Page 17 of Marked for Obsession

“Why were you hiding behind a dumpster?”

Realizing she’d started her story in the middle, Poppy backed up and started at the beginning. She told him everything.

How she’d been on the phone with Cam, the part where she’d twisted her ankle, her phone sliding beneath the dumpster…all of it. And when she was finished, she sat stock still in that cushy seat, her lungs frozen as she waited for his response.

Jax pushed himself back to his feet and walked around his desk. “Come on,” he ordered as he passed.

“W-where are we going?” She frowned. Grabbing her purse, Poppy shot to her feet and rushed to catch up to his long stride. “I’m not making this up.” She talked to his back as she walked. “Look, I get how this sounds, but I know what I saw. Those two men killed someone, and I can’t just sit back and pretend it didn’t happen. I can’t pretend that I didn’t see anything or try to help.”

Jax reached for the door. He turned the knob, and heopenedthat door.

“Please.” Poppy found herself practically begging the man for his help. “The cops don’t believe me, and I…I don’t know where else to go. I know I said I’d take my business elsewhere, but the truth is, I’m running out of options. So if you won’t help me, then—”

“Show me.” He shifted his stance, standing half-in, half-out of the now-open doorway.

She stopped abruptly. “What?”

“The alley. I want you to walk me through the events of that night. I need to see exactly where you were, what you saw…everything.”

“So you’ll do it?” Hope bloomed inside her chest. “You’ll take the case?”

“Let me see what you’ve got, and then I’ll decide. Fair enough?”

Itwasfair. But given that she didn’t really have anything other than her recollection of that night, Poppy wasn’t sure it would be enough.

The police sure didn’t think it was. Would he?

You have to at least try.

Stepping past the hunky P.I. to make her way into the hall, she gave a quick glance over her shoulder. Determined to make him see she was telling the truth, Poppy flashed him a half-smile and said, “Follow me.”

3

“Think she’s telling the truth?”

Jax glanced up from his computer to see Ivan walking toward him, a manilla folder clutched in one of his large hands.

A few hours had passed since he’d followed the brunette beauty into that alley. After he and Poppy’s walk-through, he’d sent her home with a promise to make a decision about taking her on as a client by the end of the day.

Truth be told, his decision had been made the minute she’d chewed into his ass for being such a dick. It was a well-deserved ass chewing. One that had sent his curiosity—and his libido—into high gear.

“She took me to the alley this morning.” Jax stood and went to his friend. “Showed me the exact spot where she nearly fell, the dumpster she claims to have hidden behind when it all went down. Said her phone had slid beneath it, but it’s not there.”

“Could’ve been snagged by the killers.”

“If they even exist,” Jax scoffed. But even as he said the words, his gut tightened with the belief that Poppy was telling the truth. “But, yeah. If things really happened as she described, it’s likely whoever those men were grabbed it after she took off.”

“That or some homeless dude spotted it while dumpster diving. Easy way to make a quick buck.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Jax didn’t think that was the case. “She also walked me down to the place where she claims the car was parked.”

“Find anything useful?” Ivan handed him the file.

“Not a fucking thing.” He flipped the folder open and began skimming its contents. “There’s no blood that I could see or signs of a struggle. No phone…nothing.”

“She could’ve been mistaken.” Ivan pointed out as he settled into one of the empty chairs. Placing an ankle across the opposite knee, the former SEAL rested his elbows along the chair’s smooth leather armrests. “Nighttime in a new city, strange neighborhood. Could be she simply misread the situation and her imagination ran wild.”

“Maybe.” Jax had considered this as well.

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