Page 62 of Count On Me

As quick as it came, it’s gone, replaced with wild rage. He brings his hand up and slaps me across the face. Pain explodes behind my eye.

“Don’t tell me what I want. You don’t fucking know me.” He screams at me, spit hitting me in the face as he grabs my hair and slams my head against the wall. This time I scream in pain as my skull crashes against the stone.

“Shut the fuck up, you little slut. You took everything from me. Everything.”

He’s becoming more erratic and the knife is dangerously close to my throat again. As my eyes scan over it, he laughs again and edges it into my skin. A sharp pinch of pain just above my collar bone makes me squeal through my closed lips, and his eyes take on a new glint as he brings the knife tip to his mouth and licks my blood off it.

“Your blood tastes sweet. I wonder if your pussy tastes sweet too. Maybe I should give you some pleasure before any more pain.”

His hand moves down my body, and I don’t know what takes over me, but I shout no and push him with all my strength. It takes him by surprise and he stumbles backward, losing his footing, and I take my opportunity and run.

I run into the street and scream. I don’t know if I form words or not, but I know I’m making a huge commotion. I stop dead in my tracks when I spot the bald guy from earlier and I’m just about to change direction when a familiar voice calls out my name.

“Jaxson,” I shout as I spin on my heel to see him hurtling through the crowds. The horror on his face as he takes in the sight of me is the last thing I see as my eyes close and I’m falling into darkness.

39

JAXSON

I lower my eyes as Erin sits by her daughter's bed, her hand gripping Edie’s tightly while I sit on the opposite side. I can’t look at either of them. Instead, I drop my head into my hands and stay like that until the nurse comes in to run some tests and assures us she’ll wake up soon. They sedated her so they could do a scan on her head injuries, and while I’m grateful she doesn’t have any lasting damage, I’d give anything to see her eyes right now.

This is all my fault. She shouldn’t have been put in that situation. I should’ve made sure she stayed at Lockheart’s with me. That way, I could’ve woken her up on time, explained about the security guard and had a car ready to drive her to her clients house. But instead she woke up late, didn’t read her messages and headed out, oblivious as to why this big dude was following her.

She ran before he could introduce himself and managed to lose him at the crossing. And all the while, Jordan had been tailing her. Figuring she’d be the easier target. And he was right. Once again I fucked up and Edie has to deal with the fallout.

As she fell at my feet, I looked up and saw him. I wanted to rip his fucking head off but Edie was my priority. Thankfully Bruce, the security detail, managed to hold onto him while we waited for the police to arrive. The whole damn time he kept screaming about Edie being the cause of everything. She was the reason I slowed my partying down and stopped sleeping with everything that moved. She was the reason he lost his drinking buddy. She was the reason we had the fight and he got suspended. It was her fault he went and got shitfaced instead of keeping his head down. The police said they found drugs, drug paraphernalia, and detailed lists of what he planned to do to both me and Edie when they searched his car. A real campaign of hate against us.

I blow out a deep breath and reach onto the bed, just to make sure she’s still there. That she’s real. I thought I’d lost her when she passed out. Her beautiful face, bloodied and bruised, a cut on her perfect skin oozing blood. The image flashes in my mind again and I tug on my hair trying to rid it from my brain.

“You need to get some sleep, Son,” Erin tells me, but I shake my head and avoid her eyes.

“I’m not leaving her.” I edge my chair closer and place my forehead on her bed, grabbing her hand. As my fingers lock with hers, she stirs in her sleep. Her mom jumps up, strokes her hair and shushes her, and my heart breaks that she has to see her baby like this.

“Erin, I’m sorry. I should’ve…”

“Did you do this, Jaxson? Did you hurt her?” I shake my head and finally bring myself to look into her hazel eyes, a mirror image of Edie’s. “Then you have nothing to apologise for. You didn’t do this, Jaxson. That sicko did. This isn’t normal behaviour. No one could’ve predicted this. You got to her, you found her. I just wish she’d looked at her phone before she left the house.”

With her reassuring words and sympathetic smile, I feel my barriers break. Sobs wrack through my body and I can’t stifle them. I know she's right. I know I didn’t physically hurt her. But because of my actions and her affiliation with me, she’s where she is now.

This guilt will last a lifetime. I can only pray to God that she learns to forgive me more than I’m able to forgive myself.

At seeing my tears, Erin walks over to me and wraps her arms around me. She holds me in a way that only a mom can and my heart aches for my own mama. I wish she was here. I wish she could give me a kiss and a band aid and make everything better like when I was younger. But she isn’t, and she can’t.

Edie stirs in the bed again and we both go to her. Erin takes one hand and I grab the other. She opens her eyes and looks at her mom. A smile gracing her beautiful face.

“Hey, baby girl. You’re safe. Jaxson made sure of it.”

She frowns slightly, and when I squeeze her hand so she knows I’m here, she gingerly turns her head to look at me.

“Hey, Eddie. I’m so sorry, baby.” A tear slips out of the corner of my eye and she lets go of my hand to wipe it away.

“It’s not your fault, Jax.” Her voice is scratchy and raw, and even though I want to believe it, I know it's not true. It’s all my fault.

Erin presses the button next to her bed to call for the nurse and I step back when they come in and do some more checks. For the next hour or so, Edie drifts in and out of sleep. Every time she opens her eyes I want to tell her I’m sorry. That I should’ve told her about the picture right away. That I should have told her everything. But I can’t, not yet.

Eventually she comes around completely, seeming much more awake and alert. The sparkle in her eyes is dull, but there. She reaches out for me and I place my head on our joined hands resting on the bed. “I’m so sorry, Edie.”

“It’s okay. You didn’t know he was going to come after me.” She smiles at me and I swallow back my guilt and give her a sad smile.

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