Ignite (28 page)

             
He let go of me suddenly, and I stepped back in surprise. Even with all the rage roaring inside of me, and even though he was staring daggers into my face, I couldn’t look past his beauty. For a flash of a second, I saw a pained look on his face, and I watched it immediately hide away into the coldness that had become Jaxon.

             
“Get in the car,” he said flatly.

             
“No.”

             
“Sara, this town isn’t the same anymore. There are really fucked up people, and I can’t have you get to the motel in this weather alone. Do you understand?”

             
“I’ll catch the bus, just go away.”

             
“No. I’m not going anywhere. Get in the fucking car now, and I won’t say a word to you. I promise.” He was looking me in the eyes as he spoke with the rain sliding down his face, soaking every part of his body. I knew he was telling the truth. I also knew he wouldn’t quit until I did what he wanted.

             
I walked over, opened the door and slid in. My instincts told me it was the wrong thing to do even though he was doing it for the right reasons, but I loved the guy. Even if he was different. I let out a few tears, knowing they would be hidden by the wetness of the falling rain that had cascaded on me from head to toe and left me looking like a walking puddle. I watched him slowly make his way to the driver’s seat. When he slid in, he didn’t look at me once. We were both breathing hard, unspoken thoughts thick in the air, and an intense anger that would make it impossible to speak cordially if we tried.

             
He drove the entire way to the motel honouring his promise, and I hated myself for already missing the sound of his voice.

Sixteen

He had the heater in the car on all the way back, but it made little difference. My bones felt heavy and stiff from the
cold. When he parked in front of the motel, I took a moment to rest each hand on the vents to soak up every bit of heat I could before having to wade back out there, even though it’d only be for a minute or so. He patiently waited without casting me a glance. Then I opened the door and hurried out, running through the rain and to the room. I had the key in my hand when I got to the door, and risked a glance back at the parking lot where Jaxon was now pulling out.

             
I entered the room and shut it before hurrying to my bed and collapsing. Shaking wildly from the cold and the adrenaline coursing through me, I bundled myself up in the covers and hid my face under them. It was totally the dumbest thing to do because I was now soaking the sheets, but I didn’t care.

             
A loud knock startled me. Wondering what Jaxon could possibly want, I reluctantly pushed the covers off of me and walked over. I unlocked the door and opened it an inch when a heavy weight shoved it back. I jumped back in surprise, heart in my throat, as the bearded man from next door hurried inside. I opened my mouth to scream but his hand went around my neck, squeezing tightly, and then shoved my back into the nearby wall.

             
He was drenched from the rain, so close to me his beard was dripping water on to my chest. With dilated brown eyes, and smelling of alcohol in his trench coat and heavy jeans, he pushed his whole body into me.

             
“Scream and I cut you,” he threatened, in a rough voice. When I saw the blade of a knife in his other hand nearing my neck, I went limp with fear. I could hardly breathe much less scream with his hand buried against my throat.

             
Tears fell from my eyes, and the lack of breathing along with the tightness against my vocal cords had my head feeling light and dizzy.

             
“Jaxon Barlow dropped you off, didn’t he?” he spoke. I shuddered when the blade skimmed my jaw line. “I saw him. You’re just another one of his sluts, aren’t you?” He loosened his hold against my throat, but held the knife firmly against my cheek now.

             
“I don’t… I don’t…” Fuck, I was stammering. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. He-he-he…”

             
“You whoring for him?”

             
“No!”

             
“Lying slut.”

             
“I’m-I’m not lying. I’m-I’m…”

             
His hand left my throat and skimmed down my chest. He unbuttoned the jacket and yanked it down until it freely fell to the floor. When he looked heatedly down my body, I knew exactly what he wanted. With the knife against me, and the clear hopelessness in fighting against a man who was twice my size, I could do nothing but cry and pray I’d make it out alive at the least. Judging by his dilated eyes and the stench of alcohol, he was both drunk and high as a kite, but he was still sure on his feet.

             
He took a step back and motioned to the bed. “Get on there. I’ll show that fucker I can fuck what I want… You get on there now…” He was mumbling all kinds of things that didn’t make any sense. I peeked at the door of my room – it was still opened - but he was standing in the way. Quivering, I somehow made my way to the bed, looking around as I went for any kind of weapon I could use. There was nothing.

             
“I’ll fucking show him… Like I can show everyone else. Fucking Finley and the fucking Scorpians and Jackals can kiss my ass, those fucking… Get on the bed, on all fours, slut.”

             
“Please,” I begged, but he shoved me forward until my knees hit the bed and I fell over, stomach flat on the mattress and my legs dangling out.

             
“All fours now.” I couldn’t comply, and it wasn’t because I didn’t want to, it was because my body was too paralysed to. He grabbed me by the collar of my sweater and tugged me forward until my legs were completely on the mattress. “All fours now or I’ll cut your throat.” There was a deadly look about him that had me believing every word he was saying. He knew too well what he was doing, like he’d done it before.

             
I buried my face into my hands as I struggled on my knees, elbows propped like deadweight on the mattress. With my eyes tightly shut, I heard the sounds of his buttons going undone, and the cold breeze through the opened door. I heard him back away from the bed, and then the sound of the door slamming shut.

             
A few heavy steps towards the bed, and another cold breeze flooded in. Only the door was closed. Wasn’t it? I shakily opened my eyes and looked over my shoulder.

             
My heart burst at Jaxon’s quiet figure creeping behind the bearded man who was occupied by his mumbling and unbuttoning of his pants.

             
When he stepped toward the man, his wet shoe squeaking on the tile floor, the sound was inescapable. The man looked over at Jaxon and then it all happened too fast for me to register. He leaped at Jaxon, whipping his blade around, but stumbling in the process. Jaxon grabbed the arm that held the blade and they struggled, the two of them grunting, trying to overpower the other. Jaxon shoved him into the nearby wall, knocking down a cheap canvas of an ocean.

             
When the blade hit the floor, the man became so much more less of a threat. Jaxon easily overpowered him without the worry of being stabbed. He punched him across the face repeatedly and tackled him to the ground, all the while looking possessed with a predatory kind of rage that had me gasping. I found myself moving up to the headboard of the bed, cradling my knees to my chest in horror as he continued to beat the man. There was blood everywhere, smearing all over the tiled floor, running down the man’s face like a river, and dripping off Jaxon’s thick fist.

             
Panting, Jaxon stopped for a moment and bent down, pulling the hair of the man up so that his bloody face was dangling under his hand. “What did I tell you would happen to you if you stuck around town, you piece of shit? Not so strong on your own now, are you, Brett?” Then he went at it again, kicking him in the ribs until I heard a sickening crunch. His foot continued to come down hard, this time on the man’s face. The man’s groans instantly went mute.

             
“You’re going to kill him!” I yelled suddenly. This had him stop and turn to me in surprise, like he’d just totally forgotten I was there. “My-my phone! You need to call the p-p-police.” I pressed my lips together tightly, hating that I was stuttering so badly.

             
Still breathing heavily, Jaxon regarded the now unconscious man for a short moment before pulling out his cell phone from his jeans pocket. He dialled a number and pressed the phone to his ear. “Manor Motel, room ten. Now.” Then he hung up and placed the phone back into his pocket.

             
I looked at him in bewilderment. “Who did you call?”

             
“Not important,” he answered, looking down at the blood on his fists.

             
“We need to call the police–”

             
“The police won’t do anything,” he interrupted impatiently, staring at me with his piercingly stern blue eyes. “We do things a little differently here in Gosnells, Sara. Let me take care of it. Understand?”

             
I didn’t respond. I looked away from his penetrating eyes and buried my face into my knees. I heard him moving around, in and out of the bathroom where he ran the water from the sink, no doubt washing his knuckles.

             
Five minutes later there was a knock on the door. I looked up at Jaxon who answered it. Wearing all black, a tall and broad man with the physique of a wrestler walked into the room. His dark hair was cut in a buzz, and the rain from outside was sliding off the top of his head and onto his leather jacket. His skin was tanned, and his eyes were dark and wide against his rough, stubble cheeked face. He scanned the room, meeting my eye before settling back down at the unconscious man at Jaxon’s feet.

             
“What do you want to do with him?” It was the kind of voice you’d expect from a scary ass man: low, deep and scratchy.

             
Jaxon didn’t reply, but he shot a look at the wrestler man. There appeared to be some kind of silent communication between them. The man simply nodded in return at Jaxon’s expressionless face and, before I knew it, was hauling the man out of the room.

             
“Send someone to clean up the room before morning,” Jaxon told him before he shut the door.

             
I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath for so long until I felt pain in my chest. When I finally breathed it out, it was as unsteady as my whole body. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Jaxon, and couldn’t stop thinking about the man and the look he’d given him. It dawned on me that he was following orders from Jaxon. And although Jaxon was a big guy, that wrestler man was bigger and easily capable of defending himself against Jaxon if ever the need for it arose.

             
He was working for him. This was beyond strange. Ever since I stepped back into Gosnells, I felt like I’d walked into a Twilight Zone, but this – what just happened right now – topped the strangeness to a whole new level. A level that couldn’t be topped… or at least I hoped so anyway.

             
“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked so quietly I wasn’t sure he heard me.

             
He did. He looked at me and then down at the blood on the floor. “Does it matter?” There was an eeriness in those words that sent shivers down my spine. “He was an unstable man, psychotic and unpredictable. Don’t believe me? Ask all the women he’s raped and butchered.”

             
“Was?” I shuddered and shook my head. He was a stranger to me. “What the fuck happened to you?”

             
“
You
happened to me,” he gritted out roughly.

             
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

             
He scoffed in disdain. “You’re not worth it.”

             
“Oh, so we’re back to the insults again, right?” I snapped angrily. “Well, then you can just shove them up your ass and go away now!”

             
“Why? So you can get successfully raped this time by another low life? They’re waiting out there in herds. Might as well save them the trouble and just head out there and show yourself!” The veins in his neck stood out as he yelled, taking a step toward me.

             
“Because that was my fault, right?”