Page 41 of Reckless
“We’ll see how it goes,” I said.
“Wait. So you’re going?” Bobbi sounded aghast, like she wanted to grab my shoulders and shake some sense into me. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, considering everything that’s happened lately?” Her nose scrunched. “Don’t you think that’s, like, asking for trouble?”
It probably was, but when did I ever stop and let something like that dictate what I did and didn’t do? Not ever. Would it be smart to stop and think things over? Probably. But again, that wasn’t going to stop me.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” I said. I knew I shouldn’t be so giddy about seeing Archer after school hours on Friday—seeing that boy outside of school never ended well before, but I wanted to believe that things could be different. That this time, everything would be fine. No more lies. No more hiding anything from each other. No more secrets.
And, best of all? No more Brittany—assuming no more pieces of her ended up in my locker.
Chapter Thirteen – Jacob
As far as bad ideas went, this was a really bad one. Even after speaking to Oliver, after telling him that Jaz had to work on some project at the library—and I would be there to oversee her, make sure nothing happened to her—I wanted to take it all back, to not go where I wanted to take her after school.
I didn’t like lying to the man I was working for, but I needed to. Today was…not a normal day, by any means. I’d officially emailed Mr. Anonymous and told him that I’d been hired on a continuous case that needed my full, undivided attention, and I hadn’t gotten any response, which I thought odd. Usually he was quick to respond, almost like he was constantly waiting for my updates on Jaz.
That was something I should’ve done a while back, when Jaz and I first crossed the line with each other. I never should’ve kept working for him while seeing her in an unprofessional capacity. It just wasn’t right, and I knew if Jaz ever found out, she’d be furious—and rightly so.
No, just like I needed to cut ties with Mr. Anonymous, I had to tell Jaz the truth. I had to show her I wasn’t so different from the other psychos she kept company with. She’d always told me I was a better man than I thought I was, but that was because she didn’t know the truth about me.
And the truth? It was ugly. As ugly as the scar wrapping around my abdomen.
I sat in the back of the parking lot near the school, Dante’s motorcycle beside me. I absentmindedly stared at it through the window, frowning to myself as I wondered just where the hell he’d come from. He had ties to her, that much I knew, but as far as my searches were concerned, Dante Storm didn’t exist.
I shouldn’t let myself worry about anyone else when this afternoon was about me telling her the truth. It’d take a few hours, but it was necessary. Jaz had to know. She had to know everything. I just hoped that she wouldn’t turn her back to me, want to get rid of me. It might be a wussy thing to admit, but I didn’t know if I could handle it. I’d spent so long trying to convince myself nothing was between Jaz and me—that nothing could ever develop between us—that I’d fallen for the girl without realizing it.
My slip-up before wasn’t a slip-up. I did love that girl.
Ugh. Fuck.
I loved an eighteen-year-old girl who was still in high school, an eighteen-year-old girl who had other fucking boyfriends. What kind of cosmic joke was this? Every part of that should make me want to turn around and end it, but I couldn’t. Jaz had me. She had me wrapped around her finger, and I craved both it and her like some addict that could never get enough.
Thankfully, when kids started to flood the parking lot, Jaz climbed in my car before Dante arrived at his bike. It wasn’t like I didn’t want to see one of the pricks Jaz was seeing beside me, but…no, wait, that’s exactly what I didn’t want. Fuck him. Fuck all of them.
She threw her bag near her feet, buckling her seatbelt before shooting me a smile with those full, pretty lips. Her amber eyes sparkled as she looked at me, her cheeks flushed. “Hey there, Mr. Grumps. How was your day?” For once, Jaz sounded happy.
I tried not to let my mind wander with the reasons why that could be.
“Great,” I muttered, scowling at her as I started up my car. Had to get out of here before Dante showed his crazy face. Plus, get this car on the road before I changed my mind and simply drove us to the Fitzpatrick’s house. I could always tell Oliver that she changed her plans or something.
No. I had to man up and do this. Get it done, over with. Tell someone else, for the first time, the truth.
“My day was good, too,” Jaz rambled on, “thanks for asking, by the way. Have I mentioned lately that you’re so nice? Like, the nicest person I’ve ever met. You make me feel so warm and gooey inside—” Her eyes, which were glued to the front windshield, turned as we passed the road I should’ve taken to the house. “And that’s the road we should’ve turned on.” Her sarcastic rambling halted, and her stare turned into a glare. “Where are we going?” She knew my apartment wasn’t in this direction, so that wasn’t an option.
Really, if she wasn’t as head over heels for me as I was for her, I bet she’d think I was kidnapping her.
“Don’t worry,” I said, making an effort to keep my hands on the steering wheel, lest I try to reach for her leg or something. “I handled Oliver, and he’s going to speak to your mother.” Piper, who still didn’t trust me yet. Granted, her distrust was well-placed, given how intimate I’d been on numerous occasions with her daughter.
“Oh-kay,” Jaz said, breaking the word up into two long syllables. “But that still doesn’t answer my question. Where are we going? I mean, you know I’m up for anything, but I do have a math quiz to study for.” She paused, thinking it over. “Actually, you know what? Fuck math. As long as I’m with you, handsome, I don’t care where we’re going.”
Her words both irritated me and made my lower half warm. God, I wanted to shut her up the best way I knew how—with my mouth—but now wasn’t the time for that.
I stuck to my silence as I drove us out of Midpark. We were going somewhere that was a good drive away, a place that wasn’t nearly as rich and fancy as Midpark and its surrounding cities, like Hillcrest. Where I grew up, it was all farms and shacks, small convenience stores where you had to do your grocery shopping—although, prior to the incident, I had no idea about any of that.
Before that fateful night, when I’d decided enough was enough, I had no idea about any of it.
An hour into the drive, we were on the highway, nothing but country fields around us. Jaz gazed steadily out the window, her finger tapping on the side of the door as she hummed along to the radio. I’d let her choose the station, after she’d filled my ears with whining.
She was…she really was my weakness. I didn’t know how it happened, why I fell so hard and so fast for her, but I did. I’d do anything to keep this girl safe, to protect her from the dark terrors of the world and the atrocities its people were capable of.
