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“You remember anything else since we last spoke?” Hicks asks him.
“Nope. Told you everything I know.”
“Good,” Hicks says then turns to me. “This is a police investigation, son, so leave the investigating to me.”
Son?He’s about five fucking years older than I am. I take a deep breath and shake my head. I swear to God I’m going to get arrested for murder before the night is over.
Rocky places a shot of bourbon on the bar for Hicks and I look at it and then back at him.
“I don’t see you doing much investigating,Sheriff,” I snarl. “I know you already know who I work for, and what I do back in LA.” I jump off my stool and can’t help but smile when he flinches. “You ever call me son again and I will give you a practical demonstration of my talents.”
He glares at me and I walk away, before I get my ass tossed in jail for threatening a law enforcement officer.
I head to the parking lot and to my father’s truck. It’s still open so I take a look inside. What kind of investigation is Hicks running when this is just sitting here for anyone to tamper with? If there were any evidence in here, it would be useless now.
I rummage around but there’s nothing in here that offers me any clues. A half packet of Lifesavers. An empty soda bottle on the passenger seat and an old chew toy of Blue’s in the footwell.
My father keeps a clean truck. It smells of him though — of wood shavings and cologne. It’s a brand he’s used since I was a kid. A memory of him winking at me in the mirror while I watched him shave rushes back from some deep recess in my mind.
I’ve forgotten that there were some good times. He was getting ready to take my mom out for dinner. They used to go on a date one night every week before his drinking got real bad. Molly would look after me. She’s only nine years older than me and she practically lived with us back then.
I sit on the seat in his truck and let the memory settle over me, but then Rocky’s words come back to me too. Some people said I was responsible for the attack on him — that I hate him. Do I?
I hate that he let me and my mom down. I hate the man he became. But the man before that? The guy who used to sit me on his tractor and who taught me how to shave and drive? No, that guy was my hero. It was why it hurt so damn much when he let me and my mom walk out of his lives forever.
Climbing out of his truck, I scan the parking lot quickly and then I check the exterior of the building. No cameras that I can see. Damn!
There’s nothing else on this strip either. The place is all but deserted. It’s the kind of place I’d choose if I was going to beat someone half to death and I didn’t want to be seen or recognized.
I walk to my truck and decide to head back to the hospital to pick up Lucia and Molly. It’s late and there’s nothing more I can do tonight. Besides, Lucia is flying back to LA tomorrow and I intend to spend the rest of this night buried so deep inside her that I can forget about everything but her.
Chapter16
Lucia
“You want us to stay here with you tonight, Molly?” I ask as she climbs out of Jax’s truck outside the house.
“No,” she shakes her head and waves her hand at me dismissively. “I’ll be fine. You two go get some sleep and I’ll see you both for breakfast in a few hours.”
“You sure?” Jax asks.
“Yes,” she assures him, before closing the door and walking into the house. Blue comes to greet her, wagging his tail but looking past her for his master.
We wait until she’s inside and then Jax carries on driving to the barn. “You okay?” I ask him.
“Yeah,” he grunts, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
I know he’s deep in thought. Processing the information from the last few hours. It’s how he works. So I just rest my hand on his thigh until we come to a stop outside the barn.
Once we’re inside, he locks up and we both head straight to bed. It’s after two a.m. and I figure Jax must be exhausted. We both undress in silence, moving around the same space without really touching or making any eye contact. As though we’re existing in two separate places in time.
I should ask him if he’s okay, but I know that he’s not. He told me he didn’t find anything out at the bar, and also that jackass sheriff showed up so he didn’t really get the chance to talk to people. I would love to know what’s going through his mind right now. I open my mouth, about to ask, but he looks up with a scowl on his face, so I stay quiet.
I pull on my tank top and climb into bed while he’s brushing his teeth.
A moment later, he walks out of the bathroom and flicks off the light until the room is dark. The only light comes from the moon outside which shines through the dark glass.
He lifts the covers and crawls into bed beside me, sliding a hand over my stomach until his arm is wrapped around my waist, he pulls me close and I breathe a sigh of relief.
