I find him in the locker room.
He is sitting on the bench, head in his hands. He hasn't changed out of his scrubs.
I have to finish it. Sterling saidbrutal. Sterling saidpublic. But here, in the semi-private locker room, I can at least tell him the lie to his face.
"Jax."
He looks up. His eyes are red.
"Was it Alistair?" Jax asks quietly. "Did he tell you to cut me loose? Was I just a prop for the board meeting?"
"No," I say. I stay by the door. I don't cross the room. If I get close to him, I will break. "It wasn't Alistair."
"Then what?" Jax stands up. "We were fine this morning. We were... us."
"There is no 'us', Jax," I say. I summon every ounce of coldness my mother instilled in me. "There was a moment. A lapse in judgment. But the audit... it made me realize something."
"What?"
"That you are a liability," I say. "Sterling was right. You are chaotic. You are a risk. And I cannot afford risks."
Jax looks like I slapped him.
"You don't mean that," he whispers. "Max, I know you. I know who you are in the dark."
"In the dark, I was lonely," I say brutally. "That’s all it was, Jax. You were a warm body in the cold night. But now? I don't need a... shield... anymore."
It is the cruelest thing I could possibly say. It takes everything we shared—the vulnerability, the trust—and twists it into a transaction.
Jax stares at me. The light in his hazel eyes goes out. The soldier comes back. The walls go up.
"A warm body," he repeats.
He walks to his locker. He grabs his leather jacket. He puts it on over his scrubs.
"I thought you were different," Jax says, his voice flat. "I thought you were the one guy in this building who wasn't a suit."
He zips up the jacket.
"Turns out, you're just a really expensive suit, York."
He walks toward the door. He has to pass me.
I want to grab him. I want to tell him about the photos. I want to tell him I’m doing this to save his license.
But Sterling is watching. The cameras are watching.
Jax stops next to me. He doesn't look at me.
"Enjoy the legacy, Max," he whispers. "I hope it keeps you warm at night."
He shoulders past me.
The door swings shut.
I stand alone in the locker room. It smells of cedar and antiseptic.
I reach into my pocket. I pull out my phone.
