Relentless (Relentless #1) (7 page)

Luckily, I had a later call time than the guys. When I woke up, Stephen had already left for the day. I was determined to go onto the set with a good attitude. Unless I had lines to say with Jaxon, I planned to pretend like he didn’t exist. Offense was the best defense.

The next step in my plan of action was recruiting Amanda and Stephen to help keep Jax away from me. Amanda could tell there was something wrong, but she didn’t push for an explanation. Stephen threatened not to help if I didn’t tell him, but I put him off for a while by promising a full recap later. I debated how much to tell him while we were in front of everyone, because if he got mad it might get ugly. He frowned, but thank goodness he agreed to help. 

It wasn’t a secret that I preferred to film with Jax, and as much as I tried to hide my discomfort at working with him today, the tension surrounding us was obvious. The beach scenes were supposed to be carefree and fun, but my mood appeared somber and pissy. Jaxon tried to keep making his way over, but Stephen and Amanda kept their word, heading him off at every pass. Even Gage seemed to help keep him away from me.

Everything was awkward, which was completely different than our normal days on set. The crew seemed at a loss on how to make things better for everyone. Thank goodness we were a small group today since we were filming out in the public and we were trying not to draw much attention from tourists.

To make matters even worse, the director recast one of the other characters and today was his first day filming. I didn’t know who the replacement actor would be, but I had a sinking feeling I wouldn’t like the decision the director made. It was a kind of karmic balance thing that I was certain would bite me in the ass. Sure enough, my ex-boyfriend Scott had been cast in the role. I groaned as he walked up; being worried had been totally warranted on my part.

Scott and I had a nasty, public breakup about a year and a half ago. He had been the first guy I attempted a relationship with after my divorce, and like most of the men in my life, he ended up cheating on me and lying about it. My track record with men was on a downward spiral to hell.

Scott knew how Aaron had treated me throughout our marriage. He’d heard all about the cheating, the lying, the drinking, and the sleeping around. He heard every sordid detail. Yet when we started dating, he still cheated on me. Deciding not to date after our brief relationship seemed like the most logical thing. I hadn’t even seen Scott since our breakup, but now I got to go running into his arms and act like I was excited to see him.

Could this day get any worse?

He looked just as shocked as I felt when I launched myself into his arms. The director called cut and cursed as he watched Scott put me down, take a step back and run his fingers through his short brown hair. Scott whispered, “I didn’t realize it would be this hard.”

“What did you expect? Working with the girl you completely fucked over can’t be easy, but you took the role knowing you would be here with me.” I took a step back and fisted my hands on my hips, waiting for him to say something.

“Is it going to be an issue working with me, Vi?”

“I can be professional. Can you?”

Scott frowned, but he nodded. I called out to the director to signal that we were ready.

Jax scowled in our direction, obviously upset at our odd interaction. The death stare he sent our way definitely wasn’t acting. His body language said it all; he was jealous. The asshole deserved it. I was still pissed about how he had treated me the night before. My anger was still boiling right below the surface. When he asked me if he was the father of our baby, it was probably the worst thing he could have done.

It was hard, but I pushed those thoughts out of my head, working hard to remain professional. I was already at enough of a disadvantage trying to deal with the Scott situation. We reshot the scene, and the director said everything looked good. Finally he called us in and said he wanted some natural shots of our characters interacting with one another. We had to hang around on the beach and try to act natural without direction for the rest of the morning. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but I was just waiting for this to go horribly wrong.

After we had been there for a while, Scott came over to talk. Stephen walked over to intercept, but I waived him off. This was a conversation I needed to get out of the way. I looked at Scott expectantly, and he looked down at the sand avoiding eye contact. Sighing, I stood up and started to walk away, but he reached out and gently grabbed my arm to stop me.

“Just let me get this out, please. Violet, I’m so fucking sorry. I know those words aren’t enough, but I’ve got to start somewhere. Everything I did to you was fucked up. I knew about everything Aaron did while you were married, and I still treated you awful. And what I did was worse, because you told me how horrible he made you feel. I hated him, but after you told me off about how I acted, I hated myself even more.”

I took a deep breath. “Scott, I trusted you. We were friends for years and it’s hard for me to believe that someone who said they cared for me would hurt me the way you did. You used the media against me, just like Aaron. Tell me; was I just a publicity stunt to you?”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his brow. “God no! Violet, I don’t know why I did it. We never saw each other, and I was pissed off about some dumb fight we had. I got drunk and made some horrible choices. The more I tried to fix what I did, the worse it got. I shouldn’t have talked about our relationship to anyone. Like I said before, I’m sorry isn’t enough for what I did.”

“I appreciate your apology. I forgave you a long time ago, but I haven’t forgotten.” Sighing, I continued, “We have to work together, so we might as well try to get along. Okay?”

“I’ll be on my best behavior. Maybe we can even try to be friends again. Baby steps, right?” His hopeful smile pulled at my chest.

He reached out to pull me into a hug. I resisted for a second, but I needed to fix at least one relationship in my life. When he pulled back, he tugged at my ponytail like he used to. I smiled, trying to break some of the tension surrounding us.

My eyes drifted past him and I caught Jax looking like someone punched him in the stomach. He looked like a lost little boy. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see the pain reflecting in his. There was no way I could watch him act like I had rejected him instead of the other way around.

The crew packed up for the day and most of the cast had already left, but I held back waiting for Stephen. I didn’t want to leave by myself, just in case Jax tried to talk to me at my car. Stephen also wanted a better explanation of why I avoided Jax all day. He picked up on the fact that things were worse than what I originally told him.

I was distracted by my phone when Jax came up beside me and pulled me tight against his chest. My hands pushed at him to let me go, but he only let me pull back enough so he could look into my face. His jaw was clenched tight and his eyes looked wet. He jerked back from me and I watched Stephen get in his face, screaming at him.

“I don’t know what you did to hurt Violet, but stay the hell away from her. I’ve known her my entire life, and she’s never once asked me to keep someone away from her.”

Jax shoved Stephen and yelled back, “Stay out of this, Stephen. She and I need to talk. I’m sure things are a hell of a lot different than you think they are.”

Stephen bristled, “What do you mean by that? I thought you were good for her dude. You promised me you would take care of her. You’re worse than her ex-husband
and
that stupid fucker that was here today.” My eyes shot back and forth between the two in confusion, and thoughts raced in my head.
When had they talked about me? Better yet, why?

Stephen never saw the punch coming. I wanted to rush up and grab Jaxon to keep him from punching Stephen again, but as soon as I moved a pain shot through my abdomen. The spasm brought me to my knees and a scream ripped from my throat. Jax fell to his knees in the sand next to me.

“Violet!”

I cradled my stomach as black spots filled my vision. My body dropped towards the sand, but Jaxon’s strong arms grabbed me before I hit the ground. Stephen’s shocked face filled my vision before the blackness overtook me.

Slowly, I regained consciousness. My limbs felt heavy and my head throbbed. There were voices all around me and they sounded frantic. As I opened my eyes, the back of an ambulance came into focus. Stephen and Jax were somewhere near, but I also recognized Gage’s voice.

Was he there when I passed out?

There was another voice, feminine, but I didn’t recognize it. The secret of my pregnancy would be out before I even had the chance to decide what to do.
No
. Instinctively I knew I wouldn’t change anything about this pregnancy. I was kidding myself if I even thought I would consider terminating it. An EMT sat with her back to me, so I had a second to pull myself together.

Jaxon’s worried face came into view, “Oh thank God! How are you feeling?” he asked. “Stephen! Gage! She’s awake.”

“Vi, are you okay?” Stephen asked, rushing to Jaxon’s side.

I tried to sit up, but three male hands all reached out to stop me; I would have laughed if I wasn’t so weak.

“I think I’m okay, but my head hurts.”

“Alexis is on her way.”

“Can you guys get out of my way so I can check on the patient?” The guys ignored the EMT and their questions continued to fly.

“Why did you call Lexi? What is she even doing in California?”

Jaxon’s anxious gaze told me everything. He answered for Stephen, “I had to tell them. When you grabbed your stomach I thought the worst was happening. Gage came up just as you collapsed and saw the whole thing. He was the one that called 911.” Seeing my worried expression, he rushed to continue, “He won’t tell anyone.”

The guilt on his face ate at me, but I wasn’t ready to talk about anything with him. He rubbed his face with his hands and continued, “I put you through so much last night. We were all scared you might be miscarrying. As soon as I told Stephen about the pregnancy he called Alexis.”

“She was visiting some of her friends from medical school, so she’s here this week,” Stephen added.

I gaped at Jaxon. Here he was making decisions about my health and my baby’s health like a man who actually cared about our well-being, but last night he had made it crystal clear he couldn’t care less what happened to us. I tugged my hand from his grip and a pained look flashed across his face before he masked it with a blank stare. No matter that he had stepped up to take care of us, I was still royally pissed. As I turned my face away the same feminine voice from before came from behind Jax.

When she got closer, I recognized her as Silver Cunningham, the co-star from Jaxon’s last movie. There had been rumors of a budding romance between her and Jax, but I had quickly dismissed them. That might have been a hasty decision on my part. Tears pricked at my eyes. Turning towards Stephen, I silently pleaded that he would make everyone leave.

“What can we do to help, Violet?” he asked the EMT without breaking eye contact with me.

“Let’s give her some space. I’ll sit with her until Dr. Davenport gets here. Stephen, you can stay with Violet. Jax, Silver, why don’t you go wait for the doctor outside. Please, bring her over when she gets here.”

Gage leaned over to Stephen to talk to him privately, rather he was trying to keep what he was saying from me or from Jax and Silver, I didn’t know. As he walked by to leave the ambulance, he reached down and squeezed my hand. Stephen nodded at him once and turned back towards me. I looked questioningly at both men. Without answering my unspoken question, Gage turned to walk out.

I saw the strain in his jaw every time he looked in Jaxon’s direction. Stephen leaned down. “He’s going to tell everyone you collapsed because you were dehydrated. Nothing else.”

“Gage?” I choked out. He turned back. “Thank you.”

He watched the tears role silently down my face. Leaning down, he gently wiped them away and kissed my cheek. “Anything for you, princess,” he whispered in my ear.

A faint smile brushed my lips. It was his characters nickname for me, and it was Gage’s way of reassuring me. He would never understand the gratitude I had for him in that moment.

Lexi brushed past Gage as she came rushing in to the ambulance. She spared one appreciative glance in his direction before she turned towards me.

“What the hell girl? Seriously, you get knocked up and you don’t call me?”

“Shit Lexi, I’m not sure the people at the next beach over heard you. Can you say that any louder?” Stephen admonished. Gage chuckled as he climbed out of the ambulance.

“Sorry,” she winced. “Go away so I can talk to my patient.”

Alexis took the paperwork from the EMT to glance over my stats without saying anything else. Stephen left in an exasperated huff. A faint smile played on my lips as we watched him go.

As far as brother and sister went, they were close, not that you could tell it now. They butted heads all the time, but they loved one another fiercely. I was almost as close to Lexi as I was to Stephen, some days more. They were a package deal for me and it had broken my heart when she moved out to New York for her residency. Lexi leaned over and spoke to the EMT quietly. The woman went to the front of the ambulance and I faintly heard her talking on the radio.

“Tell me what happened. Don’t leave anything out,” she winked. “Especially don’t leave out anything about that gorgeous hunk of a baby daddy.”

So I told her everything. I started from the beginning, being cast as the lead and then I continued on to finding out I was pregnant, being blackmailed to go to the gala, the huge fight with Jax, calling Taylor bawling and asking her to come stay with me, seeing Scott again, and finally watching Jaxon punch Stephen. She asked how long I had been unconscious, but I didn’t have any idea. Then she asked how much water I had drunk throughout the day and I couldn’t answer that either. She moved to call Jax and Stephen over, but I stopped her.

“Just wait for a few minutes, please. I’m not ready to talk to anyone yet. Do the rest of your exam, and then you can ask them anything else you need to know.”

Lexi gave me a stern look, but agreed. Her fingers efficiently poked and prodded me. She seemed to think it was dehydration, but she was worried about how long I had been unconscious. Finally she asked, “Can I call them over yet? I need to ask them questions, plus I’m dying to meet Jaxon. If he got you to give it up, he’s got to be pretty special.”

“You suck, you know that? He’s the dick that asked if it was his baby.”

She grinned, but before she called out to the guys, hushed, angry whispering came from just outside the ambulance.

“Jaxon your text said you needed someone to be here with you, but you’ve ignored me since I got here. Why did you even bother to ask me to come if you were going to act like I wasn’t here?” Silver whined. In the same breath she continued, practically purring, “I’m here for you, baby.
Any
way you need.”

“Shut the fuck up, Silver. I meant to text John, not you.” He sighed and I could imagine him running his hand through his hair, tugging on the ends. “Look, I’m grateful you came to be here for me, but don’t make this about you.”

“I know women like her, she’s lying. You’ll see, Jaxon. The slut probably isn’t pregnant, and if she is, it isn’t yours.”

“Shut up. You know nothing about Violet or our relationship.”

My jaw dropped in shock as we listened to their conversation. Silver was saying nasty things about me and we had never even met. I had passed out and scared the shit out of three grown men and she thought I was faking.

What the hell?

It made me even more upset that Jaxon had told her to come and be with him while I lay on the ground unconscious. Even though he said he had meant to text someone else, he had to have spoken to her at one point because she knew where to find us. Nothing made sense, he had cared enough to have Stephen call Lexi, but he still needed a shoulder to cry on? My head pounded as I tried to figure everything out.

Lexi stormed out of the ambulance. Her face was barely visible as she said, “Jaxon, you need to get this nasty bitch out of here. I will kick her ass if you don’t. Then I’ll leave her bleeding on the ground and that goes against my oath as a doctor to do no harm. Make sure she doesn’t open her mouth about the pregnancy. Violet isn’t far enough along for anyone to find out if they do I’m sure she will miscarry from the stress. Silver, Violet can sue you for slander if you open your fat mouth. Jax, when you get done getting rid of this skank, I need to ask you some questions about the mother of your child.”

I wished I could have seen the look on Silver’s face when Alexis had called her a nasty bitch and a skank. The thing about Lexi is you don’t mess with her people. She’s extremely devoted to her friends and she would do anything for them. Turning on her heel, she climbed back inside the ambulance. The only other time I had seen such determination in her eye was when she told Stephen about her residency in New York. A pissed off Lexi shouldn’t be taken lightly, Jaxon should be scared.

Tears clouded my vision as I looked up at Alexis. She still looked irritated, but I knew she would help me. The emotions welling up inside from the day had built up until I couldn’t take it anymore. I was ready to shatter into a million little pieces.

“Lexi, get me out of here,” I whispered.

“We’re leaving right now, honey.”

Five minutes later, we pulled up in front of my beach house. I was lucky enough to wake up to the sound of crashing waves every morning. It was perfect for me and I couldn’t imagine not living here now, even after such a short period of time.

To my surprise another car pulled in behind us. Stephen was behind the wheel, but Jaxon sat in the passenger seat. I shot a glare at Stephen, but he just shrugged. Lexi grabbed my arm and helped me climb up the stairs to the deck. Taylor was sitting in the kitchen when we walked in. She jumped up when she noticed the group of us walking in the door.

“What the hell happened?” she demanded.

“Just a small incident. Don’t worry about it, Taylor,” I started.

“She’s lying. Don’t listen to her. She passed out on the beach so we called an ambulance, and Lexi,” Stephen explained as he went over to give her a hug. “Vi didn’t tell me you were in town. Staying at the house.
With us
,” He emphasized.

She gave him a tight lipped smile. “Us? Violet didn’t mention you were living here. It was a last minute trip and I got here late last night.” Turning towards me she changed the subject, “Way to scare me, sis. I love having a huge welcoming party, but could you have warned me first?”

Her gaze travelled through the group of people standing in my kitchen. She did a double take as she spotted Jaxon. Taylor raised one eyebrow, and walked over to him.

“I’m Magnolia, Violet’s sister, but everyone calls me Taylor.”

“This is Jax,” I said cutting off any answer he might have given. He reached out and shook the hand she extended. Hopefully she would keep her mouth shut about my breakdown last night. She took his hand, but gave him a hard look and walked back over to Lexi.

“What do we need to do for the patient?” she asked Lexi.

“Let’s get her resting and drinking some fluids. Then I’ll decide if she needs to go to the hospital.” Lexi motioned towards the living room through the open entryway.

“I am right here you know. You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not even in the room.”

Jax walked up from behind and scooped me up in his arms to carry me to the couch. I made a disapproving grunt in the back of my throat. Ignoring my protests, he sat down on the couch with me on his lap.

What the actual fuck?

“Obviously Violet and I need to talk. So, can everyone give us some privacy? Lexi, I’ll make sure she’s drinking and resting. She won’t get up from this couch, and I’ll try to keep the stress to a minimum. Stephen, I will figure everything out so you don’t hate me. Taylor, I’m assuming she called you after my major fuck up last night. I’ll take care of our girl and get shit figured out.”

Lexi sent a reproving look his way and Taylor looked like she wanted to punch him for suggesting they leave us alone, but I stopped them from saying anything else. “It’s time guys. I’ll call if I need anything. Stephen hand me my phone, please. Why don’t you take the girls to the pizza place you found down on the boardwalk?”

It was surprising they left so easily. Weariness shaded my expression as I looked over at Jaxon, reluctant to start the conversation. The last time this hadn’t gone so well. I maneuvered myself to the other side of the couch, so I faced him without touching.