Page 79 of Tainted Love
“Oh, but I do.”
“Shut up, Madeline,” Benny growls.
I slowly turn my head to face the one guy I thought had my back.
“You said something?”
He shakes his head, murmuring out the side of his mouth so only I can hear him. “She’s fishing, but the way you’re reacting is telling her everything she needs to know.”
A whimper from Jas has my eyes moving to her as the rain comes down heavier. Nick is pressed against her back and is restraining her arms behind her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I go to take a step forward, but Benny grabs my arm with a brief shake of his head. I shrug him off me, glaring at his younger brother. “Let her go.”
“Or what?” Nick challenges me, his free arm comes up to circle her throat, squeezing. Her eyes widen and mascara-stained tears mix with the rain as they both run down her cheeks. Jas squirms in his hold, but he just tightens his hand until her pale face turns red. “I think we need to see what’s so special about her.” He nods at Sam, who pulls out the flick knife his grandad gave him before he died, leaving him with no other living family.
Sam tosses it to Nick. He lets go of Jas’s throat to catch it, and she gasps in a deep breath, but our relief is short-lived when he rips open her jacket and uses the knife to slice down her T-shirt and bra.
Jas cries out as he roughly grabs at her chest, squeezing first one breast before moving on to assault the other. “N-no … please. S-stop,” she begs, and my heart shatters at the terror in her voice.
Jas was removed from her adoptive mother and placed in foster care after Jas confided in her teacher that her mother’sbiological son—who was a few years older than us—had been grooming her.
Her bitch of a mother refused to believe her, and when Jas was told she’d have to go back to the house because there was no evidence, she slit her wrists. She’d been placed with the Ferguson’s six months before Oli and me. There’s no way I can stand by and watch as Nick rapes her after what she’s been through.
Madeline grins, stalking over to them, Sam hot on her heels like the little bitch he is. She pauses in front of Jas and presses a manicured finger to her lips. “Shh, Gothikana. It will all be over soon. Be a good girl and we won’t make it hurt too much.”
“Stop it!” I shout desperately. I turn to Benny, grabbing him by the shirt, my chest tightening. “Do something,please. Tell them to let her go.”
“What makes you think we’d listen to that limp-dick pussy?” Nick laughs as his fingers trace around her bellybutton before inching down towards the waist of her jeans. Jas sobs, and the sound almost brings me to my knees.
Benny drops his head. “I’m sorry. I pissed her off when I refused to fuck her anymore. She won’t listen to me.”
I shove him away, disgusted by his weakness, and not giving a shit when he trips over his own feet and lands heavily on his arse in the wet mud. He was my last hope, and now it’s me against the three of them.
I turn my attention back to Madeline, who is torturing the girl I’m in love with, and choke out, “You want me? Fine. You can fucking have me. I’m yours. Just let her go.”
“Aww, that’s cute,” Madeline coos, tucking Jas’s hair behind her eyes. “Look at him, trying to give himself up to protect his little gothic princess.”
“She doesn’t mean anything to me,” I say, forcing out a laugh that sounds as cold and cruel as my foster sister. Pushing my soaked hair back off my face, bile rises in the back of my throat from the lies I’m forced to spew.
Jas’s sobs get louder, but I force myself not to look at her if it means I can save her from whatever vindictive plan Madeline has planned.
“I don’t give a shit about her.” As I talk, I take small steps around the fire towards where Nick is holding Jas, never taking my eyes off Madeline. “She was a game to me, a way to keep myself entertained. You were too damn easy, Madeline, the way you threw yourself at me.”
I know I fucked up when the smile drops off her face.
She lets out an inhuman screech and Nick’s eyes widen when she spins around and snatches Sam’s knife from his hand. And I watch in horror as she drives it into Jas’s stomach. Two, three, four times.
“No!” I scream, running to catch her as Nick shoves her away from his body. I fall to my knees in the mud, pressing my hands against her stomach, which causes Jas to whimper. Blood—there is so much fucking blood. Jas’s eyes, full of betrayal, meet mine. Her face scrunches in pain, and her breathing is laboured. “Stay with me, Black Rose,” I murmur in her ear, pressing my trembling lips to her temple. “I didn’t mean any of that shit I said. I love you. Don’t leave me. God, please don’t leave me.”
Chapter 44
Bea
MY VISION BLURS, and I taste the salt of the tears streaming down my cheeks at Elias’s heartbreak. It’s like something from a true crime story.
“Holy shit,” is all I can manage.
Elias stops and turns to face me, catching me when I almost run into him. “I understand if you hate me for what I did that night, Duchess. I hate myself, and I never should have played into Madeline’s games. Jas died thinking I’d manipulated her, that I’d been using her, and I’ll never forgive myself for that.”
