Page 110 of Jax

I thought about the gold band that had slipped free when I had reached in for the phone. My whole world felt like it had come to a stop. The clatter of it against the bottom of the wooden drawer still ringing in the back of my mind.

Everything I pretended not to notice about Ronnie had all made sense in that moment. Everything I pretended not to see had become so crystal clear.

“She got married.” The words felt alien out of my mouth. The image of Ronnie walking down an aisle, wearing a white gown and going to bed with another man… it was too surreal.

“You know that’s not the end of it, Jax,” Hunter frowned with his heavy brows. The shit light of the office made his face shadowed and harsh, reprimanding me without words. “You’ve got the best eyes in the club; don’t tell me you haven’t seen it.”

“I didn’t know you thought my eyes were so pretty.” I smirked, but Hunter’s frown deepened, and the false smile fell from my face.

“It’s not hard to see the kind of life that girl’s been living. All the brothers don’t know her like you do. Didn’t know her when she was younger. But it’s easy to see that she had been through something long in the making before the accident.”

“But—”

Hunter shook his head, rising from his chair. The thing breathed a loud, creaking noise in relief, but it was drowned out as Hunter came to tower over me. He grabbed me by the lapel of my shirt, dragging me to my feet. I couldn’t stop him if I wanted to.

“Life’s full of shit we don’t want to do, Jax. But if you want to move forward with her, there’s no use pretending her past didn’t happen. You can’t accept only who she is now. You need to accept her past too. Don’t be a coward.”

Hunter let go, and my heels hit the floor hard, a shock jerking all the way up to my knees and hips. My body lost balance and my ass landed into the plush chair with anoomph.

“What about waiting for her to tell me herself?”

Hunter’s dark expression sobered into one of distance and pain. He stared out the window just above my head, but I knew he wasn’t really looking at the garage. He was looking at the ruby-red bike parked in the second bay, covered in a dust sheet. “In our life, waiting ain’t worth the time you’ll lose.”

Hunter sat back down in the chair, and silence cascaded down between us. It wasn’t heavy or angry. It was clear.

“Thanks, brother.” I smiled, reaching down into the pocket of my jeans and pulling out my own cell phone.

Hunter’s chin jerked in response just as I landed on the name I wanted to see. It rang once before Lamb’s cocky voice appeared on the other end. “What you need?”

“A favor.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ronnie

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“What do I do?” I cried with hysteria, throwing my body into the wooden drawer tossed among the others across the bedroom floor. Clothes tossed here, there, and everywhere, exposing everything I owned except the single gold piece of jewelry that I was looking for.

The canvas bag’s zips laid in pieces from where I had nearly ripped the thing in two, hoping to God it had just fallen somewhere down the back of the cupboard, or in a small pocket of the bag.

But no.

It was gone.

I rubbed the tears away from my cheeks, the wobbling vision and burning corneas doing nothing to aid me in my search. “Where else could it be?” I shrieked, kicking a pile of clothes, and slamming my toe into a drawer hidden beneath the piles.

“Motherfucking, ducking cocksucker asshole!” I whined, my palm trying to suffocate the heavy throbbing deep within my toe. Pain throbbed up my foot, shin, and knee and I rolled on the floor.

This is not the time to be in pain!

I’ve got to find it before—

“Can’t say I’ve ever heard such an amazing string of curse words before.”

I froze.

Jax.

---