Page 46 of Please Remember

"Why did I?"

Shaking her head, Sage turns and looks at me. "Because you're too nice for your own good. At least until someone threatened what was yours. But you never really felt threatened by Laura. Not back then. And she had to play nice with you in order to spend time with Jax."

"That sounds..."

"Pathetic? Desperate? Ridiculous?" she asks with a smirk. "Yeah, that's Laura. I never trusted her. Not when I caught her trying to sneak a peek at Jax in the shower one trip. It was about a week or two before you vanished. When you found out, you laid into her. She was about to be cut from the group because if you said you didn't want her included, Jax would've sided with you."

"How desperate do you think she was to have him?"

Her eyes widen. "You don't think she'd do something to you, do you?"

"I don't know. Something about her makes me feel uneasy. And if she was as desperate as you say, it wouldn't be surprising, would it?"

"She was desperate," the woman working on my toes says and looks up with a grimace. "Sorry."

"What do you know, Helen?" Sage asks. "Spill."

Helen looks around before lowering her voice. "She'd come in here and get the same polish Allie did. This color. Every two weeks. She'd talk about how eventually Jax would see her. Certain that when he finally noticed her, she'd take Allie's place. She just had to be patient. And for five years, she was. Then one day, she told us she'd kissed him, and her color choice changed. That was until a month ago, when she switched back to this one."

"She's fucking crazy," Sage says. "I don't know if she had an alibi for that night or not."

"But why would she keep me alive? I mean, she'd get what she wanted if I was dead. What would she gain if I was still breathing, even if I was locked in a basement. There was always the risk I’d get out—and eventually I did," I say as I try to put the pieces together.

"I don't know. I don't pretend to know the inner workings of a crazy woman. But I think it's best if you stay away. If nothing else, you took her fiancé away from her.” Sage shakes her head. “I still can't believe he proposed."

"He didn't," the man working on Sage mutters.

We both look at him, and Sage leans forward to rest her elbows on her knees. "Jet... what do you know?"

"I know he just gave her the ring box. Didn't even ask her to marry him. Just mentioned they should probably make it official or something," he says, and my heart breaks a little for her.

Laura may be a little nuts, but she clearly loves Jax. And that love made her wait a ridiculous amount of time to get him to notice her. Then, when he proposed, it was barely a proposal. Especially after she knew the surprise he planned for me the night I went away.

"How do you know this?" Sage asks.

"She was talking to someone. I think she was on the phone. But then she realized we heard, and she said something about him just being scared for her safety after what happened to Allie," he says. "It was the weirdest thing."

"She also talked far too much about her sex life," Helen says. "It was weird. Like, we kind of had to wonder if she was making it up with how detailed she’d get."

Thinking about Jax with Laura makes my stomach knot. I know they were engaged, and I'd been gone for years by the time they hooked up, but it doesn't make it easier. In fact, I think I'm jealous. He's mine. Mymind flashes back to the small memory from earlier, and I shift in my chair.

Wait, maybe that's the ticket. Maybe sex is the trigger to remember everything.

Sage talks about the latest one-night stand she had, but I can't stop thinking about Jax. When I get home, I need to look at Jax's computer. Maybe if I can find the files, I can see what he likes. What I used to do. And maybe, just maybe, that will be the trigger I've been looking for. The thing to unlock these memories I desperately want to recall.

Chapter Nineteen

Jax

When I step inside the house, I set my lunchbox down on the table and listen for Allie. She and Sage had an appointment earlier today, but she should be home by now.

Noise sounds from the office, and as I walk closer to the room, my stomach sinks. I know that noise. Those sounds. They're the sounds of Allie and me making love. The grunting and panting. The moaning and groaning. The unmistakable sounds of sex.

Stepping through the doorway, my eyes widen as Allie looks up at me from behind the desk.

"I can explain—"

"This is what I like?" Allie asks, cutting me off.

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