Page 80 of Traitorous Lies
It felt so nice.
Held like this, she felt safe and protected. There was lingering anger and hurt from Jax’s words, and she knew she wasn't ready to take a leap of faith with him, but she trusted him to help her with this.
“You have your phone. Did your dad call?” Jax asked.
Keeping her face pressed against the hard planes of his chest, she nodded.
“Did you get him to agree to a meeting?”
Another nod.
There was so much she needed to say. She had to get it together because there wasn't another choice, she and Jax were going to have to come up with a plan.
“Just me and Cassandra,” she managed to whisper.
“No way are the two of you going alone.”
The fierce protectiveness in his voice made her smile. He’d said the two of them. Not just Cassandra. He wanted to protect her, too, and that thawed a little of the icy fear clogging her veins.
“I told him that,” she said, lifting her head so she could look up at him. “If he chooses to think only Cassandra and I are going to show up, that’s his problem.”
“Damn right it is.” Jax’s large hands lifted to frame her face, the heat of his palms seeping into her cheeks and slowly spreading to the rest of her body. His thumbs swept softly across her cheekbones, and she allowed his touch to ground her, strengthen her.
Remind her that she wasn't alone.
Gripping Jax’s wrists, she clung to him, regardless of everything going on between them, she needed him right now.
“What else did your dad say, princess? What upset you?”
Saying these next words aloud was almost impossible because speaking them to another person felt like making them real. But if they were real, then her father was a monster.
A dangerous one.
Just like Jax had been insisting all along.
“I think … I think my dad might have killed my mom.”
Chapter
Twenty-One
November 13th
5:50 P.M.
That was the last thing Jax had expected Monique to say.
Seeing the fear and grief in her eyes had his last thread of control snapping away. Jax was trying to do the right thing, trying to hold back, not push Monique too hard too fast, and be restrained in the way he interacted with her.
But not right now.
Not when she was hurting.
Not when he could do something about it.
Gripping her hips, he lifted her off the ground, and she didn't hesitate to wrap her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Something in him soothed at the easy way she clung to him when she was hurting and needing comfort.
“Why do you think your dad killed your mom?” he asked. Honestly, now that she’d said it, he wondered why they hadn't considered that possibility already. They knew her dad was dangerous, and her mom disappeared right around the time that the rape would have occurred.Was it possible Monique’s mom had proof of her husband’s crimes and threatened to take it to the police, and he’d had no choice but to silence her?
