Page 31

Jax leads me back into the kitchen, where the others wait for us.

The blood from the floor is gone, probably thanks to Ryan, and Bryce sits hunched over the kitchen table pressing an ice pack to his face.

Jax pulls a chair out for me before taking a seat at the head of the table, his relaxed demeanor vanishing into thin air as he stares at Bryce with daggers in his eyes.

I touch his forearm to help him stay calm, and he looks at me, a slight nod of his head all the confirmation I need to know that he hears my silent plea.

“Oh, so you guys can communicate telepathically now? You should try doing that more often—it gets a little awkward living here with your moaning as a near-constant soundtrack,” Ryan says as he reclines back in his chair, a wolfish grin on his lips.

Sam gives him a curious look before turning her gaze back to me, her eyes puffy from crying. My heart aches seeing her like this, and I can’t stop the guilt as it solidifies its grasp on me.

“Why are we here?” Her mouth is set in a firm line as she looks at Jax. “You wanted Lockwood to show up, he did, and then you beat the shit out of him. What do you want?”

“I want a lot of things,” Jax starts, his voice void of emotion. “But what I want first is Bryce to tell us what happened from his perspective.”

“Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Sam interjects, before looking at me, her face wrought with denial. “There’s no way he knew about everything going on.”

She pauses, looking at Bryce instead. “Tell them,” she says firmly. “Tell them how you didn’t know Rhett was holding Evi hostage. Tell them how you’re not the kind of person to get mixed up in this, tell them they have the wrong person,” she pleads.

Bryce doesn’t meet her gaze, and instead his eyes find mine.

“I’m sorry,” he mutters again quietly. “I am so sorry.”

He drops his gaze back to the table and I reach forward, as if to comfort him, before stopping myself midway. A tear runs down my cheek, and I catch both Sam and Ryan looking between us, their eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Lockwood, tell me you had nothing to do with this,” Sam all but pleads. “Tell me you didn’t get mixed up in anything bad.”

Bryce sits there quietly, shaking his head and not meeting her stare, his silence enough confirmation for Sam who lets out a sound similar to a whimper.

He lets out a sigh. “It was only supposed to scare you into paying. Nothing more. Evi was supposed to come back to the lake house, spend a day—maybe two living in the boathouse apartment—and then you’d pick her up and leave the money.”

“Besides the fact that everyone involved signed their death certificates when you chose to take her from me, how exactly did you all manage to stray so far from that original fucking plan?” Jax seethes.

“I don’t know. Honestly. I don’t know—”

“That’s not a good enough answer.” Jax’s voice booms through the room, and out of the corner of my eye I see Ryan pull a knife out of his pocket, spinning it menacingly between his fingers.

“Give me five minutes with him and he’ll talk,” Ryan says quietly, his eyes dark with rage.

Bryce gulps as he looks at the knife. “I’m telling the truth! I didn’t know they planned anything else, I don’t even think they knew what they were going to do. The guys—they become different people when they’re in charge of anything, when they drink, and especially when they’re with women—they’ve always been like this…” He trails off.

“Some friends you have.” Ryan continues to twirl the knife around, the light from the room bouncing off the blade.

“Was this the first time they…” I trail off as Bryce meets my gaze, my stomach tight with disgust at the answer I’m sure I’m about to receive.

“This is the first time that I know of, but I can’t say for sure if this is the first time they’ve pulled something like this,” he says with sadness in his voice.

“And you didn’t think to stop them? To tell anyone?” Sam says between tears.

“I never actually saw them do anything before. I always left their parties before they… escalated… and I’m not close enough with them to hear all the details about what they do,” he says, meeting her gaze for the first time since his confession.

“So why this time?” Jax questions angrily. “Why were you so involved this time and why didn’t you stop it when you saw it clearly fucking escalating?”

“Because, as I already told Evi, I owed him a favor, and between him keeping me out of jail and dating Veronica, I’m not in a position to piss him off.”

“Rhett is dating Veronica ?” Sam asks incredulously as she leans forward in her chair.

“Yes.”

“For how long?”

“Six months,” Bryce responds quietly, his foot now tapping against the floor quickly.

Sam is quiet for a moment, studying Bryce intently. I can’t help but feel on edge as I watch them, watch the unspoken words build between them, as all of this comes to the surface.

After what feels like an eternity Sam finally breaks the silence.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“You don’t talk to us much, why would I go out of my way to tell you?” Bryce responds.

“And what do you mean Rhett is keeping you out of jail ?” she says a moment later with disbelief.

“It’s a long story, but he helped me cover my tracks once, and now has information that would see me serving a long sentence if the police became aware of it,” he says with a sigh before looking back to Jax. “I know what Rhett is capable of, and I didn’t want to risk him taking out his anger on Veronica or turning me in if I got caught helping Evi, or pissed him off enough. Was it selfish? Yes. Was it the right thing to do?” He pauses, looking at me briefly. “Probably not. But I made the choices I did in the moment, just like Evi did, and now I have to live with the fallout,” he says sadly.

“This is so complicated…” Sam trails off.

I lean forward, rubbing my temples, trying to ward off the anxiety and worry that threatens to consume me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get you out.”

I raise my head at the sound of Bryce’s voice, his tear-filled eyes looking at me.

“I tried, in the end. I know it was too late… If I could go back in time and help you sooner, I would. I’m sorry.”

“Where were you when Jax showed up? If you weren’t in the house with the rest of them then where were you?” I ask quietly as the tears behind my eyes threaten to overflow.

“I left,” he says quietly. “When I came to, I left. Nothing was happening, they were all just smoking, so I bailed. I don’t know what I was planning on doing, if I was going to find help to get you out of there or if I was just trying to get away. But I left. I finally came to my senses an hour later; I turned back around to come get you, ready to fight to get you out, but when I got back to the lake house the whole boathouse was up in flames. I thought… I don’t know what I thought. I just knew it was over and I needed to lay low.”

“You are a fucking coward who deserves the same fate as your friends.”

I jump at the sound of Jax’s voice. The undiluted anger and rage forced into a quiet tone.

“I know. I know.” Bryce looks between us all, his features lined with regret and shame before they settle on me. “Just tell me what I can do to help make it right. Tell me what you need to help get past all of this and I’ll do it—”

“Help us find Rhett and Tanner.” Jax’s voice cuts in sharply.

“You haven’t found them yet?” Bryce says, poorly hiding the surprise in his tone.

“No,” Jax says, “we’ve been working on it since everything happened. Rhett has been jumping from one location to the next faster than it takes you to blink; just when we think we’ve found him, he changes his location.”

“His family and friends have no shortage of properties around the world. What we know right now is he’s out of the country. Our guys spotted him in London recently and trailed him as he boarded a plane to Dubai. It’s like playing hide and seek if you have an unlimited bank account and connections globally,” Ryan says calmly.

“And Tanner,” Jax starts, the shift in his anger tangible, “has been laying so low we can’t seem to find him anywhere. He hasn’t made a phone call, hasn’t used a credit card, hasn’t even breathed for all we know since this went down. He clearly knows what’s coming for him, because we will find them, and when we do, they’ll be wishing for death.”

The table goes quiet at Jax’s declaration, and I don’t miss the smile on Ryan’s face, a smile that promises the sort of violence that even I don’t want to imagine.

“What do you need my help with? I don’t know much about where they could be. Besides the lake house, his apartment, and his parent’s estate in the south… I haven’t been to any of his family’s properties. In terms of Tanner, he could be anywhere. His family has money, not as much as Rhett’s family, but a flight out of the country wouldn’t ruffle any feathers. He could go anywhere.”

Jax nods, Bryce’s information is nothing new to him.

“I’ve been thinking of how we can find them,” Jax starts. “Our guys can only do so much without drawing unwanted attention to themselves. What makes it even more complicated is I want them brought to me alive—”

“I give them five minutes in your presence before that’s no longer the case.” Ryan snorts.

Jax just smiles before continuing, “But it’s like finding a needle in a haystack… So, how can we make the needle come to us?”

The whole table is quiet, looking to Jax in anticipation of what he’ll say next, of what he has seemingly already planned.

“I was thinking about finding them too literally, too old school, going after them out of anger. When the best way to find them is to get the whole world on our side looking for them—to find something to make them need to come back to the country, find something that will ruin them and their families. Make it so people aren’t too distraught if they were to go… missing .”

Jax’s eyes are glimmering as he waits for us to all catch up.

I open my mouth. “You want us to—”

“I’m on it,” Ryan says, cutting me off. He pushes his chair out from the table before heading to the other side of the room, his phone in his hands as he starts texting furiously. It rings a second later and he picks it up, leaving the room.

“What are you looking for? What do you think you’ll find?” I ask.

“Bryce painted a pretty clear picture of what they can be like, and if they were brazen enough to hold you hostage for so long, I’d be surprised if it was the first time him and his friends acted like the filth they are. And I’m willing to bet that if they’ve done this before, with all of them in on it, there has got to be some sort of evidence somewhere. A text, a picture, or a video, perhaps.”

I cringe internally at the idea of any evidence of what was done to me, to others, being out there in the world, at being viewed by Rhett, Tanner, and their friends, maybe others, over and over again. I’m startled from my thoughts as Jax lays a hand on top of mine, and I look into his eyes, into the look he’s giving me, as though fury and sympathy have merged together. A look that says, I know, I know this is hard. I know this is the last thing you need right now, but I’ll find them, and they will pay.

I take a breath and nod for Jax to continue.

“From what we’ve found out about Rhett and Tanner so far, their families only maintain their social standing, their connections, and therefore their wealth, because they manage to keep their reputations clean. Manage to sweep generations of dirty secrets under the rug—”

I cut him off. “You’re not just going after them now, are you?” I ask in awe as everything catches up to me.

“I’m going to crumble their entire world,” he says menacingly, “and then kill them for what they did to you.”

The words are a promise on his lips, and the table is quiet as the gravity of what he said sinks in. Jax is going to leak something about them that will create such a scandal, so much public outrage, that they’ll be forced out of hiding, forced home by their families, and lawyers, to clean up the mess they made, except—I look to Jax, who is nodding as if reading my thoughts.

“Except they won’t make it home. They’ll get as far as the airport parking lot where I’ll be waiting for them.”

I look at Jax, his mouth set in grim determination as if he knows exactly how this will play out. I try to summon my conscience, try to stir the feelings of guilt and worry I should be feeling, but that spot within me remains dark and empty, just like Rhett and Tanner left me feeling so many times.

I don’t say anything. Instead, I nod my approval to Jax as Ryan walks back into the room.

“Our tech team is on it. Any device that can be hacked remotely will be by tomorrow.”

Jax nods before looking at Bryce.

“Your role,” he says casually, “is to get me a list of every important person in Rhett and Tanner’s miserable lives. I want the names of anyone they have ever cared about and anyone they would want to maintain a good relationship with… family, bosses, the fucking president of the country club they belong to. All the names.”

“What are you going to do to the people on that list?” Bryce fails to hide the skepticism in his voice.

“That’s none of your concern.” The light in Jax’s eyes dims as he gives him a look that would make anyone shrink away.

“Will you… hurt… them? The people on this list?”

“What’s it to you if I do? You already proved you don’t mind standing around while others get hurt.”

“Okay, I deserved that.” Bryce shifts nervously in his seat, and I can feel the uncertainty radiating from him. “I’ll get you the list, if you promise no one gets hurt outside of Rhett and Tanner,” he says, his voice shaky despite trying to assert himself.

“Odd time to grow a backbone,” Ryan mutters from across the table, and I shoot him a look.

“We don’t hurt anyone who’s innocent, remember?” I look at Jax for confirmation, and he meets my stare before turning back to Bryce with a sigh.

“No one on that list will be hurt unless they had something to do with hurting the one person I would destroy the world for,” he says, squeezing my hand again.

Ryan looks between us. “We get it. You love her, you’ll kill for her, now,” he says as he turns to Bryce, throwing a piece of paper and pen his way, “write the damn list.”

I stifle a laugh at Ryan’s nonchalance, but Bryce only holds up the paper and pen. “Never heard of email?”

“Ever heard of, oh, I don’t know, hackers? Of staying out of jail if shit goes south?” Ryan counters. “Write the list. I’ll burn it once I memorize the names.”

“If he does this for you, if he helps you, promise you won’t hurt him?”

We all turn to look at Sam, her stare bold despite her voice sounding meek.

“You seem to care an awful lot about someone you’re supposedly not close to,” Jax says casually, leaning back in his chair again, his hand never leaving mine.

Sam doesn’t falter under his stare, but holds her chin high and stands her ground. “He’s my brother. Just because we’re not close doesn’t mean I want anything bad to happen to him.” She looks to me. “This is all sorts of fucked up Evi, and I’m not condoning anything he did—I’m so revolted by his actions I can barely wrap my head around it all.” She closes her eyes for a moment before looking at me again. “But I don’t want to grieve the death of my brother. Even if you think he deserves it for what he helped put you through, I can’t let you hurt him.” She gives Jax a pointed look.

I nod slowly, swallowing down my emotions as I try to understand where she’s coming from, recognizing the loyalty in her that I love so much. I look to Jax as well, trying to read what’s going on inside his head, but he only smiles at Sam.

“Well, at least no one around here can question your loyalty to your friends and family,” he says, “but I’m not the one you need to plead your case to.”

To my shock Jax looks at me, and I shake my head slowly.

“I don’t… I can’t… make these kinds of decisions. This isn’t my call to make. I can’t do this.”

Jax smiles at me. “If memory serves me correctly, you can do anything you want to do. You’ve proven that much over and over again.” His eyes scan mine before he gives me a more serious look. “You were the one who got dragged to hell and back, so you’re the one who gets to decide what happens to everyone who was involved. I am happy to do whatever you decide.”

I look at everyone at the table, at Ryan and his casual indifference as he leans back in his chair. At Sam, and the shock, despair, and disbelief written all over her face. And at Bryce, at the shame, guilt, and understanding I see in his eyes. We stare at each other, and it’s as if he is resigned to accept whatever fate comes his way. He looks as if he no longer cares whether he lives or dies, or, perhaps, as if he feels he deserves whatever decision I’m about to make.

“In exchange for helping us, nothing happens to Bryce.”

Sam exhales a sigh of relief, and Bryce’s shoulders sag.

The tension in the room remains, though lessens slightly after we finish talking about Rhett and Tanner. Jax’s anger seems to dissipate as the minutes tick by and Bryce focuses on writing his list, though there’s a tension still left that I can’t quite place.

“What’s wrong?” I ask Jax quietly, leaning into him slightly from my chair beside him.

“What’s wrong, is that I’m dreading what we’re about to find,” he says quietly enough so only I can hear.

I pause, knowing exactly what he means, how any evidence will hurt me just as much as it will hurt them.

“Maybe it won’t be that bad. Maybe he just sent a few texts about what his plans were for me, or anyone else he’s hurt. Surely, he’s not stupid enough to collect evidence of what he’s done.”

“Unless he never had to worry about getting caught,” Jax says, and I feel the hope falter within me. Of course Rhett never had to worry about getting caught. His family has enough money to pay off anyone they wanted to so that they could—and probably have—covered up a lot of unsavory things.

“Done,” Bryce says quietly.

I look at the other end of the table, where Bryce and Sam are sitting side-by-side, the pen that was in his hands moments ago now sitting on top of a piece of paper, filled with black ink.

“Rhett and Tanner would be pretty upset if any of these people heard about their… activities,” he says, looking at me before looking back down at the table.

Ryan walks over and picks up the list, not bothering to give Sam or Bryce a second look before walking out of the room.

“You’re both good to leave now, if you’d like,” Jax says. “And I don’t think I need to remind you that if any word of this conversation leaves this room, there will be consequences.”

Both Sam and Bryce nod before hastily standing up and making their way out of the room. Sam pauses briefly at the doorway to look at me, and a sadness crosses her face before she follows Bryce to the front door.

“Well, this should give me a lot to talk about in therapy tomorrow,” I joke.

Jax’s lip tilts upwards at my attempt to lighten the mood. “I’m sure your therapist would have a lot to say about today’s events.” He smiles.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Turner, I don’t want to end up in a white padded room almost as much as I don’t want to see you end up behind bars.”

I lean forward, brushing my lips gently against his.

“I’ll stick to my usual topics for this session,” I say with a smile as he stands up, leading me back to the bedroom.

“So, love,” he says with a sparkle in his eyes as we walk into the room. “Am I going to be lucky enough to see your definition of what it means to take care of me?”

He sits on the bed and I bite my lip, wondering just where to start with him, as a familiar sensation gathers in my core.

My hands reach for his pants, undoing them quickly, before sliding them down just enough for his cock to spring free, already hard under my gaze.

“See what you do to me?” he growls as I grip him firmly, his hips bucking in response.

I kneel on the floor in front of him, my hands never leaving his cock, and I stroke it up and down slowly. I open my mouth, running my tongue slowly over his hard length from the base to his tip, until I’m licking a bead of arousal off of him.

“Fuck,” he growls, throwing his head back as I wrap my lips around all of him, taking him in my mouth as deep as I can.

He groans as I work him up and down slowly, the taste of him on my tongue is nothing short of delicious. His hand moves to the back of my head, and he weaves his fingers through my hair until he has a fistful of it. I keep going, bobbing my head as I push myself to the limits, my hands working his base as I try to take him even deeper. Just when I think that’s all I can take he guides my head down further, only letting me up for air when my eyes start watering.

“I can’t take it all at this angle, it’s too big.” I wipe my mouth as I look at Jax, still fisting my hair, his eyes smoldering with desire.

“I don’t think there’s anything you can’t do, so open your mouth wider and take it like I know you can,” he purrs.

I flush under his demand, but I do as he says, taking him into my mouth once again.

“That’s it, love.” He moans as I open my mouth wide to accommodate him, taking him until he’s hitting the back of my throat. “Now, relax.”

I do as he says as he gently pushes my mouth further onto him, until not an inch of him is left to take, his hips pushing himself even deeper into my throat. He holds me there for a second, his eyes never leaving mine, and I love it. I love the feeling and taste of him in my mouth, the control he has over me right now. But more than that, I love how much control I have over him, how I can tell by the way he looks at me, the way his hands touch me, that he would do anything for me.

I try not to gag as his hips buck, sending him impossibly deeper into my mouth, as my eyes water once again.

“Good girl,” he groans, guiding me off of him so I can come back up for air. “Now, get up here and ride it,” he demands, the spark of desire in his eyes never faltering.

I smile and he reaches out a hand to help me stand. I make a show of pulling my pants and underwear down slowly, his eyes tracking my every movement as I expose myself to him, before leaving them heaped in a pile at my feet. I don’t even bother with my shirt as I climb onto his lap, my skin alight as he runs his hands over me, before sliding a finger, then two inside of me.

“Always so fucking ready for me, love,” he purrs, nipping at my earlobe before his lips find mine.

His kiss is all-consuming as if he is claiming my mouth, and I let myself sink into him.

He pulls me in closer as he positions himself at my entrance, his lips never leaving mine, and pulls me down onto his cock in one swift motion.

I let out a breathy moan as I adjust to him inside of me, relishing the feeling of being so full.

“Ride it,” he groans, his voice barely above a whisper, and I do as he says, moving myself up and down, slowly at first before a primal need has me picking up speed, wanting, needing, a release from the pressure that has built up inside of me. “Fuck, you take me so well,” he growls as he leans back, looking at where we’re joined.

He grabs onto my ass and I close the gap between our mouths again, wanting everything he can give me. As if reading my thoughts, he leans forward before deftly flipping us onto the bed so I’m underneath him.

“Harder, Jax,” I moan, his name like a prayer on my lips. “Fuck me harder.”

As if undone by my words he pulls back, until just the tip is left inside of me, and I arch my hips up into him, wanting more.

“So impatient, love,” he murmurs before thrusting forcefully back inside of me.

I moan, and his name drips off my lips like honey, and I’m met with a growl of approval.

He keeps up this pace, and I start to unravel, wrapping my legs around him and clawing at his back, trying to grasp onto any part of him that I can.

My back arches off the bed and I find myself lost in my own wave of pleasure, my eyes close on instinct, but Jax’s voice brings me back to him.

“Open your eyes, love. I want to watch you when I come inside of you.”

His words only heighten the pleasure I’m feeling, and my eyes meet his, the anger that was there earlier now replaced by nothing but desire. His lips crash into mine again as his movements become more desperate, pumping faster and faster into me as he finds his own release.

He collapses on top of me, planting tender kisses on my forehead before rolling to the side, our breathing in sync as we slowly come down from the euphoria that threatened to sweep us away.