Page 47 of Jax

I move to the edge of the couch, inspecting her from head to toe. “It doesn’t look like that was a friendly call.”

“He said Psycho wants to see you.”

I dig my toes into the rug at my feet. “I knew this would happen.” He probably thinks I’m going off-script, which I am. Jax knows everything now, including what I was sent here to do. “I can’t get away from him, Leenie,” I tell her. “He won’t stop.” My intent was to say it as steadfast as possible, but my voice breaks by the end. Being here, in this house, that other life seems so far away, and I hate the idea of going back there. “What happened to Clive was a message for me. A sign that I need to get my ass back there with an update before he takes it out on all of you.”

“There’s no way Jax is going to let you do that.”

As much as that should warm me up, it does the opposite. “Yeah, well, Jax isn’t the boss of me.”

She chuckles. “I knew I liked you but there’s one problem. Well, a couple. One, Ninja’s right outside, and you’re not getting past him. He’s my brother’s number one guard for a reason. Two, I don’t like the idea of you going back there either.”

“Yeah, but you heard what he did to Clive. He’ll come here to do the same to us.”

Leenie laughs with little amusement. “I don’t think you actually get who my brother is.”

“Oh, I get it. But you’re underestimating Psycho.” I work my teeth over my bottom lip, strategizing. “If he just wants an update, I might be able to buy us some time.”

“Sorry, girl. I’m with the guys on this one. I watched my best friend get hurt by some deranged psychopath, so I’m not about to let that happen again. Jax would kill me,” she says under her breath. She glances up at me. “You get that, right? How much Jax cares for you?” She shakes her head. “The fact that he’s forgiven you is the only proof I need.”

I turn away. I don’t know if Jax has fully forgiven me but if he has, I can’t bring any of this on him again. How are we ever going to be able to move on if I keep constantly bringing things to his doorstep and dropping them? “I have to go to the bathroom,” I tell her, rising to my feet and hurrying up the stairs to get away from her stare.

Once upstairs, though, I have no intention of actually staying there. I run the heel of my palms over my eyes briefly before moving directly to what’s now Finn’s bedroom. Just like back in the day, the window leads to the roof of the small side porch. I’ve climbed in and out of this room numerous times when Jax’s mom and dad were still living here. I unclasp the lock on the window and heave it upward, cringing when it groans. I pause for a few seconds to make sure Leenie isn’t going to come up and inspect the noise. When I don’t hear anything, I carefully take out the screen and step one leg out onto the porch, followed by the other. As quietly as I can, I scramble down, my feet hitting the railings of the porch and then I drop, landing on my feet.

I dust myself off and duck through the small break in the wire fence that leads into the neighbor’s yard, which has gotten significantly more awful since I used to do this. Used toilets and old wood are strewn haphazardly in the tall, unkept grass. I dodge everything as best I can and come out on the side of the house that leads to the road that intersects theirs.

When my feet hit the pavement, my stomach twists. Leenie will be pissed at me. Not to mention the guys when they realize I’ve left. Jax will call me selfish again but he doesn’t get it. This is the exact opposite of self-centered. I’m doing this to help them.

“I knew it.” Gruff words meet my ears as I turn right down the street.

I spin on my heel and face Jax’s imposing figure. The look on his face cuts straight through me. Shock gives way to anger though. “What? Were you waiting here for me or something?”

He strides toward me. “I thought you might come this way.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the gym?”

“We went to visit Clive at the hospital. He gave us Psycho’s little message. We told him we wouldn’t be telling you but I figured that wouldn’t stop him, and that if you knew, you wouldn’t stop either.”

I cross my arms, barricading myself off from him as he approaches me. “Jax, I have to go.”

“What? So he can rape you again? So he can make you feel like anything other than the beautiful person you are?”

The noose around my insides pulls tighter. I’d rather him be mad at me. “No, so I can save you guys. Buy us some time so we can figure this out.”

“You’ve bought yourself enough time and all you’ve done is make things worse for yourself. I’m not going to sit back and watch that. I can’t. Now that you’re back in my life, it’s not going to be easy to leave.”

His words pull the little piece inside of me that’s always been tethered to him.MyJax.

I try to plead with him with my eyes, but I get distracted by a car moving up the street. It’s moving abnormally slow until it picks up the pace, engine revving. My heart lodges in my throat when it swerves, headed straight for Jax who’s standing on the cracked sidewalk in front of me. He peers over his shoulder, eyes widening. I call out for him at the same time he jumps out of the way.

The car grinds to a stop in front of me, it’s backside nearly slamming into my knees. The rear door opens, and two hands grasp mine and yank. I’m half in the car when it starts moving again, my legs dragging over the ground until a firm hand reaches over to grab my jeans and pulls me inside. “Now, Sade,” the familiar sinister voice says. “Did you really think you would be able to get away from me?”

My heart pumps like crazy. I peer through my disheveled hair and find Psycho leering at me. I scramble off his lap and plaster myself on the other side of the car. “I-I was coming.”

The smile he gives me chills me to my core. “Is that right? You were coming to me?”

I clear my throat, terror still biting at me, but I try to get myself under control because dealing with Psycho any other way is a death sentence. “I got your message,” I tell him finally, taking deep, drawn out breaths to hide the fact that I’m still freaking out. I peek out the rear window, but we’ve already turned down the next block, so I have no idea if the car hit Jax or not. I replay it in my head but it’s all a blur. He jumped one second, and then in the next, the car was in front of me. I can only hope he got out of the way in time. “I had to escape because your message spooked them.”

Psycho laughs. “It did its job then. Do you have him wrapped around your little finger yet? Is that what you two were arguing about?”

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