BEAUTIFUL BROKEN MESS (Broken, Series #2)(62)

Jax gives a small grin and says, “Yeah, she’s something else.”

Quickly, Audrey gathers herself and stands up in front of us, then readjusts her clothes and brushes off the sand. Both of us just gaze up at her, confused. “I think I’m gonna go find Lane and head out now.”

“Wait,” Jaxon says in a panic, “what happened after we broke up? What happened with the… pregnancy? Where did you go, and what did you mean about the bruises? Where did they come from?”

She shakes her head back and forth rapidly. “No, I can’t do that right now. I think I’ve told you enough for tonight.” Without another word, she hurries away. I still need to talk to Jaxon, but every inch of me is aching to follow her up the hill and hold her in my arms.

“I guess now is not the time to talk to you about my important news?” I ask.

“I don’t know if I can take in anything else right now, man,” he whispers, looking toward the ocean. “Do you know anything?”

“I don’t know much, but she did tell me that her dad had something to do with the bruises.”

He lies back in the sand with a huff. “I’m scum. I can’t believe I let all of that get by me. What if something like that happened to Emerson?”

“Knock it off,” I say quickly, before he goes on a rampage. “You aren’t that guy anymore. You know every inch of Em, and you wouldn’t let that happen.”

“Do you think she knows Audrey’s whole story now too?”

I give him an incredulous look. “Of course she knows. Em could get the leader of Al-Qaeda to give her all of his secrets and any future plans he may have on a silver platter.”

“God, I wonder what she thinks of me.”

“She still thinks the world of you,” Em interrupts, sitting on his lap. “She thinks you were young and an idiot, but that doesn’t change who you are now.” I’m glad Em interrupted when she did, because otherwise I would have told him how I feel. How can he be so concerned with what Em thinks when it’s Audrey who went through a world of hurt? I realize that where Audrey is, that’s exactly where I should be right now. Not here trying to console my brother. I stand up, kiss Em on the top of the head, and leave them to talk.

When I reach the party, I quickly spot Lane’s tall frame in the middle of the crowd. He has a blonde and a redhead on either side of him, both vying for his attention. When he catches me looking over at him, he nods his head in my direction and begins looking around for Audrey, no doubt.

“I’ll find her,” I say, answering his silent question. “She couldn’t have gotten far.”

“What happened?” he demands harshly.

“She told us… about the teacher…” I grind out.

“What the f*ck? Why?” he shouts and frantically searches through the crowd for her.

“Chill out, I’ll find her and take her home.” He calms down at my words and nods his head. “I’m gonna kill that teacher the second I get back to Texas though.”

“Don’t worry about it. I met up with the guy on our trip out there last winter,” he says cryptically. At the shock on my face, he continues. “Audrey doesn’t know. And don’t worry, I didn’t actually kill him. I just delivered a very strong message,” he states, with an almost unnatural ease and a shrug of his shoulders.

I reach out my fist and he bumps it in return. “I might need more info on him later. For now, I’m gonna go find her.”

As I begin to walk away, Lane calls out, “Hey, one last thing. I might need to head out of town for about a week soon…”