Pretty Deadly

Chapter Three

Jericho's POV

I walk into the house and notice mom is passed out on the couch, a used needle in her hand and a burnt spoon beside her. I shake my head at her carelessness and quickly pick them both up with a towel and step outside to throw them away.

I hear the familiar screech of the school bus tires and see it stop in front of our house. I walk down to the end of the driveway and Janelle steps off the bus and looks down at the ground. She embarrassed of all the bruises. They covered her arms and legs and face like freckles and they all vary in color.

She looked up and smiled at me as the bus pulled away and she hugged my waist. "Coco, how was your day?" She asks me and I chuckle and place my hand on her shoulder as we walk up to the house. "Isn't that my job to ask you?" I ask and she shrugs opens the door for me.

I step in and head straight to the kitchen to make her usual peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Well, I asked you first." She says as she sits down and takes her book bag off.

"My day was good. I only had a small surgery this morning then I went and had coffee with a friend." She nods and grabs a juice box from the fridge.

"Is this friend a boy or a girl?" She asks and I quirk a brow at her as I set the sandwich down in front of her. "A girl... why do you ask?"

She smirks and shrugs again only this time taking a bite of her sandwich. "You just smell like vanilla that's all." She says and I sniff at my shirt and furrow my brows. How did that happen, maybe when she was almost in my lap with a knife to my face some rubbed off?

She eats her sandwich in silence and I lean against the counter and smile at her. "Have they stopped teasing you yet?" I ask and she shakes her and sips on her juice. It made me so mad what those kids have said about her during this. I've told her she can stay home and I would take time off work but she said that I had lived to save and she had school work to do.

She made it seem like she didn't care what they said but I cared. It kills me that they could say anything about such a sweet, kind, caring, and beautiful little girl such as Janelle. She has already gone through so much to be a girl of twelve years and she seemed to roll with punches like it didn't matter. She had such a hard exterior that nothing could crack her.

"Could you clean my burns after my sandwich? I have homework I want to get down before tonight." I nod and turn around to pretend I'm doing something in the sink but I don't want her to see my anger. I grip the stainless steel sink and take a deposit breath. I heart her chair move and I turn around to see her stand up and walk upstairs and into the bathroom leaving the door open for me.

I place her plate in the sink and get my medical bag from beside the door, which was open because mom stole yet another needle, and walk upstairs. 

She took her jeans and shoes off and sat on the counter putting her hair up.

I bent down in front of her and grabbed the hydrogen peroxide. Twelve. Twelve cigar burns littered the tops of her thighs, all caused by him. I pour it on and she winces and I blow on the bubbles to soothe her. I take a cotton ball and dab at them, carefully not to put too much pressure on them due to the bruises that flushed her skin.

She takes a cotton swab and swabs at a pit of infection on one of them and cleans it well. I can't help but smile at her attention to detail. I knew that this could happen with traumatic experiences but each day it grew a little more. She had a growing need to control things, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or simply OCD.

It started a few days after she came home. I found her in her room, taking all of her clothes out of her drawers and refolding and organizing them.

She becomes happy with what she did and throws it away and steps off the counter. "I'm going to take a shower and do my homework while you start dinner." She says and starts the shower. I nod and walk out telling a quick I love you and walking downstairs. I look on the counter and glance at the envelope. I open the envelope and take a pin in my hands as I read.

I ___ am making a binding contract with Ms. Lex Night on the term of payment and secrecy. By signing this document you will not reveal any information obtained about the Black Knights of Eden and will never inform law enforcement of any activities disclosed. By signing this you are agreeing to pay Ms. Lex Night $ ____ for her services. Her services will include.

A.) Scaring or frightening 

B.) Blackmail

C.) Killing and or torture.

My eyes widen at these choices and I sigh, what did I want to do.

This contract is being served out against ____ and will receive the punishment you see fit. Details of which things are sought out will be discussed between the Knight and the client.

Name____

Date___

Choice of payment_____

I would wait till later to fill this out, I couldn't in my right mind thing of the consequences of this. I glance at the clock on the wall and it read at 6 o'clock. Wow, time must fly when you're thinking of killing people. Haha, note that this wasn't a joke.

I dial a number for Chinese take out and walk over to the couch and shake my mom's shoulders. She wakes up and looks at me with a lazy, high ridden smile. "What do you want from the take out place up the street?" I ask and she sits up and shrugs. "Whatever. I'm famished." She says and sits up stretching. I fill the order and put my phone away as I do the same with the envelope. 

Mom stands up and walks over hugging me and smiling up at me. "How is she doing today?" She asks and I shrug and sigh. "Better I guess. She's not healing as quickly as I hoped but she's doing better emotionally I think. What about you? I hid the needle and spoon before Janelle got home." I say and mom's eyes glaze over in guilt.

"That was the last trip I swear. I just needed something to calm my nerves after I got the letter." She says and I furrow my eyes. "What letter?" I ask and she walks over to the coat wrack and digs a letter out of her jacket. She hands it to me and I instantly recognize the writing.

You think that hiding her from me was a smart move but it wasn't. She's the product of a w***e who cheated on her husband with a stranger and looks what she turned out to be. A w***e just like her mother. She begged and screamed for me, darling. There was nothing she could do though. There was nothing you could do to stop this either. I want you to live with this small little fact. I could come back and finish her off for good if I wanted to. Just remember that. Never. And I mean never underestimate me.

-JM

I stare at the letter and take a deep breath, I refused to let him get under my skin. I had to be brave for all of us, I wasn't going to step down from him because of his power or his relationships. I refused to give him that pleasure. I take the note from her and place it in the envelope that Lex gave me. I then walk down the hall and grab the pictures I took for a case I thought we would have against him. But we never did. He had to much power and he would get away with it.

I place them in the envelope as well and hear a knock on the door and grab my wallet out.

"$32.03" Is the only thing the bored teenage girl says as I open the door. Her eyes look up and they widen when she looks over my body. She bites her lip and I watch as a blush creeps up her cheeks. I hand her the cash with a polite smile and she hands me the food, but in the process drops the money.

She quickly bends down to pick it up. I hand the food to mom and help to see as some change feels into the house. As I'm picking it up I feel her eyes on me and I look up. "Didn't I treat you yesterday for a torn ligament in your ankle?" I ask and she nods shyly and gestures down towards her foot which is clad in a walking boot.

"How is it feeling. Has the swelling gone down?" I ask and she nods slowly looking at me like I'm weird. I guess I kind of am. "Well make sure you prop it up when you get home and rotate between hot and cold compresses." She nods yet again, this time with a shy smile and waves me off and walks down the step.

But she stops and walks back with a limp and hands me my change. "Sorry Sir, $7.97 is your change." She says and I shake my head and chuckle. "Keep the change." With that, I close the door and walk towards the kitchen.

I guess a doctor is never off duty. I grab a plate and put a little of everything on a plate and walk upstairs to give it to Janelle. I knock on the door and wait but she never says anything so I walk in.

She's laying on her bed, asleep, above the sheet and completely drenched in sweat. She shaking and tossing and nuns I can see her mouth forming words that aren't being spoken.

"No, please stop." She whimpers out and I set the food down and grab her shoulder and shake. "Don't hurt me. I don't wanna play with your snake." She breaths out and watch a tear slip down her cheek. That bastard did this to her. I shake her and call out her name and she wakes up with a start as if she's out of breath. "Hey, I just thought I'd bring you your food," I say with a weak smile and hand her it.

She nods and wiped her forehead and chuckles weakly. "I guess I fell asleep after I finished my homework." She says and I nod.

"You can go back to sleep after you're dinner. Just bring your plate down." I say and she nods and grubs her eyes and turning on her stereo. I walk out of the room and trudge downstairs. I walk in the kitchen and take deep breaths as I pace back and forth. I'm going to kill him myself if Lex doesn't do it before me.

"I made your plate." My mom says and places it in front of me with a smile. "Thanks. You can go ahead and go lay down. I've got some paperwork and other things to attend to." I say and she comes over and places a kiss to my forehead. "How did I get so lucky with a boy like you." She grabs my face and kisses me on the cheek and I smile.

"Alright, alright. Enough of the sappy love stuff. Go head to bed. Sleep that stuff out your system." She gives me a side hug and walks upstairs to her room.

I grab a pen and walk over to the contract.

Jericho Martin

$55,000 

A, B, and C

I sigh my name, date it's and put the words cash in bold letters. I hover over the name of the person I want to put it out against and take a deep breath. James Martin  With that I walk into my bedroom which is just down the hall and reach in my closet for my safe. I unlock it and grab out stacks upon stacks of cash and place them in a clean, non-oder filled, gym bag.

I grab my phone and place the contact number as LN and go back to the kitchen. I grab the envelope and walk out the door to my car place everything in the trunk.

"He's gonna pay Janelle. I promise you that."