Page 79 of Wanting What’s Wrong

Thirteen

Jackson

“ J ackson, we’re hearing that the girl you were seen kissing is your sister. Is that true?”

I glare into the crowd of reporters as more and more gather. Where are they even all coming from? They’re like vultures, circling until they spot a fresh kill. I can’t see who the voice belongs to, but I don’t need to.

I need to keep her safe.

That’s my priority. Always and forever. I don’t care what they say about me, I don’t care what they do to me, all I care about is Mina.

“Get inside,” I turn my head, my hand empty where I try to find her. “I’ll explain everything, just—”

She’s gone.

All this is bullshit and I don’t need it.

“Jackson! Can you confirm for our readers that—”

“No fucking comment,” I growl, then turn and push open the doors to the hotel.

As soon as I’m inside, hotel security seems to swarm from everywhere, keeping the mob out. I know at some point I’m going to have to face these questions, but first I need to find Mina. And I need to tell her the truth, before she hears it from someone else. Unless she’s heard it already… fuck.

“Mina!”

No answer. Fuck. Where’s she gone? Back to our room?

I race for the bank of elevators just as the doors on one slide closed, and start thumping the buttons for the next one just as my phone starts buzzing.

Thinking it might be her, I bring it up to my eyes, then scowl as I press to take the call.

“What do you want, Harson?”

“I want to know what the hell is going on here, son. I’ve just been sent an early copy of a story so that I can make a comment and… Shit, you sure have got some explaining to do.”

I don’t have time for this. “I don’t explain, Harson. I play ball. And I do it fucking well. If you have a problem with that—”

“It’s not your ball playing I have a problem with, Jackson. It’s your… Shit, I don’t know how to put this. Are you screwing your own sister?”

“No.”

I hang up the phone. I don’t have time for his bullshit. If that’s what people are saying… If that’s what’s scared Mina into leaving… I need to find her. And I need to find her fast.

We’re not breaking any laws here. We’re both adults…consenting adults.

Or are we?

I cant afford to think like that. So she hit her head and had amnesia. Somewhere inside, she still wanted all this. It just gave her the opportunity to take it, that’s all. I saw her diary, I saw her drawings. We were always meant to be together and we both knew it.

As the elevator dings to tell me it’s reached my floor, my phone buzzes again. A text this time. I open it and get a photograph of the two of us, locked in each other’s arms, my hand cupping her crotch as her eyes roll back.

And Harson’s message: You’re finished. This is a total embarrassment for me. I’m going to make sure you go round 50 in the draft now, and your dad can forget all about me bailing him out. I can’t have my players fucking their own sisters. Jesus. Bad press, Jackson. Bad fucking press.

I growl as I step onto the elevator. Whatever. The whole world can burn as far as I’m concerned. So long as I have her in my arms, that’s all that matters.

“Hold up. Hold the elevator, please.”

I glance up to see a slightly portly porter heading my way with a rack of clothes, and on instinct I thrust out an arm to stop the doors closing. Then tap out a reply on my phone.

Me: Fuck your deal and fuck you, Harson.

The porter grins as he enters. “Thanks, man. Hey, you’re Jackson—”

“Yeah, go Trojans,” I say flatly, not wanting to get into some hero worship thing. “Going up?”

“I spoke to your girlfriend. Ten minutes ago, maybe fifteen. She seems nice. Sweet, you know?”

“Where is she?” I demand, putting my foot in the way to stop the doors from closing.

“I…don’t know. Something up?”

“Yeah, something’s up. I need to know where she is. Right fucking now.” I pull out my phone, remembering I have both her phone and the frog necklace in the tracking app.

I tap the screen as he chatters and I wait for the location to load .

“Well…I saw her in the lobby, I went to get the elevator, but then I remembered I needed the passkey, so I went back to the front desk and that’s when I saw her—”

“Just get to the point!” I grab his collar as the little icon spins on my phone. “Where. Is. She?”

“Saw her heading for the bar and pool area,” he says with a shrug. “She was with someone.”

With someone ?

This day just gets weirder and weirder. If she’s forgotten who she is again and gone off with some man she just met, I’m going to be arrested for murder. Mom and Dad will get back from their second honeymoon to find out their kids have fornicated and their son, well, he’s doing twenty to life.

Welcome home.

My phone buzzes and blares with a sound I’ve never heard before.

It’s the alarm I set for when her phone gets immersed in water.

Fuck.

I push out of the elevator, racing to the lobby then follow the signs for the hotel pool.

“ Mina? ”

I hear a scream, and as my heart jumps into my throat I pick up my pace.

“ Help her! Somebody help her!”

It’s Rosaria, Mina’s friend from Chatsbury Prep. At least if it’s Rosaria she went off with, I don’t need to kill anyone.

In an instant, I’m following where she’s pointing, and I see the dark swirl of hair.

Mina. Fuck. Jesus. She’s in the water .

What’s with her and pools all the sudden? I’m going to fill every fucking pool with cement.

Without thinking I’m diving in, memories of the last time swirling like the dark water. Please let her be okay. I’ll tell her the truth. The whole truth. Just please let her be okay.

I get my arm around her and she doesn’t respond. What the hell?

If she…

I couldn’t go on. If anything happened to her, that would be it for me.

What’s the point of life without her in it?

I’d rather she hated me for what I’ve done.

Rather she looked at me with nothing but disgust, but at least I’d know she was okay.

At least I could protect her, even if she wouldn’t let me anywhere near her.

I think of the pregnancy test I bought at the store early this morning. I was so fucking excited thinking I may have gotten my wish and rooted my seed inside her already…

“Mina,” I say as I pull her up to the surface, brushing hair back from her face. “Talk to me, baby. Please, open your eyes.”

Nothing. No response. I glare at the surrounding spectators as I pull her to the side of the pool.

“Call a fucking ambulance, assholes!”

I drag her out and onto the side, remembering the first aid training I had to do my first year in college. Clear her airways, get her breathing.

When she splutters, it’s like someone just gave me a miracle.

I hear Rosaria’s voice. “ Mina! ”

“Baby,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry I did this to you. Please. I can explain everything. I just…”

Her eyes meet mine. And I see such confusion in them, it shames me. Why didn’t I just tell her the truth from the start, about me, about us, about who we are to each other. I could have let her decide, instead I took that away from her.

“Baby, please…” I whisper, taking her hand in mine.

And feel her squeeze my fingers .

“Daddy,” she says, her voice rough and hoarse from the water. “You saved me. I knew you would. But, wait, Jackson…you’re Jackson.”

The pictures are already all over the bar TV sets by the time the paramedics have given her all clear. A bit of water inhalation. Nothing to worry about. If she starts coughing or gets a fever, bring her to the hospital for a check, but she should be fine.

We’re alone. Rosaria retreated as soon as she knew Mina was going to be okay, saying she’d had plenty of excitement for one day and didn’t want to be here when the next bomb went off.

“Long term effects like amnesia, huh?” Mina says, a little smirk on her face. She glances at the TV screen, where that photo is still being shown, and blushes.

“I can explain,” I tell her. It’s about the hundredth time I’ve said that to her since I pulled her from the water, and honestly I don’t know what explanation could possibly make what I did all right.

But somehow she doesn’t seem as much mad as she is milking the moment.

Perhaps there’s still a little bit of the vixen I’ve had these past few days left inside, enough that she isn’t going to run a mile as far and as fast as her little feet can take her.

Not that I’d let her get away.

She shakes her head. “I’d love to hear your explanation for letting me think we’re boyfriend and girlfriend instead of…” She lowers her voice. “Brother and sister.”

“Stepbrother. Stepsister.”

“Still.”

I shake my head. “It makes the world of difference, believe me. You can’t tell me you didn’t want what we had. ”

“I did,” she says without hesitation. “I still do. But society has rules, and this goes against them.”

Taking her hand in mine, I kiss the backs of her fingers and watch her eyes close as she chokes back a moan. So. She still wants this. Then not everything has been in vain.

“Come with me,” I tell her.

“I don’t know if it’s a good idea. Maybe we should just book separate rooms and figure out what we’re going to tell Mom and Dad—”

“Baby, what do you say when Daddy tells you to do something?”

She blushes. “I don’t…”

“What do you say?”

For a moment, she hesitates. Then I see the change come over her. She goes from shy, easily embarrassed Mina to something else. My little girl.

“Yes, Daddy,” she says, straightening her back.

“Good girl. Now follow me, we’re going somewhere quieter.”

When we reach the roof, I have to make sure she goes out first, otherwise she would never agree to it. She kept asking on the way up if it was really all right and we wouldn’t get into trouble.

And honestly, it’s nice having my old Mina back again.

“I don’t want to go near the edge,” she says, her eyes wide. “Promise you won’t make me.”

“I’ll never make you do anything you don’t want to do, baby. You’re mine to protect, mine to love. I know I did a bad thing, letting you think we were already boyfriend and girlfriend, but it just felt so right . You are everything to me, Mina. Everything. You have been, since that first day.”

“You’ve always been everything to me. Ever since that first dinner. I met you and I was nervous because I was meeting my new family and my mom wanted me to make a good impression and I spilled the gravy and you…you made it all okay. You always make it all okay.”

I smile at the memory. I remember it so well. And now, I want to build some new memories.

“Baby. I need you. I need you with me, always.”

“But we—”

“No buts. This is how things have to be. You know it and I know it. We were made for each other, Mina, and the thought of being apart from you is the only thing in this world that scares me. I don’t ever want to face another day without you by my side.

You’re my babygirl, my precious little one.

” I drop down onto one knee as the traffic down below hums and roars, and the night sky stretches for the whole world in every direction.

“Marry me,” I tell her, dragging out the ring I bought earlier.

The one I had brought to the hotel and left at the front desk while she was doing her show.

The one that will bind us together forever.

“What? I don’t—”

I laugh as she stumbles over her words. “There’s my perfect girl. My Mina. There’s only one word you need right now, baby, and that’s yes .”

“Y…yes…” she says, and a little grin pulls at the corner of her mouth. “Yes, Daddy.”