Page 14

Thirteen

JAXON

T here’s no way that Coach is a monster.

He can’t be. Today proved that. He didn’t ask about her until the end.

It was all about us, it was just him checking in, making sure we’re set, and that’s how it will be with Hope.

Coach helped Knox with something, and Knox has a good judge of character.

So why didn’t I want to involve her? Why did I hate how he lit up when she was mentioned?

That horrible, possessive glint in his eyes. I was always disgusted by his relationship with Hope. A man should know what’s right and wrong, even if his daughter is eager, but all those videos he showed us, how she lay down obediently, how she’d moan…

She wasn’t fighting, but I can’t shake her fear and fury when she talked about him.

I stop thinking before I get wrapped up in too many questions. I exhale as I stop in front of Hope’s door. She’s screwed up, there’s no question about that. All four of us are fucked up. I think there’s a difference between us and her dad, though.

I know there’s a difference. And she’s messed up in a way that’s different from me too. My brow furrows, and I hesitate a moment before I knock. Something like an alarm is going off in the back of my head. It’s soft, easy to ignore.

I knock and a moment later, Hope answers. She’s wearing short cotton pajama shorts and a crop top. The shorts are high-waisted, leaving only a sliver of skin. Fuck, she’s hot. Hot without trying and in a way that makes me hard just seeing her.

“Did you get all dressed up for me?” I ask, looking her over again.

Fuck, she’s not wearing a bra either. I can tell. Twice as hot.

Hope sputters for a second, then starts to shut the door. “This is for bed! What do you want?”

“Your dad is here. He wants to see you,” I say.

Her face turns pale as her breath quickens. She sticks her head out and looks around before sinking further behind the door. Her voice comes out in a terrified, horrified whisper. “In this building?”

I nod and watch her shift on her feet. Her eyes are unfocused, like she’s trying to figure something out. This isn’t the reaction I anticipated. Maybe I thought she’d slam the door in my face, but I didn’t expect… this.

She’s frozen, unable to move, and her hand shakes slightly. She starts to curl in on herself as a little gasping sound leaves her throat. Is she seriously afraid or just an actress? She shakes her head slightly, but I’ve been sent to do something and I’m going to do it.

If something is really wrong, she’ll fight, she’ll raise her voice, she’ll do something that allows us to step in.

Her dad is twice our age. We can take him. I reach out to her. “Hope.”

She doesn’t respond at all. With a sigh, I grab her, toss her over my shoulder, and swat her ass.

She screams at me, pounds on my back and tries to kick me. “No! Jax! Put me down! Put me down! Let me—”

I swat her ass again. “You’re going to wake the neighbors if you keep that up.”

She lets out a more breathless yell. I’m guessing it’s because my shoulder’s in her belly, but she beats my back as another door opens. Jared. Of course, it’s Jared.

“Um, what’s going on here? Hope, are you—”

“Nothing to see here, Jared,” I call back to him without looking. I don’t stop. I go right to Knox’s room, shut the door, then set Hope on her feet between me and the rest of the apartment .

Hope stares at me, her face pale, her lips pale, her hair a mess. She looks at me like I betrayed her.

Her dad moans softly, and I hear his beer bottle hit the table harder than necessary. “You always had the best scream, angel.”

I motion for her to go deeper into the apartment, then poke her side. She walks in, her eyes bouncing to Dimitri in the kitchen, then Knox who’s on the couch. She stops in front of Knox, her eyes focused on him with something that looks like hope.

Then her father grabs her wrist. Her hand is limp. She just stands there, and Coach chuckles.

“Be sweet, be polite, angel,” Coach says before tugging her onto his lap.

She says nothing as he buries his face in her neck and strokes up her bare thigh all the way to her shorts.

Her eyes zone out and her whole body goes slack, like she’s not there anymore. It’s like she was beamed up by aliens or some shit and they left her body behind.

I look over at Dimitri. His confused gaze goes from Coach to me. I see the same worry in his eyes. Maybe she never wanted this. He glances at her limp hand, the fact that she’s just sitting there, but I shake my head slightly and he looks back. More worry deepens his features.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen her on his lap.

Hell, he used to grope her in front of us.

Maybe it’s the time that’s passed or a new perspective on what’s right, but I swear she didn’t look like that when he did it.

She’d hide her face in his shoulder like she was embarrassed he was doing it in front of us.

Maybe it was because we were too horny and enjoyed seeing her being touched, but now it just feels wrong.

I feel slimy and wrong. I don’t want to watch him touch her.

Still, Knox just talks with Coach like nothing’s happening. I don’t know what they’re talking about. I can’t sit down. I feel restless. I want to pull her off her dad’s lap, want to stop his hands from wandering closer and closer to her ass. I want to bring her back to her body.

Her lips tremble and my gaze flicks to Dimitri again. I shake my head ever so slightly, so Knox and Coach don’t see, but he sets his beer down softly. He knows something’s up. Something is wrong.

Coach stands, making Hope stumble off his lap. She comes back to her body as Coach pats just above her ass—only above because she manages to move ever so slightly. He grins. “I’m going to use your room, Knox. I’m sure you don’t mind.”

Hope looks between us, her gaze focusing on Dimitri. Coach spanks her and finishes his beer, making a mess of it. He stumbles slightly but grabs Hope’s ass as if it’s the only thing keeping him standing.

After one step, I move forward. “Knox.”

Knox arches an eyebrow at me. I look at Hope obviously, then back to him. He didn’t even want Jared to ask her out, but he’s okay with this?

Knox takes another sip and shrugs. “What? She doesn’t want to be ours yet, so she can still have some fun.”

Hope turns and looks at me as her dad pushes her to the guest room. Her eyes are watering. Her lips part, and for a moment I think she’s going to say something. She’s practically digging her feet into the carpet.

“Are you going to fight me again, girl?” her dad slurs. “You know how it will feel then. You know I like how pretty you look when you cry.”

“Don’t do this,” she whispers to him, tears brimming her eyes.

She doesn’t hit him, but with that threat… I can’t do nothing. I can’t let this play out in front of me. I can’t make up for the past, can’t change shit, but I sure as hell can do something now. She doesn’t want him, doesn’t want this, and only an asshole, an ingrate would let it happen.

The no is clear.

I hurl forward, grabbing his shoulder, and fling him back against the table. Coach hits me. “That’s my piece of ass you’re—”

I hit him harder, sending him tumbling over the table. “She said no.”

I see red. Maybe it’s years of pent-up issues. Maybe it’s the fact that I should have done this the first time I saw a video of him with her. Maybe it’s long overdue and I have to get it out of my system.

I’m ready to kill her dad. I slam my fist into him again, then I’m lifted off him. His face is bloody, his eye swollen shut, his lip cut, but it’s not enough. I kick him as hard as I can in the dick, and considering I used to be a kicker, I have plenty of force .

He can’t even scream. He wheezes and cups his dick and balls in his hand as he curls into the fetal position. Knox hits me and Dimitri drops me.

I glower at Knox.

“What the fuck!” he demands.

“She said no. End of discussion,” I say as I pick myself up off the ground. “Think on that tonight, then tell me I was wrong.”

I spit on Knox’s shirt, shake my head, and look at Dimitri. He clears his throat. “She left.”

Then I have no reason to stay.