The Anatomy of Jane (11 page)

“I’ve been waiting too damn long for you to get here.” He clenched my hair, forcing me to see look up. I shut my eyes tight. “Look at me.”

Don’t look. Don’t look.

“Bitch look at me!” he hollered, slapping me so hard across the face that I could taste blood in my mouth. “Where is the money?”

“Anything you want take—gugha!” I cried when his foot connected with my stomach.

“Is there anything here worth two hundred and twenty-two thousand? A little bird told me they saw you riding around in a million-dollar car. Now where did you get the car from?” I didn’t answer, so he hit me over and over and over again.

Coughing up blood and sobbing, I just held my arms to my chest and tried my best to stay calm even though I was panicking.

“This is a message from Aaron. He wants his money and he wants it now. If I have to come here or to that little cocksucker, Allen, one more time…well, I won’t be so polite next time,” he said, running his hands over my body even as I shivered in disgust.

He said nothing more, and it was only after he left that I finally opened my eyes. The pain was pouring over me like waves. Crawling to my purse, I reached inside for my phone.

It felt like it took forever before Mary answered.

“It is two in the morning Jane—”

“Help,” I sobbed.

Tuesday came. She didn’t come.

Saturday came and she didn’t show up.

It was now Tuesday again and still, no word from her. I’d called the maid service, and all Mary would say was that she could refer me to another maid service, but Jane could not come. I even drove over to her apartment, but I didn’t know which door was hers.

“What happened at your mother’s party?” Wes asked, sitting on the bed shirtless, no longer pretending to read the book in his hands. I hadn’t spoken about it and he hadn’t asked. “I know you kissed her.”

I turned to face him and his green eyes were calm, serious, and completely unlike him.

How?

“She told me. She came down to the kitchen and was trying not to cry. I didn’t ask why and then I kissed her.”

“You did what?”

“I kissed her for the same reason you kissed her. I’m attracted to her.”

“I’m not—”

“Bullocks.” He shook his head, throwing the book to the side of the bed before getting up himself. “Since we met her, I’ve been trying to keep my distance for your sake, you jealous bastard. But what have you been doing? You’re driving her home. You’re proposing to her. You are kissing her in front of your family and friends. You are fighting back and forth. You are getting to know her favorite movies. I’m here feeling like an ass while waiting for you to fuck up and just admit it!”

“I’m not stopping you!” I hollered back. “If you want to fuck her, go fuck her! GO! Don’t bitch at me—”

“You’re not getting it,” Wes said, shaking his head and grabbing his shirt. “I want both of you.”

“Should we just open our relationship to anyone you want to fuck now? Where is the bar? You see a pretty girl or guy and it’s ‘Hey, let’s all have a three-way because the man-whore, Wesley, wants it?’ If I don’t agree, I’m the one who needs to man up? Fuck you.”

“I felt something when I looked at her,” he confessed as he put on his shirt and walked over to me. “In that moment it terrified me. Perhaps I’ve only felt that once before and still do: when I look at you. I thought it cheapened us in some way, or that I was…that something was wrong. Then I looked over to you. I saw that you looked at her the same way you first looked at me four years ago. When you weren’t comfortable with your sexual activity. When you were so used to fucking men in the dark and hiding it that you shrugged me off when I tried to hug you. You fought with me constantly because you could not accept that we could be in a stable, normal relationship as men. I realized then that something wasn’t wrong with
us
. If it was, you and I both wouldn’t react to the same woman. I tell you all the time I feel like we were destined to meet. So who says there can’t be another person with us? Society! The same people who thought being gay meant being mentally incompetent? Fuck them. If we are all attracted to each other, why fight it? I’m not just being a man-whore, but thanks for the insult. I’m going to head down to my apartment. I’ll see you later.”

Just like that he walked out.

I didn’t want him to leave, but after what he’d said, I wasn’t sure how to respond. Instead, I stepped out of the room and leaned on the rail, listening as the door shut behind him. What was happening? I didn’t even understand myself. Why was I so pissed that Jane had stopped coming to work? Why put so much effort into getting a maid back? Why this? Why that? The more I thought, the more my head hurt, so I kept putting it off.

“Error.” The door beeped as someone put in the code. Glancing down at my watch, I realized it was the first of October. The code changed monthly.

Had he forgotten?

Rushing down the stairs, I nearly tripped, making me further embarrassed. I stopped to straighten my clothes before opening the door. I had expected to look directly at Wes, but instead, my head dropped down at a navy blue Patriots baseball cap.

“The code changed?” she asked softly, looking up to me.

Fuck the code.

“Jane? What happened?” I cupped the side of her face and saw the damage: her lip was busted and torn on both sides, her left eye was dark reddish-yellow, and the bruises even spread across her nose. She wore a jacket, a turtleneck, and leggings, but I had a feeling there was more damage to be seen.

“Sorry for taking a week off, but I’m here to clean now if you haven’t gotten a new maid.” She lifted a bucket of supplies for me to see, not at all answering my question. I stood there raging and it built up inside of me to the point where I was clenching my fists. “Please stop staring and let me clean, Maxwell. It’s the only thing I’m good at.”

Stepping aside, I let her in, though I wasn’t sure if I was breathing any more. She moved to the couch where she took off her jacket and folded it neatly. She put her cap on top before putting in earphones and grabbing her bright yellow gloves.

I’m going to kill them. No, I’m going to fucking crucify them!

Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I dialed quickly and he answered on the first ring.

“When I say I’ll see you later—”

“She’s back. Come up now…she’s…she’s hurt.”

“What do you mean she’s hurt?” I could already hear him walking.

“Someone beat the shit out her!” I fought back a scream as my hands trembled. Each breath got shorter and shorter.

The line went dead. Putting the phone back in my pocket, I opened the door and waited for the elevator to come up. I took no less than a minute. He looked like I felt. His eyes were hard, his lips in a thin line as he came inside, and just like I did, he froze when saw her wiping down the coffee table.

“She’s cleaning?” he hissed through his teeth before stepping forward to go to her. I stopped him and put my hand on his shoulder after closing the door.

“She’s trying to make herself feel useful. She doesn’t like to be pitied.”

“I know that, but she’s hurt!” he snapped at me. “Who did this?”

“I know what you know. She just came here and asked to clean, so I let her clean, but know this: I’m not letting her leave until I get a fucking name.” I moved to take a seat on the stairs.

His jaw cracked to the side before he took a deep breath. Taking a seat beside me on the stairs, he put his hand over his mouth.

“Whoever did this…” He trailed off, clasping his hands shut, and I understood then what had been so hard for me to understand five minutes before.

I cared about her. I didn’t know why. I couldn’t explain it. All I knew was at that very moment, watching her, it fucking hurt. It was torture. The Jane I knew was strong, feisty, kind, and a pain in the ass workaholic, but someone had tried to break her. No. Just no.

We waited two hours.

That was a total of sixty-four winces, twenty-two quick stretches, sixteen sharp inhales of pain, nine times where she just paused and stood there lost in thought, and four times she wiped the corner of her eyes. When she did it a fifth time, I couldn’t take it any more.

Getting up, I walked into the kitchen and stepped in front of her. She looked at me with her big hazel eyes, and I wiped the corner of her bruised eye, and pulled out the earphones.

“Who?” I asked, placing my hand on her bruised face. “Who?” I asked again.

“I’m okay.”

“Bullocks,” I whispered, running my hand over her lips. “Don’t brush this off. Talk to me. Who?”

Her eyes watered and she looked away. Stepping closer, I wrapped her in my arms and she just sobbed. She trembled like a child. Kissing the top of her head, Max leaned on the kitchen island, his head down, strands of his black hair covering his eyes.

“I’ll go run a bath,” he muttered, turning away.

Nodding, I bent down and picked her up. She wrapped her arms around me, not letting go like a terrified little cat. It only made it hurt more. None of us said anything as we walked up the stairs to the master bedroom. I placed her on the bed as Max went into the bathroom.

“Do you want me to go?

“I need help,” she whispered, not looking up at me. “I can’t lift my arms that high.”

Swallowing the painful lump in my throat, I reached to the bottom of her turtleneck and pulled it up slowly, reaching under to help her right arm out and then the left, gently lifting it over her head…

Christ.

The bruising on her face was not nearly as bad as it was on her stomach and chest. If this was a couple of days after, I could only imagine how bad it was after it happened.

“Jane,” I whispered, shaking my head. I had no other words.

“I’m okay,” she lied again. I wanted to tell her I wasn’t. Seeing her like that, I wasn’t okay, but it wasn’t about me.

“Do you want to keep your bra on?” I asked, noting her bra had a clasp in the front, so she could take it off herself.

She just reached up and undid it. Like the rest of her, her breasts were bruised too. The marks were all from beatings, and there were no teeth marks or hickeys. It didn’t rule out sexual assault but…

“When I fantasized about being naked in front of you guys, it wasn’t like this,” she tried to joke, shifting to the edge of the bed to take off her leggings. Again I noticed no hickeys, thumb or hand impressions; in fact, her legs were pretty much the only things not beaten. Whoever had done this had focused on her top half.

“That’s the part where you say something sexual or something. You’re Wes, the free-spirited wild one,” she whispered to me.

“Right now, I’m Wes, one of the men, trying to…trying to make you feel safe.”

She laughed lightly and it was music to my ears. “You guys don’t have to do anything to make me feel safe. That’s why I came. I’m scared everywhere else but here. He can’t get me here.”

Putting her hands over her face, she cried again.

Hearing the door opening, I watched as Max came over and kneeled beside me in front of her.

“You are safe here. You can stay for as long as you want, and you don’t have to clean a damn thing.”

She chuckled, sniffling a couple times before dropping her hands and looking at us. “Thank you.”

I hated how she thanked us. Like…like it wasn’t normal for her to be treated with kindness. Lifting her up again, I walked us into the bathroom.

Max had dimmed the lights and put a few candles around the tub; the TV was even on to…
Vanilla Sky
. Putting her on her feet, she walked over to the tub. Max inhaled seeing the bruise on her back as she got into it, the bubbles surrounding her.

“Ask me why I like this movie.” She sat staring at the screen.

“Why do you like this movie?” Max asked, leaning against the bathroom sink as I leaned on the door.

“Because the message is that no matter how bad life gets, no matter how many wrong turns or ups and downs you go through, it will always be better than dreaming your life away,”

she replied, pulling her legs to her chest. “I’m alive for a reason even if my junkie parents abandoned me at birth with enough heroin in my system to kill a baby elephant. Even though I have hospital bills and debt up to my ears. Even though I have no money and have spent all my life alone. Even though my boss put me down as the co-owner of a club he started with drug money resulting in me getting beaten by some…loan shark. I have to be here for a reason right? God isn’t just fucking with me? Trying to see how much I can take before I off myself?”