Targeting the Teacher

Part 6

Chapter 6

He stared at her, watching the multiple emotions flash on her face.  They were so fleeting that even if he wanted to know what she was thinking, he wouldn’t be able to.  He was sure of one thing though.  The woman had a plan.  He could see it in the way her green eyes lit up after all those emotions finally settled onto her face.  He could tell by how she leaned forward, her body showing the eagerness she was unwilling to show on her face.  Could he do it though?  Could he put his trust in a woman who he had just met, a woman that he didn’t know if he could trust? 

She had a good family, he reminded himself.  He had heard people he considered his friends talking about the O’Neal family, saying how they would never allow something corrupt to happen under their watch.  He just hadn’t realized how powerful the family actually was, hadn’t known that they could all bring him down with a flick of their wrist if they thought he was a harm to their family.  And Jaxon was all too familiar with how the baby of the family was treated.  He himself looked after his younger brother, even when arguments had made them drift apart.  It didn’t matter what his little brother would do, didn’t matter how many times the man had made mistakes, Jaxon had always done everything thing in his power to protect his brother, and he didn’t doubt the O’Neal men would be any different.

This meant one thing, involving Amy in this mess would only make it worse on him.  When he went to her family for help, when he was finally safe, but needed more protection, how would they feel knowing that he had put Amy in danger?  The only answer to his question was the obvious one.  They would toss him outside on his ass in a second, and he wouldn’t even blame them.  So, as he stared at Amy, watched the trust form in her eyes, he did the only thing he could do.  He lied.

~*~*~

Amy saw the change in his body before the words even began to spill from his mouth.  She may be naïve, may not have been as worldly as her brothers, but one thing she could spot was a lie.  How many times had her brothers tried to pull one over on her, telling her that her prom date had simply gotten the flu, not that the man was so scared to pick Amy up that he never left his house at all.  They had gotten away with it the first couple of times, before she started to realize the signs.  Now, after working with her children and after being around her brothers for so many years, it was hard to lie to her face. 

He was though.  He stared right into her eyes and lied.  She shouldn’t have been so disappointed, but she was.  Sure, she had just met him, but for some odd reason, she had thought that maybe he would trust her.  If she had stumbled into someone’s home in the middle of the night and that someone had saved her life, she would have trusted him.  She shook her head at her thoughts, a reluctant smile forming on her face.  Her brothers would balk at the thought that had crossed her mind.  They would tell her that just because someone helped you; it didn’t mean that they wouldn’t stab you in the back moments later.  She didn’t need them to tell her; in the last year, she had been taught by another how quickly trust could be broken, how someone you thought you loved could hurt you more than anyone else in the world.

“You’re lying,” she interrupted.  It didn’t matter that she hadn’t listened to a word he uttered since he opened his mouth.  It didn’t matter that a small glare was forming on his face.  Right now, she was exhausted.  All the adrenaline from earlier had died down.  Now, she was moody, and worse, had a neck cramp.  This was meant to be her vacation; her time alone from it all, and this man was bringing the memories back to surface.  How was she going to move on when she couldn’t burry her thoughts deeper into her mind?  How would she be able to cope if even something as small as Jaxon’s dishonesty was going to dredge up things better left forgotten?

He shifted in front of her, and if Amy didn’t see the brief flash of uncertainty flash on his face, she probably wouldn’t have gotten as mad when he said his next words.  “I’m not lying.”