Two Weeks Later
The bruises on her face have healed, but I can still sometimes see the look of uncertainty in her eyes. Anytime his name in mentioned, she flinches and I hate seeing her hurt. She doesn’t deserve his shit and I know that it’s going to follow her around for a while.
Watching her walk toward me as I lean against the wall at her school, it’s like that morning never happened. She wraps her arms around my neck, pulling her body flush to mine. "Hey, little girl," I whisper, pressing my lips to her soft skin.
"You know, you can't always call me little girl. I mean, I'm not so little anymore, and it's kind of creepy.” She raises an eyebrow and I just shrug. I don't care what she thinks.
"I can call you whatever I want. I like calling you little girl." My hands slide down her back and grip her ass, giving it a good squeeze before I press my mouth to hers to shut her up.
“Whatever,” she mutters as she breaks the kiss. “Did Maddox and Beckett tell you anything about Ridge yet?”
I sigh and tilt my head back. I was hoping she wouldn’t ask about him yet. “No, haven’t found him. We’ve been looking since the morning he hit you. He’s just disappeared.”
A frown mares her perfect features. I hate that this is hurting her. I want to protect her from as much as I can, but I can never seem to keep shit from her for long.
"Baby, I promise, we will find him and make sure he gets the help he needs."
She nods before pressing her face into my neck. I just hold her for a few minutes. Bresin needs it. I know she likes to act like the hard ass she thinks she is, but she's not. She hurts when we hurt, and I know she's hurting now because of him.
“I know. I trust you.” She grins up at me just as someone starts to walk toward us. When I look up, I don’t recognize the guy, but he seems to know her.
“Bresin?” His voice carries.
She stiffens in my arms before slowly turning her head toward the voice. When she turns completely, I don't move my hand from her stomach as I pull her body back into me. "Jackson."
I don't know who the fuck this dick is or why she seems to be scared of him, but if he doesn't leave soon, he’ll find out exactly who I am. I scan him up and down.
He's a wannabe thug. He's got a few tattoos covering his arms, his dark hair sticking up all over the place. If you like douches, I guess you can say he’s attractive. I don't see what Bresin would ever see in him, though. He isn't her type at all, unless you count the tattoos. She's always been attracted to them. He's got some stupid, fake diamond studs in both ears, and I wonder if he thinks that’s still fucking cool.
"Who are you?" I ask, not giving a fuck what he wants.
“Wasn’t talking to you,” he spits out.
“Too fucking bad. You want to speak to my girl, you will tell me who the fuck you are and what you want."
He shakes his head and looks at her. "When you get rid of the pit bull who’s pissing all over you, come find me." He walks off without another word.
I turn her around to face me. “Who the hell was that?” Her eyes stare right through me. I brush my fingers along her chin to get her attention. “Bresin?”
She bites her lip and looks down. “He was a mistake. One I should have never made. Now he just shows up every once in a while and I don’t know how to get him to leave me alone.” She looks at me, her eyes pleading. “Jagger, please don’t do anything. I can handle him.”
I raise an eyebrow. "What the fuck do you mean he just shows up? Did he hurt you?" I see red. I look over her head, but I don't see him anymore. He's lucky he's gone or I'd introduce him to my fist.
"Jagger, it doesn't matter anymore. Just leave it alone."
“Did you guys fuck or something? He just doesn't get the hint it's over?"
She swallows hard. "He tried to, uh…force me to sleep with him in order to blackmail me."
I narrow my eyes. “Blackmail for what?”
“He wants something from the four of you. I don’t know what or why, but he thought if he could force me into sleeping with him, he could use that to blackmail me. But you know I don’t sleep around. I typically don’t trust guys enough to just sleep with anyone and–”
I put my finger to her lips, halting her. "Babe, you didn't do anything wrong. Who is he?" Her shoulders sag in relief. I wait for her to tell me his last name. I need Beckett to find out what he can on this fucker before he tries to come at her again. We don't need anything more on our plates than we already have, but it doesn't seem to change the way shit is going.
“Jackson Abrams. He’s part of some gang or something. I don’t know much about him. He just kind of shows up.”
“Where did you meet him?” I ask, running my hands down her back before tucking them into her back pockets.
“At some party being thrown by one of the frats. I don't think he goes here, but he was there. He watched me for a while before he finally made his way over to talk to me. I thought he was nervous and shy, but once he tried to convince me to head to a room with him, I made up a story about having to leave. He got angry.” She wiggles her fingers under my shirt to press against my chest.
"How do you know about the blackmail?" This shit doesn't make sense, but I know she wouldn't lie to me.
"The next day at school, I was in the bathroom stall. A couple girls came in talking about the party and how he was trying to get me into a room with him so he could make a video. I just assumed it was for blackmail. They talked about the ‘fucked-up foursome’ and how they wanted you guys to pay for something, but I don't know what. They just said your guys’ time was coming."
I narrow my eyes. I don't know what the fuck they could want with us. Unless one of them was a girl we fucked who was pissed it was nothing more than one night.
“Do you know who the girls were?” I need as much information as I can get, but she doesn’t seem to know much more than she’s already told me. She shakes her head and lays it on my chest.
"Now he just shows up and tries to get me to go out with him, but I always turn him down. I don't know what he wants, other than trying to make the video. What if he forces me into a room or something now that he knows I'm with you?"
Looking into her eyes, I can see how scared she is. "I won't let anything happen to you, babe. I promise you that." She nods and closes her eyes. "Come on. Let’s get you home. I can call Mad and Beck to see what they want to do." Kissing her forehead, I push away from the wall and pull her to my side.
As soon as we make it to my bike, I see Dax walking up. He holds his hands up as he walks closer. "I come in peace this time,” he grumbles, looking between Bresin and me.
"What do you want?" I growl. I don't want anything to do with him right now, and I’d prefer he stay the fuck away from Bresin.
"I was doing a little snooping and found out some information I think you might want." He grins. I pull Bres behind me and take a step toward him.
“What kind of information?” I ask skeptically. If he is trying to pull something, I’ll ruin him.
“There is a rumor going around about your girl here. She was involved in a little sexcapade, which is all on video. I heard some guy running his mouth about it."
“What? I was not!” Bresin yells. I turn to her. I can see the fear written all over her face. "There is no video. I would never be involved in something like that, Jagger."
“Bres, I know. Calm down." I wrap my arm around her. I look back at Dax. "Who was running his mouth?" He shrugs. I swear, I'm going to deck the bastard in a second if he doesn't tell me what I want to know. "You came to me. So, apparently, you want something in return for this information. What?”
"I want to get to know you." My mouth drops open. Is he fucking with me? As if reading my mind, he shakes his head. “I'm not fucking with you. I never came here to fuck up your life. I came here because my mom told me I had an older brother. I wanted to get to know you, see what I was missing out on. I grew up poor, you grew up rich." He shrugs.
"You just want to be friends?" I state in shock. He shrugs again. I’m not sure if I believe it or not. “Fine. We can be friends. Now, tell me what you know.”
He rolls his eyes just like Bresin does, but his annoys me a whole hell of a lot more. She's at least cute when she does it. He looks at her. “Martin Vargas. Ring a bell?” I stare at her as I try to figure out how I know that name.
"He wouldn't. Not after…" She pauses and looks up at me. "No way.” She takes off running.
"Fuck," I mutter as I jog after her, Dax on my heels.
“Where the fuck is she going?” he grunts out as he keeps pace with me.
"No clue, but this is your fault," I state as I see her come to a stop in front of a group of guys. She says something to someone just as I come to a stop a few feet away. I watch as she launches herself at him. She gets a couple hits in before I grab her around the waist and pull her off. That's when I recognize the fucker.
"Martin Vargas." I grin. I know exactly who this little prick is. He is going to regret spreading this shit about her. He got the one piece of her I wish I had. I should just let her beat the fuck out of him this time, but I'll save him the embarrassment. Instead, he can just deal with me – for the second time.