Chapter 34
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Without aim, I threw the stress ball I’d been squeezing for the duration of this conversation across the room.
Before I left the office today, I was determined to get the video taken down for Avery. My team had been working tirelessly on making it happen and giving me the play by play every day.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Russo.” My lawyer exhaled from the other end of the phone.
“This can’t be right. Check again,” I ordered through clenched teeth.
“We have verified one hundred times over. Unfortunately, the IP address for the original video uploaded has been traced back to Jackson’s phone and address.”
My face paled and my skin clammed as I began to sweat profusely through my sports coat.
“Make sure the video is taken care of. I will handle Jackson.” I tore my coat off and pulled on the tie around my neck, loosening it so I no longer felt like I was suffocating.
“Consider it done, sir.”
“Fuck,” I grumbled as I hung up.
I held my phone so tightly in my fist it threatened to break.
What should have been a night to celebrate a moment Avery had been waiting for years to happen, was a complete and utter shitshow.
The video was being taken down as we speak. That was supposed to be the end of it.
There was an unnerving connection to all of this.
A connection I couldn’t fucking wrap my head around.
I hoped with everything inside of me that my Jackson and her Jax weren’t the same person.
But the way the facts were lining up, it only told me that my son was a piece of shit, and there was so much more to the story than I think even Avery knew.
Could my son really have fucked up this bad? Could he really have done something so far fucked that even I was ashamed to call him my own flesh and blood?
I poured two fingers of bourbon from my crystal decanter and tipped it back. The burn sliding down my throat was nothing compared to the way my heart stung for Avery.
From the moment she had confided in me and told me all about her shitty ex, the money she owed, the video on the internet, I swore to myself if I ever met this guy, I would finish him.
I dreamed of ruining his life. I visualized a life with me and Avery in Vegas without him anywhere near us—even without knowing who the guy was.
I fantasized using every penny to my name to send this guy away for good—to clear his name from ever existing.
If my son was really the villain behind all this whole thing, could I do even an ounce of what I’d spent my nights dreaming of?
How could I even begin to tell Avery? She’d leave me. She wouldn’t want anything to do with me.
I filled the space between my fingers with my hair. Tugging, pulling, and inflicting pain on myself wouldn’t be enough to distract me.
First, I needed to find out the truth. I needed all the facts.
As I picked up my phone, I let the bourbon talk for me. When Jackson answered, in my best fake voice, I spoke into the speaker. “Son, I have the rest of your money. Want to swing by my office soon?”
I didn’t have the money on hand. I hadn’t planned on it until the very last minute—which was two days from now. But I needed to confront him. I needed him to feel so fucking blindsided that he’d feel exactly how I was right now.
I wanted him scared. So scared that it felt like his heart was beating in his stomach. Terrified, just like I was, that he would lose everything.
“I’m at work but I can swing by after. Mind if I drop by your place instead?”
I couldn’t give away the fact that I was on to him. But I couldn’t have him at my place. Avery would be there.
“Meet me at the bar next door. I’ll buy.”
“Sounds good. I’ll text you when I get off.”
“See you then.”
After we both hung up, I poured another drink.
There was no way in hell I could go home and confront Avery with the way I was feeling.
She would have a million questions that even I didn’t know the answers to.
Unfortunately, I would have to wait here until Jackson texted me to let me know he was headed to the bar.
Jackson: On my way.
Me: I’ll save you a seat.
What Jackson didn’t know was that I had already been at the bar for a while now. I left the office, wanting to be the first one here. I wanted to watch him walk in. Read his demeanor.
It didn’t matter if I was at the office or at the bar, I’d be drinking, working up the courage to confront my son about everything I had been thinking about since I got off the phone with my lawyers.
Jackson and Jax—the names were too eerily similar.
Avery was paying off her ex for blackmail, and I was paying my son for his gambling debts.
Which one was it? Was the joke on both of us?
Avery moved here from California a few years ago with her ex.
Jackson was from California.
I mean, fuck, they’d both moved here around the same time.
The nagging feeling continued to run through me the more and more I thought about it. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that Avery and I were dealing with the same person. But why? What was Jackson’s motive behind all of this?
Was his name even Jackson?
As fucked as it was, I understood a young boy making a poor decision and hanging his girlfriend out to dry. I wasn’t a perfect boyfriend to the women I dated in the past. Then again, I never would have stooped so low, no matter what the reason was.
But what could have driven him to fuck me over and take my money? He had no idea me and Avery were together. He’d never even divulged that kind of information to me. When he came into my life, he was single—still was. I always assumed he was just a young kid playing the field.
Maybe in some crazy turn of events, he knew that Avery and I were together.
My mind stirred, rolling over every interaction we had over the last month. And then it hit me.
The day he came to my office.
The moment I told him I was seeing someone, his demeanor shifted. He took a phone call and almost immediately left my office with some bullshit excuse.
Fuck. It had to be the bourbon going straight to my head. I was being paranoid.
I shook away the crazy thoughts, kicking myself for not looking deeper into him from the very start.
There was no reason for me to have his mom’s phone number since I wasn’t dealing with a kid underage.
Plus, before today, I wouldn’t have had anything nice to say to her.
To my knowledge, she did her best job keeping my kid from me.
“Fuck,” I mumbled, the warmth from my breath fogging the glass tumbler.
One thing was for sure, he was my kid. I’d done the tests to prove it.
“Hey, Daddy, another round?”
Only one other person had called me that other than Avery.
My eyes shifted from my empty glass. “Colton. What are you doing here?”
“I picked up another gig. You’ll still find me at Bluff City, but I’m splitting my time between the two now.”
“That’s good. Great. Uh, yeah. I’ll take another.” I tapped the rim of my glass.
“Looks like you’re having a rough day. Hope that doesn’t have to do with our girl Avery.” He pinched his eyebrows together as he topped me off.
Knowing Avery would find out about all of this made my stomach sink like an anchor to the bottom of the ocean.
I was supposed to be the one to make her life better—easier.
Not complicate it more by bringing my son, who was also her ex-boyfriend, into the picture.
The same ex-boyfriend who was blackmailing her and only added to her hurt.
“Nothing to do with Avery,” I lied, and before I could sip the high-end bourbon, my phone buzzed, rattling against my glass.
“Speak of the sexy devil herself.” Colton winked, nodding toward my phone.
I thought twice about answering, not exactly sure of how far away Jackson was from meeting me here. But I needed to hear her voice. I needed her to help me get through what was about to be the hardest conversation of my life.
A pit formed in my stomach when I thought about how by the end of this, I could lose the girl I loved and my son.
“Avery, baby.” I picked up my phone, turning on my practiced voice from earlier.
“S-S-Spencer. I need y-your help!” Her breath came through the phone as if she was crying. Slightly out of breath.
There was noise in the background, making her voice sound hushed. Slot machines rang, and I wasn’t sure if it was on her end or mine. Either way, the hair on my arms immediately stood.
“Avery. Where are you?” I stood from the bar stool, looking out toward the casino.
“Spencer. My ex … He—” The line went dead.
When the call cut out, I instantly tapped her name, calling her back. Because why the hell had she mentioned her ex when he was supposed to be meeting me?
The phone rang, and rang, and rang.
No answer.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Colton asked, worried.
“No fucking clue. But I have to go.” I dug a couple one-hundred-dollar bills out of my wallet and threw them on the bar.
Without a lead or direction to go, I followed the walls along the casino floor.
Slot machines.
I swore I heard the bells from both ends of our brief call. If Jackson wasn’t at the bar with me, but told me he would be meeting me here, he had to be around here somewhere.
As I searched through the casino, I continued to call her, hearing her phone ring without an answer. Every time her voicemail hit, I cursed myself for not sharing my location with her.
Without talking to Jackson, I had no idea what he knew. How much he knew compared to me.
Everything was supposed to be resolved with her ex. She had the money to pay him off and she told me she was going to get it done just after we got back from Denver.
Avery’s phone continued to ring, going straight to voicemail. Pausing, I gave Jackson’s number a try. When he didn’t answer, it only confirmed what I already knew. It was the last clue I needed to put this puzzle together.
Jackson was without a doubt not the person I believed him to be. He had been trouble since I met him. But even if I had a lifetime of parenting on my resume, no parent could ever be prepared for something as big as this.
My mind ran a mile a minute with every worst-case scenario. And the more time that passed without being able to get ahold of her, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to Avery.