Six-Gun Showdown

“It’s Alexa,” Jax relayed to Paige.

That didn’t help Paige’s already pale color, and Jax didn’t have to guess why. Alexa Dearborn and Paige had been best friends, and Paige had even worked for Alexa’s security company when Alexa had been investigating the Moonlight Strangler. It was Paige’s involvement that led to her nearly being killed.

Jax answered the call but didn’t put it on speaker. “Is it true?” Alexa asked right off. “Is Paige really alive?”

Even though Paige couldn’t have heard her old friend’s voice, she no doubt guessed what Alexa had asked. “Tell her I’ll call her first chance I get,” Paige said.

“She’s alive,” Jax told the woman. “And she’ll call you later.”

Silence. For several long moments. Followed by a hoarse sob from Alexa. No doubt a sob of relief. Later, she’d have questions, but for now Alexa was likely glad that the past months had been just a nightmare and that her friend was alive.

Jax ended the call and slipped his phone into his pocket. “Alexa’s engaged to Levi now.”

More surprise went through her eyes. Then approval. Alexa and Levi had always had a thing for each other, but until recently Levi—and Jax—hadn’t been able to get past Alexa’s connection to what’d happened to Paige.

Or rather what they had thought had happened to her.

“Alexa’s been beating herself up about your ‘death.’” Jax hadn’t said that to make Paige feel any guiltier about what she’d done.

All right, maybe he had.

Hell. This sliced into him like a knife, and Jax wasn’t sure where to aim these old and new feelings. Old because he remembered the obsession that’d torn them apart. An obsession in part because of Alexa’s investigation into the Moonlight Strangler.

The old attraction was still there between Paige and him, too. Jax had gotten a reminder of that when she’d stripped down on the road. Thankfully, she was dressed now in the jeans and shirt she’d been wearing when she had first arrived at the ranch.

And she was also sporting that pained look on her face.

That’s where the new feelings played into this. He’d never seen Paige afraid and in pain. But she was now.

Their gazes held, and things passed between them. Unspoken things that only former lovers could share.

“I need to see Matthew,” Paige said.

Well, that took care of any reminders of the old attraction. “It’s not safe.”

“Make it safe.” Her voice broke. Tears sprang to her eyes. “Please.”

Until she’d added that please and he’d seen the tears, Jax had been ready to flat-out refuse. He still might. But the trouble was, Paige had a legal right to see their son. Well, unless he could force Paige into protective custody with the marshals. Or he could whisk Matthew away to a safe house out of her reach. Either or both of those things might happen, but Jax was a long way from making that decision.

Since Jax couldn’t figure out what to do right now, he turned back to Cord.

But Cord didn’t appear to be in a conversing kind of mood. Even though he was still getting stitched up, he stood when his phone rang. He only glanced at the screen but didn’t answer the call.

“I have to go,” Cord insisted. He looked at Paige and added, “I’ll be in touch. And remember, don’t do anything stupid.”

The nurses and Paige looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “We’re not finished,” one of the nurses pointed out, but she was talking to the air because Cord started for the door. He would have just walked out if Jax hadn’t stepped in front of him.

“You might want to take this drive for justice down a notch,” Jax advised him.

Cord met his gaze head-on with eyes that Jax recognized because they were a genetic copy of Addie. It was strange to see Addie’s usually loving eyes stare back at him with this raw intensity.

“My birth father’s a serial killer who’s targeted your wife,” Cord said like a warning. And Jax doubted Cord was stating the obvious to hear himself talk. This was a reminder that Jax had no say in this as far as Cord was concerned.

“Ex-wife,” Jax automatically corrected, and hated that it was nitpicking.

Cord continued to stare at him. “He’s targeted Paige and God knows who else. I want him stopped.”

Jax did his own stating the obvious. “Everyone wants him stopped. But you need to take some precautions. You nearly got yourself killed tonight.”