Little Bird (Caged #1) (18 page)

Authors: M. Dauphin,H. Q. Frost

I pull La Petite from her cage and kiss her head before letting her roam the house.

"Birdie, where do we have to go? You told Luke we were going to pack. You're not going to give me away, are you?"

"No!" I blurt and grab him, pulling him into my arms.

This boy is the reason I've been able to develop emotions for a human.

Birds. I've always fucking loved birds, and I loved the bird Jasper gave me, but it was a bird so when she was let go, I was able to move on and subdue the feelings of loss. Losing Bronson will not be the same. He's come to depend on me and I on him for realization not all the world is damaged.

"You're going to hang out with Luke for a little while, while I run some errands and then I'll be back." Smiling, I let him go and shrug like it's no big deal.

The fact I may not come back has me pulling him into my arms again.

"I love you," I tell him and the words flow so easily, no stress whatsoever.

"I love you too." His little arms tighten around me and I kiss his head, letting him go before I change my mind and go along with Lucas's stupid plan.

If anything does happen to me, he'll have Luke. Hopefully.

"Come on."

We sit down together for his favorite movie and when he falls asleep with only thirty minutes left, I get him into the car and head back to Luke's.

"You might want to wake him up," I say handing him over at the front door. "He'll be up all night if you don't."

"You'll be back soon, right?"

"Yeah." I smile.

"Come in a minute," he says walking Bronson to the couch, but I don't follow. "I want to show you a few places I have for options where you two can go." He looks back and sees me standing at the door still. "Megs."

"Lucas, no, I can't. I'll be fast then we can discuss this, okay? It's getting late." I pop to my toes and kiss him quickly and when I turn to head down the steps, he grabs my arm and spins me back to him, kissing me in the most expressive kiss I'll ever receive. His lips express love, and I know what I'm going to do is the right decision. Pressing my fingers to my lips, I look him in the eyes. "I'll be back."

The drive to Jasper's, I wring the steering wheel. He won't kill me. He can't. I mean that literally. He doesn't have it in him to kill his pet. If he did that, I'd be a free bird, uncaged, and he'd never allow it by his own hand.

I buzz at the gate and wait for the voice, but nothing comes except the gate pops open. He's been expecting me and that will either make this easier or much more difficult. There's no sneaking into this estate or that would have been the route I went. He has men at every door and entryway into this house.

"I'm a little disappointed, Little Bird," his voice says after a man at the front door lets me in, but I can't see him. "It took you long enough to come."

My eyes shoot to the marbled floor. I've heard those words under much different circumstances, and when they were said before, he was pissed then, I can imagine how angry he is now.

"Where are you?" I call out glancing around.

The two men at the front door keep their back to me. This is starting to feel like a sick game.

If Lucas would have agreed, he could have distracted Jasper. Gotten him comfortable and I could have attacked. I would have loved to seen the look on his face when he realized his strong arm fell in love with his 'Little Bird'.

"Find me, Little Bird." His voice cracks and I realize it's because it's coming through speakers.

I've been in this house a handful of times, but I haven't explored it ever. I wouldn't know the first place to look for him.

"I have to say," his voice comes from behind me when I enter a kitchen and I turn around spotting the speaker in the corner of the room. "I'm disappointed this is how you've dressed to come see me. You know I love the sound of your heels echoing. The sound of the brushing fabric against your tight ass that sways when you walk. You come to me in jeans and Converse, and your hair is in a haphazard mess that looks like you stressfully pulled up. Are you stressed, Little Bird?"

"Where are you?" I snarl, having been in three rooms already and he's still only coming over speakers.

"Ready and waiting, Megan." The coldness in his voice is back.

The game is over and I know when I do find him, it will be a fight to the death. This entire plan backfired and I'm regretting not approaching it calmly. I was in a panic the second I found out Jasper found out about Bronson, and I reacted brashly and now he's going to make me pay. And unless I do the same, he won't kill me. For Bronson to live, for Luke to live, Jasper has to die and that means I will be too.

"Jasper!" I scream but he's no longer playing games over the speakers. He's waiting quietly, probably in shadows and when I'm close enough he'll pounce.

I start to run down the long corridor that's adorned with expensive art on the walls and displayed on end tables that are lined down this hall.

"Jasper!"

I enter a room that seems to open up to another wing of the house, and as I take in my surroundings in the dim light, a door slams behind me before I'm slammed to the marble floor by my throat. When my vision clears and I inhale a breath into my lungs I look into his face, but it's not Jasper.

It's Lucas.

"You made the wrong fucking choice coming here, Megan," he growls, his hand still tight on my throat. "You just can't take simple directions, can you? You can't let things be, you goddamned bitch. Why the hell can't you just let shit be! Listen to orders!"

I gasp in another breath, not comprehending what's going on and his grip on my throat loosens but his hand rests there.

"Lucas," I rasp. "Where is he?"

"Who? Jasper? Oh, sweetheart, that's not the man you really came here for." He chuckles and looks behind him before returning his gaze to me. "No, you came here for me,
Megs
. And I just can't let that happen. When I give orders, you're supposed to listen."

"What are you talking about?" I try to turn my head but his grasp on my throat goes tight again until I lay limp.

"That whole spiel you went on about having to overthrow him and kill him to take over? This is my fucking empire and I'll be damned if I let you sneak in and take everything I've worked so fucking hard for," he growls, shaking. "You will
not
walk into my house and kill the only brother I've ever had, and you certainly aren't taking this business out from under me." The look in his eyes is pure rage, something I'm only used to seeing in Jasper. "I give the orders, you fulfill them, but you didn't this time, Megan. You just fucking wouldn't let me try and be the nice guy."

"Your business." I blink a few times as a pain in my head starts to threaten consciousness. "Your empire? Lucas." I give him a gently shove so he'll get off me and I can breathe but he doesn't budge.

This is not Lucas. This is not the Lucas I thought I had figured out.

"Jasper?" I call out but it's a weak cry.

Lucas chuckles and shakes his head. "He knows better right now, Megs. This isn't his show. This isn't his home. He and I have a very special arrangement. This entire fucking empire? It's all mine. It's been mine from the start. I turned him into what he is today. Jasper is only Jasper because I saved his whimpering fucking body from the streets after he couldn't protect his mommy and daddy from being murdered in cold blood. That man you thought you knew? The one that lived right down the fucking road from you? That man doesn't exist. None of that shit was true. You played right into my fucking hands." He chuckles, still not releasing his hold on me.

How did I not see this coming? Not this specifically but the royally fucked up mess of it all that I shouldn't have jumped into so soon. If I had waited the few more years I had planned, I would have had it all figured out. Jasper was never running this. It explains so much but nothing I cared about. Nothing that raised flags.

"Fuck you." I spit into his face and close my eyes before the brunt of his backhand connects with my cheek and mouth.

"You'll never learn, will you?" He grunts, shaking his head and staring down at me.

There's a brief second when I think I see the man I thought I knew in there, but it disappears quickly and is soon replaced with the man that's been hiding all these weeks.

"You seem to learn quite quickly in the bedroom, Megs." He leans in and whispers, his breath on my lips as one of his hands moves up and under my shirt, grabbing my tit hard. "Maybe I could condition you pretty easily this way. It'd be a hell of a lot of fun."

I try to contort under him, trying to get him off of me, but the only thing that does is give me less oxygen to suck in as he tightens his grip.

"Where's Bronson," I manage to get out before turning my head and spitting the blood pooling inside my mouth. When I try to shove him again, his weight comes down heavier on top of me and his hand on my throat tightens slightly. "Where is he?" I scream through the burn in my larynx.

He smiles down at me a sinister smile and chuckles like he truly finds it funny that I care so much about that boy.

"He's where he belongs, Megs. Him and his mother are finally together. Again." The smile he's giving me isn't like anything I've ever seen before. He's truly happy about killing a fucking child he swore he was taken to!

With my raging scream I manage to push him off of me but he doesn't let me up, he slams me back to the ground before I even get to a sitting position and when my head hits the marble floor, I close my eyes, fighting the blackout.

"I gave you the fucking opportunity to leave, Megan!" his voice bellows. "I didn't want to love you, but I fucking fell and then I couldn't kill you. I gave you a chance! But you didn't listen! You just don't listen to a goddamned word I say! If I were Jasper, you would have fucking listened!" I can feel his hands shaking as they hold me to the floor, my vision just blurry enough to make out the tension in his face. "I told you to go. I don't have room in my life for you, and you just didn't listen. So here we are, Megs. You wanted to be a queen? You wanted this castle? Well here's your king, babe." He stretches out his arms then leans down, his face so close I can faintly feel his lips on my chin. His hand grazes my cheek, right where he hit me mere minutes ago, and he leans down in just a whisper to continue, "You might have once been Jasper's, but you're not going anywhere anytime soon, Megs. You're here, your mine. You're
my
Little Bird." His grip on my throat gets tighter and I grab his wrist with both hands.

"Lucas, please," I manage to get out in a rasp.

"Let her go, Luke," Jasper's voice comes from somewhere in the dark room that's growing increasingly darker as my oxygen is depreciating. "Let her go and get the fuck off of her."

When Lucas let's my throat go, he doesn't get up, I'm still pinned under his weight but I can lift my head enough to see Jasper standing with a gun aimed at him.

"She's been mine from the start. You didn't even know of her existence until you told me you needed someone to run shit on the west coast. You wanted a fresh face, young. I found her, I trained her for the past seven years. She's mine."

I feel Luke shift but he doesn't get off of me. He chuckles then sighs.

"The game ended when she defied orders. You fall back into place now, Jasper," he seethes. "You know your place. Under me. I am
your
boss and you're aiming a gun at me?" He waits a moment before screaming, "At me!"

His weight shifts off of me and I gasp in a solid breath that's choked by my gasp when I hear the gunshot.