Jax’s huge arms are wrapped around me as I sit on his lap in the back of my father’s car. The smell of blood fills my nose, its coppery tang in my throat even after I guzzled an entire bottle of water as soon as we got out of the diner. I’m not sure I will ever get the stench from my nostrils. If my father had any lingering doubts about me joining the family business, I’m pretty sure I just laid them to rest. I didn’t know that people could endure the levels of pain that Dolos—or Richard, as I now know him—just did. Even when they cut him wide open and pulled out his insides, I didn’t flinch. The screams and the smell made me want to retch, but I didn’t. This is what the two men I love most in the world do and it’s what I do now, too.
My father called some of his men to dispose of Richard’s mutilated body, dump the Prius and remove any evidence of us being there, and then we climbed into his SUV to head for home. I catch him glancing at Jax and me in the rearview mirror and I offer him a faint smile to let him know that I’m okay. He winks at me before his gaze drifts back to the road.
“You okay?” Jax asks as I shift on his lap.
“Yes,” I murmur. “I can’t wait to get home and showered.”
“We’ll be home soon, mija,” my father answers. “Magda has your old room ready.”
“No, Papi,” I reply. “I’m not moving back home.”
“You’re not going back to your apartment,” he snaps.
“She and Matthias will move in with me,” Jax says and I look at him and frown.
“I’m not moving in with you,” I whisper and Jax frowns right back at me.
“You’re not going back to that apartment, so you come home with me or you stay with Jax until I find you somewhere more appropriate,” my father adds.
“So you’re happy for me to live with Jax?” I ask him leaning forward in seat so I can see his face when he replies.
“No,” he snaps. “But his house is like a goddamn fortress. So…”
I look back to Jax. “It’s not up for discussion, Angel. One of us will be taking you home with us tonight.”
“Fine,” I mumble. “I’ll stay with you, but I’m not moving in.”
“Why not?” he whispers.
I beckon him closer, until I can press my lips against his ear so my father won’t hear me. “Because you have screwed half the women in California in that house.”
“Oh,” he chuckles softly, “then we’ll look for somewhere new then.”
I shake my head. I don’t have the energy to argue with the pair of them about my living situation right now. Whatever drugs Richard gave me are still making me feel woozy—or maybe it’s the lack of food and the fact I just watched a man tortured to death—or a combination of all three.
I close my eyes and lean against Jax’s chest and he strokes my hair.
“You said you weren’t the first girl he’d done that to, mija,” my father breaks the silence in the car.
“Yes. He said that he usually liked skinny girls that were younger than me. That was why he was so angry with me, because when I made you think I was dating him and you had Jax look into him, he was pissed that he almost got found out.”
“But then he took you, so he must have known we would come for him?” Jax says with a frown.
“Yeah,” I agree. “But I think he honestly believed he was some sort of criminal mastermind.”
“Hmm. Naming yourself after a Greek god does kind of scream over-inflated ego,” Jax says.
“You think you could look into it a little more, Papi? See if there are any other girls he’s maybe taken, or even killed?”
“He’s dead now, mija. He can’t hurt anyone else. No good will come from digging into his past.”
“But those girls might have people worried about them, Papi. Parents or brothers, sisters, children?”
He takes a few seconds to answer. “Fine,” he eventually sighs.
“Thank you. From the way he spoke I think he’d used that place before.”
“Hmm. That would make sense,” Jax says. “There wasn’t much likelihood of people finding the place or sneaking around there.”
“So how did you two find me there, anyway?” I ask and immediately feel the tension in Jax’s arms.
“It doesn’t matter,” my father snaps. “All that matters is that we did.”
“I know that,” I say with a frown. “I was just wondering how you did. The place was kinda out of the way and all.”
Silence!
“So how did you do it?” I ask again only to be met with more silence.
“Why won’t either of your answer me?” I ask. What could they possibly be avoiding telling me?
“Alejandro,” Jax eventually says.
“Jax,” he snarls back.
“She deserves to know,” Jax adds.
I look between him and my father.
“Deserve to know what?” I demand.
“We can discuss it tomorrow when you’re rested and we can all have a rational discussion,” my father says.
“Papi?”
“Just remember that this saved your life, mija,” he says. “Who knows what that cabrón would have done to you if we hadn’t got there when we did?”
“Okay,” I say and I look to Jax who narrows his eyes at me.
“Promise you won’t freak out,” he says.
“I promise. Would you both please tell me what’s going on?”
“You have a tracker in your arm,” my father says, matter-of-factly.
“A tracker? In my arm?” I look between the two of them.
“Yes.”
“But how?” I rub my hands over my arms, not knowing what I’m looking for, but surely I would know if someone stuck a tracker in me, right?
“When you went for your implant, I paid the doctor to implant a tracker too.”
“You what?” I snap. “But that’s like illegal!”
My father arches an eyebrow at me in the rearview mirror. Like he doesn’t break at least a dozen different laws on a daily basis.
“It’s unethical,” I try instead. “I thought doctors were supposed to be above all that shit?”
“Stop cussing,” my father and Jax say in unison.
I shake my head in disbelief. Yeah, cut a guy’s cock off with a rusty hacksaw, Lucia, but don’t curse.
“I will cuss all I want to. You had something put into my body without my knowledge, Papi—do you get how wrong that is?”
He stamps on the brake and the car comes to a screeching halt on the side of the highway. He turns to me, his face full of anger. “No I do not, mija, because you are the most stubborn person I know. That tracker is for your own protection. If I had suggested that you have it, you would have refused.”
I open my mouth to reply but he glares at me and I close it again.
“Do not even for one second try to tell me that you would have agreed, because we all know that is not true.”
I clamp my lips together. Damn! It is true.
“I love you, mija. If anything happened to you because of me and what I do, I would never forgive myself. So, you wanted your freedom. You wanted to go off to college and live in an apartment with no bodyguard and no protection, and the only way I could give you that was to know that there was a way I could find you if anything ever happened to you. So, no, I do not think it was wrong. I am not sorry. And I would do it again without hesitation.”
I blink at him. I mean I’m all kinds of pissed at him, but I can’t even argue with any of that right now so I lean back against Jax and my father turns back to the wheel and drives off again.
“Did you know about this?” I murmur to Jax.
“Not until today,” he replies.
I nod and feel a wave of relief. Somehow, that would have felt like more of a betrayal.
“Does mom know?” I say this louder.
“No,” he snaps.
“Does she have one of these things?”
“No!”
“She’s gonna be so pissed at you when I tell her what you’ve done.”
Jax laughs softly and the sound rumbles through his chest, comforting me.
“I know,” my father snaps.
“Or I could get it taken out tomorrow and we won’t tell her,” I offer.
“Lucia,” he warns.
“I want it out of me, Papi,” I say and I see him ready to argue with me again. “But I do see how useful they are. Maybe we need to have a family meeting about us all having one? If I have one then it will be my decision. And I think it’s only fair that you have one, too. And mom and the boys?”
“Hmm. We’ll see,” he replies.
Jax kisses the top of my head. “And you too, Decker,” I murmur.
I watch the sun setting over the ocean as I sit on the sofa in Jax’s huge open-plan living room, cradling a mug of his Aunt Molly’s soothing tea. My parents left about an hour ago and Jax is settling Matthias for the night. I’m trying not to think about what might have happened if Jax and my father hadn’t got to me when they did. One thing I do know for sure, is that as soon as I’ve been to the doctor’s tomorrow to get this damn tracker removed, I’m heading straight to Toni’s gym to beg her to teach me every single thing she knows. I never want to feel as defenseless again as I did today.
Jax walks back into the room and I smile at him.
“He’s fast asleep,” he says as he sits down on the sofa beside me.
I place my mug on the table and he pulls me onto his lap, brushing my hair from my face. “Are you okay, baby?”
“Yes, I told you like a million times. I’m good.” He frowns at me and I lean my head against his chest. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “But I’ll tell you if I’m not okay. I promise.”
“Okay,” he kisses my head. “You want to watch a movie?”
“Yes. Which one?”
“Your choice, Angel.”
“Really? Anything I want?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to make you watch something really girly and romantic, you know that, right?”
“Anything you want.”
“Hmm. I should get kidnapped more often,” I giggle.
“Lucia!” he warns.
“Too soon?”
“Way too soon.”
I must have fallen asleep watching the movie because I wake up in Jax’s arms as he’s carrying me to bed.
“Hey sleepy head,” he smiles at me as my eyelids flutter open.
“Hey.” I yawn. “Are you taking me to have your wicked way with me?”
“No.” He kisses my nose. “I’m taking you to get a good night’s sleep for a change.”
“Spoilsport,” I grin as my eyes roll closed again and the next thing I’m vaguely aware of is having the covers pulled over me as I lie on Jax’s chest. Then his huge arms are around me and I snuggle against him feeling completely happy and safe.
