Page 13 of His Pretty Little Lies
“Fucking exactly.” Okay, he’s more pissed than apologetic. I want to mouth off, but he kinda has a point.
He surprises me when his hand comes up to cup the back of my neck. His hold is firm but gentle. It feels very intimate.
“It’s my fault, but I’m still pissed about it.”
I nod because it’s definitely his fault, not sure why he’s mad, but it takes a second for everything to catch up to me, and it doesn’t help when he’s so dang close.
“Bunny.” Jax drops his forehead to mine.
Even with how tall I am, he towers over me, making me feel delicate and small. I can see right into his eyes, even in the dimness of the warehouse. The way they start to soften has the energy around us changing. Did he lure me here for this? Not sure I can be mad about that. It’s a unique way to get my attention.
“Are you going to kiss me?” I whisper.
Jax suddenly pulls back, his hand leaving the back of my neck. Okay, he was about to kiss me. Instead, that hand covers my mouth again. I go to grab his forearm to pull it away because, rude! I stop when he brings his finger to his mouth in a quiet motion.
It’s as though I’m snapped back to the reality of where I am. I’m in a creepy-ass building, and based on the grave expression that has taken over Jax’s face, I know something is wrong. He cocks his head to the side to listen before a scream pierces the air, followed by two gunshots.
It takes me a second to register what is happening. I go to turn to flee out of the building, but Jax stops me, his hand still covering my mouth. He jerks me into his big body. “You’re too open out there.”
That is true. If I took off running outside, they’d be able to easily see me. At least one of us is thinking clearly. Jax motions for me to stay quiet again before dropping his hand from my mouth but only to grab my wrist. “Stay close,” he orders. His tone tells me this is not open for discussion. It’s as though aswitch has been flipped, transforming him into another person. If this were any other time, I would argue with him, but since he’s the one who comes from a real crime family, I’m just gonna zip my mouth up tight and follow his lead, but I feel the air in my lungs fighting for a breath, panic quickly bubbling to the surface. A person is in here with a gun.
Jax doesn’t wait for my response. He starts leading me through the warehouse, clearly knowing the layout. I gasp, trying to suck in air. He stops at an open door, pokes a glance inside, then tugs me into the room.
The next thing I know, Jax has an inhaler pressed to my lips. I part them, and he pumps it, and I suck in a deep breath. Holy shit.
It’s been a long time since I had an asthma attack.
“Jax,” I whisper his name. I don’t even think I have an inhaler on me.
"You stay here." He presses the inhaler into my hand and something else into my other. It's a freaking switchblade!
"Don't leave me." My heart is pounding so hard it might come out of my chest. I take another puff from the inhaler.
If I die tonight in the warehouse, Mary will be so pissed at me. Jax's intense eyes stare into mine; he's still for a long moment. I'm sure it's only a second, but right now, every second feels like minutes.
"I won't leave you," he confirms, pulling out his phone. I think he's going to call 911, but he doesn't. Instead, I see him texting his brother! Where the hell is my phone?
What are you doing?I mouth to him. He presses his mouth to my ear. "Trust me." There isn't much of a choice right now. Jax fires off another text before putting his phone back into his pocket. "Stay behind me." I nod, putting my inhaler in my small pocket before grabbing his hand. He slides his fingers through mine as he leads us back out of the small, empty office.
Jax sticks to the sides, his eyes tracing everything as we move. I don't know how he appears so calm. It's one thing to hear about the Marinos, and it's another to see one in action. The warehouse is old, with dust coating everything and vines creeping in along the wall.
We turn a corner into another section of the warehouse, and that's when I see it: a person lying on the ground, dead, with blood all around them. My mouth drops open, but I don't scream, fuck, and I don't move, too shocked by what I’m seeing. But Jax does.
His arm comes out, pushing me back around the corner. My stomach turns as my mind fully processes what I saw. The girl on the ground, her blond hair matted in blood, but what stood out more than anything was the fact that she was wearing the same uniform as I am.
“Fuck,” Jax grits out, and we start moving again, retracing our steps. This time, we’re quicker; he doesn’t care that we’re making noise now.
Jax jerks open a door I’d missed before into another small space; it’s empty too, but there is another door. Jax proceeds to open that one, and we step outside to the other side of the building, where I see his Charger and another car approaching us. I start to backpedal, but Jax doesn’t release his hold on me.
“It’s my brother.”
"Oh my God," I hiss when the SUV rolls to a stop, and out comes Damon and their cousin Cooper. That's not the shocking part. The Marinos always stick close to each other; it's the guns in each of their hands that are freaking me the fuck out. Damon’s expression and whole demeanor have shifted. Both he and Jax are people I’ve never seen before. They’re not the boys I go to high school with. "What the hell is happening?" I whisper-yell.
"Clear it; there is a body in there," Jax tells them both, and they nod.
"Dead?" Damon asks.
"Not sure." I close my eyes at Jax's response. He gives my hand a squeeze. Damon and Cooper enter the warehouse.
