Don't You Trust Me?

Chapter 24- Tease

The eerie hiss of crispy leaves scraping across the dusty street crawled up my spine. The light of the evening quickly fading, I stood with my back to the beaten brick building and huddled under the amber glow of the last remaining lightbulb. A skeletal cat slinked by, her knowing eyes freezing on me with chilling intensity. Her lithe, specter like form paused as she regarded me; her iridescent purple yellow globes of eyes shifted off to somewhere unseen, just beyond the corner of the alleyway, and her ears flicked forwards. Somewhere, a siren blared.

I took my eyes off the cat and cast a quick glance at Jax's form, crouching on the ground and halfway under his car. "Psssst, Jax... You done yet?" I half whispered.

From across the alley, movement drew my attention and my heart squeezed painfully with the sudden burst of adrenaline that coursed through my papery veins. The cat was gone with a flick of her tail, her contemptuous eyes still searing into my vision.

The alley felt stone cold. Void of all sound. Way too still.

"Jax." I shuffled my feet under my body more firmly, placing a second hand on the car door handle and scanning the trashed alleyway. A beaten up car, rusted out and riddled with the black soot of a previous fire, crouched nearby and watched me with its broken, sullen headlights.

"Jax-" I began, startling into silence when his hand shot up in front of me holding a little black box with a blinking red light.

"Found it." His voice came out garbled as he slid out from under the car, but his eyes shone brightly through the smudges of black grease on his face. I felt a smile warming my lips and I shook my head softly as I leaned in to wipe off the streaks left from his fingers.

"C'mon grease monkey. You found the tracker, now let's get out of here." I urged him and pulled him to his feet. My breath felt oddly scratchy and hard to pull in, painful and yet intoxicating all at the same time. My head swam with muddled dizziness as I kept throwing glances over my shoulder.

"Can't wait to see who makes the next move..." Sebastian had said. He's coming. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow.

But all too soon, the shadow over my shoulder won't be my own.

Jax's eyes tightened at their corners, reading my body. I uncrossed my arms from over my chest and dropped my shoulders, leaning into him and letting him wrap his warm arms around me.

I hated the way his eyes seemed strangled. He tried to hide it from me, but I saw his jawline clenching every time he thought I wasn't looking. All the time he has spent away from me, he has been locked up in Garet's guest bedroom pouring over this mess with Sebastian and Los Zetas. My mess.

I hated the way his smiles seemed dragged out of deeply unused part of him, crinkled and dusty. He seemed so intensely focused on this giant mess I've made of my life, but he never shows me anything more than soft smiles and a laughing face when we are together. But I know he's upset. He has to be. And scared. Who wouldn't be? I can't help but feel like he must be overwhelmed...

By liking me, he's had to accept and shoulder all my demons with me. He didn't ask for that. He didn't sign up for that.

As soon as I melted into him, I felt his own body react to mine. Jax ran his palms up and down my back soothingly, pulling me to his chest and tucking me under his chin. His heart beat thumping against mine, his warm breath washing over me, musky scent tickling and teasing me, I wanted to close my eyes and disappear into the moment with him for even just a second. My gaze remained unwavering on the spot where the cat had been intently watching, though.