8. Margot
CHAPTER 8
Margot
I haven’t been able to think straight since Jaxson left a few hours ago. The feel of his body beneath mine, his arms around me—the memory has been swimming in my mind, playing on repeat until I’m so enamored by the idea of him and me that I can hardly think of anything else.
I set the book I’ve been trying to read aside.
There can’t be anything between us. Especially not now that money is involved. I doubt he’d believe me if I told him I wanted a relationship even before he handed over that check, and dating a man who just gave me twenty thousand dollars feels—weird somehow.
Yet here I am, sitting in the foyer, waiting for him to return.
A flashback of me sitting in this same spot, waiting for Chad pops into my head, and I push to my feet. He’d come back, all right. Drunk and smelling of another woman’s perfume.
Jaxson’s not him.
Jaxson’s not—well—he’s not my anything.
He can do as he pleases.
So why does the fact that he practically ran out of here make me feel nauseous?
The front door opens, and I turn. Jaxson walks in and closes the door, locking it behind him, but he doesn’t stop to talk to me. In fact, he barely makes eye contact with me as he heads for his apartment.
My thoughts go to his dad.
He’d told me that the man was ill. Did he pass? Was that the call?
“Wait, are you okay?” No response, so I follow. I’ve never seen him look so—tortured.
Jaxson opens his door and moves into his apartment, and I don’t give him the chance to shut it before I’m pushing inside.
I repeat again, “Hey, are you okay?”
He shakes his head and starts pacing, hands on his hips. He looks tormented. Weighed down. And my desire to ease his agony is stifling. Without thinking too much about it, I step into his path and reach up to rest my hands on his shoulders.
The former Marine stops moving and takes a deep breath before looking down at me. The heaviness in his gaze, the way he watches me hungrily has me withdrawing my hands, though I remain where I am. “What is it?”
“Lanetti is missing.”
My stomach plummets. “What? Missing? What do you mean?”
“I brought trouble here, Margot. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
“Jaxson.” I take a deep breath to steady myself, then move in closer to him. “What trouble?”
“The last case I worked in LA. It was a serial killer. Took me five months to track him down, and in that time he killed seven young women.”
Bile burns my throat at the mention of someone so evil. “But you caught him.”
“I did. But he used a calling card, something to taunt us on the case and let us know it was him.”
“What does that have to do with Lanetti?”
“Sheriff Vick found the killer’s calling card at her house. And I found one at an attempted break-in yesterday.”
I cover my mouth with my hands and process everything he’s telling me. A killer on the loose in Hope Springs? Lanetti missing? I’m not even sure how to start wrapping my mind around it.
But I do know that the fact he’s blaming himself is ludicrous. The only person to blame is the evil one carrying out these violent acts, but I can understand the weight of what he’s carrying. “Was he released from jail? I’m assuming he went to prison. ”
“He did. And he’s still there. Serving his life sentences. I don’t know what’s going on, but I intend to find out before anything happens to Lanetti.” He shrugs out of his shoulder holster and hangs it on his chair, then removes his firearm and sets it on the table.
“Do you think Lanetti is alive?” While the girl hasn’t been overly friendly with me lately, the last thing I want is anything bad happening to her. She’s innocent. Sweet. Grew up in this town.
“I’m praying she is.” He turns toward me. Something passes in his gaze. An emotion I can’t quite pinpoint. “Margot.”
“Yes?” Is he going to tell me he cares for me? That he feels whatever this is, too?
He runs a hand over the back of his neck. “I need you to promise me that you’ll be careful. Please? You and Matty both.”
That hope is dashed, but his worry over me warms my heart. “Of course. But—do you think whoever it is will come for us?”
“I think that if this is about me, they might. I can leave. Honestly, I probably should.’
“No. Please don’t. I actually feel safer with you here.”
“Margot. Whoever this is targeted Lanetti likely because of how often I’m at the diner. Probably because I was talking to her outside the bakery. I’m living here. What do you think will happen to you and Matty? I can stay at the lighthouse.”
“No. If there’s danger, you need to be here. Please, Jaxson.” Reaching out, I place a hand on his arm. It’s more for me than him. If there’s a killer in Hope Springs, I would much rather the detective be here. Even if whoever took Lanetti followed him here. “You’ve been staying here for a year now, if you leave now, whoever it is might still consider us a good way to get to you. And if you leave, there’s no one here to keep us safe.” I swallow hard as his gaze drops to my mouth, then back up to meet mine.
“I won’t let anything happen to you or Matty.”
“I know you won’t.”
Jaxson pulls away from me when his cell rings. As he pulls it out of his pocket, I get a quick glimpse at the name Rosalie flashing on the screen.
Who’s Rosalie?
He tosses the phone onto his bed, and my cheeks heat. Is there someone in his life that I don’t know about? Irrational jealousy is a thorn in my side.
“My ex-wife,” he says.
“Oh. Sorry. I—” Did I say something out loud?
“You looked curious but like you didn’t want to ask. Rosalie is my ex-wife. And of course she would be calling now. In the middle of the night. Because that’s her timing.”
“You mentioned she’d been calling.”
“Incessantly.”
“I’ve been getting weird calls, too, if it’s any consolation.” My statement is meant to be a half joke, to put him at ease, but the expression on his face is anything but amused.
“What do you mean? ”
“Someone called and hung up without saying anything twice today. It’s probably someone trying to make a reservation from a place with bad service. Happens occasionally.”
“Do you know the number?”
“It came up unknown.” I narrow my gaze on him. “What is it?”
“I’m going to have Elijah pull your phone records, okay?”
“Jaxson.”
He fires off a text, then shoves his phone into his pocket. “It’s just a precaution, Margot. I’m not risking it.”
“Hey, honey.” I smile despite the unease in my gut as I greet my son at his best friend’s front door. He’s been here working on his science project nearly all day, and while it’s only a mile from here to the B&B and he’d planned on walking home, I couldn’t bring myself to let him do that.
Not while Lanetti is missing and there’s a possible killer on the loose.
Lanetti. Her mother is terrified for her daughter’s well-being. I can’t even imagine what the woman is going through. What would I do if something happened to Matty? Lose my mind. I would absolutely lose my mind.
“Mom, what are you doing here?”
“I figured I would come pick you up. Then we can grab some dinner at the diner before heading home. ”
He arches a brow. “What about the B&B?”
“Andie is watching the front desk for me.” I grew up with Andie Montgomery—now Andie Breeth since she married Elijah, one of the men of Knight Security. Since she runs her own boutique that’s only open three days a week, she occasionally steps in to help me run the front desk if I need a breather.
“Cool.” Matty turns to Anthony. “See you later.”
“Yeah, later.” He closes the door after offering me a quick wave, and I wrap an arm around Matty’s shoulders.
“How was your day?” I ask as soon as I’ve climbed behind the wheel of my car.
“Good. We got our hypothesis written and set the experiment up.”
“That’s awesome. What else did you do?”
“We played some Halo. Ate chips. Drank way too much root beer.”
I laugh, then shake my head. “You are having nothing but vegetables for dinner, you hear me? Broccoli and carrots.”
He rolls his eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”
We fall into a comfortable silence, something that isn’t unusual for us. We talk about nearly everything, or at least we do now. There was a time after Chad left that Matty was so far out of reach I’d been terrified he would do something that would land him in more trouble than I could get him out of.
Thankfully, he’s been doing better since Jaxson came to stay with us. Not sure what the reasoning is, whether it’s because he genuinely respects the detective or is just afraid he’ll get caught more easily, but I’m grateful for the change regardless.
“You okay, Mom?”
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You just seem off.”
“I’m okay. I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all.”
“Maybe a certain detective?”
Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes. “Jaxson and I are just friends.”
“Yeah, sure.” He laughs. “It was cool of him to loan us the money.”
Us. My boy won’t even let me carry the weight of it alone. “It was. We’re going to make sure we pay him back.”
“If he’ll let us. He seems even more stubborn than you.”
I laugh and shake my head. “Maybe.” My gaze drifts back to him. To the flecks of color in his hazel eyes. To the gorgeous grin he flashes when I catch him off guard.
“So what gives? Is it about Dad being back in town?”
I risk a glance at him, then pull into a spot in front of the diner. “You knew he was back in town?”
“Anthony’s mom saw him.”
My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “She told you that she saw him?”
“She told Ant and he told me. She told him not to, but we’re best friends and have no secrets.”
I sigh. I should have known Chad’s presence would get back to Matty. “I’m sorry, honey. I should have been the one to tell you.”
“You should have been,” he replies. “But I get it. I acted like a turd when he left. You probably were freaked out I’d revert to my turdish nature.”
I arch a brow, unable to hide my smile. “Turdish nature?”
“Ant’s words, not mine.” He laughs, and seeing my boy smile in the midst of all my internal turmoil is like a rainbow streaking across a stormy sky. “Are you doing okay? Has he tried to get in contact with you?”
“He has.” God, how much do I tell him? “He came to the B&B, and I met him at the diner last night.” Was it really only last night? Why does it feel like it’s been a month already?
“What did he want?”
I turn to face him, noting the sharpness of his nose and the strength in his jaw. He looks so much like his dad, but the kindness behind his eyes is something Chad never had. It just took me too long to realize it. “He wants a relationship with you.” I leave off the financial issues, because we just got some of it under control, and I don’t want to risk stressing him out further.
“Absolutely not.”
“I won’t let them force you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Then you can tell him that I never want to see him again.” Matty’s cheeks turn pink .
“It’s not that simple, honey,” I tell him truthfully. “Your dad is taking me to court for partial custody.”
“But he can’t do that. He didn’t want me, remember? He signed away his rights to me. I don’t even have his last name anymore.”
“I know, baby, and I promise you that I won’t let him get you. It’s just going to be a fight for a while.”
“Ugh. Why is he doing this? I hate him!”
“Matty.” Reaching over, I take his hand as he wipes a tear from his cheek. “Baby, look at me.”
He does.
“I already contacted Beckett. She’s handling things, and we’ll make sure he can’t take anything else from us. But I want you to know that if you decide later on that you want a relationship with him, you can make that call.”
“I never want to see him again.”
“I know it seems that way right now, honey. But if it changes?—”
“It won’t.” He withdraws his hand. “Can we go in now?”
“Sure thing. Grab us a table, I’ll be along in just a minute.”
Matty nods and gets out of the car, and I watch him like a hawk until he slips inside the diner.
Then, I take a deep breath, grip the steering wheel, and bow my head.
Lord, I know that You have a plan for all of us and that it is far greater than anything we could imagine for ourselves. But please, Lord, please help me be strong so I can fight for my boy. Please help him heal the pain in his heart and see that he is worthy of love. That Chad’s abandonment has nothing to do with him. Please, God. In Your holy name I pray, Amen.
By the time Matty is settled in bed and I’ve triple-checked all of the windows of my apartment, Andie has nearly finished shutting the B&B down for the night. She’s just turning off the lights in the dining room as I’m coming down the hall.
“How’s it going, momma?” she asks, then leans against the doorjamb.
“I’m exhausted,” I admit. “Between Chad showing up with papers, Lanetti going missing, and trying to keep this place running, I’m burning the candle at both ends.”
“Don’t forget being an amazing mom,” she says.
I laugh. “I’m not so sure about that most days.”
“Well, I am. Come on. Let’s have some tea.” She wraps an arm around my shoulders and guides me into the kitchen, where she fills my electric kettle with water and turns it on.
“I should be making you tea.”
“Absolutely not. You sit yourself down and let me handle it. My grandmother wouldn’t hear of me letting an exhausted single mother make tea for me when I’m perfectly capable of doing it.”
A familiar pang of grief over the loss of Andie’s grandmother, Edna, hits me straight in the chest. “I miss your gran.”
“You and me both.” She sighs and continues filling two stainless steel tea ball infusers, then sets them in mugs and takes a seat at the small, circular table alongside me. “So, tell me. How are things with Jaxson?”
“What do you mean? There’s nothing more than friendship there.”
“Uh-huh. Sure. Then why does Elijah think something’s going on?”
“He does?”
She wiggles her brows. “He thinks you two are dancing around each other like two lovebirds.”
I can’t help myself—I laugh. “There is no way that came out of Elijah’s mouth.” I may have only known him for a few years, but I cannot imagine him saying any such thing.
“Fine. I said it and he grunted in agreement.” She leans back. “So, spill.”
I open my mouth to respond, then close it. What am I supposed to say? Lie and say I feel nothing for the incredibly handsome, strong, protective, loyal detective? Tell the truth and spill the beans on the fact that I can’t get him out of my head? That every time we make contact—a brush of the hand, a light touch—it feels like my skin is going to catch fire?
“Girl. You have it bad don’t you?” Andie gapes at me. “Does Michael know?”
“No. I don’t have it bad. He’s just—he’s cute.” The moment I say the word, my cheeks flush with embarrassment.
Andie laughs. "Cute? What are we, in middle school?”
“Please no. I can’t go through the awkward braces phase again.”
She snorts. “You and me both. But seriously. Spill. What’s going on?”
“Nothing is going on. Look, I like Jaxson. He’s handsome and kind and maybe there is a bit of a crush there, but that’s all it is. I’m lonely. I went from having someone around all the time, to it only being Matty and me.”
“Then why don’t you talk to Jaxson? Be open with him and see if he feels the same?”
“Because things are too complicated. The fight with Chad is just getting started, and I have more baggage than I care to share.” And he loaned me twenty thousand dollars.
She reaches over and covers my hand. “You know I have my own issues. Things I’m still working through. And Elijah has been there at my side every step of the way, just like I am for him. Just because Chad turned out to be a dirtbag doesn’t mean you don’t get a second chance.”
“Doesn’t it? I only wanted to get married once, Andie. One time.”
“Sometimes things don’t work out the way we planned,” Andie replies, then gets to her feet as the kettle beeps. “And sometimes, when they fall back into place, they’re better than we could have ever imagined.”