JADEN (Jaded #3)

CHAPTER THREE-1

CHAPTER THREE

“Are you okay?”

I had the phone pressed to my ear when Corrigan answered. Before answering, I turned and skimmed the hallway. I needed to make sure there were no lurkers. When I saw it was empty, I shut my bedroom door and sighed. “If you were to guess?”

“I’m sorry, Sheldon.”

I sighed. A pounding headache was pressing against my temples, but f**k it. When I saw the room Beth had prepared for me, I laughed to myself in disbelief.

“What?”

“My dad’s girlfriend must be really scared of me.”

“What?”

I didn’t pay attention to how his voice had sharpened. I was too busy scanning the living area, with a sectional in one corner, positioned toward a wall that had a large flat screen television mounted from it. Beside the sectional were two patio doors, and I could see a large table and chairs set up out there. An impressive view of the lawns was beneath the patio, and then I turned toward the rest of my room. Behind the sectional was a king-sized bed, located on top of a platform. Two closet doors were on one side, and there was a hallway—a freaking hallway—that led to a bathroom. “s**t,” I muttered when I saw the tub. It was big enough for a three-person orgy to happen in there. Corrigan would crawl in with floaters and a snorkel. I had no doubt.

“What?”

I heard Corrigan’s question and remembered I was on the phone. “Huh?”

“You said ‘shit.’ What’s going on?”

“Oh. Nothing.” I plopped down on one of the couches. I could still see the lawns from where I sat and even got a glimpse of a fountain. Toeing off my sandals, I sunk down on the cushions and wished I could sleep, but I knew I couldn’t. I wasn’t even going to try right now. I said into the phone, “I was saying that my dad’s new girlfriend must be scared of me. The room she gave me is an apartment. For real.” I scanned the room again. “The only thing I don’t have is a kitchen, but hell, I bet she’s got a mini fridge stuck somewhere in this room. I have a freaking hallway in my room. Can you believe that?”

“Okay. Back up. Your dad?”

I sighed. That’s right. He had no idea so I told him everything. The surprise reappearance, how he posted my bail, the forest fortress, and the magical secretary/girlfriend that seemed too familiar around my dad for me to believe it was a new development. When I was done, Corrigan grunted. “s**t. I was going to brag that Denton, Bryce, and I all came together to storm the jail and demand your bail, but we got upstaged. I can’t beat that.”

All three of them were together? Right then? “Wait, you mean Bryce is there?” I suddenly felt a weight pressing down on my windpipe. A suffocating sensation was building within me.

“Yeah.” His voice softened. “You want to talk to him?”

I did. “No.” Later. I wasn’t ready right then and there. “Listen, I’m going to demand for you guys to come here.”

“I have a feeling your dad won’t be on the Corrigan and Bryce bandwagon. I don’t think it’ll be a go, unless you can reenact the drive there and give us directions? Then we’re all about that.”

A low growl started from my throat. He was right. I cursed under my breath.

Corrigan chuckled. “I know he liked Bryce, but that was a long time ago. And him stepping in and getting bail before we could, that has to mean something.”

And it did.

I found out an hour later when I was standing in his study and demanding my friends be given directions. I was met with a firm and final. “No.”

“Why not?” My arms were crossed so tight over my chest, my breasts felt constricted, but I couldn’t loosen them. I was holding myself back from lunging and putting him in a headlock, then trying to force the address out of him. It would’ve looked ridiculous, but it would’ve been fun at least.

My dad ran a hand down his face. The bags under his eyes seemed to have gotten bigger. “No, Sheldon. You’re here for your protection, too. People hate you. They want to hurt you, and anyone knows the quickest way to you is through them. They’ll follow them, and even though those boys love you, they’ll be bringing some haters right to your doorstep. I can’t allow that. I’ve been gone, but it was for your safety. I stepped in because I was forced to.”

I snorted in disbelief. “Your absence was for my safety? Are you growing weed somewhere in this fortress? That’d make more sense. Clue in, Father dear. I had a stalker who tried to kill my friends and me, and then s**t started happening again last year. I’ve never been safe.”

“This is different.”

“How?”

He shoved out of his chair and yelled, hitting the desk with his finger at the same time, “YOU’RE WANTED FOR MURDER!” He stopped, grimaced, and lowered his voice. “The entire nation hates you, Sheldon. Grace was a good girl. She was lost and hurting, and she wanted to be accepted—”

“She was accepted.” By me.

He kept going as if I hadn’t spoken, “—and the police have arrested you as the suspect. With your history, with everything you have done or has happened to you, it’s all being brought up. The media has already painted you as a spoiled rich bully. That’s what you are to them, and your attitude of f**k off is what they salivate over. You have dark hair. Grace had beautiful blond hair. Good and evil. That’s what the nation understands, and the media is handing it to them on a silver platter.”

“I need my family—”

“I am your family!”

“No, you’re not. You’re not. I don’t ever remember a time when you were. Bryce and Corrigan are my family, and I want them here.”

“They can’t come here—”

All the crap he’d been dishing at me fell on deaf ears. I wasn’t dumb. I knew how I was being painted, but he wasn’t going to win this one. This time, I leaned forward and hit the desk with my finger. This time I was the one who yelled at him, “THEN GET THEM HERE! You do it. You figure it out because if you don’t, I’m finding a way out of here, and I’ll hitchhike all the way back to the city, no matter what car picks me up.”

I swept out of there.

My blood was pumping; the old Sheldon was tearing at me from inside. The old me would’ve trashed the house, then got obliterated and had s*x. That wasn’t me anymore, but damn, gritting my teeth, I wanted to do some damage. My fingers curled into my palms, and I sunk my nails into my skin. I pushed them farther in and stood there, trying to calm myself down.

“Oh my god,” Beth gasped from behind me and then hurried around me. She disappeared down the hallway, but returned a moment later with towels. “Sheldon,” her tone turned cautious, “you are bleeding all over the floor. I need to look at your hands.”

I needed my family. Lifting haunted eyes to her, I said, “You’re not my family.”

“I know.” Her hand clenched tighter around the towels. “Can I look at your hands?”

I clipped my head to the side. “A lot of bad s**t has happened to me.”

“I know.”

She was speaking so softly to me, like a timid mouse, but for some reason I needed her to understand. I said, “I’m not crazy. I’m not horrible. I’m not a murderer. I can be a b***h, that’s it. People have always wanted to take me down, and I don’t let them. That’s what I’ve done. That’s my mistake, standing up for myself.” An inner voice laughed in my ear. ‘Yeah, right. You’ve done your own damage.’ I muttered, half to myself and half to Beth, “I need to find out who killed Grace. I can’t stay here; I’m trapped.”

As I was speaking, I was half aware of Beth kneeling at my feet. My hands were touched, then peeled back, and she pressed something into them. Pain sliced through, but I was barely mindful of it. It couldn’t cut through the other pain that was already in me. Nothing could quiet the need to avenge what had happened to me.

I was led to a room. Water was turned on, and I felt Beth starting to clean my hands. I let her, and I told her at the same time, “I need my family.”

She stopped and glanced up. “Your mother?”

“My family.” I gave her a hard look. “You heard me in there. You know who I mean. I need them, not some guy who hasn’t been around for years.”

Turning off the water, she held my hands over the sink to let them dry. “Your father may not agree with me sharing this with you, but he’s been away for a reason. He’s had his own troubles over the years and staying away was for your safety, Sheldon, but trust me when I tell you that he never stopped thinking about you.”

“He never cared before.” The memory of when he came home one night flashed back to me. I told him someone had broken into the house, and he only wanted to talk to Bryce, to catch up and see how he was doing. It’d been a slap to my face, but that was the reality. Neil checked out long ago. Now he was demanding to be let back in? A snort came from me. Beth paused hearing it, and I pulled my hands away from her.

The storm had quieted inside me, a tiny bit, but I knew it would come back. I wasn’t going to take this sitting back in a fortress. I knew that much.

Picking up some of the bandages she had laid out by the sink, I started to dress my own wounds. Beth moved back. I felt her gaze, watching me, and just kept doing it. I didn’t stop until both of my hands had ointment applied to them and were wrapped up. When I was done, I glanced at her again.

There was a different look in her eyes. I didn’t know it, and I didn’t care to guess, but I murmured, “Please bring my family here.”

With that said, I went to my room and a standoff commenced next.

A day went by. Nothing. They wanted me to meet with my lawyers so I refused. The longer he held back what I wanted, the longer I’d do the same to my father. My father would knock on my door with demands. I needed to be updated about my case. There were things going on, and I needed to know, but I refused everything. I didn’t want to lash out like the old Sheldon. I’d been through too much crap to know better. I was more mature, dammit, but instead, I had to fight back in a different manner. I went the Gandhi route.

A second day went by. Still nothing, so I stopped going to meals with Neil and Beth. The few times I had sat with them had been tense anyway. It wasn’t any great loss to me. The third day. Again, nothing. This time I just stopped talking to them. Again, no great loss. This was more beneficial to me. The fourth day. Same thing, so I stopped going anywhere within the fortress. I remained in my room.

This kept up for a week.

If this would last another week, I’d stop eating. I didn’t want to do that, but I would. I wanted Bryce and Corrigan there, at least them. Denton would be a cherry on top at this point, but Neil remained steadfast. So after a second week of my silent protesting, I took the trays of food inside, but placed them back outside my room each night. No food was eaten.

Four more days went by.

I could withhold, but my dad pulled out all the stops. He even had pizza delivered and had the boxes set outside my room. I could smell that all day long. Then it was Chinese, then donuts, then the worst—coffee. I peeked out into the hallway once and was shocked. It resembled a school’s cafeteria. Tables had been set up with buffet-style containers on top. Then I realized my dad had created a buffet line, but it was for everyone else to eat and for me to smell, and suffer over.

Bastard.

That was smart.

My stomach groaned and protested each morning, all day long. I thought I’d go numb from the hunger, that it might go away, but it never did. I just got hungrier and hungrier. And, seriously, the coffee aroma almost had me climaxing each morning.

I held firm, but it sucked.

Finally, after almost three weeks of this, the tables were taken away. I didn’t know what that meant, but I just went back to bed. That was all I could do at this point. I was drained.

A soft knock woke me up that evening. I rolled over, but didn’t get up. It would be Neil or Beth. She had started pleading with me to eat too, but instead I heard my dad say, “You won.”

I sat up, but I couldn’t talk. My throat hurt too much.

He sighed from the other side of the door. “They’re coming.”

My heart began to accelerate. I rasped out, “Are you lying to me?”

“No.” He sounded defeated. “You won. Your boys are coming.”

A rush of exhaustion overwhelmed me, and I lay back down. Finally.

*