls a condom out of his back pocket and pushes it on.
He lays down on top of me, kissing my neck as he tries to pull my underwear down my legs.
It’s time. I breathe, brace, and get ready to put all my force behind the fork when I stab him in the neck. He lowers my underwear more, and I can feel his dick touching my thigh.
I take a big breath in, then swing my arm out as hard and fast as I can. But just as I’m about to stab it into his neck, I’m left with air; my arm swings right through the space where Mr Smith’s neck should be. With the force behind my arm, the fork stabs straight into the mattress.
I look up quickly and see Mr Smith against a wall with Jake’s hand around his throat. My eyes go wide and my mouth drops open.
Mr Smith is off the ground and gasping for air, clawing at Jake’s hand.
Jake is staring at Mr Smith. If looks could kill, he would be dead. There is only rage in Jake’s eyes. The air crackling with Jake’s violent temper.
Jake looks over to me, his eyes quickly find my hand with a fork stabbed into the mattress. He narrows his eyes on the fork then back to my eyes, and he mutters something under his breath. I think I hear him say, “Fuck me.”
Jake looks back at Mr Smith and says, “I’m going to let you breathe, fucker, and when I do, you’re going to shut your fucking mouth and listen. Got it?” Jake growls his demand.
Mr Smith nods through his gasping. Lowering him to the ground, Jake continues to hold him tightly to the wall by his throat.
“You’re going to put your dirty dick away, button your shirt and then I am going to escort you out of this room and house. You are going to tell Marco you had an enjoyable time with Lily. Got it?” Jake pulls Mr Smith toward him then smashes his body back into the wall. I flinch with the hard hit to the wall.
Mr Smith’s eyes clench closed from the hit, but he comes around quickly. “What the fuck! I paid a lot of money to fuck her,” he whines, obviously realising he’s not going to win against Jake’s strength.
Jake gets right in his face and sneers, “I don’t give a flying fuck if you gave your pathetic life. It’s not going to happen, ever. And you even think about talking, Peter Falcone of 265 Murray Drive, Florida.” Mr Smith, now known as Peter, inhales harshly. “If Marco hears about this, I will be gunning for your wife and daughter. Do you understand?” Peter inhales sharply.
“You leave my family out of this,” he hisses at Jake.
Oh God, this sick asshole has a family.
“Their lives rest on your shoulders. You say anything to Marco or anyone else, and I will have no problems taking them out.” Jake pauses, waiting for any response from Peter. Pulling him forward, Jake then pushes him back into the wall once again, but harder this time. Peter’s head bobs crazily.
“Yes, yes, I get it. Fuck,” Peter whines.
Jake looks back at me, anger still sizzling all around him. He says nothing, grabs Peter by the shoulder, and sneers, “Now, walk out of here as if you just got lucky, asshole.” Leaving the room, the door locks behind them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Her.
Alone in the dimly lit room, I look around, stunned. What just happened? Jake came to save me; that’s what happened. A second later and he would have seen me kill a man. I come out of my thoughts and realise I’m still holding onto the fork. I pull but the fork won’t budge. Clenching my teeth, I pull with all my strength. The fork releases from the mattress with a pop. Well, at least I know I had a good chance of getting it into his neck.
I decide just to leave the fork out on the dresser, no use hiding it now. Grabbing a silk robe, I strip the lingerie off and wrap the robe around my body. On my way back to the bed, wondering if Jake will come back to explain what just happened, my door swings open and slams shut. I freeze on the spot.
Jake stumbles into the room, sinks to his knees and bows his head, his body shuddering. After watching him for a few seconds, I notice his knuckles have cuts. Lifting his hands to cover his face, I’m floored when I realise he’s silently crying.
My body jolts forward. I take big steps and kneel on the floor, making sure to keep a little bit of distance between us.
“Jake?” I ask softly.
He sobs loudly this time and it echoes around the room.
My heart aches at the painful tone.
He speaks with his head bowed, “I’m so sorry, Lil. I’m so sorry I hurt you, but I couldn’t stop.” Jake’s voice is thick and strangled.
He raises his face to mine and I gasp at his anguished expression. Jake’s usual deep brown eyes are now bloodshot and glassy.
Tears sting my eyes and I lift a shaking hand to my lips, trying to hold in my cry from watching such a strong man fall apart. The pain radiating off him is suffocating.
He penetrates me with his tortured gaze. “I can’t do it anymore,” he grasps my hand and pushes it to his chest, right over his heart.
“This beats for you and another.” What? “I have been walking a tightrope for so long, hoping I could save you both, but all it’s done is torn me apart, and put you both at risk.”
I stay silent, staring at Jake, waiting for him to give me the answers to his cryptic words.
“I thought when it came down to it, the obvious choice would be her.” Jake pauses and shakes his head wildly. “But I fucking couldn’t do it. Thinking of that fucker touching you, it nearly drove me insane.” He ends on a shout.
I’m frozen, unable to move as I track each glistening tear that silently falls down his handsome face.
“If that guy calls my bluff and goes to Marco, I’ve lost her forever.” Another violent release of anguish releases from Jake. His fingers lose their grip on my hand at his chest, and my hand falls away.
He lowers his face; his body bowing so low his head almost touches the ground.
“Who is her?” I whisper, waiting for the crushing blow where he tells me about this other woman he loves so much.
“Emily,” his voice tortured as he says her name. Emily. I’m stunned. “My little sister, Emily.”
I let out a gasp and my hand flies to my mouth. My mind stalls and repeats sister. I fall from my knees to my bottom, not caring the fall causes a sharp pain up my back.
I demand, “Tell me everything, now. No more lies.” Tears are now freely falling down my astonished face.
Jake raises his head, blows out a couple of big breaths and lifts the bottom of his shirt to wipe his face. “Em got taken five years ago. My best friend Kanye, Em’s boyfriend, called us looking for her. She never came home after seeing a movie with a friend. We called around to her friends, and that’s when we found out she never made it to the movies at all, which wasn’t like Emily at all; she would never stand a friend up without a message or call.”
Jake takes a breath and continues, “She was then classed as a missing person. We searched everywhere for her. Her picture was all over the news, but nothing. Not one single person came forward with credible information. My parents were destroyed. Emily is the baby of the family. She’s naïve but in a beautiful way. She always saw the positives in people, never the bad. We knew whatever had happened to her was bad.” Pain flashes through his eyes, which tells me the next part has caused him a lot of torment. “Six months after searching for her, the police got a good tip that she had been sold into the black market as a sex slave. My dad tried to kill himself; he couldn’t handle his daughter going through something like that. We got there just in time to save him. He tried to gas himself in his car. He’s a good man, a good father. It was just too much for him.”
I nod in understanding, while small sobs fall from my lips for a man who has had to think about his baby girl going through unimaginable horrors for the last five years. It kills me that I lost Sasha, but to lose her and know she is in pain every day and not being able to do anything would be
the true meaning of living in Hell. My heart and soul cries for Jake and his family.
“When I was in the Marines, I completed secret missions, so I decided to get a team together and go undercover to find Em. My parents were torn. They couldn’t say no to having hope of finding her, but they were sending their only other child off into the same world. But they knew in the end no one would stop me from trying to find my sister. I got my team together, and we’ve been working this case for four years, me inside, them outside.”
He’s lived this life, this persona for four long years, seeing and doing unimaginable things to find his sister. I can’t help but regard him with awe and want to comfort him for all the lines he’s had to cross. Those marks will forever be on his soul, and he’s doing it all for Emily.
Jake pierces me with a stare. “Then you came along, Lily. Marco sent Mick and me to New York to find another piece for his collection. All he asks is to find beautiful women from different countries.” Jake pauses, and I see guilt flash through his eyes before he continues, “I spotted you and Sasha as soon as you stepped off the plane at JFK.” My eyes go wide; he watched us the entire time we were in New York. “Right away I wanted you. I couldn’t keep my eyes off you, and you were exactly what Marco wanted. I had every intention of taking you and your sister. But the more I watched you, the more captivated I became, and I couldn’t do it. I told Mick I didn’t find anyone.” Jake blows out a big breath. “He said he had, and I was so fucking relieved. I couldn’t wait to get away from you; you were pulling me away from my mission. And then there you were; tied up in the van, and my world fell apart.” I want to cry for his pain and our misfortune.
“I have worked with gangs, bikers, and pimps to get Marco’s attention to be asked to guard this house. I knew there was a chance at being selected to guard the collection pieces, but it takes basically losing your soul to prove your loyalty to him. I have been working as a guard for the last three years doing everything Marco asked of me. Some things he has asked of me I couldn’t finish, but that’s where my team comes into it. They had taken men away and hidden them, so Marco thinks they are dead and buried. Or I have paid off slave girls who have been given to me by Marco.”
“Jake,” I breathe out, sorrow coats my voice.
“The last few months have been the worst. I started to lose hope. And then Marco handed me everything I had ever wanted. A chance to get to his private house, the secret location where he holds the collection... he handed me you.”
The fog clears, and now I understand. Jake needed me to get him to the collection to find Emily. “I just had to keep you here with me until I got to the house, and then I would’ve freed you and your sister.” Jake’s voice softens and lowers when he speaks about Sasha. It warms my heart that he knows hearing about her hurts me, so he tries to soften the blow even though that’s impossible to do, but still he tries.
“When you went to the party and told me you met the whole collection, I lost it. I finally had someone who could tell me if my sister was alive or not.” Oh Jake, she is alive, but she’s dead on the inside. “Those people following Marco, that’s my team Lil. We always hoped Marco would trip up and tell me where the house is, or my team would successfully follow him to his secret location, but he trusts no one. And he has eyes everywhere. He has bought out every town in this state, and while he is visiting, no one gets in or out without him knowing who and why.”
As Jake speaks about his team, I slowly realise he could have helped me a long time ago; he could have helped Sasha. My thoughts race through all the lost opportunities.
“You could have saved her.” My voice comes out strangled.
Jake rubs his face roughly. “I tried, Lily. I’m scared to tell you this, but if I don’t, you may not see the full picture for what it is.” I stare at him, not knowing what to say, not knowing what he means. He continues, his voice thick, “This falls on my shoulders. I should have told you. Please know I didn’t think you would find a way to get her out, and I honestly thought telling you about her auction on the day, you would have no time to plan or re-plan anything. That’s why I wanted to stay close to you that day, so you couldn’t organise anything or risk yourself by trying to run.” I’m confused, and he must see it, so he quickly continues, “One of my boys was going to be at the auction, Lil. He was going to buy Sasha, at any cost. The money wasn’t an issue.”
Broken doesn’t even come close to how I feel. There are no words for the kind of pain searing through my veins. My body elevates and my mind sets straight to numb to fight off the slicing pain it’s bracing for. My world just shattered for the millionth time.
“Lily,” Jake chokes out, and I look up automatically. “Don’t go back in your head. All of this, it’s fucking bad luck, bad timing, whatever you want to call it. But nothing will change by you hiding away again. Stay strong. We are so close to getting out.”
Bad luck, bad timing. That’s what Sash’s death comes down to? No, for the rest of my life, I will live knowing I sent my sister to her grave while Jake was trying to send her home. This is not my fault. I know that; however, I played a hand, an unknowing one. But her death is someone’s fault, Mick’s, and he’s dead. Marco: he needs to die.
I find Jake’s hand and grip it tightly. My strangled voice whispers, “Thank you,” I cough to clear the lump in my throat, and say stronger, “for trying.”
Jake takes my hand and kisses it, his soft lips warming my body, his eyes never wavering from mine, keeping them captive to his stare.
“Before tonight, Lil, I thought there was a limit to what I would do for you, but there isn’t, and there never was. Every chance I got, I crossed a line that put my sister is jeopardy. I just didn’t want to see it. I love you, Lily. I love you so fucking much it hurts to be away from you.”
I dive into Jake’s arms and wrap my body around him, hanging on for dear life. “I love you, Jake,” I say fiercely. I kiss his neck and promise, “We’re in this together now, and tomorrow, we get your sister back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
On our way.
Jake
I’m showered and dressed before the sun comes up, not that I went to bed. After escorting motherfucking Peter out of the house, beating his face, which felt fucking good, and finally telling Lil the truth, I was too pumped to sleep. All night all I could think about was today’s possibilities; all the things that could go wrong and all the things that could go right. After five years, I may get my little sister back today. My family can be healed and made whole again.
Dickhead Peter was also on my mind more than I wanted; he’s lucky all he got was punches to his face. I can’t promise I won’t go after him later on, but for now, I need him alive and reporting back to Marco that everything went fine.
It could all blow up in my face, and he could go to Marco and then I would have ruined everything, but it would still be worth it. Sitting in my room last night knowing he was with Lily was burning me from the inside out. I don’t know how I ever made myself believe I could let anyone else touch her, hurt her.
When I saw him arrive and her bedroom door close, I was pacing. My mind and body at war within me. Then all of a sudden, I just stopped and listened to my heart. It screamed, she is MINE. I knew the risk I was taking, and it was huge. But I had to take it. Losing Lily isn’t an option.
I charged to her room to tear the fucker off her. When I saw him on her pulling her panties down her legs, my heart almost fucking exploded with rage. I wanted to kill him there and then, against that wall. The only thing that stopped me and pulled me back from the edge was seeing Lily lying there shocked, not frightened. Shocked the man had been pulled off her, and I was confused until I saw the damn fork stabbed into the mattress and the fire in her eyes. My girl is fucking amazing, a fighter till the end. If I ever doubted my feelings for her, seeing her on that bed, half-naked in a garter, ready to kill with a fork put me squarely back in the love category. Fuck, that memory makes my cock so fucking hard.
Staring out the window, feeling the warmth from the sun rising, I hear my phone beep. Pulling it out of my back pocket, I view the screen.
Nightfire, Ironviper, Redwolf in position. Awaiting orders.
Perfect. Today I will get my sister back and make Marco pay for everything he has done to my family and to Lily’s.
***
Lily
Awakened by small kisses gliding up my neck and over my jaw, I giggle, knowing it’s Jake. My eyes open and I encounter a smiling Jake looking down at me.
Wow, no secrets Jake is magnificent.
“I love your laugh, baby. I can’t wait to hear it every day for the rest of my life.”
My smile grows at his sweet words. He kisses me again, this time on my lips. It’s soft and passionate all at the same time. We break free of the kiss, both breathing heavily. Panic hits me, and my eyes widen. Quickly, I look over at the clock, throwing my head back in relief seeing it’s only seven am.
“Don’t worry, Lil, we have a few minutes. Now if we had hours, I would strip you bare and take you slowly, cherish every inch of your silky skin. Then you would never question how much I love you.”
I kiss Jake’s nose and say, “Save that amazing sex for when we are out of this nightmare.”
I scoot away and walk to the dresser while Jake plops down on the bed. I throw on a pair of jeans, white tank top and a black jacket I found in the closet last night. Jake observes me with an arched eyebrow. I shrug. “We can match,” I say with a smile.
Jake falls back to the bed and laughs out loud. I’m going to have to get used to that laugh. It’s so husky and it makes me want to jump him no matter where I am. The real possibility of getting out of here today obviously has us both in a great mood.
