Bound by Rapture (24 page)

What the fuck is he trying to say?

“We are good together,” he added when I remained silent.

“Well, yeah, we’re best friends. Best friends usually are.”

He gave me a droll look. “We aren’t just friends, Jewel.”

I shook my head slowly. “We
are
friends.”

“Fuck, Jewel, do I have to make you a fucking banner?” He let go of me and ran his hand through his hair, agitated. “How have you been so blind all this time?”

“Blind to what, Vic? You’re not making any sense.”

“I’m in love with you.” He grabbed my hands again, harder this time. 

“You
love
me? What? No.” I tried to pull my hands back, but he clung to them.

“Yes, I have all along, I was just a dumbass and didn’t realize it.”

“No. Vic, no.” I knew my eyes had to be as wide as saucers. “You have Chris.” I jerked my hand out of his. “You’re gay.”

A sneer covered his lips. “You know as well as I do that I don’t like labels.”

“Labels. Really, Vic? You’ve dated men since you were old enough to date. You even told me that you’ve never dated a woman steadily.” I said the words to prove I was right and he was wrong. “You’re drunk.”

He snorted. “I’m not drunk. And you’re right. I’ve never dated a woman seriously before, but you’re different.”

“What? No. That doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes it does.”

“We are just friends.”

“At first, yeah, but it became more. Do you know how much I looked forward to those Rapture X parties?”

I scooted away from him. “It was our job, Vic.”

“Just our job? How can you say that?”

“Because that’s all it was. We never would have done those things otherwise. You’re just tired and drunk. You need to go back to bed with Chris. Your boyfriend. The man you love.” I stood up and moved away from the couch. 

Vic followed me. “I don’t love him.”

“What?” I tried to get a grip on everything he was saying but it was all running through my head too quickly. “But—”

“I used to love him, I did, Julia. I thought he was everything I ever wanted. But he’s not. He’s not you.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he kept going. “I moved away with him because I wanted to be truthful to him. I wanted to prove to myself that I could leave you behind, that I wasn’t really in love with you, that it was all in my head, that I was just letting my dick control me.”

“Your dick,” I repeated. 

He reached out and snagged my hand and pressed it against his thick erection. I’d felt it before. I’d seen it. I’d had it in my mouth and on my body, in my pussy. He’d cum on my face, on my chest, inside me. There was no denying it, but it had never happened behind closed doors. It had only happened in front of hundreds of prying eyes for thick wads of cash. 

I snatched my hand away. “Don’t do this, Vic.” Tears pressed at the backs of my eyes. I was losing something. My best friend. I was losing everything we ever had together. Everything that was innocent in our regular every day relationship was evaporating into thin air. “That’s why you kissed me on stage.”

He took another step toward me, backing me up until my legs bumped into the recliner. “I wasn’t going to. I didn’t plan to do it that way.” His green eyes, though red from his hangover, were burning with an intensity I’d never seen before. “But you were so fucking tempting and I hadn’t been with you in so long.” 

“Vic—”

“Admit that you love me.”

I glanced at the door to his and Chris’s bedroom. It was closed. I considered calling for Chris just to end this moment. It would all be over and Vic could go back to bed and sleep off this craziness. 

“Admit it.” He grabbed my arms, forcing my gaze up to his. 

“Vic, you’re my best friend, but that’s all it is. You know that,” I pleaded. “I love you as a friend, but that’s it. I love Chris, too. You’re both big parts of my life.”

“Fuck him, Julia. I don’t give a fuck about him. I want you. I’ve wanted you all along.” 

“I love Cole,” I whispered.

“Of course you
think
you love him.” He took a step back and shook his head. “You’re so fucked in the head, you don’t know what you want!” 

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly what you think it means. It means you’ve been fucked over by every man in your life. Cole comes along, treats you like shit, and you accept it like it’s normal. Well, it’s not fucking normal, Jewel!”

“You are such an asshole.”

“I’m better than he is!” he shouted.

“Just stop!” I glanced at the closed bedroom door again, knowing for certain Chris could hear us. I didn’t need this. Not right now, not with everything else that was already going on. 

“He could never love you like I do!”

“You’re right.” 

Vic and I both jumped at the sound of Chris’s voice. 

TWENTY-ONE

Julia.

Chris stood in the doorway, which seconds ago had been closed. He was wearing a white shirt and basketball shorts, with his blond hair pulled back from his face. His cheeks were red and he was sweaty, so sweaty his shirt clung to him like a second skin. He held one arm behind his back.

“Chris, I’m glad you’re up. Can I use your phone? I need to call Cole. Something bad is going on.”

The small edge of a smile tilted his lips. “You’re right, something bad
is
going on.” He glanced at Vic. 

A sick feeling of dread pooled in the bottom of my stomach. He had to have heard what we were saying, and now Vic’s drunken confessions would end up with a big fight between the two of them. 

 “Something has happened to Cole’s mom. I need to call him to see what’s going on.” I tried to turn the subject around.

“I’m sure his mom is fine.” He walked around the couch and stood between Vic and I, his dark brown eyes surveying both of us.

“I don’t think she is. He said someone attacked her—”

“No one attacked her.”

I frowned. “How could you know that? Have you talked to him?”

“No.”

“Oh my God. I knew it.” Vic covered his mouth with one hand.

“What—”

“But you said you didn’t…and I believed you.” Vic glanced around frantically.

“He did what, Vic?”
What the fuck is going on? 

“He’s the one who’s been doing all this. All this fucked-up shit. Killing. It’s
him
.” Vic stared at Chris with hard eyes.

“No,” I said, a small chuckle escaping my lips at how ridiculous this night, this morning, had become. “You’re just drunk, Vic. This is all just a drunken mess. You need to go to bed.” I took a step toward him to push him to the bedroom.

“Ah, ah, ah.” Chris’s voice echoed in my head just as a gun was shoved in my face. 

“What the fuck?” I screeched and jumped back, tripping and falling on my ass. 

“Don’t get near him. You’re done being near what’s mine.” His words were lethal, his dark eyes blazing with hate. 

“Wh—wh—”

“You just couldn’t listen, could you?” Chris stepped toward me, keeping the gun trained on my head.

“Don’t hurt her!” Vic moved in the corner of my eye, but Chris was faster. He spun on his heel and trained the gun on Vic. 

“Stop right there, lover boy.”

“You don’t have to do this.” 

“I don’t have to do this? Of course I have to do this, Victor! It’s already done.” Chris’s shirt seemed to become wetter by the second, sticking to him.

“But it can’t be…you wouldn’t do this…” I stared at the scene before me. Victor’s hands were up in surrender, and Chris was only feet away from him, a gun pointed at his chest as they stood by the flower-print couch that Victor loved.  “You love me,” I croaked. “You’re one of my best friends.”

“Oh, fucking save it, Jewel.” He kept the gun trained on Vic. “Don’t act like you were ever my friend. You fucked my boyfriend once a month. You trapped him in your fucking web until he was infected with you, until you were all he could think about.” He spat the words like they were poison. 

“That doesn’t make sense. Y’all moved away. You moved to New York.”

“I thought it would get better. I thought he would forget about you,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’d been trying to get him to move for months, but he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to leave you behind. He didn’t want to stop putting his dick in you every month. He wanted you more than he ever wanted me.” Chris’s voice shook at the end, trembling with a thousand pent-up emotions. 

“But you wouldn’t have done this to me. You didn’t kill Mandi. You wouldn’t do those things.” Saying it out loud made me feel better. It didn’t matter that he was pointing a gun at Vic, Chris couldn’t have done those things. He wouldn’t have. 

He smiled, still staring at Vic. “Oh, but I did.” And then suddenly he was moving, lunging to where I had fallen on the floor. I tried to move, but he wrapped his arms around me from behind and pressed the gun to my temple. I opened my mouth to scream, but he clamped his free hand over it. “If you scream I’m going to blow your fucking head off. Same goes for you, Victor. You scream and she’s dead. And the men outside will kill both of us. You know that, right? You know Cole has told them to fuck us up at the first hint of Jewel’s discomfort. They burst in here, you’re the first one to die, you know that, right?”

Vic had taken a step toward us, but was frozen, his hands still held out in front of him. Terror squeezed at my insides, pressing at the backs of my eyes until I was certain they were bugging out of my head. I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want this to be the end, on the floor of my apartment with Cole gone. 

“But you couldn’t have.” The words escaped from my lips. I couldn’t fathom it. I couldn’t picture Chris in that motel room with a knife. I couldn’t picture him paying off Jay, giving him the money to kill me. 

“Shut the fuck up.” He dug the gun into my temple. “And move the couch.” I felt him move his head, gesturing toward the door. “Push it against the door.”

“But—” 

“Do it. Now.”

“It won’t keep them from getting in.” Vic still stood in the same place, not moving.

“No. It won’t. But if you want your pretty little love toy to live, you’ll move the fucking couch against the door,” Chris hissed. 

Vic walked slowly to the couch and slid it until it was pressed up against the front door. “Now, sit down, Vic. Have a seat on the floor across from us. Go on.” 

“Chris—”

“Shut the fuck up and sit down.”

Vic did as he was told, lowering his body.

“Good, was that so hard?” 

I could smell Chris’s sweat, the thick odor seemed to surround me. 

“Now I’m going to tell you both a story. A story you need to hear.”

“Please.” The word escaped my lips. 

He jammed the gun harder against my temple and pressed his lips against my ear. “If you say one more thing, I’m going to blow your head off, and then you’ll never know how I ruined your whole fucking life.”

A shaky burst of air escaped my lungs. 

“Do you understand?” I gave a slight nod. “Good. Now I’m sure you want to know how and why, don’t you? I bet you both want to know.” I could feel him smile against the side of my head. “You’re all so fucking stupid you never would have figured it out. I’ve been in this apartment with guards surrounding me for my protection, when
I’m
the one who’s been fucking everyone over.”

“Things slip right under our noses and we never notice until it’s too late.”
Chris’s words from the night I found out about Cole’s past popped into my head.
I didn’t even realize what he was saying.

“I
was the one who paid Jay Cooley to cut your pretty little neck. He was supposed to get the job done. He was supposed to do a damn good job of butchering this sexy little physique you have.” He ran his free hand down my chest and squeezed one of my tits until pain throbbed under my skin and I squirmed. “I even told him to cut out these implants and bring them to me as a souvenir.” He squeezed harder and I tried to twist away.

“Fuck, Chris, stop! You’re hurting her,” Vic pleaded.

“He fucked up,” Chris said, as if Vic had never spoken, though he did loosen his grip. “He was sloppy and he did a stupid-ass shitty job. Couldn’t even cut your throat right.” He snorted. “He wasn’t much better in bed, either. Two thrusts and his little cock was blowing its load.” He paused. “Are you surprised, Vic? Did you think you were the only one who fucked around? You were lucky, though. You didn’t have to watch him fuck me, the way I had to watch you fuck Jewel over and over and over.

“I knew I should have done the job myself, but at that point I was scared, like a stupid little bitch. I had someone else do my dirty work. I really lucked out that he worked where your little asshole boyfriend used to work. I didn’t actually plan that part, but clearly, I’m just a fucking genius even in times when I don’t know it. Of course, all of you made it easy because you’re so fucking stupid.” 

He ran his hand up and down my chest, over my breasts, and I fought the urge to jerk out of his grasp.
I’m going to be okay. It’s going to be fine. I’m going to get out of this. I just need the best opportunity.