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“Ouch? Why ouch? I was being honest, Genevieve.”
“Sometimes honesty isn’t the best policy,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders. “For him to hear you say that he’s not part of your everyday life. That had to hurt.” I turn her words over in my head, wondering if she’s right. Headlights sweep across the living room and Genevieve pops up from the couch.
“Think about it,” she says, shutting one eye and pointing her spoon at me. She drops it in the ice cream container and presses a kiss to my cheek before excusing herself to go upstairs. I sit in silence for a few minutes, waiting to hear Jaxson coming up the porch. When I still don’t hear anything a minute later, I move to the front door. Pulling the curtain open I glance out at the empty driveway and furrow my brow. I don’t see Jaxson’s truck.
I guess he could have parked on the side of the house. Turning the lock, I open the door slowly. I prop the screen door open with my foot, staring into the dark night.
“Jaxson?” I call out and a noise on the porch to my left startles me when Hank Weller comes walking out of the shadows. I scream and he lunges for me as I pull the screen door shut, slamming his hand in it.
“Avery!” Genevieve screeches from inside as I slam the interior door shut, flipping the lock. I engage the panic button on the alarm panel and the siren rings out in the house.
“Run!” I holler over the noise, scrambling after her. I drag her into Blake’s room, who’s now wide awake with tears in his eyes, and slam the door shut behind us. “Vie, help me move this!” I scramble to push the dresser in front of the door, and she hurries to help me, sliding it up against it.
Blake is crying in his bed, so I go and console him, wrapping him up in my arms and pressing a kiss to his forehead, rocking back and forth on the bed. Genevieve’s phone rings in her hand. She scrambles to answer it.
“Jasxon,” her voice cracks as she hits answer and puts him on speaker.
“Fuck,” he curses, the sound of a car door slamming coming across the line and his truck roaring to a start. “Talk to me, babe.”
“Avery opened the door because she saw headlights, and she thought it was you, but it wasn’t you, it was Hank and he tried to get inside but she shut his hand in the door and hit the panic button and now we’re locked in Blake’s room.” The words tumble out of her mouth quickly, one right after the other. His tires squeal in the background.
“Stay put. Don’t answer the door for anyone but me.” He ends the call, and she scurries over to the bed with us, wrapping her arms around me and pressing her face into my shoulder. Blake’s sobs quiet as the alarm’s siren blares in the background. Suddenly, it stops. Genevieve stiffens against me, the eerie quiet settling over us.
“Shh,” I whisper, sliding off the bed and creeping toward the door. I press my ear against the wall. Nothing. “Genevieve, call Jax.”
A knock at the door startles me and the kids, they both jump but Vie slaps a hand over Blake’s mouth. She presses her forehead to his temple as tears slide down her cheeks. A second knock follows and then a voice.
“Avery, it’s Hoyt. Open the door,” he calls, and I start to move towards the door.
“No!” Vie screams. “Jaxson said not to open it if it isn’t him.” A deep chuckle makes its way through the door.
“Smart girl,” he murmurs. “I swear it’s Hoyt, but I think I just heard your fella pull in, so I’ll go get him.” Genevieve relaxes at his words and it’s not a second later Jaxson is outside the door, telling me it’s okay. I slide the dresser out of the way and fling the door open.
“Fuck, Ace,” he says, pulling me against him and I stiffen. He releases me and moves to check on the kids. Hoyt gives me a small smile from the doorway and once Jax has looked the kids over, we all go downstairs. There are police in the living room and outside walking the property. Jaxson scrubs a hand over his mouth. “Did we get footage?” He asks Hoyt who nods his head.
“Yeah, clear as day that it was Weller. He parked off to the side, out of camera range, so I didn’t get a lock on his plate, just a dark sedan. We have him on camera trying to force entry and then he bolts when the panic alarm goes off.” An officer pulls me aside for my statement, which I give to him. And then a detective asks me the same questions, just different words. Once it’s all done, I’m exhausted.
It’s nearing four a.m. when I’ve finally gotten Blake tucked in and called and left a message on the schools answering machine that the kids won’t be in today. I leave Jaxson in the kitchen with Zander and Wood and I go to bed. It’s hours later when I wake up to Jaxson dragging me against his body before I doze back off to sleep.
Jaxson
Roughing my hands through my hair, I slam the phone in my office back onto the receiver. Zander’s men still haven’t found Weller and there aren’t any new leads. It’s been three days since he turned up at my house in the middle of the night and Lock & Load hasn’t been able to track him down. Wood dug a little deeper into the website that Weller and his organization are using to traffic the women that they’re selling and he’s trying to put together a sting to lure them out, but it’s still too early to know if it will work.
When the police called my phone that night when Avery hit the panic button, I’ve never felt fear like that in my entire life. I don’t even remember the drive from Ford’s place to mine, I was just acting on pure adrenaline. Hoyt beat me there, clearing the property and assuring me Weller was gone. Avery has been avoiding me ever since and I’m about tired of it.
“Here’s the file on the Martin’s. Joe called today to see if you could run some numbers for them,” her voice comes across my office from the doorway and I sit up and lean back in my office chair, taking in her appearance. The bruises on her face are starting to fade and her lip has healed from where Hank hit her. She’s not babying her ribs too much anymore so they must be starting to feel better. She crosses the office and drops the file on my desk. She clears her throat. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”
“Alright, Ace. What’s up?”
She avoids making eye contact with me and flicks her eyes towards the window behind me, staring out at the main drag of Monroeville. “I had Wood install a security system at my house, top of the line. Panic button and everything. The kids and I will be going home.”
Her words settle over me and I narrow my eyes at her.
“I must be having a stroke, because I know you didn’t just tell me you’re fuckin’ leaving.” She finally looks me in the eye and hers are void of any emotion.
“It’s time,” she says, smoothing imaginary wrinkles in her shirt. “Lainey is helping me move tonight.” She turns and strides out of my office. Like fuck, she is. I shove out my chair, sending it sailing back into the wall, and prowl through my office and into the reception area, where she’s packing up her bag for the day.
“Don’t fuckin’ do this, Avery.” I warn, my voice low. “I can’t keep you safe if I’m not with you.” She spins on me, tears in her eyes, shoving a finger into my chest.
