Page 51 of Jax

“No.” Jax sighed, his eyes now looking over where I sat on the edge of the bed. “Look, I’d love to talkaboutthis-” He gestured between us. “-But I haven’t got time right now. I’ve gotta go.”

“Right,” I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it, Jax. Just go.”

“Dammit,” Jax growled, picking up the leather cut I couldn’t remember him wearing and throwing it over his shoulders, hissing at the pressure. For a second, I felt the tenseness of my frown falter, but it reformed quickly as Jax’s glare flickered back to me. “Wewilltalk, Ronnie.”

Facing back to the dark window, I turned my eyes away from him, not answering.

A sigh hung heavy behind me, but no more words came as I watched in the reflection of the window, Jax’s angel-borne across his shoulders walk out of the door without a glance back.

I felt like I sat there forever, not moving, barely even breathing, all too aware of the crushing weight on my chest and the sting of my eyes as I felt the single tear run down my cheek. I knew very well what we would talk about. And I couldn’t help but think Jax would be thinking the same thing as me.

Tonight was a mistake.

Chapter Thirteen

Jax

Icouldn’t get it out of my head. The way she looked at me; the soft sob I heard as I was stepping out the door, her perfectly still silhouette sitting on the bed, watching my reflection leave.

What did I do?

The thing I had wanted to do for a long time. She was everything I knew she would be. She was what I had wanted and what I knew I had to take. Last night… after the attack and when I was shot, I went back into that place. That dark place I knew brought all my instincts forward and all my thoughts into the dark.

I hadn’t thought. I had been getting patched up one second, and the next, I was slamming through her doorway. Seeing her back, the way she fled up the stairs at my arrival I just… I couldn’t let her escape.

So, I caught her. I took her. Made hermine.

I knew the moment we were done it had been a mistake.

Because she had ran away from me once, I couldn’t resist catching her at long last, but doing that with little Ronnie because of those feelings—a young boy’s petty grudge—wasn’t something she deserved. Fucking her senseless because she abandoned me once was not how I wanted to repair my relationship with Ronnie.

A relationship that I had almost lost yesterday until I dodged a bullet to the brain. Now it was broken for sure.

I wouldn’t let it stay that way.

Ronnie wasn’t a virgin. I knew that. This one mistake… we could fix it.

“You coming in?” I turned my head up to feel the harsh whip of the hand across my cheek.

“What the fuck?”I hissed, the burn and the shock radiating across my face as I went staggering from my bike, almost falling on my ass. I pressed my hand against the throbbing sting, looking down at the source of the pain.

“What was that fo—”

“You know damn well what that was for, you prick,” Anna hissed, propping her hands on her wide hips. “What the fuck were you thinking? Not only did you run off after just being shot, you didn’t contact us and could very well have led our enemy to your fucking hostage.”

Her short blonde hair whipped in the strong breeze left by the storm that managed to pass as dawn broke across the sky.

“One, she’s not a hostage,” I said, raising a finger at her. “Two, you’re entirely right and I deserved that.” I sighed, dropping my hand.

“I—” Anna started to argue before freezing. Her propped hands fell to her sides, jaw slacked and wide-eyed. “Did you…. did you just tell me I’m right?”

“Why are you so shocked?” I grunted. “I wasn’t thinking straight yesterday, but I’m very well of aware that what I did last night was stupid, now that I’m… sober. Of sorts.”

“Put your dark side back in its little hole, or rather someone else’s hole?” Anna broke out into a knowing smirk, her red lips and dark makeup (flawless even in the early hours of the day) making her seem so much more sinister. If Anna knew anything about someone’s private life, that person had the right to be incredibly concerned.

“Don’t be crass, Anna,” Kay’s voice followed from the doorway.

“Yes,Mother,” Anna mocked, shaking her head, her little white bun looking like it was about to flop into the wind and fly away.

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