Targeting the Teacher

Part 19

Chapter 19

Jaxon leaned back in his seat, trying not to let them see how nervous he truly was.  With Marshal driving and Carson sitting beside him, he knew he wasn’t going anywhere, not that he would want to.  He was the reason why they were all mixed up in this, the reason why none of them would be able to walk away now, and he would be damned if he was the coward who couldn’t take care of his own mess.  He needed help; he’d admit to that, but it didn’t mean he was going to step back and let them take care of everything.  He wasn’t going to let his hard work for the past year get into someone else’s hands.  The only problem was that it was.

He didn’t know which one of them had it, whether it was Amy or Spencer, but one of the two of them had the flash drive.  He was selfish enough to hope that person was Spencer, because as horrible as it was to think, he would rather the man be in danger than Amy.  Hell, if he had his choice, the flash drive would be in no one’s hands but his, but with this family, he was already learning that you don’t always get your way.

“Where are we going?” he asked, wanting to break up the uncomfortable silence in the car.

Marshal glanced at him in the rear view mirror, and it didn’t take a genius to realize that the man didn’t like him.  “If it was my choice, I’d bring you to the closest safe house we have, lock you up, and make sure you couldn’t leave until the trials I’d force you to testify in.”

“And why aren’t you?”

Marshal didn’t answer, simply looked back to the road, which made Carson laugh.  “The same reason why any of us do anything: Amy.”  Marshal opened his mouth to protest, but Carson simply waved him off.  “Oh, not in the same way that she has everyone else wrapped around her finger.  You need something from her, and until you get that, you won’t chance making her mad.”

“She’s a good woman.”

Another laugh from Carson, this one full of pride.  “No she isn’t.  She’s the best damn woman you’ll ever meet.  She’d jump in front of a train if she thought it’d help someone out, and that right there is why I’m here.”  Jaxon turned to look at Carson as the man’s tone slowly went from happy to deadly.  “If either one of you even think about doing anything that may hurt her, I swear on everything I’ll skin you alive.”

Marshal laughed, the noise sounding more forced than amused.  “I don’t plan on doing anything to hurt her.”

“If that were true, you wouldn’t be sending her to that asshat.”

Silence met Carson’s statement, and once again, Jaxon was out of the loop.  Sure, he knew that Amy’s ex had left her; that the man really was the biggest idiot, but there was something deeper, something that Amy hadn’t told him yet.  “He won’t hurt her, will he?”

Carson studied him for a moment, and after that moment, Carson grimaced.  “You really care about my answer, don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t have asked.”

The man looked up as if praying for something before laughing.  “You won’t be the first person that we’ve scared off.”

“How about I be the only person you can’t scare off?”  Jaxon wanted to take the words back as soon as they slipped from his mouth, because he knew he shouldn’t have said them.  Even if he liked Amy more and more the longer he was around her, he knew deep down that they would never work.  He couldn’t let her get close, couldn’t risk her being in danger, but he also couldn’t quit now.  He needed, more than anything, to end the people who had killed his brother.  He needed to finish what he had started a year ago.