Paxton's Promise (Gloves Off #3)(46)

“Please, just give me his name.”

The line went silent and each second that passed I wanted to rip out his throat. I shouldn’t have to beg to get a f*cking name, especially when that person wanted to kill me and do God only knew what to Gabriella.

I was about to hang up and just say f*ck him when his voice came back over the line. “All right, I’ll give you his name. This guy fights dirty, Emerson. You need to be on your guard at all times.”

“I will,” I promised.

“His name is Josh Davenport. That’s all I know about him. I’d seen him around the Dark Side at times, but never actually spoke to him. He kept to himself.”

Sighing in relief, I headed back inside so I could give Gabriella his name. She would need it to give to Mason. “Thanks, Kyle. You probably just saved our lives.”

He sounded different on the phone, almost like he was lonely, needy. I shouldn’t feel sorry for the guy because he got what he deserved, but with his willingness to cooperate I couldn’t help but be grateful. After I hung up the phone, I rushed inside to Gabriella who paced my bedroom floor, holding her phone in her hand. She had one of my T-shirts on tied at the waist with a pair of leggings and her midnight hair pulled high into a ponytail.

Last night, she experienced what it was like to turn to the darkness. It had changed her and I could see it in the determination in her eyes. They were going to pay, and I was going to see it through.

“Have you talked to Mason?” I asked.

“Only briefly. He said he was going to call me right back. I’m just waiting on him. So what did f*ckface say?” She hated Kyle and probably always would. Hell, I wanted to hate him, but if the information he gave us was solid, then I’d be indebted to him.

“He gave us a name,” I informed her.

“And you believe him?”

I shrugged my shoulders and approached her. “I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot.”

From the look on her face, she didn’t have much faith as she paced my bedroom floor. Her phone buzzed, and she took a deep breath and let it out. “It’s Mason. Here we go.”

Now, all we had to do was wait and see what we had to do next.





“SO YOU’RE SAYING this guy’s name is Josh Davenport?” Mason asked. He was already in L.A., but laying low like he suggested we do until he got all of the facts.

“Yes, that’s the name Kyle gave Pax.”

Mason scoffed. “I can’t believe he called that f*cker. If he’s screwing with us, I’m going to make sure he can’t walk for the rest of his goddamned life.”

“Paxton thinks he’s really trying to help us and I have to trust him. As much as I hated turning to Kyle for help, I think it was the right move.”

Mason already knew the timeline and every single thing that’d happened over the course of the last two weeks. His team was all prepped and ready to go at a moment’s notice. So, if Paxton had to fight tonight, they’d be ready. That gave me some sense of relief.

“All right, Gabby, I’m going to study this timeline and I’ll call you back sometime this afternoon. I dropped off the trackers with Carter early this morning. You and Paxton need to go by there and pick them up as soon as you can.”

“We will. Thank you, Mason.”

“Don’t thank me yet. This isn’t over. There’s still a lot that could go wrong.” Mason was a realist, but I was an optimist. I had to believe everything would be okay. Good always triumphed over evil, right? Or at least that was how I saw the world.

Once we hung up the phone, I sat down beside Paxton. “We need to run by Carter’s. Mason left us some trackers there, so he and his team can follow us.”

Getting to his feet, he pulled me up by my hand and put his arms around my waist. I relaxed into him and laid my head on his chest. “I swear I never thought being with you was going to be so difficult,” he teased.

“Hey,” I exclaimed, playfully trying to push him away. He held on tight and wouldn’t let me go. I didn’t want him to let me go. “I can’t help it if some deranged lunatic is obsessed with me. You are more than welcome to walk away. I’ll fight Rage all by myself.”

Letting me go, Paxton took my face in his hands. “I’m not going anywhere, Gabby. As long as you want me, I’ll be here.” He smiled and kissed me, before leaning his forehead to mine.

“Then I guess you’re not going anywhere.”

“Except to the gym,” he said, pulling me out of his room. “We need to get to Carter’s and get those trackers. We have to be ready. I’m not taking any chances where you’re concerned.”

As soon as we got outside, the tension rose. I never knew when we were being watched, but we both kept vigilant. I tried to keep the weight of impending doom from pressing me down, but it was overwhelming. There was something brewing and I knew it was going to happen soon.





When we got to Carter’s, we stayed and worked out like we would on any other day. Apparently, Carter was told to put the package inside my gym bag because after we were done, I saw it inside. Everything was supposed to be normal and we pretended it was.

“What’s in it?” Paxton asked. We were already on our way back to his house and since no one could see us, I opened up the envelope. Inside there were five little transmitters. I already knew we were supposed to put them in things we would keep on us at all times.