Jack In The Box novel Chapter 43

Riley

Aaron raised his blood-shot eyes towards me and sighed in relief, “Riley, oh thank god, you’re here.”

My mind was reeling with possibilities. Why was Aaron here? Could it be possible that he was the killer and he was trying to trick me into thinking he was the victim? Or perhaps he really was the victim and I was not seeing clearly into this.

“Aaron, who…who did this to you?”

His hair looked like he hadn’t washed it in a long time; his fingers were covered in dirt and there were angry red marks of the robe cutting through his skin. His eyes were blood-shot, as if he hadn’t slept in weeks. As if that wasn’t enough, he seemed like he’d been beaten.

“Riley, you shouldn’t be here.” He whispered, his eyes darting around the dark room in panic. “He could come back any minute. You need to get away from this place.”

If I thought he was the killer before, the thought left my mind that time. He was bound to a chair, completely helpless and he was asking me to save my own life rather than to free him from his situation. Aaron had always been so bright, lively and comfortable to be around with, a guy who would never even hurt a bug intentionally. To see him in this vulnerable state really shocked me.

“The police were looking for you. They thought you killed Maddy and the others because you never showed up at her funeral or the interrogations and—”

“I did not show up because the killer had me.” He said in irritation and exhaustion. “Were there any search parties going around even looking for me?” He paused, “Of course they won’t because they thought I had murdered all those people.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” I said. “Everyone was a suspect at that time. I’m still a suspect, Aaron.”

“Yes but you weren’t a captive for a straight week, locked and bound to a chair.” He stated impatiently.

He had a point.

“True but I wasn’t really hitting clubs and having fun either. I spent the last few days in an asylum getting my mental health re-evalued.”

He was silent for a long minute, staring at the ground. He glanced up to look into my eyes. “You should leave. Take the chance when you have it.”

I shook my head. “I will not leave you here to die.”

“Riley, just leave! Listen to me at least once!” He said angrily.

“Never have and I will not start now.” I told him as I looked around the place for something sharp to cut the robes around his wrists. I couldn’t see clearly even with the torch light flashing around.

Finally, I found a rusty old pocket knife and decided this needed to work. I began working the knife through the robe and it was turning to be quite hard. I looked at Aaron and he appeared agitated.

“You need to do it fast, Riley. If he finds us, we are both dead.”

A minute later, I had managed to cut deeper into the robe and I was almost done when I paused and looked at him. Throughout the entire conversation, I’d forgotten to ask him one important thing, “Who is the killer, Aaron?”

He stared at me like I’d asked him the stupidest question ever, “It is Jackson. I thought it was pretty obvious by now.”

My blood ran cold and I had my heart jump into my throat. “That’s not true…”

“Yes, it is.” Aaron said.

I shook my head. “Jack can’t be the killer!”

Aaron laughed with no traces of humor. “That again. Wake up. You’re blinded by your love for him. He murdered all those people and then manipulated you to into trusting him. You were deluded by the thought of Jack falling in love with you, but all he did was use you to get what he wanted. He’s a psychopath. His brain doesn’t have what it takes to feel empathy or guilt.”

“He told me his reports were all lies produced by Brady Wolfe to get him locked up in the asylum for life. I trust Jack.”

“Alright. I understand. Maybe your mind won’t be clouded until I’m just a useless piece of meat with eyeballs missing. If that’s all it would take for you to believe me, then fine. You can walk back up the stairs and show yourself out. Just do me a favor and let the police know I’m here.”

My mind was boggled and my thought process was jumbled up. How could this be true?

“Think, Riley. When Mad-Dave was dead, Jack was in the hospital, as for Roxy he’d taken you to live with him but he could have come back to the asylum, killed her and left the body there while he seduced you with his own game. Jack has a pretty good motive to kill his father and Maddy…well, I don’t even know why he could have killed her but then again, psychotic killers do not need a motive.”

I raised my hand, indicating him to stop speaking. “I need time to think.”

“Time is running out. I told you to either untie me or leave. There’s really no point in the two of us dying.” He said quietly.

Suddenly we heard the sound of the footfalls coming down the stairs. I had to be ready for this. I pulled out my gun and was ready to shoot a bullet when I saw it was Jack. Clearly, he was stunned to see me here.

“Riley, what are you doing here?” Jack asked me, his tone was sharp.

I kept the gun cocked at him. My hands trembling, “Where’s Ken, Jack?”

“Are you seriously fucking doubting me?” Jack snapped.

To be honest, I was scared. Knowing what Jack would do to me, or had already done to my brother if everything that he told me was a bunch of lies.

This was no time to shed tears. “I want to know the truth!” I turned the gun to aim at Aaron and then at Jack. “Either of you killed those people. Confess right now or I’ll shoot you both.”

“Go on shoot me, Cotton-candy.” His brown eyes had turned a shade darker, his jaw set hard.

Did I even know this man?

“I want the truth!” I said in a frustrated yell.

“Here’s the truth!” Jack snapped, keeping his eyes on me. “As soon as I got the text, I came here looking for your brother but he wasn’t here, instead I found Dr. Aaron Shaw waiting here in the basement for me acting like a victim, the same way he’s trying to trick you. Although, Shaw told me that Ken was the one doing the killings and that I should let him go.” Jack turned his wrist to show me a deep gash. “When I didn’t believe him, he tried to attack me, but I’d come prepared for it so I tackled him down and bound him to a chair—”

“He is lying, Riley!” Aaron exclaimed, and then pointed an accusing finger at Jack. “You lying piece of shit! Here’s what actually happened. You have to listen to my side. After Maddy’s death, I tried to reach the police but before I could talk to them, I was drugged and abducted. When I opened my eyes, I found myself here. A man in a black mask visited to drop in food and then left. Jack appeared two days later and forced me to send threating messages to Ken, blackmailing him with the truth of him being a drug addict. I had no choice but to do as I was told because I didn’t want to die.”

Jack laughed and then clapped, “Nice story. If you uploaded that online, I'm sure it'll get a million hits and maybe even get a Netflix series made out of it.” He turned to me. “Do you seriously believe him?”

I looked at Jack. “If you tied him up, why didn’t you inform the police?”

“Well, that’s what I was doing right now. My phone wasn’t working and this place is not exactly a place with a lot of phone connections or pay phones. When I came back, you had already found him and believed every word he said.”

I remembered Paul’s words during Maddy’s funeral. ‘I saw a man washing the sole of his shoes in the men’s restroom. It was Dr. Aaron Shaw.’

Aaron’s story didn’t add up and sounded jumbled up, almost like he was forcing me to believe him. I was going to go with my gut feeling which said—

The sound of a gunshot roared through the basement and I let out a bloodcurdling scream. It happened all at once. Aaron had broken free from the robes, he was standing tall, and his expressions were downright mean. He looked like a bully, which was so unlike the Aaron that I knew.

Jack was shot in his leg, but the bullet had just grazed him. Jack cursed under his breath and then groaned.

“Jack…” I started making my way towards him when I felt the sharp point of the blade poking under my chin.

“I’ll slice your throat clean right in front of Psycho boy, and the next bullet goes in his head.” Aaron said in an icy-cold voice, one that I never thought he possessed. “And then you both love birds can die watching each other as you slowly bleed to death.” He reached into my waistband and took my gun.

“You’re sick.” I told Aaron. “I knew it was you the second you made up that cock and bull story.”

Aaron sniggered. “Yeah, and I was smart enough to know your intentions as to which side you were really taking on and it’s a real shame. At least, if you’d believed me, we could have killed Jack together and that could be the end of this long revenge story. The police would have believed that Jackson was the killer since a lot of other evidence was against him. Ken would have testified as per my instructions and everyone would go home happy. Case solved.”

“Why did you do it?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

“Weren’t you listening?” He asked. “Revenge.”

Jack asked. “What was your purpose for revenge?”

“Listen up because I’m going to make this quick, and won’t repeat twice.” Aaron said. “Joel Shaw. Does the name ring any bells?”

Jack appeared to be lost in thought for a moment. “As a matter of fact, it does. He worked for my adoptive father, Brady Wolfe. Joel Shaw was a personal butler and then climbed his way up to becoming his personal assistant. Now that I try to recall, he had a son that used to keep to himself. Even came by the mansion, once or twice. Baron, was it?” Jack said all this with a straight face, his emotions in check.

Aaron’s jaw began ticking. “Your mother was a whore, I hope you realized that.”

Jack didn’t seem remotely offended. “She was my mother nevertheless, granted that she may have been a little selfish. Then again, she was beautiful and men were easily attracted towards her. She took advantage of the fact. Maybe your father should have tried to practice some restraint.”

“You arrogant sonofabitch! You’re one to talk.” Aaron raged.

What the hell were they talking about? How was Jack’s mother, Laura Wolfe linked to any of this?

Aaron continued, his speech was filled with so much hate, “She had me before she had you and Ezra, and yet, she never showed me even an ounce of love. I craved just a few words from her but she pretended like I wasn’t her son and then she ditched my father and married Brady Wolfe. How ironic that he couldn’t give her any kids. A gold-digging lying bitch that she was, she deserved it.”

“Ezra and I were the same as you. She had us with an affair after she married Brady. There’s no difference.” Jack reasoned.

“There’s a huge fucking difference!” Aaron spat. “She loved you and Ezra, she never loved me. I was supposed to be adopted when Brady decided to adopt her illegitimate child but she chose you and Ezra over me!”

“I had a hard life.” Jack began. “You destroyed my name, my reputation, turned my employees against me for something that wasn’t our fault.”

“You destroyed my life. My father committed suicide because of your selfish mother!”

“She was your mother as much as mine. Don’t you forget that.”

“Aaron is your half-brother.” I whispered.

“Riley has nothing to do with this.” Jack said calmly. “Whatever issues you have with me and Ezra, we can resolve it alone. Let her go.”

He pushed the knife at my throat again and I felt the trickle of something warm running down my neck. My eyes were turning watery due to the pain. “Why are you doing this?” I asked.

Aaron was my friend, and my mentor and to think he’d been the one all along. I couldn’t fathom to think he was capable of so much violence.

“Because he’s got Mommy issues.” Jack responded.

Sometimes I wondered why Jack couldn’t just shut his mouth up for a second.

“Shut the fuck up or I’ll kill her!” Aaron said. “I’m sorry Riley, I didn’t want to drag you into this but you left me with no other choice.” He turned to Jack. “I wanted your life destroyed. You didn’t deserve to live a millionaire’s lifestyle when you’re the same as me. A bastard. And now you will pay for all those years of torment you put me through.”

“If you’re man enough, you’d stop dragging a woman into this.” Jack said in a commanding voice.

The knife sliced to my skin and I screamed and tried to hit him which is when a strong pair of hands seized my arm in a harsh grip and before I knew it I was pushed violently towards the floor when I realized what had happened. Jack had saved my life. Aaron’s blade had slipped out of his fingers and landed somewhere on the floor.

I watched horrified and helplessly as the men engaged in a fight. Jack had delivered a few blows before Aaron took advantage of the fact that Jack was injured and pummeled him relentlessly on the ground. His fists were bloodied as he continued to pound Jack with as much hate as he could muster. A vindictive glint shining in Aaron’s eyes. All the while he continued to chant, ‘She should have loved me! I should have been the heir to the Wolfe Enterprise.’