Page 169 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

“My father had to borrow money to take my family on a trip. And do you know why he felt like he wanted to take my mother and me on a damn trip, Jaxon? Because I was a fucking mess after that week you kept me out at that house. My father is in trouble because of you, and now you say you’re going to take care of it? Why don’t you just leave me alone? Just go and let me and my family live in peace.”

He stares at me in horror for a few moments but says nothing. Fine. I doubt he’d be able to say anything that I’d want to hear anyway.

Rolling over, I turn my back to him again and say in a low voice into the pillow, “Leave, Jaxon. You’ve done enough damage.”

I don’t know how long he stays with me, but at some point, I feel the mattress dip and then he leaves without another word. Maybe it’s unfair to blame everything on him. I don’t know.

All I know is I thought I was getting over him, and now I’m a mess again after seeing him.

Five

JAXON

For two hours, I sit in my car in front of her house and wait to see her, but she never appears. She’s right. This is all my fault. I tried to make it up to her after what I did when we met because I love her. I’ve never loved anyone like this. It nearly tore me apart to break up with her last year, another one of my great ideas that ended up hurting her.

This is different, though. If I don’t do something, Tia and her parents are going to get hurt because of Victor.

Because of me.

I stare up at her windows wishing for nothing more than a glimpse of Tia. She knows I’m out here. She knows me better than anyone else on earth, so of course, she knows.

That’s why she won’t let me see her. She’s punishing me.

Not that I don’t deserve it. I know I do, and still I need to stay here in case she appears.

So much of what we’ve been together has been sweeter than anything else I’ve encountered in my life. Tia brings out the best in me. No one else sees that side of me but her. It’s like I can’t help but be kinder when it comes to her. I kill for a living, but with Tia, all I want to do is protect and love her and everything and everyone she cares about.

She teases out the lightness in me that I didn’t know existed before she came into my life that summer day. I fought what she made me feel, but it was no use. Love is like that. I couldn’t deny it after only a few days of being around her.

I see the curtains flutter a little and smile. Maybe she can forgive me.

For a few long moments, I hold my breath as anticipation builds inside me. I used to play silly games while I watched her back in the beginning. I’d will her to come to her window and see me so I could know she wanted me as much as I wanted her. It was stupid, but after you sit in a car watching someone’s house for hours on end, you begin to get a little squirrelly.

The curtains fall still, but there’s no sign of Tia. I should just march right upstairs to her apartment and explain how this is going to work. I’m going to stick around until the danger passes, so she has a choice: get used to me being around or fight me on this.

Either way, I’m going to protect her.

The lights go out in her living room, and then the entire apartment goes dark. Maybe she’s stronger than I imagined. I’m probably going to have to do more to make up for leaving her last year.

With a sigh, I close my eyes and lean back against the seat as memories of us happy together filter through my mind. Entire days spent in bed just enjoying one another. Making dinner and loving cooking for the first time in my life. Tia surprising me with this watch for my birthday I still wear and then giving me a night of sex I’ll never forget.

We were happy. If only I didn’t have to leave her.

A knock on my car window startles me out of my happy daydreaming, and my eyes fly open to see her standing there glaring at me. She’s still the most beautiful woman in the world, even when she looks like she wants to kill me.

I don’t care how she looks as long as I can see her.

I lower the window, and before I can say a word, she snaps, “You’re pretty much just going to stalk me now? Good to know you never change. You can’t sit here if you’re going to do that, though. My neighbors will call the cops. This isn’t like my old apartment. People watch out for one another in this neighborhood.”

“That’s all I’m trying to do, Tia. Watch over you.”

Her frown deepens when I say that. “I guess there’s no point in telling you to go away. Fine. But I’m not going to be responsible for when the cops come and you have to explain why you’re doing your best creeper routine.”

“You could ask me to come up and stay the night,” I suggest with more hope in my voice than I’ve heard in months.

The happiness I expect to see in her doesn’t materialize. Instead, she sighs like she’s carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and shakes her head.

“We can’t do this, Jaxon. You broke up with me. Let’s keep it that way. As for me or my father being in danger, we’ll take care of ourselves, so you can go back home and forget me like I’m going to try to forget you.”

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