Chapter 18

Breathing became harder and harder as Tommy’s hand slid higher up over my mouth. His hand was soon covering my nose too. My chest was burning as I tried to gasp for air. I grabbed Tommy’s hand and tried to pull it down. Tommy was distracted as his hands continued to rub up and down my thighs. I curled my fingers around his and dug my nails as deep as I could into his skin.

Tommy gasped in pain, and he slid his hand down to my chin. He grabbed my face and turned my head at a painful angle so that I was looking up at him. I had no idea why he would do that. I had the blindfold on and could not see.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I couldn’t breathe,” I said.

Tommy grunted. He threw my head back so that I was looking straight ahead. He rested his chin on my shoulder and his hand went back to my thigh. He slid it up and until he was under the material of my dress.

“Jimmy would be so angry with me if I killed you,” he said.

He started to move his hand up higher. My lips trembled, and I prayed that the officer would leave soon. I didn’t know how far Tommy would go and I was terrified to find out.

“He would be angry if he knew what we were doing right now,” Tommy whispered. He moved his hand up higher so that he was touching my hip. “So you’re not going to tell him, are you? He’d be angry at me for touching you and he’d be angry at you for letting me touch you. You don’t want him to be jealous, do you?”

My body was shaking as I shook my head from side to side. More tears were rolling down my cheeks. Jimmy would be furious if he knew this was happening. I did not want to be punished again.

“You better not,” he said before planting a kiss on the side of my head.

The door opened and my heart pounded in my chest. Tommy quickly drew his hands out from under my dress and let me go.

“He’s gone now,” Charles yelled down the stairs.

Tommy grabbed my elbows and pulled me up onto my feet. My knees buckled.

“Remember what I said,” Tommy warned me.

I nodded my head and that sharp pain returned to my stomach. He had thrown me over his shoulder again and carried me up the stairs. When my feet were back on the ground, I heard the basement door click shut. My blindfold was taken off and I blinked a few times to clear my blurry vision.

Jimmy was standing in front of me. I threw my arms around his waist. I nuzzled my face in his chest and tried to forget about everything Tommy just did to me. Jimmy rubbed my back with one hand, and he put his other hand on the back of my head. I tried my hardest not to cry. Tommy wanted to see me completely lose it, and that was not going to happen.

“It’s alright,” Jimmy said. “It’s all done now.”

I shook my head. This wasn’t over. I had to spend the rest of my life in this house with Tommy. I thought back to what Jimmy told me last night about our future. I wanted that house down the street, so that I would be away from Tommy/ I really did need Jimmy to protect me.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Jimmy said.

His hands slid down my arms as he tried to push me away from him. He laced his fingers through mine and we went up to our room. As soon as he closed the door, I let go of all the tears I was holding back and sobbed. Jimmy snaked an arm around my waist and made me sit down on the bed next to him.

“It’s alright, Julie,” he said. “They weren’t here for you. The corner store a couple of streets away was robbed, and they wanted to know if we saw anything.”

I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against my knees. I took a deep breath to try and control my crying. Jimmy used his fingers to brush the hair off the one side of my neck. It was comforting until I remembered the now familiar pain in my shoulder.

My body shot up and I turned to face Jimmy. I had not checked my shoulder yet to see if Tommy had left behind a mark.

“Are you done crying now?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Okay, good,” he said. “I’m glad to know you’re feeling better. Come here.”

He cocked his head as he slid back on the bed and laid down. I crawled over to him and laid down so that my head was on his chest. He used one hand to comb his fingers through my hair and his other hand was on the back of my thigh. He did it in a much softer way than Tommy.

“You’re such a good girl,” he said. He took his hands out of my hair and brought his fingers down to stroke my cheek. “You’re so beautiful. I love you so much.”

“Thank you,” I said.

Jimmy rolled us over so that he was lying on top of me. I ran my hands over his chest and into his hair.

“Tell me,” he said. I swept a piece of hair behind his ear. “Tell me you love me.”

“I love you, Jimmy.”

He smiled before he leaned down to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around his neck to try and bring him closer. His hands slid up my sides as the kiss deepened. I grabbed fistfulls of his shirt and pulled it up over his head. He grabbed the hem of my sweater and pulled it off.

He trailed his kisses from my lips and down to my neck. My eyes widened when I remembered Tommy’s bite. I prayed that it was not noticeable, but I felt Jimmy’s body freeze. He grabbed my wrists and pinned me against the bed.

“Why were you so upset when you came out of the basement?” he asked.

“Because I thought they were going to take me away from you,” I lied.

“Then what is that on your shoulder?”

“What?”

Jimmy got up off of the bed, and he yanked me with him. I stumbled as he pulled me into the bathroom. His grip was tight on my wrists. Jimmy’s hair was ruffled and he looked disgusted.

Blood was drizzling down my shoulder. There were two crescent shaped wounds on my shoulder. The indentation of Tommy’s teeth were visible.

“What is that?” he asked.

“I….I don’t know,” I said.

“Julie!”

I sucked in a deep breath as the tears rolled down my cheeks. Tommy was right. Jimmy is furious with me. He’s going to think that I am a whore for letting Tommy touch me.

“What else did he do?” he asked.

“He…he…he,” I couldn’t get the words off of my tongue.

“What did he do, Julie?!”

“He touched me.”

Jimmy let go of my arms and I fell to the floor, I let out a cry and Jimmy stormed out of the bathroom. I reached out to grab his leg. I did not want to be alone right now. I did not care if he was mad at me.

“Let go of me,” he said, shaking me off of his leg. “I’m going to kill Tommy.”

I scrambled to get up off of the floor. I was no longer crying, but I was breathing heavily.

“Tommy!” Jimmy yelled

Jimmy banged his fist on Tommy’s door. I stood in the doorway of our room and watched him.

Tommy opened the door. Jimmy swung his fist and it connected with Tommy’s face. Tommy shouted and fell back into his room.

This was Jimmy trying to protect me. He knew that Tommy hurt me, and now he was making sure it wouldn’t happen again. I walked forward to watch them.

They were sprawled out on the floor. Jimmy was on top of Tommy and swinging down his fists. Tommy screamed out in pain and threw a punch to Jimmy’s chest. Blood was gushing out of Tommy’s nose and dripping on the floor. I would have to clean that up in the morning.

“Why’d you touch her?” Jimmy asked.

“What are you talking about?” Tommy had his hands up to cover his face and try to protect himself.

“You touched my girl, Tommy! My wife! I’m going to kill you!”

I wanted to rip Jimmy off of Tommy, but I knew that would be a bad idea. Jimmy would punish me if I got in the way. I was too weak anyways to make a difference. I stood by the door and watched them.

“No, I didn’t,” Tommy said as he tried to deflect the punches.

Charles ran into the room and pulled Jimmy off Tommy. He held onto Jimmy’s arms to hold him back as he tried to lunge at Tommy again.

“Stop it now, boys!” Charles yelled.

Jimmy’s bare chest was heaving up and down. Tommy got up off of the floor. He wiped the blood off of his face with the back of his hand. Charles let go of Jimmy and stood in between them. Tommy saw me peering into the room and furrowed his brows.

“What did you tell him?” he asked.

His voice was drenched in anger and rage. It made me want to hide behind the wall, but it was too late. I should have stayed in the bathroom.

“She didn’t have to tell me anything,” Jimmy said. “I saw the bite mark on her.”

“Did you bite her?” Charles asked Tommy.

The colour drained from Tommy’s face and he bit down on his lip.

“Well, yeah,” he said. “But-“

Charles put his hand out to silence Tommy. He shut his mouth. Charles gestured for me to come into the room.

“Come here, Juliet,” he said.

I was shaking as I stepped into the room. Charles moved my hair off the side of my neck. His fingers grazed along the crescent shaped wounds.

“Why did you do that to her?” he asked Tommy.

“Because she was making so much noise,” he said. “She wouldn’t shut up or calm down. I know I’m not supposed to punish her, but what else was I supposed to do? I had to hold her down so that she would not take her blindfold off and run up the stairs. She was trying to escape. She’s not as trained as you think she is, Jim.”

“That’s a lie!” I shouted.

My chest pounded as I thought about Jimmy and Charles believing Tommy’s lies. Jimmy would bring me back to our room and punish me. He looks just as angry as the night he raped me.

“Juliet, sit down,” Charles said. “Sit down and don’t say anything unless I ask you a question.”

He pointed to Tommy’s bed. I sat on the edge of it, not wanting to ever be on his bed. My knee bounced as my eyes darted between the two of them.

“Now,” Charles said, crossing his arms over his chest. “James, why do you think he touched Juliet?”

“Have you seen the way that he is always looking at her?” Jimmy asked. “He’s always staring at her like he wants to touch her. It wouldn’t shock me if he took the chance once he was alone with her. I don’t think Julie would be this upset about a cop showing up to the house.”

“She’s a girl,” Tommy said. “She is going to be emotional.”

“Shut up, Tommy!”

Jimmy stepped forward, and Charles put his hand on Jimmy’s chest to stop him.

“Juliet,” Charles said. They all turned their attention to me. “I want you to tell me the truth. If I find out you are lying you will be in big trouble. It won’t be Jimmy punishing you. It will be me. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Did Tommy touch you?”

I swallowed past a lump forming in my throat. Tommy was scowling as he stared at me.

“Yes,” I said.

“She’s lying!” Tommy exclaimed.

“Be quiet, Thomas,” Charles said. “Where did he touch you, Juliet?”

“On my chest and thighs,” I said.

“She is lying,” Tommy said. “Look at her. She can’t even look at you and say it. She just does not want to get into trouble.”

I shook my head. I wanted to shout back, but that would definitely end in a punishment. Charles grabbed my chin and tilted my head up so that I was staring at him.

“Tell me what happened in the basement,” he said.

“Tommy grabbed my chest and my thighs,” I said. I fought with my voice so that it did not waver.

Charles nodded and turned to face Tommy.

“It’s settled,” Charles said. “Thomas, don’t you ever touch your brother’s girl again. Understand?”

Tommy nodded.

“And, Jimmy,” Charles said. “You need to learn how to protect your wife better. This should have never happened.”

Jimmy reached down and grabbed my arm. He pulled me up onto my feet and curled me into his bare chest.

Charles let out a deep breath and stretched his arms up over his head.

“Take off your shirt, Thomas,” he said.

Charles undid his belt and pulled it through the loops.

“Come on,” Jimmy said. “Let’s go.”

Jimmy pulled me out of the room.

“I did not touch her,” I could hear Tommy say.

“You’re digging yourself into a deeper hole, boy,” Charles said. “Get on your knees.”

Jimmy slammed the door to the bedroom. There was a snap and then a cry from Tommy. I closed my eyes and tried to stop the image of Tommy being whipped out of my mind.

Jimmy cupped my face and kissed me. His arms wrapped tight around my waist.

“Tell me you’re mine,” Jimmy said after he pulled away from the kiss. His face was close enough that I could feel his breath fan my face.

“I’m yours,” I said.

“Only mine?” he asked, his lips tugging into a smile.

“Only yours.”

“Good.” He pulled me in for another kiss. “You’re mine forever and I promise that no one will ever hurt you again.”