AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She shrank into herself, biting harder on her finger. Her mouth was forming weird shapes, trying to control her anxiety. “The call was answered. The truck filled with gurgling sounds. I didn't know what it was, but Jasper did. He gestured for me to be quiet, and took the phone. There were bad noises. More gurgling. Then someone spoke. Jasper's half-brother.”
What came next was difficult, Connie knew. While she hadn't heard it from Anarchy's side, she'd listened to Jasper's account. His attention to detail was phenomenal, which made hearing it all the more gruesome. From what Connie understood, Michael had been captured while waiting to pick up the tail on Jasper's truck, by Erik and Gerald—Jasper's half-brothers. The brothers had driven him down the road, and he'd been left with Gerald.
When Jasper called, Gerald had killed Michael. Erik had gone back and picked up the tail on Jasper and Anarchy, posing as Michael. Michael's body had been thrown in front of Jasper's truck as a diversion, a means to get Jasper to stop. And that was how the ambush had been executed.
“Gerald, the big one, killed Michael. The bastard threw Michael's body right in front of us. We were trying to call Atticus, but he wasn't answering, and then…” Anarchy fisted her hands. “Jasper slammed the brakes on. Hit them straight away, but the truck…we were going too fast. The tires went over the body. We ran him over. Everything happened at once. Gerald walked out in front of the truck, Erik had pulled up behind us. Atticus's line was busy, busy, busy. And Jasper got out of the truck, dragged me into the driver's seat, and told me to leave. To drive away and just leave him there.”
“But you didn't,” Connie coaxed gently. She needed to tread gently here. “You stayed.”
“I-I was in shock. I just sat there while Jasper was pinned between two men who wanted to take him back to their father. They wanted me too. Jasper says I'm not allowed to think about what might have happened, that it doesn't matter now, but sometimes at night…”
Now this was a direction Connie was curious to follow. Archie had mentioned some of what Dominic's intentions had been for her once he got his dirty hands on her, and there'd been talk between Atticus and Jasper about it as well. “It's okay, Archie. You can't control what you think about, sweetheart, and if it's something that's bugging you, get it off your chest. I won't say anything to Jasper.”
“He said I shouldn't think about it—”
Connie lifted a finger in the air, wagged it. “I love Jasper, he's one of my best friends. Unfortunately, he has two strikes against him—one, he's a man. Two, he's a Dom. He wants to protect you, Archie, and telling you not to think about it is his way of shielding you from being afraid. A woman's greatest fear is being raped, and we need to be blunt here, don't we, about Dominic's plans for you.”
Anarchy sucked her lower lip into her mouth. Chewing restlessly on it, her eyes dropped to the bottle in her hands. “He wanted me as bait to lure Jasper back to Virginia. That's how it started.”
“Yes.”
“Then it wasn't just about getting Jasper back into that hell. That wasn't enough for him. I was the prize in his cereal box. The perfect means to keeping Jasper under his control. Dominic would've used me to make Jasper behave, to perform. If they threatened to hurt me, Jasper would do anything to stop it from happening. If he disobeyed or showed any signs of rebelling, Dominic would have raped me as punishment. Probably for fun, too.”
Leaning forward, Connie took Archie's cold hand in hers. “Does understanding that it wouldn't have been your fault or Jasper's make it easier to cope with?”
“It didn't happen, so there's nothing tocope with. But I lie awake at night and all I can think of is what it would have done to Jasper if it had. And then when I sleep, everything slams together into one big, horrible mess, and I'm lying in the road beside the body of two dead men, being raped by a man with no face, while Jasper's paralyzed and helpless.” Tears sprang as her chin quivered. “I'm screaming Jasper's name and looking in his eyes, and I can't do anything but watch him break into pieces.”
We're finally getting somewhere. “What about you, Archie?”
“It's not about me!” In a sudden fit of rage, she hurled the bottle across the room with the speed and aim of a pitcher trying out for a pro team. “I could survive it. I could survive being raped, I could live with the scars and the pain, but hecan't. He's been through so much already, so fucking much we can't understand, but I'm the one who can break him.”
“Sweetie, look at me. Look at me,” Connie said darkly as Archie's temper threatened to blast through the session like a tornado. “It's a nightmare. It's not reality. Neither of you are broken—the pair of you are a little banged up, but you're strong. Together, you're healing. Slowly, but slow is good. Slow is thorough.”
“I'm hurting him.”
“What makes you think that? I've never seen him happier.”
Anarchy rubbed her hands over her face. “He thinks it's his fault, everything that happened that night. It was his father who started the ball rolling, his brothers who were sent to do the job. His past that intruded into our future. He doesn't say anything, but I can see him shouldering the blame for what I did to Gerald, and it's wrong. I made the choice to run a man down with a truck. I committed vehicular homicide to save the man I love, yet he's the one carrying it.”
“Would you rather he didn't?”
“Mydecision. Mychoice. I've owned up to that, and I'm…I can make peace with it. Every time those few minutes loop through my head on repeat, I look at all the angles, and I stand by my decision. Jasper taking responsibility for my actions doesn't help me, and it sure as fuck isn't doing good things for him.”
Connie nodded. “This is progress, Archie. Would you like me to suggest to Jasper that he and I have a session together? Or perhaps we can all sit down next time, so you can relay these feelings to him. He'll come if he knows how important it is to you.”
Expecting a firm refusal, Connie was pleasantly surprised by Anarchy's assertive nod. It must really be digging deep into her thoughts if she was prepared to bring her Dom into a session, but again, it spoke of impressive progress.
“Okay, I'll arrange that. Are the nightmares the same every time?”
“The plotline seems to be etched in the same vein, with a few new variants,” Anarchy muttered. Her shoulders sagged, and she deflated back against the couch with a tired sigh.
“How many have you had since our last session?”
“At least once a night. Sometimes Jasper wakes me up, settles me down, and when I fall asleep again, it comes back faster and harder, like the interlude hasn't even happened. I fall straight back into it where I left off.” Suddenly motivated, she shoved off the couch and went to retrieve her juice bottle. “Jasper's sleeping with one eye open, which isn't good for him. I know he can function on like three hours' sleep, but that's not the point.”
Connie's thoughts immediately leaped to Caera, and the predicament she was in. No way was Connie going to let that become Archie's fate. “Are the nightmares more active after sex, or if you don't have sex at all?”
Anarchy laughed and removed the bottle cap slowly, drinking before replying. “I don't think we can factor that into the equation, Con. It's rare, really fucking rare, if Jasper doesn't pound me into the mattress or a hard surface before bed.”
