Shattered (LOST #3)(79)

“Go,” she said again, sounding sad and so very . . . certain.

The fog of fury began to clear from his mind.

She sees you for what you are.

Sarah was edging closer to the guards.

And staring at him as if she’d never seen him before. Not until that moment. But, no, Sarah understood him. Sarah had always understood.

That was before you nearly choked a man in front of her. A man who’s her father.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“So am I,” Sarah said. It sounded as if she was fighting tears. “Please . . . go.”

Because she was afraid of him? Right then, he was almost afraid of himself. Jax turned and he . . . left her.

I’m sorry, Sarah. Every step that he took away from her seemed to rip into his heart.

GABE HAD POWERFUL friends. When Sarah called him and dropped her cluster-fuck bombshell on him, he reached out to one of those friends and got her a ride back to New Orleans on a private jet.

Sarah’s stomach had knotted by the time she landed. And she kept seeing Jax’s face in her mind . . . a face that had been twisted with so much rage and hatred.

When she left the plane, Wade and Victoria were waiting for her. One look at their expressions, and she knew that Gabe had briefed them.

Victoria stared at her a moment. There was sympathy on Victoria’s face. Sympathy, not pity. Sarah knew the difference.

Wade took her bag.

“Jax may be trying to kill me,” Sarah said. He certainly had the power to do it. To stage everything so that she’d fall right into his web, like a lost, desperate fly. “And I think . . . I think I was falling in love with him.”

“Oh, Sarah.” Victoria wrapped her arms around Sarah and pulled her close in a tight hug. “We’re going to figure this out. You’ll see.”

“I knew I should have decked the guy,” Wade muttered. “Sarah, don’t you worry. Viki’s right. We’re going to take care of this. LOST sticks together, you know that. You mess with one of us . . .”

Sarah’s head lifted. She stared at her friends.

“Then you are damn well going to battle us all,” Wade finished, his eyes and voice grim.

But Sarah didn’t want a battle. She wanted . . .

Jax.

A man who may have lied to her. Played her.

And tried to kill her.

“IT FITS,” WADE said, pacing around the hotel room. Sarah’s room. “I mean, think about it . . . if Murphy’s story is actually true . . .” Wade tapped his chin. “Then Jax would sure have one strong motive for vengeance.”

“But is Murphy’s story true?” Victoria asked. She was sitting on the couch beside Sarah. “It’s not like that guy is the most reliable source.” Her worried stare darted to Sarah. “We all know just what a great liar your father truly is.”

Yes, they did. “We’ve got people digging into the records in South Carolina.” Assistants from LOST who were checking on old arsons and fire-related deaths. If her father had killed Carl Winston, then they’d find a record of the man’s life . . . and death.

“I know Jax.” It was Emma who spoke up now. Emma who was glaring at them all as she stood next to Dean. “He wouldn’t do this.” She pointed at Sarah. “And you should know better.”

Dean turned toward her. “You always defend him. Look, I get that he helped you when you were alone, but do you even know all of his secrets?”

Her gaze fell. “No one knows all of his secrets,” Emma murmured.

Sarah had thought that she was close. She’d thought that she knew him.

She still did. That was the part that hurt. She still thought she knew . . . “He could be innocent.”

“Love is so fucking blind.” Wade gave a sad shake of his head. “Blind as a bat and I hope I can always keep seeing.”

Sarah frowned at him.

“Sarah . . .” Now Gabe was sighing her name. “The guy had means and plenty of motive.”

She wasn’t so sure about means. “He was with me when Molly vanished. He was—”

“His guards have been following you for days,” Victoria reminded her. “How hard would it have been for one of those guys to swipe Molly?”

“His guards don’t have blond hair and blue eyes.”

“Maybe one does,” Victoria told her. “And you just haven’t met him yet.”

Sarah’s fingers twisted in her lap. “He’s the one who helped me get Molly out of that building. He wouldn’t do that, unless—”

“Sarah.” Gabe’s voice was quiet. “Profile him. You tell us why the perp would help to rescue her.”

She didn’t want to profile Jax. She’d never wanted to . . . “To throw me off. To establish trust. To make me think that he was someone I could . . .” Love.

No, she wouldn’t say those words. Wade had been mocking a few moments ago. He had no clue just how deeply she had actually fallen for Jax. “A perp would do that,” she continued, clearing her throat, “so that when he did go in for the kill, that final act would be all the more painful because of the lies and betrayal.”

The room was quiet. So quiet she could hear the faint ticking of Wade’s watch.

“We found out something while you were out of town.” Wade glanced at Gabe. Gabe nodded, and Wade said, “That building that nearly blew you and me to hell and back? The one wired with all the cameras? It belongs to Jax Fontaine.”