Chapter 102 Jaxon's reaction
Sage's POV
Jaxon stood in the doorway of the living room, still wearing his jacket and looking at us with a confused expression on his face. He could obviously see that something was off with the two of us. There was something in his eyes that made my stomach clench.
"Elena came by earlier," I said, my voice sounding a bit rough. "She wanted to talk to me."
"I know. I told her where to find you." Jaxon moved into the room and sat down in the chair across from the couch. "What did she want?"
"To convince me that marrying Diego is my best option." I glanced at Ryder, drawing strength from his presence beside me. "She said it was the only way to protect myself from whatever Dad did."
"She's not wrong about that." Jaxon's response was immediate and matter-of-fact, like he'd already accepted this as truth.
"That's not the point." Ryder's voice was hard. "The point is that Elena challenged Sage to a fight. She said if Sage won, she'd be free to make her own choices. If Elena won, Sage would have to marry Diego."
I watched Jaxon's face carefully, waiting for the anger or the protective fury that should come from hearing that his sister had been manipulated into a physical confrontation with the Blood Sisters president. But it didn't come. Instead, something that looked almost like relief flickered across his expression before he could hide it.
"And you lost," Jaxon said, not making it a question.
"How did you know that?" The words came out sharper than I intended.
"Because you're sitting here crying instead of celebrating your freedom." Jaxon leaned back in the chair. "Elena is the best fighter the Blood Sisters have. She is definitely the president for a reason. She wouldn't have made that deal if she thought there was any real chance of losing."
"You could have warned me about that before she showed up." I stood up, too agitated to sit still. "You sent her here knowing she was going to challenge me to something I couldn't win."
"I didn't know what she was planning. I just told her where to find you because she asked." But Jaxon's tone was too casual, too unconcerned for someone whose sister had just been tricked into a binding agreement.
"You don't seem upset about this," Ryder observed, his eyes narrowing. "Your sister just lost a fight that means she has to marry Diego, and you're acting like it's no big deal."
"It's actually not a big deal." Jaxon met Ryder's gaze without flinching. "It's for the best."
The words hit me like a slap. "For the best? How is me being forced to marry someone I don't know for the best?"
"Because Diego can protect you from what's coming." Jaxon's voice was flat. "Because being a Vasquez will give you immunity from the people who want to destroy the Romano name. Because Dad made that deal for a reason and maybe we should trust that he knew what he was doing."
"Same way Dad made the deal with Dante because he was blackmailing him!" I moved closer to Jaxon's chair. "We heard the tape, Jaxon. Dad probably didn't want this for me either."
"The tape is gone. I destroyed it." Jaxon stood up to face me. "And even if it still existed, it doesn't change the fact that the deal is valid and binding. You're going to marry Diego whether you like it or not."
"Why are you pushing this so hard?" Ryder was on his feet now too, his voice dangerous. "What do you get out of Sage marrying into the Blood Sisters?"
"I get my sister alive and protected instead of dead in a ditch somewhere because the wrong people found out what our father did!" Jaxon's voice rose. "That's what I get out of it, Ryder. I get to keep the only family I have left."
"Then tell us what Vincent did that has everyone so scared." Ryder moved to stand beside me. "Explain it to us so we understand why you're willing to sell Sage to Diego for it."
"I'm not selling her. I'm protecting her." But Jaxon's eyes shifted away from us, and that small tell spoke volumes.
"You're hiding something," I said quietly. "You've been hiding something since Dad died. The way you handled Dante's body, the cleanup crew you called without hesitation, how calm you were about all of it. And now this, pushing me toward Diego when you should be helping me find a way out."
"I'm trying to help you. You're just too stubborn to see it." Jaxon's jaw clenched. "You don't understand what's at stake here, Sage. You don't know what Dad did or who's coming for us because of it. But I do, and I'm telling you that marrying Diego is the only way to survive what's coming."
"How do you know?" Ryder asked, and there was something sharp in his tone. "How do you know so much about what Vincent did and who's coming for the family? Were you there when he made these deals? Were you part of whatever he was involved in?"
"I was his son. He told me things he didn't tell anyone else." Jaxon moved toward the stairs. "Things that would get people killed if they became public knowledge. So yeah, I know what's at stake and that's all you need to know."
"That's not good enough," I said, following him. "I deserve to know what I'm being protected from. I deserve to understand why everyone thinks marrying Diego is the answer."
"You'll understand when you need to understand. Until then, trust me to handle this." Jaxon started up the stairs. "You have just a few days until you're supposed to be in Arizona, Sage. I suggest you start packing."
"Jaxon—"
"This conversation is over." He didn't look back, just kept climbing the stairs until he reached his door and disappeared into his room.
I heard his door close and lock, and then silence settled over the house.
Ryder pulled me back into the living room and we sat down again.
"Did you notice how defensive he got?" Ryder kept his voice low enough that Jaxon wouldn't hear upstairs. "He knows details he shouldn't know unless he was there."
"He said Dad told him things." But even as I said it, I could hear how weak it sounded.
"So when did Vincent supposedly confide all these secrets to Jaxon about what he had done and who was coming for the family?"
"You think Jaxon killed Dad?" The question came out barely above a whisper.
"I think your brother is hiding something big. Something that explains why he's so calm about murder and cleanup crews and pushing you toward a marriage that benefits someone." Ryder looked at me with serious eyes. "And I think it has everything to do with who really killed your dad."
The words hung in the air between us, terrible and impossible. My brother. The person who was supposed to protect me above everyone else. The one who had been investigating Dad's death alongside us, steering the investigation, controlling what we looked at and when.
What if he had been hiding the truth in plain sight the whole time?
What if Jaxon knew who killed our dad?