Page 21 of Traitorous Lies (Prey Security: Charlie Team #6)

Chapter

Eleven

“You just going to let her walk away?” Connor asked from behind him.

“Hell, no,” Jax said, spinning around to find that all four of his brothers had followed him off the plane. “I’m not going to make the same mistake you did with Becca all those years ago.”

When Connor’s eyebrows all but flew to the top of his head, Jax winced, that hadn't come out the way he meant it.

The problem was, he was so messed up over losing Monique that he couldn’t think straight.

No excuse, though. His brothers had hopped on a plane the second they lost contact with him, leaving behind the women they loved who had all been through traumatic ordeals these last few months. The absolute least he owed them was some respect and gratitude.

“Sorry, man, that came out wrong. I just meant that I learned from your mistakes, and I don’t intend to repeat them,” he explained.

“It’s okay, Jax, I get it, and I'm glad you're not going to repeat the mistakes I made. But …” Connor trailed off looking around at the others as though to ascertain that they were all on the same page before continuing.

“Isn't it kind of fast to have developed feelings for her? You only met her six days ago.”

“Cooper fell for Willow in Egypt in a matter of days,” he reminded them, looking to Cooper who nodded.

“I did. We spent a lot of intense moments together, and seeing how brave and strong Willow was no matter what Tarek threw at her made it almost impossible not to fall for her.”

He hadn't had much of a chance to talk through what happened with his brothers in detail before Monique found them in the forest, one thing his girl did not have was a good sense of time, he’d left her alone for no more than thirty minutes or so before she came after him.

They also hadn't had a chance to talk on the plane because Monique was right there, and he wasn't comfortable sharing the details of what they’d gone through while she was able to overhear.

“Monique and I also spent a lot of intense moments together,” he reminded Cooper and the rest of his brothers. “And she’s every bit as brave and strong as Willow, or any of the rest of the women you all love, and I respect the hell out of all of them.”

“She’s the Kerr princess,” Jake told him doubtfully, and Jax found himself getting annoyed.

This was exactly why Monique was angry with him. She was so used to being used and judged based on who her family was—something she had zero control over—that she just couldn’t allow people in her life who did that to her.

“You know nothing about the real Monique,” he growled at them, daring any one of his brothers to disagree.

“Thing is, do you? Do you know who the real Monique Kerr is, or was she fooling you every bit as much as you were fooling her because she needed you to stay alive?” Cole asked, not unkindly, more like he was just looking out for a brother, and Jax couldn’t be angry at him for that.

“Look, it’s not like that, okay? She’s not like she’s portrayed to be. She’s sweet, shy, and introverted. She’s funny and I enjoyed talking to her. She also shared some stuff that happened to her when she was a kid, allowing me to see her vulnerabilities. ”

Sighing, he dragged his fingers through his hair. This wasn't how he’d expected their homecoming to be. He’d pictured taking Monique back home with him, washing every inch of her beautiful body, then falling asleep in a proper bed with her in his arms.

Instead, she’d gone home alone, and she never wanted to see him again.

To make it worse, his brothers seemed to want to talk him out of caring about Monique, and he wasn't about to let that happen.

Any of it.

But he had to fight this battle first. If he was going to win over Monique, apologize to her and make it up to her for keeping secrets, then he needed his family on his side. Without their support, Monique would never feel comfortable with any of them.

“Since she didn't know about her father’s involvement in all of this, she thought when we were run off the road that it was a kidnapping for ransom attempt. That those men were after her and not me. She believed that since it was her they wanted, because she’s been through something like that before.

Thought I was collateral damage, so she tried to make a deal for them to keep me alive.

” Once again, he raked his fingers through his hair, tugging enough to feel a sting in an attempt to let out a little of the raging emotions inside him every time he thought of her doing that for him.

“She offered to let them use her body however they wanted if they didn't kill me.”

For a long moment his brothers just stared at him in shock.

He got it. That didn't vibe with the image the media had of the young heiress, but that was just all it was. An image. Not the real Monique. Not the woman who hated being judged because of who she was and treated accordingly, even though none of the things she was portrayed as were true.

Monique deserved to be seen.

Not just by him, but by everyone and that started with his family.

There was no way in hell he was going to allow them to judge her when they didn't even know a thing about her. The fact that she’d offered them a DNA sample after he’d lied to her and she didn't even believe them should be enough to convince them she was not just a decent human being but an amazing one .

“I'm sorry she went through that,” Cole said softly. None of them had to ask to know that he was thinking about how Susanna had been raped because Monique’s father and the other men involved in this had thought she was Cole’s girlfriend, and that hurting her would get them to back off in their search for answers.

Susanna was now Cole’s girlfriend, but at the time, she’d been nothing more than his neighbor who he hated.

“Yeah, me too,” Connor added as he rubbed at his chest. His girlfriend Becca had been raped while they were in college and in the aftermath their relationship had crumbled until he tracked her down a couple of months ago and they rebuilt what they’d lost.

“She was prepared to go through that again to save me. I think she deserves your respect,” he told them firmly.

If there was any possible way for him to win Monique back, he would.

He wasn't giving up on her, and if he was successful, his family would become her family.

A family he wanted to love and care about her, give her what her biological one hadn't.

“No one is disrespecting her, Jax, we’re all just surprised she’s not what we expected,” Jake assured him.

“And she’s … she’s Cassandra’s half-sister,” Cole added.

“Half-sister who didn't have a great childhood, who doesn’t have the same support system that Cassandra does, who isn’t responsible in the least for her father’s actions.

She’s just a woman looking to be loved and accepted, nothing more and nothing less.

I don’t want to have to choose sides, especially between two women who have done nothing wrong, but I won't allow anyone to disparage Monique for any reason,” he warned, prepared and ready to draw his line in the sand. It was the least he owed Monique.

“You saying you’d pick her over your family?” Jake asked, eyes widening in shock.

“No. I'm saying I don’t want to have to choose, but I can't explain how I feel about Monique, it was quick, but it was powerful. She’s all alone, and I lied to her, I won't let her down again.”

“We wouldn't ask you to,” Cooper assured him. “You're right, Monique is already family. She might not believe it, but she’s Cassandra’s half-sister which means she’s one of us. ”

“One of us,” Connor repeated with a firm nod.

“We’ve got your back and hers,” Cole added.

Jax looked to Jake, needing his big brother to get how important this was to him. They might not have set out to hurt Monique, but they had, and she didn't deserve that.

“I'm with you, brother,” Jake promised. “You say she’s important to you, and that’s all I need to know. Everything we’ve seen over the last few hours supports that she’s not the spoiled, pampered princess we were expecting. Whatever you need from us you have it.”

“Right now, all I need is your prayers for a miracle. I'm not letting Monique go without a fight. She needs space and I’ll give it to her. I'm going to watch over her and make sure her father doesn’t decide she’s become a liability.

Then I'm going to figure out how to prove to her how sorry I am and that I’ll never let her down again. ”

For which he would definitely need a miracle.

November 7 th

6:52 P.M.

“Aww, thanks, my little cutie pie.”

The first smile in days finally settled on Monique’s lips as Cinderella came wriggling out of her specially designed crate that lived in the small sectioned-off backyard of the property.

Since she’d been away, some of her staff had been tending to her favorite little creature in the whole world, and yesterday she’d gotten back too early in the morning to say hi.

Now it was evening again, and finally her little baby was waking up and ready to play.

Which was exactly what she needed.

She needed to do something to stop herself from thinking about the whole mess France had been. Maybe if she could stop thinking about it, she could finally ease the knot of emptiness clawing at her insides.

It was no way to live, but she didn't know how to make it stop .

When she thought about it now, it all sounded so stupid and fanciful, like she was Cinderella and she’d gone to the ball, met Prince Charming, and instantly fallen in love.

Logically, she knew it didn't happen like that, not really, or at least not very often.

Why would she think that she would be lucky enough to find a prince and fall in love in a matter of days?

Not really in love but there were feelings, strong feelings, and the whole time they’d been wandering that forest in France, trying to find their way out, she’d thought they were going to get a real chance to explore them if they lived.