Lemonade

Chapter 24: I love her

She's so pretty😍😍^^

Jackie's POV

I gasped as I woke from my sleep. That was such a weird dream. River was 30, I left, I cried, and then I got kidnapped. I've got an active imagination.

"Hey, darling. You okay?"

Oh. My. Gosh. It's not a dream. It's real. It's damn real. My hands were tied behind my back with my legs tied as well in front of me. "What damn sadistic freak ties a woman up with cable ties? Gosh, that's just pulling some Christian Grey ish on me."

"I knew you were a blabber mouth." A tall guy spoke, pacing in front of me. He was wearing a balaclava so I couldn't see his face but he had a rather nice build.

Jackie, your thirst is not appreciated while you're kidnapped.

"Excuse you, oversized monkey, I don't know what you want with me but you will not put me into a human trafficking ring." I said haughtily.

He waved me off. "Nah, you're too pretty for that." I noticed he had a slight accent. Shivers. Good and bad. Did he just say I'm too pretty for human trafficking? They have a human trafficking ring.

"What're you gonna do?" I asked, voice shaking.

"Nothing. I ain't doing jack to you." Then he gave a sinister laugh. "They are." And pointed to a couple of men in the corner wearing equally scary smiles.

My eyes widened with fear and started filling with tears at what I knew was about to happen. No. This can't be. I've still got my future ahead of me. Oh, God, please make this go quickly.

As they neared, I started growling. Animalistic, I know. Then the man with the accent laughed again. "God, you're too fun to play with! I'm just kidding. Get back, boys." Then he got up in my grill.

"Hoe, get out of my face. This ain't comfy." I leaned back only to be pulled by rough hands on my jaw.

"Listen." He snapped. "I'm gonna take you back to your boyfriend and you're gonna tell him that the day is coming. Tell him not to cross us again and keep his end of the deal. He better watch his back or else I'll cut it off alive and watch him suffer and bleed while I butcher the rest of him like my favourite beef. Get up!" He spat. And I obeyed, though difficultly. I got some help from the mysterious Linguine but was soon carried like a ragdoll by the henchmen.

"You know, this also isn't comfortable." I said as we got closer to the car. They tossed in the back of the van and I landed with a thud. "Ow, you could be gentle, you know." I screamed.

What am I going to do?

"Shut up."

And the world went black.

----------------------------

River's POV

"Where is she?" I growled. Jaden had been at it for a long time now and I was getting impatient.

"Chill. I've been in here for 5 minutes." He held his hand up.

"You've hacked a house in 1 minute. Don't tell me to chill."

He clicked and pressed a few keys until he threw his hand up, exasperated. "I give up. I can't track her."

"What the f*** do you mean you can't track her?"

"Exactly that. I'm sorry, man but she's untra-"

He was cut off by a knock on the door which James attended to. "Hey, are you okay?"

Light footsteps accompanied James's big ones and soon he and my baby came through the walkway into the lounge.

"Jackie." I smiled as I whispered. The happiness was short lived as I took in her state. "What happened to you?"

"You did." She snarled. "I've got a message for you." She walked closer and I reached out to pull her into me. "Don't touch me." She warned.

"Jackie..." I started.

"Shut the f*** up."

"Bu—"

Her head tilted in disbelief as she crossed her arms. "Did I stutter?" To which I shook my head to.

A snicker from Jax sounded from across the room as he muttered something along the lines of 'you're so whipped.'

"Some freaks in balaclavas kidnapped me and treated me like absolute scum because they want me to tell you to keep your end of the deal. They said to watch your back or else they'll butcher you and watch you suffer and bleed to death. He said the day is coming."

Dammit. How do they know about her? She wasn't supposed to be caught up in this. "So what happened to you?" I gestured to her state. Her clothes were dirty with what looked like grease and her pants were tattered up at the bottom. I noticed a few scrapes and bruises on her skin which left me clenching my fists.

"They roughed me up a bit."

"What?! Dammit." I pinched my nose before pacing.

How could I let Jackie into this mess? She didn't deserve to be in this. I should've been more careful.

"Jax and Alex." They turned. "Go find their b**** and take her to the warehouse. Jaden, track their vehicle for me. Bryan and Dylan, weigh up some s*** and package it. James, you're coming with me." I pulled out a gun from behind a painting and checked if it was loaded. Safety, off. "That d***bag is dead."

"Wait, what are you guys doing?" She sounded so scared. What was I thinking?

I cupped her face and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way. Go. And don't come here anymore."

She pushed me away and looked at me with hurt in her eyes. "What are you saying?"

"We can't do this."

"This?"

"I'm sorry. It's really not you. We're done. Bye, Jackie." I looked her in the eye as I said it but she blew a fuse.

"We're done? So you lead me on for three months and make me believe that you care about me but what? What was I? Huh?! What were we? You were just stringing me along. The big bad River. The playboy. The white manw**** that got the dumb black girl to fall for him. I knew I shouldn't have given you a second chance! I hate you!" She stormed off crying while I bit back my tongue.

That wasn't the case at all. Sure, we got looks and whispers but I don't care. To be honest, she made me want to be a better person. She was my sun, my world revolved around her. Truth is, I love her too much to let her get caught up in my bulls*** life.

I love her too much.