SWNOVELS Chapter 3
JAX
My white gloved hands reach into the dead man’s chest and I surgically remove his heart. Tossing it on the scale, I read the reading.
My brows go up and I look down at the stark white dead face. “Dude. You need to take better care of yourself.”
I rip off my gloves and walk to my desk. Picking up my clipboard and pen, I write the result down and continue. “Seriously. Too much red meat. You want my advice?...” I pause then scowl at him. “Stop murdering people.” My phone rings and I answer it. “It’s bad for your health…Hello?”
“Jax.”
“Hey, Cy. What’s up?” I say as I glove my hands again, grab the heart and bag it in a medical bag. I toss it in a container and prepare it for the lab.
“Um…When are you gonna be home?” He sounds kind of weird.
“Around 6. Why?” I stop what I’m doing and scrunch my brow.
“No…No reason…It’s just…” He trails off. He’s either hiding something or there’s something he really doesn’t want to tell me.
“Spit it out, Cy.” I grumble.
“Alright. Don’t get mad.”
“Cy!”
“Audrey’s here.”
I’m frozen. My mouth goes small and my breathing becomes erratic. I start to sweat and my brows go up. “Say that again.” I say slowly.
“Audrey’s here…For the tryout.”
I suck in my top lip. “That’s what I thought you said." My voice is low, calm. Scary.
I feel it. Like a sick, twisted bubble in my gut. The fights. The condescending attitude. The hot lips that pissed me off so much. I couldn’t contain it. I felt it hit my throat and…
“RRWWAAHHHH!!!” I throw my phone at the doors just as Finn walks in.
“OH SHIT!” He catches it just before it hits his head. “I should try for goalie. What the hell, Jaxton?”
I’m seething. My jaw is clenched so hard my teeth hurt. My nails threaten to make my palms bleed as my fists shake at my side.
“I have to go.” I grind as I push past him, grabbing my phone out of his hand as I go.
“What about the rogue?”
“LATER!” I yell as I slam the door.
I can’t do my job with this hanging out there. This is an emergency. Audrey needs to be sent back to where she fucking came from. She sure as hell needs to keep that tight ass away from my fucking field.
I slam the door to the complex company car and the whole way home, I work out exactly what I’m going to say to her. I’m gonna show that she can’t walk all over me anymore. Her days of doing that are over.
It's only 20 minutes through traffic, but the ride felt impossibly long. Once at my building, I internally rage because I swear I can smell her licorice scent through the entire building. A sign she’s infected it. Great. I’ll have to fucking move now.
Getting off the elevator car, stepping into the hall, her scent was even stronger. She had the balls to come here. Really?
I hold my key card in my fingers and stare at it. OK, Jax. Strength. Conviction. Stick to your guns.
I swipe the card through the slot and my door unlocks. I push it open and it’s like I’m blasted with the cloud of scent coming off her. My stomach flips as I try to keep my composure. Remember, Jax. You’re furious.
“Right.” I mutter to myself. I push away the smoky arousal and walk in.
She’s sitting on the couch. My couch. In my penthouse! Her legs are crossed and her heel is bouncing like she always does. Her slender delicate fingers spin a gold ring around her middle finger. Her favorite finger and I almost snarl at it.
She wore that low cut tank because she knew I’d be pissed to see her. I can tell she’s enjoying seeing me angry as she fixes her long blonde hair, plays with the gold chain around her neck and her soft pink, full lips smirk at me as soon as her baby blues hit mine.
I feel the steam in my gut build and I want to just blow up, but I will keep calm, controlled and tell her to go fuck herself. Should be easy.
As I walk to the living room, Cy practical jumps to my side. My guess, he’s our referee for the duration of the event.
OK. Stay within the boundaries and we'll be fine.
She smiles that fake ass smile she always gives when she wants something. Standing as I approach, she straightens her mini skirt, making it a point to remind me that I love miniskirts and impossibly long legs. Yeah, she’s pushing buttons.
“Jaxton. How nice to see you?” She holds out a hand. “How have you been?”
I cross my arms. I know what touching leads to. No way. “I thought I was clear the last time you blew through town.”
She pulls her hand back. “You were, but…I'm not just resting. I’m here on business.” She casually takes steps toward me and I take a step back. I’m keeping that boundary between us.
“You have no business here.” I narrow my eyes at her.
She ticks her head. “I actually do, Jaxton. The Lacrosse Tournament is a very important achievement in a players career.”
“You’re not a player.” I stand firm.
She smiles sweetly. “Jax. When are you going to realize, you don’t control the league. You might as well give in. The sport is changing. Change with it or be left in the dust.”
“It’s not happening, Audrey.” I scowl.
She glances at Cy. “I know the Lumber Jax are hurting for talent. Soon a lot of your players will retire and the pool is emptying. A responsible captain would think of the game over himself.”
I shoot a look at Cy. He told her about our player issues. We’ll discuss this later. “The Lumber Jax are fine without you.”
“You know I can play, Jax. I have a right to try out.” She steps closer.
“You don’t have a right to my team!” I step closer and raise my finger to her. “I have never allowed a woman to try out and I’m not about to start now.”
“You are the most chauvinistic, pig headed, disrespectful…” She starts to growl in that sexy British accent she has and it only makes me madder.
“Yeah, well, you knew that when you fucked me so you liked it on some level." I cross my arms and glare at her.
Cy places his hand on my chest. “Jax…Buddy. Don’t be mean.”
I glance at him then glare at Audrey. “I’m not mean, I’m honest and right now, I’m saying…Stay the fuck away from my team.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Fine. Have the day you deserve, Jaxton.” She snubs her nose and walks to the door.
“See you never.” I scowl, watching her walk away.
She opens the door and leaves.
I spin around and grab Cy. “She doesn’t step foot in the arena. Do I make myself clear?”
“OK. But I can’t stop her if she finds another team to join.” He informs.
“She won’t. None of the other teams will allow it. No, I don’t even want her fangirling there. She’s blackballed from the tournament completely!” I yell as I head the front door
“She can’t hurt you from the stands, Jax!” He yells to my back.
“Yes, she can, Cy! And she fucking knows it!” I growl, slamming the door behind me.
****
“Wearing that damn skirt…smelling like that…”
I snarl as I run and scoop the small lacrosse ball into the pocket of my stick. I rock the pole in my hands, cradling the ball, as I pace around the net room offside of the council room. I need to cool off. Usually making some goal shots does that, but not today.
“I’m stubborn? Me?!” I stop and stare at the net. I pull back at throw the ball from my cradle to the goal. “FUCK YOU!” I yell as the ball hits the woven rope and pulls it with it to the wall on behind the goal. The hard rubber thuds on it, threatening to break the brick as I try work out this anger Audrey breeds in me.
I pick up the ball and toss it up and catch it in my lacrosse stick as I continue to walk around the room like a caged animal.
“Don’t tell me what to do…” I underhand it into the net and pick it up again as it rolls across the floor back to me.
“Think you own my team? Own me?!” I clench as I throw a side shot.
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” I smash an overhand into the net and I hear the guys talking outside.
The ball rolls past my runners as my shoulders heave in my shoulder pads.
“She’s back.” I hear Marcus sing.
“No.” I hear the shock in Finns voice.
The whole time, Audrey and her attitude punch my brain over and over. I grab the ball and throw another overhand. My gloves strangle the pole and my helmet feels wet from the heat radiating off my head as I boil.
“Jax?”
I stop and bite my upper lip. “Don’t fucking say it, Finley.” I clench.
“Dude. It’s been what, 20 years? Maybe things are different now. Just talk to her.” He says to my back.
I rip off my helmet and spin around. I glare into his eyes. “No.” I growl and leave the room.
“Jax. You can’t live like this.” He says as we enter the Hub.
I take the three steps at once and throw my helmet to my bag. It bounces across the floor and hits the large black duffle.
I turn and my sneakers squeak on the floor. “I refuse to say any more than I’ve already said to that woman! She’s doing this on purpose knowing how much it pisses me off to even look at her! Now, there’s no way in hell I’m talking to that she bitch!”
Marcus steps forward. “Jax, buddy. I love you like a bro. This isn’t healthy, alright. You need to let go…”
“NO, MARCUS!” I spit as my face goes red. “She won’t let me go. That’s the problem, not me! She’s fucking everywhere! All the time!” I step down the steps and get in his space. “Well, I draw the line at Lax. It’s my safe space from her and I will not allow her to invade it.” I growl while holding a finger up to him.
He grabs my hand and lowers it. “OK. I get it. You’re right. You need space. Hasn’t she done that by being gone for two decades?”
My mouth falls and I glance at my friends. “She may have moved, but she’s not gone.” I tap my temple. “I’ll be in the morgue.” I grumble and leave the hub.
I can’t explain it. She lives rent free in my head and no matter how much I try, I can’t move on from her. Maybe it’s because I never got a real explanation from her. I know her leaving with Chet wasn’t because of love or anything. I know it wasn’t because I’m stubborn or uncaring. I wasn’t. I have my reasons which I thought she understood. Then she got a taste and wanted more. She crossed the end zone and never looked back. When I tried to stop her, she took that to mean she needed to find a man who wouldn’t. She smashed my heart to prove that she could be just as much a man as me and up until that point, I never saw it coming.
When I first met Audrey, she was a quiet chemistry major. I loved her quirkiness and her sweet demeanor. I even loved her stupid fasciation with geology. I used to love how she could make boring rocks interesting.
For three years, she was my world and I was hers. Whatever it was that changed her, it destroyed us. She started challenging me. Becoming reckless and defiant. I taught her lacrosse as a way to reconnect and have fun, she used it as a way to beat me down. Ultimately, it ended us.
At 19, I was fucking destroyed by a woman and I hated it. When my dad signed over the title, I made sure that my pack wouldn’t suffer the same fate. We work seamlessly. Men and women know their places. I don’t care if it seems chauvinistic. We are more harmonious now because of it. It’s my peace.
Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t sentence all she wolves to kitchen or some shit. Just things that are for males, like fighting, certain jobs and sports, are just that…for males. No questions or arguments. The Alpha has spoken. What everyone else does, has no effect on me, I just know it’ll bite them in the ass one day when women take that and run with it. Next thing you know, Lunas will be running the pack. Screw that!
OK. Rant over. Audrey won’t get close to my tournament and that’s all that matters. Hopefully, she hit the bridge out of here and I won’t have to see her again.
Ever.