Page 48 of Roots of the Wicked

Jax was likely unaware, but we were more engaging in our interactions with each other. I considered our exchanges the framework needed to build a successful relationship. She was warming up to the idea of us without even realizing it.

As we headed toward the dining room, my family crossed my mind. My brother Blake was living his non-working life in our childhood home. He blamed me, and my father for his shortcomings and didn’t mind living free of responsibilities as a result.

Blake believed his older brother status gave him the right to pass judgement on every decision I made. When he had screwed up and flunked out of college, my father hadn’t benched him right away, but he started grooming me as backup.

The hard work and training, I had poured into becoming a professional baseball player, had earned me the honor of having scouts come out, and watch me play during my junior and senior years in college. My dreams was shattered when I suffered an unfortunate knee injury.

Wild parties, drinking, and women consumed most of Blake’s life during, and after college. After my knee injury, my father informed that he wanted me working as his apprentice instead of Blake.

Blake had been bitter since, labelling me, the favorite son. My father and I tolerated him because he was blood.

Upon seeing Jax when we stepped into the dining room, Blake’s mouth fell open and remained so. My father’s lips twitched, and his eyebrows inched up on his forehead, but he appeared more amused than surprised.

At least my father remembered his manners and stood, although he had failed to hide his surprise as he gawked at Jax. Blake stood after his wife, Tonya, tapped his arm.

My father remained standing at the head of the table, aided by the cane he started using after his second stroke three years ago. His health issues were one of the reasons I had taken control of the company so early in my life. “Dad, Blake, Tonya, this is my lady, Jax Saint-Pierre.”

In true Jax fashion she greeted, “Dad, Blake, Tonya, nice to meet you all.”

After Jax’s greeting, I detected a hint of surprise in my father’s crooked posture, but he swallowed it quickly before a smile surfaced on his lips. The stroke had taken away his ability to control the muscle memory in parts of the right side of his body. As a result, when he smiled only one side of his mouth would turn up. However, the sight of the smile surprised me. Tonya stared, her expression as telling as Blake’s, who had finally managed to close his mouth.

After an awkward silent moment, Tonya fixed her face with a smile. Blake smiled, but it was one of those smiles you had to work at maintaining to conceal the underlying frown.

“Jax, it’s nice to meet you, young lady,” my father stated. His smile deepened before he reached out and shook her hand. My father was the most formal of us all, so I expected him to reply to Jax with a comment of discipline about her greeting, but he simply greeted with a pleasant smile and handshake instead.

“Nice to meet you, Jax,” came Tonya’s late greeting. Blake sat in place eyeing us both, the contempt in his expression hard to miss.

I assisted Jax into her chair before taking my own. She sat across from Blake, and to my father’s left at the head of the table. I planted myself across from Tonya.

Blake stared a hole in Jax across the table as my father prepared to interrogate her.

“So, you own an IT company?”

“Yes, sir, I do.”

Before Jax could continue, my father had moved on to the next question.

“…and we are one of your clients? How did you pull it off? Your track record in the IT arena must be unmatched?”

“It started when my company replaced the network at Jefferson Reed’s, brother’s company,” Jax said.

Jefferson was one of Swift Capital’s portfolio managers.

“He was impressed with the work I did for his brother. He was so impressed in fact, that he informed me that Swift Capital was considering upgrading their network. He talked me up to the rest of the company, and I received the callback to set up the new network.” James had lifted a brow at Jax words but remained silent. “From there, my background was checked, they found that we had word with a number of other big named companies, and we negotiated a contract for my company to manage the network.”

“Where did you attend school?”

I leaned into Jax. “I’m sorry you have to go through this but as soon as he gets it all out of his system, he’ll settle down.”

She squeezed my leg under the table as her reply. “I went to Columbia for my undergrad and then Cornell for my masters.”

At those highlights, Blake and Tonya’s eyebrows rose. Any minute now, I expected Blake to start with his questions. The last woman I had brought home at my father’s request, he and my brother had ripped to shreds.

Glancing at Jax, I was confident she could handle whatever my family threw at her.

“So, how did you become associated with my son outside of work?”

A teasing smile eased onto her lips. “I was dragged, mentally kicking and screaming, into one of his meetings. Once inside the dreary place, I was ambushed with technical support issues that could have been handled by their in-house team. Chase ordered his assistant to introduce me to him and here we are.”

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