Page 46 of Jax: Untamed
“Jax! Jax! What are you doing? Why am I tied up?” My face is hot and my throat scratchy.
“Shhh,” he walks promptly over to the nightstand with a pitcher of orange juice and empty glass and straw. He fills the glass and adjusts the straw, moving it to my mouth. I glare at him flattening my lips.
“It’s not spiked. I promise,”
My eyes drift up to his assessing if that’s another lie and when my mouth opens to speak, one of his fingers pushes against it, “shhhh, your voice is tired firefly. You need to drink. You need nourishment. Please drink.”
He’s right, I’m parched and I can barely speak. The worst that can happen is that it puts me back to sleep and honestly, I’m not sure that’s really a bad thing right now. I open my mouth and take the straw in gulping the sweet liquid down faster and faster until most of it is gone.
He sets the glass back down and pulls a chair up beside the bed, leaning his elbows on his knees and I hate myself for admiring his shoulders.
“I had to do this,” he begins, and I stay quiet, watching his hands fidget as he looks down to the floor. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, but if I didn’t do this you would have left, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
His eyes finally rise to meet mine and I’m startled at the emotion that’s bubbling up my chest…even here like this…tied to his bed.
“I can’t let anything happen to you and I can’t lose you again either.”
His words cut me and I can’t tell if it’s in a good way or bad way. Something feels different this morning. Here I am tied to his bed, helpless and possibly about to die, and yet something about the way his voice sounds, about the way his eyes are looking at me…is making me feel…safe. I don’t speak yet though. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know if I’m some completely fucked up person still crushing on a monster, needing to find a way to escape…or if I’m truly being cared for.
“There’s things about me that you don’t know.”
“You mean the note? Jax did you write the note? Have you been following me? Are you trying to hurt me?”
He shakes his head and bolts up from the chair punching the wall, “I told you, I’m not the one trying to hurt you Chalene. I’m trying to save you,” his face contorts and looks heavy as he sits back down next to me.
“Listen to me because I’m tired of repeating this!” his eyes look worn out, “I don’t know who wrote the note yet, but yes, Ihavebeen following you. Enough to know that something seemed off the past month.”
“So, you’ve been following me the past month?
He shakes his head, “longer,” he whispers.
I pause for a moment taking a deep breath at the news, “how long?”
He remains quiet.
“Jax, how long?”
“I never stopped watching over you.”
My eyes tear up but I can’t tell if it’s from anger or the shock of his devotion.
“So If you’re not the one doing this than who is?” A tear flows down my cheek with the fear of saying it out loud.
“We have a lot of enemies,” he matches my eyes and sees them asking for more answers.
Little by little, he tells me how his family is in a lot more business than just the Golf Course and real estate. He explains to me how the golf course and their other businesses like the club, are just fronts, assets to cover up where the money is really coming from.
“Not everyone is happy with us, especially now that my dad has taken over the North and South sector,” His jaw clenches and my stomach tightens.
I know I wasn’t just tied up to be told this information. There is something more…something terrible that he doesn’t want me to be able to run from.
“We have a lot of enemies and this isn’t the first time they’ve tried get their point across about their dismay…using someone we care about.
And with those last words, my heart sinks. So many puzzle pieces fit together that I didn’t even know existed, “No…” Tears well up in my eyes at an uncontrollable rate and his begin to look glassy as well.
“Were they-,” I swallow hard, “were they the reason my brother died?”
His Adams apple bobs slowly down his neck and he takes his time to answer. His head finally nods, “they were after me.”