Dark Passion (The Dark Brother Series Book One) (6 page)

“Meet me in my room,
” he murmurs to the woman.

She
grins and runs her hand over his chest, then turns and walks into his room. I stare at the painful red gash on his stomach and shudder. He’ll have a scar for life because of me, but then, so will I. Jagger walks over and stops beside me, but I continue preparing dinner for the evening.

“I’ll be busy for a few hours.”

“Good for you.” I say, simply.

“You know what happens if you run.”

I sigh; he goes over this with me every day since my escape. I know what he’ll do, and I know I can’t run. “You’ll find my Sister and ensure I stay because I can’t get away from you, bla bla bla.”

He grips my face and turns my head harshly. “Don’t fuck with me Willow, if you don’t think I’m serious I can send someone out right now to find your
Sister.”

“
Leave her out of this!”

“Don’t push
me; you won’t like how it ends.”

Even though Jagger goes easy on me
most of the time, I have no doubt in my mind that if it came down to it, he would get hold of my Sister to keep me here. I don’t think he would hurt her, but I’d never let her be put in this situation. I feel so trapped some days, like I just can’t get out. If I run, my family pays. If I don’t, I suffer slowly in this hell hole. The problem with me, though, is that I’ll always put my family first. I have to just deal with this situation until my Father comes out of hiding.

“I know how it ends Jagger, you tell me every fucking day. Go and enjoy your slut, I’m bu
sy,” I snap, depression taking over. I’ve had enough of being reminded about my situation.

“Jealous?”

“Get fucked.”

“I plan to.”

He turns and walks off and I flip him the bird, again.

“Saw that.”

“Asshole,” I mutter.

He laughs and slams the door to his room, and I slam the knife down on the bench. Heck, I’d love to test him right now. I truly would. I’m so
angry; I just want him to pay. He thinks he’s got me down, that I can’t get free of him. I could though, if I really wanted to. I stare down at the knife and I can’t deny that suicidal feelings have gone through my mind a lot lately. Depression is the understatement for what I’ve felt at times.

Maybe I should test him, maybe I should see how he would react to walk out and find me in a pool of my own blood. The man clearly doesn’t give a fuck about me, and he isn’t about to let me go
, so maybe this is my only option. Maybe if I only did it a little, then he would have to take me to a hospital and someone would clue on. The whole idea is twisted, but it seems to make sense in my head and that frightens me.

I grip the knife in my hand and swallow, give him something to truly worry about. Do it Willow, do it or suffer in your own silence. I bring the knife down onto my wrist, just as
Jagger’s door opens and he walks out with a towel wrapped around his waist. He freezes when he sees me pressing the knife against my wrist. His eyes widen and his hands slowly come up in front of him.

“Willow…put the knife down.”

“What for Jagger?” I whisper. “So you can continue to keep me prisoner and threaten my Sister? If I’m dead, you have no need to go for her. If I’m dead, I don’t have to keep living like this.”

“I won’t hurt your
Sister; just put the fuckin’ knife down.”

His voice is
panicked, does Jagger care about me? I press it harder into my skin and cry out as a burning pain shoots up my arm and blood trickles down my hand.

“Fuck it, put the fuckin’ knife down!” H
e steps forward and I press it harder.

“You come closer, I’ll finish it Jagger. I’m not
stupid; you’re just saying what I want to hear. I’ve got nothing left. I’ll never escape this.”

“Willow, you’ll be fine,” he yells, gripping his hair.
“I’ll fuckin’ let you go. When we have your Father, I give you my word that I’ll let you go and never bother you or your Sister again. I promise it will be over for you when this is finished with. You won’t need to live your life in fear.”

I look up at
him and desperate tears thunder down my cheeks. “How do I know you’re not lying?”

He shakes his head, and takes a hesitant step forward. “I promise
, I won’t let you return to a life where you have to look over your shoulder. I’ll give you that much. After everything I’ve done, I’ll give you that. I’ll make this right for you, but you have to trust me.”

“Promise?”
I whisper, blinking my tears back.

“I promise
…”

I close my eyes, and the burning pain in my wrist seems to give me some sort of comfort, or maybe
it’s Jagger’s words. He takes the opportunity to lunge at me, and soon my body is slammed against the cold floor and the knife skitters across the room. I fight him, with everything I have inside. I fight so hard it hurts. He grips my wrists and pins them above my head, and I cry out in pain as his rough hands press against my open flesh.

I struggle beneath him, my face soaked in tears. He
lies on top of me, panting and staring into my pain stricken eyes. I mumble incoherent words, over and over. He puts both my hands into one of his, and with his free hand he strokes tear dampened hair away from my face. I am trembling beneath him, and for the first time he actually looks like he cares how he’s making me feel.

“I promise,”
he whispers, lowering his face. “I promise you.”

Then
his lips are on mine. I didn’t see this coming; I would have never seen this one coming. I whimper and part my lips, and he slides his tongue into my mouth. I shouldn’t want this, it’s so wrong and yet I can’t bring myself to push him away. He works me over with his mouth, in a way no one ever has before. His lips are soft, luring me in and taking me over. His free hand tangles through my hair as he raises my head to deepen the kiss.

“Jagger?”

The female voice snaps us back into reality. He jerks his head up, not taking his eyes off my lips. I am panting, my chest rising and falling with want and desperate need. He gets off me, and I can see his clear arousal. He pulls me to my feet and turns to face the pretty blonde woman standing in a bra and panties, staring at us. She looks at my bleeding wrist, then at the knife and her eyes widen.

“I should go…”

Jagger seems to stiffen, as though he realizes what he’s done.

“No,
don’t go. You came here to fuck and we’re going to fuck.”

“
Jagger,” I whisper, hurt.

He spins around and gl
ares at me. “Get to your fuckin’ room and if you ever try a stunt like that again, I’ll fuckin’ kill you myself.”

I gasp, and stand trembling as he grips the girl and pul
ls her back towards the room. Something painful and ugly tears through my heart, and I realize I have feelings for Jagger.

CHAPTER 7

I wake up the next day so sick I can’t move. I didn’t see it coming, I didn’t even feel a twinge but now I’m sweating even though I feel freezing and my head is spinning. I know I’m running a massive fever, and I know I haven’t felt this sick for a long, long time; if ever. I get out of bed and stumble to the floor, my head spins and I grip anything I can find for balance.

The door opens and Jagger walks in, then stops dead when he sees me lying pitifully on the floor. I haven’t seen him since last
night; he didn’t even come in to make sure I didn’t bleed to death. Ok, I didn’t cut myself that badly and a bandaid did the job…but still. After that kiss, I thought….Well it doesn’t matter what I thought. I was wrong.

“Are you sick?”

I open my mouth to answer him, but everything hurts so badly. My mouth is dry, my head is literally pounding and my stomach is turning horribly. I grip my head and groan, and he drops down in front of me and puts his hand on my forehead.

“Holy shit,” he mutters.

I groan again, and my world begins to swim. Jagger lifts me off the floor and places me down on the bed, and I groan in protest. He puts his hand on my head again and then turns and rushes out. He’s back a moment later with a cool cloth and some pain killers. I swallow them greedily, only to wince in pain when they slide down my raw throat.

“They will help your fever…”

“Something’s wrong Jagger, I need a doctor.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

I roll and begin shivering again. This continues on all day, and I only get worse. I begin hallucinating and talking to myself. My body goes from hot to cold and back again, and I tremble constantly. In the evening the other group members come over and I hear them arguing about what to do.

“If she dies, we could be in more trouble
than it’s worth,” Ace says.

“
We can’t take her to a hospital.” Snake snaps.

“We can’t let her fucking die either,” Jagger snarls.

“Call your Sister.”

Jagger has a
Sister?

“She’ll flip if she knows we’ve been keeping a girl prisoner.”

“It’s the only option, Jagger, the call is yours.” Angel says, and all goes quiet.

~*~*~*~*~

Two hours later, Jagger is kneeling on the bed beside me. He takes my face in his hands and forces me to look at him.

“I’m callin’ a doctor, but you have to promise not to tell her why you’re here. I will keep my end of the deal; I’ll let you go as promised. Tell her you’re my girlfriend, can you do that for me?”

I nod weakly, and he surprises me by leaning down and grazing his lips across my head. Maybe I’m still hallucinating. It wouldn’t surprise me. He changes my clothes, making me look a little more decent before the doctor arrives. A woman enters the room ten minutes later, and walks over to the bed. She stares around the room, and frowns.

“Why are the windows barred up?”

Jagger shrugs, “I have things I don’t want stolen from me.”

Yeah like me.

“She should be in a room with fresh air Jagger, some boyfriend you are.”

“Back off Maggie, I didn’t think of that.”

The woman named Maggie, who I’m fairly sure is Jagger’s Sister, kneels by the bed. She’s very beautiful, with dark black hair and light green eyes.

“Hi Willow, my name’s Maggie and I’m a doctor.”

I nod, it’s the best I can do.

“Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“She’s got fevers, shaking, her throat hurts and she’s been sick about four times.” Jagger says, kneeling beside me too.

Maggie takes my
temperature and her face falls. “She’s burning up badly, Johnny, go and get my script book. I’ll write a script. Why didn’t you take her to the doctor sooner?”

“It’s a long way to drive, over two hours. I thought it was just a cold.”

“Well, you’re lucky she didn’t die.”

“You can’t let her die,
” Jagger says suddenly. Part of me wonders if it’s because he won’t get his information, or if he actually cares about me.

She spins on him. “
Next time your girl gets sick Johnny, take her to a doctor. She needs some fresh air and a shower, she looks awful. I don’t want to know why she looks so bad, but if I find out you’re hurting her, I’ll make you pay.”

Jagger grips her arm, but I open my mouth and croak out, “Jagger is helping me, I was in trouble and only showed up yesterday. We have been seeing each other for a while, but I walked most of the way out here. I had no other way, and my phone was gone. I never got a chance to shower, because I got so sick.”

Maggie looks at me, and Jagger gives me a pained look. I know what he’s thinking. I’m thinking the same thing. Why did I defend him?

“Well, it’s not a wonder you’re sick. Walking that far,” Maggie says, handing Jagger her script book.

He has nothing for that one. He just walks out of the room. A moment later he returns. “Here’s the script pad,” he says thrusting a pad at her.

She fills it out quickly, and then stands. “I’ll go and get this and
a drip. You stay here.

She turns and walks to
wards the door, but stops when she gets to it. She turns and gives Jagger a hard stare. “Get her in the shower, and open the damn window. I know we were raised without parents to teach us these things, but by God Johnny, you treat women better than this!”

He nods and she stares at me once more, then turns and walks out without another word. Jagger sits beside me, and then after a moment he pulls me out of the bed and into the bathroom.

“What’re you doing?” I whisper hoarsely.

“She’s
right; you deserve a real shower. Sit here, I’ll be back.”

He leaves the room after putting me on the floor beside the tub. He comes back a moment later with an arm full of soaps, shampoos, conditioners and a new toothbrush and toothpaste. He also gives me a brush and a razor, as well as some fresh clothes. I stare at the items, and it feels like Christmas to me. I force a weak smile and try to get to my feet, but my head swims again and I come crashing back down.