Chapter 5 #2
Ravage snorted. “I know you don’t think you fit here anymore.”
Jaxon looked up. That wasn’t what he’d been expecting. How the hell did he know what Jaxon was thinking? “What if I do?”
“You think it’s them?”
Jaxon frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Ravage took another pull from his beer. “You think everyone else changed?”
Jaxon didn’t answer.
Ravage met his gaze. “It’s no one but you, bud.”
“No shit,” Jaxon said quietly. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t know.”
Ravage nodded. “If it’s you, then leaving won’t help. Maybe not fitting where you used to… that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
Jaxon huffed. “Damn sure feels like it.” It felt like he’d lost a lot more than he gained.
“Life is change, man. You have to play the cards you’re dealt.”
Jaxon studied him. What did this guy know about what he was going through? “You ever not fit with your MC brothers? Or anywhere?” he demanded.
Ravage smirked. “All the time.” Jaxon almost smiled, but then Ravage said, “I let a woman I cared about walk away from me once. Back when I was a dumb fuck like you.”
Jaxon stilled, while Ravage’s voice went deeper. “She disappeared. I thought she’d left me. I thought I’d give her time, go talk to her when she’d had time to miss me. It was a stupid, asshole thing to do.”
Jaxon’s chest tightened, not liking the direction Ravage’s story was headed.
“Once I’d decided she’d missed me long enough, I went back.
” Ravage said, “It was too late. Someone else had snatched her away from me. I thought she’d chosen money and an easy life over me, so I walked away again.
Later, I realized I was wrong, and she hadn’t chosen shit.
I won’t bore you with the details, but let’s just say that feeling sorry for myself caused her a lot of pain that could have been avoided. ”
The silence stretched out longer than was comfortable as Ravage took another pull on his beer. Finally, he added, “Life’s too short to count on second chances.”
Jaxon swallowed. Hard. Ravage was right. He wouldn’t get a third chance, not with Tazzy. He wouldn’t even get a second chance unless he fought for it. That wasn’t going to happen. He would fight tooth and nail for her, no matter what it cost.
Jaxon got up from the bar and started walking out the door.
“Where you headed?” Ravage called after him.
Jaxon kept walking. He had some place he needed to be. “I need some coffee.”
Tazzy’s shift was almost over when Jaxon made it back to the alley again, right where he needed to be. He loved Tazzy. So, he was going to protect her, whether she wanted him to or not.
He waited for what seemed like forever when Tazzy finally stepped out carrying a box. He frowned as she struggled toward her car. She had no business carrying something that heavy.
Pushing off the wall, he called, “Sprite, let me help you.”
She froze, throwing him a glare. “Don’t call me that.”
The snap in her voice hit him hard, but he ignored it.
He stepped forward to grab the box, which looked dangerously close to slipping out of her hands, “Tazzy, let me—”
Without warning, she dropped the box and ran toward her car. “What the hell—” Did she think she could make it to her car and spin out like she had the other day, leaving him in the dust?
Jogging after her, he realized she was looking at her car, her hand to her mouth. Someone had slashed all four of her tires.
Shit. “Tazzy, don’t touch anything.” Taking her arm, he pulled her back from her car. She struggled to get out of his hold, but he held tight.
She stomped her foot. “Let me go, Jaxon. Did you just stand out here and watch someone shred my tires?”
Fuck. The only thing she could have said that was worse would have been to accuse him of shredding them himself.
“Look at me, Taziana. Do I look like the kind of man who’d watch while someone ruined your tires?
Do you think someone would dare slice them in front of me?
Whatever you think of me, do you really think I would do that?
He locked eyes with her, keeping his gaze hard.
“No,” she whispered.
“You wait here,” he said, pointing a finger at the ground at her feet. “Understand?”
She nodded, her head bobbing like some goth bobble head doll.
Approaching the car, a flutter caught Jaxon’s eye. He moved fast, snatching a note from the windshield.
“What does it say?” Tazzy asked, looking over his shoulder at the note.
“I told you to stay put.”
She took three steps back to where she had been, put her hands on her hips, and glared. “Happy now?”
“No.”
“Well, what does it say?”
Knowing she wouldn’t stop asking until she read it herself, he walked over and handed it to her.
“Broken promises have consequences.” She looked to him again, her face now pale. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Language,” Jaxon barked, making a mental note to add her eye roll to the tally of things to spank her for later.
“Is that a threat? What promises?” Despite her bravado, there was fear shadowing her eyes.
“Why would anyone slash my tires?” She crossed her arms over her chest, probably trying to look tough, but her trembling bottom lip kept her from pulling it off.
“Who hates me enough to do something like that?”
The vulnerability and fear in her voice was more than Jaxon could take. He wrapped her in his arms, pulling her close. She fit as perfectly as he remembered, and damn, but it felt good.
She pressed into him instead of turning away. Did she even realize that, when she was scared and in trouble, she turned to him? On some level, she had to.
He held her for five seconds. Then, as if realizing what she was doing, she jerked away from him. The moment was over.
“Sorry, I… uhh… we... Right, the note. I was asking what the note means?” She handed the now crumpled piece of paper back to Jaxon.
Forcing himself to think past the “moment” they’d just had, he took the note back.
“Could be a prank,” he said, knowing full well it wasn’t.
He scanned the alley, and that is when he saw the man standing at the far end. Only a small amount of light reached down there, but it was enough to highlight the crisp, button down shirt, the well pressed slacks, and the smiling face of the General.
How the fuck was the General standing there instead of being on house arrest at Graceview Estates? Jaxon’s stomach twisted hard. He instinctively stepped between the General and Tazzy, holding her behind him. “What are you doing? Let go of me,” Tazzy shouted.
The General smirked and disappeared around the corner, calm as you please.
As much as Jaxon wanted his hand on the General, chasing after him wasn’t an option.
Not if it meant leaving Tazzy unprotected.
For all he knew, the General could be luring him away so someone else could get to her.
No, he was staying right here with his Little girl, where he belonged.
Tazzy had taken to wiggling her hips back and forth against his ass, doing her best to get free. Turning around, he took her hips in his hands.
“Careful with those,” he said, squeezing them just to watch her reaction. “You might get more than you bargain for.” He proved his point by pulling her closer, knowing she would catch his meaning by the bulge behind his zipper.
Her face turned the most adorable shade of rose as she shoved his hands off her, crossing her arms across her chest.
“What was that all about?”
“Nothing, just thought I was something for a moment.”
She didn’t look convinced. It was time to change the subject.
He frowned back down at the note, turning it over, and his fingers stilled.
“What?” Tazzy asked.
“This paper…”
“What about it?”
“I saw paper like this at Sabre Security.”
Her brow scrunched. “What?”
“Never mind. I need to keep this note to check something out. It’s nothing.” No way was he going to scare her.
But it wasn’t nothing, even if he wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. There was a watermark on the back of the paper. One he’d seen before on the legal pad Dax had brought with him the day before.
That meant he had things to do. Reid needed to know about the General. Jaxon needed to talk to Gage about Dax. Then he needed to talk to Dax and find out who had access to the paper with that watermark.
Jaxon might not know exactly what was going on, but one thing was certain. That damage and message might have been to Tazzy’s car, but the General meant the warning for Jaxon.
That would not stand.
But first things first. “Tazzy, give me your keys,” he said, holding out his hand.
She looked at him with suspicion. “Why?”
He let out a frustrated sigh, something he seemed to be doing a lot of recently. “I want to check your car and make sure it’s locked. Then I need to take you home. If I have the keys, I can get Reid to haul your car to Winnie’s garage so she can fix the tires.”
“I don’t have the money to—”
“Yes, you do.” He said in a tone that brooked no argument. “We’ll go home on my bike. I’ll call Winnie on the way, and we can drop off the keys. That way, she can take care of it.”
He knew by the snap in her eyes that she was going to argue. “If we’re both on your bike, I can keep my keys and hand them to her myself.”
Pick your battles, man.
“Fine.”
Worry again clouded her eyes. “Shouldn’t we call the police?”
Normally, he would have said yes, but he didn’t want to involve the police until he knew how the General was free to wander the streets of Darling without landing back behind bars.
“Better not until I’ve checked a few things out.”
Surprised and a little relieved that she didn’t argue, he put the box she’d been carrying back inside the shop and guided her to his bike.
This hadn’t been some random act of vandalism, it was a message. Something was going on. The only thing he was sure of was that, by coming after his Little girl, the General had just made the worst mistake of his life.