Broken Trust(Devastation Duet #2) - Winter Paige Page 0,37

will snatch him. You accompany Poppet later today, and we will throw Jaxx a bachelor party here… invite his dancers. We. Will. Get. Them.”

“You protect my girl, Abel, and I will get yours,” Costin promises.

“You better. Both of you.” Abel turns, leaving the room. “Come on, Costin. We have a birthday to celebrate. I won’t let her down, too.”

They both leave the room, and I immediately start making calls. I will get them back here, and I will kill the motherfucker. Call it a warmup. This is going to lead me to the asshole after my daughter. Talk about two birds with one stone.

Chapter Fourteen

Costin

Grabbing her bags from my closet, I meet Abel outside her bedroom door. With everything they have planned for the wedding, I figured we could move up our normal gift routine to this morning. It might be tough to get her alone later, and I really need to see how she is now.

“Jaxx?” I look into his empty room.

“Must be with E.” Abel motions to her room.

We step in yelling, “Happy birth-“ and freeze.

“Oh, shit!” Abel turns away from the bed.

“OMG, knock. Would it kill you all to knock?” She shrieks, yanking the blankets over her head as Jaxx chuckles then stands and stretches.

“You motherfucking son of a bitch, I’ll fucking gut you!” I storm towards him, but Abel blocks my path.

“That’s going to have to wait, Costin,” Jaxx replies calmly, blocking her from view and pulling back the blanket, whispering something to her.

“Jaxxson?” Abel rubs his neck.

“What the fuck, man?”

“It’s nothing-“ Jaxx is interrupted

“Drop it guys,” She stands from the bed, wearing his shirt which stops right below her knees and is nearly see-through. “I was a mess and made a damn fool of myself. Plus, neither of you cared two shits about me last night, so why even ask now?”

Jaxx’s head snaps to her, and his jaw tenses. “Baby, you didn’t-” she holds up a hand, shaking her head.

“I begged him to take me to bed, and he turned me down, so just let it fucking go. He didn’t do anything. I did. Pathetic, huh?” She snorts, walking to her bathroom and placing a hand on the knob. She glances at her bandaged arm and then looks back at the three of us.

“I needed help. I’m sorry. I just… it was too dark in here.” She rubs her chest absently. “So don’t yell at him. I’m not something fragile you need to protect… not anymore. I’m just trying to survive long enough to set things right. Just like I told Jaxx last night.” She looks at me, ignoring her tears, exposing the depth of her pain, and taking me down with her. “There was no risk to me, nothing left to damage. You can’t break something that has already been demolished. All that’s left to do is wade through the rubble. Thank you for being there for me, Jaxx. I’m sorry I put you in that kind of position.”

She shuts and locks the bathroom door behind her as we stare at the now empty space. Jaxx moves first, rushing toward the door, ready to tear it down.

“Whoa, Jaxx, wait. What happened? Give her a minute, and talk to us,” Abel says.

“Fuck you both! I thought I got through to her last night when we talked, but you had to come in here, insinuating things, and she shut down… again,” he roars, brushing the hair from his face. “What happened? After she left the basement, I brought her up here to watch a movie, to try to calm her down. She said she wanted to shower, but not three minutes later, I heard her sobbing. I went in to check on her and found her curled in a ball under the bench, ice-cold. I picked her up to get her out of the cold water, and she looked at me as if I had all of the answers. Like I could put her back together. She wanted me to take away her pain. I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t use her like that even if she was asking for it. She is still too fragile; how could I? So we talked. I tried to take care of her heart, and then she fell asleep to me reading to her just like she used to… before. Peacefully. ”

“And we’re supposed to believe that shit?” I spit.

“Fuck you, Costin. Where were you when she was breaking?” Guilt assaults me because we all know were Abel and