Page 64 of Kiss Marry Kill
Clinging tight-knuckled to the vanity, he asked the necessary question. “What was in the box, Josef?”
A beat of silence passed by before Joey finally spoke. “A dead mouse.”
“Fuck.”
“Its head was chopped off.”
Without hesitation he punched the asteroid mirror. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
Chapter 11
PRESENT DAY
Megan didn’t say anything during the short drive back to her house. She’d tried to convince Jax to stop at a drugstore to get something for his bleeding knuckles, but he refused. In fact he refused to talk about anything, stewing in his anger.
“I’m sorry,” she said, climbing off his bike.
“You’re sorry?” he asked gruffly. “For what? None of this is your fault.” He said it softly, but by the way his jaw ticked and his fists clenched, it was clear there was nothing soft about him. “Don’t apologize again, I don’t like it. Come on, let’s go inside and see what we’re dealing with.”
“I should have let you do your job. I feel ridiculous for dragging you to a silly motel when everything is falling apart.”
“Ridiculous? Don’t, Megan. If you start regretting what we did, I’m just going to be even more pissed off.”
“I mean, he was able to get inside. He killed a freakin’ mouse. He wants to kill me. I’m not sure how to react right now and to top it off you’re furious.”
“It’s okay to be scared. But you didn’t do anything wrong and I’m in no way mad at you. I’m mad at this fucker who’s messing with you, I’m mad at my team for not securing your house, but mostly I’m angry at myself for dropping the fucking ball.”
She turned her face to him, her lip quivering and her eyes wide and troubled. “He’s making my orderly life a mess, Jax.”
“We’ll fix it, sweetheart.”
“I want to be able to enjoy the fact that you’re back, and we can’t even have twenty four hours of peace. You’re going to revert back to that cold stressed-out guy who walked back into my life a week ago.”
He pulled her to him. “Last night was perfect, Meg. I know you’re doing this five things game because you’re worried about me. I get it. But really, I’m fine, you can stop it now. Sometimes I may be that stressed-out guy and I’ll probably be an ass, but it’s not directed at you. I’ll never be cold with you. Worry about you, not about me. Never about me.”
“Of course I’m going to worry about you. I finally get you back and it’s you, but it’s not really you, but I know you’re in there and then boom—a dead mouse!”
He had an eyebrow cocked high up; obviously she wasn’t making much sense.
Taking a deep breath, she tried again. “I’m just frustrated, is all.”
“And I’m fucking pissed. How the hell did he get inside?” he said, mostly to himself.
“He’s sneaky,” she said, then she mumbled under her breath, “like a fucking cat.”
He growled deep in his chest. “My job is to secure against sneaky and I screwed up.”
“It’s not your—”
“Don’t say it, Megan. It is my fault, I’m security and your house wasn’t secured. But it’s going to be okay, Meg. I’ll fix this as soon as I figure out what the hell happened.”
She nodded and followed him inside, finding Joey and some other people she didn’t recognize working on something.
“What the fuck happened?” Jax bellowed when he walked into the house. “I said fortress, and that’s what I want this place to be. A goddamn fortress. How the hell was there a breach?”
The crew had worried looks as their boss yelled at all of them. But Jax wasn’t done.
* * *
