Page 8 of Marked for Obsession

Jax wasn’t sure why he didn’t just fess up to having run into her. Or rather, she’d run into him. It was almost as if he wanted to keep her all to himself, which didn’t make a lick of fucking sense.

He didn’t know her. Up until a few seconds ago, he hadn’t even known her name. But damn if he didn’t want to know everything there was to know about her and then claim her as his own.

Which was very un-Jax like.

He’d never laid claim toanyof the women in his past. Through the years, any time those basal needs arose, he’d find a willing participant for few hours of fun, and then they’d go their separate ways.

It was always,alwaysconsensual, satisfying, and without a single thread of commitment. Just the way he liked it.

That’s how it was for him. Back in his SEAL days, and even now. Jax had watched as his friends—and even Declan—fell hard and fast into a life of monogamy and, sometimes, marriage.

Not Jax.

No sense in getting close to someone I’ll eventually end up losing anyway.

“Come on, Jax.” Declan shoved the paper back into his jeans pocket. “I know how you are with this place. No one walks through those doors without you knowing.”

His brother was right. Jax took his job—both of his jobs—very, very seriously.

“I may have seen her,” he finally admitted. “Briefly. Why? What did she do?”

“Nothing, that we know of,” Grady spoke up again. “She came to the precinct claiming to have seen two men carrying a dead guy through the alley next door and then shoving the poor bastard into the trunk of a car.”

Jax blinked as he processed what his brother’s partner had just shared. “And what…” Jax smirked. “You think I had something do with it?”

“Did you?” Grady stared back at him with an arched a brow.

“Nice talk, gentlemen.” He went back to his seat. “You know the way out.”

“Come on, Jax.” Declan shot him a look. “This is serious.”

“So am I. You wanna come into my club and accuse me of being involved in the cover-up of a murder less than a block away? Fuck you and your questions.”

Sending his partner a frustrated glance, Declan blew out a breath and tried again. “Look, no one is accusing you of anything, all right? I already told you as much the minute your goon let us in here. We just need to know anything you can tell us about Miss Campbell so we can take it back to Sarge and be done with this BS.”

Jax took in his brother’s words. The tone in which he used, as well as the indifferent expression covering both his and his partner’s faces said it all.

“You don’t believe her.”

Declan shook his head. “Didn’t say that.”

“Didn’t have to.”

His brother ran a hand over his neatly trimmed beard. “So far, no evidence has been recovered to support Miss Campbell’s claims. No one matching the description of the supposed dead guy has been reported missing, patrol found no blood evidence where she claims to have seen the body and car, and the cell she supposedly lost in the alley has yet to show up.”

Grady added, “And no one in the adjoining businesses heard or saw anything unusual during the time of the supposed event. Including you, apparently.”

“In other words”—Jax stared back at the two men—“you think she’s making the whole thing up.”

“That, or she’d had too much to drink and got confused by what she thought she was seeing. Either way, Sarge wants this one wrapped up today so we can focus on an actual case.”

An actual case.

Jax thought back to the woman who’d quite literally run into him the night before. During their brief interaction, those milk chocolate eyes had given away all sorts of interesting things.

Shock.

Fear.

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