Page 52 of Traitorous Lies
Besides that, he knew her deep down in his soul in some primitive place he hadn't even known existed. What he felt for her was raw and primal. It was his instincts recognizing a soulmate. Whether he believed in those or not before he’d met Monique, it was irrelevant now, because the second their eyes met in that ballroom it felt like the other half of his being had snapped into place.
Finally, after giving a small nod to acknowledge she saw everything he was trying to tell her, Monique closed the door.
It felt like they’d just taken another baby step back toward each other.
“She gave me the sample,” Cassandra told him, holding up the swab. “Although it kind of feels like a moot point. I look like her dad, and she thinks so too. Besides, I just … feel like she’s my sister. It’s hard to explain.”
“Not in the least,” he assured her as he opened his arms and Cassandra stepped right into them. “There’s something about her that just immediately puts you at ease, isn’t there?”
“There is,” Cassandra acknowledged as she rested her cheek on his chest. “She’s like a princess in so many ways, but not the stuck-up kind, she’s like a Disney princess, all sunshiny and full of life. Do you know she has a pet hedgehog named Cinderella?”
Jax chuckled. “Yeah, she told me about it when we were in France.”
“I know you said I don’t have to be, but I'm sorry that things got messed up between you two because of me.” Cassandra tilted her head back to look up at him.
“Not because of you, boo,” he contradicted, making her scowl at the use of the old nickname. “Knowing your mom was raped and you were conceived as a result might have added to our determination to find answers, but we were looking long before that. You have to stop blaming yourself, yeah?”
It hurt to know that the woman he absolutely considered family, even if they weren't biologically related, was bearing a burden that wasn't hers to carry.
Cassandra was struggling with the revelation of where she came from, and none of them knew how to help her with it. Of course, they knew it must feel awful to learn that you existed only because your mother had been taken against her will, but it was like Cassandra thought that they would all think less of her now. That it would change how they saw her.
“I don’t know how,” Cassandra admitted, her voice soft and so full of pain that Jax pulled her tightly against him.
“You’ll figure it out. Because you deserve only great things,Cassandra. This isn’t always going to be our lives, you're not always going to be in hiding, and we’re not always going to be focusing on getting answers. One day we’ll all be free. That’s when we’ll all start really living. Those men, they’ve taken enough from us, they don’t get to take our futures as well.”
“Does your future include her?” Cassandra asked, looking over her shoulder at the cabin she’d just left. “Because I don’t want to see her hurt. I like her. She’s sweet and fun, and she was pretty mad at me for blaming myself for everything that’s happened to our family, just like the rest of my siblings. She deserves to be happy, Jax. She’s right, I'm so lucky to have so many people in my corner, and she’s sitting here all alone, hurting and scared, with nobody to have her back.”
“Not nobody. She has me,” he assured her. “I don’t want to hurt her, because you're right, she deserves all the happiness in the world, and I don’t ever want her to feel alone again. I don’t know how to fix it, but I'm not giving up.”
“Good, she deserves to have someone fight for her.”
“She’s got it. In fact, I think she has it from more than just me.”
“She definitely has me too,” Cassandra agreed. “And since she’s my sister, and hopefully one day your girlfriend, and then maybe wife, she has all of our brothers as well. She’s not going to know what hit her when she jumps from pretty much no family to a huge, loud, bossy one.”
Jax laughed and gave Cassandra another squeeze before guiding her toward his vehicle. He hadn't been sure her going there was a good idea, not that he’d known about it until Cole dropped her off there this morning, but he was glad she’d insisted. It was exactly what both Cassandra and Monique needed.
“Time to get you back home. I’ll drive you to the airport and Cole will fly back with you. I’m sure those Delta guys are sick of having to secretly fly people in and out of their hideout.”
“Those guys are pretty sweet when you get to know them,” Monique said as she rounded the car and climbed into the passenger seat.
Was that a hint of affection he heard in her voice?
Had she gone and fallen for one of the Delta Team guys?
Those men were … different. Not all in a bad way, and he knew they were loyal as well as being fierce warriors, but they also carried an air of danger and a whole lot of barely hidden anger.
“Any one of them sweeter than the others?” he asked, aiming for nonchalance as he followed her into the vehicle.
“If you're fishing for information, I'm not going to give you any,” she taunted, a sparkle in her eyes reminding him of the old Cassandra, the one who hadn't yet learned about her parentage.
Honestly, if one of the Delta Team guys were responsible for putting that look back on her face, then he was all for whatever it was Cassandra was clearly hiding from him.
“Should I bring up a feed to the cameras pointed at Monique’s cabin so you can watch her like the stalker that you are?” Cassandra asked, all teasing innocence, and Jax found he felt lighter than he had for a long time.
“You definitely should,” he answered with a grin as he started up the car and reversed down the driveway.
Finally, they were nearing the end of this decades-long nightmare, and so long as they all came out the other side alive and unscathed he couldn’t wait to see what the future held for them.
