Jax (Titan #9)(10)



"Your neighborhood was filled with porta-potty kids?"

Her humor made him grin. "Guess so. But that was back in the day. Who cares? This place makes me realize I don't know much about you."

She sucked her cheeks in thought. "I don't think you're always a jerkface."

"Good to know, princess." He gave her a lingering once-over. "I don't think you're always… I'm coming up blank." Or at the very least, he was having a hard time thinking of an appropriate comparison.

It was too dim to see her blush, but she ducked her chin as though she were. After a second that strung between them for miles, Seven regained her unaffected composure. "I slapped you. I think you can come up with at least one thing."

The memory ran to his groin, and Jax rolled his bottom lip into his mouth, letting go with a slow breath. Her slap hadn't been just a no. It had been a hell no with style. She'd rejected his proposition, but he wasn't positive she was rejecting him.

"Sweetheart, I liked that."

Tension crackled in the few feet between them. The hairs on his skin stood as he waited to see what she would do next, what she would say, and how he would volley it back.

"Don't flirt with me right now," she whispered. "I need a favor." She eased back onto the desk as though she owned the place and crossed her legs.

"Isn't that the best time to flirt?"

Seven rolled her eyes, but she smiled like the devil sipping sweet tea.

"Careful, beautiful."

A thick wave of magenta hair fell over her cheek, obscuring half her face. "Careful or what?"

Her pink fucking hair was ridiculous but artistic, not too serious. She was like splashes of colors sprinkled with surprises—tongue stud, eyebrow jewels, and a name like Seven.

Jax had no idea what to do about that. "You want to have that conversation right now?" He set the smoothie on the ground. "Because if you want to try again, I'll dole out whatever consequences we agree to."

Seven's tiny, unexpected gasp made a shiver of anticipation roll through his muscles. Even if Jax hadn't been trained to pick up on microchanges in human behavior, he would've noticed how her breaths quickened despite her best effort to disguise the natural reaction. Jax wanted to feel her pulse, needed to know how far she would let him push her, how much she would trust him.

"I need"—she let her lids sink shut long enough for him to want her eyes back on him—"to talk to you about Mayhem."

Mayhem. That was like a cold waterfall thrown in his face.

Mayhem Motorcycle Club. The MC. He didn't know much about the locals, but he'd learned a decent bit a couple years ago when Victoria had gotten herself caught up in their headache. Plus, they made national news on occasion when members were caught without an alibi for drug trafficking or when a chapter was tangled in a weapons or racketeering investigation. "Should've known. Not my favorite people."

"Trust me, if I didn't need your help, we wouldn't be chatting now." Her grimace killed all dirty thoughts that had his blood running hot. "I can't believe I'm even doing this."

"Then don't."

"Thanks, Jax. You're making this so much easier." She crossed her arms and recrossed her legs before pushing away from the desk and moving to the couch. With her came the sweet scent of baked goods.

Jax watched her chew the inside of her cheek and toy with her tongue stud. "Look, this is the deal. Mayhem's club president—his name is Hawke—came to me early this morning. They have decided to get out of a business that is short on profit and long on consequences."

That wasn't anything he'd thought she was going to say. "Wait. What?"

Seven became very still. "Hawke asked me to reach out to Titan. They need a partner dealing with the Suarez Cartel."

Jax couldn't match the woman with the words. Listening to the name of a nefarious drug cartel pass over her lips made Jax feel as if he'd been pushed into the twilight zone. He needed more sleep—or another smoothie—to understand what she was saying.

The eyebrow with the pink jewels lifted accusingly. "You have nothing to say?"

"Not really." He blanked. "In what way does Mayhem need Titan?"

A few more seconds of Seven assessing him passed before she apparently decided that it was okay to continue.

"Mayhem has had a long-established relationship with the cartel, and without Hernán Suarez's permission for a peaceful transition, the repercussions are clear. All members of the MC—maybe their families and associates, depending on how pissed Suarez is—will be condemned to death. The cartel likely doesn't want it to end." Seven was casually dropping drug kingpin names and brutal real-life consequences.

Jax blinked, still dumbfounded. "Likely, no."

"Hawke thought Titan Group has the history or the ability to assist in… what might best be called a contract negotiation." Apparently, it was Seven's turn to look lost. "At least, that's what I was told. Who knew there could be such formalities to the process when everyone just wants to kill everyone else at the end, anyway?"

Which summed up Jax's dislike for gangs in general. Everyone would die at the end. "This is some heavy shit, Seven."

"That's why I said to meet me in person."

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