Chapter 9
Jaxon
Itrailed Melody on the GPS system Franklin installed on my phone for the better part of the day. She went shopping for a bit before getting lost in the library. She was dressed down today, but still looked so effortlessly gorgeous. It took all my restraint not to go in that library and back her into a bookcase, ravishing her body. She was delectable. I can’t wait until the day I can mark her as mine.
Later in the evening, she got a text from her parents to have dinner, so I ended my pursuit and headed home. When I got home myself, I reviewed all of her documents again. I was missing something, I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was. She was going to school to get her bachelor’s degree and she suddenly dropped out. She’s been off the grid for the last year. It made no sense, my little sparrow was a straight A student. Why would she suddenly stop? I know that her relationship ended with Brian around that time, but that came a month or two after dropping out. Hmmm, my little sparrow was hiding something and I am going to find out what exactly that is.
Putting her folder down on my desk, I make my way over to my bar. Grabbing the eighteen-year-old Macallan from the shelf, I pour myself a drink, the ice cubes clinking in the glass. My phone rings, nearly making me drop the glass in my hand.
“This is Jaxon.”
“Jax, it’s Franklin. You won’t believe what I have to tell you.”
I sit down behind my desk, setting my drink in front of me. “Spit it out then, Franklin. Why do you sound out of breath?”
“I’ve just been running around getting the best of my equipment and hacking into it all. I was called up by your brother for a favor. Someone was in Melody’s house.”
“WHAT?!” I yell into the phone. I’m standing before I can even register the move myself and throwing my glass across the room, the glass exploding off the opposite wall.
“Who was it Franklin? Tell me now, so help me god.”
“Well that’s the thing, Jax, no one knows who it was, only that Melody was extremely freaked out. I don’t know how she knows your brother, but Brooke was there too.”
“I need to know everything, Franklin, start from the beginning.”
“Well, from what I’ve gathered, Melody got home and saw a necklace in her closet that she hasn’t had in a year. She seemed really spooked that it was back in her possession. I think she knows more than she let on, but James tried to pull fingerprints and didn’t get a single one. Whoever left them knew what they were doing.”
“Hmmm, what is the significance of those pearls, I wonder?”
“I wondered the same thing, Jax. There was blood on the pearls; I figure it must be something traumatic. So I did a little more digging. I had to expand my search but I did pull up something from Silicon Valley about a year ago. Not sure if it’s Melody as they kept her identity hidden, probably paid off, but there was an attack on someone fitting her description outside a sleazy bar in the downtown area. The victim was brutally attacked and raped.”
My world spins on its axis and I reach out and brace myself on the desk. My little sparrow… attacked and raped? Melody is as bright as the sun and someone tried to extinguish that. It would explain the dropping out of college and probably why things broke off with her and Brian. Some men are just pieces of shit.
“How did Brooke and James end up there?”
“From what I got from James, apparently Melody is Brooke’s newest hire for the bookshop. James tagged along because your Uncle Bill was taking a call.”
“Makes sense… How did we not know that my sister hired her?”
“Probably because Brooke is trusting of people to a fault. She never did a background check or any sort of official hiring process.”
“I see… So what are you doing with the hardware again?”
“James wanted the best of the best, so he called me. I was thinking you’d probably want to keep tabs on Melody, so I’m installing a link for the cameras to your phone. I just need you to swing by and bring your phone over before 8 A.M. I gotta be there for the install at nine.”
“You got it. I’ll be there.”
We hang up the phone and I’m left pacing in my office. My little sparrow… My chest clenches at the thought of anyone hurting her. I want to protect her at all costs. I don’t care if that means I have to intrude on her privacy. No one is going to hurt Melody again, not without answering to me. I will bury them so far in the ground that even the cadaver dogs won’t be able to find them.