JACOB (Brothers In Ink Romance Series Book 4) Page 4

I moaned louder. “Oh fuck, yes.” My nails dug into his skin, making his eyes roll back softly. “I’m so close.”

  “Come for me Ash,” he rasped, pushing into me harder and faster. Fuck. It felt so good.

  His words were enough to send me over the edge. I gasped. My body arched as my nails dug into him. “Oh fuck,” I moaned. Pleasure overwhelmed me as my eyes rolled back and everything went a fuzzy black. Pleasure surged through me. I gasped for breath as he slammed into me, letting out his own mix of a moan and growl. He slammed into me again. Pleasure surged through me as I forced my eyes open, staring at him as the last of my orgasm passed through me. My head spun with pleasure.

  I pulled Jacob into a deep kiss, trying in some lame attempt to show him how I felt.

  He pulled away gently and slipped out of me.

  “So,” I rolled over to watch him as he pushed himself off the bed, threw the condom out and grabbed us each a pair of his pajama pants. “How long is this second job going to last?”

  “A couple weeks at the most.” He tossed a plain black pair over to me, and I slipped into them before grabbing my shirt and tucking myself under the blankets. He came back to the bed and slipped under them with me.

  As he pulled me into his arms, Jas jumped back onto the bed. I held the blankets up for her as she slipped under them and got comfy as she cuddled up close to me, resting her head on my stomach. Jacob smiled.

  My eyes locked on his. I took a deep breath; my body already telling me it was time for sleep. His smile widened as I stared at him.

  “What?”

  “Nothing …”

  ***

  I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, but the truth was that I really liked this. In some strange way, it felt right. It felt like a little family. Myself, Ashley beside me and the dog cuddled close to us. I closed my eyes as the smile vanished.

  I knew the chances of this lasting much longer were slim. I knew I should tell her what I was getting into—if she found out on her own, she was going to be beyond mad at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I’d thought about it, but I couldn’t risk scaring her away, not when I only had a little freedom left. Not when I might die soon.

  Instead of saying anything, I just cuddled closer to her.

  She smiled, nuzzling into me.

  Soon the sound of Jas’s snores and Ashley’s deep breathing filled the room as they both slept. I, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep. I lay there for an hour, my mind racing as I tried to figure out what I would do. I couldn’t just disappear on her. I’d have to write a letter or something. She’d be mad if I did that, but oh, well. It would be better than just leaving her.

  I rolled out of bed carefully and padded to the living room. I wouldn’t leave just yet, but I could get started on the search since sleep didn’t seem like something I would be getting tonight.

  One week later

  “Jassy!” I exclaimed as I entered the house. The small white pit-bull ran towards me, her tail wagging. “Hello, girl.” I bent down to pet her for several minutes before pushing myself up and striding to the back to let her out for a pee. I placed the spare key back outside where I’d taken it from as I let her do her business.

  Since the weather was nice today, I left the door open as I poured myself a glass of water and looked around the room. I glanced down at the pile of papers on the counter. There were pictures, documents, and phone numbers. All had one thing in common. The name Jake Hanfold.

  I studied them as I bit my lower lip softly. I think it’s time I did something I should have done a long time ago.

  Padding over to my purse, I pulled my small laptop from it. I headed outside and sat down in the warm sun as I opened it and brought up my search engine. I typed in the name Jake Hanfold.

  I wish I could say I was surprised to see the new listing about him. From December of 2005. I thought about the tattoo on his neck. 22/09/2005. It all began to make sense.

  The first article I read was about this Jake guy being beaten so badly that he was in a coma for a week, about the injuries he’d received, and it said that four men would be going to jail for it. I felt like I was going to be sick, my stomach turned and the back of my throat went dry. I knew Jacob had been one of those four men to go to jail. I didn’t have any exact proof, but I wasn’t stupid either.

  Jake Hanfold was suspected in the death of 15-year-old Becky Jackson.

  That right there. That sentence clicked everything into place. That is why he wanted to find this guy. They thought he killed their friend and … oh God. They’d gone to jail back in 2005 for trying to kill this man; now that they were out they are planning to finish what they started.

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I couldn’t process anything.

  How was I supposed to react? Was I supposed to call the cops? Every ounce of my brain said to call the cops, but my heart told me to wait. It told me to hear what he had to say for himself. Maybe … maybe he could explain it away or something.

  I shouldn’t wait, I shouldn’t ask him to explain it to me. He was a killer, and that’s what it boiled down to—I pulled my cell phone out from my pocket and dialed those three numbers.

  I stared at them. 911. All I had to do was hit send, but I couldn’t.

  I erased the number, closed my phone and slipped it back in my pocket as I turned to Jas. She sat in front of me with a ball in her mouth, and I smiled as she dropped it at my feet.

  There was nothing I could do right now, Jacob was at work, and I’d have to wait until he got back to speak to him about any of this, so I might as well play with the dog.

  It was actually calming to play with her. I’d gotten used to having a dog around, and it freaked me out that it could all be ending so soon. If Jacob was about to do something stupid, what would happen to Jas? I could take her I guess … but it would be hard on her to lose him. I bit my lip as a tear touched the corner of my eyes for some reason and mentally shook myself. There was no point in getting emotional or even crying about it. It wasn’t going to change things.

  Still, I couldn’t help it as a tear ran down my cheek. I took a deep breath and focused on the game of fetch I was playing with Jas.

  I heard the back door open and Jas went running for the person who had opened it. When she didn’t bark, I assumed it was Jacob. I didn’t get up to greet him. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath trying to collect myself. What was I going to say to him?

  “Hey.” He smiled. “Are we still getting together with Jade and Luke?”

  I forced my eyes open. “Hey.”

  “What’s wrong?” He looked concerned.

  “We need to talk about something.” I looked around and got up from the chair I was sitting in. “Inside.”

  “Okay …” He led the way inside, Jas wagging her tail frantically behind him. As soon as we were inside, I closed the door behind us, and he spoke. “What’s going on?”

  “I was hoping you could actually tell me that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I pointed to the stack of papers. “I wasn’t trying to snoop, but I noticed they all had one person’s name on them. Then I did decide to snoop and …” I held up my computer as I tried to figure out what I was going to say. ‘You’re going to try to kill him, aren’t you?”

  “No,” he said flatly as he strode to the fridge. He pulled out leftovers from the last time I was there. “I am going to kill him.” I tried to say something, but my voice caught in my throat. “There is no more trying.”

  I stammered, trying to piece together a sentence. “Do you know how crazy that is?”

  “It doesn’t matter to me if you think I’m crazy.”

  “Well, I do!” I could see that his last words had been a lie. “You can’t just go around killing people! I’m going to have to call the cops. I can’t … I …” I let out a deep breath, choking on air. “I can’t let you,” I whispered.

  “Ashley, you don’t even know …” He paused and took a deep breath. “You can c
all them if you need to, but please, just let me have this day first? I have things I need to wrap up, things I didn’t think I would need to take care of yet.”

  I felt guilt tug at me. I shouldn’t feel guilty for this! I was saving someone’s life. Are you really? What would Jacob do if he were sent back to jail? I didn’t know anything about this sort of stuff, but I had to assume they wouldn’t let him out in another ten years if they thought he was just going to try and do it again. I bit my lip as I turned away from him.

  Even if I were going to call the cops, I could ask him one more question.

  ***

  She refused to look at me. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. She was going to call the cops on me, and I shouldn’t have expected any less of her. Anyone in their right mind would have, but I couldn’t help but wonder if things would be turning out this way if I’d told her everything myself.

  Dom, Priest, and Luke were going to be pissed. They’d have to be careful. They might have to put it off for a while, but I could give them the info I had on him, and they could do whatever they felt was right. If I convinced her to give me a couple more days, I could give them time to do it. And I could spend a little more time with her before all this was done.

  “Do you love me?”

  I stared at her blankly as I processed her words.

  ***

  Crap, that hadn’t come out right.

  “I mean, do you care about me at all?” I’d thought there was something, something more than just sex. Was I wrong?

  “Of course, I do! Ashley, I never thought I could say this, but I do love you.”

  And he stilled planned on doing this?

  “Then I deserve the truth. The full story.”

  Jacob looked around nervously. After a few moments, as if realizing that he didn’t have another option, he nodded and made his way over to the couch.

  “Alright fine.”

  I sat down beside him, waiting. I wanted to understand.

  “As you’ve probably figured out by now, this is about Becky.”

  “Yes. I clued into that.”

  “I told you already that she died. She was killed by the man I’ve been trying to find. He stalked her for six months before he killed her. My friends and I, we tried to do everything we could to keep her safe. We made up every excuse in the books to tell our parents so we could all be together, and it was working for the most part. We’d see him hanging around every now and then, but he wouldn’t approach her if we were there. We tried to get her to go to the police, but she wouldn’t. She … she never had luck with cops before, and she was sure they wouldn’t be any help to her.”

  I reached out and took his arm. He glanced at me and smiled.

  “We did everything we could.”

  “Of course, you did.” It sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than me to be honest.

  He stared off into space for a long time. “So … what happens if I don’t call the cops on you?” I still had a few more things to figure out, but I wasn’t so sure this man deserved to live.

  “I can’t say for sure.” He shrugged. “We kill him, and we either get caught or we kill ourselves.”

  My heart dropped into my stomach. That had not been what I was expecting to hear. I stared at him unable to believe that he might actually kill himself.

  “Oh.”

  He looked at me, reached out and covered my hand with his then smiled softly. It wasn’t a happy smile. “Ashley, no matter what happens; from now on I’m going to tell you everything.”

  “Everything? You promise?”

  “I promise Ashley. From now on we are in this together if you will have me.”

  “Of course.”

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