His soft lips melted into mine, playing with me in short, deep kisses.

“Okay,” I muttered between kisses, “but you have to stop paying for things.”

He backed me into Jared’s car, one hand holding my neck, the other skimming down my back to grab my ass. “How are you going to pay for college, huh?”

I kissed him again. “Loans.”

“College loans are slavery.” He kissed me again, pressing himself between my legs.

My eyelids fluttered, the wave of his heat hitting me hard. “If we don’t work out,” I gasped, “I’ll owe you money. So no.”

“And if we do work out”—he hoisted my legs up and around him—“it’ll become my debt. So no.”

I grinned, eating up his lips fast and hard. “Tomato, to-mah-to.”

I fired a trail of kisses across his jaw, fingering his nipple rings through his black T-shirt.

“Shit. You need to stop.” He twisted his head, his eyes closed and looking utterly undone. “You’re obsessed with those damn things.”

“Yep.” I lightly bit his neck, close to the bite-mark tattoo. “Oh, and I’m not doing any threesomes with Cameron,” I pointed out, laying down a stipulation of my own.

“I know.”

I nibbled his neck. “At least not for a while,” I clarified.

I felt his chest shake with laughter. “I love you.”

“So get me to a bed.”

CHAPTER 28

JAXON

“No!” Juliet squealed, running after me into the hallway as I halted in front of my office door, blocking it.

I tipped my chin up, challenging her.

“I want in!” She planted her hands on her hips, a smile tugging at her stern lips.

I shook my head, biting back a laugh.

“I want to see, Jax,” she ordered. “Move!”

“There’s no porn in there, I promise!” My chest shook as I secured my hands above my head on both sides of the doorframe. “But we can make porn if you want.”

Her eyes narrowed, and I let mine scale down her cute little body in my dark gray V-neck T-shirt. It was after midnight, but we hadn’t been to sleep yet.

She stood there for a few seconds, eyeing me, and then sighed. “Well, I’ll get in there eventually.” She brought a hand up to her mouth and faked a yawn. “I’m tired. Coming to bed?”

I smirked, stepping away from the door to follow her, but then I let out a laugh when she spun back around, darted to my side, and tried to get past me again.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” I caught her, my chest rumbling with laughter as she squirmed in my arms.

“I will get in there!” she shouted, hunching over as she tried to squirm away.

“Of course you will,” I whispered in her ear. “I’d like to relive that desk chair. And the window,” I added. “Tonight.”

She twisted her head around to look at me, and I felt her body relax as she smiled gently at me.

And then her stomach growled.

“Ugh,” she sighed, dropping her head back. “Of course.”

I let out a quiet laugh. “You need to eat more,” I said as I unwrapped my arms and stood up straight.

She glared at me. “I would if you’d stop trying to keep me on a Jax-only diet.” She waved her hand. “Go shower. I’ll make sandwiches. And popcorn,” she added. She must’ve seen all the different seasonings and bags of popcorn in my pantry.

“Okay.” I held up my palms in a hands-off show and backed away to the bathroom, making sure she went down the stairs instead of trying to trick me again. I actually didn’t mind her in the office. I just liked playing with her.

And she certainly wouldn’t find any porn, so there were no worries there.

I closed the bathroom door and switched on the light, leaning over to grab a towel off the shelf.

A scream pierced the air, and I dropped the towel, my heart stopping.

“Jax!” Juliet shrieked, and I wasted no time.

Yanking the door open, I bolted into the hallway and thundered down the stairs, fear filling my chest as I leaped and landed in the foyer.

Racing for the kitchen, I stumbled, feeling something hit my head, and then I fell to the floor.

I growled, yanking and thrashing at the handcuffs and feeling the sting of broken skin as I pulled against the metal.

“You’re dead!” I raged, planting my feet against the bottom step as I sat on the floor and used the leverage to push myself against the strain of the cuffs wrapped around the banister. “You better fucking kill me, because you’re dead!”

I gritted my teeth and pulled with every muscle in my body. I curled my wrists and felt sweat glide down my temple as I held my breath and pulled until my body was burning.

Juliet. He had her. My father fucking had her!

My heart thundered in my ears, and all of a sudden I was in the basement again. Powerless. A hostage. Forced.

When I ran downstairs, someone had hit me over the head. I wasn’t knocked out, but I was knocked off my feet, and by the time I’d been able to stable myself, I was handcuffed to the banister.

Blood trailed down my arms from where the cuffs cut my wrists, and I kicked the stairs, growling my frustration as I thrashed.

“I’ll kill you!”

“You know,” my father started as if he hadn’t heard me, “between your brother’s girl and yours, I can’t tell who’s got the better piece of ass.” He narrowed his dark blond eyebrows, thinking.

“The blonde is more athletic. Nice thighs,” he continued, his jeans-clad legs sauntering over to Juliet sitting in a kitchen chair in the middle of the foyer. Another man—a friend of my father’s, I assumed—had his hands on her shoulders, keeping her in place.

“But your little brunette here?” He ran a finger up her bare arm, and I clenched my fists, my stomach blazing like a bonfire.

“She’s petite but a handful in all the right places.” He smiled and turned to me. “My sons sure know how to pick ’em.”

I locked eyes with Juliet, seeing the fear on her face that was almost completely covered by her hair. Her cheeks were dry, but I could tell by the way she fingered her scar that she wasn’t okay.

My father’s blond hair had grayed over the years, but his blue eyes still pierced the darkness. Even though the wrinkles showed a hard life spent abusing his body, he still stood strong and muscular, and it made me sick.

I should’ve let Ciaran kill him in prison.

I breathed in and out, lowering my voice. “Touching her will be the last mistake you ever make. Don’t be stupid,” I said to his friend, a heavy-set man about the same age as my father, tall with greasy black hair.

Juliet started crying, and I shot my worried eyes to her.

“Please don’t hurt us,” she sobbed. “Please, Mr. Trent! Just—just let me leave Jax’s house! Please!”

I blinked. Let me leave?

And that was when I noticed it. The Gear I’d given her.

She hadn’t been holding her wrist and fingering her scar. She’d been holding her wrist, pretending to cower, as she used the fucking phone.

Holy shit. I hadn’t seen her dial, and I hadn’t heard it ringing—which I would since it was a speakerphone. Thank God she’d been smart enough to mute the sound.

I swallowed down my pride in her, afraid it would give us away.

“Please don’t hurt me!” Her shoulders shook as she clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Please! Just let me leave. I won’t tell anyone. Please let me leave Jax’s house!”

Her head hung low, the long strands of her chocolate hair falling around her and covering the fact that she was talking into her watch.

My father raised a knife, and I … my knife. I swallowed, realization hitting me. He had my knife. From my pocket.

He slipped it inside the V of my shirt that she was wearing and traced her skin with the blade.

I jerked, fighting the fucking cuffs. “Stop!” I bellowed. “Just let her go, and you can deal with me!”

He turned his head, regarding me. “What do you think I’m doing?”

The knife dipped down under the hem of the shirt sitting at her thighs, and I felt the bile rise in my throat.

No.

He was touching her, and I felt the fire on my face as I growled against the restraints, damn near ripping my goddamn shoulders out of their sockets.

“Fuck!” I kicked and pounded.

Tears blurred my eyes, and I gasped, desperate, because I couldn’t get free. Please not your hands. Don’t touch her with your hands. Please.

I let my head fall back as I threatened, “You shouldn’t have come here. It was a mistake.”

“No, no.” He yanked Juliet up under her arm and dragged her over to me. “Your mistake was in ignoring me.” He stared down. “There was a time when you needed me, and I helped. Now I want what’s owed to me.”

“I owe you nothing!” I shouted.

And then he held the knife up to her throat, and I sucked in a breath.

“Your arrogance is going to get her hurt,” he warned, and I saw a tear fall down her frozen face.

“Now we’re going upstairs to your little computer room.” He dug out a small piece of paper from his pocket and showed me. “And you’ll have exactly five minutes to access this account and transfer everything in it into this account.” He pointed with his finger. “At minute six, he starts having a lot of fun with her.” And he jerked his chin to his friend behind them.