His fingers laced with hers on either side of her head as his gaze tangled with hers and never left. Every emotion lay bare. All his love and every bit of fire were right there for her to see.
"I love you, Brianna Spencer," he chanted it over and over to the slow rhythm of his hips as they claimed her.
Because this was just as much a claiming as anything they had done the last night they were together.
That had been a claiming of her body.
This was a claiming of her soul. It was everything she had ever dreamed of and everything she had ever read about in those secret romance novels she kept on her ebook reader.
He drove them relentlessly higher until she broke and leaned up to capture his lips. Craving the dark taste of him. That simple act fractured his control and hurtled them both into oblivion.
He lay next to her panting, their fingers still linked as if neither wanted to let go for even a moment.
She shook one of her hands loose of his hold and cupped his cheek, turning him to face her. Every shield she had put up to protect her heart from this man lay in tattered pieces. His skin was hot and slick under her fingertips as she traced her thumb from the soft patch of his cheek over the hair-roughened piece of his jaw.
He rolled to his side, his hand landed on her waist. Giving him her heart was the scariest thing she had ever done, but giving him the words felt as if she were plunging over a cliff with nothing but jagged rocks at the bottom waiting to impale her.
She took the first step, knowing he would be there to catch her.
"I love you, Jackson McCord."
Chapter Seventeen
It took three weeks before Ray's doctor deemed him ready to travel and released him to another doctor in Alabama. The Fourth of July celebration felt more like a party with family than anything Brianna had been to for her parents. She enjoyed it so much that they agreed to come back next year.
Relief at finally being able to come home flowed into Brianna as she drove the last stretch of road home.
Christopher was gone. His passport had him leaving the states last week to parts unknown, and Brianna didn't care as long as he was out of her life for good. Based on what his parents said to Sheriff Brigston when he caught up to them between their travels, they claimed to have given Christopher a lump sum to leave, and he took it.
Just as Brianna carefully turned Ray's classic car, she had driven from Chicago, onto her gravel and dirt driveway, her cell rang. Pulling to the side, she clicked her handsfree before inching the car back on the horrible rock-infested drive that she hoped didn't ding his paint job. "Where are you two?" she asked.
"Had to make a pit stop, but we're about fifteen minutes behind you."
Jackson and Ray were in the moving truck that held items Ray didn't trust the moving company to handle. The more delicate breakables were in the car with Brianna. "Oh, shit," she whispered, but Jackson heard it.
"What?"
"Mother's here."
"Why is your mother there?"
Brianna's mouth was desert dry. "I've no idea. You don't think she really was involved with Christopher's kidnapping attempts, do you?"
Jackson growled. "Stay in the car. We'll be there soon."
Brianna shook off the fear and parked the car next to the barn. Sheriff Brigston had sworn her mother had nothing to do with Christopher. Bianca had been just as shocked as Brianna at the engagement announced in the paper. But again, that was based on Sheriff Brigston's account. Brianna hadn't seen or talked to her mother since before the contract officially ended.
She would trust her mother until Bianca gave Brianna a reason not to.
Bianca rocked gently in the rocking chair as if she didn't have a care in the world. Though as Brianna drew closer, she saw the nerves her mother tried to hide. The twisting fingers, the furrowed brow, and her teeth digging into her bottom lip.
Brianna approached her mother as she would a poisonous snake, slowly and carefully. Her eyes bounced around the area, searching for her father. When he didn't pop up, Brianna relaxed a bit and took the rocker next to her mother. "Hello, Mother."
Her mother smiled hesitantly. "Brianna."
Brianna's heart raced at hearing her name for the first time on her mother's lips without derision. But she tried to keep her emotions in check. Oh, she wanted to fall into her mother's arms and cry. She wanted to ask why it took her so long to see Brianna. She wanted to ask what made her try to kill Brianna.
"I see all the questions in your eyes, and I don't know if I can answer them." Bianca swiped a tongue across her bottom lip.
The statement jarred Brianna from her spiraling thoughts, and she focused on the immediate question. "Why are you here?" Her gaze scanned the area again. "Did Father come with you?"
"No, your father's not with me." Bianca ducked her head as her face became pinched with guilt. "I'm here to apologize."
Brianna slumped in the chair in shock. "Apologize?"
Her mother had never apologized.
"Your grandmother came to the house before she had her accident and demanded I get help." Bianca rubbed her temple. "I didn't want to before. I felt it was weak, and counselors, therapists, doctors … None helped me before."
"Before when Briony left?"
Bianca shook her head sharply, and her eyes bounced around the yard before landing on the horse and foal dancing around in the paddock. "No." Bianca took a deep breath as if fortifying herself. "I had several miscarriages before I became pregnant with you and Briony." Her right thumb rubbed along her left in a nervous habit Brianna knew well. "The pregnancy was hard. I was on bed rest from the second I knew I was pregnant and almost died during your birth."
"I didn't know that."
"No, I wouldn't expect you would have known. Your father did not like remembering it at all. He demanded I have a hysterectomy after the last miscarriage. Then he demanded I get an abortion when I conceived you and your sister." Her watery gaze clung to Brianna's. The pain in the blue eyes was like a living breathing entity that was eating her mother alive from the inside. "I could never have an abortion. I dreamed of a house filled with children. Not the mansion we have now but a smaller house." Bianca's shoulders lifted in a shrug. "It wasn't meant to be but at least I had you and Briony."
"Except you and Father didn't seem to want me."
"Never." Bianca all but shouted. "Sorry. It was never that. Your father hated you two because I almost died. He blamed that on you, which was ridiculous."
"And you?"
"I never blamed either of you. But the second I brought you two home, Briony cried. A lot. The only time she was quiet was in my or your father's arms. You were a happy baby—"
"So, because of that, I lost my parents?"
Bianca sighed. "It wasn't how I planned it. It just happened. You never seemed to need us. Whereas Briony always seemed to need us."
Brianna flinched at the stark statement. She wanted to shout that she'd been a child who had seen her parents constantly dote on her sister while she received the barest of crumbs. It wasn't her responsibility to cry and act out; it wasn't in her nature to do that. As she grew older, it would have been suicide to draw their attention away from Briony. She was always jealous of any perceived attention Brianna received from their parents.
"It's the reason, not an excuse, which is where the apology comes in. I should never have gotten so lost."
"Lost?" Brianna's hand went to her neck, and two tears trickled down her cheek.
"Jesus, I did that." Bianca slumped in defeat. "I quit taking my anti-depressants." She held up a hand. "I'm back on them now as well as a few other meds for my bipolar disorder. But I had quit taking them when I had you, girls, as I wanted to breastfeed. I just never got back in the habit. I would take one here and there, which when your sister disappeared did not help my psychotic break."
Brianna shivered. "I never knew."
"No, and your father should have helped me. Forced me to get help. Sat on me instead of instiga
ting that unholy contract and then sweeping everything under the rug." Bianca shook her head. "Or I should have been strong enough to do it on my own. I just never was until Evelynn put her foot down. It woke me up and showed me I lost both daughters, not just one, and that I needed to move past my grief and into acceptance. Which felt like I had failed yet again. As I was reminded of every child, I had lost up to Briony."
Brianna reached out tentatively, and her mother's hand wrapped tightly around hers. "I'm here, Mother, and I'm willing to try but not at the expense of me. And definitely not if you're pushing me at Christopher. I love Jackson. We're building a future."
Her mother smiled. "I see that." Then the smile slid from her face. "As for Christopher … I explained to the sheriff, I never signed off on that engagement announcement. I wouldn't do that. Though your father thinks the two of you would be a good fit."
Brianna fell back. "What? Why would he think that?"
Biance met Brianna's gaze. There was no artifice, no walls, only what she believed to be true. "When your father and I met with him, your father pulled him aside, and Christopher told him he had fallen for you."
"But you didn't believe him?"
"I did at first, but there was just something that niggled at me. When I heard your father talking to Christopher about the merger, I realized it had more to do with money than you." She rubbed her palms over her skirt. The tailored lavender suit so out of place on Brianna's farm.
"What convinced you?"
She flinched as if a memory assaulted her. "The grocery store." Her gaze tangled with Brianna's. "When Christopher tried to abduct you. I knew it had to do with money for a fact then. He came to your father after and confronted him. I was walking past the study and heard Christopher tell your father that the kidnapping failed, and he wanted the money he was promised."
"Money he was promised? What's that mean?"
"I don't know. We live on what your father earns from investments. His trust and all other earnings go through Evelynn now after your father almost lost it all. So she has to sign off on anything large."
Ice flowed into her veins. Reginald Spencer was a proud man, he would not appreciate his mother looking over his shoulder no matter the reason. Goosebumps broke over Brianna's skin as she realized she was her grandmother's proxy until Evelynn was coherent. She still slept a lot, and when she was awake, she couldn't carry a thought for long.
The doctors thought the disorientation would clear up with time. But until then, Brianna was the one standing between Reginald and whatever it was he, and Christopher wanted. She tuned back into her mother's rambling explanation of Christopher justifying why he pursued Brianna.
"You weren't acting like Briony at all. Not that you ever did now that I look back, but Christopher kept saying how he needed to prove to Briony how much he loved her … " her mother trailed off as if caught in that memory.
"And because I stood up to him and said no to dating—"
"That you weren't Briony. It proved to me that Christopher's advances were not just unwelcome but repugnant."
"And me having Jackson around—"
She waved those words away. "Briony was constantly using other men to make Christopher jealous."
"Good point." Her sister slept with pretty much anything that moved, but so did Christopher. Most times, neither seemed jealous, but every once in a while, one or the other would have a raving fit about it.
Brianna didn't know what triggered them and never wanted to find out. Especially, since she didn't want to call attention to herself with their drama.
"Then, after your grandmother's accident … "
"Do you know what happened?" Brianna leaned toward her mother, hoping it wasn't Reginald that had been behind Grandmother's accident.
Her mother's eyes bounced around the entire area before leaning toward Brianna and with a whisper, said, "It was Christopher. He made a comment to Reginald that he'd taken care of Evelynn. They just needed you to fall in line."
"Jesus, Mother, you need to go to the police." Brianna shivered as she realized if Christopher ever discovered her mother had heard that he would come for her. He didn't have a moral compass. His only compass was whatever benefited himself. And it seemed her father was falling into that dark gray moral area too.
"Well, well, isn't this cozy," Christopher stepped from the side of the house.
The saying 'speak of the devil … ' popped into Brianna's head as she jumped to her feet and met his cold, dead eyes. The gun in his hand stopped her from bolting as her feet became glued to the spot.
"Two little birds with one stone." He waggled the gun back and forth his lips twisted into a feral smile. "Or one bullet if we want to be literal."
Straightening her shoulders, Brianna tried not to check her phone for the time. Jackson would be there any second. He promised he wouldn't leave her unprotected ever again, which meant Brianna needed to stall. "What do you want, Christopher?"
Though the gun trained on her made her feel exposed and vulnerable. Cold slithered down her spine at the thought of him pulling the trigger.
He grinned. "So pleasant to me now that I have the power. I want you to sign these papers, " he placed a folder on the edge of the porch. "Now, that you have Evelynn's Power of Attorney, I'll be able to have what I wanted from the beginning."
Brianna almost screamed, 'Hell, no!' But bit her cheek to keep the words in. She was not signing another contract without Jackson backing her up and definitely not one that this asshole concocted.
"Sign the contract, Brianna!" Red flushed his face as it morphed into a mask of rage.
Not spotting Jackson yet, she bent and scooped up the folder, and his pleasant demeanor returned along with the ugly smile. "Good girl."
Bianca was a silent presence behind Brianna. Someone she didn't know if she could trust. Had her mother brought Christopher here? Had the apology been a lie to keep Brianna on the porch? With a shaking hand, she flipped open the file, but the contract blurred into nonsense when she tried to focus on it. "I need a pen."
* * * *
Jackson and Ray made their way up the drive. Jackson hadn't wanted to give Bianca too much time with Brianna, but Ray convinced him barreling up the drive like a madman wasn't a good idea either. And as he had already fucked up with his apology to Brianna, he thought he would listen to his father this once.
Racy clapped him on the shoulder. "Buck up, Son, we're almost there. I just think we need to give them a bit of time to talk. If Bianca has upset Brianna, then I'll apologize to the both of you. Still, I think we need to give mother and daughter a chance to talk and hopefully find their own way back to each other."
Jackson kicked the biggest rock in his path, and it skittered ahead. "You're right. I don't like it, but you're right."
When the house came into view, Jackson's blood ran cold, and he stopped. Grabbing his father by the bicep, he pressed a finger to his lips. He gestured with his chin toward the barn. They inched around the barn, and Jackson unholstered his gun. The cold grip quickly warmed in his sweaty palm as he drew it.
"Jackson, what's going on?"
"That's Christopher, and he has a gun."
"Shit." Ray glanced down at Jackson's gun. "Do you need me to disarm him? Or I can take your gun to cover you while you go in."
Jackson saw the gun tremble in his hand and closed his eyes, working to find his center. When he opened them, he was staring into his dad's worried brown gaze. "I'm fine." They both looked at his hand. He was glad it had stopped shaking. "I've been seeing a counselor about what all happened in Chicago. She's helped me a lot. And after the incident where Christopher was escorted out of that garden party, I started going to the gun range." Squaring his shoulders, he raised his chin. "I can do this, Dad."
Ray's gaze bore into him a few more seconds before he tipped his chin. "I'm proud of you, son." Ray glanced back to Brianna. "What do you need me to do?"
"Call Brigston and tell him to get his ass out here." Jackson stepped
free of the barn, his gun held in front of him.
Before he could command Christopher to put the gun down, Brianna's face morphed from terror to rage as she stepped toward Christopher. "You could have killed her, you bastard!" She threw a folder and papers fluttered through the air.
Jackson ran for Brianna when Christopher raised the gun and pulled the trigger. Jackson's training went out the window as he dropped to his knee, took aim, and shot Christopher in the shoulder.
The second he pulled the trigger, Jackson flashed back to Chase being shot, and the same helpless feeling flooded into him. It kept him on his knees for precious seconds as he struggled to remain in the present and not go back to that damned warehouse.
When he saw Brianna fall from the corner of his eye, it broke him free, and he rose to unsteady feet. Then Christopher grabbed his shoulder and turned as if to flee. The movement spurred Jackson into action.
Never taking his gaze from Christopher, Jackson raced to the man, flipped him to the ground and slapped restraints on him all as Christopher screamed in pain.
His heart pounded now that the threat had been neutralized, Jackson swung toward the porch, terrified of seeing Brianna's lifeless body. He didn't know if he would ever recover from that image.
But it wasn't Brianna who had been shot. Instead, Bianca was lying on the porch with Brianna half-naked, her shirt pressed to her mother's torso.
Brianna shivered in shock, chanting over and over. "Please, don't die, Mom."
* * * *
Icy numbness wrapped around her. Brianna couldn't believe Mother stepped in front of that bullet. She shouldn't have lost her temper. Shouldn't have pushed Christopher. But hearing him brag about cutting the brakes on her grandmother's cars had enraged Brianna.
She hadn't thought as she had thrown the folder at him. Then her mother was shoving her back as Christopher pulled that damned trigger. Her teeth chattered; she was freezing from the inside out. Something warm enveloped her, and she pulled it closer while emergency personnel flitted from place to place.
The Twin Contract (The Contract Series Book 1) Page 30
