AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you for the food last night,” I whisper, looking down for a second. I have no idea what his plans are for me, but at least he’s not letting me starve.
Travis nods. He stares at me again, his eyes always assessing me, searching for the truth, but no emotions show on his face. “Are you ready to tell me your real name today?”
“It hasn’t changed since yesterday. It’s still Renee Pearson.” I try to mask any emotion behind the name as I say it.
“How old are you, Renee?” he asks condescendingly.
Oh, shit. What did I tell Frankie to put down on my fake license? “Twenty.”
Travis twists his lips, thinking hard about something. Then nods to himself but doesn’t say anything.
“Why do you keep lying about your name?”
“Why don’t you believe me?”
“Because I know you’re lying.”
“How the fuck do you know I’m lying!” I scream in frustration as I get up on my knees in bed.
“Because Renee Pearson is dead!” Travis jerks up as he yells. The chair falls backward.
If any words can make me feel like a knife has been stabbed into my heart and twisted, it was those. I slide down the back of the headboard. He knows. He knew my mom.
“Did you murder her?” I ask, my voice trembling and barely a whisper. I can’t look at him.
Silence fills the air, answering my question.
Travis walks out and slams the door. I am immediately taken back all those years ago. I crumble into a ball and cry.
Not much later my door opens again and someone walks in. I don’t want to look to see who it is. Jett comes around the bed and sits down with a tray of food. He brushes my hair away from my tear-soaked face with the lightest of touches.
“Where’s my feisty sweetheart at?” he whispers.
“She died. Travis killed her,” I reply in a deadpan voice. He winces.
The door opens again. I figure it’s the two thugs or Travis coming back to kill me. At this point, I don’t care. Jett gets up off the bed and walks over to whomever it is. I hear whispering and one of them is a woman. I sit up and brush away the tears. Hope immediately fills my head. There is an older women dressed in all black. She walks into the bathroom, but I can’t see what she’s doing.
When she walks out I look right at her. “Do you know I’m being held captive here? Against my will. Look! I’m handcuffed to a bed. How can you not help me?” I plead.
She looks at me with sympathetic eyes and sighs. “It’ll be okay, I promise,” she says softly and turns to walk out.
My mouth hangs open in surprise at the gall of that lady. “How does she know it’s going to be okay? If I end up dead, I hope I haunt her for the rest of her life.” I glare at Jett.
“And there she is. My feisty girl is back. Will you haunt me?” Jett smirks and one of his dimples show. I don’t know why my body immediately reacts when he does that.
“Why do you insist on calling me sweetheart?” I question. “And I wouldn’t haunt you because I’m sure you have a house full of ghosts already.”
Laughing that low, sexy laugh, he responds, “You are definitely right about the ghosts. The nickname? Your name isn’t Renee, and you won’t tell me what your name is, so I have to call you something.” He shrugs.
Sweetheart is too personal, but I sure as hell am not going to tell him my real name, so whatever.
“Eat.” Jett picks up a strawberry and brings it to my lips. I take a bite. The look on Jett’s face tells me that he’s enjoying this. He feeds me another bite of the strawberry. Strawberry juice runs down my chin but before I can grab the napkin, Jett swipes it away with his thumb and brings it to his mouth and sucks his thumb. The sensation from his touch sends a bolt of heat straight to my sex. Holy shit, it got hot in here. This cannot be happening. Why can’t my body and brain come to an understanding? Work together here, please!
Scooting away from him, I say “Okay… I think I can feed myself.” I grab some food and stuff it in my mouth. Jett needs to move off this bed. Right now. He gets up, shaking his head with a sexy grin, and moves to the chair. He sits there and watches me eat, grabbing my tray after I’m done, then leaves the room.
I’m bored out of my mind, trying to put together a puzzle with a ton of missing pieces. If Travis had my mom killed, he knows that I know, too, but he doesn’t know who she is to me. What strikes me as odd is he has never threatened me. Maybe he’s trying to see how I’m connected to my mom. I need to keep my guard up with Jett and not let the sexual attraction cloud my judgment. I don’t trust him, but I can definitely use our attraction to my advantage.
* * *
