Jaxon swallowed. Hard. Ravage was right. He wouldn’t get a third chance, not with Tazzy. He wouldn’t even get a second chance unless he fought for it. That wasn’t going to happen. He would fight tooth and nail for her, no matter what it cost.
Jaxon got up from the bar and started walking out the door.
“Where you headed?” Ravage called after him.
Jaxon kept walking. He had some place he needed to be. “I need some coffee.”
Tazzy’s shift was almost over when Jaxon made it back to the alley again, right where he needed to be. He loved Tazzy. So, he was going to protect her, whether she wanted him to or not.
He waited for what seemed like forever when Tazzy finally stepped out carrying a box. He frowned as she struggled toward her car. She had no business carrying something that heavy.
Pushing off the wall, he called, “Sprite, let me help you.”
She froze, throwing him a glare. “Don’t call me that.”
The snap in her voice hit him hard, but he ignored it.
He stepped forward to grab the box, which looked dangerously close to slipping out of her hands, “Tazzy, let me?—”
Without warning, she dropped the box and ran toward her car. “What the hell—” Did she think she could make it to her car and spin out like she had the other day, leaving him in the dust?
Jogging after her, he realized she was looking at her car, her hand to her mouth. Someone had slashed all four of her tires.
Shit. “Tazzy, don’t touch anything.” Taking her arm, he pulled her back from her car. She struggled to get out of his hold, but he held tight.
She stomped her foot. “Let me go, Jaxon. Did you just stand out here and watch someone shred my tires?”
Fuck. The only thing she could have said that was worse would have been to accuse him of shredding them himself. “Look at me, Taziana. Do I look like the kind of man who’d watch while someone ruined your tires? Do you think someone would dare slice them in front of me? Whatever you think of me, do you really think I would do that? He locked eyes with her, keeping his gaze hard.
“No,” she whispered.
“You wait here,” he said, pointing a finger at the ground at her feet. “Understand?”
She nodded, her head bobbing like some goth bobble head doll.
Approaching the car, a flutter caught Jaxon’s eye. He moved fast, snatching a note from the windshield.
“What does it say?” Tazzy asked, looking over his shoulder at the note.
“I told you to stay put.”
She took three steps back to where she had been, put her hands on her hips, and glared. “Happy now?”
“No.”
“Well, what does it say?”
Knowing she wouldn’t stop asking until she read it herself, he walked over and handed it to her.
“Broken promises have consequences.” She looked to him again, her face now pale. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Language,” Jaxon barked, making a mental note to add her eye roll to the tally of things to spank her for later.
“Is that a threat? What promises?” Despite her bravado, there was fear shadowing her eyes. “Why would anyone slash my tires?” She crossed her arms over her chest, probably trying to look tough, but her trembling bottom lip kept her from pulling it off. “Who hates me enough to do something like that?”
The vulnerability and fear in her voice was more than Jaxon could take. He wrapped her in his arms, pulling her close. She fit as perfectly as he remembered, and damn, but it felt good.
She pressed into him instead of turning away. Did she even realize that, when she was scared and in trouble, she turned to him? On some level, she had to.