11. Jasper

Jasper

R ueben has been on the edge of madness since the day I met him, but what I failed to see is that Tyson is allowing his demon to slowly consume him as well. Olivia is not the only one to have scars—her soul is bleeding—but I don’t know if the ones Tyson and Rueben have will ever heal.

Olivia looks at me with hollow eyes, absolute terror shining in them, her face covered in bruises. Not only her face but her body as well, dried blood caked all over her skin. She is tied to the bed naked, the blanket fallen on the floor.

Rueben is not aware I know of his plan to lead us on, promising us we will someday have a bonded, while taking us to the Blood Lodge to fuck pornais there so that we won’t complain. I suspect Tyson and Ansel don’t care if we have a wife and children, but Mose and I do. This is why I organized the hunt to force Rueben into accepting a woman into our home, but never did I suspect Tyson would torture her, breaking his promise to me.

“Jasper—”

I put my right hand in the air, letting him know I don’t want to hear his bullshit excuses for why he did what he did to her. He falls silent.

The house is colder than the barn. Did he turn off the heat as well?

“I don’t know what the fuck your deal is or what trauma you have from childhood, but if I see one more bruise on her, I will grill your snakes over the barbeque and eat them in front of you,” I threaten him.

“She is nothing to us, so why are you acting like she is our woman?”

I shrug, because I don’t know if I can make him understand that I have a thing for broken things. This is why I like to work with animals who have been abused. Tyson keeps talking, “She is just a whore who probably has a ton of STDs. She is not worth fighting over. Besides, have you forgotten she killed Camila? Rueben will never forgive her. The moment he’s done with his sick plan, he will kill her, and there is nothing you or anyone else can do about it since he is our leader.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose.

This entire situation is all my fault. If I had never gotten the bright idea to take part in one of Malaky’s hunts, Olivia would not be here, but with some other blood-brothers who wanted her as their bonded. The thought doesn’t sit well with me, because I want to see her blossom under my care and turn from a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly.

“Regardless of what she did, you can’t take justice into your own hands.”

“But I can when it comes to the Dukes?” Tyson asks.

I turn to face him. “It’s different.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“For crying out loud, she is a woman!” Specifically, my woman. I bought her with my money from Malaky but made the stupid mistake of saying she was a Christmas gift for Rueben.

I will find a way to claim her for myself. Not as a bonded, but as a project. I want to find out what made her put an end to Camila.

Tyson arches an eyebrow. “Are you saying we should stop punishing bitches just because they have a hole between their legs?”

Despite using the EpiPen twice, my head feels like it will explode at any moment. It’s only due to my demon that I don’t have to go to the hospital. Ever since Christmas, I have been wondering how walnuts got into my food when we keep none in the house. Something tells me Tyson is involved somehow, but I can’t accuse him without proof.

“So, torturing her to death is your way of making her pay for something that didn’t affect you?” I question him.

“You don’t understand.”

“I understand more than you think,” I say and go over to the bed—causing a whimper to come from between Olivia’s parted lips—and undo the cuffs.

“What are you doing?” Tyson asks as I pick her up.

Despite how cold the house is, Olivia is burning up. Beneath all the bruises, her cheeks are feverishly red. “Taking her to my room.”

“‘The fuck? Rueben will never agree with her being in our house. Neither will I, Ansel, nor Mose.”

For a man who writes romance books for women, he sure hates them.

“Fine,” I say as I walk out of the room with Olivia and take her to the master bedroom. Tyson follows us. “I will move in here with her.”

I gently lay Olivia on the bed and go over to the walk-in closet to see if there are clothes left. Some old shirts belonging to me hang from coat hangers and I grab one and step out of the closet.

“She is a fucking whore. Are you willing to compromise the link we have because of her?” Tyson asks incredulously.

“You compromised the link the moment you lied about taking care of her while I was sick because someone put walnuts in my food,” I snarl, letting him know I am getting tired of arguing with him.

Tyson’s guilty expression confirms my suspicions of him tampering with my food. Disappointment surges through my veins. Why is it always those you care about who hurt you the most?

“I only tried to learn what she knows about Carlos,” Tyson tries to justify his actions.

“There are other ways, better ways,” I say as I push him out of the room and lock the door, not wanting him to bother me right now.

I walk over to the bed, and Olivia tenses, tears pooling in her eyes.

“No need to be afraid of me, Little Love,” I say as I take her in my arms and carry her to the bathroom.

A bench is in the shower, and I help her sit before I take off my clothes and turn on the hot water. “After I get you clean, I will ask Mose to take a look at you. I am worried about your fever. How many days have you been feeling sick?”

Olivia doesn’t reply, and when I crouch in front of her, she flinches. She might have taken the life of Rueben’s sister, but she deserves the chance to repent and win Rueben’s forgiveness.

I cup her left cheek with my palm. Her chin trembles, and tears spill down her cheeks. I kiss them away, her skin hot and salty beneath my lips. “I won’t hurt you,” I try to assure her, but her dark amber-like whiskey eyes let me know she doesn’t trust me. More than that, she fears me.

She shivers, and I don’t know if it is because of the cold or because she is terrified I will do something to her. I have never worked with people who have trauma, and it’s clear Tyson has traumatized her, but I will use what I’ve learned since I started working with horses to make her trust me.

I won’t let her know my intentions because no matter how many promises I make, she won’t believe them, but actions speak louder than words.

She is mine, and if Tyson or Rueben don’t like it, they can get the fuck off of my farm. I have lost blood-brothers before, I will survive this time as well, but what I won’t tolerate is for women, regardless of their past, to be abused in my home.

When the water is warm, I take the shower handle and hold it above Olivia while I grab the bottle of shower gel and open it. Even if we rarely have guests, I make sure the guest house is clean and always stocked with supplies.

I slowly remove the crusted blood from her body, and when I reach her pussy, I ask her to open her legs for me. She hesitates a few moments before doing as I ask and looks away from me as she coughs a few times. It sounds like she is still having trouble breathing.

My eyebrows shoot up.

A rush of anger surges inside me.

“Did Tyson rape you?”

She whimpers. My demon growls in anger. I grab her chin and force her gaze to mine. “Tell me!” I demand.

She stutters slightly. “He and Rueben p-put sco-scorpions on me on various occasions, and they let them… sting me…there.”

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

I breathe through my mouth, trying to calm my rage, or else I might go look for Tyson and Rueben and punch them.

I direct the stream of water onto her pussy until I think it is clean, as I don’t want to touch it until Mose takes a look at it, and I turn my attention to her legs and feet. Duct tape is wrapped around her toes. Odd.

I try to remove it, and Olivia screams out in pain.

“P-please.”

They did not!

Olivia collapses over me and has a coughing fit that lasts for several minutes.

Once she calms down, despite her sobs, I remove the duct tape as I need to know the truth.

“Goddamn!” I curse when I see the state of her toes. My body trembles with rage, and if not for Olivia needing my help, I would have already gone looking for my blood-brothers. “Let’s get you comfortable in bed before I go grab my stuff.”

I pull the duvet to the side and put her on the left side of the bed and I put a shirt on her, I get dressed before I leave. I don’t tie her as I don’t think she will do anything stupid since her toes are broken.

My blood-brothers are in the kitchen and gang up on me the moment I set foot inside the main house.

“Are you serious about moving in with the Diseased Cunt in the guest house?” Rueben asks as I walk past them and head to my room. They come after me.

Once inside my room, I grab the backpack from the top of my dresser, unzip it, and shove some clothes and other items inside. “Yes,” I finally reply.

“I get that you are eager to get married, but she ain’t the one,” Tyson says.

“I am not delusional enough to think we will make her our bonded, but I want to know who the one is?” When Tyson doesn’t reply, I look at Mose, “Rueben never had the intention to find a wife for us.”

Rueben rubs his face with his palm. Mose doesn’t look too surprised, probably suspecting it by now. “That’s not true.”

“Oh? Then you are fine with me inviting Ada here and seeing if she would be interested in us?” Ada is the woman my first blood-brothers and I thought to pursue. Also, Mose took a liking to her. I still maintain contact with her, even though she is in a relationship with a group of blood-brothers. But Rueben doesn’t know that. I only want to see what he will say.

“I already said after we bring down Senator Deymar,” Rueben says quickly.

“Enlighten me about your plan, as I thought we would use Olivia to tarnish his reputation, but so far, you and Tyson have been torturing her,” I point out. “You think that by breaking her toes and putting scorpions on her, she will be eager to fuck us or look good on the camera?”

Tyson snorts. “I am not fucking her.”

“Good, because I don’t think she wants you to touch her either. Or any of us.”

“You think she will say no to us having our way with her?” Ansel chimes in.

“She will do whatever we ask of her but not because she wants to be with us, and I am not into fucking people against their will, because that’s rape, and I am not into that shit,” I make it clear.

Rueben grits his teeth. “Then what do you propose?”

“To undo all the damage you and Tyson did, I have to start the training tonight,” I let them know. Tyson narrows his eyes. I don’t think training is the right word, but her being so submissive will make it easier to work with her. “She is my next project.”

Rueben heads to the living room and says over his shoulder. “I would watch my back with her.”

Olivia is afraid of her own shadow, and she doesn’t have what it takes to try to do something to any of us.

“Project?” Mose laughs. “She is not a horse.”

“No,” I agree, “but she has been abused.”

“How do you know that?” Of all the stupid questions Tyson could have asked, he had to choose that one.

I don’t bother to answer, but instead, I say to Mose, “I need you to take a look at her. If you don’t want to, I will ask Maddox to come over.”

Mose sighs. “Fine. But I want one of your special cognac bottles.”

“Only if you stop putting spices in everything,” I say as I go to grab Miss Teapot and her basket. “Can you grab her food and bowls?” I ask Mose, and he shudders. He and my cat are not friends, but he still helps me.

Once I have everything I need for the night, including ingredients to make dinner, Mose and I go to the guest house. Miss Teapot goes to explore around while I put her basket in the little kitchen and the bag of groceries on the counter before I go check on Olivia while Mose remains in the kitchen to start dinner.

I am down the hall when I hear the sounds of glass breaking coming from the master bedroom. My heart pounds faster, and I rush to the room, wanting to see what happened.

The room is empty, but the door to the bathroom is open, and I clearly remember closing it before I helped Olivia into bed. I run inside, and the first thing I see is Olivia with a piece of a broken mirror in her right hand, trying to cut her wrist.

“No!” I yell and jump to stop her.

She lets out a cry of frustration as I slap her hand, and the mirror shard falls on top of other broken pieces. My instinct is to scream at her, but instead, I pick her up in my arms, and she buries her head in the crook of my neck and starts sobbing. Then coughing. How the hell did she walk with all those broken toes?

I take her back to the room, and Mose is already there.

“What’s the commotion?” he asks.

“She tried to take her own life,” I reply. “Thank fuck I stopped her in time.”

Taking care of her will be much harder, as I don’t trust leaving her alone, but I don’t think tying her to the bed will help establish a connection with her. I will have to think of a solution.

Mose spends the next hour or so looking at her wounds and applying ointments on her cuts and bruises, even on her pussy. Lastly, he gives her some coughing syrup and something for the fever, and she quickly drifts to sleep. Fortunately, the cut she made on her wrist is superficial and not life-threatening. Mose bandages not only her wrist but her toes as well so they can heal properly.

“I think she has pneumonia,” Mose says once he is done with her. “It would be best if Maddox sees her so he can prescribe her antibiotics and whatever else she needs.”

“I will send him a message.”

“Good.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he adds, “About Rueben… if in one year he still doesn’t want to get a wife, I am out.”

It is rare for blood-brothers to break links, but it still happens, especially when they don’t get along or don’t have the same goals; blood-brothers must be united and not divided among the group.

“I feel the same,” I let him know.

Mose remains with me until my food is ready before returning to the main house. I take a few bites of my food, but I still feel sick, so I push the plate to the side. I am not a fan of eating alone anyway, but I remind myself I am doing this so I can help Olivia.

After cleaning the kitchen and the bathroom, I take Miss Teapot and go to the master bedroom, change my clothes, put on a pair of cotton pants, and climb into bed. I wiggle closer to Olivia, but not very close, not wanting to accidentally hit her in my sleep and doing more damage to her.

Miss Teapot curls up next to me, and seconds later, she starts to purr.

I am drifting to sleep when Olivia starts to talk in her sleep, crying and saying Spencer several times, before stopping.

Who the fuck is Spencer?

Maddox listens to Olivia’s lungs.

It’s been more than half an hour since he started examining Olivia. First, he made sure her toes were set right before bandaging them and then looking at all the other wounds.

I’m trying to be patient and not bother him but the silence is killing me. I don’t want Olivia sick. I want her well and happy on the farm. With me. From the moment I saw her, I knew there was something special about her. I can’t wait to see what it is.

I feel the urge to pace around. Or smoke. Thank fuck Maddox brought a few packs. Tyson is almost out of cigarettes. While I have one once a month or so, because I like spending time with Tyson, I never got why people smoke when in stressful situations until now.

Maddox finally finishes the examination.

“Mose was right. She does have pneumonia. With treatment, she will get better. Her other wounds will heal without leaving any permanent damage.”

I am so relieved to hear that Olivia will get well soon that I can’t speak, so I only nod.

Maddox writes a prescription for Olivia before going to speak with the others.