Jack: The Rann Brothers Trilogy Book One: Social Rejects Syndicate
Page 10
“Don’t sit up. Rest,” She ordered, forcing him to lie back down. She could see the exhaustion and pain written all over his face. It made her heart hurt. She stroked the broken skin along his face, following the traces of ashes and bruises along his once stubbled features. It took all her might to fight back her tears.
Gloria came into the room when she heard them talking. “Well, good morning, Mr. Rann. Glad to see you’re awake. You gave me and your lady here quite the scare last night.” She stood above them.
“Sorry about that, Gloria, was not my intention to get into it with Ethan,” Jack laughed and winced when the pain hit him. He tried to sit up again and ended up leaning against the bottom of the couch.
“Just lay there and rest. You are going to need it,” Gloria chided. “I will go make some of that soup that Mirabelle likes so much, so we can start getting you back on your feet again. Now I have two of you to take care of.”
“Is she always like this?” Jack whispered
“Yeah, don’t bother trying to talk her out of it either. She won’t listen. I’ve spent the last day and a half listening to her tell me how I should be taking better care of myself.”
Jack smiled. “She’s right, you know?”
“Oh, and how would you know?” Mirabelle chided. “It’s not like you’ve been around much in the last five years.”
“But I want you to take the best care of yourself that you can. From here on out.”
Jack’s words took her aback for a moment. Why all of a sudden did he care how she lived?
“Jack—”
“Listen to me for a moment before you say anything else,” Jack said, trying to straighten up, wincing as he went. “I know what they did to you Mirry. I know about the rape. It makes me angry, angrier than I have ever been before. I have never felt this way about anyone in my life. Women to me have always been throwaways, something to be used and turned loose or dumped into the nearest trash bin. For some reason, Mirabelle, you have become something different.”
Mirabelle’s eyes teared up, but she said nothing, waiting for him to continue.
“Since the moment I met you, you haven’t left my side. You have never wavered in your support of me. Even when I went to prison, you never left. You could have, no one would have stopped you, but you stayed.”
“I wouldn’t have left you.”
“I don’t know why. I haven’t been the nicest to you, I haven’t even been faithful to you like you have been to me.”
“I—” Mirabelle stumbled to find the words before he cut her off by pulling her into his arms.
“It wasn’t until the other night when I almost lost you that I realized just how much you meant to me. And I promise, come what may, that I will do the best that I can to treat you like you deserve to be treated. No more of the bullshit that I’ve put you through in the past. I promise that I won’t let you down again. I am going to make sure that no one hurts you and makes you cry ever again. Including me.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she snuggled into his chest.
“I love you, Mirabelle. I always have,” Jack said softly into her hair as he kissed the top of her head, “and I always will.”
EPILOGUE
John
He sat on his back porch that overlooked the pool, sipping his tea while enjoying the mid-afternoon sun. It had been a rough couple of weeks, but he believed he had it all straightened out for now.
The cops had been snuffling around as they normally did. He had way too many conversations with them for his liking. Given all that went wrong, he didn’t want to continue talking with them, lest the other families think he was cooperating with them in some way.
For the most part, the Adams’ family had stayed on their side of the tracks and not started any more situations that would bring further heat to themselves or anyone else. It was a godsend in itself. After the show down at the pub, John had fully expected continued retaliation. However, he was surprised to find nothing but relative silence from the Adams family. It also made him wonder what was lurking in the shadows. Ethan had been sly enough to play a long game with the brothers and had almost succeeded in taking them down. Definitely not something John wanted to repeat. He would have to keep better watch over Ethan and his activities.
John took another long sip of his tea. He had to wonder how it had all come down to this? Their families had never been close, but they had always been, at the least, civil to each other. There had never been an all-out war between them in all the years. Yet one now loomed on the horizon.
The question was, would it destroy all the things each family had built? Or would they somehow find a way to live in harmony again?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allison Cosgrove was born and raised in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. A married mother of three daughters, she runs her own business by day and creates her own worlds by night. She enjoys spending time with her husband and daughters hiking in the woods or sitting by the fire reading a good book. She has had the love of reading and writing detective mysteries from the age of twelve but it has only been since the birth of her youngest that she has gotten serious about crafting some of her own works for others to enjoy. She credits her family and friends with being the driving force that has given her the strength to breathe life into her books.
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