Page 170 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

“You’ll never forget me, Tia. Just like I’ll never forget you. There’s a reason you aren’t with anyone and I don’t even want to look at other women. We’re meant for one another.”

Those words don’t make her happy either. “A killer with a heart of gold for a singular woman in this world. Is that what you’re going for with all this meant for one another talk? I can’t risk letting you back in, Jaxon. You broke my heart, and I haven’t forgotten that.”

I reach my hand out the window and touch her arm. As always with Tia, a jolt of electricity shoots through the two of us, and she abruptly pulls her hand away.

“No. I can’t take the chance this time. Go home, Jaxon. I wish you nothing but happiness. It just can’t be with me.”

When she turns away and starts walking across the street toward her apartment, I feel like someone’s ripped my heart out of my chest again. It can’t end like this. I never believed we were finished, even when I left her last year. I always knew we’d end up together, but right now I can’t see how that’s going to happen.

Unless I do something to make it happen.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Six

JAXON

I’ve never been this fucking anxious in my life. With every minute that passes and Tia still isn’t awake, I worry I used too much of that shit Cason swears would work.

Pacing back and forth in front of the bed where she sleeps, I regret listening to him. Even more, I regret having to take this drastic step. Why couldn’t she just come with me? All I was trying to do was keep her safe. Christ, you’d think I was trying to hurt her.

At least I was able to handle her parents better. They’re nice, and those kinds of people never dream someone is lying to them. Tia definitely comes by her trusting nature naturally.

They’ll be enjoying a first-class trip to Italy that will keep them preoccupied and away from here for at least a month. I hope Ryker puts his plan into action in that time and gets rid of Victor. I can afford to keep them in Europe for longer than the next four weeks, but getting them to agree to it will be another thing entirely.

I stop at the foot of the bed and watch to see if Tia moves at all. Fuck. Cason told me this stuff would only last for a few hours. Did I give her too much? Damnit, she needs to wake the fuck up right now.

Another five minutes go by with no movement at all, so I walk around the bed and gently nudge her shoulder to move things along. At least that’s what I hope it will do. Since I’ve never used this stuff before, I have no idea what the hell is going to happen.

She doesn’t respond to the first nudge, so I give her shoulder another one. She’s breathing. I can see by how her chest rises and falls that she’s taking air in and letting it out.

So why the fuck isn’t she coming out of it?

I return to pacing, hoping at any minute she’ll wake up, but when ten more minutes go by, I can’t wait any longer. I sit down on the bed next to her and give her a little shake. Nothing too much but hopefully enough to get her out of it.

Her eyelids flutter ever so slightly, but she still doesn’t wake up. Christ, am I going to have to take her to the hospital? That’ll be fun. I’ll have to pretend some asshole at a club drugged her so they don’t arrest my damn ass right on the spot.

When I get my hands on Cason, I’m going to fucking smack the shit out of him.

I try again to shake Tia, this time a little rougher, and finally her eyes slowly open. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relieved in my life. My heart stops racing, and I sit back to take a deep breath.

“Where am I?” she quietly asks as she looks around the strange room we’re in.

“It’s okay. I’m here, Tia,” I say, leaning forward to kiss her softly on the lips.

I never get to because she slaps me across the face so hard I nearly see stars. Falling back onto the bed, I shake my head as I rub the spot she hit. I had no idea she had it in her.

“What did you do?” she angrily demands.

Sitting up, I smile at her. “You’re going to be fine. Are you hungry?”

Tia slowly lifts herself up and glares at me. “Am I hungry? You son of a bitch! You drugged me and kidnapped me, didn’t you?”

I tilt my head left and right as I try to find the right words to say. “Kidnapped is such an ugly term. Let’s say I did what needed to be done to make sure you were safe and leave it at that.”

Her eyes flash pure rage, and she kicks her feet against my side before swinging her legs off the bed. “The word is kidnapped, Jaxon. Don’t try to sugarcoat it. I can’t believe you did this. It wasn’t enough that you came back and turned my life upside down. For days, I was looking over my shoulder wondering when you would show up. Let me guess. You got in when I left my front door unlocked that day I was bringing in groceries. Jesus, Jaxon. You promised me you’d never do anything like this. Remember that, or is that not something you want to talk about?”

Her legs give out as soon as her feet hit the floor, so I quickly scoop her up into my arms and set her back down on the bed. “We can talk about anything you want. I just need you to take things slow for a few minutes, okay?”

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