Page 24 of Traitorous Lies

“Cinderella? Do I even want to ask?” Jax asked in amused exasperation.

“My pet.”

“Like a dog, or a cat, or a bunny rabbit?”

“Like a hedgehog,” she answered with a grin.

“Why am I not surprised you have a pet hedgehog?”

Stroking the soft fur of the little fox, who settled sleepily in her arms, Monique’s grin widened. “Because I'm full of surprises and you can't wait to uncover every single one of them.”

At least she hoped that was how he felt because it was absolutely how she felt. She was falling hard and fast, and she prayed she wasn't falling alone because if she was, it was going to be a hard landing.

Chapter

Seven

November 3rd

9:23 A.M.

This had to go down in history as the craziest mission he’d ever gone on.

Flying to France with the intention of putting the final nail in the coffin of the conspiracy to frame his dad and stepmom for treason, he never would have envisioned it turning out like this.

Traipsing through the forest, lost with no idea which direction they should be heading in, with the target of his op trailing along beside him, an injured young fox snuggled in her arms.

Crazy.

Totally crazy.

And yet he was actually enjoying his time with Monique. Not being lost and injured in the forest with no idea if they were heading toward civilization or further away from it and deeper into the forest. But the part where they talked and laughed and he got to know her better, that part he loved.

Sensing Monique’s exhaustion, Jax stopped and held out his arms. They hadn't seen any predators, human or animal, the entire timethey’d been out there, so he felt safe enough not to have his weapon in his hands. It was still hanging on a strap around his chest so it wasn't like it wasn't still on his person.

“Here,” he said to her.

“What?”

Nose scrunched in confusion, it took everything he had not to lean in and touch a kiss to it.

But he was trying to do the honorable thing.

Kissing her under these circumstances was wrong, and he shouldn’t have done it earlier, and had determined he wasn't going to do it again. Until there were no more secrets between them he wasn't going to lay another hand on Monique in a sexual way.

“I’ll carry the fox,” he explained.

“Thought you told me that if I wanted to keep him, he was my responsibility,” she said, arching a brow at him, but amusement danced in her gray eyes.

“Guess I finally realized how serious you were about keeping it.” When she’d first insisted that she was going to take it home with her and keep it on her animal rescue along with her pet hedgehog, he’d thought the weight of having to carry it would wear her out sooner or later.

Wrong.

No matter how exhausted he knew she was, she’d carried her little bundle without a complaint. It was obvious how deeply she cared about animals, and he knew trying to talk her into leaving the fox behind would be impossible.

In the end, did he even really want to?

She was right when she said that with an injury to its leg, there was no way it would be able to hunt properly, and it wouldn't be able to move easily if at all, making it ideal prey. It was take the creature with them or let it die, he just didn't want its presence to wind up making Monique die.