A Midsummer Night's Scream (The Dulcie O'Neil Series Book 7) (13 page)

I decided to sit down for a second or two until I could get my fight or flight response under control. Putting my head between my knees, I closed my eyes.

You can handle this, Dulce,
I told myself.
You’re tough and strong and you can handle whatever curveball life might throw at you. All you need is a little bit of downtime, just enough so you can catch your breath and think more clearly.

“This is good training for you,” Jax interjected.

“I don’t need more training,” I muttered in reply. I failed to suppress my scowl as I glanced up at him briefly before wedging my head between my knees again.

“All good recruits never stop training,” he continued, commanding my attention again as he shrugged, like I should have admitted that he had a point.

“I’m not a recruit!” I yelled in a moment of unrestrained frustration. Yes, I realized almost instantly that it was a bad move. I shouldn’t have been ready to reveal my cards at this point, but I couldn’t say I cared anymore. I just wanted to get him to shut the hell up.

“You’re not a recruit?” he asked, shaking his head. Then he
tsked
me, but didn’t seem really offended. “It appears the honorable ANC officer hasn’t been exactly straight with me.”

“No, I haven’t been,” I answered with no trace of apology. Then I laughed angrily. “Why should I be? It’s not like you’ve been straight with me.”

“Then we are at an impasse, aren’t we?” he asked. His serpentine smile indicated how much he enjoyed our verbal sparring. But I wished he’d just keep quiet so I could formulate a plan in my mind to get out of this predicament.

“There doesn’t have to be any impasse,” I answered. “Instead, you could start answering my questions, now that you have nothing more to lose.”

“You think I have nothing more to lose?” he asked, eyeing me with keen interest.

I shrugged. “You aren’t locked up anymore, and you seem to know where we are, although I don’t, and you’re physically much stronger than I am, and I’m unarmed. I’d say you have nothing more to lose.”

“Good points, all of them,” he admitted with a curt nod. Then he shrugged. “Okay, ask away, fair lady.”

“You’ve known exactly what was happening all along, didn’t you?” I inquired instantly, sitting up straight as soon as I wondered if he might be willing to give me the elusive answers to my questions I’d been seeking all along.

“What do you think?” he asked with little interest. His expression showed the same lack of concern or surprise as he did when the “earthquake” first started. I suddenly remembered how throughout that episode, and right up until the point when he finally dropped down into the tunnel, his expression never changed.

“I think you had it all planned.”

“Yes,” he answered unapologetically. “It was all part of my sinister master plan,” he added with a drawn-out, well-practiced, malevolent laugh that sounded purposefully evil. “And if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids, I might have actually pulled it off!” he finished, quoting every ridiculous villain ever to appear on Scooby-Doo.

“So what was the point of it all?” I asked as I faced him squarely. My breathing had returned to normal, and the fuzzy feeling behind my eyes was dissipating rapidly. Things were definitely looking up.

“To get you away from Headquarters,” he answered with a shrug, like it should have been obvious to me.

“Why?” I asked while heaving myself onto my feet. I took a few seconds to make sure I wouldn’t get dizzy again and keel over.

“Because those were my orders.”

“Orders? From whom?” I demanded.

He glanced up at the sky before taking a few steps forward. “I already told you—that’s not your concern.”

“I thought we were answering each other’s questions now!” I retorted, wondering if I could ever get him to bend on that point.

“I’m only answering questions that I choose to,” he corrected me. Looking up at the sky again, he seemed to be navigating by using the stars, which were now fast appearing in the dark blue sky. He glanced over at me again with a curious expression. “And I didn’t realize we were answering
each other’s
questions?”

“We aren’t.”

“You just said we were,” he pointed out.

“I misspoke,” I responded, shaking my head. “Getting back to the subject, since you won’t answer that last question, how about this one? Was the sole reason you turned yourself in designed to get me away from Headquarters?”

“Yes,” he answered without any explanation. Facing the sky again, he took a quick right, and walked forward a few steps.

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re the one who just connected the dots,” he responded with a shrug. “If it doesn’t make sense to you, ask yourself why.”

“It doesn’t make sense because I don’t know your reasoning yet. I mean, how does turning yourself in result in protecting me? Especially when you had no idea that you would even end up in Splendor in the first place?” I inquired as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you surrendered yourself in the Netherworld. How could you ever have known that Knight would relocate you to Splendor?” I shook my head the more I thought about it. “There’s no way you could have!”

“Just call it an educated guess,” he retorted before taking a few more steps forward and glancing back at me impatiently. “We need to get a move-on. It’s getting dark, and those clouds in the distance look like rain.”

“Educated guess? How?” I asked without budging.

He shrugged. “As soon as I told Vander about the death threats, he knew he couldn’t keep me confined in the Netherworld. I knew he’d seek as inconspicuous a location on the Earthly plane as he could. And the one place that had to have been always foremost on his mind was Splendor, of course. That way, he could incarcerate me and see his girlfriend all at the same time. Sort of like killing two birds with one stone.”

I couldn’t argue because his reasoning made sense. Well, obviously it did because that’s exactly what had happened. “Okay, so why did you take me away from Headquarters?” I continued. “Are you expecting some sort of ransom in exchange for me?”

“It’s my turn,” he said with steely resolve. “What’s your favorite sexual position?”

“Really?” I asked, shaking my head, my frown in full effect.

“Really.”

“I don’t want to talk about anything sexual with you.”

He shrugged. “Then guess we’re going to have a quiet walk through the woods.”

“You’re such a pain in the,” I started before catching myself and swallowing the remainder of my words.

If you don’t play by his rules, Dulce, he’s not going to answer your questions,
I told myself and immediately recognized the truth in my own thought.

“Missionary,” I ground out.

“Boooring!” Jax responded, wrinkling up his nose like he’d caught a whiff of something bad.

“Hey, you asked,” I barked back at him.

“I was hoping you’d say doggy style.”

“Well, I didn’t. So, getting back to my original question: are you expecting to ransom me?”

“No,” he replied while shaking his head and moving forward again. “And unless you start following me, I’m not going to answer any more of your questions.”

I sighed with annoyance, but decided to follow him a little longer, just until I got all of my questions answered. “Okay, I’m following you now, so answer the question.”

He glanced back at me, apparently to make sure I was behind him, and then offered me a wide smile. “I was told to get you away from Headquarters in order to keep you safe.”

“To keep me safe?” I repeated. Now he’d lost me. “Why would anyone from a potions ring want to keep an ANC Regulator safe?” I demanded when the first raindrop splashed against my nose. He was right; rain
was
in the forecast.
Great.

Jax shrugged as he faced me with curiosity in his eyes. “I can’t answer that, baby. That’s a question you’ll have to ask yourself, or you can ask my boss.”

“I have no intention of coming face-to-face with your boss.”

Shrugging, he picked up the pace, ostensibly feeling the raindrops as well. “Then I guess you’ll have to be okay with never getting the answer to your question.”

“I guess so,” I said with tight lips. “Unless you’re just bullshitting me again,” I slammed back at him, narrowing my eyes.

“I’m not,” he pleaded with an expression of sincerity before wiping a few drops of rain off his forehead. “On this point, I’m being totally honest.” Seeing my skeptical expression and visible disbelief, he laughed. “I thought it was weird to take you out of harm’s way as well, but I don’t question my orders, I just follow them.”

I frowned at him, irritated that he thought I was so stupid to buy his ridiculous explanation. “Okay, let’s put aside, for the time being, my opinion that your story has huge holes in it,” I started. “And let’s just say I believe you, for the sake of argument.”

“Okay.”

“So let me ask you what’s going on that your boss would tell you to keep me safe in the first place? Keep me safe against what?”

“That, I can answer,” he said with a wide grin. Eyeing the sky again, he began heading northeast. I followed him obediently. “But first, it’s my turn to ask you a question.”

“Ugh,” I grumbled, having hoped he’d forget we were playing tit-for-tat. “Hurry it up.”

He glanced back at me and nodded, his grin wide. “When a man’s penetrating you, are you loud?”

“What do you mean?” I snapped.

He shrugged. “Are you loud? Not sure how more direct I can ask it. Do you moan? Are you a talker?”

I felt heat rushing through my cheeks as embarrassment stained them. There was no way I wanted to answer this question. Not when it was so personal.

So just lie about it,
I thought to myself.
There’s no reason Jax should know such personal information about you. If anything, if you make yourself seem boring in the sack, maybe he’ll leave you alone.

It was a novel idea so I ran with it. “No, I’m not loud,” I said with authority. “I don’t moan and I would never even dream of talking!” I paused to take a deep breath. “There, are you satisfied?”

“No,” he answered.

“Well, I don’t care because I just answered your question so now it’s my turn again,” I managed. I cleared my throat and tried to remember the question I’d last asked him before he sent me on this most recent tangent. “You said you were ordered to keep me safe. Just what is it that you’re keeping me safe against?”

“Crossbones teamed up with a few other organizations; they intend to take control from the ANC,” he admitted.

“Even though you swore up and down that they weren’t interested in doing that?” I couldn’t help grinding my teeth because it seemed he’d pretty much lied to me on all accounts. And now? Now I didn’t know what to believe.

“Well, it’s not like I was going to give away all my secrets to a cop who works for the ANC!” he rejoined. I didn’t fail to miss the “duh” expression on his face as well as in his tone of voice.

“What’s the difference between then and now?” I asked the obvious.

He looked back at me with a wide grin. “Now I’m no longer your prisoner,” he pointed out. Even though he didn’t bother saying I was now his prisoner, the hint of the comment hung in the air.

I chose to ignore it. “Go on.”

“So Crossbones collaborated with a few hundred of our closest friends, and agreed the best way to ensure our desires and needs got considered in this new regime was by attacking the ANC from the back door.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded, my heartrate racing again. I had to take more than a few quick steps just to keep up with him. And I did notice that he was purposely keeping his voice very low, specifically so I wouldn’t tarry too far behind him.

“It’s simple,” Jax replied. “The ANC is so concerned about what’s going on
inside
the Netherworld, they stopped worrying about what’s going on
outside
the Netherworld.”

“So?”

“So, if you’d let me finish, you’d have your precious answers a lot sooner,” he answered with a lofty expression.

“Ugh, continue then!” I snarled, throwing my hands on my hips and giving him as much attitude as I could muster.

“I liked you better in your panties,” he said, running his gaze down my front before frowning at me.

“And I liked you better behind bars.”

He chuckled and then winked at me, as if to say,
touché.
“Apparently, everyone is focused on trying to control the potions industry within the Netherworld. But no one ever stopped to consider how potentially damaging it would be to control all the arrivals and departures of every portal that leads to and from Earth.”

“So your plan is to take control of all the portal crossings in Earth?” I finished, hoping I understood what he was saying. “In order to … what?”

“Yes,” he finished with a curt nod. “To take the ports; that means there won’t be anything traveling to or from Earth unless we deem it okay.”