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“Not together like you are? You bend that Madden girl over on the bare floor of that dump?” Eric countered.
Jaxon sniffed, allowing a smirk to tug at his lips. “I’m not going to kiss and tell, but I know she’s let me closer than she ever let you.”
Not a lie. And not overly crude either.
Eric’s face changed suddenly. His calm, collected, asshole exterior changed, and he took a few steps forward, his toes scraping the curb just shy of Jaxon’s property. His voice changed. It got higher. A little less controlled. “Don’t forget what I know, Lawson.”
Jaxon knew exactly what Eric knew. Knew it could fuck him over royally. But it’d hurt Teagan more, so he had to keep a steady upper hand. He had Eric upset, which gave him the opportunity to travel the high road. “That a threat, McKinnon? Think it’s going to make me stay away from her?”
Eric pursed his lips like he was thinking before shaking his head back and forth. “I don’t think so, no. In fact, Ihopeyou don’t. The big reveal will be more delicious with a bigger audience. I don’t think she’d take kindly to finding out what I know about her dear old daddy, though. And she certainly wouldn’t like how I found out about it.”
“She’d recover. Something like that’s not going to ruin her.”
“No, no, it won’t. It’d ruinyou, though.” Eric was grinning in that scary, evil way he had. Like a cat with a mousedangling from one paw and another trapped under his monstrous back leg. “She won’t want anything to do with you. Or your bare floors. Or anything you do to her while you’re lying on them.”
Jaxon swallowed back his first response, which was a hissed insult to dare Eric to step one foot into his yard. Instead, he stared levelly into Eric’s crazy eyes and waited. Waited just past the time that he would have replied. Waited until he saw Eric look nervously to the side and then back at him.
“I’d thank you to keep off my property. I’ll call the cops if I find you here again.”
“You’ll call Dave?” Eric asked, snickering. “Maybe you could call Brad too. Get a whole family reunion cracking for when I tank Owen Madden and his political career. Make room for a McKinnon as Region Representative for Batton Hills.”
“What are you even getting out of this?” Jaxon asked, anger tinting his voice now. “You hate your father. Why would you ever help him?”
Eric shrugged. “You’re right. I do hate my father. Don’t hate his money, though. Don’t need it, but more is always better, isn’t it? Plus, I get to see you broken, that bitch Teagan broken, Owen Madden broken, and Dave Davis broken. All in one glorious sweep.”
“You can’t break Teagan,” Jaxon spat. “You can try, but you won’t.”
“Again, Jaxon. I’m not trying to break Teagan. I’ll let you do that for me.”
Jaxon set his jaw. No sense tipping his hand and revealing that hecouldn’tbreak Teagan Madden if he tried. If anyone was standing to be hurt by this, it was him. Him and Owen and Dave.
“Leave now,” he hissed, refusing to turn his back until Eric was in his car and pulling away.
It took him a couple of seconds to step back, turning his back to Jaxon like the fucker knew he wasn’t in any danger here. Jaxon wished he was crazy enough to wring his neck out here in the street. It’d keep him from hurting anyone else.
Eric got in his car and revved the engine loudly, throwing it in drive and pulling up the road. In the wrong direction, Jaxon’s street was a cul-de-sac. He knew what he was doing. He’d be turning around and driving back down in a few minutes. And then he’d rev the engine outside of the house. Like a prick.
Jaxon’s shit luck continued as if it were trying to out-do itself or something. The second Eric disappeared down the road, Teagan pulled into his driveway. So when Eric came back down the road, she’d see him. Damnit.
She parked beside Jaxon’s truck and climbed out of her car, ducking back in for two takeout bags.
Jaxon could only watch her walk closer, knowing in a few seconds she’d see Eric and then she’d fall apart.
He wished he were taller. So he could block the street from view and maybe keep Eric from seeing Teagan there as well.
“Hey!” she greeted him, walking closer. “I brought dinner.”
“You didn’t have to…”
“You said you were going to stay late. I wanted Chinese, and I didn’t want to eat it alone.”
He reached out and took one of the bags just as Eric’s loud ass car engine revved again. Teagan frowned and peeked around Jaxon’s shoulder, her eyes widening and then all the color drained from her face.
“What—what’s he doing here?” she hissed, not taking her eyes off the car as Eric slowed down and honked his greeting. He waved brightly at Teagan before punching the gas and driving off.
“He came by for a visit,” Jaxon deadpanned. “What do you think? He was here being an ass.”
“Fuck him,” she blurted. “Let’s go eat, okay?” She looked sort of shaken, but when she met his gaze, he saw a steadiness there that made him want to do anything she said. If only to keep that look there.
