Page 29 of Jax

The crazed lunacy in the back room of the storage facility where Psycho and his guys train is more like barbaric pride accompanied by fierce competition. These guys are all rooting for each other. Words of encouragement fly around the room, and not only from Finn who’s standing ringside instructing. But from everyone.

I watch him for a while, smiling. In a way, I always felt Jax’s brotherly love and affection for Finn like it was my own. Only a couple of years separate them but Jax did everything he could to shield him from the horrors of the Heights and look at him now.

“He’s pretty great, isn’t he?” Leenie asks.

When I peek at her, she’s not looking at me. She’s staring at Finn much like I used to watch Jax. Pride and love and an intangible emotion that’s hard to define illuminates her face. “I’m happy for them. And you.”

She nods her head once and then reaches out to grab my hand to steer me toward the store area. As we make the trek across the gym, she points at a guy. “Your custom wraps are in.”

“You’re the best, Leen.”

“I know,” she calls out over her shoulder. When we arrive at the counter, she drops her stuff on it before turning to me. “This is my domain. Don’t let anyone else tell you differently. If anyone—anyone,” she emphasizes, “...tries to come back here, we beat them back at all costs. I have a system.”

I watch her work for a few minutes, busying herself behind the desk, before asking if there’s anything I can do. It beats watching the nosy fighters appraise me like cattle on an auction block.

Before Leenie can answer, a voice booms out, echoing around the interior of the gym. “Get back to work!”

I jump out of my skin and then find Jax a few feet away from a door in the corner glaring at me. I hadn’t even known he’d left the house. After a short second where no one does anything, the fighters all jump into various modes of training once more. Grappling, stretching, punching bags. Everyone keeps their heads down and their mouths shut.

Leenie snickers to herself. “Someone’s jealous.”

I lean against the counter, avoiding Jax’s frightening gaze so I don’t have to think about the cruel words he said to me this morning. Or the fact that he basically used me for a blowjob…and I enjoyed it. My stomach tightens. I turn to Leenie. “Put me to work before I lose it.”

She pulls at her bottom lip with her teeth. “Are you opposed to dusting? It’s my least favorite thing and as you can tell...” She wipes her fingers over the counter and apparently sees imaginary dirt. “...it needs it.”

I stand straighter. “Sure. Whatever you need.” It’ll give me something to focus on other than the way Jax still does it for me when he’s clearly only messing with me.

“You’ll find towels and rags in the little closet next to the bathrooms. Here.” She fishes through her purse and hands me a set of keys. “It’s the small one.”

I press my lips together and turn to get my bearings. I noticed a bathroom sign earlier, so I walk along the wall and turn the corner where there are three doors. Two of them have Men’s and Ladies’ signs so I stand in front of the other and use Leenie’s clearly marked keys to open it up. The one that fits this door readsSupplies. When I slip inside the room, I inspect her whole keychain. One of the many keys is clearly for the car but the ones that look like regular keys readFront Door,Side Door,Office…

Bingo.

This right here might be all Psycho needs to con Jax and Finn. He can have a look through their files, both physical and digital. He could use his computer guy to hack into their bank accounts and take whatever he wants. He’s done it before.

Leenie just gave me access to the one thing Psycho wants, and she doesn’t even know it. She has no idea of the job I’m here to do. How easy would it be to slip this key off? She probably wouldn’t even notice.

I’m still standing in the middle of the room staring at the keychain, debating with myself, when the door bangs open behind me. I nearly jump out of my skin for the second time when Jax glares down from his impressive height. I slowly lower the keys in my hand, making sure I’m not holding the one key that might make him suspicious and stare up at him.

“You find everything okay?”

Despite me trying to look cool and comfortable, his gaze narrows as he takes me in. Not that I can blame him. He doesn’t trust me for anything.

I peek around the room, spotting the items I need. I gather them up and brush past him as I make my way back out to the gym. “Got it,” I tell him.

He locks the door behind me, and I place all the things on the shop counter with my heart in my throat. My eyes shudder closed as a war reigns supreme inside my head. Taking deep breaths, I talk myself out of the easy thing to do. The things I do out of fear. I’ve done that before, and it got me nowhere. Self-preservation is always the least painless path and following that route is in our nature.

Leenie’s far too trusting, only reinforced by the fact that Jax follows me into the store area. He plucks Leenie’s keys out of my hand and waits until Leenie pops up from behind the counter to hand them to her. He gives her a look, and when she peers at me questioningly, I shrug like I have no idea what happened. I certainly wasn’t eyeing the office key like it could be the answer to my problems. Nope. Not at all.

14

The Ring looks so different with the lights on. It loses all of its mystique and grittiness and is replaced by a well-oiled machine that Leenie knows inside and out. She explains to me that learning the Ring’s operations took a lot of work but now she can help take a load off of Jax and Finn. They can concentrate on the fighters—and the fights—and she can run the rest. For such an unassuming person, she has no problems giving orders to the myriad of workers at her disposal.

About an hour until showtime, the guys arrive. We’re inside their office, Leenie’s taking a phone call while I try like hell not to look around for ways to get in the filing cabinets, or for any clues as to the kinds of information they store in here, when the doorknob jingles. Finn enters and kisses Leenie on the forehead. She smiles up at him and loses a beat on the phone only to cut the conversation short a few moments later. “We all set for tonight?” Finn asks.

“Of course.” She spins around in the fancy office chair to face him. “Where’s Jax?”

“Pouting,” Finn answers, avoiding my stare.

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