Fighting Ever After (Ever After #3) (14 page)

 “Don’t
kiss him again.” It was half plea and half demand. Maybe I had no right to make
it, but I was. I didn’t want to feel that craziness again.

“Excuse me?
You have no right to tell me who I can and can’t kiss, especially not when you
had your tongue down more throats than I could count tonight,” she shot back,
the anger in her voice not quite masking the hurt in her eyes. I’d accomplished
exactly what I’d set out to. I’d pushed her away with each of those kisses. It
didn’t matter that I regretted it now.

 “I
know I have no right, but I’m asking anyway. I can’t watch you with him. If you
want us to be friends, I can’t watch you with any of the guys. If that makes me
a selfish asshole, fine, I’m a selfish asshole, but I wanted to hurt him
tonight and that’s fucked up. I’ve never let a girl come between us and I don’t
want to now, but I want you. I understand why I can’t have you, but please
don’t
fucking ask me to watch one of my best friends have
you.”

Her
expression softened somewhat. “What you saw with Ace was nothing. There’s
nothing going on between us so you don’t have to worry about it, but you’re
still a dick.”

“I know, and
I shouldn’t be so damn relieved to hear you say that, but I am, and I’ll try
not to do that shit in front of you anymore. That’s the best I can do.”

She dropped
her eyes and nodded. I could have told her why I’d kissed those girls. I could
have told her they didn’t mean anything, and that there was only one girl I
wanted to kiss, but I didn’t. I didn’t want her to hate me, but I couldn’t let
her really like me either. That wouldn’t be fair to her, and it would be way
too selfish of me. I had to keep her feelings out of this.
Nothing
but physical attraction.
That was safe.

Feelings are
not safe. Not for either of us.

“Hey Jazzy
look, ya found
im
.” Bas appeared, completely wasted,
and put his arm around
Jax’s
shoulder. He leaned in
close to whisper in her ear, but as drunk as he was, his idea of a whisper
could have been heard ten feet away. “
Nowya
can
tellim
ya
didn
’
wanna
kiss Ace. Ya
wanna
kiss
im
,” he slurred. I grinned while Princess looked like she
wanted to murder him. Her face was all sorts of red, and when her eyes flitted
to mine, her blush deepened. Damn, I liked hearing that she wanted to kiss me,
even if she wasn’t the one who said it herself. Bas might be my new best
friend.

 “Would
you take him home already?” She looked pleadingly at Chris who was only a few
feet away at the bar.

He just
laughed and pulled Bas off of her. “
He going
home with
you?” He nodded in my direction.

“Yeah, he
is,” she muttered unenthusiastically.

“Where you
guys parked at?” Chris asked.

“We’re out
front on the street,” she answered.

“Okay, well
I’m out back so I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

She said
goodnight, and Chris looked at me pointedly before he led his brother out the
back. We went in the opposite direction, making our way out the front door. Her
car was just up the block, but before we reached it, I noticed something was
off. I stopped just a few feet away when my eyes landed on the rear tire and
then the front tire on the passenger side.
Both flat.
I expected that if I walked around to the other side of the car, I would find
the same thing because the whole car was sitting low. Someone had to have let
the air out of them. All four tires wouldn’t just go flat. I got closer and
ducked down to take a look. “Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. Someone didn’t
just let the air, they slashed them open.

“What?”
Jaxyn asked worriedly. She obviously hadn’t noticed yet as she was a still
several feet behind me, but I heard her sharp intake of breath when she did. I
stood and watched the panic overcome her. She took a step back and then her
desperate eyes fell on mine.

 “What
do I do?” She was freaking out. I just needed to keep her calm and get her out
of here.

“I’ll take
care of it, just get anything valuable out. We’ll leave it here for now and in
the morning I’ll have it towed. You can ride with me to your house.” I knew we
should probably call the cops, but we could do that just as easily from her
place.

She nodded
and pulled her keys from her pocket. I followed her around to the other side,
after I’d snapped a few pictures on my phone of the slashed tires. A quiet,
strangled cry escaped her throat when she reached the driver’s door. I looked
over her shoulder to see what was making her hands shake. Large, jagged letters
were scratched into the paint job.

See you
soon lover.

My phone was
still out, so I got a picture of that too, and then slipped it in my pocket. I
could hear Jax starting to hyperventilate, and she didn’t seem to be able to
move or even look away from the words carved into her door. I was afraid she
might collapse right there, so I pulled her back into my chest, wrapping my
arms around her, and whispered in her ear. “It’s okay. You’re okay. Nobody is
going to hurt you. I’ve got you. Just breathe.” She drew in a shaky breath.
“That’s it, just concentrate on breathing in and out.”

The tension
started to leave her body as she relaxed into me. She gained control over her
breathing and the shaking subsided. She leaned her head back against my chest.
I can’t say that I would have minded holding her like that all night, but it
was no longer warm outside and pretty soon she would be shaking from the chill.
When I was sure she could stand on her own, I let go of her and slipped the
keys from her hands. I got the door open and started looking around for
anything she might need, or that shouldn’t be left in the car over night.

“Under the
seat,” her voice was barely more than a squeak, but I heard her and pulled the
strap of her purse that was sticking out from under the seat. I didn’t see
anything else, so I locked the car back up and led her over to my bike. I
expected her to insist I call a cab or someone else to come get her, but she
didn’t protest as I helped her onto the bike. She seemed lost inside her head
and I wished I knew what was going on in there. This was more than just a guy
with a grudge. I didn’t blame her for being freaked out, anyone would have
been. Getting pissed off would have been understandable as well, but her
reaction had been more than that. It was one of sheer terror. She’d completely
shut down.

She said
before that he didn’t handle rejection well, but I was becoming more and
more sure
that he’d done something to seriously hurt her in
the past. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know what, but the entire ride back to
her house I couldn’t erase the frightened look in her eyes from my mind, or
forget the way her body shook in mine because of the message he’d left for her.
Something told me that was exactly this guy’s intention. He was toying with
her, getting off on scaring her like it was a game to him. He was going to
regret it though.

When we hit
the freeway,
Jax’s
arms tightened around my waist and
she pressed her cheek into my back. I eased off the throttle slightly, not
wanting to scare her anymore than she already was, and maybe I was hoping to
prolong the ride just a little. She wasn’t the first girl I’d had on the back
of my bike, but she was the only one I’d wanted to keep there. I was in no hurry
for her to
unwrap
her arms.

At the
house, Princess immediately disappeared upstairs. I watched at the bottom of
the stairs until I heard her bedroom door shut behind her. Then I slipped my
phone out of my pocket and dialed Chris.

“What’s up?”

“Jaxyn’s
tires were slashed tonight.”

“Fuck. Is
she okay?”

“Is who
okay?” I heard Bas in the background.
“Jax?
Did
something happen?”

“Shut the
fuck up so I can find out.” Chris’ voice was muffled like he’d pulled the phone
away from his mouth, but then he came back. “What exactly happened?”

“We got out
to the car, found her tires slashed and a message carved into the door,” I
explained.

“Shit. What
kind of message?”

“Well it
wasn’t happy birthday.”

“But she’s
okay?”

“Yeah.
I think. I just wanted to get her home before calling you
guys and the cops.”

“Listen, you
can’t call the cops,” he said urgently.

“Why the hell not?”

“You just
can’t. Trust me.”

“You know,
all this secret bullshit is getting old,” I told him, my frustration seeping
out.

“I know, but
they’re not my secrets. Just take care of her tonight, and I’ll call you back
in the morning when Bas is sober enough to process this.”

I mumbled a
‘whatever’
before hanging up and texting Spade. I told him where we left the car and
he promised to have it towed to the shop where he and Ace worked by morning.
The only problem was, even if she had insurance, it was doubtful they would
cover the damage without a police report, which meant it was coming out of
someone’s pocket.

I made sure
the house was locked up tight before heading upstairs. Everything was quiet
when I passed by
Jax’s
room. It was unsurprising that
she’d crashed given the night she’d just had. I was once again left with the
dilemma of couch or that frilly ass pink bed. I pushed open the door to the
princess room. I’d just stripped off my shirt and slid my jeans down when I
heard a soft voice call out my name.

I didn’t
bother redressing before hurrying to her room. I gave the door a gentle push
and stuck my head in. “Yeah?”

“Umm . . .”
Her eyes didn’t meet mine and she sounded so unsure.

I pushed the
door the rest of the way open and stepped inside the room. “What is it?” I
tried to soften my voice and my expression, but I don’t think it helped that I
was almost naked. Her eyes seemed to be stuck on that fact, but when she
finally raised them and made her request, I almost had to ask her to repeat
herself.

“Will you
stay in here with me?” I was sure I was hearing things and that there was no
way that was what she had actually asked, but when she nervously tried to take
it back, I knew I hadn’t misheard her. “I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t
want to. It’s not a big deal. I’ll be fine. I think I’m still just a little
freaked out, but really
I
-”

“Shh, scoot
over.” I didn’t miss the relief on her face as she made room for me to climb
into the bed. Instinct told me to slide right in next to her hot little body
and wrap mine around hers, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think that she had
anything on her mind besides a desire not to be alone after everything tonight.

As evidence
of that, she rolled her body to face away from me as I pulled the covers up.
While this wasn’t quite what I had in mind all the times I’d imagined being in
bed with her, I was surprised by how contented I felt lying there next to her.
Only the slightest trace of desire stirred in me, but the raging need to bury
myself inside her and consume her was missing. For the first time in my life,
just being next to a girl was enough. It was enough to know that I was giving
her comfort even if I wasn’t touching her.

Tonight had
shaken her more than I’d ever seen. The way she froze when she saw the words
carved into her door reminded me of the way Spade or Ace looked sometimes after
waking from a bad dream. They didn’t talk about their time in the Middle East
with the Marines, but that look in their eye – haunted was the only word for
it, and I saw that same look in
Jax’s
eyes. It gutted
me that it was there. It was
expected,
or at least not
uncommon for a soldier, but something about seeing it on
Jax’s
face was all wrong. It didn’t belong there and I wanted to take it away.

 “When
you’re ready Princess, you can tell me what he did and I’ll listen. I know I’m
an asshole, but I do care. More than I should.” She didn’t say anything, but I
heard her soft sniff.

It wasn’t
long before her breathing evened out and the rise and fall of her chest slowed
with sleep.  I lay there for a while just listening to the quiet sound of
breath escaping her lips. Just as I was falling asleep myself, I felt the bed
shift and opened my eyes to see that she had rolled over in her sleep. Only
inches were between us now and her face rested half on my pillow. I reached my
hand out to brush away the strands of hair covering her face. In sleep, the
pain and fear was gone. She looked so peaceful and pure, so untouched, just as
she should, but everything in me was screaming to touch her. My fingers
lingered on her face and I brushed the back of them lightly over her cheek. When
she didn’t stir, I did something I’d never done before and I had no explanation
as to why, only I couldn’t help myself. I leaned my head forward and pressed my
lips to her forehead. It was the
most chaste
kiss of
my life and yet it was oddly satisfying. She burrowed into the blankets deeper,
pressing closer to me until her body was curled into mine. There was still
plenty of room for me to scoot away and put some distance between us, but I
couldn’t bring myself to do it. If anything I wanted to be closer to her.

Later in the
night, I woke to the sounds of her soft whimpers.  I wanted to pull her
into my arms and keep her there, protect her from the scary monsters in her
dreams. Hell, I just wanted to protect her period. It was wrong of me to want
those things, but nothing about it felt wrong.

Jax quieted
again and I fell back asleep until the sun peeked in through the curtains.
After thirty minutes of trying to fall back asleep, I gave up and forced myself
from the comfort of the big bed and the warmth of
Jax’s
body pressed into mine. It was early, too early to wake her, but I went in
search of my phone in the other room and found it in my jeans pocket. I had no
problem calling and waking Chris up.

He answered
groggily on the fourth ring, “
Ello
?”

“Get your ass
out of bed man.”

“Ky?”

“You know
anyone else with a voice this sexy?”

“You’re an
asshole,” he groaned. “I’m hanging up. It’s too early to deal with you.”

“You can go
back to bed as soon as you tell me what the hell I’m supposed to do about this
mess Princess has got herself into.”

“Oh
fuck,
her car. Shit. Just a minute, let me wake Bas up.” I
listened to him rousing a grumpy Bas, but at the mention of
Jax’s
name he sounded alert and the next thing I knew he’d taken the phone from Chris
and it was his voice coming over the phone.

“Is she
alright?”

“Yeah, I
think. She was pretty freaked out last night.” I didn’t bother mentioning the
part where I slept in her bed to comfort her. It wasn’t relevant and he
wouldn’t like it. “She’s tough, I’m just not sure how much more she can take.
Chris said we can’t call the cops, and I’ll take his word for it, you guys know
the situation better, but we have to do something. I’m not okay with sitting
back and letting this continue. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anyone so scared.”

“I know.
Believe me, I know. I’ve been here before and to be honest I’m not sure what to
do, but I think maybe I should get her out of the city. Instead of waiting
until Wednesday to head to the cape, I’ll call
Vi
and
see if her parents will let us have the house a few days early, then you guys
can still come out next week or whenever,” he suggested, and I thought his idea
was a good one, except for one part.

“Why don’t
you just check with the rest of the guys and see if they can take the time off and
we can all head out there today. I need to check in with Spade about her car
anyway, so I can talk to him.” It was no problem for me to rearrange my
schedule. I could cancel the gig for tonight no problem, I doubted anyone would
argue it, and I could move my lessons around next week. I’d already planned to
be gone for the Fourth of July anyway.

“And what if
I told you not to come? What if I asked you to stay behind and come just for
the Fourth like planned? Could you do it?”

My silence
answered for me.

“I thought
as much,” he muttered knowingly.

“Don’t you
start this shit
too.
I just want to know that she’s
okay. You don’t need to turn it into anything other than that.”

“Okay then.
We’ll keep her safe. She’ll be fine and you don’t need to worry about her.”

“It doesn’t
work like that,” I argued.

“I know
that, it’s just you who needs to figure it out.”

“What the
hell do you mean?”

“You know, I
was so worried about how bad you would be for her that I never considered how
good she might be for you.”

“You’re reading
more into this than there is. I like the girl, but it doesn’t change anything.”

“Other than
she actually makes you act like a human being.”

“So fucking what!”
I spit into the phone. “It doesn’t matter if
you’re right or wrong. It changes nothing. I’m not the guy she should build her
hopes and dreams around. Do I look like fucking Prince Charming?
Because I’m not.
I never will be.”

“The fact
that you can admit that says a lot, man.”

“Would you
still think that if I told you I slept in her bed last night?” I was just
trying to piss him off now, but it backfired. He didn’t even shirk at my
implication.

“And let me
guess, you held her all night long?” I wasn’t sure what to say to that, because
I hadn’t expected it, and I took too long to say anything. I heard his chuckle
come through the phone. “You’re
  a
fucking idiot
if you think you can deny it now, so why don’t you quit acting like a damn
asshole and running from this and just figure out how to be the guys she
needs.” He hung up after that and I almost threw my phone. I don’t think I
would have been so angry if he wasn’t right and if I didn’t know what he was
telling me to do was impossible. I meant it when I said I would never be that
guy.

I called
Spade briefly and made sure her car was taken care of. Then, a few minutes
later, as I was reading Bas’ text that everything was a go, I heard a scream
from
Jax’s
room. I’m not sure that I’d ever moved as
fast as I did to get to her. She was thrashing around in her sheets, crying and
muttering incomprehensible pleas through her tears. I went to her side and put
my hands on her shoulders and immediately realized that was the wrong thing to
do. She just started fighting and crying harder. I needed to wake her up, but I
was afraid to touch her.

“Come on
Princess, wake up.” She whimpered and her body stopped moving like she’d heard
me, but she still wouldn’t wake up. I tried to run my hand over her face and
wipe away the tears, but she cried out again, the scream catching in her throat
on all the sobs. I didn’t know what else to do to wake her so I grabbed her
arms to keep her from flailing them, and gently shook her. “I’m right here,
it’s just a nightmare. Please wake up.”

Suddenly her
eyes popped open and she shot up in a panic, her eyes darting all over the room
before finally landing on me, and when they did she seemed to relax, but the
fear didn’t entirely leave her eyes and she was breathing hard. Her eyes
squeezed shut, but the tears still leaked down her face.

“You’re okay
now,” I whispered, sitting down beside her and pulling her head into my chest.
Her small hands gripped my arm that was wrapped around her and she clung to me
while her body shook. I rubbed my other hand up and down her back, uttering
every reassuring word I could think of. When the shaking and crying ceased, I
pulled back enough that I could see her face. “Are you alright?”

She nodded,
but I found it less than convincing.

“Then pack a
bag Princess, we’re leaving.”

“What do you
mean we’re leaving? Where are we going?” She wiped at her eyes, I’m sure in an
attempt to appear less of a mess, but it did little good. She was wrecked.

“The cape,”
I answered her.

“Vi’s place?”

“Yeah, I
called Chris and Sebastian and filled them in on everything. They took care of
the arrangements. Everyone is driving down today. They should be here in about
an hour.”