Jackson knew the answer to the question he'd just asked, but still felt an overwhelming need to berate her.
"Maybe I'll just leave you out here for an hour or so; let your toes freeze off. Will that curb these little escape attempts, Vanessa?"
She was too intoxicated to respond verbally at this point. She seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, and all she could do at the moment, was cry.
His cell phone rang again, interrupting his idle treats. Jackson picked up the phone, knowing full well who was on the other end.
This ought to be good.
"I should double the price after what you pulled, Crane," Jackson yelled, in lieu of a "hello".
"Mr. Rippner, I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. Has something happened to Vanessa?"
Don't try your mind games with me.
Jackson could almost picture him on the other end of the line with a smug grin on his face. Oddly enough, Crane didn't sound like he was calling from a cell phone.
"Do you actually expect me to believe this bullshit?" Jackson asked. "How's the jaw feeling, by the way?"
"Calm down, Mr. Rippner; you're delusional. Have you hurt Vanessa?"
"Of course not doctor; that's your job."
Jackson heard Crane take another one of those deep breaths; the kind that let Jackson know he'd managed to piss him off.
"Think about this," Crane began to say. "You stepped on a lot of toes on your way to becoming a manager. Now that you're on the bottom again, trying to work your way up, don't you think there are people within your own organization, who would want to see you fail? You should look to those closest to you before you blame me for whatever it is you believe has happened."
Jackson hated the idea of playing patsy to this manipulative snake, but, no matter what, he couldn't change the fact that he needed Crane to come back. He'd have to play along if he wanted to finish the job.
"Whatever," Jackson said dismissively. "Do you have my money, or not?"
"Yes, I do; and I want to pick Vanessa up as soon as possible. All I need from you are the directions."
Jackson gave Crane directions to the trailer, finding the whole charade rather ridiculous. Crane knew damn well where he'd had taken her. Jackson hung up the phone, feeling even more frustrated – if that was possible. In anger, he turned his attention back to Vanessa, whose eyes were half open again.
"Bye, Vanessa. I'll see you in an hour. Stay warm," he said as he turned and began walking away.
"Don't go; I'll be a good girl," she mumbled so softly, he was scarcely able to hear what she had said.
"What?" he fired back at her while shining the flashlight in her face.
What he thought had been mud, was not mud at all. It was blood, and it covered her mouth and chin. It fell in streaks down her neck, staining the front of her shirt. She was a mess.
"Don't leave, Jona…Scarecrow. I'm a good girl."
She sounded like a child. Her therapist had made mention of this in her notes. Vanessa would always detach, and speak in a distant, childlike voice when probed for details of what Crane had done to her. The therapist had never pressed the issue. As a result, Vanessa had never discussed her ordeal with anyone…except him. She had opened up, only when threatened.
"Scarecrow," she whispered again.
My God...
Jackson approached her again. She was silent now, most likely asleep, although her body trembled from the cold.
"Alright, come on," he said as he untied her and threw her over his shoulder.
It was slow going, carrying her uphill through the snow, but they made it back to the trailer more quickly than he had thought they would. When they reached the front door, he put her down and entered the access code.
"Jackson?"
"Can you walk?" he asked without looking at her.
"Yes," she answered sleepily.
He helped her up and she took her first step inside, promptly falling flat on her face. To his astonishment, she started laughing.
"So, you think this is funny?" he asked as he helped her to her feet.
Vanessa turned to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, interlacing her fingers behind his head.
"Jackson Rippner, you're my hero," she laughed.
He was tired and his back hurt after Crane's punches, he didn't appreciate her attempt at humor. She was pressed against him, staring at the scar on his neck.
"Poor, Jackson."
"Are you trying to be seductive?" he asked. With her bloody nose and split lip, the whole thing was comical.
"Maybe…in your dreams," she teased.
"As ravishing as you look right now; I think I'll have to pass, sweetheart."
"I thought you had a soft spot for the ladies. Isn't that how you got that scar, killer?"
Her constant sarcasm was getting on his nerves, and Jackson's patience with her had run out. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her into the bathroom. Pushing her into the shower fully clothed, he turned on the water, making sure it was on its coldest setting. She cried out when the cold water hit her, but it seemed to wake her up a bit. Not until she looked at him with a hint of lucidity in her eyes, did he turn up the temperature of the water.
"What are you doing?" she yelled at him.
"I'm glad that you find all the events of this evening amusing, Vanessa. Really, I do, but if things had gone just a little differently tonight, I would have lost my only chance at successfully completing this job and you…you'd be with Crane tonight, instead of here with me. Think about that, and tell me if it's still funny."
She looked at the floor and didn't say a word.
"I thought so," Jackson said.
Her consciousness was fleeting and her eyes shut again. Jackson turned off the water and nudged her a bit. This time she was truly out. He had a feeling she wouldn't be waking up any time soon.
He couldn't very well leave her in the shower, but he couldn't put her in bed with her clothes soaking wet either. He would have to change her clothing, though he was sure she'd give him hell about it in the morning. Jackson scooped her out of the shower and laid her down on the bathroom floor. Fetching a change of clothes from his bedroom, he returned to her and methodically set about undressing her. Out of respect, he was careful to avert his eyes as he removed her underwear.
Removing her clothes without looking had been easy. Dressing her without looking proved to be more of a challenge, but he managed, even if he did put her shirt on backwards. Her new outfit consisted of his t-shirt and boxer shorts. It was the best he could do, given the circumstances. He hadn't expected her to get covered in mud, and who knows what else, every single day. His wardrobe was being stretched thin.
The whole time he'd been removing her clothing, she offered no protests or resistance of any kind. Jackson couldn't help but wonder what Crane would have done to her while she was in this compliant state. It was a terrible thought.
As he placed her in bed and pulled the covers over her body, his thoughts drifted back to events that had taken place over a decade ago. To the day when his younger sister, Jessica, who had been sixteen at the time, had called to say she was leaving work, but had never come home. Jackson had gone out and combed the streets himself, searching for any trace of her, but she was nowhere to be found. Her body had been discovered in an alley across town the following morning. She'd been raped before she had been strangled; her attacker had seen fit to dump her on the street when he was finished with her, as if she were a piece of garbage.
Since that day, Jackson had made a stone of his heart. It was that apathy that had led him into this business, earning him a great deal of money in the process. Everything had been going fine, until he met Lisa. The secret she'd been hiding had shaken him, woken him up. For a moment, he had felt alive again. Sitting beside Vanessa, here and now, he was feeling it again. She and Lisa were alike in many ways; both were strong willed and stubborn, if not a little naïve, both wore their heart on their sleeve, and both had survived that same despicable act.
Lisa was gone now; he had failed to protect Jessica.
"Never again," he promised her as he brushed a few stray strands of hair from her face before leaving the room.
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed this chapters and I appreciate all your feedback. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Special thanks to emptyvoices, for letting me bounce ideas off of her, and Not Human for her support.
Crane comes back into the story soon and that will be the beginning of the end, I'm afraid.