Chapter Thirty-Five
JAX
MASON SOFTLY tapping on Marley’s bedroom door before the sun is even up pulls me out of what felt like the best sleep of my fucking life. I slowly lift my head, trying not to wake Marley up, and look over my shoulder.
For the past few nights, Marley won’t let me leave her room. Not like I was going to, anyway. She says she can’t sleep without me. She is still having dreams, but they are not as bad if I’m in the room with her.
All he has to do is hold his hand up against his ear like a phone, and I know it’s a call from Callum, and probably a new job.
Damn, that means I’m going to have to go out with the team right after I promised Marley I wouldn’t leave her side.
Down in the kitchen, he hands me a cup of coffee and sets his phone on the island. I’m not really a morning person, so the silence between us as we wait for Callum to call is okay with me.
Only a few minutes go by before the phone buzzes and Mason taps the screen.
“Yep, Jax is with me.”
“Good.” Callum’s voice sounds groggy over the line, especially since he is an hour behind us. “New job just came in. Wife went missing in Columbia. Girl’s weekend. Her friends report a man watching her. We need to head out today.”
I scrub my hand over my face and then scrub my fingertips through my hair. “ETA?”
“About oh-nine-hundred your time.” I look at my watch, that gives me almost four hours to tell Marley I’m going to be gone for a week or more.
Mason is watching me as he says, “Okay, send us the rules of engagement and geo-specifics, we’ll get started on the recon.”
I nod my head. “Got it.”
“How’s your leg?” Callum asks, and I give Mason an accusing look. He shrugs his shoulder and rolls his eyes like it was stupid of me to think he wouldn’t tell.
“It’s fine, it was just a graze.”
“Is he playing it off?” Callum asks, the question directed at Mason.
Mason gives me a shit-eating grin. “Nah, he’s walking fine, it was just a graze.”
“Roger that. I’ll see you guys in a few hours.” The line goes dead.
“Fucker.” I say and walk over to the coffeepot to refill my cup.
“Pftt.” He jerks his head. “What? Did you think he wouldn’t find out?
” He sets his cup on the marble countertop, the now empty glazed pottery making a little clink, and rubs his eyes.
“Now I have to tell my heavily pregnant wife I’m going to be gone and that she’s not allowed to go into labor or experience anything new or special ‘till I get back.”
Leaning against the counter, I take a sip of the hot, black nectar, practically feeling my body energize with each drink and lift my eyebrows. “How long does she have?”
“About five weeks if he wants to come out of there on his due date.”
I whistle low between my teeth. “Cutting it close.” It’s my turn to jerk my head. “Holy shit. You’re about to be a dad.”
“No shit, mind-boggling, right?”
Boots scraping on the hardwood has both of us looking over to Gray walking into the kitchen. He doesn’t say anything as he walks to the coffeepot. Mason looks amused as he watches his brother.
Less than a minute later, his girlfriend, Elly, walks in behind him. She’s dressed for work in a tight skirt and a silk blouse. Even with her heels on, she’s not even five foot five. She’s pretty tiny. It’s almost comical to see them standing next to each other, he has a whole foot or more on her.
“Morning guys.” She says in her chipper voice.
I give her a chin lift. I guess Mason is the only one talking today because he actually responds to her with a ‘good morning’.
“Why are you guys up so early?” She asks and steals Gray’s coffee cup from his hands right after he takes his first drink. He doesn’t seem to notice and only yawns as he turns to get another cup down from the counter.
“Call from Callum. New job.” Mason says, and scrubs both of his hands over his face. “I gotta go wake Sloane up and tell her the good news.”
Gray turns and looks at him in surprise. “You’re going out when she’s this close?”
“She still has five weeks, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”
“Have you decided on a name?” Elly asks and tips her cup up to her lips again.
“Beckett Wayne.”
She nods. “I like it. It’s strong.”
“That’s what Sloane says.” Mason says, pride shining in his eyes.
Gray’s eyes move to me. “You told Marley you’re leaving?”
There has been an underlying tension between Gray and I since I told him I’m going to marry his sister. I don’t want there to be any issues between us for Marley’s sake, but on the flip side, I don’t give a fuck if he likes me or not.
“I’m about to go do that right now.” I rinse my cup and put it in the dishwasher so Hallie or Sloane won’t have to do it.
Hallie’s still moving a little slow after the beating D gave her when he had them, so is Sloane, obviously.
To be honest, if I don’t pick up after myself, I always hear Dimitri’s voice in my head yelling at me to do it.
“Have you told her about the necklace?” He’s still pissed about the necklace, but I plan to tell her when she’s feeling better.
“What about the necklace?” Marley is standing in the kitchen doorway and every head in the room swings in her direction. Her hand instinctively goes to the little horseshoe necklace sitting just under her collarbones.
Fucking hell.
You could hear a pin drop.
“Shit.” Mason whispers behind me before he steps up to her and kisses her forehead. “It’s good to see you up, sis. You feeling better?”
She looks between me and Gray, confusion in her blue eyes. “I thought I was until thirty seconds ago when the atmosphere in the room turned static-y. What’s going on? Are you talking about my necklace?”
“I’m going to go wake Sloane up.” Mason says and slips out the door with a ‘good luck’ glance in my direction.
Without looking away from Marley, I answer Gray’s question. “No, Gray, I was going to tell her when she was feeling better.”
Her eyes stay locked on me, the little line between her eyebrows getting deeper by the second.
“That wasn’t intentional, I swear I didn’t know she was there. She’s like a cat,” Gray says. I think it’s the first time I’ve heard regret in his voice.
“Hey, Gray, will you help me find my phone in the bedroom? I need to get to work.” Elly says as he clears her throat and grabs his hand.
“Fuck.” I hear Gray mumble and he is shaking his head as he walks from the room behind Elly. He drops a kiss on top of Marley’s head as he walks by her.
Marley is quiet, but it is the loudest fucking quiet I’ve ever heard.
The entire fucking family has the gift of being able to wipe all emotion from their face.
They have the best fucking poker faces I’ve ever seen in my life.
I see Mason, Gray and Mr. Harlow do it all the time.
But now Marley’s dark blues don’t waver as she looks at me. Waiting for an answer.
Putting one hand on my hip and cupping my jaw with the other, I look back at her. I always told myself that I wouldn’t have a problem telling her I track her every move, but in that futuristic time in my imagination, she’s not looking at me like that.
“So, there are two parts to what I’m going to tell you, and I’d hoped to work up to the part that might make you angry.”
Her eyebrows pull together, and her fingers are still pinching the little horseshoe.
She looks good enough to eat standing there in her little sleep shorts and the t-shirt half off one shoulder.
Her long messy hair is pulled up into a fat bun on top of her head that is sticking out in every direction.
Her eyes are still a little puffy from crying after a nightmare last night, and I’m worried that she might think of my tracking habit as a betrayal and cry again. Fuck, I don’t want to be a reason she cries.
“How did you sleep, by the way?” I ask and step toward her.
“Fine, better when you’re with me.” She stands her ground, but I think I see a little bit of hurt there for the secrecy and my pussy footing around telling her the truth.
“Fuck.” I scrub my hands down my face, pulling the skin on my cheeks with my fingertips. Behind my fingers I blurt out, “I put a tracker in the necklace you wear.” Trying to soften the blow, I follow up with. “It’s how I found you when they took you.”
She looks like I just told her I ate her favorite pet for dinner and takes a step back. “How? I never take it off.”
“I sent it to you.”
“You tricked me.”
I step with her and place my hands on her hips, making her tip her head back. “No, it wasn’t a trick. I wanted to get something for you and I knew you would like the horseshoe, so I had one special made with the tracker set behind the diamond.”
“The figurine?”
The horse figurine I sent with the necklace I saw at a specialty shop when I was walking in Prague not long after I first met her, I was thinking of her, like I usually do, when I saw it in a window.
I bought it on the spot. “I got that on a whim. I saw it when I was on a job in Europe and it made me think of you.”
Her face softens, and she smiles up at me. “Thank you. It’s one of my favorite belongings.” But then the smile falls away, and she is serious again. “The tracker?”
“Please don’t be mad. There is a reason for it. It’s a deep-seated disturbing reason, but there is a reason.”
“I’m listening.”
Looking over her head, realizing I’m about to walk down a memory lane that I usually keep locked in a place where I don’t have to look at it. I take a deep breath and look back down at her.
“I already told you that I lost my mother and sister to the same type of men who hurt you, right?”
Her eyes soften and she nods.
“Well, there’s more to the story. My mother, sister, me, and my cousin Vasilei were taken during a raid on our house in Serbia. The organized crime group my father and uncles were part of ended up splitting after some disagreements. My family was caught up in it.”
She is looking at me expectantly, and I have to steel myself to say the next part out loud. “We were held for two weeks before my uncles found us.” I take another deep breath. “I watched terrible things happen to my mother before she died and then they killed my little sister.”
Her fingers go to her lips as she sucks in a gasp. “Oh, Brana.”
Giving her hips a reassuring squeeze, I go on. “If any of us had been equipped with a tracker, they would have found us sooner and my mother and sister would still be here.”
She is quiet for a moment before she cups my face in her hands. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
Her eyes start to glass over, and I shake my head. “I didn’t tell you that to upset you or make you feel sorry for me.”
“I know.” She clears her throat. “But that doesn’t make it any less tragic or sad. Thank you for sharing that with me.”
A small piece of hair falls across her forehead, and I reach up to push it aside.
“The day I walked into this house and saw you in front of the Christmas tree, I knew you were so much more than my best friend’s sister.
Not a day has gone by between then and now that I don’t think about you.
” I suck in a breath through my nose. “I don’t want to lose someone else I love. ”
Her hands fall to my chest, her palms warm against my t-shirt. This time her eyes fill with tears. “I love you, too.”
I pull her into a hug and kiss her temple. “You’re the most important person in this world to me, I had to be able to see you when I couldn’t be around you.”
“Even if there wasn’t a threat?” Her voice is soft against my chest.
“That’s the thing about threats, they are usually unexpected. Even the guys on the team wear trackers when we are out on a job, its just a precaution. It’s safe.”
“I’ll wear your tracker. I just wish you would have told me.” Her hands slide around my ribs and up the middle of my back. Her voice is muffled in my t-shirt when she says, “No more secrets, okay?”
Setting my lips on top of her head, I say, “No more secrets.”
Her body is molded to mine and she lifts the back of my shirt, sliding her palms up my back, enjoying the warmth.
Feeling her hands on me like this is sending blood below my waist, but I put out that fire when I remind myself that I have to tell her my other good news.
With a deep breath, I squeeze her to me. “There’s something else I have to tell you.”