Chapter Fifty-Four
Jax
Itake it as a good sign that James dismissed Arnold for the night.
Either he feels safe with the Noland girls, or he feels in control of them, which in my father’s mind is the same damn thing.
The point is, he doesn’t consider them a threat.
That’s useful. Let him believe they’re meek and moldable to his liking so that he feels more inclined to help them.
Though that requires Nix to keep her mouth shut.
She’s positioned herself at the table right next to James, a sort of sentry between him and Caleb this time.
I’m sitting directly across from her, and I admire the way she wants to protect Caleb, but at the end of the day, Caleb is blood, and she’s disposable.
I can’t tell if she knows that and is brave, or if she’s just stupid.
But that wouldn’t be giving Kira enough credit, considering she’s the one who raised her.
Nix Noland is just as brave as her older sister.
I just wish her bravery didn’t give me something else to worry about.
It’s bad enough that I feel the need to protect Kira, but now it seems to extend to her sister.
I’m not used to caring about this many people.
And the last person I truly cared about died before my eighteenth birthday, most likely by the hands of the man Nix has positioned herself right next to.
Gritting my teeth, I turn to my right to release some of the tension.
I’ve chosen to have Kira sit next to me tonight, seeing as how we’re about to lay everything bare anyway.
Her hand is gripped in mine under the table, and I’ll admit my palm is sweating.
I meant what I said when I told her I would do anything for her, but telling James that I love her makes me sick to my stomach.
The man on my left doesn’t know what love is, and giving him the ammo to use against me feels like tying my own noose. But I don’t have any other reason to offer him as to why I don’t want her behind bars.
It’s a long shot, as Nix so kindly reminded me, because James doesn’t do anything that doesn’t benefit him, but as Caleb said, we have to try.
And I’d like to get it over with.
“Marshal Wayne is dead,” I announce.
Kira’s hand flinches in mine while James pauses with his drink in the air.
“Kira killed him,” I continue, seeing no need to pussyfoot. “She’s going to be arrested for his murder.”
The room goes silent enough to hear the ice melting in the bourbon, and I have to swallow before I say the thing that’s making bile crawl up my throat.
Because I’ve never needed James for anything.
Never wanted anything. It would have been a betrayal against my mother, using the hand that swept her from this world for my advantage.
I’ve never been able to get ahold of the report of her car accident with him blocking me, but I know in my bones that it had to be him.
A car accident is too convenient, too easy to orchestrate.
But even if, by some chance, it was a true accident, he did enough to her while she was alive that I would still hate the idea of asking him for help.
But this is for Kira. Kira, who raised her baby sister because her dad was useless.
Kira, who was willing to work with a tear in her heart to put food on the table.
Kira, who never did anything to anyone besides tear through my defenses.
She makes me feel alive. Makes me want to rip the world apart just to lay it at her feet, if it means she’d deign to glance at me with those fox eyes.
I’d like to think that my mother would understand, that she would approve of me twisting James’ hand to do something good for once. She has to. Because here goes nothing…
“I need you to stop it.” I look my father firmly in the eye, daring him to say no.
He holds my gaze, even as he finally brings the glass to his mouth and takes a sip, keeping his eyes on me over the rim.
It’s an appraisal. Nix, Caleb, and Kira hold their breath, but I force myself to breathe.
I can’t show an ounce of weakness, just like James hasn’t shown an ounce of surprise.
But that’s to be expected. As a criminal attorney, he wouldn’t be very good if he didn’t maintain a poker face.
But what isn’t expected is the Cheshire grin that reveals itself as he sets his glass down.
“Well, isn’t this a turn of events,” he says, as if pleased, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand.
He leans back in his chair and steeples his fingers, his posture that of someone who is about to win a case. But he hasn’t even read the metaphorical file yet. There’s no way he’s made his decision this quickly.
I’m missing something.
“In what way?” I don’t like the way my voice sounds. It’s too low to be confident, and I suddenly feel like I’m in a courtroom on the opposition, ill-prepared and about to be dealt a blow that crumbles my case.
“Please, don’t insult me,” James uses that patronizing tone he reserves for lessers.
I grit my teeth and lock away the sudden surge of fury before I ruin Kira’s chances by flipping the fucking table.
“I don’t know what you’re referring to,” I say. “I’m not trying to insult you. I’m,” I swallow the bile, “asking for your help.” I nearly crack a tooth on the admission in an effort to remedy the situation, though I don’t know where it went south.
“You must really think I’m a fool.” Disgust lines his words, his pleasure morphing into malice.
I glance around the table in disbelief, wondering if I’m the only one who’s lost. But instead of finding my own confusion mirrored back at me, my brother has his head down, defeated already, apparently, while Nix shoots daggers out of narrowed eyes, and Kira’s pretty face crumples with pity for me.
“I thought you knew better by now,” James scoffs, “I’m always one step ahead, son.” He says the last word as if it’s an insult.
“Dad…” Caleb interrupts weakly, but James holds up a hand, not even sparing him a glance.
“Do you think this confession is news to me?” he asks me. “Did you think that I didn’t have this figured out weeks ago when you lied to my face about a bullshit drag race?”
Fuck.
He’s known this entire time. Since the night I brought Caleb home without his car. No wonder Arnold was able to pin us down so quickly. If I had known, I never would have attempted this. The bastard’s been sitting on this for weeks. And I just made him feel like I had one over on him.
“Come now,” James chastises me almost kindly.
“You know that I keep tabs on all of my employees, and Marshal Wayne was no exception. I knew of his little pet project.” He motions with a dismissive hand to Kira and Nix.
“It was only a matter of deduction to find out what happened to him, though I will admit, the Noland orphans were not my first suspicion.”
His eyes land on Kira, and something cold settles into my chest as he looks at her like she’s dirt under his shoe. “Who bites the hand that feeds you?” He tsks at her. “That’s just not very smart.”
I can feel the indignation flow through Kira’s hand into mine as her tendons tighten. Mine must do something similar as I shift into a protective stance, barely able to contain myself at the insult to her intelligence.
“And,” he continues with a sneer, “if you think I wasn’t already aware before the fact that my son,” he flicks his gaze toward Caleb, “was hanging around one of those girls, you would be sorely mistaken.”
I steal a glance at Caleb and catch the flash of realization in his eyes—that his life is not his own.
It’s a hard pill to swallow, one I swallowed at about the same age he is now.
I’m sure he thought his compliance kept him under the radar, that not being loud and brazen like I was at his age protected him from being watched like a hawk.
“Of course, I didn’t approve,” James says, “but we all have to sow our oats, don’t we?
” He twists his mouth into a smirk that makes my stomach curl.
“But it seems I made an error in that gracious leeway. Because look what’s happened…
Not just one, but both of my sons, dragged into the exact kind of thing the Landons don’t sully their name with.
Do you ever wonder why we don’t live in the city?
It’s so that we can avoid the riffraff,” he curls his lip at Kira, “that comes with it. But somehow you’ve managed—both of you,” he turns his vicious glare on Caleb, jerking his head toward Nix, “to find the rare scum of Cloverwick and share a bed with it.”
“The only scum in this room is you,” Nix spits.
My muscles tense, ready to stop him if he tries to touch her. But James gives a single laugh, a sound without humor.
“You see what I mean?” He shakes his head.
“Did you really think, at the very least, that I wouldn’t be made aware that a warrant was going to be served on my property?
I really thought I raised you two better than this.
That’s why I let you spin your wheels with this charade.
I assumed you would learn this lesson on your own, that you would see the error of your ways and, like men, fix it accordingly.
But it seems I was wrong to let it go on this long, and now I have to fix it. ”
In a move that pains me, Caleb lifts his head with hope. “So… you’ll do it?”
His question makes my chest constrict. Because Nix was right. My brother is too naive.
“If by it, you mean making sure that Mitchell Layton gets all his needs to put these two away so you two can think with your heads again and not your cocks, then yes.” He shrugs—the bastard.
“What?” Kira gasps. “But… it was just me. Nix didn’t have—”
“And,” James suddenly slams his fist on the table, causing the serving ware to rattle and Kira to quiet, “to add insult to injury, you’ve been parading around this whore, calling her your wife and paying for her medical bills.
Do you know how fucking distasteful that is?
As if she could ever carry the Landon name. ”