Ch. 29 – Jax
“ M aybe I shouldn’t go,” Theo said for . . . what was it? The hundredth time that day?
Breanna blew out a frustrated breath. “You always get nervous before these wine-tasting competitions, and you always go, and you always come back with your little ribbons.”
As the setting sun cast hues of fiery red and bruised purple through the windows, the winery bustled with activity. Jax, along with Tess and Breanna, had been killing herself all day to manage the crowd. Theo, pacing behind the bar was, notably, not helping matters in the least.
“Little ribbons?” he huffed. “The Southern California Wine and Spirits Jamboree is the most prestigious competition in the entire region.”
“Sure, whatever. That’s why you should go,” Breanna said as she tried to pour for a customer only to realize her bottle of chardonnay was empty.
Jax rung out a customer and turned to her boss. Time to lay down some serious rah-rah motivation. “Theo, you’ve been working on your red blend for years. Obsession is the best it’s ever been. So, stop being chicken shit and get the hell out of here. ”
Okay, so maybe motivational speaker wasn’t an ideal career choice for her.
Theo’s brown eyes narrowed on her. “I’m not chicken shit. I just, I don’t know. I feel like I need to stay here.”
Tess came to the bar, setting down a tray of empty glasses. She gave Theo a long, steady look. “Would you regret not going?” she asked gently.
Theo huffed. He shrugged. He crossed his arms. Then his shoulders slumped. “Yes.”
Tess put a hand on his arm and held his gaze. “Then you should probably go, right?”
Theo looked down at Tess’s small hand. The overhead lights glowed on her wedding band. “Right,” he whispered. They stood together silently, as if frozen in time.
Breanna cleared her throat. Loudly.
Tess pulled her hand back, her eyes widening in surprise. “Um, and anyway, Jax is right. Your Obsession is really good.”
Theo smiled. “You say that about all my wine.”
“It’s true, though.” Tess seemed to look everywhere except at Theo.
“Tess, go put those glasses in the back. We need some more clean ones out here, too,” Breanna snapped.
When Tess retreated into the back room with the tray of dirty glasses, Breanna stepped up to Theo. “You’d better get going if you want to beat rush hour.”
“Yeah.” Theo looked around the winery as if he wanted to bring the whole place with him.
“So, um, good luck,” Breanna added softly, shoving a lock of dirty-blond hair behind her ear. “I like your blend, too. I’m sure it’ll win a ribbon. ”
“Thanks.” Theo reached for her, a little uncertainly, but Breanna leaned forward. He bent down and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips. She let him, for a moment, then turned away, a tight smile on her face.
“I need to get back to work,” she said in a rush. “We’re really busy.”
“Sure. Yeah.” Theo frowned before turning away from her.
The two of them were so cringe to watch. Just break up already, Jax wanted to scream. But Theo and Breanna had been dating forever. Maybe they didn’t know how to be with anyone else.
Eventually, after tossing multiple worried glances over his shoulder, Theo finally shuffled out the door and off to the wine competition in San Diego. Watching him go, Jax wondered for the millionth time if she should have told her boss about The Terrace.
She’d been aching to blurt out everything to him; something along the lines of: Theo, a big, rich development company is planning to steamroll over the winery, slice off the top of this hill, and plop a cookie-cutter development on it that will 1,000 percent include a Starbucks.
Not yet, Jax told herself. She still had more digging to do. Mayor Bishop was obviously in bed with Porter Development Co., but she hadn’t been able to connect the dots yet. Was he getting kickbacks from the company? Had they made some sort of promises to him once The Terrace project was built?
Until she could unravel the entire story, and—more to the point—figure out how to stop The Terrace, she didn’t want to put any more worries on Theo’s already burdened shoulders.
The hours slipped by one after another. The sun sunk lower into the sky, turning the windows an inky purple. Eventually, Tess headed out at the end of her shift. It seemed like in mere moments, the last customers were trickling to the parking lot, and Breanna was turning the closed sign on the front door. With a sigh, she locked the door .
Jax was actually impressed Breanna had made it through the entire shift, especially because her eyes looked hollow with exhaustion. Someone evidently wasn’t finding much zen at yoga.
“I’ll start loading the dirty glasses. You clean up out here,” Breanna said to Jax.
Technically, Jax had more seniority than Breanna, so she should be divvying up the closing tasks, but battling for Queen of the Winery with Breanna honestly wasn’t worth the effort.
Over the next hour, Jax cleaned the tabletops, mopped the floor, wiped down the bar, and restocked the shelves for opening tomorrow. She most definitely did not constantly think of Rico, their insanely spicey kiss, or her utter Cinderella bail-at-the-worst-possible-time move.
Nope. Not. At. All.
Except . . .she was replaying the humiliating scene in her mind one more time for extra salt in the wound, when she heard a crash in the back. Jax threw down her rag, quickly moved around the bar, and entered the back area of the winery.
Breanna huddled near the industrial dishwasher, her thin shoulders shaking beneath her pink athletic jacket.
“Are you okay?” Jax asked. Was Breanna . . . crying?
“I, uh, dropped a glass.” Her voice hitched. She turned to Jax and offered a tight smile. “Stupid me.”
Her eyes were red. So was the tip of her nose, but Jax didn’t see any tears.
“Don’t pick it up with your hands.” Jax moved back to the front and returned with a broom and dustpan.
“Thanks.” Breanna stood and stepped back as Jax swept the shards of glass .
The two women were quiet as Breanna watched Jax sweep. Then she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. “Do you think I’m a bad person?”
The hell?
Jax looked at Breanna over her shoulder. She stood near the shelves of fermenting wine, her arms wrapped around her thin waist. She seemed . . .out of sorts. Her loose curls weren’t as glossy as usual. Her makeup muted. Jax even noticed a sore on Breanna’s lip where she’d been chewing the skin raw.
What was going on with her?
“To be honest, I don’t really know you,” Jax answered. She swept the last of the glass into the dustpan, picked it up, and paused. “No,” she decided. “I don’t think you’re a bad person.”
“It was a stupid question.” Breanna huffed out a shaky laugh. “I don’t know why I even said it. I’m actually not feeling well. Do you mind finishing up? I think I need to go upstairs.”
“No problem,” Jax replied. Without another word, Breanna headed up the stairs to Theo’s small apartment, her footsteps creaking on the old wood.
Soooo, that was weird. Then again, Breanna had a penchant for drama. Jax emptied the dustpan in the trash, turned on the dishwasher, and then did a final sweep of the winery. After locking the doors, she swung into her car. Carefully, she drove down the long, wending road toward Chapparal Drive . . . then made an abrupt turn, pulling her car behind a small storage barn on the property.
Stepping out of the car, Jax sucked in a deep breath. Yep, she was really doing this. She opened her trunk and quickly changed into the black jeans and black cotton hoodie she’d packed. She grabbed a fully charged cell phone battery block, a water bottle, and a bag of trail mix—with M&MS of course .
Carefully, she picked her way back up the road on foot, toward the winery. Just in front of the parking lot, she ducked behind a cluster of short, scrubby trees. She had meant it when she’d told Theo not to worry about the winery. Because tonight she was going to watch over it.
She might not know exactly how Mayor Bishop was connected with Porter Development Co., but it was clear that Bishop wanted The Rose and Thorn gone. If he tried any more tricks, she was going to catch him in the act.
“Let the stakeout begin,” she muttered to herself.
*
One hour elapsed. Jax’s right leg went numb. She carefully shifted her position, hissing as her knee rolled over a rock or a root. Her hands were growing cold, and she blew on them. Overhead, stars glinted in the sky while the high whine of crickets filled the night like a two-note symphony.
A noise.
Jax’s ears perked. Below on the hill, she thought she heard the soft growl of an engine. Was that the sound of tires on the road or just the sigh of the wind? She waited. Nothing. Shaking out her legs, she slowly made her way down the road. It was so dark, she stumbled over rocks and hidden divots. A quarter mile down the road, she didn’t see anything.
It must have been her imagination. She turned back and re-established herself just in front of the winery’s parking lot.
Another hour passed. She caught up on the latest pimple popper videos on TikTok. Checked out some new dance crazes. Watched way too many silly cat vids. Now, staring into the darkness, her eyelids started to feel heavy. Her head nodded forward. Jerked up .
Stay awake, idiot, she thought to herself. Imagine falling asleep while the mayor trounced around raining salt on the vineyard or pissing in the wine vats! Jax scrubbed her face. She’d been up until nearly midnight yesterday planning Layla’s bachelorette party with the Crazy Cat Ladies.
Her phone vibrated with an incoming message.
Speak of the fashionable devil.
Alanna: Is everyone up to Ch. 16??? I have thoughts.
Everly: I am! Pls grace us with your hot takes. [Fire emoji]
Layla: Are you mad that Naomie thinks that Vince is cheating on her again?
Alanna: YES!!!! Why didn’t she confront him? One convo would have cleared everything up.
Tess: She’s hurt. The last thing she wants to do is talk to Vince.
Before she knew it, Jax’s fingers were typing.
Jax: + He’d hurt her b4. She was almost expecting this.
Everly: GASP!!! Jax are you reading the [book emoji]?
Layla: [Heart emoji] [Book emoji] [Happy face emoji] [Heart emoji]
Jax: Classes are over. I got bored. [Eye roll emoji]
Alanna: But seriously people. Naomie couldn’t just tell Vince why she was upset? He could have cleared things up in one sentence. But instead, she snuck out of the safe house and is on the run w/ the entire local police force hunting her down. Naomie = dumb panda.
Jax frowned. Of course Alanna would think a direct confrontation was the way to go. She was so strong and forceful. But it wasn’t always so easy to speak your truth or to face the one who’d hurt you. Sometimes all you could do was run and try to heal.
Jax tapped the message bar on her phone and the cursor blinked to life. Her thumbs hovered over the keys as she tried to parse the rush of her thoughts.
Lights winked at the corner of her eye.
Jax looked up in time to see headlights sweep lower on the hill.
Shit. She huddled behind the bushes, clicking out of her message app. She pulled up her camera app, her hands suddenly shaking. It took her three tries to sweep over to the record button. Tires crunched on the gravel road. The growl of an engine growing louder.
Headlights cut through the darkness making her squint as a black BMW pulled up to the winery. The headlights cut out as Jax held up her phone. Her hands shook so badly, the camera struggled to focus. Would it pick up the car’s license plate or was it too dark? Jax squinted but couldn’t read the collection of letters and numbers on the plate.
The driver’s side door opened, and a figure stepped out of the car. In the darkness, Jax couldn’t make out much. It looked like a man. Roughly the same height as the mayor, but it was so hard to tell. Jax’s camera kept focusing on the branches of the bush in front of her.
She had to get closer.
Slowly, carefully, she crawled around the bush, holding her phone in front of her.
The figure walked to the side of the winery and grabbed the doorknob. Jax still couldn’t make out any features in the shadows. Adrenaline coursed through her. Her entire body was shaking now. There was no way her phone was going to lock in on him. Not unless she got a little closer.
The man opened the side door.
Fucking what? No!
Jax could have sworn she’d locked the doors. The man was going inside the winery. He could do all sorts of damage. Smash all the bottles. Break the barrels in the back. Even set the place on fire. God, Breanna was upstairs in Theo’s apartment !
Jax knew she had to call the cops. But what if they didn’t get here in time? What if he did whatever he was going to do and escaped?
Jax glanced at the man’s car. First, she would get a picture of his license plate. Then call the cops. Desperately, she crawled again. She had to get out in the open so she could get a clear shot of the license plate. She pushed forward. Rocks bit into her knees and stung the palm of the hand not holding the camera. She felt something pull on her sweatshirt. A branch of the bush had snagged in the fabric. She twisted, trying to untangle herself.
The branch snapped. Loudly. Jax fell forward with an audible wuuf.
“Who’s there?” a male voice called.
Jax didn’t think. Didn’t consider. She jumped to her feet and ran. The road under her boots was inky black.
“Wait. Stop!” the man barked behind her. He sounded angry. She heard his footsteps, loud and furious pounding after her. She had to get to her car. How far away was it? Her lungs burned. She jammed her hand in the pocket of her jeans, swiped out her keys. They jangled in her palm.
Where was the turnoff she’d used? Her fingers scrambled, trying to locate the steel spike tool on her key chain . . . just in case.
And then, suddenly, her right foot didn’t move even as she lurched forward. Jax felt a sharp tug on one side of her boot. Shoelaces untied she thought dumbly a moment before she crashed hard into the ground.
Her breath punched out of her lungs so hard she saw flashes of light in front of her eyes. A sharp pain snaked around her ankle like a chord of hot embers and her palms burned. She wanted to move. Needed to jump back to her feet, but her body felt heavy and far away. All she could do was gasp for breath . . . and listen to the footsteps of her pursuer coming closer.
And then headlights flashed in front of her. An SUV roared up the road and skidded to a stop in front of her. The passenger door flung open.
“Get in!” a voice cried.
A familiar voice.
Rico, she thought.
Without quite knowing how, Jax managed to stumble to her feet. Every step on her right foot shot agony up her leg, but she hobbled to the SUV and collapsed inside. Rico. It was him. So improbably, so wonderfully, so thankfully him. He glanced at her, his eyes sharp and frightening in the back glow of his headlights. Then he reached over and slammed the passenger door shut.
Before Jax was even in the seat, he jammed the gears into reverse.
In front of the windshield, she saw the figure of her pursuer. He stopped just outside of the headlights, turned, and retreated back toward the winery. Rico whipped his SUV around and raced down the hill toward the main road.
All Jax could do was slump in the passenger seat, close her eyes, and pray her heart didn’t explode in terror.