The Corruption of Mila (6 page)

A male officer reached down toward me to help me up from the ground and offered me my coat. “Are you okay?”

“I am now,” I said quietly. Slowly standing, I wrapped my coat around me tightly.

“What happened?”

“I was on a date.” Then I made sure to point at Jax. “We were going to head out for our next destination when those two…” I then pointed to Donovan who was on the police car, and Eli who was getting cuffed, “…they attacked us. My date was only trying to protect me after one of them hit me.”

“She deserved it,” Donovan shouted from inside of the car.

“If you don't calm down, I'll gladly show you what it's like to feel the wrath of a woman,” the female officer said darkly.

The officer interviewing me looked over his shoulder at Jax who was talking calmly to another officer and obligingly walking toward the back of a separate car from Donovan. He too was handcuffed, but he didn't protest. I swallowed. The guy's perfect record was going to be tainted because of my baggage. I was pretty sure Jax was going to be peeved like no other. When his gaze met mine, however, he winked, the small smirk from before returning to his lips.

“You're going to have to come to the station with us to answer a few more questions.” The officer said, snapping me back into reality.

My gaze wandered over to Eli who was now being loaded into the car. I nodded. “Okay.”

Chapter Nine

The questioning seemed to go on for half the night. In reality, it was only a couple of hours. We were all brought to separate rooms for interrogation. That's what it felt like at least. For the most part, the cops were sympathetic to me, but there was an obvious edge to their tone too, suggesting that I not mess with them – or else. Which, trust me, I wouldn't want to because the police scared me. Ever since Donovan had been arrested the first time, they made me nervous. I don't even know why. It's not like I'd ever been hurt by one before.

I think it was because I was always afraid of Donovan coming after me because of them. If I stayed away, then there would be no reason for him to seek me out. Good in theory, but obviously far from the truth. Donovan held a nasty grudge. For whatever reason, I never imagined him getting so violent – especially over me. It just didn't make sense, and that was what I was pondering when Jax entered the room.

“Are you okay?” he asked. He brought a few of his fingers to my face to examine it. Outside of a split lip and a mild bruise, I hadn't been hurt too bad.

Nodding, I met his gaze with my own. Tears pooled inside of my eyes again — ugh —but I tried to not give myself too hard of a time for crying. We had just gone through a pretty traumatizing experience, so I think it was perfectly acceptable to show my weaker, more vulnerable side. If anyone asked, I denied it happened or told them I was hormonal. I had a reputation to protect. Only Jax could see through that tough side of me that night, but he lived it with me. It was an experience I didn't mind sharing with him because it made the burden lighter.

“I'm more worried about you,” I mumbled. “It looked like you got walloped on pretty bad by them. Of course, looking at you, I hardly see a scratch. Okay, maybe one right here.” I touched his jaw where he had a small cut. “Otherwise, it doesn't look too much like you got your butt kicked. You could probably get away with telling everyone at work it was the other way around.”

He shrugged. “There's no reason to lie to protect my honor. It was one versus two, and even if I do have a black belt in tae kwon do, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm safe.”

“You have a black belt?”

“Just a first degree. After that I got too busy for it, but maybe I should go back?” He laughed.

I shook my head. “You held your own well.”

“Violence wasn't the answer. I had to focus on protecting myself so I could protect you. That meant letting them think they won instead of going for the kill so to speak. Besides, this might make me less of man to you, but I was kind of scared. It wouldn't have surprised me if one of them had a weapon. I kind of choked.”

“Choked?” I laughed. “If that's you choking, I don't want to see you in full attack mode. You surprised the snot out of me, and I mean that in a good way. I totally would not have pinned you as the type to be so… rawr!”

Jax also laughed, so hard he snorted, and his nerdy self came through again. “Rawr? Is that the official term for it?”

“Yes.”

“I obviously couldn't let him hurt you, and I didn't want to do a whole lot of talking. Being reasonable was out of the question. Still, I could have gone kung-fu movie on both of them and knocked them unconscious with my pinkies.”

“You can do that?”

“Ha! No.” He shook his head. “I wish.”

My laughter faded and I gave him a small smile. “Seriously, you're not hurt? I saw him hit you pretty hard in the side there. Nothing is broken, right?”

He shrugged. “I'll probably be bruised for a little while, but I promise you I'm fine.”

“What's going to happen now? Did they take a mug shot of you? Are you spending the night in jail?” I frowned, even more so when I noticed his lack of concern. I could have seriously just ruined this guy's life, and all he did was smile back at me. Wasn't he the slightest bit upset with me?

Jax relaxed in the chair and stretched out his arms. I'm pretty sure he did it just so he could do the classic move from the movies where the guy uses that as an excuse to put his arm around the girl. Why do I think that? Because he put his arm around me and hugged me gently to his side.

He leaned his forehead against mine. “No mug shot. Everything is going to be fine. I fought back in self-defense. Donovan is pretty vocal about the whole thing, so he's owning up to his part. Eli hasn't said much, but I'm not too worried. He can't really do too much to make things worse for either of us. I told them I wasn't going to press charges against him.”

“You're not?” I blinked. “Why?”

“Eli was pretty trashed,” he said. “No, it's not an excuse, but it hindered his judgment. I don't think he would have gotten violent if Donovan hadn't. He's going to go back to jail, that I'll see to. Pretty sure he's violating some kind of parole agreement anyway.”

I was still flabbergasted over him not pressing charges against Eli. “Are you sure that's what you want to do?”

“Pretty sure. The fight will be kept on record. If Eli tries to come after you again, I can change my mind like that.” He snapped his fingers. “I heard him talking in the hallway. He said he just wanted you two to talk again. I think he only wanted to help his friend and it spiraled out of control.”

“You're way too forgiving,” I said and shook my head.

He closed his beautiful blue eyes and sighed. “I want to move forward from this as easily as possible. If I pressed charges, things would go to court, get dragged out even further, and I don't want you to have to go through all of that. The media is already going to eat this story up enough as it is. Does Eli scare you? Because if he does, I'll make sure he goes behind bars too.”

Did Eli scare me? There had been a different kind of fire inside of him that night than usual. He'd always been fiercely loyal to his friends. It was one of the things I liked most about him until he dropped his loyalty to me. What's that saying? Bros come first? If he'd been drunk, he might not have been thinking straight. At the same time, I don't want to make excuses for him. The guy needed a new best friend, that's for sure.

I nuzzled Jax's chest with my nose, wanting the comfort of his warm body and his strong arms around me tighter. “He hasn't before, but there's a first time for everything. It's sweet that you'd do it just for me, but I think you have a point. If all he wanted to do was talk, he probably only got caught up in the moment. Kind of like you had.”

“Besides, he only kicked me once. Donovan was the one who was coming down on me the most. Eli stood there and watched.”

“It looked like otherwise from where I was,” I admitted.

He laughed. “I could feel the difference in their shoes. Okay, and he did knock me down to keep me away from getting to you. When Donovan hit you, everything in him changed. I think it opened up his eyes. I hope so, at least. Maybe I should try calling him later.”

“Wait. You want to talk to Eli? After
that
?” For a moment I couldn't help but wonder if Jax was high or something. “You're crazy.”

“It's something I'll have to pray on,” he said softly. “Most of this is. Maybe I'll not make up my mind until the morning and let them both sweat it out in the cell tonight.”

“Still think you're crazy,” I teased. And then I made sure he was looking at me before I continued, because what I was about to say next was very serious. “How did they know? I mean, how did the police know to come?”

Jax pulled out his cell phone and showed her his recent call history. At the top was 9-1-1. “Remember when you told me to call a cab? I called them instead. They heard most of the fight through my phone.”

I sniffled, the tears coming back to my eyes. “I'm sorry for all of this. You can say it's not my fault, which is true to a point, but it still doesn't change the fact that this is a pretty crappy way to end the night.”

He shrugged. “Eh.”

My jaw dropped. “Eh? So you like getting your butt beaten? Man, maybe I don't want to date you after all. Even I have my limits, you know.”

Jax leaned his face in closer to mine, his gaze holding mine once more. His warm breath misted over my skin. I could smell a slight hint of mint in it even, that's how close we were. Then he said in a low voice. “Don't forget about the other things that happened tonight. I personally had a wonderful time, butt kicking and all. It'll make for an awesome story.”

I licked my lips and swallowed. “That's for sure.”

He moved in closer, his eyes closed and his lips puckered ever so slightly. My heart pounded like never before inside of my chest. I also closed my eyes, and turned my face away, letting him catch my cheek. His lips were just as soft as I imagined they would be. I couldn't help but smile at the tender pressure on my skin.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered, pulling away. He still kept himself close to me and his face was tinted with a light pink.

“Hmm?” I murmured.

Sheepishly, he smiled at me. “I thought we had a moment. I mean, I thought you wanted me to kiss you.”

I smirked. “Oh, I do want you to, but I heard somewhere that it was trashy to kiss on the first date.”

That caused his face to go from a light blush to full on red. His mouth opened and closed several times, he shifted in his seat, and even coughed. Dorky, but it was really starting to grow on me, that tender goodie-goodie side of him. Probably because I finally realized he could be exactly the kind of man I needed. Good in all the right ways, and yet perfectly flawed.

“I did say that, didn't I?” He scrunched up his nose.

“Kind of shot yourself in the foot on that one!” Served him right for being so judgmental at the beginning of the night.

“Oops.” His entire body deflated, shoulders drooped, his gaze averted to the floor, and he let out one long, slow, breath.

I shook my head at him and cupped his chin with my hand, tapping his nose lightly with my index finger. “I haven't heard anything about the second one.”

A slow grin spread across his face. “I'll call you.”

“Not in three days right?”

“But that means I like you.” He winked. “No, I'll call you tomorrow afternoon, first thing when I wake up. We can figure something out then.”

I nodded, enthusiastically enough where I probably proved myself just as much of a nerd as him. “I don't suppose you like kung-fu movies and Chinese take-out?”

His grin widened. I didn't think it was even possible to smile so huge. “Best way to spend my night.”

About the Author

J.F. Jenkins
lives in Minneapolis Minnesota with her husband, son, and two cats. She graduated from Bethel University in 2006 with a degree in Media Communication with minors in both writing and film. When she is not busy writing, she spends her free time playing games, reading, and spending time with her family.

Also by J.F. Jenkins:

Prologue

Alan stood straight like an arrow. Sir Oriol walked down the line of Junior officers and stopped directly in front of him.

“You've been chosen for this mission because someone thinks you are the best,” the man said, eyes locking on Alan as if trying to make him falter. Instead he stood straighter, and Sir Oriol continued down the line. “As you know, we are here to stop the war on Altura from spreading to this planet. The people here are much like us. They call their home Earth.

“The inhabitants of this planet do not need to suffer from our war. We are to move in, eliminate the threat, and move out before the Earth people realize the truth. They are not as educated in the universe as we are. They do not know there is other life beyond their own. We do not want to start a widespread panic.

“All of you have been chosen to take on a team of these Earth humans. You are to train them and use their knowledge to help us stop the Gelandrosimbol and Basatlavan from winning this battlefield. Each of you have been given the coordinates of your team. Our forces will be focusing in on an area referred to as the Midwestern United States of America. Do all of you understand your mission?”