Page 25 of Marked for Obsession

“I want to. I need to say it out loud now, so I don’t forget. I need the cops to know I’m not crazy.”

Ah, baby.“No one thinks you’re crazy.”

Least of all him.

Poppy swallowed hard. “I came out here, but I didn’t see anything, so I decided to get a glass of water and get dressed for the gym. I’d just gotten back to my room when the floorboards creaked behind me.” She looked down at her unmoving attacker. “I turned around, and that’s when I saw him. The glass fell from my hand and shattered.” Her focus shifted back to her feet. “I must have stepped on some of the shards when I ran.”

Studying the hallway, Jax felt his chest tighten as he spotted the bloody footprints leading from the back bedroom to the front door. In his mind’s eye, he could almost see the events playing out as she’d described.

Fuck it.

He bent at the waist and scooped her into his arms with ease. When Poppy let out a surprised gasp, he quickly explained his motives.

“You need to sit and try to relax while we wait for the cops and the ambulance to get here.”

“Ambulance? I don’t need an—”

“You were attacked and nearly killed. You’re getting checked out.” Carefully setting her down onto the couch, Jax forced a softer tone as he asked, “Is this okay?”

“This is fine.” She nodded. “I’m fine.”

The woman was in shock and bleeding. Probably had pieces of glass embedded in the soles of her feet—something he’d tend to in just a minute. But at least she wasn’t hysterical.

Bullets and blood he could handle. The thought of seeing this woman fall apart in front of him…

That was a particular version of hell he never wanted to visit.

Ignoring the unexplainable pull this woman had on him, Jax retrieved his phone from his pocket and made the call. Declan answered on the second ring.

“You’re calling me?” His brother’s greeting with sarcasm. “This ought to be good. What happened…Hell finally freeze over?”

“I need your help.”

Never, not in a million years, did Jax ever imagine himself uttering those four simple words. Not to the man on the other end of the line, anyway. But this wasn’t about him, and contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t always a selfish asshole.

“Uh…can you please repeat that? Because if you just said what I think you said, I’m gonna have to take a moment to let this glorious turn of events soak in.”

“Declan,” Jax growled his brother’s name as if it were a warning.

“No, really.” The other man laughed harder. “This is a monumental occasion. I mean, thegreat and powerful Jaxon Monroe just said he neededmyhelp. Hang on a sec. I need to go mark this shit on the calendar.”

“Will you shut the fuck up and listen?” Jax bit out harshly. With his eyes never leaving Poppy’s, he added, “This is serious, Dec.”

There was a slight pause before his brother’s tone lost all semblance of humor. “Let me get someplace private.” Half a minute passed before he was back. “Sorry about that. I’m at work and I didn’t want a bunch of nosey cops listening to our conversation.”

“Uh…you’re a cop, too,” Jax pointed out the obvious.

“Which is how I know they’d be eavesdropping.” Declan didn’t sound offended in the least. “Now tell me, what’s so important you finally climbed off that high horse of yours to ask me for help?”

A smartass retort was on the tip of Jax’s tongue, but the battered woman before him kept him from verbalizing the scathing thought. “I’m sending you an address. I need you to get here ASAP.”

Pulling the phone from his ear, Jax put it on speaker before typing out Poppy’s address and hitting send. Declan’s response was pretty much what he expected.

“Well as much as I love the fact that you think you can order me around, I’m gonna need a little bit more than that before I go racing off into the unknown.”

Tapping the screen with more force than was necessary, Jax took the call off speaker and put the phone back to his ear. “I just shot a man in the head. That enough for you?”

Poppy flinched, breaking eye contact as she became uber focused on the hem of her shirt. A shirt that, until now, Jax hadn’t realized displayed the word ‘NAVY’ in big block letters.

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