No Mercy / Book Three

Chapter Two: Grevances

Damion Lee watched as Stanford grabbed his wife around her waist when she lunged at Jaxon, a murderous look in her eyes and a scowl on her normally peaceful face. He grabbed onto the punching bag he was using to get it to stop swaying and slowly made his way over to where they were standing, not sure what was going on.

"What the hell is wrong with you? If you aren't going to do your damned job then why did you even become a cop?" Logan shouted, drawing the attention of the others inside the rec center. They thankfully weren't open for public use just yet so nobody had to see the way Stanford shoved his wife behind his body when Jaxon took a step towards her, fists clenched by his side.

"You don't know shit about my job, so shut your fucking mouth," Jaxon growled, raking his hand through his hair before turning his glare to Stanford. "Being pregnant doesn't mean shit to me. You need to control her before she says the wrong thing to the wrong person and they show her how to behave."

Damion got between them before fists could start flying, shoving Jaxon back while Maddox and Elijah grabbed onto Stanford to keep him from beating the hell out of Jaxon anyway.

"What the fuck is going on?" Damion demanded, shoving Jaxon back once again when he tried to step around his body. Jaxon's 6'6 frame might give him a three inch advantage on Damion, but he wouldn't feel guilty about playing dirty and knocking the cop out cold if he needed to.

"My friend is being stalked and there was a bomb in her car last night, and Jaxon won't believe her and refuses to help! He thinks she's just making it up for attention," Logan said softly, moving out from behind Stanford and easing her way around Damion. "I don't want to fight with you, but you dismissing this could get someone I care about killed."

Damion slid in front of her again when Jaxon took another step towards her, keeping his body loose. He didn't know what the hell Jaxon was thinking threatening a pregnant woman, let alone one that was married to someone that was supposed to be a friend, but he would be damned if the man standing in front of him laid a finger on Logan.

"You need to back the fuck up," Damion growled, eyes flicking behind Jaxon to see Lylah walking through the front door with Charlie. Zoey and Rori rushed in right after them, completely oblivious to the tension that was currently weighing down the air.

"She's been in and out of a mental institution for years. The only person trying to kill her is herself," Jaxon sneered, lowering his voice when the kids rushed past him in a whirlwind of giggles and pigtails. "She needs professional help that I can't give her, so stop riding my ass about your crazy friend."

"Her parents died when she was young and she didn't cope well, you bastard. You would have found that out if you had taken her report seriously and kept digging," Logan hissed, and Damion felt her back away from her position behind him.

He almost let out a sigh of relief when Landon strolled through the front door, the other cop picking up on the rage in the room immediately.

"What's going on?" Landon questioned, coming to stand beside his partner and raising an eyebrow at Damion. He shook his head and jerked a thumb over his shoulder, letting Logan take her seemingly understandable wrath out on the people who were supposed to serve and protect; not pick and choose who was worthy of their time.

"Juniper Hayes deserves better than the shit show that your partner is giving her. She called me last night in tears because no one will believe her but me! What's the point in going to the police if all you're gonna do is laugh her off and only start to care when she ends up in the damned morgue?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for Landon's reply, completely on Logan's side in this argument. Allowing Juniper, whoever the hell she really was, to not find peace or feel safe went against everything he knew Landon stood for as a cop. Everything that he thought Jaxon had stood for as a cop. This wasn't their first time, nor would it be the last, helping women who were scared out of their minds so he didn't know why this was so different. Why Jaxon curled his lip up in disgust when Juniper's name was said, or why he was acting like the judge, jury, and executioner over something that could apparently be proven untrue if he just took time to do his job.