Page 26 of Sins of Seduction
The tension in the room hadn’t dissipated with Ortega’s dismissal. If anything, it only heightened it. Jax looked at his friend, angry that Cruz pushed him to get physical and feeling sorry that he punched him in the same breath. If Jax hadn’t let this go on for so long, they wouldn’t be here right now.
Cruz walked past them, never taking his eyes off of Jax. As soon as his hand reached the doorknob, he turned slightly and Jax braced himself for whatever Cruz was ready to throw at him.
“Over fifteen years of friendship and you’ve always chosen her. I know who you are and who you’re supposed to be and with her…,” Cruz shook his head. “She’s going to destroy you, Pierce, and the sad shit is, I almost think you want it to happen.”
Cruz walked out without another word, and Jax felt like he was watching a piece of his history slip from his grasp.
“I’ll go check on him.” Greyson brushed past them, leaving Raven and Jax alone in the interrogation room.
Raven wrapped her arms around Jax. “You okay?” she whispered up at him, and Jax shrugged. He wasn’t sure how he felt. Cruz had been his oldest friend, and their friendship had no doubt been fractured today but who’s to say they ever had a real friendship? Cruz didn’t know who Jax truly was. All Jax had ever shown Cruz—anybody really—was the person he was taught to be.
Jax pulled Raven closer to him and rested his head on top of hers, not surprised by the way he seemed to relax in her hold while his body hardened at her proximity. Cruz had been right about one thing—Raven was going to destroy him. She was going to sever whatever hold Jax’s upbringing still had on him and awaken him to the paradise that was promised on her lips.
The car ride from the station had been a quiet one. Jax had escorted her to his Mustang as soon as Diane had given them the all clear to leave—well, it came more from Ortega that Raven and Jax needed to leave before she changed her mind about throwing Jax in a cell for assault. Raven liked Ortega for the most part. She was a hard ass, but Raven knew that came with the job. Outside of the station’s walls, Ortega was quite pleasant. That was one of the bonuses of owning Lush and making sure Raven knew exactly who walked through those doors. Raven got to see all the parts people kept hidden.
Raven glanced at Jax. The grip on the steering wheel damn near caused his tan skin to whiten around the knuckles. She could see the muscle in his jaw tick every few seconds—a clear sign that he was barely holding on to an unchecked anger. Raven could guess what was fueling his fury, but when she asked if he wanted to talk about it, he quickly shut her down. She didn’t push, knowing he’d come around in his own time, but she hated that it made for a quiet ride; it gave her too much time to replay what happened at the station and Lush.
Every time she glanced out the window, the trees and bright sunshine were tainted with the images of a bloody body and that eerie message that had been left behind. Something about the message had been vaguely familiar—tugging at a memory Raven had somehow forgotten. When she tried to think about the messages, a harsh pain pierced her skull in between her eyes. It was like her body was protecting her from a truth she wanted to stay buried, and no matter how hard she wanted to remember, it wasn’t going to happen, at least not right now.
She let her head fall into her hand, rubbing at her eyes in an attempt to dislodge the shooting pain ping-ponging inside of her skull.
See me, Raven.
See me!
Jax’s hand on her shoulder startled her as an image of blood coating her hands flashed behind her lids. She looked down at her hands, half expecting to find them bloody and let out a breath when she saw they weren’t.
“You okay? You’ve been rubbing your head since we left the station.” Jax glanced over at her as he switched lanes—the midday traffic had picked up some. South Ivywood wasn’t as busy as a city, but with the unseasonably warm fall weather, everyone was out and about today and probably heading into the busier part of town or into North Ivywood to enjoy outside eateries and shopping.
Jax switched lanes again, and she’d seen the exit coming up and immediately knew where he was taking her.
Benny’s Dirty Dozen.
“You remembered.” Raven couldn’t mask the giddiness in her tone as the bakery and ice cream shop came into view. The place was family owned and made the best chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches Raven’s ever tasted. They made the cookies in the shop the day of and put whatever flavored ice cream you wanted in between two big cookies. Raven’s mouth watered, already tasting the sweet treat. She used to make Jax take her here all the time when they first started dating, but somewhere along their fourth or fifth try, their Benny’s Dirty Dozen dates had stopped.
Jax pulled into the busy parking lot, grabbing a space quickly. He put the car in park before he reached for Raven again. He gripped the back of her neck, his thumb massaging just below her ear, making her groan. She let her head fall back, and her lids briefly closed, getting lost in the touch of Jax. She was grateful the bloody image had disappeared, letting her enjoy Jax’s ability to distract her.
His movements stilled, and Raven opened one eye to see the fire burning in Jax’s gaze as he watched her. Whatever fury he had been holding on to was still there—she could see it blanketed in the way his jaw ticked, but whatever he felt for her overrode that anger.
“I’ve never forgotten. Even when I wanted to purge you from my system, you’ve always been there—an echo in my pulse I could never quiet.”
Danny’s fingertips drummed against the steering wheel. Danny sat parked in Benny’s Dirty Dozen watching Raven and Jax. The place was busy enough that Danny knew sitting in an idle car wouldn’t draw attention and would be able to go unnoticed.
“Pretty, pretty, little Raven. Does he even know that what he covets is filled with lies?” Danny mumbled, watching the way Jax and Raven sat cuddled in a booth like two teenagers out on their first date. It pissed Danny off, hoping Jax would have fled by now or put some distance between him and Raven.
That fight Jax had with his best friend had been unexpected, and Danny hadn’t dreamed that Jax would go to war for Raven—had never done that before. He never stopped Cruz from bad-mouthing Raven. Jax always kept quiet while his best friend saw what Raven really was—a pretty little whore, bringing saints to their knees to worship the false god that sat between her legs.
Danny wondered what it would take to make Jax flee again. He was a flake, tethered to his own insecurities that made him weak. Once the sun had come up, Jax should have chalked up his experience in Lush to a madness he tried to quiet. He should have told Raven she was too much—the appetite that consumed her would not consume him, and yet here Jax still stayed with hearts and yearning in his eyes as he watched Raven.
Danny wanted Raven broken and alone with no one willing to come save her. That would be a hard feat to accomplish with an ex detective falling back in love with her and always around.
“You’re just another prey, Jax Pierce, and you’re courting a death that Raven represents.” Danny opened the center console and took out a pen and paper, quickly jotting down Jax’s license plate number. If Jax didn’t leave on his own, Danny was sure there were ways to push Jax out of Raven’s life.
A car honked and Danny looked up at a woman in a black SUV asking Danny for the parking spot. Danny nodded, glancing one last time at Raven and Jax, knowing whatever happiness glistened in their eyes would be short-lived. Raven didn’t deserve an ounce of happiness, and anyone who tried to give it to her would find the same fate as Louis Bastillo.
Raven and Jax sat in their favorite booth. She had grabbed her chocolate chip cookie sandwich with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream to fill the middle while Jax had gotten his usual waffle cone sundae with caramel drizzle and rainbow sprinkles. They sat in relative silence, Raven not ready to broach the topic of their relationship, especially not after he had made that comment in his Mustang.
Raven always thought what she felt for him in his absence had always been one-sided. She felt empty—hollow even—when they had broken up for whatever time it had been. It was why she had always been so ready to take him back. He filled up the parts of her that had been left cold, breathing a life into her she hadn’t known could exist. What she felt for him had gone deeper than anything she felt for anyone else, even Lea.
