Page 55 of Jackson

He gestured for me to come closer to him, holding out his arms to me. I practically leaped into them, letting him sweep me up off of my feet and cradle me to his chest while he settled back down on my bunk. I instinctually buried my face into the crook of his neck, pulling in a lungful of his musky scent.

Fuck, I missed him.

As sad as it was to actually feel my entire body begin to relax, I was grateful that he hadn’t waited until late tonight to come see me.

He brushed his hand along the back of my hair, threading his fingers through the wet lengths while he placed soft kisses against my temple. “You do okay today? Roxy treat you well?”

I nodded, letting my eyes drift closed. Honestly, I could fall asleep right here and not even care.

“Good,” he said.

“You?” I mumbled.

“My day was okay. For the most part.”

Pulling away from him, my brows knit together and I stared at his face, taking in the tired expression. “What were you up to today?”

His arms were still locked tightly around me, only shifting slightly down toward my hips when he ducked under the lip of the bunk above us and pulled me with him as he leaned backagainst the wall. We were kind of crunched in under there but it felt safe like that. Like we were in our own little pillow fort.

“I met with a friend today,” he said, his hands squeezing my hips. “A lawyer friend.”

My stomach dropped. “Jax...”

“I told her about your case. She’s interested in it.”

I sighed. “Well, she’s going to get real uninterested pretty soon. There’s nothing that can be done when I only have a few more years left.”

Jackson brushed his hand along my jaw, a slight frown tugging down on his lips. “I know you think that, but three years is still a long time. Especially, when you shouldn’t be serving any time at all.”

I shrugged. I’d come to terms with my situation long ago. Wasting time lamenting about it would do nothing for either of us. “I get that, but that’s how it works in the States. You get fucked and then you have to deal with it.”

Jackson shook his head. “No. Not this time. We’re going to do something about it.”

“I appreciate your confidence, but?—”

“Baby, I looked through your file. You have a very strong case.”

I froze in place.

My file?

He saw...

His hands tightened around me when I tried to lift myself off of him. “I’m not scared of it, Ayen. You did what you had to do. Reading over your case only solidified my opinion of that fact.”

My eyes began to burn.

He was never supposed to see that.

My shame, my guilt.

The horrible things I’d had to talk about in court, only for them to get thrown out in the end for bullshit reasons that I still couldn’t grapple with.

Jackson was supposed to remain ignorant to all of that. I’d given him the cliff notes version, the important highlights that were heavily filtered so that I could spare him the fucking gory details about what went on between Alex and I and the fallout afterward.

I knew, eventually, that my public record would be the fucking death of me, but I thought that would come three years from now when I was applying for a job as a busser at a seedy restaurant.

“Hey…” He cupped my face. “None of that.”

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