Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jaxon pulled his bike into the alley behind Books-N-Brews, and damn if it didn’t feel good to have his girl on the back of it. She held on tight, pressed against him, and he loved the feel of her every mile they rode.
Tazzy was just walking in the back door in front of him when his phone started ringing. The screen read Dax.
As much as he didn’t want Tazzy out of his sight, he said, “Go on in, Sprite. I’ll be there in a sec.”
He couldn’t help frowning at the name, even though he’d put Dax’s number in his phone after he’d met with Sabre the week before.
He understood the man was on his side, but that warning note still bothered him.
He still didn’t know why Dax had been in possession of that same paper.
At least the past few days had been quiet, but still.
The DA’s office never called unless something had gone sideways.
He answered on the fourth ring. “Yeah?”
“Jaxon, listen to me.” The man’s voice came through tight and serious.
“We just received an anonymous threat. It was on paper, not email. Short, typed, no signature, and shoved under the front door of the DA’s office.
It says, and I quote, ‘If Jaxon keeps digging, Tazzy will be removed. Permanently. Consider this your only warning.’”
Jaxon’s blood turned to ice. His hand tightened around the phone until the plastic creaked.
“Removed. Permanently.” The word landed like a hammer to the chest. Son of a bitch!
They wanted to make her disappear, even though she’d done nothing.
No, this was all about punishing Jaxon, like they hadn’t already done enough.
Dax kept talking, voice low and steady. “The note was written on the same kind of notepad Phillip Thorne had last week. Same paper stock. Same hidden watermark that only appears under the right light. I searched the office for any other similar paper after Gage mentioned it. Something you should have mentioned, by the way. But there was nothing else like it. Just that one pad Thorne has. This isn’t some random crank, Jaxon.
This came from inside the General’s circle.
Phillip is working out of the man’s empty office right now.
He has the notepad and all the access he needs.
Right now, that makes him the prime suspect. ”
Jaxon dragged a hand down his face, jaw locked so tight it ached. He walked over to the door to check on Tazzy. There she was, laughing with Georgia, completely unaware that someone had just put a target on her back. He’d already lost eight years of being with her. He wasn’t losing another second.
“I’m on my way to the warehouse after I get Tazzy settled,” he said. “I’ll fill Sabre in. You keep digging on your end. Anything you find, I want to know immediately.”
“Will do. And Jaxon… watch her close. This doesn’t feel like a bluff.”
“Believe me when I tell you she’ll be watched,” Jaxon growled before ending the call.
Jaxon leaned against the cool brick wall for one long moment, staring at the back door of Books-N-Brews and trying not to punch something. The threat echoed in his head like a gunshot that would not stop ringing. “Removed. Permanently.”
Jaxon sat for one beat, jaw locked, thinking. Picking up his phone, he searched through his contacts before finding the one he needed.
The old enforcer picked up on the first ring. “What.”
“Ravage, I need you at Books-N-Brews, and I need you now. I have a meeting at the Sabre warehouse, but Tazzy’s here working. I need you on Babygirl sitting duty.”
Ravage’s low chuckle rolled through the speaker. “Funny you should call. I was just looking through the want ads for a babygirl-sitting job. I’ll be there in ten.”
Jaxon shoved the phone in his pocket and headed inside.
If anything eased his tension, it had always been the familiar scent of coffee and new books at Books and Brews.
But not today. Today, nothing could ease the knot in his stomach.
Tazzy stood behind the counter, laughing at something else Georgia had said, her dark hair falling over one shoulder.
Not since he’d been released from prison had he seen that kind of joy spill out of her. She looked up when he walked in, and gave him a hundred watt smile that hit him straight in the chest.
He crossed the room in three strides, pulled her around the counter, and away from Georgia, who gave Tazzy a knowing look.
Tazzy kicked up her heel, receiving a hard, passionate kiss from Jaxon, right there in front of the espresso machine, and kissed her hard enough that Georgia pretended to sort the coffee syrups on the work counter. When he let Tazzy go, her cheeks were flushed.
“Morning, Daddy,” she whispered, eyes sparkling. “May I have another?”
Since he was a giver at heart, he did as she asked. When she asked again, he gave her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose.
“Daddy, that’s not what I meant.” She frowned up at him.
“Babygirl, if I keep kissing you, and believe me, that’s what I want to do, I’m not gonna make it to my meeting. Besides, Daddy would really appreciate it if his little Sprite made him a coffee.”
She sighed but did as he asked.
Jaxon had just finished his coffee when Ravage walked in, his big frame filling the doorway, salt-and-pepper beard brushing his chest. He gave Jaxon a single nod and dropped into one of the oversized armchairs near the window like he owned the place.
“What can I get you?” Tazzy asked, putting on a plastic smile.
Ravage’s lips twitched. “Thanks, but I’m not here for coffee.”
He grinned when Tazzy’s fists hit her hips. “Then why are you here? This is, after all, a coffee shop.”
It seemed his girl was learning to assert herself. He couldn’t say that was a bad thing.
“Babygirl-sitting,” Ravage said before Jaxon could answer.
Tazzy looked back and forth between them with clear incredulity. “I do not need a babygirl sitter!” she said with a stomp of her foot.
Jaxon could see the storm brewing in her eyes.
Normally, he loved a good storm, but right now, he didn’t have time.
He reached over the counter and took her hand.
“Rules while I’m gone. No back alley. No leaving this shop without Ravage.
No talking to Georgia about anything on that damn bucket list of hers. ”
He gave her a look that brooked no back talk. True to form, she did it anyway.
“You can’t be serious. That’s not fair. Just because you’re gone, I can’t go anywhere? And Georgia is my best friend. We always talk about her ideas.”
Ravage smirked from his chair, arms crossed, clearly enjoying the show.
Jaxon didn’t blink. “I am dead serious. Talk about that list, and Ravage will haul you out of here so fast your feet won’t touch the ground. He’ll bring you to me, and that will lead to a discussion I promise you will not enjoy. Understood?”
She huffed but nodded. “Fine. No bucket list talk. Happy?”
He kissed her forehead. “Very. I’ll be back as soon as the meeting is done. Stay where Ravage can see you.”
She rose up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss to his jaw. “I’ll be right here when you get back. Promise.”
Jaxon gave Ravage one last look. The big man dipped his chin in silent understanding of how important his job was. Satisfied, Jaxon headed for the warehouse.
Riding to Sabre gave Jaxon time to think.
Tazzy was his Little girl again, but she wasn’t the same person he had been all those years ago.
Now she was much more defiant, more of a risk taker, more independent, more everything.
Being on your own like that, you got used to answering to nobody.
Jaxon knew that better than anyone. Even though she’d accepted him as her Daddy, it was going to take some getting used to on both their parts.
A smile eased over his lips. This was going to be very interesting.
The Sabre crew was already gathered around the long conference table when he walked in.
Reid sat at the head, Hutch to his right, Sawyer and Deke across from them, Gage and Law filling two of the remaining chairs.
An older teenager Jaxon didn’t know was sitting on a nearby counter.
Everyone looked up as Jaxon took his seat.
Reid spoke first. “All right, Jaxon, why don’t we start with you filling us in about your conversation with Dax?”
Jaxon laid it out. “The DA’s office received a physical threat against Tazzy.
The note says if I keep digging, she gets removed.
Permanently. He confirmed that the note was written on the same kind of paper as the note left on Tazzy’s car.
The watermark is on the notepad Phillip Thorne carries.
It’s the same one. Dax says that the watermark is on Thorne's notepad and nowhere else in the office.”
The room went quiet for a beat.
Deke leaned forward. “I checked with Darling PD again this morning. The General’s tracker has not moved from the Graceview Retreat Center. Not once.”
Sawyer rubbed his jaw. “So either the tracker is compromised, or someone else is doing the General’s dirty work.”
Hutch shook his head. “Thorne is Boucher’s lawyer. From what I hear, he’s using the General’s office now. That makes the General the prime suspect.”
Reid’s eyes locked on Jaxon. “You say you saw the General in that alley. You are sure it was him?”
“What the fuck do you mean I say it was him. It was him. Same eyes. Same smartass smirk. And now this is the second note on that watermarked paper Thorne controls. It’s not like I’m imagining things or grasping at straws here.”
“If there’s anything underhanded and evil going on, you can bet my father’s involved,” the kid on the counter said.
“Who are you?” Jaxon demanded. This kid was probably okay, or he wouldn’t be hanging out at Sabre, but he didn’t like not knowing.