29. Jax

Jax

I wake up on a bed that wouldn't be amiss in a five-star hotel. With a groan, I sit up, pressing a hand to my aching head. A chain rattles. The sound gives me chills, and I open my eyes wider as my stomach flutters, searching until I find it. I stand up and take three steps, only to be brought up short by a chain around my ankle.

Like an animal or a slave.

I stare down at it for a second, shocked, almost amused. I follow the chain to an enormous ring buried in the wall.

Asshole.

The room is huge. Stone walls should make it cold, but there is warm air wafting down from vents in the ceiling. On the walls closest to me are photos of me. Some in frames, a lot of them just tacked on. I scan them and follow the path to a huge wooden table in the middle of the room. Underneath is a drain. There are hoses hanging from the roof and what look like a video camera.

I stand up and stretch out as far as I can go and see cages on the far end of the room, where the light barely shines, and a staircase that leads up above it.

I shift my weight and then notice the man sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. Perfectly silent. Just watching me. Everything in me stills. My heart explodes into a drumming that makes me dizzy, and fear sends adrenaline spiking through my body .

"Louis?"

He stands up. The mask is freaking me out. There are no eyes on it, just black fabric. He's taller than me, broad but not fat. I don't recognise him. My panic makes me scramble back onto the bed as I watch him advance.

"Jojo," he says in a deep voice. It sounds familiar, but I can't place it. "I've missed us."

I stare at him blankly because I'm shutting down. I'm so scared.

He sits on the edge of the bed and reaches up to touch my face. I flinch, and his head tilts to the side before he chuckles.

"Apologies, Jojo. I forgot." He reaches up and tugs the mask off.

In my mind, it comes off in slow motion, but in reality, it's quick, there and gone, and I'm staring at a face I've known almost all of my life.

"Richard?"

Richard wrinkles his nose. "Louis, darling, but you know all this, you figured it out, well, almost."

"But…you hate me."

"I couldn't show you how I really felt until I was ready. Oh, Jojo, this moment has been six long years coming. And you're ready!" He moves closer and hugs me.

My skin crawls, and I have to fight not to gag at the feel of the older man.

It occurs to me to fight, to shout, to shove him off, but I'm locked up, and I don't want to make him mad. So, I shove my wants and instincts down like I've been doing for years and rest my head on his shoulder.

Pretend. Buy time. Fake it. I'm so good at it now.

My heart is thudding so hard I'm sure I'm going to have a heart attack. I'm dripping in sweat, but it's icy. I'm dissociating, the world is fuzzy and wrong and so far away. Louis is holding me, Louis is back .

Oh, god. I'm never going to get away from him. He's going to have me forever. The thought makes me shudder.

Richard sits back and strokes my cheek. His face is softer than I've ever seen it. But I see Louis in his eyes. Now that I know where to look, I see him. He ceases to be Richard in that moment.

"You had money, and the means to keep a watch on me," I murmur.

"The only decent thing my father left me, other than his body and good health." Louis chuckles and strokes a thumb over my bottom lip. "Richard died, a heart attack. When I died, and we really have to have a chat about your naughty behaviour, I woke up in Richard's body with his life, his wealth, and this friend that I recognised straight away. I knew you'd come home. My predictable little bunny."

I shudder and pull away from him. "Why?"

"I do all of this, create my art, leaving my brilliance on this world, and no one sees it except you. You saw me in my darkest moments, when I didn't shine. How can I live in a world without you? I knew I needed you. You inspire me to greater heights. Look at what we've achieved. Not even death is powerful enough to part us. Jojo, don't you understand? You are my muse."

He grabs my face and holds me still while he presses his lips to mine. I stiffen, holding completely and utterly still. He pulls me against him. I've got no way of breaking the hold, and if I do rebuff him, what will happen? Jacob's down here somewhere, I remind myself, and force myself to relax, leaning into the kiss. I almost cry when I let my lips part, allowing his tongue to push into my mouth.

He pulls back and stares at me. "I'm still going to kill your boyfriends."

He says it like he's announcing we're going to brunch. Or he's about to watch a movie. So casual .

I blink and fight back the urge to cry. "Don't tell me you're jealous." The nonchalance is all feigned.

He laughs and stands up, pacing around. "Jealousy is such a trite emotion. I'm not jealous, but I own you completely, from the first moment I saw you when we were children. I made you mine. I eliminated the competition, the threats. It's not jealousy, it's ownership, it's possession, and I don't share."

I get a full body shudder. "Can't you just let them go?"

"Oh, no, darling bunny. Definitely not. They dared to touch and steal my things. They signed their own death warrants."

"And Sparrow?" I ask bitterly. "Was that a fun game?"

"Well, I was going to kill him when he first drugged you, but after you came out of it and started lying, I needed to understand. He has been an incredibly useful puppet in understanding and keeping tabs on you, my love."

I stiffen and draw back from him. "Understand what?"

"Why did you protect our lives?" Louis asks, tilting his head to the side. "If you really didn't love me, why did you lie to Sparrow over and over? I don't buy it. You still love me."

I look away. I can't explain that. Not to him. Those years were good. They were my green years, full of warmth and happiness and success. They were a lie, but I didn't understand that. My heart needed time to grieve it. I didn't want to share it with anyone because when Louis destroyed our lives, he murdered me, too.

"Fine, I'll go wake Jacob up-"

"Because I loved you," I shout. "Because no matter how many people you killed, and the fact that you tried to kill me, and what I did to you-"

"You can say it. You killed me. It was brilliant. I'm actually impressed with how you got the advantage over me." Richard leans over me, smirking as I retreat, and presses another kiss to my lips. I think he likes seeing my disgust .

I stare at him until he gestures for me to continue. "I loved you, I loved our life together, and you weren't mean to me, you weren't cruel to me, I was going to marry you, live with you forever. You were my choice."

"Terrance," Louis spits with the first bit of rage I've seen.

I still. "It was an attraction for someone. I'd never had anything like that before, but it was over and done quickly. I said I couldn't do it. He moved on, and we never saw each other again."

Louis studies me, and I wonder what he knows. Does he know about Gideon? Does he know that I know Terrance was one of his last victims?

"He was the reason the police came looking. His pesky brothers made noise and got that detective to put two and two together. Terrence was our bad luck shower on our lives. He had to die. But even in death, he couldn't stay there. He had to bring the police down on my head."

My heart pounds, hearing his bitter hate of Terrence. If he finds out what I know…it will sign my lover's death warrant. Again.

"How did you get Sparrow to spy on me?" I ask instead.

"Oh, I own that little fucker. Owned. HA. I have enough to put him in jail for the rest of his life, revoke his medical license, and ruin his reputation. So he helps Richard by providing detailed notes of the sessions. Louis sends him gifts of information and instructions for what questions to ask you. He believes that I'm alive and that you and I are working together. He really, really believes it. In his mind, we're a serial killer team. I've read the book he's writing, it's going to sell well. Pure fiction, but entertaining nonetheless. He went into the wrong field."

"How did you stop Sparrow and Wayland talking?"

"Oh, that was easy. I just told them the other had set them up. They're both so prideful and stupid, they never thought to ask."

I look away, feeling bitter .

"Wayland?"

"Do you know that man killed three people? Shot them through the heart and set up some junkie to take the fall. Totally cold, right? Wayland is my bitch now. He does everything I say. If I haven't blackmailed people, I have bought them. I really must admit, being a millionaire is handy. It gets me information, like those interesting lists that Titan sold. And it gets me video footage of naughty, naughty cops. It gets me psych reports of my fiancée. It gets me all the footage and information I could ask for on her lovers."

He stares at me hard, with accusation and betrayal.

"Lovers? Seriously? Plural? What the fuck is this, even? A mid-life fucking crisis?"

His hands trail over my knees, sliding up my thighs.

I pant for all the wrong reasons.

"Louis," I moan. "What are you doing?"

He stands up and crawls over the top of me until his lips are almost touching mine. "I have your family under my control; financially, emotionally, physically. Your doctors are in my pockets; the police that can take your freedom, your bosses, and landlords report to me. I have spies everywhere. I have keys to where you live, cameras in all your rooms. Your boyfriends live or die at my whim. You belong to me, Jojo, and you have since I first saw you. That cute little girl with ridiculous pigtails, chasing kittens. You were always going to be mine. This is my world, and you are my queen, and I will protect you, even with trackers under your skin."

Bile races up my throat, but I swallow it as my breathing saws in and out of my lungs. He lowers himself so that his weight is pressing me down.

There are trackers in my skin. Oh. My. God. We never looked, never thought…. My thoughts cut off abruptly with one roll of his hips. No! Please, NO !

But I can't breathe. My head goes back, and I suck in air, but it's not enough, and he's kissing my neck, leaving wet trails down my throat as I start to cry.

"Shh, Jojo. It's okay, Daddy's here to make it all better." He starts to laugh. "Oh, man, I've been waiting to use that line on you. Our new age gap romance is going to make for lots of fun games." He leans back and toys with my necklace. I'm viciously reminded of Gideon, and the yearning is crippling. "Don't cry, Jojo. We're together again."

I sob louder, but it doesn't deter him as he thrusts his tongue into my mouth. His tongue laps up my tears and dips in to lick across my eyes. He licks every part of exposed skin, like he's marking me. Like he's making me his. And all the while, his hands roam over my skin, making it crawl.

I see a flash of black and twist my head violently to the side. Louis follows the turn of my head and bares his teeth at the black vision.

"You see them, too, now, huh? I wondered about these hallucinations Sparrow reported, but you covered it up well." He sounds so conversational. "Oh, and by the way…" He pulls out my engagement ring from his pocket and slips it onto my finger, then leans back to admire it. "Perfect. I took it from you that night. You were all snoozing from the pizza surprise. Needed it for this moment."

"The dead are loud in Hurricane," I whisper, trying to distract myself and trying not to glance at Astaire beside me.

I'm too ashamed.

"Do you see who they are or are they just dark shapes?" Louis asks and presses a kiss to my shoulder. "It doesn't matter. The dead can't have you, either. "

"I know who they are," I breathe with sadness. They can't help me, and I can't help them. I wish they didn't have to witness my destruction. "Louis, this isn't going to work…"

He puts a hand over my mouth and smiles. "Oh, but it is. I've ensured that nothing will ruin my plans. Years of planning has come to this. Trust me, Jojo, there is no escaping me now."

He pulls me up and unclips the chain. He gestures for me to follow him and leads me up the stairs. We walk into an immense room. It's surrounded by bookshelves, but in the middle is Jacob. He's tied and bound and covered in cuts.

I rush towards him, but Louis clips the chain to another ring, and again, I'm pulled up short.

"Jacob!" I cry out. "Louis, please, let him go. He didn't do anything. He's our friend."

"He conspired with known enemies," Louis says with no remorse. He sits in an armchair and lifts a glass of amber-coloured alcohol to his lips. "Sit with me, and I'll consider making it easier."

I shake my head. "This is insane. Louis, you have to let him go."

"Sit. Down." Louis commands.

I hear the threat in his voice and glance at him fearfully.

"Oh, bunny, no, no." Louis shakes his head and chuckles. "I won't hurt you." Relief makes my head light. "I'll hurt Jacob. He always wanted to be your white knight. We'll get to see just how much he loves you." Louis seems almost thirsty for the idea.

"Fuck you, Louis, you crazy fuck!" Jacob snarls.

"My lap or I remove a finger. Perhaps his ring finger, he doesn't need it anymore now, does he?" Louis chuckles while I swallow bile.

Jacob struggles against the bindings and howls.

I stare at Jacob, regret and pain and wishing to god that this poor man had never met me. Then I carefully step backwards until I'm sitting on Louis' lap. His arms come around me like a cage closing me in. Nowhere to escape to. I feel the despair; the violence hovering in the air, and I resolve myself. I meekly lean back in his arms, snuggling into his chest.

It's all fake.

It's all pretend.

I'm not real anymore.

"Now, let's have a good old chat, just three friends catching up," Louis says with a dark chuckle.