Jax thanked the Madame for her time. He couldn’t get out of there fast enough. He suspected Nathan since he’d made the connection to Christian Jacobs, but to hear it from the Madame’s mouth sealed his suspicions in granite. Nathan was Ashley’s father.
Chapter Eighteen
Ivory answered the door with a toothbrush stuck in her mouth and her hair in hot rollers. When a gold Adonis stood on the other side, her mouth dropped open. His crooked nose and flinty amber eyes traveled over her. “Do I have the right house?”
Ivory felt toothpaste start to pool with her saliva and swallowed. She’d put on a turtleneck to cover Jax’s handprint around her throat. Before she got a chance to say a word, Cecelia announced, “That’s my dad.”
She opened the door, mumbled her excuses and rushed for the bathroom. She spit the remaining paste out, washed out her mouth, and took the hot rollers out of her hair. She didn’t mind that so much as she did her swollen eyes.
Luke’s strong voice and Cecelia’s high-pitched wail floated down the hall, and she debated whether or not to join the duo. When her duties as hostess intruded and the voices went silent, Ivory joined them.
She glanced from the angry bull over to Cecelia, and Ivory wanted to hug the girl, although, she didn’t think Cecelia would let her. “I’m Ivory Black,” she said, her hand outstretched to Luke Stone. He had to be as tall as or taller than Jax.
“Luke Stone,” he clipped. “You must be Jax’s thorn.”
“Excuse me?”
His sensuous lips curved into a smile. “He’s had a burr up his ass these last few months.”
Ivory rolled her eyes. “When doesn’t the man have a burr up his ass?”
“I’ve got one right now,” Jax said from the doorway. “Luke, I told you to wait another day. Ivory get your ass upstairs, and Cecelia, give me and your dad a minute.”
The soldier in the door beat out orders like the prick he was, and Ivory glared at him, her hands over her chest. Her nipples spiked despite his authoritative one. She took it back. Her grandmother wasn’t the only depraved one. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop ordering me around?”
Jax’s hard stare made her rethink her decision to challenge him. “Fine. Then sit, but I don’t think you’re going to like what I have to say.”
“I think on a scale of what I don’t like to hear you say, you’ve already topped that one, asshole.”
Luke cleared his throat. “Kids.”
Cecelia and Ashley sat on the sofa. Jax jerked his head at his goddaughter, and she took the message. Ivory let out a breath. At least he wasn’t being a dick to her. Jax slammed the door, and Ashley started to cry. Ivory took her from Cecilia and bounced her to relieve the baby’s fear. “Ssh. It’s okay. Uncle Jax is just being a butthead.”
Jax and Luke moved into his office and closed the door. “Well, that solves that problem,” Ivory muttered.
If he wanted to treat her this way, all because she said those three little words, then she would leave. Tears pricked the back of her eyelids as she packed her bag. As quietly as possible, Ivory gathered the baby’s stuff and snuck outside. The bite of the wind took her breath away, and Ivory covered Ashley’s head with her blanket.
The sound of her engine must have alerted someone inside because Jax burst out the door, his look thunderous. She put the Jeep in gear and left off the brake. He jogged down the steps behind her vehicle. She jammed her foot against the brake, putting it in park, jumped out. “Are you crazy?”
“Maybe,” he said, his nostrils flaring. “I have things to say to you, and you’re not leaving here until I say them.”
She planted her finger square in the middle of his chest. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say, Jax. I think I’ve heard just about all I can take.”
Before the first teardrop could fall, Ivory climbed back in her Jeep, took it out of park, and let it drift backward until he jumped out of the way, damnation written in the set of his jaw. She couldn’t look in the rearview mirror for fear she’d give into herself and go back. Ivory laid a hand over her belly. Ashley cried in the backseat. Tears flooded Ivory’s cheeks.
When she got home, Ivory took her time unloading Ashley and their things because she didn’t want Nana to see her cry. The bitter air helped clear her head and as she entered the house, the traces of her tears disappeared.
“What are you doing here so soon?” Nana squawked.
Ivory covered her eyes, sure the lenses were seared. Her Nana stood in the kitchen in a very baggy red teddy, and Ivory felt the urge to toss her cookies. Mickey came out of the bedroom in a robe, and when he saw Ivory, ducked back in the bedroom. “Nana, please tell me this is a joke.”
“Sorry, dear, but I didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”
“The door is unlocked for Christ sakes,” Ivory muttered.
“Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain in my house,” Nana scolded her, her voice farther away. Ivory peeked, relieved to see her nana had gone behind cover. When she reappeared, her thick pink robe covered the atrocity.
“Now, what are you doing here? You and Jax have a spat?”
Ivory settled Ashley on the kitchen table, picking the baby up as she got her out of her outer wear. “You could say that.”
“Oh, and so close to New Years Eve. I’m sorry, dear. Are you going to go out with him? I’ll watch Ashley.”
Ivory forgot all about the now dreaded holiday. Going on a date with Jax at this point ranked right up there with getting her toenails pulled out with pliers. “Nana, don’t get me started. That jackass can shove it right up his you know what,” she huffed.
“Lovers spat,” Mickey agreed.
Ivory rolled her eyes at her new grandpa and toted Ashley up the stairs for her bath. The day just started, and being in a bad mood did not suit her. She wanted to gouge Jax’s beautiful eyes out for his snide comments and remarks. Where did he get off on ordering her about? After he’d rejected her?
The sting of his obvious lack of concern for her feelings struck a chord with her. She knew he didn’t reciprocate her love, but she’d come to think he at least liked her. In fact, she knew he did. So, why did he push her away?
She finished the bath and dressed Ashley in a warm sweater and pants set before she headed back downstairs. To her horror, Jax, Luke, and Cecelia sat in her living room. She careened off to the kitchen to catch her breath. Now he followed her, and had to bring a posse while at it?
Jax cornered her where she stood in the kitchen. “What are we going to do now? Chase each other down all day? Do you expect me to drive to your house after you leave? It’s like playing ring around the rosy, only not as fun.”
His biceps bulged as he flexed his muscles. “I came to see Mickey.”
Luke appeared behind Jax. Huh. He was a head shorter. “Ivory, this is my fault. I’m sorry, but I wondered if you wanted to take a drive with me? Cece can watch Ashley for a bit.”
Suspicion narrowed her eyes, and Ivory cocked her head. “What’s going on here?”
Jax remained silent and Luke, his obvious cohort, did the same. She sighed, threw her hands up in the air. “Fine, you can drive with me as I stop at my office and check on Jenny.”
He gave ascent to her proposal with a shake of his head, and they were off, leaving a pissed off Jax behind. Once they were in Luke’s similarly built truck as Jax’s, Ivory settled in for the whole ‘you just have to know Jax’ speech. Except it never came. She stole a glance at Luke.
“So, what did you need to talk to me about?”
Luke shrugged, his country music a far cry from Jax’s metal. Her ears thanked her for the softer sounds. “Jax had something to discuss with your Nana and Mickey.”
“And you’re telling me you know nothing about it.”
“No, I’m not telling you what I know about it,” he corrected. “What’s the deal with you and Jax anyway?”
Cars sped around them, and Ivory wondered if Luke even did the speed limit. “Jax and
I don’t get along, that’s the deal. We have fantastic sex, and we have a baby on the way, but put us in the same room without the option of fucking, and we’re lost.”
Luke’s chuckles sounded over the radio. “Sounds like me and Sara.”
Ivory turned to Jax’s friend and team member. “Sara is your wife, right?”
Luke’s smile faded, as if she’d struck a nerve, which of course, she did. “That remains to be seen, but the point is, when Sara and I met, we couldn’t be around each other for long before something explosive happened, if you catch my drift.”
“Is that really any way to live? I’ve been in a relationship where we got along great, the chemistry worked fine, and I actually like him. This thing with Jax, I’m so confused.”
Luke turned onto the highway. “Nathan. Jax has informed me.”
“I bet he did.”
“Here’s the thing about relationships like yours and Nathan’s. They don’t mean a damn. Sure, you like the talk, even the dates, but what you and Jax have, what Sara and I have, that’s passion. That’s what life is all about. At least you don’t hurl objects at Jax’s face.”
Ivory giggled, tried to picture a woman hurling something at the commando next to her. She just couldn’t see it. And then she remembered what they were talking about. “Jax doesn’t love me. That’s no way to start a family.”
Luke shut off the radio. “Jax is a very complicated man. He’s not all he seems to be, and unless he tells you, you’ll never know what is in his head. I’ve known the man the better part of ten years, and I’ve never seen him explode. He’s eerily calm, collected. Reserved, but when you pissed him off today, fuck, that. Wow.”
Ivory felt some of the tension drain from her shoulders and relaxed in the truck’s seat. “Wish he would tell me that.”
“He won’t.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But I need to know these things.”
“Then tell him that. Don’t let him push you around. He’s a mean bastard when he wants to be, but he’s been dealt some tough hands in life. He lashes out at anything that has the potential to hurt him. He knows it. You have to know it, too.”
Ivory doubted the great guru’s words of wisdom, but when they turned into her office parking lot, and Luke elected to stay in the truck, Ivory was left to her own thoughts, and the damn wise words wiggled into her brain. Maybe Jax just needed to see the light.
Claire frowned when Ivory walked through the doors. “I know, I know. I’m not supposed to be here, but I needed to pick up something.”
“The little girl is all right, if that’s why you’re here,” Claire said, her tone flat.
Ivory grinned. “No, but I’m glad to hear it. I am headed over to Jenny’s to see how she is.”
“Listen, after last night’s events, we’re going to be buckling down. We need to tighten our procedures and investigative reports. I don’t want another thing like last night to happen on my watch.”
Ivory’s stomach dropped. “Am I going to be punished?”
Claire comforted Ivory with a pat on the back. “You did what you had to do. It was not your case, and I signed off on your reports. Let you go home early. If anyone is in trouble here, it’s me.”
“I understand. Anything I can do to help out?”
Claire shook her head, wiping a tear off her cheek. “I’m going to take over Desiree’s cases myself until she returns. She’s most familiar with the families, and I’ll of course, go over her last few documentations on the Miller family. Sometimes we get so busy here, I forget to look closely between the lines.”
“Well, I’ve got to get going, but I have my cell phone if you need me for anything,” Ivory said.
Claire waved her off, and Ivory dashed for the warmth of the truck. “Okay, been to Boston before?”
Luke shook his head. “Some, but where are we headed?”
Ivory settled in for the many wrong turns they were about to make, seeing as how she even got lost in Boston, and she lived there.
Chapter Nineteen
Jax accepted the cup of hot coffee from Mickey and sat down on the couch beside the old man. “Congratulations on your nuptials. I thought you were going to wait.”
Nana joined them, along with Cecilia. Ashley played and cooed from her playpen set up in the center of the room. “Well, we just told you that. We didn’t think you’d actually keep it a secret from Ivory. Secrets between couples are not good.”
Jax set his cup down, cracking is knuckles. He stared at the scars, the nicks and scrapes he acquired over his years. From the tough street kid, to carpentry with his dad, and then later, the military. His body took the beating, but his mind suffered the war. He looked over at Ashley, her little rosy cheeks plump, her brown eyes wide with observation, her little teeth poking through her pink gums. She studied the plastic keys like they were the most important thing in the world.
“Jax and Ivory aren’t a couple.”
He shot Cecelia a glare, and the brat shut up, mocking him with her zippered action. “We are not defined. There is a difference. There are some things better left unsaid between people when it could hurt the other.”
Namely his own personal issues, and the reality that with each mission, his problems manifested in more aggressive behaviors. “I’ve got a lead on Ashley’s father,” he said to Mickey.
The old man’s face mottled red and white, his vein sticking out across his forehead. “I’ve been doing my job, just taking a day off.”
Jax rubbed a finger along his jaw, felt the day’s growth of hair and winced. He needed to shave already. “I know, and that’s why I took it upon myself to go see Madame Christine.”
Nana’s eyes widened. “You went to Madame Christine’s? Without Ivory? Oh, she’s not going to like that one bit.”
Jax drew the air in through his nose very slowly. He liked Nana, and he loved Mickey like a father, but their constant examination of his actions in relation to Ivory was starting to piss him off. He let out the air slowly. “Ivory has nothing to do with that.”
“Sure she does,” Cecelia piped up. “She’s the one taking care of Ashley.”
“Thanks, but I think this is a conversation for adults,” Mickey blustered. “Well, what do you have, kid?”
Jax looked out the big picture window, noting that Ivory and Luke returned. Shit. They were back early. “We’ll talk about it later, Mick. I’ve got something to say to Ivory.” He stopped himself when his eye caught Luke helping Ivory out of the truck. Did his hands linger at her waist a second more than needed?
He schooled his emotions the moment the two walked through the door, and Ivory didn’t give him a second glance as she passed through the hallway to hang up her jacket. Jax stretched his arms over his head, felt a pop in his shoulder, and a twinge in his side. Old age was catching up with him. He wouldn’t be able to soldier for the rest of his life.
Luke stepped up beside him, nodded imperceptibly to anyone, but Jax got the message. He stood to shake Mickey’s hand. “Thanks for all the help with Mary’s life. I’ll be able to take the rest of it from here.”
Mickey’s eyes widened. “You will tell me what you found, won’t you?”
Jax clapped the old man on the back. “Sure.”
“Cece, let’s go.” Luke collected his daughter, and the two of them left after their good-byes to Mickey and Ivory’s Nana. Cecelia pouted, but Jax assured her she would be staying at least another day.
Luke wanted to help Jax with his sister’s lover. One way or another, they would make Nathan stand up and be a man, take responsibility for the life he created. Ivory would be devastated—both to lose Ashley, and to find out someone she trusted so implicitly could be one of the scumbag fathers she often investigated.
He caught her on her way into the family room. “I still want to talk to you,” he said, keeping his voice low. Nana and Mickey watched with bugged eyes as he spoke with her. “When will you be available?”
Ivory pushed the hair back from he
r face, and Jax’s stare caught on the swell of her breasts through the turtle neck she wore. He wanted to feel their weight against his chest as he moved inside of her. She used her finger to tip his chin up. “My eyes are higher, and when you are talking to me, I would like it if you saw them. Call me tonight. We can talk then.”
“I don’t want to talk over the phone,” he said.
She shrugged. “Then I suppose you’ll have to wait until New Year’s Eve.”
“You’re still open to a date with me?” His voice rang with suspicion and disbelief. Jax couldn’t wait to hear her answer.
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