Chapter Twenty-Three
Lily
I trudged behind Jackson, my mind whirling from how damn stupid I felt. I couldn’t believe that it didn’t occur to me earlier that the things in the attic might’ve belonged to Jenna. That made so much more sense than the wild theory I’d concocted about Jackson being some sort of psychopathic mastermind.
God, I was lucky he put up with my crap.
“You nervous?” he asked, turning to me as we reached my dad’s front door. “About seeing him like this? With me, I mean.”
I bit my lip. “Yeah. I don’t know how he’ll react. But I think it should be all right.”
I didn’t knock. I got my old key and quietly unlocked the door, and then we walked down the hall toward the living room. I knew Dad was home; his car was in the drive, and I could hear the TV blaring.
“Dad?” I called out. I stepped into the living room with Jackson, and my father saw us and grunted.
“I’m not home right now,” he said, eyeing Jackson.
I rolled my eyes. “Very funny, Dad. Can we talk, please?”
“I’m not ready to talk about…this…just yet,” he replied, gesturing toward us.
“That’s okay, because that’s not what we’re here to talk about,” Jackson said.
Dad’s brows shot up. “What do you mean?”
“I just have some questions about Karen and Jenna, Craig.”
Dad grunted again. “What questions? Leave the past where it belongs,” he said. “Don’t need my crazy wife to be dragged up all over again after what she did,” he added in a mutter.
“Dad, do you know if Mom actually ever threatened Jenna? Like death threats?” I asked, pressing forward despite his reticence.
He gave me an incredulous look. “Lily, your mother shot her in the damn head. What do you think?”
“No, I mean before the day she went nuts and killed Jenna. Like, a few weeks before. Did Mom ever do anything that would make Jenna actually fear for her life?”
Dad shook his head. “Lily, you already know this. What your mother did was shocking. No one saw it coming. At all. Sure, we knew she was upset with Jenna, but no one thought she would go over there and kill her. I doubt Jenna saw it coming either.”
“That’s what I thought,” I said. “But Jenna was definitely scared of someone.”
I hesitated for a moment, and Jackson picked up my slack. “So can you think of anyone else Jenna might’ve had as an enemy?” he asked. “Did you ever see her argue with anyone else aside from your wife?”
Dad frowned. “Shit, I don’t know. She was your woman, Jackson. I only really saw her at your house. At your dinner parties and so on. I don’t know who she knew or talked to on a daily basis, let alone if she had any enemies.”
“Just try to think, Dad,” I said.
He sighed and stared into space for a second. “Come to think of it,” he replied. “There was something I saw once. Christ, this is going back years ago. Jackson, remember that assistant of yours? Used to come to barbecues in the summer sometimes.”
“Kaye?” Jackson said with a frown.
Dad waved his hand. “Yeah, her. I saw her getting into it with Jenna once. It was around….seven years ago, I’d say. I was on my way to the bathroom to take a leak, and I saw them in the kitchen. Jenna was bitching at Kaye, telling her to back off her man because it was obvious she had a crush on you, and Kaye was calling her a gold-digging whore.”
“I see,” Jackson said, his voice stiff.
“But they were just drunk,” Dad went on. “I don’t think it means anything. I don’t think Jenna would’ve feared for her life over it. Hey, what’s this all about, anyway?”
He eyed us suspiciously, and Jackson shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, Craig. I’ve just been doing some thinking about the past, that’s all.”
“Like I said earlier, the past is better left where it lies.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” Jackson replied. “We’ll leave you to your TV, Craig. I’m sorry about the other week. I hope we can sort it out one day.”
Dad huffed and turned his attention back to his show, and Jackson and I quietly headed out the door and back across the field to his property.
“So…Jenna and Kaye,” I said, once we’d reached his house and entered. “What do you think about that?”
“I think it was probably just a drunk argument that they had, like your dad said,” Jackson replied.
“So we’re back to square one. We have no idea who Jenna was afraid of. Except my mom,” I said softly.
Jackson stopped by the living room and turned to me, pulling me in tight with his strong arms. “Lily, don’t do this to yourself. Yes, your mom did something terrible, as far as we know. But I think you’re right. There’s more to what happened than we know, and the more I think about it, the less it all makes sense. Like you said before, if Jenna was so damn scared of your mom, why did she let her in that day without getting her gun first?”
“Maybe Mom let herself in with a spare key and caught her by surprise. Could be as simple as that,” I said with a defeated sigh. “Look, you and everyone else were right all along, Jackson. My mom did it, and she’s still out there hiding from the cops. That’s it, end of story. I needed to accept it, and now I have.”
He shook his head. “No. Something still doesn’t add up; I just can’t quite put my finger on what it is yet. But I’m getting a weird feeling about it, and I’m going to keep looking into it.”
I let out a short, dry laugh. “So now you’re the crazy one who can’t let it go.”
“Maybe so. But fuck, I want to know exactly what happened six years ago, and I don’t think the cops investigated everything the way they should’ve. I mean, shit, how did they not find out that Jenna tried to take out that life insurance policy only three weeks before she was killed? Pretty shitty investigating, if you ask me.”
“I guess.”
“I’ll call my PI again about the gun later,” he said. “But for now, let’s just try to forget everything. We’ve had a rough night. I need to make it right, make you feel better.”
“Make me feel better?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“You know what I mean, Lily. I know you know.”
I smiled up at him. “I think I should be the one making you feel better after the crap I pulled tonight.”
He growled and squeezed me tight again. “Nonsense. Like I said months ago, you’re still only nineteen. Sometimes you’re allowed to act like a silly little girl.”
“Like a brat,” I said with a soft smile. “A brat who needs some severe punishment.”
“Oh, you got that damn right…”
He tugged off my top and bra and I lifted his shirt over his head. His hands slid under the waistband of my yoga pants, tugging them to the floor, and he stepped out of his own pants. All that was here now, standing in the living room with its dim lighting, was us. Us. When we first got together it was all fast and hard passion. Then I began to truly fall for him. Now…now it was something more. Something bigger. I’d fallen all the way now.
“I love you, Lily,” Jackson said, seemingly reading my thoughts. “I can’t lose you.”
“I love you, too,” I replied. “You won’t lose me.”
His hands rolled across my breasts, fingers circling my stiff nipples. I kept my eyes on his as I let him touch me however he wanted.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said. “Tell me what you want, baby girl.”
I lowered my gaze, taking in the wonderful view of his hard cock. I wanted him inside me so much. “I just want you,” I replied breathlessly. “Your cock in me.”
His hands traveled lower, toward my bare pussy, and I ached for him. I knew he liked teasing me, though. I liked it, too. I didn’t mind waiting.
Wrapping his arms around me again, he pulled me up so that my legs were around his waist, and he carried me to the sofa in the living room. Gently putting me down, he spread my legs and smirked at me, dipping one finger into my slick wetness. “Already so horny,” he said. “Such a naughty little thing.”
“Only for you, daddy...”
He began to flick at my clit with his tongue, starting nice and slow as his finger hovered outside my entrance, making me squirm with desperation. I could never touch myself the same way; never make myself feel the things he made me feel. His mouth and hands were magic, and so was his cock.
I closed my eyes and moaned as he finally eased the finger inside me. Just as my body adjusted to the tight fit, he added a second finger, stretching me wide. I gasped, overwhelmed by the sensation, and he began to flick the fingers forward in a come-hither gesture, perfectly hitting the sweet spot on my front wall.
“Oh, god…”
I felt his mouth on my pussy again, lapping at my clit, and I bit my lip, trying not to scream out. His fingers went in and out, harder and faster, hitting all the right spots, and his tongue did the same, circling my clit until I was on the brink of an orgasm.
It suddenly hit me, and I cried out. My legs quivered on Jackson’s shoulders as he looked up at me, a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes.
“I need your cock, daddy,” I gasped out. “Please!”
He got up from between my legs and stared down at me, eyes glimmering with lust. “Let’s go upstairs, little girl. You’ll get what you want up there…”
He was right. I’d always get what I wanted from him. What I needed.
Always.