1
Declan
The gun goes off,and the man’s head in front of me explodes. Blood and brain matter fly in every direction, but I couldn’t care less about those things. My eyes hone in on Jessa, as I watch, her shaking hands drop the gun almost immediately after, as if the weapon is going to burn a hole in her hand. Her doll-like features are a mask of terror and shock. If I didn’t know before that she had never shot someone, I would now. The guilt, the shame, it’s all but painted onto her face.
The guy’s body sags to the ground, a moment after the gun does. Part of me is angry that she didn’t listen to me, while the other part of me is grateful that she didn’t. I was prepared to die, but before this moment I didn’t expect it to be over this blue-eyed, blonde-haired woman. Of course she had to fucking save me, driving the knife of betrayal deeper into my flesh. I didn’t want to be indebted to her. I didn’t want anything more to do with her than sex, but she has weaseled her way under my skin with her soft whimpers, pleading eyes, and those pink lips. Fuck, they were my undoing.
“We need to go. There are more coming,” I hiss through my teeth, the bullet in my stomach burning deep inside my flesh. Exhaling a groan, I push myself up off the ground, surprised once more when Jessa starts moving toward me. She grabs onto my arm and tries to help me up, but I shrug her off. I don’t want to owe her anything more than I do.
“I don’t need your help,” I lie, watching as the sting of rejection takes over her features.
“Stop being stubborn and let me help you. I want to get out of here alive as much as you do,” She growls, and I huff out a harsh breath, letting her help me to my feet. I bite my tongue, stopping myself from telling her we wouldn’t be in this damn situation if we didn’t have to bring her to the fucking hospital.
Our whole fucking world got turned on its heads the moment we spotted her in her father’s mansion. I still remember the shock, the horror in her doll-like features when she saw us, when she tried to run. My cock was hard the second I saw her. The pain in my side pulls me from the memory, and I realize then that Jessa has her arm wrapped around me.
What the fuck is she doing?
I’ve got close to two hundred pounds on her, and not to mention my height. Still, she keeps her tiny arm wrapped around me, helping me with every step as we head down the alleyway, taking the corner just as I had instructed. Each step irritates my wound and sweat beads my brow by the time we make it to the next store entrance. I can feel the warm blood trickling down my skin, soaking through my clothes. I grit my teeth, wanting to pull the fucking bullet out myself.
“We’re going to hide out in the backroom of this store until Wes and Trey can come and get us,” I tell her as we sneak into the back. Thankfully no one seems to notice us, otherwise this would be another clusterfuck on top of the clusterfuck cake. I sit down on a crate behind a shelf, trying my best to remain hidden.
Once situated in a position that isn’t going to grate on every nerve ending in my body, I pull out my phone to send Trey a text message. Jessa sits down beside me, pressing her body against mine. Her small hands find my wound and she applies a gentle pressure to it.
“Stop acting like you give a fuck. I wouldn’t be shot if it wasn’t for you.” I cringe at the tone of my voice. My breaths are ragged and I know I’m being an asshole, but the truth is, I’m almost certain she was second-guessing herself, trying to decide if she should follow my orders or go out on her own. That’s the only logical reasoning for her being in that alleyway when she should’ve been here, safe, hidden.
“You also wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for me,” she sneers, her blue eyes wild as she presses her hand to the wound a little harder. Fuck.
“You think you could be a little gentler?” I hiss through my teeth.
“Do you think you could stop acting like you hate me?”
“Maybe if you were dead.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, pain flickers over her features. I’m caught between wanting to hurt her and wanting to comfort her. Every day that she’s alive I grow angrier, and yet the thought of her dying, it makes me furious. I’ve never felt so fucking conflicted about something in my life. I swallow down the stupid feelings and focus on the pain. The pain I can handle. Her angelic face looking up at me, not so much. Thankfully she doesn’t say anything else.
A few minutes later my phone vibrates in my hand. I look at the screen and read Trey’s message. “They’re almost here, we’ve got to move.”
To my annoyance she helps me up again, keeping her body close to mine as we make our way through the busy store without anyone paying us attention. We walk out the main entrance and a silver minivan stops right in front of us, damn near jumping the curb in the process. Trey opens the side door and I push Jessa inside before hopping in next to her, my side screaming at me with the movement.
“A minivan? Really? You couldn’t have stolen anything else?” I complain.
“I took the fastest and easiest thing available. It just so happened to be this killer minivan, so stop complaining about everything and concentrate on not bleeding out instead,” Wes yells at me from the driver’s seat.
We drive around until we’re absolutely certain no one is following us, then we head back home. I think about blindfolding Jessa but decide against it at the last second. It doesn’t matter, because we’re not letting her go.
No matter how I look at it, I don’t see it being any other way. She either dies or stays with us forever. We’ll keep her and she’ll be ours completely. Just thinking about it has my cock rock hard. She’ll be ours to do with as we please. To pleasure, to hurt.
I stare at her as she sits closest to the window, wondering if she’ll be able to handle watching us kill her father. Could this all work out the way my brothers and I want it to? Before taking her to the hospital, I didn’t think so, but watching her struggle for days, almost dying, I knew damn well that there was something deeper going on. Only then did I realize I couldn’t lose her, none of us could. It’s like I thought I could put a bullet right between her eyes and not feel anything, but seeing her in a bed barely clinging to this world. It changed me.
“How’s the side feel?” Trey asks. I can tell from the way he’s looking at me that he feels guilty.
Fucker should, this is his fault.
“Fine. The bullet didn’t hit anything major.” If it did, I would already be dead or at least unconscious. Instead I feel every bump in the road, and every turn Wes makes.
We pull into the parking garage a short while later. Wes helps me out of the van while Trey takes Jessa by the hand and ushers her to the elevator. I can see the resistance in each of her steps and when we get into the elevator, I can practically see the ulcer in her stomach forming from the stress.
I already know what’s going on inside that pretty little head of hers. She’s wondering if she’ll ever leave this place again. And the truth is, I don’t fucking know. Could we ever trust her enough to let her leave? Maybe go on a supply run with one of us? Right now, I can’t see it happening. It’s too much of a fucking risk, and again I’m reminded of my humanity. She sparks something in me, ignites a need I’ve long forgotten about. I want her in more than just my bed, but I want revenge too. Maybe killing her father will be enough for me? It will have to be, won’t it?
Wes and Trey won’t let me kill her, hurt her maybe, but kill her, no way. They’re too attached, their cocks too caught up in everything that she is.