Page 111 of Run For Me
“The kidnapping,” he says urgently. “Mindy was acting under her orders. My mother is… Fuck, you’re not going to believe me.”
“Just say it,” I whisper. “Please.”
If he can just explain, make this make sense, maybe this fear in my chest will back off. Maybe I’ll wake up from whatever nightmare this is, and things will go back to how they were.
“My mother runs an underground criminal organization.”
I blink. “What? She—what does that even mean?”
“She’s the kind of woman who smiles at fundraisers and has people killed by morning. Cross her, and you vanish. No warnings, no second chances.” He shakes his head, staring out the window as he continues. “She’s been angry at me for years because I won’t fall in line. She thinks I’m wasting my bloodline.”
“Bloodline?” I echo.
“She wants me to take over. Groomed me for it since I was a kid, but I don’t want to do it.”
“Jaxon—”
“She is dangerous, Sailor.” His voice drops, the weight of those words landing hard. For the briefest second, there’s something raw in his eyes. Fear. “Mindy wouldn’t have stopped. That guy at the house won’t either. Not until they follow through on her orders.”
“You left him, though,” I say quietly. “Why didn’t you leave Mindy too?”
“I couldn’t.” His jaw tenses. “It’s not that simple.”
He throws the car into drive, making a sharp U-turn. My pulse quickens. The world tilts. My vision goes blurry.
A criminal empire. Murder. Bloodlines. What the hell did I get myself into?
It takes me twenty minutes to realize where we’re heading.
Back to the house.
And there’s only one reason for that.
To finish this.
Chapter Sixty-Three
Jaxon
When we pull up in front of Sailor’s house, I’m certain she’s going to tell me to never speak to her again. I’m not sure what to do to get her to understand. My head is a fucking mess. I’ve never had feelings like this to work through before. I’ve never cared about someone enough to make them understand my life and all the fucked-up things that go on in it.
The way she flinched away from me back at the bluffs…
I shut the car off and turn toward her.
“Sailor, look at me, please.”
It takes a moment, but she turns her head.
“I would never hurt you.”
“How do I know that?”
“After everything we’ve done, knowing I could have at any point, don’t you think you can trust me?”
Her eyes well with tears. “I don’t know, Jaxon. Because I don’t know you.”
“You know me,” I say firmly. “Better than anyone else.”
