Ruined

Chapter Seven

Jax

This was against the rules. Don’t get involved.

And yet as she ended the call, I opened my damn mouth.

“Cut? What the hell is going on?” It wasn’t eavesdropping. The guy on the other end of the line was practically yelling. I would have heard the call even without the demonic boost. “Why would someone cut your brakes?”

She tried to cover it up, but it was impossible to hide. At least, from me. A quick nibble at the left corner of her bottom lip and an overexaggerated roll of her brown eyes. That, and the hint of gray smoke that rose from her shoulders. “They’re wrong. Obviously. Why the hell would someone cut my brakes? Everyone loves me. You, on the other hand…”

She was lying. The taste of fear, sickly sweet and thick in the air, was all around. This wasn’t random and she knew it.

“Apparently, they love you so much it hurts,” I said coolly.

“Now look who’s funnier.” She flashed a thin smile. It bothered me that she thought she could pass it off as real. I’d been gone a few years, but I could see through her. Always could. Shit like that didn’t change.

“Seriously, Sammy. What’s this all about? First you leave school, now someone tries to put you at the bottom of the river? Who’d you piss off?” There. Another opening for her to come clean.

She crossed her arms and glared, the expression sexy as all hell. The right-hand corner of her lip quirked. Eyes narrow and focused. Head tilted sideways. Hair falling across her eyes. “If—and that’s a huge if—the brakes were cut, it was probably a mistake. Maybe they got the wrong car.”

“Yeah. Because that kind of shit happens all the time in Harlow.” Think snails. Open-heart surgery. Naked dudes. Anything other than the way she looked and the sound of her voice. It was derailing my focus. “If I hadn’t been in the car, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

I thought back to the night I’d left. The one and only time we’d kissed. A real kiss—not the too-brief brush in the car at the bottom of the river. Soft lips. Warm skin. The scent of honeysuckle all around. The feeling of contentment quickly overshadowed by something dark and poisonous.

“Oh, that’s right.” She smacked her head, pulling me from the memory. The gray mist faded as she glanced back toward the building. “You saved me.” Another step closer. I found it impossible to look away. “And why do you even care? This is none of your business.”

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek. Only Sam could make me this particular shade of pissed off. “I was in the car, too. Whoever your friendly would-be murderer is, he almost offed me, as well. Technically I have a right to kick someone’s ass.”

She blinked, genuinely surprised. “You have the right?” She was standing so close. All I’d have to do was move my hand an inch—maybe two—and I could touch her. The thought pulled unwanted reactions from my body. “You—” She shook her head, backing away slowly toward the building.

I should have seen it coming.

In a single, fluent move, Sam pivoted and reached for the container of dirty water. Bucket in hand, she moved back toward me. “You have the right?”

She wouldn’t dare… “I know what you’re thinking, Sammy. Don’t.”

She grinned. A wicked smile that did fucked-up things to my brain. The way her bottom lip protruded just a hair. Eyes narrow. Cheekbones sharp. Samantha Merrick was the picture of perfection—even if she was contemplating assault with a stinky weapon.

“Wanna know what else you have a right to?”

Unfortunately there was only one thing on my mind at that particular moment, and the words came out before I could stop them. “Well, since I saved your life, I think I probably deserve a kiss. At the very least. With tongue.”

She froze for a second, face paling. Oh. Yeah. Stumped her good. It didn’t last, though. She closed the distance between us and leaned close, stopping mere inches from me. The hand holding the bucket fell to her side.

“Jax…” The sound of my name on her lips had a powerful effect on not only me, but the demon. As she nuzzled my ear and ran a finger up the other side of my neck, the demon rumbled and the scene around me changed. Another flash, this one unlike anything the thing had shown me before.

Sam was beneath me, breathing hard and biting down on her lower lip. She arched her back and moaned, exposing herself to me, and my real-time pulse spiked. The vision wasn’t real, but was wreaking havoc on my body all the same. It was impossible not to see her like that, willing and vulnerable, and not have a physical reaction.

There was a surge of amusement from the demon. It enjoyed the way this made me feel. Hungry and furious. Starving to touch her, while at the same time, so terrified of hurting her more than I already had. The flash continued, and I watched, unable to block it out, as I lowered my lips to the hollow of her throat. I worked my way down, dipping between her breasts and nipping at the skin along the way, drawing shocked little noises from Sam’s lips.

The flash ended, leaving me hard and hot, and for a second, I forgot to breathe.

“You really want a kiss? How about a wet one?” The heat from her breath lingered for a moment, followed by a stream of tepid, foul-smelling water as it rained over my head and ran down my shoulders.

I stumbled away and flicked the excess water from my arms. In a way, I was thankful. While not as good as a cold shower, it helped get the situation back under control. Unfortunately, it also made the demon furious. It pushed, but I gritted my teeth and stuffed it down. With an irritated sigh, I met her gaze and held it. “Are we even now?”

“Not a chance.” She let the empty bucket fall to the sidewalk and rubbed her hands down the sides of her jeans. “But who cares, right? You’re leaving again anyway.” Sam turned on her heel and strode to the door. A quick glance over her shoulder, and she was gone.

It was plain to see by the swirling colors above her head that she wanted me to stay despite how I’d left her behind. That alone should have lit a California wildfire under my ass. But something was wrong. Sam was in trouble—whether she knew it or not.

An hour ago, I’d been ready to leave. I’d come to the club to say good-bye once and for all, determined to put Harlow, and her, in the past for good. Now I had no choice. I had to stay—at least until I made sure she wouldn’t have any more “car trouble.”

I’d gone back to Rick’s for a dry shirt. At least, that’s what I told myself. What was supposed to be a ten-minute stopover ended up being three beers for me and two hours’ worth of bullshitting. I probably would have stayed longer, but Rick was exhausted, and I knew I was pushing my luck. I gathered my coat and was almost out the door when Chase came in.

“My jaw is fine. Thanks for asking.”

I stopped halfway across the living room. Turning around was a bad call, but I did it anyway. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“I told him that,” Rick called from the other room. A series of coughs followed.

Chase leaned against the doorframe and grinned. Not a care in the world. That always bugged me. Easy and smooth. The guy never stressed over anything. “Why? Because you’ll kick my ass?”

Fists tight, I took a step closer. It was a dangerous move considering the way the demon inside raged, but I couldn’t help it. “It’s a miracle you’re not in traction after what I walked into yesterday.”

My brother was the only human whose emotions I couldn’t see. We’d written it off as the curse—technically he was part of it, the Abel to my Cain—but it still bugged me. There had never been a problem seeing Rick’s colors. He frowned. “I got a little carried away trying to prove a point.”

“What fucking point? All the other girls in the world and you pick Sammy?”

Chase sighed and grabbed a baseball from the table. He’d won the game with it in tenth grade, and Rick had it mounted. “The point is, that even when I push your buttons, you can hold it together. If anything was going to set your dial to meltdown, that would have been the thing to do it. It was one little punch, man. I’m fine. Besides, I was a little jealous.”

Had everyone in this town lost their goddamned minds? “Jealous? Of the snarling monster living in my head?”

Chase tossed me the ball and sank onto the couch, the same one Rick had when we’d first moved in with him. Shit brown with pale-yellow pinstriping. “She’s always been all about you. Never looked twice at me. Even after all this time.”

“And that drives you crazy, doesn’t it?” I seethed.

Chase threw his hands up. “No arguments here, man. It did drive me nuts. I don’t get the appeal. You’re so dark and broody. I’m fun and charming.”

“And a prick that’ll fuck anything that walks.” I added, throwing the ball back with more force than necessary.

“Is it my fault chicks find me irresistible? They always have.” He rolled the ball between his hands, then tossed it back.

“The girls you got, I never wanted.”

“And the one you got, I did.”

There was no point in talking about it. If Sam found out the truth she’d be horrified—and who could blame her? I was a monster unworthy of love and compassion. Someone like her deserved to live in the light. Not stay hidden away in the dark. “Sam and I have no future together. Do whatever the fuck you want.”

“Since you don’t want her, maybe I will take a swing.” Chase shrugged. “Nothing serious. I have to admit, I’m really curious what she’d feel like underneath me.”

The demon’s rage ignited, mingling with my own emotion and making everything hazy. I threw the ball, this time with enough force to embed it in the wall right beside Chase’s head. “I’ll fucking kill—”

Chase jumped off the couch, taking several of the cushions with him, and threw up his hands again. “Relax, man. I’m just kidding. You know how I love to tweak you. But obviously you have an issue that needs resolving.”

The ache intensified, mouth going dry. Limit. Being here, listening to my brother’s voice, was testing my limit. The demon, sensing a crack in restraint, tried pushing itself to the surface, but I kept it down. Barely. “Could we drop the Sam thing?”

Chase took a step closer. “Look, I’m sorry. Rick said you didn’t want me here, and I get it, but I haven’t seen you in three years. You could have at least called once in a while to let me know you were still alive.”

“No,” I said coolly. I’d felt the demon’s animosity toward him in the past, but since coming home, it seemed to have intensified tenfold. What used to be an itch to punch Chase in the face had turned into something just short of need. “The sound of your voice makes me sick. I want to physically rip you to shreds each time you open your goddamned trap. You’ve always been careless, but are you suicidal, too?”

“I know what you’re thinking—”

The demon roared. I felt it as clearly as the breath moving through my lungs. The internal tremor rocked me to the core and everything momentarily went black. Deep breath. I’d worked for years on keeping the thing controlled in stressful situations. If he wasn’t careful, my brother was going to undo all that progress in a single afternoon. “If you knew what I was thinking, you’d be running right now.”

Chase had the intelligence to at least look worried. He was hovering in the doorway just out of reach. “You can’t leave town, Jax. Not yet. It’s Samantha. She needs your help.”

“She doesn’t need anything from me except distance.”

“At least hear me out, okay?”

Maybe he knew something about what was going on. Something that Sam wasn’t telling me. “Talk fast.”

“About a month ago Samantha came back home. One day she’s going to Huntington, staying on campus, the next she shows up on my doorstep asking me to help her find an apartment in town.”

“And your point?”

“My point is, this is Samantha we’re talking about. She couldn’t get away from this place fast enough, and now she’s back out of the blue?” Chase folded his arms. “I think something happened at school.”

“What could have happened?” The question was for my brother’s benefit. I already knew the answer. She’d been attacked. I’d gotten there just in time to scare the bastard off. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten a good look at the guy. It would have given me great pleasure to give him an up close and personal introduction to the demon.

Chase frowned. “No clue. She won’t say.”

“Maybe because it’s none of your damn business what she does?”

Expression darkening, any caution my brother felt drained away, and in a bold move, he stepped closer. “Lemme guess. She lied to you, didn’t she?”

She had, but I’d seen through it.

Chase grinned. The smug satisfaction in his expression made me—not the demon—want to smash his face into the wall. “Well, maybe in her eyes it was a lie of omission. That car going into the river wasn’t the first accident she’s had since coming back home.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Was there a connection? Had the person who attacked her at school made other attempts?

“Ask her. You’re the only one who has any hope of getting the truth. She pretty much brushes everyone else off.”

“You ask her. You’ve been here with her all this time.” The demon was getting antsy. Hands gripping the doorframe opposite my brother, I growled, “And you two seem pretty fucking cozy.”

“Get over it already,” Chase snapped. He took a deep breath, and his expression cooled a little. “I know this is hard for you, but I’m just asking you to stay for a few days. Just find out what’s going on.”

The demon flooded my mind with images of bodies washed in blood and screaming in pain. One body particular—Chase’s—made me sick, but at the same time, filled me with a twisted sense of satisfaction. I couldn’t take it anymore. “You need to leave.”

“What about—”

“Get out!” The scream tore from my throat like a weapon, leaving me edgy and raw. Beyond the front door, a dog started barking and a car alarm blared to life. “I don’t trust myself to keep it away. Go. Before. I. Tear. You. Apart.”

My brother sighed and backed away. “You’re here. I’m here. Like I said before, you haven’t done any real damage, man. You had the strength to walk away at McCarthy’s. You don’t give yourself enough credit.”

I braced both hands against the doorframe, gripping the wood until my fingernails dented the surface. “And you’re giving me too much.”