Page 23

JAXON

T he rain had stopped and my tires kicked up the smell of asphalt as I turned toward the Oceanview Marina.

I parked. The second I'd seen Bridget's face; I wanted to rip the asshole to shreds.

Hearing how it happened and how he wouldn't grab her hand to keep her from falling made me want to throw him overboard and feed him to the fucking sharks.

My feet pounded the dock as I walked up and down between the slips looking for his sleek, shiny yacht. I was in luck. A light was on and music was playing somewhere below deck.

I climbed on board and knocked on one of the small windows of the cabin area. The knock was hard enough to startle the people inside. They quieted down, and the music turned off. The cabin door opened. "Who's out there? Hank, is that you?"

"Your big lap dog isn't here." I stepped out from the shadows and into the thin stream of light leaking from the cabin area.

Alex's face bleached white, and his eyes flicked back toward the cabin door.

Two more faces appeared. Women. One of them stepped out on deck holding a glass of wine.

She was wearing a skimpy black dress and looked pretty tousled and not just from dancing.

She squinted her big dark eyes. "I know you," she said.

"You're one of the Stone boys. Are you joining the party?

" she asked with a hopeful bite of her lip.

"Not tonight. Just need to talk to your friend here. Why don't you go back inside? We won't be long," I said.

She pouted dramatically. "Well shit, wish you were joining us." The two women went below.

I didn't waste a second. Seeing the asshole's smug expression, even void of all color, renewed the anger I'd felt when I saw Bridget's face. I grabbed his shirt and hauled him up against the side of the boat. His head smacked the small window.

"Get your filthy hands off me." Spittle sprayed from his mouth, and his eyes bulged with fear. "You're going to fucking jail."

"Bridget just showed up at my place with a swollen cheek. She said she fell down the stairs from top deck."

"That's right. Not my fau?—"

I lifted him and smacked him hard against the wall again. "She said you could have helped her. You could have stopped her from falling."

"I—uh—no—uh—she's?—"

I pulled him forward and smacked him hard against the boat again. His head snapped back and hit the window. He grunted in pain. "Fucking hell, let me go." He swung his arm and his paltry fist my direction, but I easily leaned out of the way.

"You're not marrying her," I said, bluntly.

"None of your fucking business, trash."

This time I smacked him hard against the boat twice.

He grimaced in pain. "You're going to break my back."

"Trust me, if I wanted to break your back, you'd be laying in a heap on this deck by now."

"I'm going to call the police."

I let him go and stepped back. "Go ahead. I need to tell them what Bridget told me. That you pushed her down the stairs."

"I didn't push her. She fell." His ashen coloring took on a nice shade of red.

"Nope. That's not what she told me. But go ahead and call the police. We'll let her, Bridget Walsh and daughter of Nathan Walsh, tell them exactly what happened on those steps."

"Just get the fuck off this boat now!" Alex yelled. He took a few steps back as he said it.

"I'm leaving. You're going to stay away from Bridget because if you ever go near her again, you'll find out what a broken back really feels like.

And tell Nathan Walsh that if he and his pack of pit bulls go anywhere near my family, he will regret it till his dying day—a day that might come sooner than he thinks. "

The coward waited until I was back on the dock before yelling his response. "You and your family are the ones who have no idea what is coming. You're fucked. You're all fucked. You'll be begging in the streets, although that's probably not too far off from your current life."

I kept walking, but now I wished I'd thrown my fist into his face after all.

* * *

Theo was just coming up from the basement as I walked inside. "Where the hell have you been? Thought you were upstairs with Bridget."

"Had some business to take care of," I said.

"Yeah? Boring business or fun business?" He looked at my hands. "Don't see any swollen knuckles, so I guess it was boring."

"Fuck, how much weed did you guys smoke down there? You're talking nonsense."

"Right, so you didn't just go scare the shit out of that rich dick Bridget's involved with? I saw her face when she walked inside," Theo called to me as I trotted up the stairs.

I walked inside my room. Bridget was sleeping soundly. The swelling on her cheek had gone down, but it was being replaced by a dark bruise. I kicked off my shoes and stretched out on the mattress next to her. I tried to not wake her, but my size made it impossible.

She mewled softly, stretched out her thin arms and then scooted over to curl against me. My whole body reacted, as it always did when she was with me, but tonight wasn't that kind of night. "Hey, angel, how you feelin'?"

"Better now that you're back." She lifted her face and looked at me. "Everything all right?"

I nodded. "Everything is fine. You're safe with me, darlin'. Not going to let anything happen to you. I promise."

"I feel like I pulled you into my sordid world, where money rules people's lives and emotions have no place. Alex didn't even blink. I stared at his face as I felt myself falling, and he just stared back. No emotion. No worry. Didn't even flinch."

"Well, I got a few good flinches out of him," I said. "I really wanted to do a lot more than that, but—you're right—I'm no good to you in prison. I did however leave him with the hint that if he called the police on me that you'd let the cops know that he pushed you down those stairs."

She peered up at me with a weak smile. "Did you really tell him that?"

"Hey, if you were the only two on the boat—I mean, he could have stopped you but didn't. As far as I'm concerned, that's the same thing."

"You know what? You're right. Good plan."

Bridget snuggled back against my chest, and I held her tightly against me. "This is where you belong, angel. Right here with me, and no rich prick in a Polo shirt and pressed shorts is going to take you from me."

Bridget yawned and stretched. "Sounds good to me, Jaxon Stone. I'm perfectly content as long as I'm in your arms."