“Stop glaring at her,” Jax hissed from beside me. I gave him a dry expression, while rolling my eyes. Did he really expect me to listen to him?

“Tell her we’re dating then,” I said and leaned into him, and then shot another filthy look in Linda’s direction. “Now.”

“I’m not standing up in the middle of class to tell her that. Anyway, she would know by now,” he reassured me.

“You don’t know that.”

I tapped my foot under the table, and my eyes traveled back in her direction. I knew it was under me to even care about what she thought, but I will admit the evil side of me wanted to see her face when she realized Jax is mine.

I always thought Linda had a crush on him and this was only proved right when Jax just happened to mention that she liked him. Well that just created a beast inside me, who wanted to rub my new relationship in her face.

“Amber, just drop it.” Jax’s voice was serious, and he placed his hand under the table on my leg “Please.”

I looked into his haunting eyes, which always seemed to draw me into him. Not being able to fight it, I surrendered. So much for not doing what he told me to.

***

“Noticed how people get out of our way?” I hummed happily to Jax as we walked up the corridor; not one person got in our way.

“What do you expect when you are with me?” He smirked at me and naturally I gave him a crabby look.

“Don’t go all high and mighty on me.”

“Ok babe.”

“I’m not a pig,” I huffed, and reached into my bag to look for my buzzing phone.

“You should clean that thing out,” Jax said as he pointed at my bag. “The crap you have in there…” he shook his head disapproving.

“Please! Everything in here is important,” I informed him. I finally found my phone; of course it was at the bottom. “Here,” I handed him my textbooks. “Make yourself useful.” I sniggered at the slight disgust on his face when he took them. Also, the look in his eyes which told me not to mention this to the boys.

“Hello?” I smiled into the phone, my eyes still on Jax.

“Amber!”

“Blake?” I was shocked to hear his voice; he hadn’t contacted me since he’d been arrested; although he was in jail, so he had a pretty good excuse.

“The one and only.”

“Why are you calling me?” I didn’t beat around the bush; I went straight to the point. I held a hand up to stop Jax from reaching for my phone. Why would he want to talk to Blake anyway?

“I need you to come see me.”

“Why?”

“You have a lot of questions,” Blake stated, his voice hard, and with an edge to it. I couldn’t put my finger on the problem, but there was something up; I just wasn’t sure what it was.

“You have a weird request,” I bit back. Why would he want to see me? We weren’t together and I wasn’t in his gang. I was sure he would know I was thick with the bikies now, and close to my brothers.

“Not really,” he snapped. “You were an important part of my life for a long time, and I helped you when you needed it.”

Oh! He wanted something.

“Do you need something?” I asked.

“You could say that,” he said. “Come visit me, and we won’t have as many ears listening.”

His conversations must be being recorded. Sighing, I was torn at this point. Should I go? But then Blake was there when I needed him; I owed him.

“Ok, I’ll come this week.”

“Looking forward to it…” Blake hung up abruptly.

“What did he want?” Jax was glaring at my phone. His face was tense and he was crunching my textbook.

“Just wants me to go see him. Want to loosen that grip on my textbook there?” I reached out to take it off him.

“Did you tell him to fuck himself?”

“JAX!”

Jax was deadly serious, and I was seriously getting angry. “What the hell is your problem?”

“You’re not going to see him,” Jax announced, turning to stomp off, as if that was the final decision. Normally, I wouldn’t care what he thought, but he was my boyfriend now, and I had to work this out with him before I went and did whatever I wanted anyway.

“I am, because I said I would. Now, would you stop getting so angry over this? Last time I checked you couldn’t have sex in a visiting room, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Jax shot a dirty look over his shoulder at me and I had to give myself points for trying to throw a joke in the mix but it was pointless, it didn’t lighten things up.

“You aren’t going,”

I picked up on the authority in his voice, and it planted seeds of anger within me. “I’m not a part of your Jax, you can’t tell me what to do.” I narrowed my eyes at him; looked like a fight wasn’t going to be avoidable after all.

“For once Amber, just listen to me,” Jax insisted, stopping me in the hallway with crossed arms. “You aren’t going. Now drop it.”

I clenched my closed fists. You can take the bikie off the bike, but you can’t take the stubbornness out of him. Looks like I was going to have to take the gloves off. I could just drop it, but I told Blake I would go, and the bottom line was, I did owe him.

“I’m going to go see him tomorrow. Now just get over it,” I snapped at him. Seriously, was he really insane enough to think I would go back to Blake? He didn’t have to be jealous.

“You’re NOT!” Jax roared at me, and I quickly looked up and down the hallway, embarrassed. Lucky for me, no one was around; had the bell rung already?

“You know what Jax?” I stepped in closer to him, meeting his fierce eyes, “I don’t like being told what to do.”

Jax’s lips formed in a tight line. He knew he had dug his own grave; I wasn’t backing down.

“Fine, piss off to him them,” he said as he looked down at me angrily. “But you can tell him the answer is no.”

Answer to what? I arched an eyebrow at him. “He didn’t ask anything of you…”

“He will.” Jax stated, and looked at me with anger. “And you can tell him no.”

“Whatever.” I didn’t want to argue over something that wasn’t important. If Jax wanted to think the world revolved around him, fine.

“Make sure you carry,” he said, before storming off. Well, what other words of advice could he give me.

“You know Jax, you really need to learn that I’m your girlfriend, not a member,” I snapped behind him, and stopped him in his tracks.

“You need to learn you aren’t bulletproof Amber. You are mixed up with shit that just makes my life harder,” he informed me.

“What, you want to bail already?” I sounded confident, but, inside, I was angry at him for even thinking of walking away from me so soon. For Heaven’s sake, I had just received a phone call from Blake! He was blowing this out of proportion.

“You know what Jax?” I stomped up to him. “If me getting a phone call from an ex is too much ‘shit’ for you, then you aren’t worth my time.”

I shouldered past him, and stormed towards the corridor doors. Looked like today was going to be cut short for me; I knew he wouldn’t follow me because he had to stay for his parole board.

Right now I was grateful for that, because I needed some space from him. Everything was going good for a few moments, and then it all turned to shit.

Seeing as I’d just got a free afternoon, Blake might as well see me sooner than he’d expected to.

You know there is always one thing you can count on, and that is that men suck. I kicked my car tire in frustration, and when I got in, I uncontrollably smacked my steering wheel.

I thought as much that Blake had a favor to ask of me. I looked up and glared at the prison, but it wasn’t what I’d thought. What made it worse was that Jax had expected it but of course he did, he was the cause of all this to begin with.

Not only had he managed to yell at me for Blake calling me, and wanting to see me, but he was also the reason Blake had called me in the first place!

I leaned my head against the headrest. My hands ached from hitting the steering wheel.

My mind going over what just happened.

Blake had already told me once he had thought it was my fault he was in jail, and I couldn’t stop the disgust in my stomach from boiling over when he’d said this. He’d also confessed to having me put on a hit list. I gave the steering wheel another whack.

That explained all the attacks! It also kind of explained why Jax had over-reacted today.

But it was his damn fault I was here. Jax had put a hit on Blake in jail. I know a normal girl would be shocked and scared when hearing this, but for me, it was just another thing in my twisted life.

Blake had taken the hit down weeks ago, when his trial had started and he’d found out who had really put him in jail; it wasn’t me but Jax being the man he is, wouldn’t take the hit down.

When I saw Blake today, he was a mess and told me he was confined to his cell for protection.

So my ex-boyfriend, who’d wanted me dead, was now being hunted down by Jax’s club brothers, who all answer to Jax and would jump at any command he gives. Blake was sure he wasn’t going to last long.

I knew Jax’s heart was in the right place, but I still had a soft spot for Blake. Even though he wanted me dead, I didn’t want him dead but after I’d make Jax pull his club brothers off Blake, I wanted nothing else to do with Blake.

I started my car up. Now I had to come up with some really good reasons for Jax to let Blake live.

I had a feeling no reason I’d give would be good enough. I would have to convince him in other ways.

Looked like I would be losing my clothes tonight.