Wild Zone (Rough Riders Hockey 4)

“I don’t care what he’s doing. I’m not all that interested. Even less now that I know I’m going to be pulled in to clean up someone else’s mess.” Especially a mess that was Veronica’s making.

“Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, now.”

Jax laughed. “Haven’t heard that in…like… Well, I don’t think I’ve ever heard it used seriously.”

“Shut up. I’m old. I’m just saying that stuffing your pride and taking the job if he offers it, pulling it out of the fire for him will earn you one hell of a lot of gold stars. It could really shoot you ahead in an industry that’s already as competitive as it gets. Take it from someone who knows, Jax, you won’t be young forever. Build now, while you can. You may not need the money, but you’d be a hell of a miserable man sitting home in your old age with nothing to do.”

Jax grumbled a reluctant agreement.

“But, like I said,” Russ said, “that’s not why I called. Poe changed a few things around. He’s jockeying, repositioning, you know how he is.”

Jerry Poe was the producer of the Robin Hood remake. A really brilliant man. But brilliance, Jax had noticed, often came with eccentricities. For Poe, that meant rewriting the movie on the fly.

“He wants to run a few more fight scenes,” Russ said. “We were hoping to get you back here for a week. What do you think?”

His mind immediately darted to Lexi. He propped his elbow on the windowsill and slapped his palm to his temple. Idiot. Lexi lives here, not in New-fucking-York. Flying across the country would not get him any closer to her.

“I’m really tight, Russ. I’ll be running across speeding trains and fighting assassins for another couple of days, and I’m taking a hundred-foot fall in downtown Chicago first part of next week.”

“I hea

rd about you getting dirty for Cruise on that Barcelona flick. Hear he’s pissed the insurance company’s keeping him on the ground.”

“You sure hear a lot for an old man. I’m letting Cruise do everything but run on the train. He knows he’s more valuable than I am. He’s dealing with it. But you can bet your ass I’m going to make it look as fun as fucking possible for the torment.”

“You sonofabitch.” Russ laughed the words. “Can you come play with us after you jump in Chicago—providing you live? You’ll make your brother happy. He gets sulky when you’re not there to entertain him.”

“I’ll live, and for you and Ty, I’ll make it work. How long do you need me?”

“Four, five, eight…ten days,” he said with a smile in his voice.

Jax chuckled and rubbed his eyes. “I’m pretty sure I can squeeze in five. I’ll call you later and let you know for sure.”

He said good-bye, disconnected, and sat there a moment, staring at the phone. Slowly, he slid it back into the case on his belt, moved his hand to the phone sitting right next to it, and pulled it into his hand.

One half of his brain was yelling, Don’t do it. Dooooon’t do it.

The other side was laughing like a mad scientist and rubbing his hands together, whispering, The perfect excuse.

He looked at his iPhone. Tapped into text messages. Lexi’s last note was still on his list of recents because he did a lot more talking than texting.

LEXI: On the plane. Miss you already. XO

He’d asked her to text him when she’d boarded so he knew she was safely on her way home. The rest she’d added on her own. And every time Jax looked at the message, he ended up reading twenty different things into the words.

Jax looked out the windshield. He almost wished she hadn’t done that. Maybe it would have been easier to forget her if she hadn’t left that miss you already dangling.

He watched the cars speed by on the highway, their lights blurring.

“…stuffing your pride and taking the job if he offers it, pulling it out of the fire for him will earn you one hell of a lot of gold stars.”

And Jax was considering. For the benefit of his company. For the men who worked for him. For the sense of accomplishment. The sense of validation.

Which was just what Lexi had been doing for her company. For her employees. For herself.

Granted, Jax didn’t like being her sacrifice, but he understood it. And he understood her. They were, in fact, a lot alike in a lot of ways. He believed they were even more alike in ways they didn’t even know yet. If he could just spend some more time with her…

He looked down at his phone and shook his head. God, he knew he was setting himself up for heartbreak. Knew it. Yet he was like a moth hypnotized by the flame.