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“No, but I can advise. If you had listened to me, you’d have realised that was what I was doing,” he answers as he sighs and walks into the room. He stops and hooks a finger under my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Do you know you fell asleep in the car last night and didn’t wake up once? Even when Maximus carried you up the stairs and took off your shoes and put you into bed you didn’t so much as moan. With that amount of alcohol in your system, anything could have happened to you and you wouldn’t have known. You could also get back to that state even quicker tonight as your body is still recovering,” he explains looking into my eyes. “Now tell me drinking again is a good idea.”
I drop my head in defeat as he removes his hooked finger from under my chin. I know he’s right, but I still really want to go as a few friends I haven’t seen for a while will be there. When I tell him this, I hear him sigh as he sits down on my bed and pulls me onto his knees. I used to think it was weird when I sat on the guys’ lap, they are my stepbrothers after all, plus we’re all adults. But there is a large part of me that likes it too. When I’m sitting on their laps and they have their arms around me I feel protected. It’s something I haven’t felt since my father left.
“How about this? I will take you to the house party and will pick you up when you’re ready to come home. That way you know that at the end of the night, you are getting home safely, and I won’t worry as much about you,” he suggests as he wraps his arms around my waist. I sigh as I nod in agreement, knowing that if I argue he will find a way to take me anyway.
“Good girl. See that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I look at Christian and smile, trying to ignore the way his praise makes my stomach knot. Christian kisses my cheek as his arms tighten around my waist for a moment before he leans back.
“Now come on, let’s finish breakfast, as some of us have to work at some point today.” He stands and places a hand on the base of my back to guide me to the door and back to the others whom I can still hear laughing around the table.
3
Jason
Christian’s Mercedes pulls up in front of me as Terry our head of securities car parks behind. I jump into Christian’s passenger seat.
“What’s going on that you need meandTerry?” I ask tugging on the seatbelt. Christian pulls away from one of our Gentlemen’s Clubs where I’ve been holding a business meeting. I don’t miss the way he’s clutching the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles are white, he’s staring at the traffic in front of us like it’s preventing him from being somewhere important.
“Jasmine called upset, I’m going to pick her up now,” he replies setting the satnav to take us to a house that looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere.
“What did that prick do?” I ask through gritted teeth as I feel my hands curling into fists.
“I don’t know, she wouldn’t tell me what was wrong so I wanted back up,” Christian explains as he starts weaving through the traffic, putting his foot down whenever he can.
“You think he’s hurt her?” I ask grabbing hold of the handle above the door, now understanding Christian’s urgency. He curses as a traffic light turns red.
“I honestly have no idea. I’ll drop you off just down from the house and go to collect her. I’ll leave my phone connected to yours so you can hear what happened.” Christian glances at me and I know what he wants. “The party is in his house so that should make it easy to get to him once people start leaving.”
“Make sure he never contacts her again and show him what happens if he does, gotcha. Are we going firm verbal warning like that idiot Mark? Or kick his ass like the prick Lawrence?” I look behind us and see Terry keeping up. “Is Terry my lift home?”
Christian nods as we pull off the main road and head down a quieter one.
“The threat you issue depends on what he’s done. If he’s laid one finger on her, I don’t give a shit if you kill the fucker.” If he has hurt her either physically or emotionally he’s a dead man anyway. I broke Lawrence’s hand for getting handsy with her, nothing is off-limits when it comes to our girl’s safety.
After a bit of a drive, Christian pulls over to the side of the road, Terry pulling up behind him. I climb out and lean in through the door.
“Wait for my call and listen to see what he’s done. I trust your judgement,” Christian says leaning towards me. I nod and look up the road to where I know Jasmine is.
“And if he isn’t the reason she’s upset? If he hasn’t done anything wrong?” I ask to clarify.
“Then get him to end it, I’m starting to run out of patience.”
I sigh as I look at my brother.
“You know you could end all this messing around she’s doing if you would just let us claim her,” I point out, but he shakes his head.
“Not yet, we agreed to wait until she was twenty-one,” he answers as he sits back up in his chair and faces forward. “Wait for my call and take it from there. I will take her back to hers and will be in touch.” Christian takes his foot off the break and starts to pull away as I close the car door realising I’ve been dismissed.
I watch his car disappear up the dirt road before getting into Terry’s. At least it’s warmer in there to wait for the go-ahead.
“Jason,” Terry greets me as I climb into the front.
“Terry,” I nod as I look down at my phone and wait for the call from Christian.
“What do we know about this place?” I ask. Terry hands me a tablet with google maps up on the screen, zoomed in on the house.
It’s an old farm by the looks of it. I can’t see any livestock in the recent photos. Terry has found the property details on an estate agent’s website. Six bedrooms, two dining rooms, kitchen, summer house and conservatory. Plenty of exits for someone to be taken from.
