Dawn of Forever (Jack & Jill #3) (8 page)

“You know what I mean. It’s just an expression.”

“It’s really not.” He sipped a spoonful of soup.

“Why can’t you let her go yet?” Lake tapped her spoon on the edge of her bowl.
Tap. Tap. Tap
. Waiting for Luke’s answer.

“I guess I still can’t believe she’s gone. There’s a certain amount of closure that comes from seeing the body. We never got to see her body.”

“I know what you mean. When I came out of my coma to the news of both Ben and Jessica’s deaths, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It’s like you spend the rest of your life waiting for that last goodbye.”

Luke never said goodbye. He didn’t want to say goodbye, and he didn’t care that God gave him 84,600 seconds in a day—he didn’t want to say thank you for taking her away.

Jessica. Period.

Luke wanted his life back.

“What happened with Charlie in Houston was terrible on my part. I like her … a lot.”

“But she’s not Jessica.”

Luke nodded.

“So you’re just going to spend the rest of your life pining after someone you can never be with?”

He shrugged. “For now. I didn’t get to marry her, but my heart is still married to the memories I have of her.”

“Luke I’m—”

“Don’t. It’s not your fault.”

“My accident was on the morning of your wedding day.”

Luke reached across the table, squeezing her hand. “And when Jessica found out, she ran to find me, ripped off her veil, and drove me to the hospital.”

Lake blinked back her tears. “I miss her too, ya know? But I also miss my brother. I miss the man you were with her. She made you normal.” Lake smiled.

Luke chuckled. No one in his family ever knew Jessica’s whole story. Despite the irony in his sister’s statement, she was right. He found the best possible version of himself with Jessica. She gave him a life.

A life he wanted back.

*

The vibrating buzz
of Luke’s burner phone brought him out of a light sleep a few minutes shy of midnight.

“What did you find?”

Gabe chuckled. “Not how much of your money did I have to spend?”

“Fuck the money. Tell me.”

“I saw the tapes, man. You were right. My God … it was her.”

“No shit. The room, Gabe. Whose name was on the room?”

“An Aric J. Monaghan. Omaha, Nebraska address.”

“Message it to me.”

“You can’t go. You said it yourself. It’s not safe.”

“Well I can’t not go. She’s there. I have to—”

“I’ll go. You stay put. I’ll get a flight out in the morning. Kelly thinks I’m going to be gone for another couple days anyway. Don’t be stupid and risk yourself or your family. Nobody will be looking for me. Besides, if she’s with some other guy, I’m not sure you showing up unannounced is the best idea. In fact, if she’s with some other guy, I’m not sure why you’re even pursuing this.”

The muscles in his jaw twitched as he clenched his teeth. “Just send me the address.”

“I just told you—”

“I’m not going anywhere, but if your wife doesn’t know where you are going, I think I should.”

“Good point. I’ll send it and call you when I know more.”

“Gabe?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Knight

H
eld hostage in
a constant groggy state, the lines between Jillian’s dreams and reality blurred. Time became indistinguishable. Had she been there days or weeks?

“Good morning, sunshine. I’m done running my errands, so I eased up on your sedative. Your food is attracting maggots. That’s not going to taste good when you eat it. And believe me … you
will
eat it.”

“Go to hell.” The words scraped across Jillian’s throat like sandpaper.

“You first.” Psycho bitch cackled.

She peeled her eyes open. A shiver erupted in bumps along her skin, a welcome contrast to the oven.

“What the fuck?”

“I thought the zip ties were poetic given our location, but I had a devil of a time trying to get the IV in with your hands tied behind your back. Or are you questioning what’s beneath your bare ass? That would be your own piss. Now
that
I’m sure brings back memories, huh? Freaky, isn’t it? G.A.I.L. insisted on knowing everything about your kidnapping. They needed every little detail to assess your mental state. It didn’t take long for them to conclude your psyche was irreversibly damaged.”

The duct tape securing her arms to her body didn’t allow an inch of movement. A mottling of bruises covered her forearm from her elbow to her wrist. In the middle, an impaled IV needle was taped in place.

“Your whole I-don’t-care-if-I-die attitude is not acceptable. You don’t have to eat
yet
, but I can’t have you dying of dehydration before the fun even begins. Getting the IV and saline was the easy part. Following the YouTube instructions for inserting it … not as easy. No worries. I swabbed your skin good with alcohol. Or did I? Hmm … I just can’t remember. But let’s face it. The puncture wound on your shoulder and the nasty cut on your hand aren’t looking too good right now, so I highly doubt my little IV experiment will make much of a difference at this point.”

Psycho bitch maintained her usual spot in her chair under a lone hanging light bulb, wearing a wicked grin matched only by Satan himself. The gleam in her eyes expressed her pleasure as Jillian glanced up to take notice of her—specifically what she wore.

“You like?” Her smile grew, exposing her crooked teeth.

Jillian focused on that instead of her military fatigues and boots—big, repeated-blows-to-the-ribs boots.

“It’s funny how you fooled everyone into thinking you were cured—normal. Your near-wedding nuptials had everyone fooled. Jessica Day found love and was going to live happily ever after with her Prince Charming. But the second you became Jillian Knight, your true personality came out again. How do you explain your fascination with fucking your neighbor? And not just any neighbor. Sergeant Monaghan. Was it the camouflage? The boots? Or just your need to be a total whore again? Because that’s what you are. Like mother like daughter.”

It didn’t take long to figure out her game. Psycho Bitch had no intention of physically torturing Jillian. It was all about the mind games. The ache in her heart from the mention of both Luke and AJ had to be ignored. Jillian knew her captor waited for her to break. She would wait a long time. The memories of Luke and AJ only made her stronger.

“Who was your husband?”

She sighed. “We’ll get to that before too much longer. He’ll be joining us. Then we can really get all the details.” Fake-nailed fingers combed through her red, wet hair.

She showered while Jillian slept in her own piss. That alone set her apart from Four. He didn’t shower. Drugs. Alcohol. Cutting. That was it.

“I haven’t decided on all the party guests quite yet. You, of course, are the guest of honor. Jackson should join us too. Don’t you think? Maybe I can have a piano hauled down here and he can play the Doomsday music. After I fuck him, of course. He is unquestionably the best sex I’ve ever had. Your brother knows what he’s doing.” Another cackle escaped her lips that were too big for her face. “The crazy part is he didn’t even know who I was when he fucked me against the locked bathroom door of the club.”

An inward grimace tugged at Jillian’s stomach that was already eating itself alive. She hated the reminder of Jude and his past. A past she never fully understood. Jessica had an explanation for her behavior. Jude never did, or so she always assumed.

“This has really turned into a family affair, hasn’t it? You, Sunny, and my husband. Jackson and I. Maybe I should have gone after your father too. He would have been a harder sell because he actually loved your mom. I think. It’s hard to say. I mean … the man married a woman who was in love with another man. He had to know she didn’t love him. Then again, she was pregnant with his babies. I guess he thought she’d eventually love him the way he loved her.”

The tape cut into Jillian’s skin as she tugged against it. Psycho Bitch would die for saying that to her. A lie. It had to be a lie. The foundation for which she had worked so hard to build her sanity, her life with Luke, was the desire to find a love like her parents’. The devil before her kept crashing into that foundation, leaving Jillian on the edge of collapsing.

“I’m getting ahead of myself. We’ll finish that later. Now where was I?” She tapped her fake nail on her lip. “Oh, yes, Luke. I think he should definitely join us. I heard he and Agent McGraw had quite the run-in after your brief reunion in Houston.”

“You’re going to die. I will sacrifice my own life to make it happen. But I swear to God if you lay a finger on Luke, I will kill you so fucking slowly you’ll regret the first breath you ever took.”

“Ha! That’s … wow. Please don’t swear to God. Not until you’ve repented your sins.”

She wasn’t without a few cracks of her own. Jillian could almost feel the race of her captor’s pulse. As much as she tried to wield her intelligence as the ultimate weapon, Jillian made her nervous. No amount of intelligence could overcome fear.

“I’m going to cut off your lying tongue and make you swallow it. Then I’m going to carve every Bible quote you sent me into your skin. If
you
repent, I’ll show mercy and cut your heart out first. If you don’t, I’ll dissect your body, leaving your heart for last.”

Psycho Bitch cleared her throat, breaking eye contact first. “I think I gave you too much sedative. It’s messing with your perception of reality. One of us is restrained with duct tape the other is not.”

“Then you’d better kill me before I show you my Houdini trick.”

“I think we’re done talking.” Psycho Bitch stood, fists clenched a moment before snatching a syringe off the table and charging towards Jillian. Her hands fumbled the cap, each breath shallow and labored.

“You can’t even look me in the eye. I don’t think you have what it takes to kill someone.”

The jittery, wheezing woman paused. The syringe tip just millimeters away from the IV line.

The mouse inched closer to the trap. “I can and
will
kill—FUCK!” Blood flowed like striking oil as her captor covered her broken nose, tumbling backward on to her butt.

Jillian dismissed the instant headache she gave herself and the blood trickling down to her own nose and into the corner of her eye. The satisfaction of seeing the bitch curled up on her side, moaning like a woman in labor, was worth it.

“I’ve dealt with broken noses before. Why don’t you let me take a look,
sweetie
?”

A growl interrupted the moaning as she glared at Jillian over the hand covering her nose. Staggering to her feet, she stumbled hunch-backed to a table and grabbed something off it before heading toward the stairs.

The familiar puffing sound followed by the slow exhale was the last thing Jillian heard before the slam of a door. An inhaler. That’s what she grabbed from the table. Psycho Bitch had asthma.

Luke was right. Monsters were weak. Survivors were strong. Jillian was a survivor.

Day

“W
e’re not inviting
Cathy to the wedding.” Jessica shot her mom a warning glare over the kitchen table as they narrowed down the guest list.

“Jessica Mauve Day, she’s my best friend. Of course she’s invited.”

“Your best friend is a cheater. I can’t believe you’ve sided with her. Daniel is the perfect guy. Who cheats on perfection?”

“I thought I was the perfect guy.” Luke surprised her from behind, kissing the top of her head. “Good morning. It’s Saturday. Why is my bride-to-be and her lovely mother not at Samovar?” Luke ruffled Jones’s ears on his way to the coffee pot.

“You are the perfect guy … for me. You’d like Daniel, babe. He’s a middle-school guidance counselor and track coach. Incredibly nice guy. And Saturday tea has officially been relocated to here until the wedding because we need more space. Your mom and sisters are coming next weekend to get fitted for their dresses. Have you taken Jones to your tailor yet to get fitted for his tux?”

Luke narrowed his eyes over the rim of his coffee cup. Jessica bit her lips together.

“My mom’s going to knit him some argyle socks too.”

Sunny looked at Luke then rolled her eyes. They never forgot the shitty dog incident at Kelly and Gabe’s wedding. Jessica didn’t want to deal with Jones on their wedding day any more than Luke did. She just enjoyed his reaction to the possibility.

“Jones is not going to be at your wedding, but Cathy is.” Sunny grabbed the list and wrote Cathy’s name next to the scribbled area where Jessica had crossed her off the list.

“She’s not—”

“What if I had an affair? Would you never forgive me and ban me from your wedding?”

Jessica’s head jerked back. “Why would you even say such a thing?”

Luke raised his eyebrows, leaning against the counter in his navy pajama pants, no shirt. He seemed to enjoy the show.

“Because I didn’t raise you to be this way. I’ve never seen you be so unforgiving … so judgmental. You’re getting ready to marry the man of your dreams. You’re a few months from happily ever after and you’re letting Cathy’s affair eat at you. I just don’t understand why. She fell in love with another man. She didn’t kill—” Sunny slapped a hand over her mouth as her eyes filled with regret. “Oh, God. I’m sorry, sweetie.”