Page 48 of Traitorous Lies
Forcing herself to brush off the feeling of eyes on her, she changed direction. She’d been going to check on a cow and her newborn calf who had arrived while she was away, but instead, she felt the need to go and check on her fox.
As badly as she didn't want to think about Jax, there was a sick sort of security in remembering how he’d killed for her. She believed that his intention had never been to hurt her, but he’d had so many opportunities to tell her the truth, and he hadn't taken any one of them. That was what was confusing. He’d had her alone. Why hadn't he just asked her his questions? Was it because he’d been afraid of losing her if he told her the truth? Believing that he hadn’t meant to hurt her was one thing, but if she allowed herself to believe that he hadn't been lying about developing feelings for her, then she’d have to push too deeply to figure out if she’d made the right choice in not letting him talk to her.
It was easier to just cut him out of her life and work on pretending the whole thing hadn’t happened. But that was easier said than done when she had the fox there. It was a permanent reminder of the ordeal, of Jax, of how he’d taken more than his fair share of turns carrying the little guy to give her a break.
Every word he’d spoken, every choice he’d made, every action he’d performed while they’d been together said that he felt that same pullbetween them that she did. It said that he wasn't lying, but the facts were, hehadbeen lying, which left her all confused and emotionally strung out.
She didn't want to think about it, but she couldn’t stop.
There it was again.
That feeling of being watched.
Was it possible the men who had attacked them in France had followed her home?
Just because she didn't believe that her dad was involved didn't mean that someone hadn't come after them. Her dad might not be a good dad, but that didn't make him a rapist and would be murderer. It didn't mean he had sent those men after Jax to silence him.
If she believed he was behind the attack, she’d have to believe that not only had he been absent from her life for almost its entirety, but that he was actually okay with her being caught in the crossfire so long as he protected himself.
Her dad wasn't that cold and selfish, was he?
Approaching the smallest of the barns on the property, which was where she’d set up her healing fox after having him thoroughly checked out by the vet she employed on a full-time basis, Monique slipped inside.
Scanning the space for a weapon, she found a rake leaning against the wall and picked it up, then positioned herself where the door would shield her when it opened. If it never opened, then she’d know it was only her overactive imagination causing her trouble, but if it did open, and she was right and someone had been watching her, then she wasn't going to go down without a fight.
Chapter
Thirteen
November 8th
2:34 P.M.
This was a bad idea, and yet Jax couldn’t seem to stop himself from doing it.
Monique obliterated all his common sense, leaving him a slave to his instincts, and his instincts screamed at him to go to her. To be closer. To watch her every move from a distance that was small enough that he could get between her and any threat that presented itself.
Last night, after ending the call with his siblings, he’d been unable to sleep in his car. It was too far away from Monique’s cabin, and he couldn’t get out of his head how remote her rescue was. It would be far too easy for a team to infiltrate it through the dense woods and spring an attack before he even knew there was a problem.
Since she was the only one who lived on the property, it would make it even easier for a team to slip in and grab her, or kill her, or do whatever they wanted to her and from his position across the street at the end of the driveway he’d be powerless to stop it.
So he’d slept on her porch, sneaking back to his car when he heardher get up in the morning. Then he’d spent the day following her around her rescue, watching with pride as she checked in with every animal who was staying there, even though she had staff members who were tending to them.
While he hadn't wanted her to realize that he was watching over her, didn't want to upset her, and she thought he’d gone back home with his brothers, it seemed she was onto him. He’d hated the fear on her face as she spun in a circle searching for something, for him, even though she didn't know it.
She was scared.
Of course, he’d known she couldn’t walk away from their ordeal unscathed, but he’d hoped that being back home would make her feel safe again. From the look on her face, he’d been wrong, and he knew he had to let her know he was there and he wanted to install a top-of-the-line security system. Between following her around like a lovesick puppy, he’d been putting up more cameras, but it wasn't enough. He needed the whole place to be under surveillance so he knew the moment anything breached it.
Slipping into the building she’d entered, another barn, although this one quite small, and he already knew from watching her yesterday that this was where she was housing her little fox from France, he wasn't prepared for something to come swinging at him the second the door closed.
There was a grin on his face as he dodged at the last second, managing to avoid being struck with whatever his princess was wielding.
“Whoa there, wildcat,” he said as he spun around and managed to dodge around her as she tried to swing the object—which turned out to be a rake—at him again. It was too long and too difficult to use as a proper weapon, and he was able to shift so he was behind her.
“Jax?” she asked incredulously as she froze.
“It’s me, you're safe, no need to be swinging a weapon. Although we will need to have a conversation about your weapon choice. That is not a good one. While it keeps a bit of distance between you and an attacker, it also makes it easier for them to dodge your blows. Especially since it’s hard to keep control of something long like a rake. You want something smaller in the future, although the move to stand behind the doorwhere you wouldn't be immediately spotted and then act without hesitation was a good one.”
