Jack In The Box

Riley

I waited to see if there was a punch line, some clue to see if he’d made a crack but Jack’s expressions remained the same. He wasn’t laughing; in fact his face remained stoic. With a lot of people, I could easily figure out what they were thinking but with Jack I always encountered a brick wall. I could only see what he decided to show me.

“I can’t decide if that’s a joke or if you’re serious.” I said.

“I’m not really in a mood for jokes lately. So far I’ve been telling you the truth.”

“You’re telling me you killed three people and enjoyed doing it.” I waited, my blood was turning to ice.

A few second passed, he was still holding me and staring intently at me. I pulled away and started to scramble off the bed when Jack caught my hand and pulled me back into his arms. My bare front rubbed against his chest. His other hand went into my hair; his mouth was hot on my neck. “Stop it.” I pushed my palms against his chest, but he was so strong and didn’t even budge. “Stop touching me!”

I knew that if Jack decided that he wanted to kill me, it would be a piece of cake. A swipe of his Herculean arm would be enough to silence me for good.

In a silky desperate voice, he said. “Shhhh...Don’t be scared of me, love. I will never hurt you. Believe me.” Tenderly, he swiped at a tear on my cheek with his thumb. “I love you. I’ll kill myself before I let anything happen to you.”

“I don’t want to be with a killer!”

“You say that now, but you can’t deny this attraction between us. Be honest with me, Cotton-Candy, would it matter to you even if I’d killed people ruthlessly? If I told you that I hadn’t killed three but the dozen that they accuse me of, would you stop loving me?”

I didn’t answer. A sob was on the verge of erupting from my throat because he knew that he was my weakness. He whispered something sweetly into my ears and tried to calm me down. I felt the swipe of his wet tongue against my collar bone, and then he pulled my lips down to his in a desperate, hard kiss. I whimpered and tried to pull away but his hold on me was solid. Apart from being a master manipulator, he was also an excellent seducer. I didn’t fight back, instead I thought fuck it and relaxed into his strong hold. My arms went around his back as I held him in place, kissing him back with the same amount of fierce longing. The thought of losing him forever pained me.

He pulled back a little, our foreheads touching, “Whatever I tell you, promise me you won’t leave me, Riley.” Jack said in a low voice.

“I can’t promise you anything until you explain yourself. And you didn’t answer my question.”

His dark eyes softened.

“Why did you kill those people, Jack?” I asked. “No matter how much you try to portray yourself as the bad guy, I know you wouldn’t kill anyone just because you enjoy killing.”

“Do you want to hear the rest of the story?”

I gave him a nod.

Jack glanced at the clock hanging against the wall. It was three a.m.

“How long do we have until Ken comes back home?”

“We have a lot of time. He won’t be here until ten a.m.”

“That’s more than enough I guess, because this story is long.”

“I want to listen.” I said.

And so he began. “At one point in my life, I was having a really hard time, getting into brawls at clubs, beating up thugs who landed up in hospitals, getting wasted doing drugs and finding myself in company of strange women. Well, I was never home most of the time because I was sick and tired of my parents constantly fighting. Ezra was doing his thing, he was the golden boy after all. I already knew Ezra would be the next successor to the Wolfe Enterprise and I was fucking jealous.”

into a shit load of other things. As if I hadn’t already done enough. I had no money and Ezra was tired of covering up for me. He told me to ′get

guys

minutes older than him. I saw the world twenty-minutes before he did so that makes

eye-roll.

me an easy way to earn money.” Jack continued, this time avoiding

“You did not just...”

another. I thought that was going to be fairly easy. I did that like twice, before I got arrested for possession of cocaine. They found it stashed in a

same time that I began seeing things that didn’t exist. An influence of the drug abuse.” He laughed. “I was a lost case. Dad got me admitted into a psychiatric institution. Only, it wasn’t private. This was the worst kind and I was probably one of the sanest people living there. The patients were

and the sympathy I was feeling for him. “What did they

been doing. I stayed there for six months until I had enough.” Jack’s hand began shaking. I turned in his arms and

disorder. An obviously wrong diagnoses. They’d done it on purpose. My dad told my family that I wasn’t fit to be free in the world, and that if I was let out of an institution, I’d be posing as

first, but dad always found a way to manipulate her. There was a nurse there who was better than the rest of the

she tell

code language, but Aline knew what the doctors meant.” Jack

father

his, remember? I was proving to be more of a liability than an heir. A waste of space. Ezra was all he needed and for personal gain only. I wish my brother

to speak with me. He said I was making excuses to get out of the

came to my room one night with keys to get me out of chains. It appeared another ward boy

knew if I was caught by any doctor that night, I wouldn’t survive. I wound the chain around the man’s neck and bit a chunk out of his shoulder. I acted on impulse, it was an act of self-defense. Aline helped me get

mess and on the run. I managed to come home

“What happened?”

blood. It was easy for them

the best one. I didn’t want to, but I didn’t have a choice. It was either prison or the asylum. During the car ride, the car crashed and when I woke up in the hospital,

can’t even imagine what you went

Riley. I had it all coming. I was partly responsible

didn’t tell me why you killed those

to

could see the traces of light starting to spill out of the thin curtains. We’d spent the night making love and talking and I wasn’t

you feeling

wait, I guess. I feel like

to sleep. I’ll wake you up in a few hours and then you

it really okay if

and kissed his head. “Sleep. I’ll

with amusement. “I’m so glad

“Me too.”

before slipping into a slumber, he mumbled. “You’re

eyes flew open, it was already past eight a.m. The other side of

counter and flipping an omelette. His eyes followed me as I went and stood behind him. I laughed. “What are

us breakfast.”

laughter. “You overcooked the omelette.

began putting the omelette in a plate. “You can’t