Stay with Me (Wait for You, #3)(61)

Collateral damage. Wow. It was then, in that moment as I stared at my fingers, I realized I was collateral damage. And the world out there, that little bit of it that I had a taste of growing up, was much bigger and much worse than I ever knew.

“We need to find my mom,” I said, looking up. “I have no idea where she could be, but maybe Clyde knows. Or maybe I can try talking to Isaiah, explaining my—”

“You are not getting anywhere near Isaiah,” Jax said, his hand tightening on my shoulder. “And there are some places where we can check for your mom, but they’re shit holes you aren’t getting near, either.”

“Excuse me?” I twisted toward him as I jerked forward, but his hand remained. “The last I checked, you aren’t the boss of me, buddy.” Yeah, that wasn’t a very clever response, but whatever. “This is my problem.”

“It’s my problem.” His eyes locked with mine.

A shiver coursed down my spine. “It’s not your problem.”

“The hell it isn’t.”

My hand squeezed the juice box, crushing the cardboard. “Mona might be your boss, but she’s my mom. It’s my problem.”

“Boss?” Reece muttered.

Jax leaned forward, his face getting right up in mine. “It’s my problem, because it’s your problem.”

“That makes no sense!” Frustration pecked at my skin, mixing with confusion. “You barely know me, Jax. You have no reason to get involved in this.”

“Oh, here we go again, with the ‘barely know you’ crap. I don’t need to be your best friend forever, honey, to get involved,” he shot back, eyes the darkest brown I’d ever seen. “The truth is, I have known you for a while now. You just didn’t know me.”

I blinked, sort of startled by that, but I recovered quickly. “Just because you know Clyde and my mom doesn’t mean you know me or can tell me what I can or cannot do.”

Reece sighed. “Kids . . .”

He was ignored. Again. “Oh, it’s just not that. I’ve slept with you. That makes you my problem.”

“Whoa,” murmured Reece.

My mouth dropped open. “You have not slept with me!”

“Oh, we did sleep together.” His lips kicked up on one side. “And I know damn well you haven’t forgotten that.”

Oh my God.

“Or waking up with me,” he added, his eyes warming. “Yeah, that.”

Oh my good God. I whipped toward Reece. “He doesn’t mean what you think he means.”

Reece held up his hands as if he was saying don’t bring me into this.

I whipped right back to Jax, who was grinning smugly, but before I could say a word, and I had no idea what to say after all that, he clapped his hand around the back of my neck, his fingers threading through my hair.

“It’s our problem,” he said, voice low. “Okay? You want to find your mom, I’ll help and I’ll be right beside you, but you aren’t doing this alone.”

I opened my mouth to argue that I didn’t need his help. I’d spent most of my life not needing help, but Reece cut in before I could go further. “You did good, Calla, telling Jax what’s going on. So many people out there think they can handle shit alone, when in reality, a first grader knows they need help. Continue being smart about this. While some of the people around here are mainly harmless, this whole situation is treading into dangerous territory. Be smart. Be safe.”

Those words somehow made it through the haze of irritation. Be smart. Be safe. In other words, don’t be dumb. And it was one thing being dumb when it came to Jax, but another when it came to getting myself hurt or worse.

So I nodded.

Jax gently squeezed the back of my neck and then dropped his hand. “That’s a good girl.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I’ll get some of the boys looking for Mona, too, and we’ll step up getting in contact with Isaiah. Meanwhile, I’d suggest staying close to Jax or Clyde.” Reece took a breath. “And I want to talk to Mack.”

I stiffened. “You can’t do that.”

“I didn’t say I was going to talk to Mack about you. I don’t like the fact that he’s threatened you, but I’m also going to be smart about it.”

“It can’t bounce back on her,” Jax said.

“It won’t.” Reece smiled tightly. “Trust me, Mack will do something within twenty-four hours that will warrant a visit from me. I can force his attention elsewhere, at least for the time being.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Jax stated.

None of this really sounded like a great plan to me, but what did I know? Reece got up to leave, saying he’d be in touch, and Jax walked outside with him. I slumped back against the couch and was in the middle of an obnoxious yawn when Jax returned.

“Is everything okay? I mean, when you went outside with Reece?”

“Yeah. He actually was talking about something unrelated to this. One of our buddies is getting married. I’m one of the groomsmen.”

“Aw, that’s nice. Is he one of the guys that come into the bar?”

He nodded. “It’s Dennis. He was making sure I could do the bachelor party since it’ll be on the weekday.” He watched me for a moment. “Tired?”