Slade (The Protectors #6)(38)

Caroline looked away, her strong front crumbling. “It doesn’t matter.”

“The f*ck it don’t.” Jax turned her face toward him again. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Hurt?” Lana pushed past Sid and Jax, trying to get to her sister. Once she was close enough, she saw her face in the darkness of the hallway. “Jesus, Caroline. What did that bastard do? I’m going to kill him.”

“I’m fine, Lana,” Caroline repeated, pulling away from her sister. “It’s my fault. I should have known better than to come alone, but I never thought he would do something like this.”

“What happened?” Lana led her out into the kitchen where broken dishes were scattered everywhere.

Caroline, folding her arms around her body, looked at the mess. “Damn him.”

“I’m not worried about the mess, Caroline.” Lana frowned. “We’ll clean it up. I want to know what the hell happened so when I call the police—”

“Lana, just leave it alone,” Caroline snapped. “It’s over.”

“Bullshit I’ll leave it alone,” Lana snapped back. “Have you seen your face?”

Caroline looked at Jax, then back to Lana. “Just leave, Lana.” Caroline turned to walk back down the hallway. “I don’t need you turning cop on me.”

They all watched Caroline disappear into her room, slamming the door behind her. Jax looked down at the kitchen counter and saw Caroline’s phone. He had to power it up which explained exactly why her phone had gone directly to voicemail. Turning it over, he noticed the crack in the back of the case. Only hard force would crack a case like that. He searched through her incoming calls. There were over 200 missed calls from one number yesterday. Memorizing that number, he switched to text messages. The last text message was half an hour ago from the same number. Anger so raw gripped him. Whoever this son of a bitch was he needed to be taught a lesson, a very painful lesson.

“This is why she doesn’t want anyone involved.” He laid the phone down, pushing it toward Lana and Sid.

Lana picked it up with Sid reading over her shoulder. “He threatened my little sister?” Lana was livid.

“If she got any of the family involved or the police.” Jax looked at Sid and a silent message passed between them.

“Caroline should know better.” Lana smacked the phone down on the counter.

“And you would do the same thing she’s doing.” Sid looked down at Lana. “You know it and I know. I’ve never seen a family as close as yours. Caroline not wanting to go against him in order to keep your sister and family safe doesn’t surprise me.”

Lana sighed long and hard. “I know. You’re right.”

Jax left, walking down the hall. Knocking on the door, he opened it without waiting for an answer and walked in. Caroline was on her hands and knees tossing things out of the closet.

“Lana, I don’t care what you say,” Caroline huffed as more clothes and shoes came sailing over her head to a big heap on the floor. “I just want to get the rest of my stuff, this mess cleaned up and forget I ever met the jerk.”

Jax walked over, picking up a pretty red nightgown she had tossed over her head. Cocking one eyebrow, he held it up. “I’ll let Lana know that when I see her,” Jax said, then grinned. “I thought you were a teacher.”

Caroline gasped when she turned to see Jax holding the red nightgown. Her eyes continued to stare at it. “Teachers aren’t saints.” Caroline’s lip trembled. “Some are even called whores.”

Jax dropped the nightgown and helped her off the floor. Damn, he sucked at this shit. Here he was trying to make her feel better; instead, she was on the verge of crying.

“Hey.” Jax leaned down in her vision and cursed at the unshed tears. “Listen, smack me if you want. I suck at trying to make people laugh.”

Caroline did look at him as a sad grin tipped her lips. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I’m usually not like this.”

“What happened, Caroline?” Jax led her to the bed, sitting her down. The more he looked at her bruised face, the more pissed he became. Not wanting to scare Caroline any more than she was, he had to control the deep rage he felt at her being mistreated by a piece of shit scumbag.

“We have to get our stuff out by tomorrow morning.” Caroline looked around the room. “We agreed he would get his stuff out over the weekend and then I would come after work this week to get the rest of my stuff. Rod sounded fine about it, until I didn’t show up on Monday after work. He called me and was yelling, telling me I needed to get here to get my stuff. It just went on and on.”

“Then why in the hell did you come alone today?” Jax didn’t sound angry, just confused.

“Because I’m too trusting and stupid.” Caroline rolled her eyes, then grimaced at the pain it caused her. “He told me the reason he was upset was because he wanted to talk to me, try to work things out and I ruined it by not showing up. He said he had to go out of town for work, which he did a lot. So I believed him. Today, I knew I had to come and get the rest of my clothes and the few dishes that were left. When he showed up, he laughed, saying I was stupid to believe he was going out of town, which I was. I should have known it was a lie.”