Page 48 of Evil Queen

“There’s not much to talk about,” Jaxon said.

“Jaxon, I swear to god, I do not have feelings for Cherri,” I said. “Cherri’s just been in so much trouble already. Nikita has a clean record. I knew Hix would let her off with a warning, and I was right!”

Jaxon was looking at me as if none of my words were getting through. “You’ve done a lot of supporting Cherri and not very much supporting Nikki.”

That hurt to hear. He wasn’t wrong. My main reasoning for everything that I’d done was ultimately for Nikita, but I couldn’t blame her for the way it looked from her perspective. “I didn’t know what else to do.” My stomach sunk as I imagined the answer to the next question, but I forced myself to do it anyway. “Did I mess everything up?”

“You might have,” he snapped back.

“Jaxon, have you ever had the food here? It’s amazing!” Kyle said, and we both looked at him like he was insane. He looked up at us and rolled his eyes. “Fine. Fuck me for trying to break the tension.”

“Sorry,” both Jaxon and I grumbled out.

“What do I do?” I asked Jaxon.

“I wouldn’t ask me,” he replied. “I’d tell you to stay the fuck away from her. You’ve hurt her enough.”

He was right. I shouldn’t have asked him. Nikita was my whole world. I couldn’t just give up on her that quickly.

“Let’s change the subject for now,” Kyle said, looking across at Jaxon. “Have you had any luck tracking down Brayden?”

That seemed to disturb Jaxon more than I was expecting. “No.”

Kyle deflated. “Nothing?”

“Well, I didn’t find him, but I did find something interesting. I think we’re being watched.”

I looked up at him. “What?”

“Couple of guys I’ve been seeing around. I saw them for the first time over spring break. Nikki, Avery, Alistair, and I went out to lunch, and there were some guys in the next booth over, watching us really closely. I thought maybe they just thought Nikki and Avery were hot since they are, so that made sense. I was prepared to beat the shit out of them if they even tried it, but they never did. Not long after they noticed me watching them back, they paid and left. I figured I scared ‘em off. I didn’t think anything else of it, but then Friday after school, I saw them right outside the school grounds. Same two guys.”

“What did they look like?” Kyle asked.

“One of ‘em was a typical bodyguard type guy. You know, tall, built, the whole thing. He was wearing a zip-up hoodie and jeans, but it barely fit on him. The other guy was smaller, but he was still pretty tall. Similar clothes. The bodyguard guy had short black hair and a goatee, and the other guy had brown hair, also pretty short, and was cleanly shaven.”

“Blending in,” I said.

“Pretty much,” Jaxon replied.

“Do they sound familiar, Nathan?” Kyle asked.

“I mean, not specifically familiar. My dad kept a handful of guys around to clean up messes, and they were all similar. Black or brown hair and a couple of blonds. Close goatees or no facial hair at all. Muscular enough to be useful, but not so much to stand out. My dad knew what he was doing. I’d have to see them to be sure.”

Jaxon pulled out his phone, flipped through it a bit, and then slid it over to me. “They didn’t notice me at first, and I was able to get that.”

I looked down at the picture. “Neither of them looks like any of the guys my dad kept around.”

“Still, similar MO. Could be that he hired them,” Kyle said.

“It’s possible, but I don’t know what the point of that would be,” I replied. “Is that the only other time you’ve seen them?”

“Nope,” he said and looked straight at me. “Yesterday, when I was leaving Nikki’s house, they were there.”

I sat up straight. “They were watching her house?”

“They were down the road a bit, and they weren’t looking in my direction when I noticed them. It was almost like they were there just to be there, not necessarily to keep an eye on her, but then I pulled my gun on them and told them to fuck off, and they did.”

“So at this point, they definitely know you’re onto them,” Kyle said.

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