Page 99 of My Turn

“Jayce, put that away. What the hell are you doing?”

He glanced at me briefly, then returned his attention to Mike. “I should open you up right here, but your blood doesn’t deserve the legacy of soaking into the concrete.”

Mike sneered at him. “Maybe you should try to send me to prison too since you’re in the habit of that.”

I looked between them, trying to understand what was going on. Jayce’s face had gone colder- unreadable stone. After a moment, he released Mike and stepped back.

“Get the hell out of here before I follow through.”

Mike didn’t hesitate to take off. He raced across the street and got into his car. I watched until it was out of sight, then turned to Jayce, crossing my arms over my chest.

“What was that?”

“He was threatening you,” he replied simply.

“Hardly. It wasn’t enough to warrant a blade to the throat.”

“That’s debatable.”

“Seriously, Jayce. Who does that?”

He stepped into me, backing me up against the car. “I will always protect you. It doesn’t matter how big the threat is.”

I stared at his chest, trying to keep the tears at bay. “What did he mean? About sending him to prison.”

“He’s crazy. He could face jail time depending how his court hearing goes.”

“No, you’re lying.”

I shook my head and tried to move away from him, but he kept me pinned to the car. Pieces were beginning to fall into place in my mind. I didn’t like the picture they formed.

“Hailey,” I whispered.

She swore she didn’t do it, but I thought she was lying. She’d lied to me before. It was her phone, her account that uploaded the video of the fight, capturing the perfect moment when my dad backhanded me hard enough to knock me to the ground.

“Were you there?”

He didn’t answer. The longer he stared at me with no expression, the more exasperated I became.

“Were you in my fucking house that night, Jayce? Did you set her up to take the fall for it? What, you didn’t like that we were friends? Is that it?”

His eyes rolled. I couldn’t believe that shit. What the fuck kind of reaction was that? Fine. We could change the subject. He’d all but given me the answer anyway.

“Why are you here?”

“Shopping.” He ran the back of his knuckles across my cheek. “The perfect woman deserves the perfect gift.”

“You just keep lying to me. I need to go home. Please.”

He waited for another moment, then stepped back. As I got into my car, I tried to ignore him. He was staring so intently, as if my escape wasn’t a move in my favor at all. It made me swallow hard before I pulled away from the curb.

I needed to fucking breathe- away from him and literally everything else out here.

The video thing wouldn’t have even pissed me off all that much. Sure, I’d feel that way at first, but when it came down to it, my parents needed to get arrested. It worked and it had been to protect me.

Attacking Mike was a big no-no, but again, he was protecting me. He wouldn’t actually slit the guy’s throat. This was Jayce we were talking about. My Jayce. He was big and sweet and funny. The look in his eyes a few minutes ago was anything but.

After I parked in front of my apartment, I ran up the stairs, forgetting about the bags for the time being. I headed for my room, but quickly backtracked and glanced both ways in the hallway. It was quiet, just like it had been since the last time I’d seen Erebus when he drove me home from his place. The last time we spoke was on the phone. He’d been an asshole.