Jax
“No. Absolutely not.”
Her bite of pizza was still in her mouth, red sauce smudging it, when she spoke the words. She looked positively homely as she held up her second slice.
I loved every moment of it. Us being so close. The normalcy of it.
If I put everything else on my mind aside, I could pretend this was just the two of us out on a date. But I was quickly brought back to reality by how disagreeable she was being.
Disagreeable was putting it mildly. She was vehemently against my idea.
“We ran out of safe houses,” I explained.
No matter how much I wanted her by my side, this wasn't something I would lie about.
We had doubled our clients in the last few months, and while a lot of the teams ran on autopilot, there were complications that involved getting safe houses.
“And, let's be honest, you're not going to buy a house within the next few days.”
She gave me a look. I wanted so badly to reach over and brush her hair behind her ear. I felt like this was the first time I was seeing her.
We had gotten really close at the club, but now I was able to indulge myself in taking her in in the daylight.
“But your house? Are you forgetting everything—” She stopped herself, looking around before she dropped her voice into a whisper. “That's a bad idea, and we both know it.”
It was a god-awful idea. It would be torture for me to have her so close and not be able to do anything about it. Unless she allowed it to happen. Which I knew she wanted, and that was why she was rejecting this so harshly.
If she were any other client, I wouldn't have offered. So even if my own bias and wants were coming to play here, I would allow myself this selfishness.
I tried to justify it by telling myself that it would truly help her, but the evil voice in the back of my head kept reminding me how nice it would be to have her right next door.
I’d given her a couple of days to process everything. I would've given her more if her apartment hadn’t been broken into. But her ex forced my hand, and now we had no time to waste. We had to act.
He was escalating. If we didn't do anything, it would only get worse.
And I had no issue following through with the threat I made him. If he hurt her…
“I’m not there most of the time,” I said honestly. “And you won't be there either. You have a job, I have a job, so we'll just be there at night, and I have a guest room.”
I took a bite of my pizza, though I wasn’t hungry at all. I'd been so nervous when I got that call. It wasn’t just what he had done to her apartment—it was what else he might be willing to do.
So I had decided to change our tactics. Not only were we going to be looking into keeping her and Claire safe, but we needed to get as much dirt on this man as possible.
Most of the time, I didn't go on the offense.
My specialty was in defense. But this was Liz…
and my gut was telling me I needed to work faster.
Plus, I felt like this was my fault. When I showed up there and got in his face, I knew I was asking for trouble. But I couldn't help myself. When he talked about her like that, the anger took over.
There hadn't been many times in my life that I lost myself to it. A couple of times in high school, once in college. I just couldn’t stand by when I saw horrible things happen to people who didn’t deserve them.
Life was so unfair, and when people—men, particularly—jumped in and tried to play God, I found myself wanting to show them exactly what someone they saw as weak could do to them.
On the outside, it might look like I was all sorts of trouble, but I never tried to find it. It just seemed that it had found me now.
Liz wiped her mouth, missing the red sauce completely.
“I don't know. This is just—”
“One week. Give me one week, and if you think you'd be better off somewhere else, I will arrange for it. Hell, I will even buy you a whole goddamn house if you want it.”
She let out a choked cough and took a sip of her Coke. When she got herself together, she let out a sigh.
“We have to have some rules, okay?”
Oh fuck yes.
Excitement burst through me. I tried to keep my smile hidden, but I was giddy at her words.
My house. She's going to be in my house.
“Okay, hit me with them.”
She turned to face me and raised her hand, lifting her pointer finger.
“No touching.”
Damn. But fine, I would respect it.
“Deal.”
“No kissing.”
My eyes fell to her plump lips just at the mention of kissing. When I’d arrived at her apartment, they’d been covered in gloss, making them look completely delectable. But gloss or not, I’d lean in and close the gap the moment she gave me the okay.
“Kind of goes with no touching,” I replied with a smirk. At the look she gave me, I raised my hands in defeat. “Okay, okay.”
“No talk of what happened.”
“Deal.”
Her gaze was turning suspicious. Her eyes narrowed and her mouth set in a firm line.
“And no telling Claire.”
I nodded. “Anything else?”
“Just give me my own space and don't touch my stuff?”
“Done and done. It starts as soon as you move in.”
“You have no objections to any of that?” she asked.
“Nope.” I rested my chin on my hand. “I'm just happy you'll be living with me. And I promise I'll stick to all your rules.”
Satisfied with my answer, she quickly finished the rest of her pizza and stood up.
“Shall we go to your office?”
I stood as well, grabbed a napkin, and gently swiped it across her lips.
She froze, her eyes going wide as she inhaled a sharp breath.
It would be so easy just to lean down and kiss her.
My eyes traveled her body. She was in a black type of vest that cinched at her waist with matching trousers.
Her hair was tied back, making her look casual, but really cute.
I especially enjoyed the necklace that was hanging on her chest, calling my attention to her cleavage.
God, I can't get over her.
“Just remember, this starts when we move in. You have about—” I looked at the watch on my wrist. “Six hours until we can move your stuff from your house to mine. Maybe take advantage of it, hm?”
I turned but stopped to look over my shoulder at her. She just stood there like she didn’t know what to say. So I added, “Take advantage of me, I mean.”
I sent her a wink and left the small pizza shop with a pep in my step and feeling lighter than I had in days.
“Why do you keep staring at me? Do I have more pizza sauce on my face?” Liz asked as she sat across from me.
She was in my office, the two of us finally completely alone. The windows were blacked out, and nothing could stop us.
I couldn't take my eyes off her or keep my mind off what happened between us. Couldn't stop thinking about it. And hearing her shitty husband talk about their sex life made me that much more eager to show her what she'd been missing.
Again.
I could be so good to her.
I had about a million things I needed to do with my team as soon as she left, but I allowed myself another selfish moment. Just her and me.
“Do you want honesty?”
“Not if you're going to make it weird,” she said, giving me a look.
“Would it make it weird if I told you I want to get on my knees and eat your pussy right now?”
“Jax,” she hissed and looked over her shoulder at the blacked-out windows.
“They can't see us. Though they can hear us, so you would need to be quiet.”
Her head snapped to mine. “I don't think I'm the one who would have an issue being quiet, would I?”
She blushed slightly when she realized what she’d said, and I shifted in my seat, heat exploding through my core.
“No, ma’am.”
“I've already made it clear that whatever you think is happening between us is inappropriate.”
I let out a sigh and tried to pull myself together, but it didn't help that I kind of liked it when she was mean to me. I could imagine how she would punish me. Since the moment I mentioned it to her, it had been playing in my dreams, to the point I’d woken up with a wetness between my legs I'd had to handle myself.
“So I guess we can just get to business, then?” I started typing on my computer before turning the monitor to face her.
“I had my team get these videos from the new security cameras and from the business adjacent to yours. They like you, by the way, and were very eager to help with anything we needed.”
She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing on one of the many videos playing on the screen. But they all showed the same thing. Her ex-husband's car driving away from the scene.
I watched her reaction closely. Her body tensed. Her lips pressed into a thin line. Her eyes sharpened.
“We're not surprised it was him, right? I mean, I told you—”
I just nodded and started pulling up different files.
“I had my team look this up while we were gone. We don’t usually go after the perpetrator—we simply defend and protect whoever is being attacked—but it seems like this guy…
” I zoomed into a picture of her ex-husband breaking into her house.
A new camera angle we’d placed outside gave us the perfect view.
“Had a group of close friends when he was younger. Some you may even recognize, but the kicker is that they’re cops now. ”
I showed her pictures of the cops we were guessing he was mostly in contact with, and when she got a look at their faces, her mouth plopped open.
“Wait! I think I actually do recognize them.”
“School?”
“Yeah, I…” She cleared her throat. “Sorry, can I have some water?”
I pressed the button on my phone that connected me to my assistant.
“Can we get some fresh water in here, please?”
Moments later, she knocked on the door before showing up with a tray of water for both of us and left without being told.
I made sure to let Liz drink first. Her hand shook as she grabbed the glass, and I noticed she took a few more minutes before speaking.
“I wasn't friends with his group,” she started. “That's where we met. I… um, I wasn't popular in high school.” She said it as though that was something to be embarrassed about.
“Neither was I.”
She gave me a disbelieving look.
“Trust me, I was quite the outcast.”
Adopted. Traumatized. Too quiet. The weird kid. But I leaned into that label after a few years. Not that she needed to hear about it now, so I motioned for her to keep going.
“When I caught his attention and we started dating, I felt really good about myself. It was probably why things went as far as they did. But I only hung out with his friends a handful of times. It was mostly him and me alone. Looking back, I realize he was embarrassed to be seen with me.”
She took another sip of her water and set the glass down slowly.
“And then you got pregnant?”
“I don't regret Claire.”
“I never thought you did,” I said and leaned back. “And Claire didn't either, just so you know.”
She gave me a forced smile.
“So this is why no one cares?” she asked, looking me in the eyes. “Because their buddy married the weird girl from school and knocked her up, so now they're protecting him?”
There was nothing I could say that would comfort her. Because it was true.
“I just… I don't want to be afraid of him anymore. I tried to be stronger, but I always found myself back in the exact same place.”
“You divorced him. That shows strength. That shows you didn’t want to put up with him anymore.”
She paused for a second, so I continued.
“You protected Claire. You put her first. That is strength. Do you know how easy it would have been to just sit there, stagnant, making it easier for yourself? You chose the hard way, Liz, and I don’t think you should insult yourself by insinuating you were weak.”
She blinked a few times, then cleared her throat, my words clearly getting to her.
“Thank you. I just… I can’t go back to who I was before. I'd be strong for a bit and then I would just… settle. I don't want to settle anymore.”
I felt like she was talking to me directly. Like she could see a part inside me I hadn't shown anyone before.
I had to settle for everyone and everything around me my entire life. I couldn't make big, risky moves. I couldn't live my life like a normal teenager and young adult.
My mind tried not to drift to my mother. I couldn't have the emotions associated with her clouding my judgment right now.
“Men like him make my job difficult,” I told her honestly. “But not impossible. I know he's not going to give up, so we will have some… difficulties ahead of us. But I promise you I will try my best to keep you safe.”
She let out a small huff. “Can I trust you?”
The words were so low and vulnerable they felt like a knife to the gut.
“I'm sorry, Liz, about keeping things from you. But yes, you can trust me.”
She nodded. “I guess I’ll go pack up my stuff then.”
“I'll send someone with you, and I'll meet you at my house later.”
She rolled her shoulders and stood up tall. “See you then.”
And then she walked out of my office with a sway that had me hypnotized. The moment she was gone, I turned my display back to me and started bringing up all the files on him.
I had something brewing in the back of my mind, but I needed a little push. Someone who had access to things that I didn’t.
Because this type of man wouldn't stop, so I needed to make sure I stopped him before it got too crazy.
I picked up my phone and dialed a number I'd used only one other time in my life.
“Oh wow, something must be bad if you need my help,” the girl on the other side of the line said with a chuckle.
“I'm going to send you a name. I need every dirty secret you can find on him. Things that would make his family and friends see him as the disgusting little bug he is. Better yet, if any of it gets the FBI involved, I'll pay you triple.”
There was a silence before another chuckle filtered through the speaker.
“I'm busy, but if you give me two weeks or so, I can get you everything you want. No promise about the FBI. And my rates have already doubled since I spoke to you last.”
I closed my eyes, trying to fight off the annoyance. I was the one reaching out to her for help. My team could only dig up so much, and I wanted to create at least some layer of distance between my company and whatever illegal activities needed to be done to get this guy to stop.
“Fine, I'll send you what I have, and you can invoice me after you give me what I need.”
“Deal.”
With that, she hung up.
Putting my phone down, I looked through the files again. I had a few hours until Liz was due at my house. Might as well try and do something useful until then.