Fighting Ever After (Ever After #3) (25 page)

“Anything to eat in there?”
Ace asked glumly, knowing the same as I
had how empty we’d left it.

“Uh, actually yeah.”
Curiously I also pulled open the door to the
freezer above the fridge. Just like the note said, there were a stack of
labeled Tupperware containers and two pie tins:
Spaghetti sauce, Taco Meat,
Chicken Pot Pie.

Holy shit,
Rachel Ray broke into our house and filled our fridge and freezer with food.

“What is all
that?” Ace asked, peering over my shoulder.

“Food, delicious looking food.”

“What’s
delicious looking?” Spade entered the kitchen and then stopped. “I smell
muffins.” His eyes scanned the counter tops and I realized he was right. When
I’d first walked into the kitchen, I’d picked up on the sweet smell, but had
ignored it, figuring Marcus had been melting those wax cubes in one of those
smelly pots again. “Oh sweet Lord, Rainbow has been here!” He exclaimed when he
found the saran wrapped plate of muffins tucked beside the coffee pot.

Yeah, that
made so much more sense than Rachel Ray. There was another container next to
the muffins and when Spade popped the lid off of that one his eyes lit up like
he’d found a pot of gold.
“Cookies.
God, I love that
girl.”

“Wait ‘til
you see what’s in here.” Ace told him, reaching around me to look under the
foil just as I had.

“I don’t
think anything could make me love her more than these cookies,” he said,
shoving one in his mouth.

“Not even
enchiladas?” I asked.

His head
snapped up. “She made enchiladas?” I nodded. “Then what the fuck are we waiting
for? Put those fuckers in the oven. I’m starving.”

We were just
pulling them out of the oven when Chris came through. “Mm, what smells so good?
Are those
Jax’s
enchiladas?”

“How’d you
know?” Ace asked him.

“Well I know
you idiots didn’t make them, and I also know that Marcus didn’t dust and vacuum
while we were gone, or did you guys not even notice that?” Honestly I hadn’t.
Cleaning house hadn’t been on my list of priorities. How had she gotten all of
this
done.
She must have super powers. Or have been
here late last night.

 “Hand
me a plate so I can eat one of those before I go.” Chris said and then hurriedly
dished up.

“Wait,
aren’t you going to a dinner party?” I asked him.

“Yeah, but
no guarantees on what the food will be, and I know if I don’t get one of these
now, there won’t be any left when I get back tonight.” He shoveled the steaming
enchilada into his mouth as quickly as he could before rushing out the door.

He was right
too; by the time we’d all eaten, it wasn’t long before Marcus and Danny came
through the kitchen and served up what was left. The pan was empty within the
hour. They were the best enchiladas I’d ever had and I expected Spade to spring
another proposal on Jax the next time he saw her, which turned out to be much
sooner than I expected.

“I’m coming up
on your left,” Ace said right before his guy appeared on my screen.

“I’ll get
the guy on that roof.” Spade said. We moved through the game as a team, wiping
out our opponents. When the front door opened, I didn’t even look up to see
Chris come in. It wasn’t until Spade spoke that I realized he hadn’t come
alone.

“Hey
Rainbow, did you come to cook for us again? I have to say, coming home to a
fridge full of food and more of your baked goods was amazing. Once again I
would like to extend my offer of marriage.”
Called that one.
I fired in his direction to get his attention back on the game and off of
flirting with Jax.  He shot me a look and took out one of the snipers
targeting us before looking back at Jax. “Even better, you’re moving in.” That
caught my attention and I spared my first glance in her direction to see that
she was in fact holding a duffel bag in her hand. “Does this mean you’ve
decided to accept my proposal?” This time it was Ace who sent a spray of
gunfire in his direction. “Hey motherfucker quit shooting at me, we’re on the
same team,” Spade yelled.

“Then get
your head back in the game douchebag,” Ace retorted. “She’s not gonna marry
your stupid ass. If anything, she’s here for me. Isn’t that right beautiful?”
Ace gave her a teasing wink before returning to the game.

  “I am
going to be staying with you guys for a little while if it’s alright?” Fuck,
someone should just do me a favor and put me out of my misery in real life. Why
the hell was she staying with
us,
and how was I
supposed to survive sharing space with her for who knew how long?

“Of course
it is,” Spade said, because it wasn’t like any of us would actually turn her
away, even if she was a danger to my sanity.
“But why you
staying here?
You really can’t stand to be away from me, can you?”

“Conner
setmyhouseonfire
,” she spit out in one jumbled breath, but
there was no mistaking what she’d
said,
and we all
snapped our heads in her direction, the game forgotten.

“You want to
say that again, Princess? Because it sounded a lot like you said that bastard
set your house on fire.”

She chewed
her lip nervously and avoided making eye contact with me, finding Ace and Spade
to be safer. “Not my whole house, just the kitchen,” she explained as if that
made anything better. Looking more closely at her, I could see that she was
barely holding herself together.

“Have they
arrested him?” I asked, already guessing the answer. She shook her head. “Then
I don’t care if it was just a fucking broom closet. He’s not getting away with
it.” She finally turned to face me, her mouth opening and then closing again
under my furious gaze. I was practically daring her to argue with me on this
one.

“I have to say
that I agree with
Ky
,” Spade interjected. “We need to
teach that son of a bitch a lesson.” Ace was nodding alongside him in
agreement.

Jax shook
her head. “No, you guys can’t do anything. You have to let it go.”

I think all
three of us let out snorts. No way in hell was that happening. “The hell we do,”
I seethed. “I don’t care who he is-”

“Well you
should. He’ll kill you, and if not him then my father. I know you think you’re
trying to protect me, but you’re going to end up dead!” She yelled, panic
seeping into her voice. Ace and Spade seemed taken aback by it, but I wasn’t
letting this go. Chris stepped in before I could protest anymore.

“Enough.
She’s right. Nobody is going to do anything right now, so calm the fuck down.”
It surprised me that he of all people was on her side. He and Bas had been her
self-appointed protectors for years, but now he was refusing to act.

“Someone
needs to fill us in on a few details, because we seem to be missing something
here. What does your father have to do with the asshole trying to hurt you?”
Ace questioned.

Jaxyn turned
on him, her frustration leading her to spit it out without hesitation. “My
father is Jack Malloy and Connor works for him, so if you guys try any sort of
payback you’re gonna end up buried, or in pieces.” She squeezed her eyes shut
briefly before lowering her voice to hide the pain in it.
“Probably
both.”

Like the
first time I’d heard the truth from her, they weren’t expecting it. Their faces
transitioned through a range of emotions from shock to confusion to
apprehension and then back to shock that bordered on awe.
“Holy
shit.
You’re like some kind of mob princess?” Ace asked.

“No, it’s
not like that, not even close.” She fixed her eyes on me. “I’m nobody’s
princess.” I knew it was a shot at my nickname for her.

 “Why
wouldn’t your father protect you from Connor, or better question, why hasn’t
your dad killed him yet?” Spade asked with more than a hint of confusion and
disdain.

Jax’s
cheeks flared pink, but she held her chin up as she admitted
something that I knew just ate her up inside. “My father chose him over me. It
doesn’t matter what Connor does, because my father will always take his side.
My father will protect him over me.” Her eyes blinked rapidly to hold back the
moisture gathering there. “We can talk about this more in the morning, but I
just want to get some sleep.”

She might
have been done with the conversation, but the rest of us weren’t. As soon as
Chris came back from showing her to his room, we started in again. “Was Jaxyn
home when it happened?” I asked him.

“No, and I’m
not sure whether that was intentional or if she just got lucky. If I had to
guess, I would say he’s playing with her and waited for her to leave, but it’s
possible that she was meant to be there.”

“What the
hell are we going to do about this?”  I was willing to listen, to talk
about it, but I wasn’t willing to do nothing. Setting her house on fire wasn’t
a game. It wasn’t simple stalking or intimidation.

“Honestly,”
he sighed, dragging his hand through his hair, and I got my first indication
that he was more affected by this than he’d let on, “I don’t know. She isn’t
kidding when she says trying anything could get someone killed. We’re not
dealing with a regular bully or asshole ex-boyfriend. Threatening him or
beating
him
up won’t work; I’m not sure anything will,
but there’s someone who might have some ideas.”

“Who?”
Ace inquired.

“Her brother, Shane.
He knows Connor and he’s from that world. Bas
has already talked to him and he’ll be coming by in the morning to see her. Hopefully
then we can work out a way to keep everyone alive and keep him away from her.”

The next
morning everyone was gathered around the kitchen waiting for Jax to emerge from
her bed. No one wanted to wake her; after a day like yesterday she needed her rest.
I was getting impatient though, watching Bas and Shane huddled in the corner
talking too low for the rest of us to hear.
Vi
was
inhaling coffee faster than we could brew it while she paced the kitchen
anxiously. Danny and Spade were cooking mass amounts of eggs and bacon and Ace
set out a plate with the muffins he halved.

Of course
Danny and Marcus had needed to be filled in, and were equally shocked about the
news of the fire and
Jax’s
parentage. It wasn’t
helping any that Marcus has the uncanny ability to remember almost everything
he’s ever read, going back years. He kept recalling articles he’d read about
Jax’s
dad, each one attributing more heinous crimes to him
and his men. My stomach soured when he remembered one from last year about a
girl who’d been raped, cut up and dumped in the harbor. It went unsolved but
cops believed someone associated with Jack Malloy was involved.

“Stop!”
I slammed my hand down on the table startling everyone in
the room. I didn’t want to listen to anymore. That could have been Jax.

“Sorry,” he
muttered contritely and went back to stirring eggs in the pan. I got up from my
seat and walked over to opposite side of the room. Chris followed me.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, I
just – couldn’t listen to that anymore. How did she grow up with a man like
that and come out so . . . so . . . her?”

“If you
could have met her mom you’d understand. She was everything a mother should be
and Jaxyn was her world. She had that for twelve years and it was enough to get
her through the next six before she got away from her dad.”

“How does a
woman like that end up with a man like Jack Malloy?” It didn’t make sense if
Jax’s
mom was really the angel everyone said she was. An
angel and the devil – that was about as opposite as two people could get.

“That’s one
story I can’t tell you, because I don’t know. From what I understand, Patty was
really young when she had Jax though, like seventeen or something.”

Our
conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Jax in the doorway. Sleepy
looked cute on her and so did the little Batman pajama shorts that barely stuck
out beneath the oversized hoodie that hid all my favorite parts

She stood
there, taking everyone in, reluctant to actually join us.
Vi
was on her in a flash though, hugging her and then pulling her toward a seat at
the table where Danny, Marcus and Spade were already sitting. I think everyone
was waiting for someone else to be the first one to speak, until Spade finally
took it upon himself to jump us right into the deep end without any regard for
tact or subtlety. “I don’t get why we have to have a meeting to discuss the
appropriate course of action. It’s simple enough to me. I grab my rifle and
take the bastard out, put an end to this.”

“I agree.
We’ve handled shitheads a lot more dangerous and harder to reach than this
punk,” Ace backed him.

Jax looked
like she was about to slam her head down on the table. “You can’t do that,” she
argued. 

 
“Why the hell not?
We’re not afraid, and we can do this
without anyone knowing,” Spade countered. “Hell, we’ve done it dozens of time
just on orders, without even knowing the why sometimes. At least this time it’s
with damn good reason.”

“This isn’t
the same thing. This isn’t some third world country where you’re gonna be
dropped in and then flown back out. This is Boston, and it’s illegal,” she
pointed out like that mattered.

 “So is
what he’s doing Princess and the law isn’t doing a damn thing to stop it,” I
reminded her.

“Because they
can’t, and you guys can’t do anything either. I won’t let you.” she met my hard
stare with one of her own.

 “You
gonna stop us?” I challenged her. Usually I found her stubbornness cute. This
morning it was not cute. It was going to get her hurt or worse.

“Knock it
off Ky,” Chris chimed in.

“This isn’t
your guys’ fight. This is about me. As much as I appreciate that you all want
to protect me, what you guys are talking about is murder. How can any of you
think that is okay?” she cried. “No matter how you guys feel, this is my
decision to make. Nobody is killing or dying for me. I won’t let you put that
on me.”

“Fine, so we
don’t put a bullet in his skull. We just track him down, wait until he’s alone,
and make him realize how bad of an idea it is for him to come after you again,”
Spade suggested.

“I can get
behind that,” Danny agreed, and Ace and Marcus were nodding their heads as
well.

“Hey
dumbasses, that’s a stupid fucking idea.” Chris stepped toward the table.

“Well it’s a
lot better than sitting back and not doing a damn thing about it like you
assholes want to do. How can you be okay with that?” Ace retorted.

Bas was the
next one to weigh in before things could escalate. “What he’s trying to say is
that you guys haven’t dealt with anything like this before. Trust me, we get
how pissed off you are. You’re forgetting that Chris and I were the ones who
saw her bruised and bloody. If you think I didn’t want to break his neck then
and every day after, then you’re seriously mistaken, but we know what we’re
saying when we tell you it’s a bad fucking move.”

“We won’t
get caught. We’ll jump his ass and disappear,” Spade disputed, refusing to back
down, and I couldn’t say that I didn’t agree with him as well. Sure we needed
to be smart about it, but something had to be done before Jaxyn ended up in the
hospital, or on the front page of a damn newspaper. We were pretty much at a
stand-still now, the room divided, and Jaxyn looked at each one of us trying to
will
us to back down with just the power of her
stare. It wasn’t working and she shot a desperate look at her brother who had
remained silent up to this point.

He pushed
off the wall, straightening up. “You might not get caught, but that’s an
awfully big risk you’re willing to take on a maybe’s chance, and I don’t think
any of you are fully aware of just how great a risk it would be. Connor might
be a sick fuck, but I have no doubt that he’s smart enough to figure out who
would want to protect her. Kicking his ass is an even worse decision than
killing him. Leaving him alive guarantees he’d come after you, but either way,
if Connor or my Dad decides to come after you, you’re done, and these guys play
by their own set of rules. It’s not just you they’ll come after if they decide
they really want you to pay. You’ve all got people you care about, and you’ll
be putting targets on their backs as well.”