Page 33 of Before the Fall
As much as I want to stay awake and tell her how much I love her now and forever, I can’t keep myself from drifting off to sleep after all those hours of being smacked around by that asshole Dickie. I let myself go, knowing when I wake up my Tia will be right here next to me.
Just as it always should be.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Tia
For the past half hour, I’ve watched Jaxon next to me, amazed at how someone so rough could look so peaceful and innocent as he sleeps. I truly didn’t want to believe he was dead, but as I lay here all day, I was beginning to lose hope.
I should have known better. Jaxon isn’t a man anyone can get rid of that easily.
The bruises all over his face and body tell the story of what he went through after they pulled him from the car wreck in that field. I don’t know his uncle, but from all he’s told me and what I’ve heard from Ryker and Cason, Victor is a terrible man. That he’d hurt his nephew like this just makes that fact all the more vivid.
With my fingertip, I trace a deep purple mark across the middle of his stomach and wonder what he endured to get it. I hate to think of someone slamming their fists into his body. What could he have done to warrant such barbaric behavior?
“That tickles,” he says with a chuckle.
I look up at his face and see him smiling. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I just can’t sleep anymore, but I didn’t want to leave your side. I didn’t want you to think I was all a dream.”
“You are a dream, but the kind that actually exists. Trust me. The rest of my life is a total nightmare, so you must be a dream.”
Sitting up beside him, I touch his hands covered in cuts and bruises. “You sleep like an angel, even though you look like you’ve gone twelve rounds with someone today.”
He groans as he tries to push himself up against the pillows. “A shithead named Dickie. I swear if I get the opportunity, I’m going to give him everything he gave me and more.”
I don’t know if I should ask any of the questions swirling around in my head about what’s going on, but I can’t stop myself. I’m in the middle of all of it now, so I want to know what’s going to happen.
“Jaxon, why did your uncle have someone do this to you?”
He tries to take a deep breath but stops halfway through and groans again. “Fucking ribs. God, they hurt.”
Sensing he wants to avoid this conversation, I drop the topic for the time being. We can talk about everything later. He might not want to, but I need to know what the future holds.
When I don’t say anything, lost in thought about the idea of a future with Jaxon, he says quietly, “My dear uncle Victor wanted to drive the point home that he has the power and I was just an unwelcome guest in his house.”
His vague answer confuses me, so I ask, “What do you mean? You’re his nephew. Why aren’t you welcome in his home?”
Jaxon smiles and rolls his eyes. “My family isn’t like yours. You come from nice people. I come from killers. And when killers want to get their point across, they either murder someone or give them a taste of pain. Since my uncle has some strange familial feelings about me, likely because of my father and nothing I’ve ever done since I betrayed him by coming to work for Ryker, he chose not to kill me. But he needed to get his point across, which meant Dickie and his fists of fury.”
He's trying to be tough, but I know he’s hurting. Not just physically either.
“I’m afraid, Jaxon. If he would do that to you, what would he do to me or my parents?” I ask as I stare at that terrible purple mark that seems to be getting darker as the seconds tick by.
When he answers my question, I hear fear in his voice too. “He’d kill you. It’s that simple.”
Hearing that sends terror coursing through me. When I look up at his face, I know he’s not lying. Anyone who could do that to his nephew’s face would have no problem hurting and killing someone he doesn’t even know.
“What are we going to do?”
Jaxon winces from pain and gently touches my cheek. “We kill him before he kills us.”
Horrified by the very thought of being responsible for someone’s death, I shake my head, knowing he’s right. “It’s that simple?”
“It is.”
We sit in silence for a long moment before he says, “I never wanted you to be touched by any of this, Tia. I swear I thought I could keep you safe. I was wrong. I thought we could be happy and not have to do the things I knew in the back of my mind would eventually become necessary.”
“You told me once that loyalty was one of the most important things in your family. Are you really going to be able to kill your uncle?” I ask, not understanding any of this.