CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE #2
Check your email. You can thank me later.
Nathan:
Always taking care of me, huh?
Elise:
Someone has to.
Nathan:
You sure you’re not still my assistant?
Elise:
I’d need a raise if you want me to come back.
Nathan:
I’ll see you tonight and we’ll negotiate.
A slow, knowing heat unfurled in my chest. I was so caught up in our exchange, so consumed by the way his words sent warmth licking up my spine, that I didn’t glance up when someone else stepped onto the elevator.
Not until I heard his voice.
“Elise.”
Ice shot through my veins.
I looked up, my stomach twisting.
Jax.
For a split second, my brain short-circuited. He was the last person I expected to see here, but as my gaze raked over him, recognition slammed into me. The jumpsuit. The cart he’d been pushing downstairs.
The janitor.
My breath stuttered. I had seen him, but brushed off that flicker of unease like it was nothing. He hadn’t just been some stranger doing his job. He’d been watching me, waiting for the perfect opportunity to get me alone, and I just gave it to him.
I should’ve listened to Ryan.
His lips curled into a smirk, but his eyes burned with something dark. I gripped my phone tighter, pulse hammering against my ribs.
Jax looked different. There were a few more tattoos on his pale skin then the last time I saw him and his dirty blonde hair was shaved clean.
His body was a little leaner and solid, but he was still the man who once knew exactly how to make me believe I was loved until he didn’t.
And now he was standing here, too close, in the small, confined space of the elevator.
Jax cocked his head, his smirk never faltering. “You’re a hard woman to get alone, Elise. I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve been closer than you think. Watching. Waiting. You walked past me more than once and never even noticed.”
I froze, dread crawling like ice down my spine.
He leaned in, breath hot against my ear. “You’ve been so wrapped up in your billionaire boyfriend, you didn’t even realize I’ve been right here all along.”
My stomach curled with nausea. “What do you want, Jax?” I kept my voice even, refusing to show the fear creeping up my spine.
His smirk widened. “What do I want? That’s a loaded question. Maybe I just wanted to see you. Maybe I wanted to tell you…” He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “I forgive you.”
A slow, thick pulse of dread settled in my gut.
“You forgive me?” I echoed, forcing myself to stay still.
“For what you did.” His green eyes roved over my face, studying my reaction. “For putting me in jail. For turning your back on me.”
A laugh, cold and humorless, slipped past my lips. “I didn’t put you in jail, Jax. You did that all by yourself.”
His jaw ticked. Just the smallest movement, but I saw it and the shift in the air.
“Come on, Elise,” he murmured, his voice still laced with that charming, slippery sweetness that had once convinced me to fall in love with him. “We had something good. I know you remember.”
I did remember. I remembered the laughter, the flowers, the way he used to press his lips to my temple and tell me he’d never hurt me.
And I remembered the first time he hit me.
The way he apologized. The way I forgave him. The way it happened again. And again. And again.
I lifted my chin. “I’m not the same girl you used to manipulate, Jax. And I sure as hell don’t need your forgiveness.” I glared up at him, my heart pounding so hard it hurt. “I’ve moved on.”
His expression didn’t shift right away. He held the easy, charming smirk a beat too long, like he thought I’d take it back and change my answer.
When I didn't do either of those things, the mask dropped. Fury flashed across his face, twisting his features into something ugly. “Moved on?” His voice dipped, dangerously low. “With who? Nathan Edge?” Something dark and venomous crawled into his smirk. “Yeah. I know about the two of you. I thought you told me I didn’t have to worry about him, Elise. You remember that? That’s what you told me.
” He barely contained the rage in his voice.
“Rich, powerful, thinks he can buy anything he wants, including you.” He leaned in, his breath once again hot against my cheek.
“You always were easy to impress, weren’t you? ”
I swallowed back my disgust and forced my voice to stay steady. “Step back, Jax.”
His fingers twitched. “You think you’re too good for me now?” His voice was rising, the false charm crumbling. “You think some rich asshole can just erase what we had?”
The elevator was not moving fast enough.
I edged backward, my hand sliding toward the emergency button, but he was faster. His hand shot out, grabbing my wrist in a bruising grip. “You think he can protect you? Well where is your billionaire boyfriend now?” Jax taunted. “You were mine, Elise. And you threw me away.”
Panic clawed up my throat. I struggled, wrenching my arm, but his grip was unrelenting.
“You wanna act like I don’t exist?” His voice was raw with rage now. “Like I’m just some mistake you can forget about?”
The third floor button lit up. Almost there.
Jax must’ve realized it too, because his rage boiled over. His free hand snapped out, fingers tangling in my hair as he slammed me back against the elevator wall.
Pain exploded in my skull. A cry tore from my lips.
“Well I'm sorry sweetheart, but if I can't have you, no one else can.”
The last thing I saw before my vision blurred was Jax’s furious face, inches from mine.