Page 76 of Broken Doll

Leo comes over and stands next to me in the kitchen. "I've called John to sit outside the house to make sure that everything is safe here. Want to talk about it?"

“No.” He knows just as well as I do the things that Uncle Jack does, so what good would it do to talk about it?

Placing his hand on mine, he pulls me closer. I stand in front of him and he puts his hands on my hips. “This time next week, all this will be put behind us and we can move on.” Bringing his face down, his lips brush mine, “And I can see these lips smile again.” He looks over at the ingredients that I’ve taken out. “Hey, Jackson and I will get some food when we go out. I told John to get you something.”

I lean into him and think about how it will be in a week when this is all over. How will our life be? "Are you going now?"

“Yeah, if I go now, then I can be back to spend some of my evening with you.” He wraps his arms around me as he kisses me again. “Always smile, please.”

“I’ll try.”

“That’s all I ask.” I see Jackson walking towards the door. “Hi John, thanks. We won’t be long.” The door closes and I look back at Leo. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back before you know it.” Leo gives me a reassuring smile. I take the food from Jackson.

“Hey beautiful, we’re going to end this I promise and then we’re going to do something fun, like ice skating once the rink is set up.”

Leo starts laughing. “When have we ever been skating? No, when have we ever done anything fun? We work and then come here to watch sports.”

Jacksons shrugs. “Well, maybe it’s time to live a little.”

“I think we live enough and I looked at the house magazine that Hope’s been reading, I think my house is about to get a full makeover so we might be moving in with you soon.” Leo looks over at me and smiles. I don’t think that I’ve folded that many pages, but I do have a lot of ideas.

“Um, not sure that will work.”

"Sorry, will it get in the way of your sex life?" Leo asks and I start laughing, not loud but it's enough to make Leo look at me in surprise. "Now that's a sound I'm going to enjoy listening to."

“Yes, it will,” Jackson tells him, these two really are like brothers. I think I’d probably fight like this with my brother, not about his sex life, but other little things.

“Well, you’re going to have to zip it up for a while, but don’t worry you’ll have time. I need to get some quotes for how much it will cost and get this one to tell me what she wants done to the place.”

“Give me some notice, now let’s go.”

“I’ll see you later. Someone needs to get back in time for his hot date.” Leo starts laughing, as he kisses me before they leave. I stare into nothing, thinking about how calm Leo is being. I know that he has killed a lot of people before, but tomorrow he is about to finish what he started, finally killing the man that made his life hell.

Now, I wait until he gets back. To find out what Jack had planned for them today. He’s going to play a game that only he will enjoy. I just hope that Leo and Jackson are ready for it.

CHAPTER30

LEO

Hope laughed,and it was like music; I do enjoy the days when she laughs. I can see her really coming out of the darkness even though it keeps trying to pull her back. Once Jack is dead, she'll be able to smile freely, and I'm going to be there for the whole time. I'm going to watch her every second of every day and love it.

“What do you think Jack’s game is?” Jackson asks.

“Fuck knows, but he knows that Hope is with us, so he’s going to play more fucked up games than before.” My body fills with excitement just thinking about putting a bullet between his eyes.

“You do know that we can finish this if—”

“We arenotusing Hope. Ican’tlose her.” I know that Jackson and Hope agree to this and I know what they’re saying is right. Yes, we can end it all now by using her but I just can’t risk it. Jack always seems to be five steps ahead of us and if we use Hope he could take her and I’ll lose her forever.

“You won’t. Leo, I won't let anything happen to her either. Before we put Hope in any danger, I promise that we’ll have a plan A, a plan Banda plan C. Nothing will happen to her.”

I know that Jackson means it, but I can’t, I just can’t do it. Just the thought ofhimlooking at her again makes me sick, never mind him touching her.

“Let’s just see what happens here first.” Maybe they are both right, Jack is five moves ahead of us and using Hope will giveusthe upper hand; maybe we need to be a step ahead of him. I’m fighting with myself over this now, am I really thinking about it?

"Fine." Jackson's single word speaks more than anyone else would think. I still remember the day that Jackson was taken and thrown back into our room, the tears told me so much more than words could because of just the day before or week before that had been me. No matter how much I tried to save him, some days I was too tired and when I asked anything, the only answer I got was fine. Fine was the word he would use when he didn't want to talk about it anymore because no matter what he would say nothing would change.

“Three days, if nothing in three days, we’ll do it your way.”

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