My insolent sister gives him a look that says that still doesn’t give him the right. And, fair. I did raise her to never let anyone tell her what to do, but Jesus, she needs to learn to pick her battles.
“I don’t like it either,” I tell her. “But we need this. So can you just be nice? For me?”
She rolls her eyes.
“Maybe she should sit this one out,” Caleb says.
“Not. A. Chance.” Nix narrows her eyes at him, and there’s something in the way she says it that makes my stomach tighten.
“What happened between you two?” I ask.
“We don’t have time for this,” Jax says at the same time Nix says, “Nothing.”
She gives Caleb a look, but I know that look. It’s the one she uses when she wants me to shut up.
“What’s going on?” I glance between the two of them.
“She should go upstairs until we’re done.” Caleb frowns.
“Why?” It doesn’t make any sense. The two are normally inseparable. I get that her snark isn’t the best idea right now, but that’s Nix. Caleb should know this by now.
“She took—” Caleb doesn’t get to finish his sentence as James opens the doors to the dining room.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Jax
Itake it as a good sign that James dismissed Arnold for the night. Either he feels safe with the Noland girls, or he feels in control of them, which in my father’s mind is the same damn thing. The point is, he doesn’t consider them a threat. That’s useful. Let him believe they’re meek and moldable to his liking so that he feels more inclined to help them.
Though that requires Nix to keep her mouth shut.
She’s positioned herself at the table right next to James, a sort of sentry between him and Caleb this time. I’m sitting directly across from her, and I admire the way she wants to protect Caleb, but at the end of the day, Caleb is blood, and she’s disposable. I can’t tell if she knows that and is brave, or if she’s just stupid.
But that wouldn’t be giving Kira enough credit, considering she’s the one who raised her.
Nix Noland is just as brave as her older sister. I just wish her bravery didn’t give me something else to worry about. It’s bad enough that I feel the need to protect Kira, but now it seems to extend to her sister. I’m not used to caring about this many people. And the last person I truly cared about died before my eighteenth birthday, most likely by the hands of the man Nix has positioned herself right next to.
Gritting my teeth, I turn to my right to release some of the tension. I’ve chosen to have Kira sit next to me tonight, seeing as how we’re about to lay everything bare anyway. Her hand is gripped in mine under the table, and I’ll admit my palm is sweating. I meant what I said when I told her I would do anything for her, but telling James that I love her makes me sick to my stomach.
The man on my left doesn’t know what love is, and giving him the ammo to use against me feels like tying my own noose. But I don’t have any other reason to offer him as to why I don’t want her behind bars.
It’s a long shot, as Nix so kindly reminded me, because James doesn’t do anything that doesn’t benefit him, but as Caleb said, we have to try.
And I’d like to get it over with.
“Marshal Wayne is dead,” I announce.
Kira’s hand flinches in mine while James pauses with his drink in the air.
“Kira killed him,” I continue, seeing no need to pussyfoot. “She’s going to be arrested for his murder.”
The room goes silent enough to hear the ice melting in the bourbon, and I have to swallow before I say the thing that’s making bile crawl up my throat. Because I’ve never needed James for anything. Never wanted anything. It would have been a betrayal against my mother, using the hand that swept her from this world for my advantage.
I’ve never been able to get ahold of the report of her car accident with him blocking me, but I know in my bones that it had to be him. A car accident is too convenient, too easy to orchestrate. But even if, by some chance, it was a true accident, he did enough to her while she was alive that I would still hate the idea of asking him for help.
But this is for Kira. Kira, who raised her baby sister because her dad was useless. Kira, who was willing to work with a tear in her heart to put food on the table. Kira, who never did anything to anyone besides tear through my defenses. She makes me feel alive. Makes me want to rip the world apart just to lay it at her feet, if it means she’d deign to glance at me with those fox eyes.
I’d like to think that my mother would understand, that she would approve of me twisting James’ hand to do something good for once. She has to. Because here goes nothing…
