Chapter Fifteen
JAX
SHE FALTERS for a second and her eyebrows pull together. “Then why not tell me? Why let me find out like that in front of everyone?”
Keeping my hands in front of me, my chest constricts from the hurt and betrayal that moves across her face, and I take a few seconds to decide what I am willing to tell her.
Someday, I will tell her everything, but not today.
“My reason for not telling you is selfish, and I never expected you to find out like that.”
She watches me but doesn’t say a word as her hands fall to her sides. That’s when I hear Mason’s footfalls approaching the stables. Her eyes jump to the big entrance and watch him step up beside me.
“Marley…” He starts to say something, but she interrupts.
“Did you have anything to do with it?” The question is thrown at him like a spear. She takes a step toward him with her finger pointed at him. “And don’t you dare forget, Mason Wade, that I can read you like a book.”
He slices his head to the left once. “I wasn’t there.”
This catches her off-guard and she drops her hand as she steps back again, the crease between her eyebrows is deeper as she stares at him for several moments.
“But you knew it was happening.” It’s not a question and sounds more like a spoken thought than a statement as her eyes drop to the floor between the three of us.
“Marley.” Her eyes snap back up to him and she holds her hand up to silence him.
“If you knew it was happening, then you know who did it.”
It’s slight, but years of working in the field together and learning every twitch that could be the difference between life and death, in my peripheral, I see Mason’s body go stiff and he fists his hands at his sides. Marley sees it, too.
“It’s not my information to share, Mar.” He lifts his ball cap off his head and scrubs his fingers through his hair before he sets it back down. “I can’t tell you.”
It’s at this moment I realize the level of betrayal she feels, because her face falls and hurt shines in her eyes. “Is it because it’s work related?” The question is a whisper, hoping he’s not intentionally keeping her in the dark.
The twin silent communication happens in front of my eyes.
They stare at each other before he looks down and tears fill her eyes as her shoulders fall.
The person she trusts most in the world is choosing someone over her, and it’s killing me that it’s hurting her.
On the flip side, I can feel the anger directed at me from Mason.
I didn’t want to tell her like this. Until just a minute ago, I wasn’t sure that I would ever tell her. I don’t want to be a wedge between her and Mason, that would hurt her too much. It looks like either way, I’m going to hurt her today.
“It was me.” Both heads swivel in my direction.
Marley’s eyes are wide, and she looks between me and Mason, who has looped his thumbs in his pockets and looks at his feet.
She opens her mouth to say something but closes it, and her eyes slowly move down my body as she zones out, probably thinking the worst. Smart girl.
I take a step towards her. “Mason had nothing to do with it.”
“I think I should let you talk,” Mason says and starts to turn.
“Don’t go.” Marley snaps.
My heart sinks and Mason stays next to me, his hands hanging on his hips as he silently looks at the floor. Does she feel like she needs him here as a buffer between us, or does she just want to make sure she has all the information?
Panic slices through my chest as I consider she could be afraid of me now.
Marley clears her throat and links her trembling fingers in front of her. “You tortured them?”
Taking a deep breath, I nod. “It was repayment. I believe I’ve heard you say, ‘what’s good for the goose is good for the gander’.”
Shock and anger flashes in her eyes and she sucks in a breath. “Don’t ever use my words against me. And I’m still alive.”
Flashes of what I imagine happened to her flicker across my mind and the possibilities of what could have been makes my blood boil. “Yes. You are still alive, and they will never hurt another woman.”
Her voice is shaking when she yells, “I didn’t want to live with that on my conscience.” She points her finger at the ground to drive the point and I see the tremor in her hand.
“You won’t. You had nothing to do with it. I made the decision, and I carried it out.” I’m pointing at my chest, emphasizing the ‘I’ each time I say it.
Anger hardens her beautiful features, and she slaps her palm over her chest. “It happened to me, you went after them because of me, they are dead because of what they did to me.” She emphasizes ‘me’ each time she says it.
“Mar, we found out DA Blevins was in the outfit’s pocket that Hallie’s ex is part of, he’s the one that got him out early.
” Mason drops his head and looks up at Marley through his eyelashes, a wince on his face.
“We also found out he squashed quite a few sexual harassment suites brought against Keith. They were bad people, hun.”
Her chest is rising and falling faster, and her eyes drop to the floor in thought as she taps her fingers against her thumb.
“Mar, this isn’t all because of you,” Mason says, his voice calm and even.
“Don’t do that!” Her eyes snap up to Mason and she squares her shoulders. “Stop talking to me like I’m a child and stop pretending like it had nothing to do with me.”
“It had everything to do with you.” If she wants the truth, I will give her the truth.
Her head jerks back like I slapped her, and Mason’s head turns to me so fast I’m surprised he didn’t get whiplash. “What the fuck?” He growls.
I return his stare. “I’ll tell her the truth.” Then I cut my eyes to her. “She won’t like it, but that’s what she wants, and she deserves it.”
Her eyes are focused on me, that little line between her eyebrows is deeper, and the only sound in the room is the sound of a cricket in a corner somewhere.
A slight breeze moves through the building, moving the tendrils of hair around her face.
The angry spark in her eyes and the flush under her skin make her even more beautiful.
Taking a step toward her, I lock my eyes on hers and talk to her like I would one of the guys from the team. “Yes, I gave them what they fucking deserve. Because they hurt you, and many other women, I became the nightmare they have been to others.”
Some of the anger drains from her face, as well as the color from her cheeks, and surprise flashes across her eyes. Her gaze flicks to Mason and then back to me.
Taking another step toward her, I keep talking, my voice sharp.
I’m not angry at her, I’m angry because there are men like that in this world who men like me have to take care of.
“I learned a long time ago men like that hide no good inside them, Marley. If they are not stopped, they will take until there is nothing left to take.”
“Jax.” I hear Mason’s voice and my head swings in his direction. He only shakes his head.
Marley’s eyes are wide, but they are still on me. Mason is right to stop me, I was about to say some things that I could never take back. Details she should not hear. Taking a deep, cleansing breath, I wipe my face with my palm and face her again.
Keeping my voice low, I say what I should have said to begin with.
“I couldn’t let them come near you again.
When I heard their names connected to someone so close to you, living in the same house as you, I had to remove the threat.
I won’t apologize and I won’t tell you I feel bad about it, Marley.
I did it to protect you, uvek c?u se pobrinuti da bude? siguran.
” [I will always make sure you are safe]
The sound of a soft whinny from outside breaks through the silence, but no one moves.
I wait for some type of response from Marley, any type of reaction.
She stands frozen, gazing into space, and her chest is still moving fast. Dropping my eyes to her hands at her sides, the tapping of her fingers against her thumbs tells me I’ve said too much.
Taking a deep breath, I roll my head from one shoulder to another and glance at Mason.
He shakes his head slightly and then tips his head toward the door, telling me to leave.
At first I shake my head, I’m not leaving her like this, but he lifts his brow in question, ‘do you want to make it worse?’.
Fuck!
With one more glance in her direction, I fist my hands at my sides and leave the stable.
Walking straight to my bike, I don’t bother with my helmet and swing my leg over and start it.
The asshole in me wants to spin my tire and send gravel flying, but I know I’ll catch hell for it later if I do, and I calmly turn in the circle drive toward the main road.
Guilt is squeezing my chest for being the cause for her pain. I couldn’t let them live. Even if she never forgives me, at least she will be safe.
The need to break things is making my fingers itch and I drive to my condo. Tossing the keys on the island, I go right to my office and take a seat at the computer. I spend the next few hours plugging information into some applications that Spits created for me.
Frustration has me scrubbing my hands through my hair after executing at least two dozen searches and not finding much. David Barone’s police record is longer than my arm. He’s been in trouble since he was a teenager, but outside of court and police records, there’s not much to find.
I was able to hack his juvenile record, but it’s mainly the same stuff as his adult record; breaking and entering, public intoxication, distribution, intent to distribute, etc. The only nugget is that the DA assigned to his every case is DA Blevins.
Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I switch the language to my native language and send a text to my cousin.
Brana 14:25: Can you run a background check?
Dimitri 14:27: Da.
Brana 14:28: David Barone. Goes by ‘D’. Possibly associated with La Cosa Nostra. Don’t know which family. Headquartered in Chicago, maybe. Working with an outfit in Oklahoma.
Dimitri: 14:32: Oklahoma? I thought you were in Tennessee.
Brana 14:33: In Oklahoma with Mason, there is a threat to his family.
Brana 14:33: And to someone I care very much about.
Dimitri 14: 34: I’ll make inquiries.
I pull up the tracking app on my phone and stare at the little red dot. My shoulders feel like twisted metal, and I rotate my neck to loosen them, but it doesn’t help. When I spin my desk chair around and stretching doesn’t help, I give up and walk to the kitchen.
The bottle of vodka in the freezer is calling my name and I grab a rocks glass from the cabinet and collapse on the sofa in the living room. Frost has formed on the clear bottle, and I fill the glass half-way and sit back on the sofa to drink myself into oblivion.