The Other Sister (Sister Series, #1) (11 page)

Jessie entered her father’s office, and there was a buzz around her as she walked past her father’s soldiers, men and women whose entire careers were focused on honor and duty. She was an embarrassment to all they stood for. She knew that. She disgraced her father, and therefore everyone in uniform. Until now, she loved that reputation. She wanted to remain just what she was. But now? Now, she wanted to disappear into vapor.

Her skin flushed, she was
completely ashamed. She was their enemy, making a martyred walk through the gauntlet. Finally, she entered the sterile world of her father’s office. He stood up at her arrival. His face was stony and imposing. He stared her down, unflinching, and unmoving until she dropped her gaze and took a chair.

She tried to believe her behavior was only because she liked thumbing her nose at her father. But in fact, all her life, everything she did was primarily to get his attention. She was not proud of who she was or what she did to get her father’s love.
Even more humiliating is that nothing worked.

“Do you think I arranged to get you home safely just so you could do this to me? I should have let you rot in Mexico.”

She turned her head away.

“You’re a bad person. You do bad things. You wonder why Mexico happened to you and not Lindsey? Karma, that’s why, or God giving you what you deserve.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” she whispered, her voice barely audible.

“You’re sorry? You humiliated yourself, your sister, and me. Sorry doesn’t even touch this. Will took you home? What did you do with him?”

“Nothing.”

He laughed a hollow laugh. “I’ve had the displeasure of watching my daughter
giving head on a full screen. How many other men have to live with that? Don’t patronize me with your virtues. I repeat, what did you do with him?”

“Nothing, sir. I swear.”

The general fell silent. She finally raised her eyes to his to see what he was doing. His eyes were on his desk, but they were unseeing. Finally, he plopped down in his chair and leaned back, to put his elbows on the armrests. Then, with his fingers on his chin, he finally smiled. “We’ll just pass the baby off as his.”

Jessie’s mouth fell open, and her fingers raked into her palms.

“How did you know?”

“I’m not as stupid as you. You’re not good at hiding anything. We’ll just let Will think he fathered it.”

“No. We won’t. He knows it can’t be his baby. I really did
not
sleep with him.”

The general continued to stare at her.

“I didn’t, sir.”

“That’s a first. The one time it could have actually worked to our advantage. At least, your sister isn’t like you. I always hoped she was more selective, not that she was still a virgin, and there you were laying into her as if that were a bad thing. So explain to me why Will Hendricks doesn’t hate you? Why did he help you last night?”

“Because he feels sorry for me.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“He knows, doesn’t he?”

“What?”

“Will must know everything. Otherwise, he’d be reacting differently to you. He’s protective of you, and if that’s not possessiveness, then what? He must know what happened to you. Does he know you’re pregnant?”

She nodded her head.

The general pressed a button on his phone. “Send
Colonel Hendricks in.”

Dizziness washed over her. The room was closing in, her father was staring at her, and now Will came in with that strangely perpendicular perfect stride of a good soldier. Will stopped and saluted her father, without looking this way or that. His face totally expressionless, he stood there, not even glancing her way. It was as if she were suddenly invisible. Like that, she saw the root cause of most of her problems: she was always invisible, despite how hard she tried not to be. But somehow, it hurt much worse that Will refused to see or acknowledge her.

“Have a seat, soldier.”

Will sat near her, his eyes focused only on the general.

“You lied to me.”

Will didn’t even flinch. “Yes, sir.”

“You know everything about Jessie, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why did you lie?”

“She asked me to, sir.”

“And you would disobey me, and lie to me, just because some girl asked you to?”

Will held her father’s gaze. “Not normally. It was extraordinary circumstances, as I understand you are now aware of.”

Jessie was following the conversation from a tunnel. Her vision was fuzzy, her head dizzy, and her stomach full of nerves. Bile climbed up the back of her throat.

“Sir, I’m not feeling well.”

Both men turned towards her, their eyes wide as if neither remembered she was still in the room. Will turned his head to stare at the flags behind her father. Her father gave her an irritated scowl. “Just shut up
, Jessie. I’m trying to prevent you from further destroying my life.”

“I know, but I really don’t feel well.”

“What is it? The drugs you took last night? Sit there, and shut up until I figure out what to do with you.” The general turned back to Will, offering Jessie a view of his perfected stony profile.

Jessie grabbed her mouth as she got up and stumbled to the garbage can near her father’s feet. Falling to her knees, she threw up. She
half missed the trash can and got a chunk or two on her father’s shoe. Her tears were falling as she got sick, mingling with the knot in her gut. She finally emptied her stomach. The ringing in her ears stopped, and her head cleared. Then she was back to the silence of her father’s office, and her father staring down at her in absolute fury. Will still sat calmly in position. She fell back onto her heels, feeling so wretched and alone that she wished she could die.

She saw her father’s foot move back, before it swung forward. She closed her eyes, wincing, waiting for the blow. But nothing. She opened her eyes, and looked up. Her father was staring down at her in a rage that instantly had her scrambling back. If they’d been alone, her father would have swung his boot hard and kicked her in the stomach as she sat curled at his feet in total humiliation.

“You’re pathetic. Get up. Get that out of here.”

She nodded. Of course, she should get up. Her legs shook, and her stomach felt hollow. She rubbed off the pointless tears of humiliation and shut her eyes, glad that Will couldn’t see her crouched behind the desk. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and opened her eyes. There stood Will beside her. He knelt down and gently lifted her up, pressing a tissue into her hands. Her mouth fell open to speak, but the utter shock she felt at seeing Will get up, and come to her defense, despite her father’s obvious disdain, left her speechless.

Will carried her back to the chair where she nearly collapsed on her shaking legs. She dared not look at her father. Then Will disappeared momentarily,
and came back with two wet towels. One, he handed to her, and the other, to her father. Then he took the offensive waste basket and shut it inside the bathroom. Methodically, and wordlessly, he sat back down on his chair as if he knew he could do as he pleased in the presence of the general.

Daring to finally look at her father, she saw him staring down Will, before leaning over and wiping his shoe. He put the soiled towel in the bathroom before sitting back down at his desk. He looked at Will, then
at Jessie. She had no clue what to expect next, never mind what her father thought. She feared how much trouble Will would get in for showing her any kindness or compassion.

“You seem to think Jessie needs your help, don’t you
, Will?”

“Yes, I think Ms. Bains needs help. Any kind of help.”

Bold. God, Will was so bold and terrifying to go up against her father, on her behalf. Why was he doing this? It would do her no good, and could only jeopardize his career. The general was petty, and would not easily forget this.

“And the bastard she carries? What do you think I should do about that?”

Will didn’t look at her. “I think it’s Ms. Bains’s choice to decide that.”

“Wrong
, soldier. I have every say in it, because I stand to lose the most from it.”

Will was quiet at first. Then he raised his eyes to her father, as surely as if he raised himself to his full height. “Why did you call me in here? What do you want?”

“I considered abortion. But what if it ever comes out? And knowing Jessie, she’d advertise it just to get to me. So now, that leaves me with her having it. Problem is: who’s the daddy going to be?”

Will was silent. He didn’t turn his head, but held the general’s stare. “You want me to be the father.”

“That’s exactly what I had in mind.”

Jessie sat up straight. “No, sir. No. I never agreed to anything like this. No. There’s no way Will can be the father.”

Her father swiveled his chair towards her. The glint in his eye went from cold to furious. “Shut up, Jessie. I’ve heard more than enough out of you.”

Jessie ignored him, and turned towards Will, who was staring at her father, and didn’t turn to look at her.

“Will, he can’t make you do this. You’re a soldier, but you’re not honor-bound to help out in a personal situation. He can’t possibly make you take responsibility for a baby that isn’t yours. He can’t. Even he isn’t that powerful.”

Will finally looked at her and held her eyes. Then he turned back to her father as he spoke. “Why don’t you excuse us for a few moments
, Ms. Bains?”

She looked helplessly from her father to Will and back. What was this?

“It’s my baby. You can’t tell me to have it, or not to. And you can’t make me pretend someone else is the father. Not even you can do this to me.”

She stood up, but her father circled around his desk, and stepped towards her, towering over her. She retreated slightly as he nearly trampled her. His intimidation was very real to her. “You want to repeat that to me?”

She swallowed her fear, and stepped back a little more. He followed her forward and would eventually pin her to the wall. “I-it’s just not something I can do.”

“You will do whatever I tell you to do. Is that understood?”

His fists were clenched at his side, but she was safe this time because he wouldn’t touch her in front of anyone. Judging by the anger in his eyes, the only reason he wouldn’t was because of Will Hendricks’s presence. And weak as she always was, she couldn’t defy him, no matter how hard she tried. She could never escape her father. “Y-yes sir,” she finally replied. Seeing the rage in his eyes made her fear that one day it would land her in the morgue.

“Now get out of here.”

Will quietly closed the door of the general’s office as he left. He wanted to slam it, rattle the doorframe,
and stomp out through the waiting room. But he knew better. He knew how to choose his battles. Now, he knew that the general was on the warpath. The conceited bastard thought Will was his ally, like so many of his other soldiers, his minions, who looked up to him as a god. Their misguided adoration was for a man more suited to be called a devil. What did the general think? That he didn’t see him poised with his foot back, ready to kick his pregnant daughter for retching at his feet? Will jumped up, prepared to tackle the general, before the general suddenly shifted his weight to both feet.

That’s when Will came to Jessie’s side, as if to assist her only, not to protect her from her father’s physical abuse.

Of course, he only came to her defense after she was verbally abused by being called names, intimidated, and bullied. Will finally understood what was really wrong with Jessie Bains. Quite simply, her father often beat the shit out of her. Will knew it now in his gut. The general was pinning her, through his intimidation, against the wall. The way Will saw her cower, and be victimized made him think she was used to such treatment. He was sure Jessie didn’t even notice it, as it was normal for her.

But it wasn’t normal for Will. He sat there watching, his hand pushing into his knee to keep from rising up, and slamming his fist in the general’s face. He imagined throwing him to the floor, and standing on his chest while telling him to try intimidating someone his own size. Will couldn’t stomach bullying or cruelty, especially when it was directed to those much weaker, and whom you
were supposed to love most.

But as in Mexico, Will did nothing. He stood by and watched Jessie getting humiliated. He followed the protocol of his rank, his career. He allowed a young girl to be terrorized, raped, and now abused in his presence.

Now, however, he decided he wasn’t going to ever do it again.

He made the decision when Jessie obeyed her father’s order to get out, and saw how the general yelled at her like she was no better than a stray dog he’d just as soon kick as look at.

General Bains did not give one thought to what Will witnessed. He didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. He had no problem with Will seeing how poorly he treated his daughter, and that worried Will more than anything. What then, did bother the general?
What must he do to Jessie behind closed doors?

“You understand I can’t make you take responsibility for Jessie’s bastard. I’m down on
my knees here, soldier, I hope you see that. I need your assistance. I thought, perhaps you could pretend, only for a short duration, that it was your kid, marry her even, and then we’ll send her away to have the kid. We’ll say it died, you two can divorce, and you can go on with your life.”

Will was
silently astonished at the cold, strange, scenario the general seemed to have already decided on.

“You must be wondering why you should do such a thing. Of course
, you don’t have to, soldier, you really don’t. But as before, I would be indebted. And, as you know, I pay my debts, Will, I pay them in full. And this would be a huge obligation for me.”

Will wanted to tell General Bains to shove it up his ass. That he couldn’t pawn his daughter because she was an inconvenience, or might damage his reputation further. Will
would never consider the offer, if he didn’t know what he now, unfortunately, knew about Jessie.

He wished he didn’t know anything about her. As always with Jessie, he wished he hadn’t observed the truth. But now that he had, how could he ignore it? Didn’t he ignore everything else that Jessie suffered? Now he would finally pay for it. He felt so guilty, he feared an ulcer might develop in his gut. At least, he could pay a debt he now felt he owed Jessie. She deserved to be safe.

“What is it Jessie does?”

“Does?”

“As in every day? She lives at home. Why? She’s twenty years old.”

“I have to keep her close, if only to minimize her damage to my career. Surely, you’ve seen or heard her press of late
, you can understand that. She does nothing. She flunked out of college, after barely scraping through high school. She can’t do anything right. Except of course, blowing my soldiers. That’s the only thing in which she excels.”

Will kept his mouth shut, and as usual, allowed Jessie to be tarnished some more. The general had complete and utter control of Jessie. She couldn’t buy anything without her father’s permission and couldn’t escape whatever hell she had to endure at home. She was her father’s prisoner.

“She’ll have to live with me.”

The general’s eyes focused on Will’s face as a gleam of interest and eagerness suddenly lit them up. Will was actually considering his offer.

“Of course. You can have her. For the gestation, that is.”

Will didn’t like talking about Jessie like she was livestock for sale. But he did it anyway, just to get her away from the general.

“I’ll marry her, and I’ll pretend it’s my baby. But the thing is, General Bains, she acts out in rebellion of you. In order to keep her from embarrassing me, if she’s going to be my wife, then my say over her is final. Not yours. You just try to be nice to her, and keep your distance. I’m sure she’ll stop if you’ll stop.”

The general’s face shifted, and he leaned back. General Travis Bains didn’t like surrendering control over anything, especially Jessie. But the general needed Will in order to save face.

“Agreed?” Will pressed.

The general stood up and stuck his hand out. “Agreed, soldier. You aren’t like most of my men.”

Will stood up and met the general’s gaze. He nodded. “No
, sir, I am not. Don’t forget that.”

Will saluted, spun on his heel and left.

Now, all he had to figure out was what to do after becoming engaged to Jessie Bains.