Jane Blythe – USA Today Bestselling Author

Tag: mystery

  • Week 165 – Mackenzie’s worst nightmare stood just inside the door

    She snapped awake as the bed beneath her moved.

    No.

    Not the bed.

    Mackenzie wasn’t in a bed she was curled up on Jax’s lap on a couch in her apartment. Well she had been anyway.

    “What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately panicked. After everything her best friend Taylor had just been through and what had just happened to her she thought panic was probably going to be her new norm, at least for a while.

    Jax was standing, and the expression on his face when he looked down at her only served to heighten her panic. When he gestured his head towards the door and she followed his line of sight her blood turned to ice.

    Mackenzie’s worst nightmare stood just inside the door.

    It was Jax’s ex.

    In her experience there was no force of nature worse than a woman scorned. Only Jax had told her about his ex and she was hardly the scorned partner.

    “Hello, Jax,” the woman singsonged. Mania unlike something she had ever seen before shone from the woman’s dark eyes.

    “Kenz, go into your bedroom and lock the door,” Jax said, voice calm even though she could feel the tension in his body. He set her on her feet and nudged her towards the hall that led to her bedroom.

    “No,” Sarisa shrieked. “She’s not going anywhere. You think you can replace me with her? Not going to happen. By the time the sun rises tomorrow morning the walls are going to be painted with your blood,” she growled pulling a gun from her waistband and holding it on them.

    Jax moved protectively in front of her, but she knew he didn’t have his gun on him, he’d left it on the kitchen counter when they’d arrived earlier this evening. They were sitting ducks.

  • Week 164 – But a peaceful sleep didn’t come easy for Mackenzie as the reality of what happened plagued her dreams

    Mackenzie finally relaxed against him. 

    They’d talked for a while, she’d cried some more, then she’d finally passed out. But a peaceful sleep didn’t come easy for Mackenzie as the reality of what happened plagued her dreams. She was shaking in his arms, whimpering, and her forehead was creased with worry lines. 

    Jax wished he could ease her suffering but there was nothing he could do for her but hold her and be there for her when she wanted to talk. It didn’t feel like enough but she’d already told him that just having him here helped her. 

    Whatever this thing was between them it was growing the more time they spent around each other. After his ex he’d thought he’d never fall in love again and yet here he was, wondering if that was exactly what was going to happen with Mackenzie.

    She moaned in her sleep, her hands curling into his sweater, and he knew he should take her into her bedroom, tuck her into bed, but he couldn’t make himself let go of her. Jax liked the feel of her warm body nestled closely against him, her head was tucked under his chin, and his arms encircled her, keeping her cocooned on his lap. 

    This sweet woman of his had a long road ahead of her but he’d be there for her, every step of the way.

    Letting his eyes fall closed he must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew he was snapping awake as someone jiggled the handle of the front door.

    Expecting to see Mackenzie’s mother, or father, or one of her siblings, when he saw who was standing there shock filled him, quickly followed by fear.

  • Week 163 – Playing hard to get

    Jax’s arms were warm and strong around her, wrapping her up in a little bubble of safety that she hadn’t expected to feel this soon after her assault.

    He started to walk and panic sliced through her. Was he leaving her? It wasn’t like she could expect him to stay with her, they’d only known each other a short time and he no doubt wanted to get home and back to his own life.

    “Are you leaving?” Mackenzie asked, forcing herself to loosen her grip around his neck.

    “Leaving? No, of course not. Unless you want me to,” Jax added.

    “No, I want you to stay, please,” she said softly.

    “I’m not leaving you, sweetheart.” Jax pressed a kiss to her forehead then started walking again, stopping at the couch where he sat, settling her in his lap and pulling a blanket off the back of the couch to wrap around her.

    “Thank you,” she whispered as she sunk down against him, tucking her face against his neck. He’d stayed with her all night, been by her side while she gave her statement and endured the rape kit, he’d offered to drive her home and come up here with her when he could have left her in the street outside her apartment building. All week she’d been fighting her attraction to him, positive that after the disaster of her last relationship she would never give her heart to another man, and now she wasn’t so sure.

    Her life had just been tossed upside down in the most traumatic of manner, she was in no place to be making decisions about anything of important, and yet she knew in her heart she didn’t want Jax to go.

    Mackenzie didn’t even process what she was doing, it was like she was on emotion overload that it catapulted her into a place where her feelings became so crystal clear that she couldn’t not act on them. Her hands curled around Jax’s neck, drew his face down, and kissed him.

    He hesitated for a moment, and she knew he was worrying about taking advantage of her while she was vulnerable, but she had never been more sure of anything in her life. She needed something good, something pure to override what had happened to her.

    The kiss was sweet, soft, tender, it touched her down deep inside, in a place she’d thought had been ruined beyond repair by the betrayal of her ex.

    Everything was going well, Jax was keeping things gentle, non threatening, and she was into the kiss, and then all of a sudden she wasn’t.

    She didn’t remember the attack but she knew it had happened, and all of a sudden these images were flashing through her mind.

    On a sob she shoved him away. Jax’s green eyes grew wide, but he smiled and brushed his fingertips lightly across her cheek.

    That made things worse. “I’m so sorry, Jax,” she said as fresh tears filled her eyes. “I wasn’t trying to play games, and I’m not playing hard to get, I wanted that kiss, I did and then …”

    “It’s okay, honey,” he assured her, drawing her back into his embrace. “You’ve just been through hell, you don’t need to make any decisions right now. I’m here, I’m not going anywhere, lets just see what happens when it happens.”

    He was being so wonderful, and she was so grateful that he was here. Snuggling closer she laid her head on his chest, above his heart where the steady beating lulled her towards sleep. Minutes later she drifted off, tears still trickling down her cheeks.

  • Week 162 – It didn’t happen

    Jax tried to keep his eyes on the road but his gaze kept straying to the beautiful but silent woman curled up in the passenger seat of his car.

    Mackenzie had spent the night in the hospital being observed because of a concussion, she’d endured the rape kit without a complaint, she’d given her statement, and then she’d slept fitfully until around seven when she announced she was ready to go home.

    Not wanting her to go alone he’d offered to drive her and she’d nodded her acceptance. Dressed in a spare pair of scrubs one of the nurses had given her, she sat huddled in his car, staring out the window, lost in her own world.

    He wanted to reach her but he didn’t know how.

    What did you say to someone who had just been through what Mackenzie had?

    “We’re here,” he announced as he pulled into the parking lot of Mackenzie’s apartment building.

    She turned slowly to look at him, the bruise and cut on her forehead standing out in stark contrast to her pale skin. Her eyes were wide and almost seemed to stare through him. He couldn’t leave her like this, the least he could do was walk her upstairs.

    “Want me to go up with you?”

    Mackenzie gave a shrug and resumed staring out the window, but her body language screamed terrified to be alone but unable to admit it. He got that, Mackenzie was tough, strong, she spent her days listening to other peoples problems and didn’t want to admit that right now she needed someone to help her deal with hers.

    “Wait in here till I open your door for you,” he said as he climbed out. He didn’t think she was in any danger, her attack was most likely random and she hadn’t seen his face, but he’d rather err on the side of caution, at least for the next couple of days.

    He rounded the car opened her door for her. She fumbled with her seatbelt for a good thirty seconds before he gently nudged her hands out of the way and unclipped it for her. He took her elbow and helped her stand, she swayed a little and once he’d closed the door and locked the car he wrapped an arm around her waist both to offer physical and emotional support.

    Neither of them spoke as they entered the building and took the elevator to the fourteenth floor. Her attacker hadn’t taken her purse so he had her keys and unlocked the door for her, guiding her inside where she stood in the middle of the room looking small and lost.

    Jax wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms, snuggle her on his lap and just hold her and whisper in her ear that everything would be okay but he was just out of a relationship where he’d been cheated on, and from what he’d heard over the last week that that’d known each other Mackenzie had been through something similar, and that meant he didn’t know how to proceed. He wanted to be there for her but he didn’t know if it was a good idea or if it was even what she wanted. Did she want to be alone? Was she scared to be by herself? Should he offer to call a relative or friend to come and stay with her?

    Slowly she turned to face him, her small body trembling. “I want you to tell me it didn’t happen, that this is just a dream, that I wasn’t just assaulted.” Tears shimmered in those beautiful dark blue eyes of hers, and then they were streaming down her cheeks. It was the first time she had cried since he’d found her and the sound of her weeping tugged at his heart in a way nothing else ever had.

    He’d crossed the space between them in three large steps and then he was gathering her into his arms, holding her close, stroking her back, whispering a string of soothing consolations into her ear, and rocking her like he would something precious.

    And she was.

    Too soon or not this pretty, spunky, sassy, sweet woman was in his heart. He’d fought the attraction all week, positive it was too soon for either of them, but right now, with this small, crying bundle in his arms, nothing had ever felt so perfectly timed.

  • Week 161 – Waking up

    Waking up wasn’t a one step process.

    Mackenzie slowly became aware of the fact that she was floating.

    No not floating.

    She was being carried.

    Cradled gently in someone’s arms.

    There was cold air on her skin.

    On parts of her skin that shouldn’t be exposed to the air.

    Was she with a boyfriend?

    No that couldn’t be right, she hadn’t been with anyone since she had kicked her cheating ex to the curb.

    It was dark.

    Then suddenly light shone on the other side of her closed eyelids.

    There were voices.

    A lot of them and they were all talking too quickly for her to make out any of the words.

    The arms that held her set her down on something soft and immediately panic coursed through her.

    She didn’t know why, and she didn’t know who had been holding her, all she knew was that she didn’t want that person to leave.

    Her eyes snapped open and the sudden movement combined with the too bright light made her moan.

    Immediately concerned green eyes looked down at her.

    She knew those eyes.

    They belonged to Jax, Tayla’s ex-turned-current boyfriend Dean’s partner.

    What was he doing here?

    And where was here?

    Her memory was all fuzzy and she had no idea what was going on.

    “Its okay, Mackenzie,” Jax soothed, reaching for her hand, but it was clear both by the tone of his voice and the look on his face that things were far from okay.

    “W-what h-happened?” she asked, surprised to find her voice croaky. “Wh-where am I?”

    “You’re in the hospital,” Jax replied, and she realised that she was indeed on a gurney being wheeled through the emergency room as a doctor and a couple of nurses buzzed around her.

    That answered one of her questions but it didn’t tell her why she was here. It felt like Jax was trying to keep something from her but why would he do that? Had something else happened to Tayla and Dean?

    “W-why am I h-here?” she asked, trying to make her voice strong but it was hard because she was shaking and her head felt like it wanted to explode.

    “You hit your head,” Jax answered vaguely, his fingertips lightly touching her forehead.

    “An a-accident?” she asked.

    “No, sweetheart, not an accident.” His devastated green eyes were full of guilt and she had to wonder why? They’d spent lots of time together the last week or so, and although neither of them had acted on it she knew he had felt the same energy bubbling between them that she had. So what would he have to feel guilty about?

    “Jax,” she pleaded, needing to quell the anxiety that was making her feel like she might throw up at any second.

    Jax sighed. “Someone attacked you, I found you unconscious, I don’t know how long he was with you before I came along but you were half naked so we’ll have to do a rape kit.”

    Rape kit?

    She gasped, shook her head in a frantic denial, and then plunged back into the oblivion of unconsciousness where she was safe.

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