Chapter 10
602 Words
The silence inside the Bentley was a physical weight, far heavier than the roar of the engine as Jax pushed the car into a higher gear. The needle on the speedometer climbed—80, 90, 100—blurring the jagged shapes of the canyon pines into a solid wall of dark green.
Jax’s knuckles were white against the leather-wrapped steering wheel. He didn't look at Caroline; he looked through the windshield, his figure as sharp and unforgiving as the landscape they were tearing through.
"You shouldn't have gotten out," he said finally. The cold whisper" was gone, replaced by a flat, toneless vibration that was somehow worse.
"And you shouldn't have been trying to break his arm," Caroline retorted. She forced her hands to stop shaking by gripping the edges of her notebook. "You were enjoying it, Jax. That’s the part that scares me. You weren't just ending a fight; you were destroying him."
Jax’s foot pressed harder on the accelerator. "I was ending the threat. In your world, people use words to settle debts. In mine, they use whatever leverage they can find. Tonight, my leverage was his forearm bones."
"Don't do that," she snapped, turning in her seat to face him. "Don't hide behind that 'clinical' mask. I saw your face when I called you a predator. It didn't just annoy you. It landed."
For a split second, the car diverged—a tiny jerk of the wheel—as Jax’s composure flickered. He slowed the car abruptly, the tires chirping as he pulled onto a narrow scenic overlook. The engine cut out, and the sudden absence of noise was deafening.
He turned to her then, and for the first time that night, the "Highlands' golden boy" was nowhere to be found. His eyes were dark, unsettled, and fixed on hers with a desperate intensity.
"A predator?" he repeated, the words sounding bitter. "Is that really what you see? After everything?"
"I see someone who is so afraid of being vulnerable that he’d rather be feared," Caroline said softly, her voice no longer shaking. "Leo is an i***t, but he’s a human being. You looked at him like he was a bug you were deciding whether or not to crush."
Jax leaned closer, his shadow once again swallowing her space. "I am what I had to be to survive this place, Caroline. If I’m a predator, it’s because the Highlands is a jungle. You’re the only thing in my life that isn't a calculated move. And tonight, you used that against me."
He reached out, his hand hovering near her face. For a moment, Caroline thought he might reach for her throat, but his fingers merely brushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear. His touch was cold, but his gaze was scorching.
The danger she felt now wasn't the "violence" she’d seen on the gravel. It was the realization that she held the leash to a monster, and she wasn't sure if she had the strength to keep it taut.
"You think you saw a c***k in the armor," Jax whispered, leaning in until his breath stirred her hair. "But all you did was show me where I’m weak. Don't ever do it again."
He restarted the engine, the vibration humming through the floorboards. As they pulled back onto the road, Caroline looked down at her notebook. She hadn't written a word, but the story of Jax Miller was finally beginning to make sense—and it was a tragedy disguised as a thriller.
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