The Other Sister (Sister Series, #1) (8 page)

Lindsey hung up her phone. She had a rare look of disgust on her face, marring her usually serene features. Now that Will was regularly working around the general’s office, he ran into Lindsey whenever she came to visit her father. One day, they began talking, and she asked him if he wanted to continue their conversation over dinner. He agreed, making sure to keep it casual and friendly. He insisted he was
not
on a date with the general’s daughter. They were just having a nice time. They had things in common and shared experiences, besides their love for the military. She had a fascinating perspective as the general’s beloved daughter. She and Jessie talked about Travis Bains as if they were discussing two separate men, night and day in their points of view. But, of course, Jessie had to call and ruin the easy flow of the evening. Just hearing her voice soured Will’s stomach. Jessie didn’t sound right. She sounded desperate, for Lindsey to talk to her, or anyone else. He knew exactly why she needed to talk to someone. She was reaching out to Lindsey about Mexico, which was a huge breakthrough for Jessie. But Lindsey didn’t know that. And Will didn’t know how to convey what he knew to Lindsey without giving it away.

“Everything okay?”

Lindsey rolled her eyes. “My sister, as usual. Nothing is ever okay with her.”

“Maybe you should take her call. Hear her out.”

“Hear what out? Her latest escapade? After the sex tape, I decided I was done. You know the tape. Please, don’t tell me you haven’t seen it. Everyone else has. She ruined the honor and dignity of my father, me, and the entire uniform more times than I can count.”

He waited a beat. “Maybe it has to do with her kidnapping. It must be messing with her head.”

“Nothing messes with Jessie’s head, other than whatever trouble she can create, or what attention she can grab. Jessie doesn’t care what I’m doing. So what if she needs me? Jessie cares only about herself. At least, you aren’t getting sucked into her games like most men.”

“She’s young, maybe she just needs to mature.”

“She slept with my boyfriend when she was sixteen. There is nothing Jessie hasn’t done to me. So forgive me if I don’t feel like listening to another of her escapades.”

He kept quiet. Nothing she said came as much of a shock. He knew Jessie’s history, a lot of it anyway. Still, nothing invalidated what she had to be going through, and how much she needed someone. Anyone. Especially her sister.

But after listening to Lindsey, Will didn’t blame her either. Jessie slept with Lindsey’s boyfriend? Jessie cried wolf so many times, when she really was in trouble, no one believed her. No one cared.

“Let’s forget about her and order dinner.” Lindsey held up the menu to end the discussion.

“Yeah. Sure. You’re right.” Will acceded, wishing his appetite hadn’t vanished.

Will was in the midst of a discussion, and his eyes roamed around the restaurant when he suddenly stopped talking, and lost track of his thought. Approaching them was Jessie.
Damn it.
She looked like a whore. Her hair was teased and obnoxious, her makeup caked on, black mascara rings around her eyes, all smudged and running down her cheeks. Her outfit was pretty bad too: tank top, bra half visible, skirt hiked up to the tops of her thighs. Will scooted his chair back. What could she possibly be up to?

“Well, if it isn’t my sister and Will having a cozy dinner.”

Will stood as Lindsey turned. Her eyes widened as she took in her little sister’s get-up: four-inch heels, bare legs, hiked-up skirt, and messed up, twisted shirt and bra. She didn’t put it on correctly. And Jessie stunk. Like alcohol. Like smoke. Like sex.

Lindsey jumped up. “
Oh my God! Jessie?”

“I thought you didn’t date the general’s daughters? Or did you just mean me? I wouldn’t waste your time with her, soldier, she won’t do anything you ask. She’s still a virgin. Can you believe that? A virgin. You want something? Everyone knows I’m the sister to go to. Ask Fred Stryker, he’ll tell you.”

Lindsey’s face turned color, and she shut her eyes. Jessie was vicious. Fred Stryker must be the former boyfriend Jessie slept with.

“How could you?” Lindsey said quietly, unlike Jessie’s loud voice. Her face was crestfallen. Her dignity, class, and beauty in stark contrast to Jessie’s crassness.

“How can I? I don’t withhold my pussy like it’s a precious gift to bestow on only deserving gentleman. I open my legs and let them—”

“Stop talking
, Jessie.”

She turned to Will. “Jessie is it? Finally, I’m Jessie? Not Ms. Bains? Interesting what prompts you to admit you know me.”

“You’re disgusting, Jessie,” Lindsey said softly. “And you’re drunk.”

“Possibly. You were always the most
uncool one in any room.” Jessie moved, tripping on a chair, and fell to her knees. Her skirt hiked up even higher, and her spread legs revealed she wore nothing underneath. Lindsey sat back down, lowering her head into her hands. “Oh my God.”

Jessie got to her feet in an awkward climb onto her knees, then up. Her purse was open before her. Inside, and very visible, were her panties hanging out. People around them stopped talking and began staring, uttering several audible gasps. Lindsey’s eyes met Will’s, and she shook her head, looking stricken.

“She ever tell you—”

“That’s it. Enough.” Will grabbed Jessie’s arm before marching her away from her sister. Over his shoulder, he said to Lindsey, “I’m taking her home. I’ll call you later.”

Lindsey nodded, tears in her eyes as she turned away from her sister.

Will pulled Jessie by her arm, nearly dragging her. She stumbled and teetered on her stupid heels since she was too uncoordinated to walk in them. Once outside the restaurant, he led her around the corner of the building to privacy, and gave her
a shove.

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What’s the matter, soldier? What? You want a ride?”

“I wouldn’t touch you if you put a gun to my head right now.”

She stopped, and her eyes came up to his. “You don’t mean that.”

“I mean it. How could you do that to your sister?”

“She wouldn’t take my call.”

“She wouldn’t take your call?”

Jessie sensed his underlying tone. Her shoulders suddenly slouched as she hunched them and dropped her head. Did she even have a clue how pathetic that excuse was?

“Maybe you shouldn’t have slept with her boyfriend, or called her after getting arrested, or every other thing you’ve done to her. Maybe then, she might have taken your calls.”

“That’s right, because Lindsey’s always the victim.”

Will stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest. Jessie dropped her gaze to her feet. Her stupid outfit and garish makeup made her look pathetic and slutty, but all they did for Will was remind him of things only he knew.
The why behind Jessie’s behavior.
He took his jacket off and held it out to her. “Put this on.”

She took it and slipped it on. Her shoulders slumped in it. “Why were you on a date with her?”

Will sighed. “Let’s not talk about Lindsey. I’m taking you home.”

He led her to his truck and unlocked it
, then he opened the door and waited until she was settled in before slamming it shut. She huddled against the door, her head cradled in her hands. The truck was very dark since the parking lot was in the shadows of buildings. Only a few seconds later, she was crying until her shoulders shook. He remained quiet for a long while as she cried. Will just stared out the windshield and waited her out. He waited for her explanation of what set her off tonight.

“I had sex tonight,” she whispered, leaning her head into her knees.

He closed his eyes. Really, what should he say to this girl? “Why, Jessie?”

“I thought it would help. I thought if I could just replace the bad memories with new ones, new sex, sex with whom I chose, I thought it would help.”

“And it didn’t.”
Really? No shit
. He bit down on his tongue to avoid pointing out the obvious. Did she really think that would help her?

She shook her head back and forth, her face still buried in her hands. “It was awful. It was cold, and mean, and gross. It was outside, against a brick wall. He finished, released me, zipped his pants, and walked off.”

“Did you ask him to do that to you against a wall?”

She shrugged her small shoulders. She looked so young, and clueless sitting in his truck. Something stirred in him, something sad and protective. She was such a mess. She did stupid things that he believed only drew attention to how bad off she was emotionally. No one else, however, made the correlation.

“I led him there. I—yes, I told him to do it.”

“Who was he?”

“Some soldier on leave, fresh out of boot camp, judging by his haircut. He was looking for exactly what I gave him.”

He understood. Didn’t he blow off steam in many a bar during his years in the military? Didn’t he have anonymous sex? One-night stands? Still, looking into the face of one of the girls who was used to do it made his gut twist. He didn’t know the anonymous face would end up looking like
her:
Jessie. She looked about twelve, a little girl playing dress-up who got caught in a situation she didn’t understand. Rings of mascara smudged her eyes, and trailed over her cheeks.

“Why do you do these things?” he asked finally, but gently.

“I don’t know.”

“You can’t blame Lindsey for being angry with you. You do these things to her, and she doesn’t know why. I don’t know why either, other than, I suspect there’s more to your behavior than even I know.”

“Why can you see that and my own sister can’t?”

“Why don’t you tell her?”

“I can’t. You don’t understand. You see all that’s good and kind and wonderful about her, and I’m not like her.”

“What do you want from me? Obviously, tonight was about me being with your sister. You don’t want to talk about Mexico with me. You won’t get help. What do you want to do about it? Do you plan to keep repeating more versions of this last miserable performance?”

She shook her head. He wait
ed. Finally, she raised her eyes to his. “I just… I haven’t slept in days. I can’t eat. I can’t function. I just think about it all day long, and then I lie scared all night. I never feel safe. It’s never quiet in my head. And sometimes, it makes me feel like I need to crawl out of my skin, but I can’t. I don’t know what to do.”

“And razor blades? Do you find that helps you get out of your skin?”

She didn’t answer, but nodded her head yes.

“Are you considering suicide? Is that what you want me to see?”

“No. I don’t want to die. It’s not about that. I want to live. But without all these feelings. I just don’t know how.”

“I’m not the one to help you. I’m a soldier, and that’s it. I’m not sensitive, kind, or caring. I don’t even know what to say to you. I don’t know how to help you, but I do know you need to find somebody who can.”

She closed her eyes, then glanced over at him. Her eyes were big, with an expression of such need and longing, it made him shift in his seat. He thought she was looking at him like she ought to be looking at her own father. Her need for answers, trust, caring, and protection should come from the general. Yet, she was pleading with him to help her. He was nothing to her, nor was he at all willing to be.

“You’re different th
an other soldiers. Believe me, I know.”

He was only different because he rescued her. He understood that much, even if she didn’t.
He believed she was having a serious case of hero worship towards him, thinking that because he helped her escape her horror, he was now privy to understanding her, and must care about her. He was merely a figurehead. Whoever was chosen to rescue her, would have become the same in her eyes.

“I’m not. I’m not different. You think I am the one person who understands you. You just need to tell someone else, so they can understand.”

She shifted her body, her Band-Aid of a skirt sliding higher up her thighs. He looked away.

“He knows.”

“Who knows?”

“The general. He thinks you didn’t see any of it.”

Will let that information sink in, before he finally asked, “And?”

“And what?”

“What’s he going to do about it? What did he say?”

“Nothing. Nothing happened. I’m fine. There’s nothing we can do to change it, so I have to be fine.”

“That’s what he told you to do? Pretend it didn’t happen? Did you tell him everything?”

“I told him enough.”

Jesus Christ,
she told her father she was brutally raped and tortured, and her father ordered her to pretend she was fine? So this was Jessie doing fine. It was also why Jessie was doing so terribly. “When did you tell him?”

“A week before that stupid dinner, in honor of you, but really, it was in honor of him. He’s drawn so much publicity from this, and he’s thrilled about that. I finally did something right for him. It only cost me my soul.”

He couldn’t fathom the general he knew, the upstanding, beloved leader of soldiers, being the cold, calculating, cruel man Jessie claimed he was. He had a hard time believing her. She could easily be a pathological liar. Especially after the actions he’d seen. He’d been hearing about her for years. Why should he believe her now?

Then again, the way her family greeted her when she returned from hell was completely off and very weird.

“I can’t tell anyone. General’s orders. You going to tell me to talk now? You want me to go find help? No one else can ever know.”

“But you’re not fine.”

“No, I’m not fine,” she said softly. Tears fell from her eyes and streamed down her cheeks and into her mouth. If she were anyone else, he might have pulled her into his arms, but she wasn’t just anybody. She was Jessie Bains, the general’s problem daughter. Lindsey’s troubled sister. And she was too young, too unstable, and too easily riled up not to act out. There was no telling what she’d do to his career if she ever got as angry towards him as she had at Lindsey tonight.

Long moments passed as the tears streamed over her face. She finally curled into a ball, looked out his front windshield, and whispered, “I’m pregnant.”