Page 129 of Stay with Me

It wasn’t a question, and there was no denying it. “I bit him.”

“And he hit you? Fuck, baby.” Jax dipped his head, pressing his lips to my forehead, and then he pulled back, holding my gaze.

“We need to call the police,” Clyde grunted.

Jax’s jaw clenched and his eyes never left my face. There was a gleam in his eyes that was scary, a red-hot, explosive anger brimming close to the surface.

“Son, I know what you’re thinking,” Clyde announced. “But you need to call your boy Reece. This isn’t for you to handle.”

What? Jax was going to try to handle this? Then it hit me. I kept forgetting that he wasn’t like Cam and Jase. Not that there was anything wrong with them, but Jax was different. He was rougher and he’d seen things Cam and Jase couldn’t even begin to comprehend. He wasn’t them; therefore he could potentiallyhandlethings.

His hand tightened around my neck as he helped me stand and then he hauled me against his chest, and a shudder worked its way through me. “I’ll call Reece.”

Over Jax’s shoulder, I saw that a lot of people were outside. Half of the bar it seemed like, but most important, my friends. Teresa’s mouth was hanging open. Jase and Cam looked pissed, and poor Avery had an expression on her face that said she had no idea what was going on.

Even Brock was outside, and by the look on his face, he appeared ready to put some of his mixed martial ninja awesome arts to use.

But then Teresa stormed forward, her hands clenching at her sides. “What the hell is going on, Calla?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. There was no hiding my background or my troubles from them now.

It was late by the time I found myself standing in Jax’s bedroom in his townhouse. I didn’t even know what I was doing up there. Wasn’t like I was getting ready for bed, because there was a full house downstairs and had been since after Detective Anders and his police crew arrived at Mona’s, took my statement, and did all the jazz that was becoming a frighteningly familiar process.

Worse was the fact that the name Mo wasn’t one Detective Anders was acquainted with. Obviously, it had to do with Mom, so it wasn’t like they had leads, but Mack was in a hidey-hole somewhere and nothing—not a single piece of evidence—led back to the mysterious Isaiah.

Teresa and Jase, and Cam and Avery were downstairs along with Brock. My friends had been all filled in on my drama, partly from me and from being around when Reece had showed up and then his older brother.

Which brought me to the real reason why I was up here. I did know why I was in Jax’s bedroom while everyone else was downstairs.

The house of lying cards had collapsed more quickly than I realized it could. Through what was said to Reece and his brother and what I then had to tell them, they now knew that my mom was most likely kicking around and she was embroiled in a ton of nasty crap that had spilled over into my life. The only thing that had not been up for discussion had been the fire, but that was the least of things to know about me at this point.

So, yeah, I knew why I was sitting on the edge of Jax’s bed, unable to go downstairs and face my friends. I was going to stay up here, surrounded by the scent of Jax’s cologne and the images of all the naughty things we’d done in here, on the bed, the floor ... the bathroom.

Yep, I was just going to stay up here forever. Sounded like a decent, legit plan. Maybe I could talk Jax into bringing me food at least twice a day. If so, this plan was totally getting better.

“Calla?”

Lifting my head, I twisted toward the open door. My back straightened. Teresa stood in the doorway. She wasn’t alone, either. Avery was with her.

“Jax told us we could come up here,” Avery explained as Teresa nudged the door farther open with her hip. “So we totally just didn’t roam up here.”

Figured that Jax had done that. God knows I’d been up here for a while. “Sorry,” I said, focusing my attention to my toes. “Time got away from me.”

“It’s understandable. You’ve had a crazy night,” Avery said softly.

Teresa walked in and plopped down on the bed beside me. “Apparently, you’ve had a crazy life.”

I winced.

Avery sent Teresa a look that pretty much flew right over her head. “You’re hiding up here,” Teresa said.

My lips twitched, and the movement kind of hurt. When I looked in the mirror earlier, a faint bruise was forming on my jaw, and my lower lip was cut near the right corner. “Is it that obvious?”

She shrugged. “Kind of.”

I drew in a deep breath. Since I wasn’t going to be able to hide up here, I needed to woman up. Doing so sucked. “I’m sorry, guys. I know I’ve lied to you all, and I really don’t have a good reason for doing so.”

Teresa cocked her head to the side as Avery hovered by the edge of the bed, her slim fingers fiddling with the bracelet along her left wrist. “So ... you’re not from around Shepherdstown, are you?”

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