Paxton's Promise (12 page)

“Actually, we are. I was afraid to tell you because of the whole thing with him being friends with Kyle. I felt like a turncoat.”

Catching me off guard, he burst out laughing. “Gabby, no. Look, you can date whoever the hell you want. It took a while to get used to you making your own choices, but I trust you to make the right decisions. Paxton’s not a bad guy.”

“So, now you tell me,” I grumbled. “I’ve treated him like shit for months because I thought he was part of Kyle’s ploy to take you down.”

“Serves you right for not being honest with me from the beginning.” He chuckled. “Now on to the fight with Allie. If you feel like you can do this, then do it. Paxton’s a good fighter and he might be able to show you things that I haven’t. It’s good to learn different styles.”

“So you’re not mad at me?”

“No,” he laughed. “Just work your ass off until I get back in town.”

“Will do. You don’t have to worry about that.”

After we said our goodbyes, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. For so long I was afraid of what my brother would think if he found out I had feelings for Paxton. Now I didn’t have to worry about it.

“Please tell me you have some alcohol in that cooler,” Paxton chided from behind. He sat down beside me and placed the box of pizza between us. It smelled heavenly. I hadn’t had pizza in months.

“I have beer for you, wine for me, and two pints of ice cream for me as well.”

Lifting the box lid, he pulled out a slice and took a bite. “I don’t think so. There better be a peanut butter fudge one in there.”

“There might be,” I teased. Opening the cooler, I passed him a beer and pulled out my wine. “I talked to my brother.” I poured the wine in a cup and took a sip, watching his eyes go wide.

“Did you tell him about us? About me helping you train?”

“Yes and yes.”

“And?” he prodded. “What did he say?”

“He said there’s no way in hell he’s going to let you train me,” I joked. “He said you sucked.” I burst out laughing and then found myself tackled into the ground with my wine thrown into the air. “Hey, you made me spill my wine.”

Guffawing, Paxton straddled my waist and held my arms down by my wrists. “Serves you right for saying some shit like that. What did he really say?”

“He said you were a good fighter and it might be beneficial for me to learn your style. Does that make you happy?”

Smirking, he leaned down, his lips achingly close to mine. “Did he really say that?”

I nodded. “Yes, and I also told him I was seeing you. He’s not mad like I thought he would be. For years he’s done everything possible to keep me away from fighters. And now he said it’s my choice to make.”

“And are you happy with your decision?”

Hooking a finger through his T-shirt, I pulled him down closer. “More than happy,” I whispered before pressing my lips to his. Letting my wrists go, he captured my face in his hands and kissed me slow and deep. I never would’ve thought that Paxton, a bad ass tattooed fighter with a record, would’ve ever had a soft side to him.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, gazing down at me.

I kissed him again and spoke across his lips. “Thank you.”

My phone rang, breaking the connection. Paxton sighed and helped me sit up. Why the hell did someone have to call at that exact moment? When I looked down, I had no clue who it was.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Gabby, it’s Cliff.”

Abruptly, I turned to Paxton. “Cliff, hi. What’s going on?”

Paxton rolled his eyes and finished his slice of pizza. “Well, I just got home and found three flowers by your door. I thought I’d call and tell you. I haven’t touched them and I haven’t looked at the note. If you want me to, I will.”

“No, that’s okay,” I said, packing up my wine. “I’m on my way.” I hung up the phone and huffed. “I can’t believe this shit.”

“What’s going on?”

Slamming the cooler shut, I sighed and looked into his concerned green gaze. “It looks like my visitor came again today. Do you mind going with me to check it out?”

He mumbled some explicit words under his breath and got to his feet. “This shit ends tonight, Gabby. I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever this person’s doing, it needs to stop.”

We both packed up our picnic and started for his house so we could drop it all off. “I agree,” I murmured. “It’s starting to piss me off.”

THE WHOLE WAY to my apartment was ridden in silence. Thankfully, Paxton opted to take the Hummer instead of his motorcycle. We were both on edge and the last thing I wanted was to be on a bike. When we got to my apartment, Cliff was leaning over the banister, waiting on us. He didn’t seem too happy about seeing Paxton with me, but the feeling was obviously mutual when Paxton’s gaze landed on him.

“Please try to be semi nice,” I pleaded.

He scoffed. “We’ll see.”

At the top of the steps, Cliff met me there and gave a small smile. “I’m sorry I had to call and give you the news, but you told me to call if something happened.”

“Thanks, Cliff. I appreciate it.”

Paxton walked right on by us and went straight to the flowers and picked them up. I joined him. There were three black roses in his hand and all I wanted to do was step on them. This note, however, was a little more ominous than the others.

“What the hell? It gets weirder each fucking time,” I hissed, snatching the note out of Paxton’s hand.

“Are you sure this isn’t your ex? I mean, come on, his best friend tried to screw over Ryley and Ash. It wouldn’t surprise me if this asshole wasn’t messed up in the head too.”

“Bradley wouldn’t do this. I know he wouldn’t.” Quickly, I turned to Cliff. “Did your friends find any fingerprints?”

He shook his head and handed me the other notes. “No. There was nothing other than mine and yours. I don’t know what else they can do, other than patrol around to see if they can find someone lurking about. They have nothing to go on.”

Sighing, I nodded and hung my head. “And I have no clue what I’m supposed to do. What if this person tries to attack me?”

“They aren’t going to do that with me here,” Cliff replied.

Paxton scoffed. “Well, first off, she’s not going to be staying here anymore. She’ll be with me. If this fucker wants to mess with her, they’re going to have to go through me.”

Cliff’s gaze hardened. “If this person wants her bad enough, they’ll get her. Just watch your back. It doesn’t matter where she is.” Then to me he said, “Be careful wherever you go. Don’t trust anyone, especially strangers who try to talk to you.” Turning on his heel, he trudged back to his door and glanced at me one more time before disappearing behind his door.

“I don’t like this, Gabby. While you pack up your things I’m going to call Mason. He’ll be able to tell us what we need to do.”

Nodding, I opened my door and Paxton went in first, searching around to make sure everything was okay. When we were in the clear, I threw the notes on the counter and rushed to my bedroom. Load after load, I piled my clothes onto the bed. If I had to carry them all out in trash bags, I would.

I was going to be staying with Paxton for two months and I needed a lot more than what I originally packed. With everything going on, I was kind of glad I agreed to the two months. I sure as hell didn’t want to be here.

WHEN I FIND out what sick fucker is leaving notes and flowers on Gabriella’s doorstep, I’m going to cut off his goddamned testicles and make him wear them as a necklace. If she said it wasn’t her ex I had to believe her, but dammit to hell, I wanted to find out who it was.

Gabriella was in her room packing so I stayed in her living room to make a phone call. Surely, Mason would know what to do.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Mason, it’s Paxton. Do you have a few minutes?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Over on Gabriella’s kitchen counter, all three letters stared ominously at me. It took all I had not to rip them the fuck up and burn them. “I have a problem, or actually Gabby does. Someone’s been sending her black roses with notes on them. And they aren’t exactly love letters.”

“You’ve got to be fucking joking.”

“I wish I was,” I growled. “But I’m staring at it all now. I need to know what to do.”

“How long has it been going on?” he asked. I could hear papers shuffling in the background. “I need to write all this down.”

“For the past week she’s gotten the flowers three different times. The first was with one black rose and a note and then so on.”

“Can you take a picture and text it to me? I want to read the letters.”

“Sure, give me a second.” After lining the roses and the letters on the counter, I took a picture and texted it to him. “Okay, you should have it now.”

The line went silent as I waited for him to look at the picture. The thought of knowing some psycho piece of shit was coming to her door made me furious. If she would’ve had her door unlocked, or even outside running her laps, there was nothing she could do to stop someone from harming her. What made it worse was that something could’ve happened to her this week, when I was waiting for her to come around.

“Paxton, you still there?”

“Yeah.”

“All right, I’m going to get in touch with Ryan Griffin. He’s the lead detective down in Vegas, but he’ll know who to get in touch with. If things start getting really bad, I’ll come down there myself; but for now, I’ll fill him in on everything.”