I look up at Lucia’s apartment as I park my truck. I’m a little early but I’ll wait out here rather than going up to get her. I haven’t seen her since the night at her parents’ house when I almost fucking kissed her. God, I’m such an asshole.
I spoke to Alejandro last night and this morning to catch him up on what he’s missed and both times I considered suggesting that he show Lucia the ropes himself. Both times I backed out and now as I sit here waiting for her, I can’t help but wonder why.
I tell myself it’s because he’d want to know what prompted my change of heart and I wouldn’t have an answer for him—at least not one that wouldn’t end in him crushing my nuts in a vise—but the real reason is I’m looking forward to seeing her, working with her and just spending time with her.
She’s not like any other twenty-one-year-old woman I know, not that I know many on a personal level. She’s way smarter than almost anyone else I’ve ever met. She’s more mature than most of the guys I work with who are decades older than her. I suppose it comes from having to look after herself from so young and also becoming a mom at seventeen.
Her apartment is in a nice building. It’s a short walk to the beach and there’s a park nearby where she likes to take Matthias. It’s close to his kindergarten too. I know Alejandro would have bought her an apartment on the beach if she’d chosen one, but she was more than happy with this. It’s not that it’s lacking by any means, but the fact that she chose something much more modest than what he was offering makes me proud of her, whether I have any right to be or not. I like to tease her that she’s a spoiled brat, but we both know it couldn’t be further from the truth.
I stare at the door to her building and wonder if I should at least call and tell her I’m early but then the door opens and she steps outside.
I close my eyes and suck in a breath. This is going to be the longest day of my fucking life. When I open them again, my cock twitches in my pants as if to remind me that yes, she is dressed like that. Not that there’s inherently wrong with how she’s dressed. It’s a pencil skirt and a white blouse. I mean, if she was going to work in an office somewhere, it would be the perfect outfit. And what else is she supposed to wear? A suit like her father and me?
She walks toward the truck and the sight of her hips swaying in that damn skintight skirt makes me feel like I’m about to have a heart attack. What is it about her wearing a pencil skirt that makes me think of bending her over a desk and fucking her brains out?
Stop it, Jax.
“Hey, Jax,” she says with a smile as she opens the door of the truck and steps inside. “I wasn’t sure what to wear today. My dad said businesslike. Is this okay?”
I look at her, my eyes fixed on her face for fear of losing my shit if they drop any lower. “You look fine,” I manage to say with a smile.
“Good.”
“I’m so glad I’m with you today,” she says, her eyes shining as she stares at me.
“You are?” I frown.
“I mean, because … it’s my first day … and I’m…” She stumbles over her words as her cheeks flush pink and that image of her bent over a desk pops back into my brain. What the fuck is wrong with me?
“I guess I’m a little nervous,” she says, brushing the hair back from her eyes, “and so I’m glad that you’re with me.” Her cheeks turn even pinker and I realize I am not improving her situation by simply sitting here and staring at her instead of putting her at ease. “I mean, because … it’s you. Fuck.” She shakes her head. “Am I babbling?”
I finally find my voice “It’s natural to be nervous, Lucia, but there’s nothing to worry about. We have a straightforward day ahead.” I wink at her.
“Yeah.” She lets out a long breath. “I don’t know why I got so flustered.” She laughs as she fans herself with her hand.
Maybe it was because I was staring at you like I wanted to throw you in the back seat and eat you? “It’s hot out,” I say instead. Smooth, Jax.
“Sure is,” she agrees as she sits back in her seat. “Thank God for air con.”
“Hmm,” I mumble as I start the engine and pull away from the curbside.
“You speak to my dad yet?” she asks.
“Yeah, caught up with him last night and saw him this morning. He and your mom seemed like they had a good trip.”
“Yeah. I’m so glad they’re back though. Watching those three kids on my own was exhausting.”
A pang of guilt stabs me in the chest. “I’m sorry. I should have come around more.”
“No you shouldn’t.” She shakes her head. “You were busy taking care of business stuff. I was fine. They’re just a lot together, is all.”
“I’m sorry, Luce,” I say.
“I told you it’s fine.”
“Yeah,” I nod. I wasn’t apologizing for that, but I also don’t want to open that can of worms again.
“Everything is fine,” she adds as she looks at me, telling me that she’s thinking of it too. “Now where are we headed?”
“Downtown. We need to negotiate some new transport contracts.”
“Sounds fun.” She smiles at me.
I have a feeling she would think anything sounds fun—she’s so excited to be starting work. I’ve chosen some of the more straightforward aspects of our business for our first week. I’m not sure Alejandro would appreciate me introducing his daughter to the darker side of what we do on her first day.
An hour later, we pull into the haulage yard and I kill the engine. I gave Lucia all of the information she needed to know about this contract on the drive here.
“How do you feel about handling the negotiations?” I ask as we climb out of my truck.
“Me? You think I’m ready?”
“Sure. And I’m right here if you need me.”
“Then yes,” She beams at me and I can’t help but smile back.
We walk into Mason Michaelson’s office. Three of his goons are in there with him but they sit around on sofas. There is no reason to think they’ll be needed today. Still, having these assholes around Lucia makes me twitchy. I see their gazes roam over her body and settle on her ass as she walks past. I glare at them and they avert their eyes.
“Jackson.” Mason stands when he sees me and holds out his hand.
“Mason.” I shake his hand and place my other on the small of Lucia’s back. “This is Lucia. She’ll be handling your contracts from now on.”
“Lucia.” Mason smiles and I watch for his reaction to her. If there is even a hint of disrespect or disdain for her then he will regret it, but he’s a professional businessman and he knows exactly who she is. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
He offers us a seat and we take it. Then I watch with a mixture of awe and pride as Lucia hammers out a new contract with him. She certainly has her father’s negotiation skills and it makes me so fucking proud to see her in action.
Mason mops his brow when they finally settle on a price and I smile to myself knowing the usually cool and collected businessman is hot under the collar.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Mason,” she says as she stands.
“The pleasure was all mine, Lucia,” he replies with a smile. “I look forward to working with you in the future.”
Did he just fucking wink at her? No. I mean I was looking at her so I wasn’t giving him my full attention. Surely he didn’t, though? Not right in front of me.
She doesn’t give any indication of being uncomfortable so I give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean the guy is old enough to be her father and the irony of that is not lost on me.
We say our goodbyes to Mason and start to walk out of his office. One of his asshole goons is standing by the door. He must be new because I don’t recognize him and I never forget a face.
“Excuse us,” Lucia says politely as we approach and he doesn’t move. I resist the urge to move him out of the way myself, but this is her show today.
He steps out of the way, looking her up and down as he does. “I hope we’re going to be seeing a whole lot more of you around here.” He licks his lips. If that wasn’t bad enough he reaches out and brushes his fingertips through a strand of her hair.
I am just about to rip his arm out of its socket when she acts first. Grabbing him by his balls, she squeezes so hard that he squeals like a piglet. “You ever touch me again and I will roast these on a skewer and feed them to you after. Understand?” she hisses.
He nods his understanding as his face turns purple.
“Good.” She smiles at him before she releases his nuts and I laugh as the two of us walk out of the door. As soon as we’re outside, she sucks in a deep breath and reaches out for me, grabbing my forearm and squeezing.
“Are you okay?” I frown at her as she gasps for air.
She shakes her head. I put an arm around her waist and walk her to the truck. I want to help her but I don’t want any of Mason’s assholes to see her having some kind of panic attack. She just put on an epic show of power in there and I would hate for them to see her vulnerable.
“I’m going to get us in the truck and out of here. Okay? Just keep breathing, Angel.”
She nods as she walks with me, clinging onto my arm. As soon as I get her into the truck, I climb in after her and get us out of there. When we’re a few hundred yards down the road I pull over. Her breathing is less labored now and I feel relief wash over me.
“Luce?” I say and she turns to me.
“I’m sorry.” She wipes a stray tear from her cheek.
“What happened?”
“My brother, Luca,” she shudders. “He used to look at me like that. I don’t know—it took me back to a place I didn’t like.” She shakes her head like she doesn’t want to talk about it any longer. “I’m sorry if I overreacted.”
I act on instinct, pulling her into my arms and giving her a quick hug before she sits back again. “You didn’t overreact, Luce. You were right to show that asshole he can’t put his hands on you. I would have if you hadn’t.”
“Thank you for letting me deal with it.”
“You were a fucking legend in there.”
“You think so?” She smiles at me. Fuck, she is so desperate for approval it makes me want to kill every person who ever hurt her and made her believe she was worthless. Luckily for them, the ones who did the most damage are already dead.
“Yes.”
“Thanks, Jax,” she says and then I don’t know if it’s the emotion of the day but she flings her arms around my neck and hugs me. I hug her back, feeling like a complete deviant because she feels so fucking good in my arms that I never want to let her go.
Fortunately, the rest of the day is much more uneventful and I drop Lucia off at her parents’ house after our final meeting, where Matthias is waiting for her.
“Are you not coming in?” she asks.
“No. Your dad is still at the hotel and I need to catch up with him,” I lie. Well, it’s not a complete lie. I am going to meet with him, but I have something else to take care of first.
“Okay. Thank you for today,” she whispers. “I’m sorry I freaked out on you this morning.”
“You were a pro. I’m proud of you.” I smile at her.
“Thanks. Please don’t tell my dad I screwed up on my first day.”
“Hey. You didn’t screw up. Some asshole put his hands on you and you dealt with him. What happened after is between you and me. I just told you I’m proud of you and I wouldn’t lie to you, Luce.”
“I know.” She nods but her eyes brim with tears. “I hate thinking about him, Jax,” she says as she looks down at her hands, and I assume she is talking about her brother, Luca. “I do my best not to, but when I do…”
Before I know it, I pull her into my arms and brush her hair back from her face. “It’s okay,” I say in her ear.
She melts into me and I bury my face in her hair, inhaling the familiar scent of the shampoo she always uses.
“I’m sorry. We shouldn’t…” She pulls back and wipes her face with her hands.
I frown at her. “Shouldn’t what?”
“Nothing. I…” She shakes her head. “Thanks, Jax. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“If you’re upset, I can stay a while longer.”
“No. I’m fine. I’ll be fine. You should go take care of whatever it is you need to do.” She places her hand on the door handle.
“Yeah. Bye, Luce.”
“Bye.”
I watch her climb out of my truck and walk up the driveway to the front door of her parents’ house and wish there was some way I could make her see just how incredible she really is.
Itake off my jacket before climbing out of my truck. The sun is setting but the yard is still open. Walking to Mason’s office, I’m pleased to see he and his goons are still in there. They are sitting around his desk with serious looks on their faces, as though they’re discussing business.
“Jackson?” Mason looks up in surprise when I stroll inside without knocking. “Is everything okay?”
“Not really.”
He stands and buttons his jacket. “What can I do for you?”
“Absolutely nothing,” I reply without making eye contact. Instead I look at the asshole sitting in front of his desk who is just about to take another swig of his beer. “But you can.” I glare at him.
“What?” He frowns at me but Mason sits back down in his chair, realizing why I’m here. The asshole with the beer doesn’t though as he stares at me with his mouth hanging open.
I don’t wait for any further response from any of them as I grab him by his hair and slam his face down onto his boss’s desk.
Mason doesn’t flinch but his employee howls in pain while the other two guys scramble from their chairs. I don’t know if they’re planning on taking me on or they’re just getting out of the way, but right now I don’t care. I will deal with every one of them if I have to, but not until I’ve done what I came here to do.
“What the fuck, man?” the asshole squeals as I lift his head back up.
I lean close to his face. “You are never to go anywhere near her ever again. You understand me?”
He blinks at me in confusion as blood pours from his nose, and it only angers me more that he doesn’t know what I’m talking about. I grab hold of his busted nose and twist it and the sound of cartilage and bone snapping makes him scream. One of the men standing behind me retches. Mason doesn’t flinch, though. He has worked with me and Alejandro long enough to know how we operate.
I lean my face closer to the jackass who touched Lucia earlier and reminded her of her brother. “Lucia Montoya,” I growl at him as I pull his head back by his hair.
Realization dawns on his face and he whimpers, opening his mouth but coughing on the blood running down his throat before he can speak.
“When she has a meeting with your boss in future, you will be nowhere near here. If you should ever find yourself unexpectedly in her presence, then you should get yourself as far away from her as you possibly can as quickly as humanly possible,” I snarl as anger pulses through me.
He nods his understanding.
“And should so much as your breath ever touch her again, I will chop off all of your extremities before I bury you alive. You got that?”
“Yes,” he sputters.
I push his head back, releasing him from my grip. “Make sure that she never lays eyes on him again, Mason,” I bark as I turn to the door.
“Of course, Jackson,” he replies.
