Pretty in the Dark (Dark and Wild #2)

Chapter 20

20

JUNIPER

J axon—fucking—Myer, shithead ex-boyfriend extraordinaire, sat in front of me.

Or at least, what remained of him. Kage had quickly explained that Cade had known all along that there had been people tracking my movements around Wild, and having reported back to him about what he’d seen, my brother had made it his personal mission to figure out exactly who was responsible.

Apparently, a bottle opener to the balls hadn’t been enough for Jax to get the message to leave me the hell alone. I glared at the man I’d thought I’d left back in Wild, noting his disheveled appearance and the hollow look to his cheeks. Life hadn’t been kind to Jaxon since I’d last seen him.

“You took his toes?” I waved my hand to his feet. What I’d initially thought was just dirty socks, turned out to be dried blood from missing toes that had been severed. Jax's hands were similarly dismemberment, with several fingers still intact but only up to the second or third joint. “And his fingers?”

Kage shrugged and sent a feral grin in my direction. “I had a lot of birthdays to make up for.”

“Remind me to avoid Christmas presents from you,” I murmured, before I slid my booted foot forward and nudged one of the bloodied stumps. Any trepidation and fear I’d felt earlier was gone.

“Hey jackass, wake up.”

Jax’s blonde head rolled back as he cried out in pain, and for a moment, I felt a twinge of sympathy. But then I remembered the gun I’d kept next to my bed and the terror I’d felt every morning staring at the fresh footprints outside my window, and quickly clamped down on the emotion. Jaxon deserved nothing but my wrath.

Blood-shot blue eyes squinted at me. “June…” he groaned my name through bloodied lips and, from the sound of it, a few missing teeth as well. “June, he’s crazy…get…away…”

I cocked my head to the side, my lips pursing in question. “Jax, you’re literally missing parts of your anatomy and the first thing you do is accuse my brother of being crazy?” I shook my head. “I think you have much bigger things to worry about right now.”

“June…” He groaned, and tried to lean forward. “you don’t understand…”

“No, Jaxon, you don’t understand.” I scooted my chair closer until I could see directly into his eyes. “You think Kage is the crazy one? Just because he snipped off a couple of your fingers and toes?” I snorted. “You stalked me outside of my house, Jax. You left creepy as fuck notes and pictures. You invaded my space and threatened my baby brother.” With every punctuated sentence, Jaxon’s eyes grew wider and wider, his eyes flickering rapidly between me and Kage, who was standing nonchalantly at my back. I held out my hand and without even asking, Kage placed a set of gardening shears in them, the steel blades caked in blood. I glanced down at the handle and then back at my brother.

“Did you get these out of my shed?” I blinked at him, my brows arched in question.

He shrugged. “Seemed fitting.”

I studied the blades and looked back up at my brother. “Did you also happen to bring a shovel?” He only grinned, his white teeth glinting dangerously in the shadows.

I turned back to Jax and held up the sheers. “Make no mistake, Jaxon. You’re not leaving this warehouse alive. But how many pieces you go out in is entirely up to you.”

The remaining color drained from Jax's face.

“Juniper, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He blubbered, tears streaming down his face, leaving streaks in the blood and dripping pink onto his already stained t-shirt. “He made—he made me do it…”

“Who made you? Kage?”

Jax shook his head. “No, your father.”

Understanding dawned. “He’s the one who sent you to the bar that night.” Memories of the tattooed men and Jaxon’s insistence that I’d been keeping a secret from him, flooded back. He’d known about me, but more than that, he knew about the legacy.

He nodded. “I’m sorry, June—I didn’t think…I didn’t know…”

“What did he offer you? Money?” I took the bloodied tips of the shears and dragged the metal down Jax’s tear-soaked face. “Power?”

Wide-eyed, Jax tried to follow where the metal touched his skin, but I tapped him gently on the cheek, bringing his attention back to me. “He offered me a chance to get in.” He whispered through his bloodied and cracked lips.

“Get in where?”

“To the Infernals—to the bloodline.” Jax gasped as his words caused me to lean forward enough that the sharpened ends of my shears pressed into the skin of his cheek, causing more blood to weep.

“What do you know about the Infernals?” Kage’s voice was rough, dark, and filled with the promise of more pain if Jax didn’t answer his question honestly.

“Enough. I know enough.” Jax looked at me, his blue eyes blazing. “I didn’t know you were the key, though. All that time I was fucking the goddamned heir, and I didn’t even know it.”

I shoved the shears into his crotch, and Jax let out a high-pitched shriek. “Well, you know it well enough now, dickhead. Why did Edmund think that he’d be able to get you into the Infernals? You aren’t part of the bloodline.”

Jax was straining, trying to pull his body as far away from me and my gardening tool of death as he could. “Through life and death! Infernal through life and death! Complete the circle! Join the blood!” He screamed.

He was clearly delusional and not making sense. You could join through life and death? What the fuck did that mean? I pulled the shears back and looked over my shoulder at Kage as Jax collapsed in relief, still muttering something about life, death and blood.

“Any idea what he’s referring to?”

Kage’s dark eyes narrowed. “I have some theories.” His face was a dark mask of secrets. He certainly knew something, but was not willing to share yet. My gaze slid back to Jax, whose eyes had closed, either from pain or blood loss. I wasn’t sure which. I also didn’t really care.

“Where’s Edmund?” I pulled back on the shears just enough to give Jax a momentary reprieve. He blinked his eyes and shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

I sighed and shoved them back into his crotch. He screamed. “I don’t know! I swear, I don’t! The last time I saw him he shot me, then sent me back to spy on you. He’s crazy, Juniper. He’s fucking crazy.”

I let off again with the shears. “You listen to me, Jaxon, and listen good. You’re going to cut the bullshit and start giving me some fucking answers, or I’m going to let my brother here continue dissecting you piece by fucking piece. Do you understand me?”

He was gasping now. “I mean it, Juniper. I don’t know. I’ll answer anything you want, I swear!”

“Fine. Why have you been following me?”

“He told me to. He told me to watch you and to see if they contacted you. And at first that’s all I did. But then…” He took a deep breath and continued on. “...but then something made him desperate. Something made him upset. He said I needed to get you out of Wild. That you were too protected there.”

“So you were trying to scare me away?” He nodded.

“At first it was with the skulls. But then you got the invitation, and he got even more upset?—,”

“So you started leaving notes and stalking my property and my brother?” The pieces were clicking into place. All this time I’d thought that the Infernals were the ones who wanted me scared. But it was Edmund. It was always Edmund.

Fear radiated from Jaxon, but it was nothing compared to the complete rage I felt. “He…he wanted me to take him, if I could.”

It took everything in me not to shove the metal tip into his eyeball at the sound of his confession.

“But I couldn’t, because he was always with that guy. Or that guy was always around, watching you.”

“Guy? What guy?” I frowned, trying to make sense of what he was telling me.

“The big muscle guy. The one with the skulls on his arms. He said he must be your new champion.” His cracked lips began bleeding again with every word he spoke, and I watched as the red liquid dripped down his chin.

Cade. Cade had been there, even when I’d thought he’d kept away. He’d watched over us. Protected us. What did he mean by champion?

“But then I heard you talking to Stacy…”

“Stacy?” My head snapped up, and I leaned in closer. “What do you mean you heard me talking to Stacy?”

“I was there. Outside your window. I heard you ask her to get a meeting with Kage, and I remembered how she was always butting her little punk nose into our business.” He spat the last out with a sneer, blood spraying with the spittle, as I tried to wrestle with the icy dread that filled me.

“What did you do with Stacy, Jaxon?” My voice was soft, barely above a whisper, as I fought to maintain control.

He shifted nervously in his seat and then shook his head. “Fuck it, I’m not getting out of here alive anyway, so what does it matter? I told him if he wanted you to leave Wild, then he needed to get to her.”

“Kage?” I couldn’t see anything but Stacy’s face. Her dancing, brown eyes, purple hair and piercings that somehow brought out her delicate beauty. I couldn’t hear anything but her voice in my head telling me to be careful. Telling me she missed me.

“Yes, Juniper?” Kage’s voice was a dark rumble of death at my back.

“Get whatever you can out of him. And then make the pieces really fucking small.”

I didn’t get up, didn’t move an inch as Kage moved in and took the gardening shears from me. I wanted to watch and remember every single sound Jaxon made while my brother proved exactly why he was called the Diablo.

But I’d make the devil himself look like a daydream if Edmund Wild harmed one hair on my friend's head.