Page 26 of Marked for Obsession

They’d come back to that later. For now, he needed to do his best not to be so…Jax. At least when he was around her.

What Poppy needed was comfort and soothing words. Not his grumpy ass blurting out the first thing that came to mind.

“You didwhat?”Declan’s alarmed tone refocused Jax’s attention. “What the hell happened? Wait, you know what? I don’t even want to know. Whatever mess you made, you’re gonna have to clean that shit up on your own. Unlike you, I’m not in the business of covering up—”

“I’m not asking you to cover up anything,” Jax spoke through a set of clenched teeth. “I just…I need you to come to the address I sent you. Hell, you can even bring Mr. Clean with you, for all I care. Just get here. Now.”

“You do realize I don’t take orders from you, right?” Declan sounded pissed. “I mean, I get that you’re used to getting what you want when you want it, but that shit doesn’t work with me.”

What did the guy want? A fucking golden ticket invitation?

“It was a clean shoot, all right?” Jax swallowed his massive pride and added, “I just need someone working the scene who I can trust.”

He had the resources to make the entire thing disappear. The gun. The blood. The body. And if it were just him and the dead guy, he probably would. Police reports can be so time consuming, after all.

But he wasn’t alone, and like it or not, the scared woman sitting before him deserved answers. Answers they wouldn’t get if he used his connections to sweep it all under the rug.

It was the only reason he’d called his brother. Speaking of…

Declan had gone radio silent. For a moment, Jax wondered if the douchebag had hung up on him. But then he heard, “I’m on my way.”

“Send Maggie…and the crime techs. But make damn sure they’re peopleyoutrust. This one needs to be done right, Dec.”

Jax didn’t elaborate, but he knew Declan would understand the meaning behind his words. The last case his brother worked—one where his girlfriend nearly died—involved a dirty crime scene tech who, it turned out, had been sleeping with the killer.

To be fair, the misguided woman didn’tknowher lover was a killer until later. But the crooked tech had willingly divulged confidential information on an active case to the sick bastard, so yeah. Jax’s trust in the legal system was even more jaded than before.

“I’ll grab Grady, and we’ll be on our way. But Jax?”

“Yeah?”

“If this is anything other than what you’re saying, you know I can’t—”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Jax cut him off. “You can’t fix it for me just because we’re related. Don’t worry, Super Cop. Don’t need anything fixed. Just need you to be the one working this case.”

Because like it or not, the man was arguably the best detective on Denver’s Major Crimes unit.

“Anything else, your highness?”

Jax’s sight fell to Poppy’s injured face and feet. “As a matter of fact, yes. Send an ambulance.” Inwardly cringing, he added a forced out, “Please.”

“You need an ambo?” Genuine concern filled his brother’s voice. “You okay? Did you get hit, too?”

“It’s not for me.”

And with that, Jax ended the call.

5

Half an hour later,Poppy’s apartment was swirling with men and women in blue. Techs scoured the entire place, bagging evidence and snapping pictures. Dr. Maggie Killion, Denver’s Chief Medical Examiner had arrived a few minutes prior, and she and her team were busy looking over the body.

While Poppy was across the room with the paramedics, Jax had spent the last several minutes getting grilled by Declan and his partner. The questioning would’ve started sooner, but he’d refused to talk to his brother—or anyone else—until the medics arrived, and Poppy was in their care.

She comes first. Always.

He’d seen a lot of shit in his day but rushing into this room…seeingthiswoman seconds away from being killed…

That was an image that was going to stick with him for a long fucking time.

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