Guilty As Charged

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye!

Chapter One

Miami – Rippner Vacation Home

"She has got to see someone!"

Why must you always start this shit? There's nothing wrong with Jack!

"Hell no! I'm not sending her to some over-priced shrink just so they can confirm what I already know. I'm not putting Jack through that!"

Lisa Rippner placed her hands on her jean-clad hips and glared across the bedroom at her husband of seventeen years. "She's not staying here anymore!"

He snorted. She might be a stubborn as hell, quick-tempered redhead—not to mention his wife—but she wasn't going to get her way. "Jack isn't going anywhere. She's my daughter—I decide what happens to her."

"Are you insane? Myra's scared to death of her! I won't expose her to this…this madness anymore!" she yelled; throwing her hands in the air.

Wow, melodramatic much, Leese? Maybe you should go into acting…you certainly can't do much worse than those Hollywood wannabes.

Jackson rolled his clear blue eyes and crossed his arms. "And I don't give a shit, Leese. Jack's been through enough. I can handle her—"

"Yeah, like you handled it last year when she ran half-way across the world! Oh, did you forget that your precious Jack was about to kill all of us? She had a gun to your head!"

"No, I didn't forget," he snapped with a scowl. "It wasn't even Jack's fault—it was that kid—"

Mark Ryder had been even more demented and determined to have vengeance than his father, Maxwell. The slimy little shit had not only changed his last name, but he'd gone after the one thing more precious to Jackson than life or his love. He'd gone after Jack, seduced her, and even impregnated his prized daughter.

Of course, that creep hadn't pulled his final act until he cruelly attacked his daughter and ordered her to blow a hole in his head—and that was after Ryder had dragged Lisa and Myra into his manic trap. But his daughter had successfully manipulated everyone in the apartment and ended Ryder's life instead of his.

"Go right ahead and blame it on him! If you'd spent any time with her outside of teaching her useless crap about weapons, maybe she'd have never run away!"

"How dare you—"

Lisa cut him off again. "What happened is all your fault! You turned our daughter into a killer and you…you left me!"

"You're still going on about that? Damn it, Lisa!" He shook his head in disbelief. "That was over a year ago!"

You sure know how to hold a grudge…

"And I almost died!"

"That's only because you disobeyed me!"

With a loud cry, Lisa launched herself at him—her fists out. She screamed, punched, and clawed at him in her fury. He carefully clung to his wife's wrists to keep her from gouging his eyeballs out and slammed her into a wall.

She cried out, but even the pain in her head couldn't stop her. She renewed her assault. Jackson forced her into the wall again; knocking picture frames off the bedroom wall as it shook from his force. Her green eyes were narrow and filled with hatred as he pinned her to the wall and slid his hands up her throat.

Lisa gasped and coughed as he expertly squeezed her slender neck and slipped her up the wall. She kicked out with her legs while he lifted her off the ground, but he ignored her weak blows as he cut off her air supply.

Jackson Rippner waited for her eyelids to close and her body to go limp before dumping his wife in a heap on the tile floor and stalking out of their bedroom; slamming the door on his way out.

Kyra fumbled for her gun, a .45 caliber that she'd received on her seventeenth birthday, when she heard the commotion down the hall. She slipped down the hallway silently in her bare feet, prepared to shoot the intruder attacking her parents.

She was so nervous she almost pulled the trigger when her father appeared from his bedroom and slammed the door. He was as detached and emotionless-looking as she'd ever seen him.

Sliding her gun into the holster on her hip, she fell in step beside him.

"Volume control much?" she quipped; breaking the silence.

He paused and turned to face her—as if he'd just realized that there was someone else with him. "What are you talking?"

She rolled her icy eyes and sighed. "Either that was a group of assassins in your bedroom attacking mum or you guys were arguing again. It certainly was loud enough to be the former."

"What happens between your mother and me is known of your concern, Jack."

Kyra reached out and snagged her father's arm. "It becomes my concern when it's over me and when you hurt her. You didn't hurt her…did you?"

As much as Jackson loved Lisa, his temper had a tendency to spiral out of control and she was often the victim of his rage. It was not uncommon to see her mother walking around with bruises or her father with claw marks from Lisa's fingernails. When she'd been little, she found their arguments oddly fascinating and would watch them rant and rave and attack each other. There was a passion that was undeniable even during their worst quarrels.

But many times her mother had been given a concussion or fractured a bone because Jackson had simply been too rough. Plus, Lisa usually got a few good blows in, yet she could no trace of a fight except for his semi-rumpled clothing. There wasn't even a red mark on his cheeks like there normally was after Lisa smacked some sense into him.

"Huh?"

"Dad," Kyra dug her fingernails into his skin, "what did you do to mum?"

He didn't respond. He just looked confused.

Oh shit…

"What did you do?"

It was the shrill sound of her younger sister screaming that snapped her father out of his detached mental state. "Lisa," he whispered and pulled free of her grip.

Kyra raced ahead of him to her parents' bedroom where Myra was still shrieking her head off and her mother lay in a pile on the floor.

That wasn't too bad or even abnormal. What frightened Kyra was that the Lisa-lump wasn't moving or breathing.

Oh God, dad, what did you do?

Author's Notes:

Jackson and Lisa's relationship has really started a downward spiral since the mishap with Kyra in Some Quality Time. Jackson is refusing to abide by Lisa's wishes and won't even listen to her anymore. His penchant for violence and his temper control is rapidly disappearing and Lisa's in the most danger that she's been in since the red-eye flight.

Does Jackson still love her? I'm going to let you all debate about that. I know there's going to be a lot of debate about his character in this chapter.

So please, review and tell me what you think!