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I half wished for that. My presence here surely shouldn’t linger as Jax, Luke, and Theo worked to pick up the pieces of my disaster. And with the Helix anniversary party in just a few days? The tears fell harder, soaking into my jeans while my cries bounced off the cold walls and surrounded me in my pain.
I cried until I couldn’t cry anymore, until my tears ran dry, and the burst of upset faded into nothing but empty defeat. Slumping back against the cold wall, I let one leg drop back to the floor, and I breathed out a rough sigh that scraped through my chest.
Felix had gotten his wish. My life was over. I closed my eyes and darkness took me.
“Miss Bradley?”
The touch to my shoulder made me jump, and I flinched awake, blinking through raw eyes to the security guard standing over me. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. He offered me a tight, polite smile as I rubbed my eyes and sat up. I must have fallen over in my sleep.
“What? Sorry,” I croaked. “I was just…” Reasoning felt useless. He was surely here to cart me off to prison. I held out my hands, wrists together expecting the cold clasp of those cuffs, but instead the guard handed me my coat.
“You’re free to go.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I stared up at him in shock. “What?”
“You’re being released.”
“What… why?”
“The situation is being handled,” was all he said, then he retreated from my cell and left the door open. I stared after him, swallowing hard around the sticky lump in my throat. What did that even mean? Where was I supposed to go? Was this another part of Felix’s game?
Rising slowly, I slipped the coat on and approached the door, fighting back a yawn. With no idea how long I had been here, I wasn’t even sure what part of the resort would offer me solace if they knew I was coming from a security holding cell; the chill and the stale smell of it seemed to follow me into the corridor.
There, I stopped in my tracks at the man standing at the other end with his hands in his pockets and a tired, stern look on his handsome face.
Jax.
The last person I ever expected to see.
“Come on.” He barked out the words—or at least that’s how they seemed to my over-sensitive, distraught senses. Jax turned on his heel and pushed open the glass door into the dark, snowy landscape outside. I hesitated, unsure if it really was the best idea to follow him, but what other choice did I have? Find the bar and wait for Felix to come and find me, deliver the next part of his twisted plan?
I glanced at the guard as if he could guide me, but he remained busy behind his desk. This turmoil was mine and mine alone.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, I followed. The cold wind speared through my coat no matter how tightly I crossed my arms together as I trudged through the snow, following Jax’s footsteps toward a waiting car. Jax climbed into the back, and after a hesitant glance around at the empty parking lot, I followed suit.
The moment I sat down, the car started to move. Inside was much warmer than I expected, but I was too nervous to move with Jax next to me. Locked in place, I decided to just suffer with the building heat, and I kept my hands curled in my lap, waiting. Why was Jax even here? Was he going to yell at me? Was he here to demand answers I didn’t have? My mind ran in circles as the silence dragged on until I couldn’t stand it anymore, and words burst out of me like vomit.
“If you’re going to yell at me, can you just get it over with?!”
Jax glanced over at me, clear sadness lingering in his eyes, but his brows pulled down in confusion and his lips pressed together.
“Excuse me?”
“The waiting, it’s pointless. Just—just say what you want to say, and then we can both just go our separate ways, right?” Now that I’d started, I couldn’t stop. “If you’re taking me to get my things before you ship me off to prison then I don’t care; just send me there immediately.”
“Summer—”
“No, I don’t want this nightmare to drag out. I don’t have any defense. I don’t have anything, and I don’t know why you’re even here so just drop me back in my cell or send me off on a plane. I don’t care.”
“Summer, you’re not going to prison.” Jax studied me with those soft, sad eyes and then he sighed, a slight groan rolling with the air. “At least, not because of us.”
“What… I don’t understand.”
“Y’know, that almost makes two of us. I didn’t want to do this in the car.” Jax’s gaze dragged over me, and heat flushed through my already over-heating body. “Summer, take off your coat before you boil to death.”
“Oh.” A thin sheen of sweat had started to build inside the coat, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I removed it and set it on the opposite seat. “Sorry.”
“Tell me about Felix.”
