Page 66 of Kiss Marry Kill
“Well, fuck me!” the woman in a pinup-style dress said, setting three bags on the floor. “This is the way you should always welcome me back to the States, Megan. What’s with all the hot men?” She looked from Jax to Joey. “Rambo and Tarzan. Nice.”
Megan jumped up and almost tackled Taylor who followed suit, both women hopping up and down, yapping excitedly and incoherently.
“Tee, this is Jax and Joey. Rambo and Tarzan, respectively,” she said, pointing behind her, “and the group of men over there with the floor plan of my house, those are some of the guys that work for Jax and Joey’s security firm, Iron-Clad Security.”
“Security firm?” Taylor eyed Megan, then bent down and picked up a bag that upon proper inspection was a carrying case for a pet. “I brought you security. Cute security. I didn’t realize you were going all out. Maybe I need to be briefed,” she said, unzipping the bag whose contents were whimpering.
“Oh my god, did you get me a dog?”
“He’s a golden retriever puppy. Isn’t he the cutest?” Taylor cooed as the shy puppy stumbled out of the carrying case. Megan fell to the floor and began to call to it.
“A puppy? You got Meg a puppy as protection?” Jax said, unamused.
“He’s not going to be a puppy forever, Rambo. I did research and I asked professionals, and this is a good guard dog. Plus, Megan shouldn’t be all alone in this big house all the time.”
“Tee is an animal lover,” Megan clarified. “She has like ten dogs and five cats.”
“Three dogs and one cat,” Taylor corrected her.
“C’mere, puppy,” Megan called the dog, who had crawled back into the carry-on.
All this was too much excitement for Jax, whose thoughts were still on trying to figure out what the hell had happened with the lapse in security. He needed to really understand where they’d failed. Everything in him screamed that Ryan was the key. If he could just figure out why he was doing this, he was sure the “how” would fall into place. The obsessed fan angle felt only partly right; there was something else to the picture, and goddamn it, he just wasn’t seeing it.
He also needed to figure out what Ryan wanted from Megan. Was he just being overzealous, or did he want to physically hurt her? A chill ran down his spine as he thought of what would have happened if they’d been here instead of in the motel the previous night. Worse, what if she’d been alone?
“So, I want to hear what’s been happening while I’ve been away.” Taylor’s voice shook Jax out of his thoughts. “You already told me about the break-in when we Skyped last week, but that’s about it. Did they catch the dude?”
“Not yet.” Joey said.
“And there’s been other problems.” Megan scooped the puppy up and walked over to the couch where she sat with her legs under her ass and the puppy in her arms. Jax sat next to her, and Joey stayed standing while Taylor sat down in one of the love seats. “He sent a creepy text the next day, and then he’s been prank calling me.”
“Creepy?” Taylor asked.
Joey reached for his phone and pulled up the copy that Jax had sent him, then turned it over to Taylor for her to see. “Oh, damn.”
“Yep,” Megan agreed. “And then we stayed at Fantasies—you know, the motel you told me about—and then Joey called in the middle of the night about a break-in, and there was a box with a dead mouse in it on my bed.” It all came out in one long frantic breath.
“Whoa! Back up, sister. You went to Fantasies? With Rambo?”
“You told me about it,” Megan clarified. “And yes, with Jax. That’s his name, not Rambo, although it does seem rather fitting.”
“I’m missing something, aren’t I?” Taylor began then it hit her. “Wait! Is this the Jax? The one from all those years back?”
“Same,” Jax said.
“What the hell? How did this happen? How was I not notified about this? Why didn’t you tell me Jax looked like that? And what is this situation right here?” Taylor used a finger to circle the area between Jax and Megan, or lack of area, since Jax had his arm lazily over the top of the couch, Megan tucked in close, one of his fingers wrapped around some of her hair. “And which theme did you pick?”
Joey and Jax smirked and Megan rolled her eyes. “Astronaut.”
“Nice.” Taylor winked and then leaned in to give Megan a little fist-bump. Jax had to hand it to her, Taylor was something else.
“Jax heard on the news about the break-in and came right over. I’ll explain more about that later. Maybe when we’re not with said hot guy.” She winked at Jax. “And I must’ve forgotten to tell you about him being here when we spoke, because first, we spoke for like three seconds, and second, we spoke after a crazy lunatic had broken into my house and I thought I was going to be killed. Guess impending death makes me forget to mention Jax. And Jax owns a security firm with Joey, like I said before, and they are working on getting things safe.”
“Wow. Left for a few months and things went to shit,” Taylor said. “Well, except for Jax being back, of course.”
“Which brings me to something you and I have to talk about,” Megan said, her body language completely shifting. She leaned forward, her forearms on her thighs and her lips downturned. “I want to cancel the tour, Tee.”
“What!?” Taylor shrieked. “Why?”
