Fallen Angel (The List #3) (2 page)

“I suppose so, if I
have
to.”

We’re both still smirking but inside I’m squealing
and skipping around the room like a lunatic. I hide my amusement and walk over
to Jax with more confidence now. Unscrewing the top off the bottle, I hand him
the water with the intention of retreating upstairs to get changed. But he
takes hold of my hand to keep me here. I admit, I’m relieved. I don’t even need
to look over at Carmel to know that the look on her face is priceless.

Jack is deftly seeing to Jax. He makes notes on
his tablet and looks to be setting up an intravenous drip. I’ll feel much
better when he actually removes the knife and stitches him up. Perhaps I should
clarify the situation with Jack for some reassurance.

“I take it from your frivolous approach that
he’s out of the danger-zone then? When you remove that thing, he’s not going to
bleed to death or anything?”

“Thanks for the positive vibes B.”

Jax laces his fingers with mine and squeezes. I
know he’s joking—he’s not worried. He knows that I’m asking for my peace of
mind. I squeeze his hand back and shrug.

“
What?
I’m just making sure—”

“Bethany, he’s going to be absolutely fine and
thanks to you, he’s sitting here pain-free. More importantly, you’ve kept him
sterile, which is all I could’ve asked of you and more. Trust me, I’m anything
but frivolous—”

“B, he’s the best, don’t worry.”

“It is well known that I’m
very
good
with my hands—”

Jack is relentless. He is brilliant.

“Is it well known that you’re incorrigible too?
If Jax says you’re the best, then that’s good enough for me. So unless you need
me to do anything, I think it’s best I get out of your way and let your ‘
very
good’
hands do their thing.”

“Ah yes Poppet, what a good idea.” Carmel pipes
up, sneering at me from behind Jax, fluttering her spider-like, fake eyelashes.
“I will see you out.”

“No, thanks Carmel, she stays here.”

Jax tightens his grip, frowns at me and takes a
sip of his water. This girl’s something else.

“Fine.”

Waving her hand dismissing the subject, she
says it as though she’s conceding, like she has a say in the matter. Surely Jax
can feel the tension coursing through my rigid body. Why is she making things awkward,
especially under these circumstances? She’s surely not threatened by me.

Jax nods his chin upwards, silently asking if
I’m okay. He can barely see out of his left eye but that doesn’t stop us from having
our own private, silent conversation.

Carmel is busying herself shaking pills out of
a small brown bottle. She puts the bottle in her bag and throws her palm to her
open glossy lips. Reaching over she takes the bottle of water from Jax and
takes a swig from it, rinsing her pills down.

“Thanks Sweetie.”

Ugh. Cruella hands the bottle back to him.
Sweetie?
I know Jax well enough to know that he is nobody’s ‘Sweetie’. I stupidly want to
wipe any trace of her mouth from the top of his bottle. Jax still hasn’t looked
away from me though so I drag my eyes away from Cruella and take a deep breath
to help rationalise the situation.

My rising chest draws Jax’s attention south and
he fixates on my scantily clad puppies, like they’re pining in his face.
They’re begging him to save them from Cruella, the crazy lady behind him, in
case she decides to skin them alive and turn them into a push up bra for
herself.

I clear my throat to bring his attention back
to my eyes and smile at him knowingly, raising an eyebrow. I have no idea who
the ice queen actually is—yet—but she doesn’t know me either and I’m not one to
back down from a battle of one-upmanship.

Leaning down, I plant a lingering kiss on his
lovely lips and whisper in his ear discreetly.

“You’ve been a good boy for Nurse Taylor, now
do as the doctor tells you.”

I graze my teeth over his earlobe and bite down,
making sure from my peripheral vision that Carmel gets a front row seat. Jax
doesn’t flinch but the slight change in his breathing doesn’t escape my attention.

I lean back up casually and turn to the doctor
as he walks back over to us from his bag.

“I’ll be upstairs if you need me Jack.”

Jack crouches down in front of Jax.

“No problem Bethany. This’ll probably keep me
busy for a while but I’ll be up as soon as I can Swee—
fuck!
”

Jax kicks him in the shin, nearly sending Jack
off balance as he rocks back on his heels. I giggle at the banter, welcoming it
into this shitty scenario with open arms. I clock the ice queen rolling her judgmental
eyes.

Before leaving I grab the black rubbish bag I’d
filled earlier with all the empty medical wrappers, bloody towels and Jax’s cut
up bloodied tee. I wave at Jax, who looks more pensive now as I leave the
kitchen, tying a knot in the bag.

Glad to be out of there, I let my thoughts
wander to how easily I became preoccupied with playing games with Cruella in
there. Maybe I should’ve made more of an effort to be nice to her, especially
considering the severity of the situation.

I make my way to the back door, unlock it with
the door code and go outside. The wind has picked up and it’s colder than
Carmel’s stare out here. Next job is to go and get changed. I drop the bag into
the wheelie bin and head back into the house.

The doorway is silhouetted with Carmel’s slim stick
figure, waiting for me. Thankfully I’ve still got adrenalin pumping through my
body after tonight’s events so I’m not intimidated by her.

“Everything okay?” I ask her as she turns and
walks back into the house.

I follow her in and lock the door behind us
whilst she observes me, perhaps my familiarity with Jax’s home, with a look of distasteful
intrigue. I’m far from sussing her out. The obvious guess is that she’s one of
Jax’s fuck buddies and she doesn’t take kindly to him having female company
when she’s on the scene.

I should know by now that things to do with Jax
or myself are never simple.

“I was thinking
you
could tell
me
that Bethany.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“What are you doing here exactly? What do you
think you are doing with him?”

“Why don’t you ask him that?”

I still don’t know whether I should say his
name because he referred to himself as ‘X’ on the phone and neither her or Jack
has said his actual name.

“Oh, I already have.”

“And?”

“
And
he told me that you are merely a
friend
whom he is helping out.”

“Well then I guess there’s your answer. Now if
you’ll excuse me—”

Carmel makes a swift sidestep, blocking my path
and searches my eyes for something.

“I am only going to say this once, so listen
carefully Poppet. You do not know him. You do not belong here so run along and
get out of his life.” She enunciates some of those words with spite. “And do
not dare breathe a single word of what you have seen here tonight, to anybody.”

The ice queen has frozen me to the spot. She
reaches forward and I flinch, thinking I’m about to be on the receiving end of
a slap. She just smirks at my reaction and places her forefinger at the base of
my neck, slowly stroking it downwards until she reaches the deep V of the lacy material
between my cleavage.

“He does not need a
little girl
messing around
with his head, ever.” Poking her manicured talon, hard into my chest, she prods.
“You’ve been warned—
Angel!
”

Carmel casts her eyes over my face. Clearly satisfied
with my
holy-fuck-this-got-weird-fast
expression, she turns on her killer
heels and struts back towards the kitchen, victoriously clip-clopping down the
hallway like the winner of the Grand fucking National.

Did that just happen? Did she really just
threaten me?

My mouth is dry but I’m not about to go back
into the kitchen and breathe the same air as that scary bitch. I’m definitely physically
stronger than her but she has an eerie aura about her that clearly emanates the
warning ‘Don’t. Fuck. With. Me’.

I can’t believe she called me Angel. He didn’t
call me that in the kitchen, so how did she know? Jax told me that’s he doesn’t
say that to other girls. Have I been played? Am I still being played? Fuck,
this just keeps getting better and better.

I somehow crack my feet out of the ice block
she’d frozen me in and flee upstairs, two steps at a time. My heart is pounding
by the time I shut the bedroom door behind me.

“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” I whisper to myself.

Immediately stripping off, I shakily slip on
some joggers and a vest. It’s a minor step in the right direction, feeling less
vulnerable and more composed. I pace the bedroom trying to get my head around the
chaos downstairs.

That’s when I notice my seduction paraphernalia
and scoff aloud. That was definitely wishful thinking on my part. It seems like
days ago that Miss Seduction spread this little lot out across the bed, when it
was actually just a few hours ago. I gather it all together and drop it straight
into my unzipped case.

Somehow I don’t think my little bullet is going
to see any action tonight—unless I go and shove it up Carmel’s ass, along with
her silver spoon and tape it up. I can’t believe she threatened me. Why is she
warning me away from Jax?

I still feel totally out of place. Maybe I
should go back to Wills. My bags are already packed and ready to go. I don’t
want to leave him but there’s nothing more I can do to help and being here may
actually be distracting for him. The reality is he’s been stabbed tonight and
it’s clearly something to do with the side of his life that he keeps well
hidden. Jack and Carmel are obviously in the know, which leaves me being the spare
part.

Yes, it’ll be best if I just get out of here. It’d
be selfish to distract Jax by saying goodbye when he needs to concentrate doing
whatever Jack tells him. Plus I don’t want to see Carmel’s smug bitchface. I’ll
leave him a note and slip away undetected. He needs to concentrate on getting
through this and getting better—he only needs Jack for that. I can talk things
through with Jax when he’s feeling up to it.

The ice queen will be happy with my departure.
She can concentrate on getting her claws into Jax.

Moments later I put a note on his pillow and
carry my case and bags downstairs. Carefully unlocking the door I shift the
bags to the doorstep outside and take another look around before leaving. This
is potentially my last time here and what a rollercoaster of a week it’s been.
I arrived here with a broken heart, or so I thought. My heart was just hurt,
not broken. How could it be when I’ve since realised that I never actually loved
my husband the way I thought I did?

Now, instead of avoiding Jax like I’d told
myself to do, I went ahead and fell madly in love with him. Yes, now is the
perfect opportunity to put some distance between us. I can take some time to
think things over and gain some perspective. Leaving now is the right thing to
do for both of us.

So why do I feel like I’m abandoning him?

As tears threaten, I take my car keys out of
the marble bowl quietly and slowly start closing the front door behind me. My
sixth sense sends a creepy shiver down my spine. I glance up just before the
door shuts and spot Carmel in the armchair, in the shadows, staring straight at
me with her legs crossed. She’s holding the stem of a wine glass, swirling its
contents around calmly.