The One Ch 05

Jake waited and watched. He had known she was up to something. He just didn't know what.

Joselyn sat in her car. She'd been there for the past fourteen minutes. Just who in the hell was she meeting at three a.m. on the morning of their wedding? It sure in the hell wasn't him.

Jake was seething inside. If it was who he thought it was, things were not going to be good. Scraping his hands over his face, he thought about the past couple of days.

Her irrational behavior, her jumpiness, none of it made sense until J.J. showed up. Just what in the hell did Jos have to do with that prick? Did she really hate her sister so much that she'd intentionally hurt her over and over? Hell, Jos was the one who told him about what J.J. had done to Catherine. She even pointed out that no one knew everything except her.

The sad part of it all was that it bothered him at the time. If she knew everything that happened then why didn't she do anything to help her sister? He had hoped that she didn't do anything because she didn't know about it until after the fact, but now he wasn't so sure.

Could the woman that he loved really be as cold hearted as he was thinking? If she was could he go through with marrying her in less than eighteen hours?

Jake heard a car pull up and watched as it parked two spaces from Jos's. Surprise, surprise, it was J.J.

It took just about every ounce of willpower in Jake not to get out of the car and confront them both. He opted for rolling the windows down and listening in instead.

Best to get all the information first, Jake,

he told himself.

Clenching the steering wheel so hard that his knuckles where white, he watched Jos get out of her car and walk to meet J.J. Vaguely, he noticed that she had put on a pair of old jeans and t-shirt. He couldn't help but find hope that she wasn't trying to impress the prick at least.

Her voice was almost shrill, which only happened if she was extremely pissed, "Why in the hell did you demand that I meet you? I did what you told me to!"

J.J. ran a finger down Jos's cheek and she jerked away, "Not good enough, Jos. Who in the hell was the guy hanging all over her?"

Jos's voice was shaky, "He's Jake's best friend. Daniel."

"He better be nowhere near her at the wedding, Jos. Or should I have a talk with Jake?"

Jake jerked to attention at the mention of his name. What is he holding over her? Had to be something big for Jos to act the way she was.

Jos's shoulders slumped, "I'll figure out something. You promised you wouldn't hurt her again."

J.J. laughed coldly, "She's mine to do with as I please. What does it matter to you anyway? You hate her."

She shook her head, "I don't hate her. She and I just don't..."

He cut her off, "Not your concern. You'll do as I say or Jake will know everything."

Jake had hoped someone would say what was going on, but they didn't. J.J. got in his car and drove off. Jos stared into the night and he saw tears streaming down her face. For a second, he had thought about running to her and holding her, but then he remembered that she was deceiving him. She was willingly planning to hurt her sister for her own purposes.

He saw her get in the car and lean her head against the steering wheel. Her shoulders were shaking and slumped. Part of him thought,

serves the bitch right.

Then he thought

what on earth could she have done that we couldn't get through?

Knowing it was a bad idea, Jake flipped open his cell phone and called her. He watched as she jumped. He thought she wasn't going to answer, but finally she did. She sounded extremely tired and defeated when she whispered, "Hi, baby."

Jake all but lost it, "What in the fuck is going on?"

She started stuttering, "I...I..."

He demanded, "Look in your rear view mirror, Jos." When she did, he opened his car door and stalked towards her car. He closed his cell phone and almost ripped her car door off of the hinges, "Explain...NOW!"

"Cat asked me to..."

Cutting her off, he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the car. He damn near growled as he pinned her against the car, "Don't fucking lie to me again, Jos. I swear to God if you do...we're done. No wedding, no fairy tale honeymoon, no nothing. I'll wash my hands of you and never look back!"

He felt her hands grip his shirt, "You'll hate me!"

"Did you fuck him?"

She jerked almost as if he slapped her, "NO!"

He almost breathed a sigh of relief, "Then you need to explain this shit to me. Do you really hate your sister so much that you're throwing her at the man that almost killed her?"

Tears streamed down her face as she took a deep breath, "He...he threatened that if I didn't help him get her back that he'd tell you everything. I couldn't let that happen! I figured if she told him to go away and with so many people around he couldn't do anything but leave. I didn't think he'd make me go through this, I swear!"

Jake looked into her eyes, eyes that were a deep chocolate brown that he could get lost in. He loved her. He wanted to be with her even though he knew she was high maintenance and was likely to drive him insane one day, but that he could cope with. Her keeping secrets from him, he couldn't. He asked, "What does he have on you?"

She sobbed, "Please, Jake, don't make me tell you like this!"

He knew he sounded cold, "Your choice, Jos. You'll tell me now or the wedding is off." He stepped away from her, "I won't live with secrets between us."

***

Cat woke to the feel of a muscular warm arm wrapped around her waist and a very hard erection nestled in between her thighs from behind. She could feel how wet she was and moved a little, the head of his cock just at her opening.

Daniel tightened his arm around her waist, his voice rough with sleep, "Damn, baby." He brushed the hair from the nape of her neck and kissed it. Cat moaned and shifted a little, feeling that delicious stretch as he began to enter her. He growled, "You are so hot and wet for me."

She gasped his name as he continued to slide deep inside her, impossibly deep from this position. Cat gripped his arm, her nails digging into his forearm as he thrust all of his length inside of her. She felt his teeth nip her shoulder and he held still, she begged, "Please, Daniel..."

His voice practically growled, "In a minute, baby. Do you have any idea how good you feel squeezing my cock? Feeling your hot, wet pussy milking me?"

Cat thought,

two can play this game.

She clenched her inner muscles tighter around him and moaned as he did. Huskily she asked, "Like that, Daniel?"

Suddenly he withdrew from her and pinned her beneath him. His mouth covered hers and stole her breath. She gasped for air and he took advantage of that fact. His tongue tangled with hers. Cat wrapped her legs around his waist and arched into him, grinding against his length.

He broke the kiss and held her hands above her head, "You drive me insane."

She smiled at him, "Daniel, please...I need you inside me."

He smirked, "Anything the lady wants..." he buried himself to the hilt, "the lady gets."

***

After Cat and Daniel took a shower together, Cat's whole body felt as though it was humming. Never in her life did someone make her feel the way Daniel did. It wasn't just the sex, it was everything. The way he touched her and looked at her, made her feel as though she was the most important person on earth.

She was just about to head towards Joselyn's apartment when Daniel got a phone call. The way he looked and spoke to whoever it was, told her something was wrong. He said, "I'm at Cat's right now, Jake. Why don't you tell her what's going on?"

Catherine didn't bother to try and hide her confusion as Daniel handed her his phone, "Is something wrong?"

Daniel nodded and told her, "Talk to him. He'll fill you in."

Cat sat on the bed and greeted Jake, "Hey, what's up?"

What he told her rocked her to her foundation. Jos had met up with J.J. early that morning and refused to tell Jake what was going on and why she was trying to set Cat and J.J. up again. He told Jos point blank that if there were secrets, there would be no wedding and that's where they were at the moment.

Jake explained, "Cat, you need to be careful. I don't know what the guy is up to, but he's after you and I'm concerned."

Cat blew out a deep breath, "I figured as much when he was there the other night. Why would Jos do this though? I don't understand."

Daniel rubbed her back as Jake spoke, "It must be something pretty big. I just can't marry her with this between us."

"Jake, I know Jos loves you. Maybe she'll be able to explain before the wedding? I'll try to call her."

Jake admitted, "I love her, too. Catherine, I don't want you to go over there and something happen. That guy could be waiting."

After she hung up the phone, Daniel watched as Cat tried to call Joselyn. He knew she had to be hurting, but at the moment she was holding it together. The fact that he was right about Jos being up to something didn't make him happy at all. A part of him had wanted to be wrong.

He couldn't imagine what Jake was going through right now. Jake and Jos had been together for years. Granted, it had only been exclusive over the past year or so, but they always gravitated back to one another.

A stroke of genius struck Daniel as Cat tried to talk to her sister. He picked up her cell phone, which used to be his, and dialed a P.I. friend he knew. Being a lawyer, coming up with contacts always came in handy.

When his friend answered, Daniel told him, "I need a favor." He explained what was going on and who he needed info on and that it was urgent.

He was shocked when his friend laughed, "Got you covered, Danny. See, when this guy came to me about a year ago, well he had me dig up some dirt on a certain young lady. Joselyn Barr. Apparently, Ms. Barr was blackmailing him and he wanted to do the same. The only thing I could come up with on her was an abortion and a lot of sleeping around."

Daniel's mouth fell open in shock, "Are you kidding me?"

"Serious as a heart attack, dude. As a matter of fact, I went in to speak with this cute little nurse that works there to confirm it all. That nurse told me it was one of the only times she felt like someone having an abortion was the right thing to do. Ms. Barr was a real piece of work from what I understand."

Groaning, Daniel pointed out, "Do I need to mention how many laws you managed to break getting that info?"

He laughed, "Technically, I didn't break any. I was following her the day she went to the clinic and that pretty little nurse just needed an ear." Daniel heard him shuffle some papers, "What's with this chick, why the need to find out anything on her?"

Daniel avoided answering the question and ended the call. Now how in the fuck was he supposed to tell Jake or Cat about this? Cat's voice sounded strained, almost hurt and he turned to see if she was OK.

Cat sat across the room not believing her ears. Jos was actually blaming her for what was going on between Jos and Jake. Jos had always been self-centered, but this was a new low even for her.

Gritting her teeth, she listened as Jos told her, "This is all because of you! You did this! If you would have never brought J.J. around..."

Cat cut her off, "Yes, I agree that J.J. being around any of us is my fault. The real question is what does he have on you? Why can't you tell me or Jake so we can help?"

"Help? You want to help?" Jos laughed without a trace of humor, "You've already ruined my wedding, how else could you really help, little sister?"

"This isn't my fault, Jos."

Daniel walked up, "Hand me the phone, Cat."

Tears were in Catherine's eyes as she handed the phone to Daniel. She really didn't want to have anything to do with this entire situation. She thought back to the time she had been with J.J. and wondered how or when he could have gotten anything to hold over her. They had always despised each other. It was so bad that if Cat and J.J. was planning to come in to visit her parents, Jos would make sure she was elsewhere.

Daniel growled into the phone, "How could you, Jos?" Catherine jerked her head up at his tone. She watched as he paced, "You'll tell Jake what in the fuck is going on now, or I will." He paused, "Damn right I will. You can't continue to use and fuck people over. How in the hell could you be so selfish? How could you think to keep this from him?" He glared out the door and listened more, "Your family doesn't even know, do they?" He growled, "You have one hour before I tell Jake and Cat the truth."

He threw the phone across the room and Cat jerked, backing away from him. When he realized what he had done, Daniel reached for her, "Shit, baby. I'm sorry."

Cat stammered, "W-what is going on?"

Daniel rubbed the back of his neck and asked Cat to sit on the couch. Once she did he kneeled in front of her, holding her hands. After a pregnant pause, he explained, "Jos had an abortion about a year ago. More than likely, it wasn't Jake's, but if that wasn't bad enough..." he looked down at their hands, "she knew, baby."

Her voice didn't want to work and her hands shook, "She knew what?"

"She knew where he was keeping you. The whole time she knew what he was doing and didn't try to help."

He couldn't stand the pain that was evident in her expression. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hold her, soothe that pain if he could. Cat jerked her hands from his grasp, "How do you know that?"

"Baby..."

"Tell me, Daniel," she demanded.

Daniel stood up and pulled her into his arms, once he had her head rested against his chest, "She told me. When I told her she had to tell Jake, she told me." He kissed the top of her head, "I'm sorry, baby."

She whispered, "I always wondered why Mom and Dad never came to check on me. Why no one helped. Jos lied to me, to everyone." Catherine asked, "What did I ever do to her? Why would she do this?"