It was exactly what I’d envisioned: simple, classic, clean, and meaningful to the only people who mattered.

“Still think it looks lopsided, but that’s on you,” Jax replied with a smile.

After he placed a bandage over his work, I handed the mirror back and swung my legs off the side of the table, grinning so widely my cheeks complained. I didn’t care. I felt alive.

Jax’s phone pinged beside us. With one glance down at it, he hit the silence button, growling under his breath.

“Avoiding a clinging one-night stand?” I teased.

“I wish.” He snapped off his gloves and threw them in the trash. His frown left me curious.

“Who’s the buzzkill now, huh?” I giggled, crossing his room to snoop around the books on a small shelf in the corner. I held up a worn copy of Joe Hill’s Heart-Shaped Box.

“Horror fan, I take it?”

He snatched the book from me. “What, shocked I’m literate?”

“Maybe.” My laughter bubbled up.

Jax shook his head, his smile returning. As he pivoted toward the shelf to place the book back in its rightful spot, I sprinted forward and snatched his phone from the desk. He was pressed against my back a second later, reaching to steal the device, but it was too late. The name that highlighted the screen with eight new text messages was loud and clear.

Natasha.

He moved away, and my jaw dropped as I whirled around to face him.

“You hate her! Why is she sending you so many messages?”

Before he could answer, the phone pinged with another. I touched the screen and gasped, reading the newest one.

Call me now or Logan will hear everything!

I peered back up warily to find Jax sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. I scrolled up through the messages.

Seduce her if you have to!

I don’t care what it takes!

I mean it Jax, I want her out of his life.

Was she talking about me? I continued skimming until one message glared bright and alarming, sent the evening Hilary and I had gone to Haven with Natasha.

Natasha: I found my leverage. Seems Hilary has been keeping secrets.

Jax: Leave her out of this.

Natasha: What’s the fun in that?

Jax: Caleb will kill you if you do anything to hurt her!

Natasha: Caleb will be too distracted to do anything to me.

My anger was beyond anything I could control, emphasized by the tequila, but I couldn’t stop reading. The next message was sent the following day—the morning Caleb had showed up at Logan’s looking for Hilary.

Jax: Caleb’s here. What did u do?!

Natasha: Wasn’t me. I’d planned on visiting him at the bar later. Why is he there? He know about the baby?

Jax: Fuck off!

Natasha: Tell me what’s going on over there or I’m coming over for a little chat with Logan about your demanding cock!

I dropped the phone and moved in on Jax, smacking him in the back of the head.

“You son of a bitch!” I screamed, backing away before I went off again. Violence wasn’t the answer, but it sure felt good.

“You…you and…oh my God, Jax! You screwed Natasha? When? Was she still with Logan? Is that why she left him?” My own eardrums hurt at my incessant shrieking.

He sprung off the bed, his features hard. “No! Hell, I was still in high school when they dated.”

“Okay, then when? Or better yet, why?”

He blew out a deep breath and stood in front of me, looking genuinely ashamed.

“Last year, right before Logan moved here. Oliver kept asking about his mother, and one day a friend of mine sent me some pics of himself posing with girls he partied with on the beach down in Miami. One was Natasha. I recognized her right away, and went down there to try and convince her to come see Oliver or at least call him. Shit, he deserved that much.” His voice colored with disgrace. “Thought she could explain why she wasn’t around. I love that kid more than anything. I’d never hurt him."

I didn’t know what to say. “Jax…”

He sat on the bed, his shoulders hunched, and I sat beside him.

“I fucked up. I brought her a bunch of photos of Oliver and tried to tell her how funny and smart he was, but all she wanted to do was party.” His hands yanked through his hair. “It’s all a blur. I don’t even know half the shit I took while I was there, just that when I left she had no interest in coming back for Oliver—at least, none that I saw. I mean, she refused to even talk about him! At first I thought it was because she was ashamed she left, but I don’t know. I wish I could take it back. You have to believe me on that.” He tilted his head my way. His eyes were glazed over. “When she showed up on New Year’s, I was as shocked as everyone else.”

“Logan doesn’t know?” Sympathy tinged my words. He’d thought he was doing the right thing.

“No—not about me finding her, and definitely not that I fucked her. I was fresh out of high school, and she was all over me!”

I made a face of disgust. What was the appeal of Natasha other than on a superficial level? I guessed that was enough for some guys.

“I know it was wrong. I’m not trying to justify what I did, but Logan won’t care. He’ll throw my ass out. He’ll never speak to me or let me near Oliver again.” He grabbed my hands, panicked. “Please, Cassandra. You can’t say anything.”

“He’ll forgive you,” I reasoned.

Jax threw my hands aside and leapt up from the bed, hands balled into fists at his sides. “I’m the reason she’s back, which led to you almost dying in a car accident! Don’t you get that? You think he’s really gonna forgive me? I fucked the first woman he ever loved—and not just once! He’s gonna kill me!”

I stood, approaching him like I was cornering an animal, and placed my hands on his shoulders. “He loves you. He’s going to see your intentions were good. And as far as the sex, Natasha was the one who took advantage of you. You were still basically a kid. And don’t for one second put the blame of my accident on you or even Natasha. I shouldn’t have driven home that night. That’s on me and nobody else.”

He shoved away from me. “Doesn’t matter! I wanted to screw her! Not at first, but when I got there and she started strutting her half-naked ass all around me, I wanted nothing else than to fuck her, and I did. That’s on me, and I’ve been suffering ever since.”

How had he hidden all this from Logan? So much for him knowing everything.

“That’s why she’s blackmailing you.”

“Bingo!” He threw up his hands.

“Then why give her grief whenever she’s around? You treat her like trash.”

“She may think I’m her little bitch, but I refuse to kiss her ass. Besides, if I didn’t give her shit, Logan would know something was up. Win-win.”

Made sense—at least, as much as any of it could. “We need to explain all this to Logan.”

“Hell no!” His eyes grew impossibly wide.

“I won’t lie to him, Jax.”

“Fine, then at least give me a little time here—at least a week to try and shut her the hell out of our lives for good. She thought you were the weak link—the one to manipulate to gain better access to Logan—but obviously that went to shit. She’s desperate now, and it’s only a matter of time before she makes a wrong move.”