CHAPTER NINE
The rest stop lights buzzed like dying insects overhead. Elena kept the engine running, foot hovering over the gas pedal, ready to floor it as if those headlights had turned back.
But the road stayed empty after the last car passed. Empty.. except for the silence between her and Jax that felt heavier than the night.
“Eclipse,” she said again, the word tasting like metal.
“Tell me now…No more half-truths. No more ‘I was protecting you.’ Just the truth.”
Jax stared at the dashboard like it held answers he didn’t want to give. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, almost mechanical.
“Eclipse was a side project.. Not mine but Victoria’s.
She pitched it to me two years ago…before you and I ever crossed paths. A contingency fund, she called it.
A way for high-profile ta
