30. Jax

Jax

" S o, Jacob was telling me all about his life with Martha. She and I had a good time, a good catch up before she died. But she was all right, definitely deserved better than Jacob."

Louis strokes a hand down my thigh as I shift my weight. My stomach heaves when I feel his heavy erection pressing into my back.

A flicker of black draws my eye, and I see the lock holding my chain turn. My eyes widen, but I lean back into Louis, trying to mentally distance myself from the fact that this is Richard.

"How is Richard your father?" I ask instead, needing to distract my ex.

Louis tenses. "The usual way. He paid a hooker. And she showed up with a kid that neither of them wanted. So, he paid her to fuck right off. Isn't that sweet?"

I swallow down the fear as he tenses, his fingers grabbing into my thigh hard enough to leave bruises.

"But Liam?"

"Had no idea, didn't even know about her side gig. She blackmailed Richard for a few years before she died," Louis whispers in my ear. "He knew, you know, about Liam, about her dying, and he knew about Cecil and how abusive he was. I felt it all before Richard faded away. He left me there because he didn't care. The only thing Richard cared about was money, power, and appearances. "

My thigh is screaming at me for relief, my back bowed as I wordlessly scream. He strokes his free hand down my body, but I barely feel it. Not until he grabs my breast and squeezes that mercilessly, too.

I howl. Tears streaming from my shut eyes. It takes an eternity before he eases off. He still keeps his hold, but it's not as painful. But my skin throbs with the memory.

"There's something so beautiful about pain," Louis whispers. "You look glorious when you're hurting. I'm almost tempted."

"Tempted?"

"Tempted to fuck you right here," Louis growls. "Make it painful. Make it hurt. All those years, Jojo, of hiding from you, now I can be myself, and we can truly be together."

"You said you wouldn't hurt me."

"I'm not. I could cut you open and play with your insides. Or I could stick currents of electricity in your cunt. I could really make it hurt. No, this isn't hurting you, this is love."

I thrash my head from side-to-side until he lets go of my skin. I'm panting and shaking. He just grabbed my skin with his hand and twisted. It wasn't a knife; it wasn't pliers; it was just his hand, but it was so painful. How am I to withstand this?

I look around the room and see the padlock is almost off the ring. Louis strokes my hair and pulls me more securely onto his lap.

"Tell her what we were talking about, Jacob."

Jacob looks up, his hair hangs over his eyes, he looks mutinous. I silently plead with him.

"This is him. The man who came to see me the day we went to the cemetery. I've never met Richard Hastings. Jax, I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'm sorry. He said his name was Terrance Blackwell."

I freeze. I don't miss the sick, twisted game Louis played right there, deliberately baiting us. Taunting us with a name we'd all recognise. All we'd have needed to do was check the security feeds in Jacob's office, and the answer would have been right there. Astaire wouldn't have needed to die.

Oh, god. Please. Someone save us.

Louis bites my shoulder. I scream.

"ALL RIGHT! STOP!" Jacob screams. "Stop hurting her, I'll say it."

Louis eases his teeth out of my shoulder, but my vision is still white at the edges, and warm blood trickles down my arm.

"I used to jack off thinking about Jackie every damn night," Jacob says in a rush. "I'd imagine her sucking me. Riding me." Jacob looks at me. "I'd imagine fucking you and telling you I loved you." He closes his eyes. "I'd imagine you'd say it back, and I'd come. I'd squeeze my fat little cock, and I'd come all over the yearbook picture of you."

The shame in his voice makes me want to weep.

Louis whispers in my ear, "Isn't that disgusting?" He laughs and tweaks my nipple so hard that I yelp. "Now, now, don't swear, god will think you've forsaken him," Louis teases Jacob.

All of a sudden, he goes silent and still. This new mood makes me nervous.

"Is that gross, Jojo, or do you find the idea of a poor, fat, little cocksucker like Jacob pulling his pale worm of a prick sexy? Does it turn you on? Make you wet? Would you like him to fuck you?" Louis thunders, standing and throwing me off his lap. "Maybe I should check. Try to understand what you see in all these men." Louis stomps towards me while I crawl backwards away from him. The chain hinders my progress, but I scramble just out of reach of his stomping feet.

"I was scared!" I throw out, and he stops with his fist raised in the air, staring at me.

"What? "

"I was scared. I was alone. You…betrayed me." The moment I say those words, I know I've fucked up. But I can't take them back no matter how much I might wish.

"I betrayed you? Holy fucking shit. The mother fucking irony right fucking here. Will you have a look at this whore?" he says to Jacob and then turns back to me, shaking his head. "I fucking betrayed you. Rich, my dear, very fucking rich."

For a second, he remains calm, but then it switches, and I see the insanity in his eyes a moment before his face contorts.

Louis reaches out and grabs my hair, dragging me up. I let out a scream as my scalp rips. He drags me to the tension of the chain. I can hear Jacob screaming behind me, but Louis simply grips my chin and squeezes.

"I betrayed you? You kissed another man, you fantasied about him, you let him touch what was mine. I gave you everything. And you wanted Terrence. Even now, you're wearing the necklace that I killed that prick in. How did you get it? Where did you get it from?"

Panic turns my insides icy. I can't let him focus on Gideon.

"Except you," I spit back at him. "You hid all of who you are. I didn't know anything. I thought you were cheating, but you had that girl, and those things you did…and then you tried to kill me."

"So we could be together," Louis snarls. He mashes our lips together. This time, I fight. I dig my nails into his skin and bite. He tears away and laughs, licking the blood off his lips with a smile. "There she is. Stop pretending to be a meek and mild pushover. You're my fighter, Jojo. I want the fire. I want the passion. Jojo! I want the girl who stormed the world with me."

"You're sick," I shout, furious with him. "Louis, you dick! I just wanted you, and you were killing people, and ever since that moment, my life has been hell. I'm guilty whether I want to be or not. YOU RUINED MY LIFE!" I'm screaming, beyond control .

Louis seizes my wrists and spins me so my back is to his chest, my arms crossed over each other. "I know, it's a delicious poetic irony. You, who were my cover in this world, my alibi, have become my accomplice and partner without ever touching a body. It occurs to me that it's punishment."

"FOR WHAT?" I shriek, fighting his hold, desperate to get away from him. "For what did I need to be punished for?"

"For betraying me with Terrance, for spitting back everything I gave you, for not embracing all of who I am, for fighting me, for killing me."

"Besting you," I snarl. "I fucking won. I beat you. You lost, and I fucking won."

"That, too," Louis says, amused. "But, Jojo, you're here in my arms, I have millions, another body, a new life, and everything's coming up Louis. My father has finally given me something useful. Not even death is enough to beat me. Jojo, don't you realise? You won the battle, but I've won the war." He lifts one arm and presses a button. All around the room, the bookcases start turning around. I stare with mounting horror as photo after photo is revealed.

Jacob lets out a broken wail when he sees Martha. I spot Astaire, Lisha, Nurses I knew, doctors who had treated me, people who served me in restaurants and shops, people who were kind to me, landlords, employers. Eugene. Oh, god, Eugene, my boss. I thought he got out of town; I thought he escaped. There are more than I could have imagined. How did he get them all with no one noticing?

And I remember one truth we all overlook in Hurricane.

It's Hurricane. People vanish all the fucking time. No one cares.

And then, on one of the walls, I spot Terrance. His face is captured as he screams in agony. Once I see him, I can't look away. And on his collarbone sits the same star that sits now on mine .

A single tear slips from my eye as I take in every wound, every blow Louis inflicted. Terrence would be called overkill. He suffered more than any of the others.

Because of me.

"I had to go back for my photos of him. He's the one I can't let go of. He was my masterpiece. This is what I mean when I say you inspire me, Jojo. Look at what we can do together."

"Because he's the only one you killed in rage," I say evenly. "Where's his body?"

Louis smiles sneakily. "You'll love this. Fuck, the depths you push me to. I come out with some of my greatest work when I'm inspired by you, Jojo." He huffs a laugh and dances close so he's behind me when he whispers the words into my ear. "I incinerated him, and then fed him to you, spoon by spoon."

I jerk my head around and wheeze for air.

"Until death do you part." Louis laughs. "A little bit here and there in your food. In your drinks. Everyone was looking for him, and the whole time, he was in you. It was genius."

I retch. Over and over until all the contents of my stomach are on the expensive Persian rug.

"Do you like it?" He laughs and pushes another button. "Two more surprises."

The coffee table sinks into the ground, and when it rises, there are two liquid filled cylinders with two heads floating inside.

"These are, well, my gifts to you. So we can start fresh," Louis murmurs. "This is my apology. I had to end Wayland faster than I intended to, even so, he suffered. I promise."

Wayland's mouth is open in a soundless scream, while Doctor Sparrow's eyes are almost closed.

I gag, but nothing comes up. Louis strokes my back while he waits .

I shake my head. "Why me? Why does it have to be if they interacted with me?" I whisper brokenly. I can't stop staring at Terrance. There's a picture of him alive and one of him dead. I did that.

I can't even think about what Louis said he did with Terrence's ashes. But now, it makes sense why Gideon was so stuck to me. Haunting me. I literally had part of him inside me.

"You are my muse, my inspiration. We are destiny," Louis says with an evil laugh. "I'm my best when I'm with you, Jojo. You are my soulmate."

I struggle in his arms. A scream tears out of me. I thrash and end up half-hanging in his embrace. I lift my eyes and notice the chain is free.

Louis likes pain, he doesn't seem to feel it, I remind myself. He laughed when I stabbed him. I cried, but he laughed. He was proud of me.

I prepare myself, going inward, finding that deep well of calm before I explode my head back, slamming it into his nose. He lets me go and staggers back. I bend, grabbing the chain, and wrap it around his neck, before I get on his back and pull.

He struggles, pulling at the chain with his hands, but I lock my arms, leaning away from him, pulling it tight. He staggers and then rushes back, slamming me into the bookcase.

I let out a pained shriek.

"I love you, Louis. I think part of me always will, but I love the part that was a lie. You can't keep killing people, you can't keep terrorising me," I say in a growl. "I won't let you."

He gurgles and drops to his knees.

"And most of all, you can't kill my guys. Louis, I fucking love them. I'm not going to give them up. I'm happy, and it's worth fighting for." My hands are aching, but I refuse to let up .

He collapses on his stomach. I hold it for another minute, and when I think he can't possibly be alive; I let go.

"Help me!" Jacob shouts.

I reach for the chain around Louis' neck and undo the manacle around my ankle before I stagger to Jacob. He looks awful. The cuts are oozing so much blood. I undo the rope and help him to his feet.

Jacob looks behind me, his eyes widen, and he turns ash pale. He slams an arm into me, throwing me back, and runs. I turn just in time to see Louis smash his fist into my shoulder. It goes instantly numb.

I whimper as his hand closes around my throat.

"I just can't with you, Jojo." He drags me towards a cage I hadn't noticed. I thrash and slam my knee into his groin. He pauses, his fingers flexing enough that I'm able to rip free.

I slam my fist into his face and dart away from him.

Louis sighs heavily as sirens light up the night. "Okay. I was hoping it wasn't going to go this way, but why the fuck not? Let's do a clean slate now. This was supposed to be our back up plan. All right Jojo, till the end, huh? Let's play. Security, lock the house down."

An automated voice comes out of a speaker. "House secured."

I turn around, startled. "Louis, what are you doing?"

"We're going to go together, Jojo. I won't let anyone else have you." He holds up a lighter and leans over to the curtains. "You and I, we're destined, entwined by destiny. It's fate," he whispers. "We'll come back together again. This was the end plan, anyway. It was always going to happen. Let's go together now. We can start fresh."

"Louis!" I scream. "No!"

I'm so tired, though, and some of what he says just takes hold of me. I can't evade him. He's so strong, he's everywhere. I can' t escape him. Perhaps we are destined. Doubt, fear, and crushing exhaustion has me poised, frozen, staring at my ex-fiancé.

"Louis, please," I beg one more time.

He looks at me, but I don't see any remorse, any hesitation. I don't see the man I loved at all. The Louis that I dated, my best friend, is dead and gone. This new man, this monster, he's determined and set on this path.

There's no love. There never has been.

I have no strength left to fight him, and he sees it in me.

With the orange flames flickering weakly around us, I catch sight of something that makes my Louis slip from my mind.

I see a hand. My world goes still. A whimper tears itself free. One thought runs through my head, repeating and repeating.

There's something about the hand that is familiar.