won't take the danger to them."
"Well, I can't leave you here alone."
"Where are you going?" Awareness entered her eyes. "You're going to see the people who raised you."
"Yes. I need to know what they knew."
"Haven't you asked them before?"
"Yes, and they always said they knew nothing, but now I don't believe them. My parents drove to another state to leave me with them. They could have asked the neighbor to watch me. She'd done it a number of times before. But they didn't do that."
"Why would they tell you something different now?"
"Because I have more information. I know what questions to ask." He blew out a breath. "They may still claim ignorance, and maybe they don't know anything, but I have to give it another shot."
"Then I'll come with you."
"It's not a good—"
"Yes, it is," she interrupted. "Like it or not, I'm coming with you, Jax. We may not be too thrilled with each other right now, but we're in this together."
Chapter Twenty-One
The drive from Santa Monica to Jax's adopted parents' house on a Monday afternoon was about an hour, and that hour turned into ninety minutes when Jax suddenly decided to stop at a drive-thru restaurant.
Maya suspected the stop had more to do with cold feet than an empty stomach, but since she was hungry, too, she'd been happy to order a chili burger from the LA-famous burger chain, Tommy's. She'd also ordered fries and a chocolate milkshake, which put her calorie count off the charts, but she really didn't care. She'd needed some comfort food.
At least this trip was providing a good distraction. They'd received word that Brandon had made it to the office with the cypher intact, but nothing further since then.
As she finished her last fry, she deposited her empty wrappers in the bag, and said, "That was good. But now you can't stall anymore."
"I wasn't stalling; I was hungry."
"You were a better liar yesterday."
He let out a sigh. "Okay, I am stalling."
"You don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do." He finished off his shake and tossed the empty cup into the bag. "In a minute."
She found herself smiling and then immediately cut it off. After seeing how emotionally shaken Jax had become after learning about his father's connection to Natasha, she'd had a hard time hanging onto the anger she felt toward him. But she had to remember the lies, and she had to keep her guard up. She decided to change the subject.
"Did you see anything else in the journals that alarmed you besides your father's name?" she asked.
"No. Your grandmother seemed one-dimensional at times and then at other times, she was philosophical and almost poetic. I read her most private thoughts, but I still don't feel like I know who she is."
His words echoed her own feelings. "I don't know who she is, either. I think that's what drove me to keep looking for answers. She didn't sound like someone who would kill herself. But she did sound like someone who made bad decisions. I was trying to figure out what those bad decisions were."
"Certainly some of them were the men she chose to be with, many of whom were friends with each other."
"It is odd that they remained friends as she moved from one to the next. Wallace still talks to Constantine, and I know she slept with both of them."
"She mentions Bragin, Paul, and Coleman, too. She went on dates with Bragin and Paul. I'm not sure about Coleman, but she seems to know him well. She mentioned Sylvia, which was interesting. She was sneaking booze from the club."
"That's right. Sylvia sneaking the alcohol reminded her of my dad. I guess when I first read the journal I didn't think much of that, but now that I know he was partying in a big way, it makes more sense. It also makes sense that my dad and Sylvia knew each other."
"They probably knew the other sons and daughters, too, Ryland Jagger and Lindsay Bragin."
"And everyone is still friendly, except, of course, my dad. He walked away from that life, from those people."
"He was probably better off because he did that, and because your grandfather was not part of life at the Russia House." He paused. "How did your grandfather end up with the journals? She'd been divorced from him for a long time when she died."
"He said he found them in a safe-deposit box they'd opened when they were married. He'd forgotten all about it. She'd only used it for jewelry.