A noise down the short hallway drew their attention. Jax held his finger up as he crept that way, cocking his head listening closely. Sid and Lana were close behind him.
Without any warning at all, Caroline jumped into the hall with an iron skillet in her hand swinging with everything she had. “You son of a bitch!”
Jax caught the skillet before it made contact with his head. “Caroline!” he shouted as she fought him in panic mode. “It’s Jax.”
She looked up, her eyes focusing with realization. The skillet dropped from her fingers, hitting the floor with a loud bang. His eyes searched her face and a rage so deep flashed throughout his body. Her eye was swollen with the beginnings of a bruise coloring her pale cheek. He tilted her chin up, looking at her neck, which had markings of a perfect choke grip. Her lip quivered, but she tilted her head, putting on a strong front. “I’m fine.” She glanced behind him to see Sid and Lana. “You just scared me.”
He knew that to be true, feeling the shaking in her body. “Where is he?” Jax’s tone was deadly and meant business.
Caroline looked away, her strong front crumbling. “It doesn’t matter.”
“The fuck it don’t.” Jax turned her face toward him again. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“Hurt?” Lana pushed past Sid and Jax, trying to get to her sister. Once she was close enough, she saw her face in the darkness of the hallway. “Jesus, Caroline. What did that bastard do? I’m going to kill him.”
“I’m fine, Lana,” Caroline repeated, pulling away from her sister. “It’s my fault. I should have known better than to come alone, but I never thought he would do something like this.”
“What happened?” Lana led her out into the kitchen where broken dishes were scattered everywhere.
Caroline, folding her arms around her body, looked at the mess. “Damn him.”
“I’m not worried about the mess, Caroline.” Lana frowned. “We’ll clean it up. I want to know what the hell happened so when I call the police—”
“Lana, just leave it alone,” Caroline snapped. “It’s over.”
“Bullshit I’ll leave it alone,” Lana snapped back. “Have you seen your face?”
Caroline looked at Jax, then back to Lana. “Just leave, Lana.” Caroline turned to walk back down the hallway. “I don’t need you turning cop on me.”
They all watched Caroline disappear into her room, slamming the door behind her. Jax looked down at the kitchen counter and saw Caroline’s phone. He had to power it up which explained exactly why her phone had gone directly to voicemail. Turning it over, he noticed the crack in the back of the case. Only hard force would crack a case like that. He searched through her incoming calls. There were over 200 missed calls from one number yesterday. Memorizing that number, he switched to text messages. The last text message was half an hour ago from the same number. Anger so raw gripped him. Whoever this son of a bitch was he needed to be taught a lesson, a very painful lesson.
“This is why she doesn’t want anyone involved.” He laid the phone down, pushing it toward Lana and Sid.
Lana picked it up with Sid reading over her shoulder. “He threatened my little sister?” Lana was livid.
“If she got any of the family involved or the police.” Jax looked at Sid and a silent message passed between them.
“Caroline should know better.” Lana smacked the phone down on the counter.
“And you would do the same thing she’s doing.” Sid looked down at Lana. “You know it and I know. I’ve never seen a family as close as yours. Caroline not wanting to go against him in order to keep your sister and family safe doesn’t surprise me.”
Lana sighed long and hard. “I know. You’re right.”
Jax left, walking down the hall. Knocking on the door, he opened it without waiting for an answer and walked in. Caroline was on her hands and knees tossing things out of the closet.
“Lana, I don’t care what you say,” Caroline huffed as more clothes and shoes came sailing over her head to a big heap on the floor. “I just want to get the rest of my stuff, this mess cleaned up and forget I ever met the jerk.”
Jax walked over, picking up a pretty red nightgown she had tossed over her head. Cocking one eyebrow, he held it up. “I’ll let Lana know that when I see her,” Jax said, then grinned. “I thought you were a teacher.”
Caroline gasped when she turned to see Jax holding the red nightgown. Her eyes continued to stare at it. “Teachers aren’t saints.” Caroline’s lip trembled. “Some are even called whores.”
Jax dropped the nightgown and helped her off the floor. Damn, he sucked at this shit. Here he was trying to make her feel better; instead, she was on the verge of crying.
“Hey.” Jax leaned down in her vision and cursed at the unshed tears. “Listen, smack me if you want. I suck at trying to make people laugh.”
Caroline did look at him as a sad grin tipped her lips. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I’m usually not like this.”
“What happened, Caroline?” Jax led her to the bed, sitting her down. The more he looked at her bruised face, the more pissed he became. Not wanting to scare Caroline any more than she was, he had to control the deep rage he felt at her being mistreated by a piece of shit scumbag.
“We have to get our stuff out by tomorrow morning.” Caroline looked around the room. “We agreed he would get his stuff out over the weekend and then I would come after work this week to get the rest of my stuff. Rod sounded fine about it, until I didn’t show up on Monday after work. He called me and was yelling, telling me I needed to get here to get my stuff. It just went on and on.”
“Then why in the hell did you come alone today?” Jax didn’t sound angry, just confused.
“Because I’m too trusting and stupid.” Caroline rolled her eyes, then grimaced at the pain it caused her. “He told me the reason he was upset was because he wanted to talk to me, try to work things out and I ruined it by not showing up. He said he had to go out of town for work, which he did a lot. So I believed him. Today, I knew I had to come and get the rest of my clothes and the few dishes that were left. When he showed up, he laughed, saying I was stupid to believe he was going out of town, which I was. I should have known it was a lie.”
Jax sat quietly, letting her go at her own pace, even though every instinct he possessed urged him to get up, walk out, find the fucker and kill him.
“He told me that if I didn’t work it out with him, he would call my work and get me fired with lies, but I wouldn’t budge. I told him to go ahead and give it his best shot.” Caroline frowned. “Then he…”
“He what?” Jax urged, keeping the growl out of his voice.
“He accused me of seeing someone. I told him I wasn’t, which isn’t a lie. I mean a dinner is just dinner.” Caroline glanced up at him, her pale cheeks blushed beautifully. “Anyway, he grabbed my phone and saw your message. He went crazy.”
Jax went deadly still. Reaching over, he again tilted her face to his so he could see the bruising against her soft skin. “He hit you because of my text.” It wasn’t a question.
Caroline shook her head. “I don’t think that’s the only reason. He just went out of control. Even as far as threatening my younger sister, Jamie. Said his brother had taken a real liking to Jamie.” Anger flashed across her eyes. “His brother is much older than Jamie. I know it was a threat to scare me so I won’t tell anyone. He knows how much I love my family. I still can’t believe how he treated Lana when I wasn’t around and I never knew.”
The text Jax saw on her phone must have been a reminder threat to her. “Nothing is going to happen to Jamie.” Jax stood, pulling her up with him.
Caroline stood, looking around at all of her clothes then back at Jax. “Thank you, and I’m really sorry about dinner. I have to get this done and well…” She touched her swollen face.
“You are beautiful, Caroline.” Jax wondered briefly who the hell possessed his body because the intense need to make this woman more comfortable was overwhelming. “Never doubt that. We’ll do dinner another night.”
“You’re too sweet.” Caroline smiled, reaching up giving him a hug. “Thank you.”
Jax hugged her back, suddenly feeling uncomfortable as hell. Jax Wheeler was not sweet, what the fuck was happening to him? Pulling away, he led her toward the door. “Come on. Talk to your sister,” Jax grumbled, a frown plastered across his face.
“Don’t like being called sweet, huh?” Caroline chuckled, walking out the door ahead of him.
“Not at all,” he responded, his eyes running down her body. Okay, this was the Jax Wheeler he knew. Watching her womanly hips and ass sway as she walked away was more his style. Thinking of what he wanted to do with that body was more on his level, no matter what she went through. Yeah, this was more of who he was, not that sweet shit.
“You know where this asshole hangs out?” Jax asked Sid while the women talked.
“No, but I’m sure we can find him.” Sid’s smile was evil in anticipation of finding the bastard and making him pay for what he’d done to Caroline.
“He’s mine when we do,” Jax warned Sid, dialing his phone.
“No sharing, huh?” Sid laughed, looking over his shoulder at the women.
“Hey, I need you to run a number for me and find me an asshole,” Jax said on the phone, keeping his voice low. “Oh, yeah, well, bite me. And if you call me chief one more fucking time, I’m going to tomahawk your ass and take your scalp. Yeah, I need it now. I do have someone else I can call if you can’t handle it. Uh-huh, fuck you, too. All right, hurry up.”
“Nice,” Sid smirked. “Do most people do you favors when you threaten them?”
Jax nodded with a serious stare. “Yeah, they do.”
“Awesome, isn’t it?” Sid nodded in total understanding.
“This guy can skip trace anyone. He’s a pain in my ass, but is good at what he does. I just threaten him and then I get what I want.” Jax switched the phone to his other ear, then glanced over at the women who were cleaning the broken dishes in the kitchen. His eyes met Caroline’s. He could really get lost in her gorgeous eyes.
Sid saw the look that passed between the two. “You know, double weddings are really popular now.” Sid’s tone took on a serious note, but then he blew it by being a smart ass. “It would mean everything to me to call you brother, as in brother-in-law.”
“Fuck off, Sid,” Jax growled.
“Ah, that’s a new one,” Sid laughed. “Fuck off, Sid, has a different ring to it.”
Jax just stared at Sid. “Is it your job to piss people off?”
“Actually, no, but it would be fucking awesome to get paid to piss people off.” Sid’s eyes opened in fake excitement. “I’d be a rich son of a bitch.”
“That you would.” Jax couldn’t help but laugh; something he rarely did. Jax held up his finger when Sid started to say something else. “Yeah. Got it. Keep an eye on it and let me know if he moves within the next fifteen minutes.” Jax hung up and then gave Sid a smirk without saying a word.
Nodding, Sid headed toward Lana. “Babe, we’re going out for a few.” He kissed her forehead. “You going to be okay here for a while?”
“Where you going?” Lana didn’t hide the suspicion in her voice.
“What happened to my door?” Caroline stopped Sid from having to lie to Lana. She walked over staring at her broken door.
Sid pulled out his wallet, and then handed Lana a card. “When you didn’t answer, I kind of kicked it in,” he explained. “That’s the company I used when Slade and Jill went through their phase of throwing people through walls.”
“Thanks.” Caroline gave Sid a small smile, and then looked at Jax. “Both of you.”
Jax simply nodded before walking out the door. Lana followed them out.
“Kick his ass for me.” Lana reached up kissing Sid. “But stay out of trouble.”
“You see, this is one of the reasons I love you.” Sid grabbed her in a hug, kissing her breathless.
“You can tell me the other reasons later.” She nuzzled his neck before letting him go.
“I’ll call you later.” Sid gave her a promising wink before following Jax to the car. “So chief, you really have a tomahawk?”
“I
really
hate you.” Jax glared at him over the top of his car before getting in.
“Yeah, I get that a lot.” Sid gave his famous ‘don’t give a shit’ grin before climbing in the car. “Now, let’s go find this fucker.”
Slade sat at his desk looking through faxes, papers, yet nothing was making sense. All he could think about was Jill and wanting to make sure she was okay. If she did have a concussion, she should be woken every few hours if she fell asleep. He knew she was tired and probably sleeping at this very moment. Even though she was part vampire, being human still made her susceptible to the dangers humans faced.
“Ah, fuck!” Slade stood up, pushing away from his desk. Running his hand through his hair, he stared at nothing. One thing he definitely missed about being human was sleeping so he could escape his own damn thoughts.
Throwing up his hands in surrender to his nagging thoughts of Jill falling asleep only to never wake again, he threw open the door and walked out. Dammit, he knew she was trouble. No, wait a minute. He was a doctor. It was his responsibility to check on her. “Yeah,” he said to no one since he was alone and talking to his damn self.