Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
ANDIE
I told Declan that I wanted to meet with Jax and Keane alone. Again, he shocked the hell out of me when he didn’t argue or tell me no. He promised they would be promptly escorted to my suite, but it’s been over an hour.
I still don’t know how to handle Declan treating me as an equal. It’s disorienting after feeling so powerless under the control of Maximillian Rossi for so long. Baby steps, I guess. We’re both navigating this new father-daughter thing, not sure about boundaries or what’s allowed or not allowed.
I look down at my black yoga pants and gray cotton shirt that hangs off one shoulder that I hastily threw on, and debate whether to change clothes again. Declan had Pearson purchase a new wardrobe for me, and the garments were already waiting on a portable rack in my bedroom. Most were dresses, formal attire, and casual wear, but I wanted soft comfort. Thankfully, Pearson made sure to procure those items as well. I had taken a quick shower, so I’m sans makeup with my hair pulled up into a high ponytail. I wiggle my bare toes and groan at the state of my nail polish. I really do need a mani-pedi soon.
Reaching for my phone, the new one Declan set me up with, I check the news. I do a quick scan of the latest headlines, surprised that nothing shows up regarding the shootout at the Rossi estate three days ago. When I hear the mumble of voices, I turn my phone off and drop it onto the couch. The beating organ in my chest falters when Keane and Jax step off the elevator, two of Declan’s men behind them.
“Thank you. I can take it from here,” I tell the men, and they immediately comply, leaving me alone with Keane and Jax.
I drink them in, feeling like I can finally breathe normally again once I see that they are unharmed. Keane is wearing a dark navy-blue suit and silver-gray tie. His day’s growth of stubble only enhances his rugged, handsome face. Leadership looks good on him. I bite my bottom lip when I next look at Jax, my sexy Grim Reaper in his black-rimmed glasses. His dirty blond hair is sticking up every which way, his green eyes wild and rabid. Unlike Keane who is perfectly put together from his leather loafers to his expensive silk tie, Jax’s plain black T-shirt and black jeans that hang low on his hips are the complete opposite.
Taking my time with my perusal, I trace the lines of the tattoo that peek out from his collar and circle around his neck. Licking my lips, I’m desperate to say something, anything, but the words won’t form. I glance at the floor, trying to collect my whirlwind of thoughts. Skimming the pad of my thumb over the edge of my chin, I carefully consider how to deal with the two of them. I want to despise them. I really do. But too much has happened between us in the last couple of weeks. These men are like a cobra’s venom, their poison invading my bloodstream and eating away at the flesh of my hatred. The boys I grew up with. Kellan’s best friends. Young men who became killers, their souls corrupted by Maximillian Rossi. Men who say I’ve always been theirs.
But happy reunions are not why I told Declan I wanted to speak with them. Keane and Jax made promises to me, and they are damn well going to keep them.
Keane’s skeptical gaze roams around the room, taking everything in—the luxury and creature comforts of my new home—before landing heavily on me, making me want to squirm under the weight of it. I’m sure they were expecting me to be tied to a chair and beaten like before, not standing in the middle of a fifteen-thousand-square-foot suite in one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city.
“Thank you for coming.”
Keane’s humorless, low chuckle puts me on alert. “You look well.”
Feeling the energy in the room skyrocket to dangerous levels, I fold my lips together to stop my snarky comeback, not wanting things to escalate in the wrong direction.
“I’m glad you’re both okay,” I tell him, and I mean it.
Keane cocks his head slightly like he’s not sure if he believes me or not. Jax lurches forward, and I jump at his sudden movement, even though we’re on opposite sides of the room. Keane’s arm shoots out to hold Jax back and gives him a stern, “Wait.”
I clasp my nervous hands in front of me. “I killed him,” I whisper.
Keane’s attitude and stiff posture deflate a little. “Fuck, Tinker Bell.” He slowly shakes his head and releases a defeated sigh.
Is he disappointed in me? Because I would do it again. I hold no regrets over ending that cruel, abusive motherfucker. Okay, I have one regret. I wish I had drawn it out and made him suffer more.
I stand up straighter and hold my head high. I’m free now. I get to make my own decisions, choose my own path, my own destiny.
“Declan Levine is my father,” I announce, but they don’t appear shocked by that tidbit of news.
I told Declan we didn’t need to run another DNA test after he showed me the results of the genetic panel that he did a year ago. I trust it. Declan and I look too much alike, have the same rare eye color, for it not to be true.
To make certain they heard me, I say, “Declan is my biological father. Max lied. Kellan lied. My mother lied. She’s dead, by the way.”
Nothing. No reply. Not one damn thing.
Jax starts pacing back and forth behind Keane, a wild beast wanting out of its cage. He hasn’t spoken a word since they arrived, and it’s starting to worry me.
Finally, Keane spouts with annoyance, “You’re out of your goddamn mind, princess, if you think that Levine is a good man. He may be your real dad, but he’s using you.”
I want to laugh in his face at his hypocrisy. I’ve been used one way or another by almost everyone in my life.
“Kind of like your lame marriage proposal?” I challenge him to deny that he wasn’t also using me for his own gains.
He may have wrapped his offer of marriage in a pretty package of doing it to save me from being given to Alejandro and the Ortiz Cartel, but I wasn’t born yesterday. As Rossi’s only living heir, marrying me would have permanently solidified Keane’s standing in the family, making it easier for him to take over when the time came. Well, he got his wish and without having to marry me. I’m not even Rossi’s biological child, so joke’s on him.
The smirk Keane gives me is laced with secrets that make my heart flutter. He wouldn’t look so smug if there wasn’t a reason behind it. Surely, he doesn’t think I’ll still consider his offer. I don’t need to. I killed the devil, and Declan is going to help me make sure Alejandro and Julio receive the same fate. I don’t need Keane to accomplish that anymore. I will repeat that mantra over and over until I begin to believe it.
“Uncle Dom and most of the capos are dead. I had their bodies brought to the cabin and laid out at Max’s feet. I sent that message. Not Declan. Me . I want the families to know that I’m coming for them.”
For some reason, I’m not going to pontificate too much over, I want Keane to see the new power I now hold; a tiny part of me needing to impress him, make him proud of me. You’re pathetic and acting like a child who begs for any scrap of attention and approval .
Getting more irritated because Keane continues to be his non-emotive, asshole- ish self, I say to Jax, “I want my knife back.”
Jax stops his frenetic back and forth, and finally, I get a reaction. It’s just not the one I was expecting. My demand unlocks the iron bars around him and before I can blink or utter a sound, I’m slammed into by what feels like a wrecking ball of solid muscle.
Gasping, I grab onto his wide shoulders. “Jax, what are you?—”
All the air explodes out of me when he slams me down onto the glass coffee table. I only have a second to prepare myself before his lips are on mine and his tongue is forcing its way into my mouth. Anything I had wanted to say gets pushed aside as I meet Jax’s punishing kiss, moaning loudly when his fingers circle around my nape and grab my ponytail. After two days of being on an emotional roller coaster, my body comes alive, craving the touch of the killer who is currently claiming every inch of me.
“Let her go. Now .”
I turn my head with effort, the pain from Jax’s hold on my hair pulling and stinging my scalp. Liam’s massive form materializes behind Keane, a gun pointed directly at his head. Keane didn’t sense Liam come up behind him because his hazel gaze had been laser-focused on me and Jax.
“Liam, stop!” I shout, but it’s too late.
Keane moves so quickly, he’s nothing but a blur. He rams back into Liam, both of them going down. Keane is the first to recover. He tucks and rolls, and is immediately back up on his feet, Glock drawn. Where in the hell did he hide his weapon? I thought the guards were supposed to frisk them before they were allowed up.
Liam slowly rises, his gun steady as he matches Keane’s stance. These two alphaholes are going to kill each other if I don’t do something.
A flash of red streaks in front of my eyes, and I hiss when my skin burns along my clavicle. Jax is holding his red-hilted knife, carving a small path along my skin.
With wide wonderment, I look up at him, but he’s staring right at Liam as he laps up the trickle of blood that oozes out from the small cut. The scrape of his tongue against my skin goes straight to my clit, and I can feel the warm wetness of my arousal soak my panties. What Jax is doing shouldn’t be turning me on but tell that to my traitorous body.
“Make a move and I’ll slit her throat,” he threatens, sliding the tip of the knife down my chest, cutting through the cotton of my T-shirt like butter.
I didn’t put on a bra, and my nipples pinch into hard peaks when he circles the blade around each breast. The cold steel pressing against my overheated flesh makes me tremble, then hum, as he takes one hard bud into his mouth, laving it with flicks of his hot tongue.
I roll my head to the side, Liam and Keane filling my vision. Our eyes clash just as Jax wrenches my attention back to him.
“Why are you looking at them? They’re not going to save you from me.”
To prove his point, he digs the knife into my neck, and I flinch but love it just the same. This is the game we play, Jax and I. I don’t move. I don’t swallow. I stop breathing. Jax tugs my leggings and underwear down. The sound of a zipper being pulled reverberates in my ears and my pulse thickens as lust clouds my senses.
“Don’t you fucking dare,” Liam threatens but doesn’t make a move that would set Jax off.
“Is that the guy you screwed?” Jax tsks me, teasing my clit with the tip of his cock. If he keeps that up, I’m going to come embarrassingly quickly.
I knew it was only a matter of time before Jax discovered all my secrets. That’s what he does. He picks at the digital bones of your life like a carrion, ripping apart tiny pieces of your entire existence until he has consumed every part of you.
Not able to lie to him, I hush out a yes, and he pinches my clit hard in punishment. I could stop him. Jax knows it. I could immobilize his grip on his knife using a pressure point in his wrist, then slam my open palm against his nose, shattering pieces of bone and cartilage and sending them directly into his brain.
“Yes,” I say louder, taunting him, craving what I know is about to happen. I don’t have to wait long.
With a growl, Jax thrusts inside of me, fast and deep, only stopping when every inch of him is buried to the hilt and his balls smack against my ass.
My back arches taut and I clutch his chest to hold on as he brutally fucks me into the table. When I feel the nip on my top lip, I open for him without thought. He swallows my hedonistic cries as he kisses the hell out of me while holding the knife to my throat, making sure that Keane and Liam don’t make a move to stop him.
I don’t care. I’ve missed him. Jax needs to take his demons out on me, and I’m more than happy to let him. I can see the effects of the stress and sleepless nights written all over his lethally gorgeous face. How much the past few days have affected him. Jax is punishing me. Marking me. Making sure I understand who I belong to, even though he knows damn well, I refuse to belong to anyone. Never again will I allow a man to control my life.
I also need this as much as he does. I was so scared that he had been shot. That he and Keane didn’t make it out in time. I may want to explore this new familial relationship with Declan, but I don’t think I would ever have been able to forgive him if Jax and Keane had been killed by his men. And if Liam hurts either of them, I will kill him myself.
My hands immediately go to Jax’s half-covered ass to help him pound me into a vicious and quick orgasm that has me screaming my release. When Jax suddenly pulls out of me, my nerve endings are firing like crazy, and my body is a twitchy mass of boneless goo. He grabs his cock with his free hand and jerks it hard until he’s coming all over my chest.
“Mine,” Jax states, rubbing himself into my skin until it soaks in, coating me in his rich, musky scent. But he’s not done.
He bends to my stomach, sucking my belly button ring into his mouth, and gives it a pull that sends a jolt straight to my core. His wicked tongue licks up my stomach and between the valley of my breasts before reaching my mouth. He kisses me one last time, softly, tenderly, and I savor the salty taste of it.
Jax traces his nose across my flushed skin, stopping to mark me with his teeth at the dip of my neck. His bite is hard enough that I whimper in pain, but I lilt my head to the side to give him better access. This wasn’t how I thought our reunion would go, but I’m not complaining.
A small movement has me looking up, and I freeze. I was so lost in the moment with Jax, I completely forgot Keane and Liam were there.
They aren’t training their guns on one another anymore. They’re both watching me and Jax with hot, scorching eyes, and it makes me remember how good it felt when Keane went down on me while Jax kissed me. My gaze dips and lingers on the two huge bulges trapped behind the flies of their trousers. Keane and Liam got turned on watching Jax fuck me. The fantasies that bit of knowledge elicits has my head swimming with all sorts of sordid, lurid possibilities.
Jax tongues my ear and sucks on the fleshy lobe, and I moan again, not able to help myself.
“Dirty girl,” he teases, knowing exactly where my mind went.
Attempting to have the much-needed conversation with all of them will be ridiculous while Jax is licking me. I wiggle underneath him, trying to get enough room between us so I can push against his chest.
“We need to talk, and I can’t do that with you on top of me.”
His grin is demonic. “Figure it out because I’m about to fuck you again.”
My sore pussy clenches enthusiastically in response.
Liam literally stomps out of the room and down the hallway, clearly angry and upset. Keane hasn’t moved a muscle.
Jax’s glasses are slightly askew and fogged up. I push them back into place and flick a finger to the tip of his nose.
“Not on this coffee table.” I’m splayed half on and half off it, Jax’s weight holding me down, and my back is killing me.
Keane bends over us and glides a finger down the side of my cheek, stopping at my mouth. His thumb sweeps my bottom lip, and he brings the digit up and sucks it into his mouth, humming like it’s the best thing he’s ever tasted.
“Jax, you made your fucking point. Let her up.”
Jax slowly pulls the knife from my throat and snaps it closed, placing it in my right hand. I curl my fingers around it, vowing to never be without it again.
“Thank you for bringing it back to me.”
He kisses the small cut he made on my chest and smiles at me. A real, honest smile. Executing a one-armed push-up to give me some breathing room, he reaches down and tucks himself back into his jeans, then helps me pull my underwear and stretchy yoga pants back up. There’s nothing I can do about the state of my shirt. I’m not shy about my body, so I don’t go all demure when Keane helps me to a sitting position and my bare, cum-covered chest is on display for the entire room to see.
Liam comes back holding one of my new T-shirts that Pearson got for me. He tosses it to me, just as Jax reaches back and pulls his black shirt over his head. The sight of his amazing ink and his lean, defined chest leaves me a bit dazed. I love looking at his tattoos.
He touches my shoulder, waiting patiently for me to lift both my arms up so he can pull his shirt over me. I sniff the fabric. Sandalwood, citrus, and Jax.
Once covered, I sit down on the couch and drape the shirt Liam brought over the armrest. Jax immediately drops down next to me, a satisfied, satiated look relaxing his face.
No one says a word about what just happened.
Holding their guns at their sides, Keane and Liam reluctantly take a seat in the leather armchairs across from us. Liam glares at Jax, and because my Grim Reaper never backs down from any provocation, he reaches under my armpit and cups my breast to fondle my nipple. He may as well just piss a circle around me. I smack his hand away because I can’t think properly when he’s doing that.
I try my best to focus on Keane and not the hand that has snuck under my borrowed shirt and is now playing with my belly button ring.
“How did you find out I was here?”
I push at Jax’s hand for him to cut it out when his pinky finger trails back and forth under the waistband of my yoga pants.
Keane struggles not to watch what Jax is doing and motions to Liam. “Who the hell is this?”
“Liam is…” The guy I had hot sex with once? Declan’s enforcer? My kidnapper? The man who tenderly cared for me at the cottage when my entire world fell apart? My bodyguard?
“I’m hers.” Liam doesn’t elaborate further.
“Fuck you,” Jax snarls and pulls me into his lap. I scramble out of it and give both of them a don’t-you-dare-start-shit glower.
“Liam works for Declan.”
Keane’s lush lips press together, his rapt attention now on Liam. “You’re Liam Connelly?”
Liam smirks. “So?”
Keane faces me with bewilderment. “You fucked Liam Connelly? Jesus, Andie, are you aware of who he is? His reputation is worse than Jax’s.”
Immediately annoyed that Keane is saying Liam is a bigger psychopath than he is, Jax pipes in, “Is not.”
Liam uses his gun in a lewd gesture that tells Keane to suck his dick. “I’m sitting right here, asshole. You want to know anything about me, ask me yourself. Don’t tattle like a weak-ass bitch.”
I’m fed up with all the bullshit testosterone smothering the air around me. Getting up, I walk across the room, gesturing toward the exit. “Yes, I slept with him. A year ago. He was a guy I met at a club on one of the worst days of my life. I didn’t know who he was then. Jax just fucked me on the coffee table in front of you. He fucked me a few days ago. You’ve had your tongue up my pussy, and Rafe took my virginity. Can we please move on from my sex life and get to the more important issues at hand? If not, then get the hell out.”
Jax whistles through his teeth. “Damn, woman.”
I point a finger at him. “Shut up. I mean it. I’ve had a shit week and I’m tired. I also need to check on Sarah.”
Keane’s head swivels around the room like he expects her to pop up out of nowhere. “She’s supposed to be at the safehouse with Meribella.”
Both he and Jax take out their phones, typing away furiously. They won’t be able to get in touch with the two men that were guarding them because they’re dead.
Liam props a leg up on the coffee table, absentmindedly tapping his gun against his thigh. “Sarah is perfectly safe,” he assures them. “Can’t say as much for the nanny.”
I expect Keane to lose his shit once again, but he only raises an eyebrow at Liam.
“She confessed that she was Rossi’s mistress.”
So, my gut instinct was right. I may also have thrown up a little inside my mouth.
“Rafael killed her,” Liam adds.
What?
Keane sits forward, rage rising hot and fast. “Where is that duplicitous cocksucker?”
I’m still upset with Rafe, but I jump in and defend him regardless. “Rafe had the balls to do what no one else would. He got me out. He wasn’t going to stand by with his finger shoved up his ass and wait around for me to be handed over to Alejandro.”
Time ran out. The dinner party was about to happen. Julio and Alejandro were on their way. Rafe and Declan’s men made their move just in time, and as much as I hate how he did it, Rafe saved me.
“I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
I scoff at Keane’s hubris. “Do you know what Max did to him?”
That catches both Keane and Jax off guard. Did every person in that house turn a blind eye to what Max was doing? It shattered me when Rafe told me what happened the last night we were together. The torture he endured. For me. The decisions he was forced to make because he felt like he had no other choice.
“What are you talking about?”
The fact that Keane asks just makes me angrier.
“ What the hell happened? What are you talking about? ” I mock in a deep voice. “Do you know how many times you’ve asked those same questions?”
I pretend to count on my fingers, one by one, making a big show of it, then end it with a middle finger to give him a big fuck you. My theatrics are not appreciated.
“For someone who goes on and on about loyalty, you’re a shit friend,” I tell him. “But understand this. Rafe is under Declan’s protection. And mine. Touch a hair on his head and I will gut you with Jax’s knife.”
Keane rises slowly from the chair so he can look down at me. It’s a show of dominance. That between the two of us, he’s the one with the power.
“You threatening me, Tinker Bell?”
I shove myself into Keane’s personal space until our bodies are scant inches apart. “Damn right I am!”
His scent enraptures me. Being this close to him was a mistake. I take a small step back. The delicious curve of his lips lets me know he notices.
“It’s nice to know you still care, mi rosa .”
“Rafe, for fuck’s sake,” I say, irritated that he’s insinuating himself into my argument with Keane.
There’s a clearing of a throat and I pause. Rafe isn’t alone. Next to him are Declan, Tessa, and several heavily armed men.
“What happened to his shirt?” Tessa inquires, her smile huge as she looks at Jax wide-eyed and pointing a fake accusatory finger at his bare chest.
Jax is still without a shirt because I’m wearing it.
She is such a shit-stirrer. I give her a glare and get a very happy Cheshire smile in return.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell the room, grabbing Jax by the arm.
With the strength only absolute embarrassment at being caught by your new dad after having sex on his coffee table can give, I drag Jax with me to my room, snatching the shirt Liam brought for me from the couch as we go.
As soon as we step into my room, I close the door and lean back against it.
“Are you okay?” I ask Jax.
Just like the other night we spent together, when he came to me and later confessed the gruesome way he had just killed a man, I sense the darkness in him taking over once again. I can see it in his eyes. I felt it in the way he claimed me in front of Keane and Liam.
“I am now.” There’s relief in his voice.
My heart softens at his words. “Come here.”
I reach my hand out for his and pull him to me so I can wrap my arms around him and lay my cheek flat against his chest, needing to hear the solid thump of his beating heart. Jax molds me to him, his face dipping down and burying into my hair.
There are times in life when we just need someone to hold us, to give us comfort and solace, and make us believe that everything is going to be all right.
After a minute, I pull away so I can strip out of his shirt and pull it over his head. I smooth the soft cotton flat with my hands and rise up on tiptoe to kiss him lightly on the lips. My breasts caress against him, a slight shiver rolling through me at the contact. Jax touches a finger to the area on my neck where Rafe pricked me with the syringe. I cover his hand with mine.
“Promise me you won’t hurt him.”
“I can’t promise that,” Jax replies.
I can’t imagine what he and Keane are feeling. My only comparison is how violated I felt when I recently discovered the secrets Kellan had kept from me. The lies he told. The betrayal Jax and Keane must feel now regarding Rafe, a blood brother who had been their best friend since childhood—it has to be ten times worse. However much I understand it, and however much I know the three of them will eventually need to sort their shit out, I’ll still protect Rafe from them. I owe him that much. A pound of flesh for the torture he endured from Max in punishment for being found in my bed. For loving me.
I take a quick three-minute shower to wash off the dried cum on my chest. When I exit the bathroom, Jax is still there. He hands me the shirt from before and a pair of jeans he must’ve found in the clothes on the rack. I make a show for his benefit of placing his knife in my back pocket, and I’m rewarded with an upward twist of his delectable mouth.
We stand a few feet apart, but the pull I feel toward him is relentless. I have to physically stop myself from walking over to him and wrapping my arms around him, wanting to take all his demons away. Wanting to see a full smile grace his lips. Wanting to see something other than that lost, haunted look he carries on his face every day.
Eventually, I can no longer resist the pull. Stepping forward, I draw my thumb across his brow, smoothing the worry lines away.
“My Reaper.”
With forest-green eyes holding me captive, he snags my wrist and holds it to his chest, right above his beating heart. He may have lost his soul to darkness long ago, but his heart belongs to me, and I will protect it until my dying breath.