Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68249 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
God, it was just Jax. And this was just Veronica, but it felt important. It felt like a moment that would change everything, except it wasn’t. It was just dinner with a guy and my best friend.
Veronica shimmied to the music, creaking her chair with the motion and grinning at me, a goofy smile plastered on her face. “This is the most fun I’ve had in weeks,” she said. “I never come out.”
“I know,” I replied. “Glad my eternal anxiety could bring you some joy.”
“Are you kidding? This is great!” Veronica laughed and patted my arm this time. “Everything’s going to be fine. Your guy’s going to arrive and we’ll all have fun chatting and—” She cut off and stared past me to the entrance of the restaurant.
I turned, those butterflies climbing my throat.
There he was.
Jax King strode through the doors, followed closely by a stocky guy in a suit with dark hair and chiseled features. Every eye in the place focused on the men—it was as if two Greek gods had sailed down from the heavens and graced the restaurant with their presence.
At least, they looked like gods.
Jax spotted me, and his face lit up from the inside. A grin tugged at the corners of those lips. He took two steps forward, his gaze dancing to Veronica, then stopped dead. The smile vanished.
“What the fuck?” Veronica whispered. “What the actual fuck?”
“What’s going on?” I asked and looked over at her. “Why—? Do you know him? Ron?”
“You said his name was Jax.”
“His name is Jax. What the hell is this?”
Veronica pushed her seat back and stood up, the cheery music now a mockery. “No, it’s not.” She strode from our table toward the men, her blonde hair whipping out behind her, her heels grinding into the floorboards.
Jax squared his shoulders, set his jaw and towered—doing what he did best, apparently.
Not Jax? That’s not his name? I scraped my chair back too and hurried after Veronica.
She’d already reached him.
“—liar!” The tail-end of her sentence caught me right in the core. Veronica’s expression was a thunderhead. She raised a fist at Jax, and he caught her wrist, easily, held it fast. “You’ll only end up hurting her.”
“Relax,” Jax said, in that rumble that had been my comfort up until about two seconds ago. “You’re making a scene.”
“I don’t fucking care if I’m making a scene,” Veronica replied. “You’re lying to my best friend. You’ll tell her the truth, right now, or I’ll—I’ll tell her myself.”
“Uh—hi, there,” Jax’s dark-haired friend spoke up. “Hi, listen, we’re disturbing everybody’s meal in here. Let’s take this outside.” He offered a bright smile, and Veronica blinked at him, sucked in a breath.
“Fine,” she said, and wrenched her arm from Jax’s grasp. “Fine.”
“I’m Bane, by the way,” the guy said and nodded to me. “Nice to meet you.”
“No, not nice to meet you.” Ron was on a rampage. “Not nice, at all. If I can’t trust him, I can’t trust you.” She stormed toward the exit, and waiters jumped out of her path, a yell here, a curse there.
I followed her, as did Jax and his buddy.
What the hell was this? Why was she so damn angry?
We burst out into the evening air, and I walked to Veronica’s side, nerves bouncing in my step. “What’s going on?” I whispered. “Veronica, what’s—?”
“Why don’t you ask him?” She pointed to Jax, who’d stopped nearby, but not close enough to impose. He had his hands in the pockets of his tight jeans. He tilted his head to one side, smirking now.
“What’s there to ask, Veronica?” He replied. “Huh? You’re clearly on a fucking warpath. I say, go for it. Spew your guts all over the sidewalk. Squeal like you’ve done so many times before.”
“Fuck you, shitheel!” She lurched forward, and I caught her arm, held her back. “Fuck you!”
“That’s enough,” I said, loud, but not shouting. Someone had to remain in control of this weird-ass situation. “Calm the hell down. Somebody had better tell me what the heck is going on, right now.”
Quiet. Bane shifted and shrugged his shoulders. Clearly, he was as clueless as I was. Jax’s smirk remained in place, that easy confidence that came so naturally to him.
Veronica took a deep breath—it wasn’t soothing, judging by her white knuckles—and pointed at Jax again. “His name is Cole Jackson,” Veronica said.
“Jackson?” That was Veronica’s surname. Oh god, were they married? My heart dropped so hard it threatened to penetrate my diaphragm.
“He’s my brother.”
A swell of relief and then…“Wait, what?”
“He’s my brother,” Veronica repeated.
“You don’t have a brother,” I replied.
“Yes, I do. I never speak about him because of who he is or was or whatever. I don’t know. We lost touch after he abandoned me, went to live with our uncle and aunt, then started stealing from people and ended up in prison.”