Page 92 of Critical Doubt

"He's fine. Can we drop it?"

"Yes," she said. "But just for the record, we don't need a babysitter, and Jax is heading down to Dobbs later tonight."

"Oh."

"He's going to shake down Tanner and see what else he can find out. We need someone to do that."

"We do." His gaze moved over to the ice cream station where Jax was making a hell of a sundae. "Did you two ever hook up?" The question came out before he could stop it. "Forget it. You don't have to answer that."

"I know I don't," she said, drawing his attention back to her. "But I will. No. We've never been anything but friends. Jax is not my type, and I'm not his."

"Are you kidding me, Savannah? You are every man's type."

"Well, I'll take that as a compliment but my answer still stands. Not that you had a right to ask the question."

"That's why I said you didn't have to answer it."

"I wanted to be honest with you. It's the way I live my life now. No more pretending. No more lies. So, if I say something, you should believe me."

"All right. I believe you."

She flashed him her high-voltage smile, and his body warmed more than a few degrees. He couldn't imagine how cold his life would be without that smile in it.

"I like you being jealous," she said.

"I wasn't jealous."

"Yes, you were." As she finished speaking, her gaze moved to her phone, where she'd just received a text. Her smile disappeared. "Abby is on her way upstairs to the waiting room."

She stood up and motioned to Jax, who hurried across the room.

"What's up?" he asked.

"My friend has arrived."

"Let's go," he said, taking the bowl of ice cream topped with whipped cream, nuts, and chocolate sauce into the elevator with them.

By the time the doors opened, he was halfway done, but as Savannah ran down the hall to embrace a bewildered and terrified Abby, Jax hung back, and so did Ryker. Abby and Savannah needed this moment to themselves.

"I can't imagine what that woman is going through," Jax murmured. "She buries her husband and then finds out he's alive, but he might be dying. That's a hellish roller coaster to be on."

"It amazes me that Paul would have done that to her. Todd didn't have any family left, just a mother with Alzheimer's, who doesn't know who he is anymore. But Paul had Abby and a son. He had a life that he chose to give up, and for what?"

"Cash? Revenge?"

"Neither motivation seems worth it. I know Paul was in a lot of debt. He must have felt that he was better for Abby dead than alive, but I still don't understand how he could do that to her. It was unbelievably cruel, and he wasn't a cruel man. But he was injured on our last mission, and he had nerve damage in his arm. He couldn't continue to serve. And he didn't know what to do next. At least, that's what Todd told me. I haven't actually heard Paul's side of the story." He paused. "I could have heard it, but I didn't keep in touch with anyone. Maybe if I had, I could have stopped this."

"It doesn't sound like they wanted to give you that chance." Jax tossed his empty ice cream container into a nearby trash can. "By the way, I'm not interested in Savannah, just in case you were wondering."

"I wasn't," he lied, realizing that his poker face was apparently nowhere as good as it used to be.

Jax gave him a knowing look. "Something you might want to know about me, Stone. I see everything."

"You think very highly of yourself."

He laughed. "Guilty. But I'm good at what I do. I don't pretend otherwise."

He used to be a lot like Jax, and for the first time, he actually started to like the guy.