Torn (14 page)

Smiling weakly, I nodded and quickly left the
bathroom. All of the hair on my entire body stood on end when I was
in that room. Walking into the closet, I looked for evidence that
was no longer there. All of the clothes were back up on the hangers
and neatly arranged on the hanging rods. The panic room door was
yet again concealed, but I couldn’t pull my eyes from that corner
of the closet.

“Hey, why don’t we go get some dinner?”

“Yeah, okay,” I nodded, agreeing with a
halfhearted smile.

“It will get easier, babe.” He grabbed my
wrist, pulled me into his strong chest, and wrapped his arms around
me. Allowing him to hold me for a second, I pulled away, intent on
pulling myself together.

“I’m fine, Jax. Let’s go get some dinner. How
about we grill? I would love a big, juicy burger.” My eyes lit up
at the thought.

“Yeah, I can grill, but I was talkin’ about
taking you out, so you didn’t have to cook.”

Turning, I started out the bedroom and down
the stairs. “Nah, I wanna stay home.”

I was determined to not let Drill win. That
bastard would not run me out of my own home. Jaxon built this house
for us; he had spent so much time, energy, and money on making this
house a home. We’d had some good times here already, and I was
looking forward to raising our family here.

“All right, I’ll go light the grill.” He
followed behind me.

I made it as far as the kitchen when he
caught up with me and snaked his large, sturdy arms around me from
behind. “You sure you don’t wanna go out? Or maybe order in?”

Turning around, I captured his scruffy cheeks
in my hands. “I love you, but stop hovering, otherwise I will
smother you in my boobs.”

“Me smother you? Pot meet kettle.”

“What?” I knew what he was referring to but
playing stupid.

“Don’t ‘what’ me, babe. You know exactly what
I’m talkin’ about. Jesus, woman, I couldn’t sneeze without you
runnin’ over and makin’ sure I didn’t have a fever or some shit.”
Jaxon walked away from me toward the back door to the patio.

“Okay, maybe I was a little over-nurturing.”
I rolled my eyes with a smirk. Yeah, I was an overbearing pain in
the ass and I knew it, but for crying out loud, I almost lost him.
I was entitled to be a bossy nursemaid.

He stopped dead in his tracks, quarter
turned, and cocked his head with this stupid
I’m-calling-your-bullshit look. “A little?”

“I wasn’t that bad, Jaxon.” Walking into our
granite and stainless steel kitchen, I opened the refrigerator to
get out the ground beef.

“Okay, babe, you keep tellin’ yourself that.
I’m gonna go light the grill,” he said over his shoulder as he
pushed through the back door with a chuckle.

An unexpected knock at the front door caused
me to jump and drop the hamburger meat and two eggs. “Damn it,” I
huffed as I squatted to grab the meat, setting it on the
counter.

Peeking out of the kitchen, I looked down the
wide hallway to the front door. Jaxon had picked a beautiful wood
door with glass and scrolling wrought iron to welcome our visitors.
On the other side of the glass stood my loving brother. I took a
deep breath and felt the anxiety dance away as I waddled down the
hall and opened the door.

“Drew, you don’t have to knock.” I could see
Ruger running around the front yard peeing on as much of the front
fence as possible. He was gone less than a day. How many dogs could
have really taken his spot? Crazy dog.

“Well, I thought after yesterday you might
feel better if I knocked.” He grabbed me and yanked me to his wide
chest. He towered over me by almost a foot. “How are you holding
up?”

Pulling back, I whistled for Ruger then said,
“I’m good. Better now that you’re here.” I squatted down and talked
to the slobbering German shepherd like he was a three-year-old.
“Did you miss Mommy? I missed you.”

“Drew, what’s up, man?” Jax called from the
back of the house.

“Just wanted to stop by and drop Ruger off
and check on Lei.” Drew helped me stand up then closed the front
door.

“Well, I’m good. Hey, we were just grillin’
burgers. Stay. Eat dinner with us.”

“Nah, sis, I should head out.”

“Come on, please.” I stuck out my bottom
lip.

“Fine, if you insist. Who am I to turn down a
home-cooked meal by my baby sister?” He draped his arm over my
shoulders and walked with me back to the kitchen, where I had
forgotten about the broken eggs.

“Ruger.
Nein
. Gross
dog, don’t eat the raw eggs. Ugh.” I rushed over, pushing him away
from what was left of the raw egg that was congealing in a puddle
on the floor.

“Babe, why are there eggs on the floor?” Jax
asked with a perplexed look on his face as he grabbed the paper
towels and started cleaning up my mess.

“Uh,” I mumbled, not wanting to tell him the
real reason. “They must have rolled off the counter.”

Drew chimed in while staring at me. I was
just waiting for him to loud me out. He knew me better than anyone
and, like a dog, could smell fear. “Hey, Lei, how about you go sit
and relax. Jax and I can make dinner.”

Love Drew.
I made a
mental note to thank him later.

After dinner, Drew and Jaxon were in the
kitchen loading the dishwasher when I heard them start whispering.
I tried to listen in but Ruger, that little furry bastard, ratted
me out. He stood in front of me, prancing in place like the ground
was on fire and whining.

“Ruger, go,” I whispered. What he heard must
have been
Ruger wanna go,
because he barked
like I had just stole something.

Oh my God you goofy
dog
. At that point I had no choice but to walk into the
kitchen and pretend I hadn’t been standing there eavesdropping.

“Babe, Ruger needs to go out and I just don’t
have the energy to stand out there while he marks every blade of
grass along the fence line.” Smiling sweetly at Jaxon, I plopped in
one of the island barstools.

“I was wondering why he was barking.” Drew,
that rat bastard, narrowed his knowing eyes at me.

“Yep, just needs to go out.” I cut my eyes
back at him, silently telling him to shut up.

The minute Jaxon was out the door we both
started. Me about the conversation they were having and him on the
eggs.

“Tell me what’s going on, Drew, because so
help me God I will…will… Well, I don’t know what I will do, but you
won’t like it.”

With a chuckle, he said, “That’s all you got?
I won’t like it? You’re really pullin’ out the big guns with that
one, sis.”

Cussing, I started to climb down out of the
chair to go beat him with a wooden spoon I had grabbed off the
counter and I would have if I weren’t smuggling a watermelon under
my skin.

“Seriously, sit back down before you hurt
yourself or put yourself into labor,” he reprimanded. “I’ll make
you a deal, you tell me what I wanna know and I will tell you what
you wanna know.”

After a few seconds of eyeing him, I huffed,
“Fine.” I let out a long dramatic sigh. “You may have startled me
when you knocked and
if
that were the case,
I might’ve dropped the eggs. Happy?”

“Not particularly. You’re not as fine as
you’re letting all of us believe you are.” He came around the
island and hugged me from the side. “You need to talk to Jax and
tell him how you are feeling. That was part of the conversation you
heard while you were eavesdropping, you little snoop. He’s worried
about you. You don’t give him enough credit for knowing you like I
do. He knows that you’re just telling him what you think he wants
to hear.”

“Drew, I don’t want him to worry about me
right now. He needs to focus on keeping his ass safe, not on poor
pitiful me.” His brows drew together. “No, you aren’t saying a
fucking word and I’m not playing, Drew. I will talk to you, but not
him. He doesn’t need to know.”

“Who doesn’t need to know what?” I turned
around and saw Jaxon standing in the doorway of the backdoor.

Well fuck
.

“I was just telling Lei she needs to talk to
Brody about what’s gonna happen after y’all come home with the
baby. She needs to tell him her plans. She disagrees that he needs
to know.” Drew to the rescue, as always.

“I just don’t think he needs to know
everything I do,” I added to sell the lie. God, I hated lying to
Jaxon. I reasoned with myself that I would tell him after all this
bullshit was over.

“Agreed, don’t tell him. He doesn’t need to
know every move you make.”

Drew rolled his eyes and made his exit not
too long after I had lied straight to Jax’s face. The pit in my
stomach was festering and bubbling.

Later that night, after we went to bed, I
stayed up reading, or at least that’s what I told Jaxon. Not
wanting him to stay up with me after he didn’t sleep the night
before, I grabbed my iPad and pretended to read until he fell
asleep.

I told myself I was fine over and over. And I
knew I was fine as long as I had Jaxon next to me. I just couldn’t
convince my brain to stop reliving the nightmare long enough for
sleep to take over. Of course, being nine months along and ready to
pop didn’t help either.

Looking over at the clock—it was almost one
a.m.—I had finally convinced myself that no one was going to break
into the house in the middle of the night and try to kill me.

Again.

At 3:26 a.m. I woke myself up from another
vivid, horrendous nightmare and found the bed empty. Ruger was also
MIA. I was completely alone in the same room that I had just faced
a kill-or-be-killed, real-life nightmare a day ago.

Just as I threw my legs over the side of the
bed I heard the second-floor stairs creak.

Oh Jesus, please be
Jaxon.

I had to pee so badly, if Drill came back to
finish the job, I would piss myself right here in my bed. As the
steps neared, I heard a quiet whistle followed by a familiar
clicking on the hardwood.

I released the breath I didn’t realize I was
holding just as Jaxon’s shirtless, brawny chest came into view.
“Babe, why are you awake? You all right?”

“Where were you?” My question came out more
flustered than I had wanted.

Jax crossed the room in three short strides
and was at my side. “I took Ruger out and checked in with the guy
stationed out front. What happened?”

“I need to pee.” I climbed down from the bed
and went to the bathroom, not turning on the light or looking at
the floor. I knew once I made it back to bed I would have to
explain my mini freak-out but Jax knew better than to get in my way
when I needed to pee. I have the bladder control of a frightened
Chihuahua.

As expected Jax was sitting up in the bed
with an inquisitive look on his face. “You wanna tell me what’s
goin’ on, Lei?” His gravelly voice was low with concern.

“I woke up and you weren’t there. And Ruger
wasn’t there… I guess, I mean…” A single tear rolled down my cheek.
“I had a bad dream and when I woke up you weren’t here and I was
alone. In here.” Slowly I climbed into bed into Jaxon’s
outstretched arm and nestled myself into his side.

“I got you. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you
woke up. Ruger was whining so I ran him outside. We’ll have to work
on gettin’ you two on the same schedule,” Jax joked. When I didn’t
laugh he continued. “You wanna tell me about the dream?”

How could I put this politely?
Fuck no.
No chance in hell. He had a better opportunity
to sell ice to an Eskimo.

“Not really. I just want to forget it and go
back to sleep.” Rolling away from him and curling the king-size
down pillow around my chest, Jaxon tucked in behind me and draped
his tattooed limb over my protruding stomach, then kissed the back
of my head.

“Get some sleep, babe.”

Sleep? Yeah, okay, funny
man. I’m not sleeping again tonight.

It took almost an hour, but eventually I lost
the fight and succumbed to another hellish terror of a sleep.

Chapter Twenty

Leila

The next Saturday, just after noon, I was in
the kitchen searching for a quick snack when I felt a pair of
strong, sexy arms encompass me.

“You know how much I love you?” Jaxon always
knew exactly what I needed to hear.

“Hmmm, I’m not sure I do.” Grinning as he
spun me around to face him, I teased, “Maybe you should show
me?”

“Oh, I think I can show ya all right.” A
devilish smile crossed his face as his eyes darkened. I knew this
look all too well. If I wasn’t nine months pregnant I’d be running
instead of thinking of ways to tease him mercilessly, then the
light bulb moment happened.

“How about you show me on the dining room
table?” I rasped in my best low, seductive voice. His eyes got
seriously close to exploding, not just popping out of his head,
exploding.

“Okay, now I know you’re still feelin’ the
effects of that concussion and you can tell me later that I’m a
prick, but damn straight I’m takin’ advantage of it,” he said as he
grabbed under my arms and lifted me off my feet. I didn’t even try
to wrap my legs around him, my stomach was too big for that. He set
me down on the dining room table. I was grateful that we weren’t
people who kept the table set, because the little bit of mail that
had been sitting there was now scattered all over the hardwood.

Jaxon kicked the chairs out of the way as he
practically ripped the yoga pants off my legs. I couldn’t help but
let out a little giggle. I didn’t expect not to have at least one
second to get away or renege on the offer.

“Whoa there, big guy, I wasn’t serious,” I
teased and tried to pull my pants back up that were now at my
ankles. “I was just teasing. Not on the table, honey.”

“Oh fuck no, you said table and you’re
gettin’ the table.” He pulled the Lycra leggings from my hand and
threw them haphazardly behind him with one hand as he unbuttoned
and unzipped his faded jeans with the other. I wasn’t quite done
making him work for it so in a last-ditch effort to get away, I
squirmed and scooted my ass toward the opposite side of the table.
I barely got a foot away before he quickly grabbed my ankles again
and pulled my ass right to the edge. Taking my feet and placing
them on his chest, he growled, “And just where do you think you’re
goin’?”