The promise I made

CHAPTER 5

Jaxon’s POV

I watched Annalise disappear through the door. Only then did I let out the breath I’d been holding. She had no idea how close she had come to dying. Not tonight. Not because of the men who had followed her, but because of the secret her mother had spent twenty-seven years protecting. I looked down at the silver key on the table. The same key I’d seen once before, four years ago, in Clara’s hand.

I still remembered that night. She had been sitting across from me, pale and exhausted, with fear in her eyes I’d never seen there before.

“Jaxon,” she’d said. I’d never heard my name sound like that.

“What happened?” She had looked toward the window before answering.

“They found me.” My hand tightened around the edge of the table. I’d asked her who, but she hadn’t answered. Instead, she’d placed the key in my palm.

“If anything happens to me, keep this safe.”

I stared at it.

“What does it open?”

“My daughter’s future.” Those were the exact words she’d used. I hadn’t understood them then, and I still didn’t. But I’d promised her that if anyone came for Anastasia, I’d protect her, no matter what it cost me.

I looked toward the hallway. Anastasia was probably still trying to understand why her entire life had changed in one night. I couldn’t blame her. She lived twenty-seven years believing she was ordinary. A kindergarten teacher. A woman with a quiet home and a quiet life. She didn’t know what her mother had run from. She didn’t know who her father was and she definitely didn’t know what her existence could mean to the people who had spent years looking for her.

I picked up the photograph we’d found in the abandoned car. Anastasia, standing outside her school, smiling. Someone had been watching her. That meant this wasn’t a random attack. They had been tracking her, watching her movements and waiting. And now they knew I’d found her. That changed everything.

“Jax, we found the car.” I looked up. Rafe stood in the doorway.

“I know.”He walked into the room.

“There’s more.”

I waited. “The plates were stolen and we found this under the driver’s seat.” He placed a phone on the table. I stared at it. I picked it up. The screen was cracked and the phone was dead.

“Can you recover anything?” I asked 

“Our tech guy is working on it.”

Rafe didn’t leave. I looked at him.

“What?”

“You’re getting attached. You’ve just known her for less than twenty-four hours.” My expression hardened.

“She’s just Clara’s daughter.” I said trying to defend myself.

“You haven’t looked at anyone the way you look at her.”

“That’s because she’s a responsibility. Rafe find out who owns that car.”

Rafe smile slightly “you are avoiding the conversation, you are already screwed.”

“Fine. ”He turned to leave. “Rafe.” I called him back, “Keep two men outside her room tonight.” His expression became serious.

“Already done, double of them.” He replied

“Good.”

When he left, I looked at the key again. I knew what Annalise would do. She would want answers. She deserved them, but not all of them because there was one truth I couldn’t tell her. Not until I was certain it wouldn’t put a target directly on her back.I walked upstairs. Her door was slightly open. I stopped outside and listened. I could hear her moving around inside. I knocked.

“Come in.” I opened the door.

She was standing beside the window when I walked in, her hair loose around her shoulders. She turned at the sound of my footsteps, and for a moment, neither of us spoke. Her eyes went straight to the silver key in my hand.

“You still have it.”

I closed my fingers around the key. “They took the box, but they didn’t get it.”

She looked at me, slowly putting the pieces together.

“So whatever is inside it…”

“They can’t get to it.”

The tension in her face eased for a second, but the questions were still there. She had spent the last twenty-four hours discovering that almost everything she believed about her mother had been a lie. Now she was being asked to trust a stranger who seemed to know far more about Clara than she did.

“You can’t keep deciding what I should know.”

“I know.” I stepped farther into the room. “But there are things you need to understand before I tell you everything. ”She gave a quiet, humorless laugh. “That’s convenient.”

“I need you to trust me.”

“That’s difficult when I don’t know you.”

“You know enough to know I kept you alive.”

Her expression shifted. She couldn’t argue with that. She knew I was dangerous. She knew I was the president of a motorcycle club, that men with guns listened when I gave an order, and that I had stepped between her and the people trying to kill her. But there was one thing she couldn’t understand.

“My mother trusted you.” Her voice softened around the words.

I said nothing.

“But I don’t know why.”

Neither did she. Not really. And that was the part that made this so dangerous. Clara had kept the truth buried for twenty-seven years, and now the people who had come looking for the box knew enough to put Anastasia in their sights.

“I’ll tell you.”

“When?”

“When it’s safe.”

She looked away, clearly frustrated. “You keep saying that.””

For a moment, she was quiet. Then she turned back to me, studying my face.

“What are you afraid of?” The question caught me off guard.

“Nothing.”

“That’s a lie.” I almost smiled. She was beginning to learn me.

“You don’t scare easily,” I said. A faint disbelief crossed her face. “I was chased by armed men last night.”

“And you’re still arguing with me.”

“Maybe I’m stupid.”

“No.”

The word left my mouth before I could stop it. Her eyes met mine.

“You’re brave.”

Something changed between us. It was barely noticeable, but I felt it. The silence stretched, and suddenly I was too aware of how close we were. Her eyes stayed on mine, and for one dangerous second, I forgot about the men outside, the stolen box, and every secret Clara had left behind. I stepped back.

“You need to sleep.”

“So do you.”

“I’ll sleep when I can.”

She continued watching me. Then she asked quietly, “Did my mother really trust you?” I looked at her, and Clara’s final words came rushing back.Protect her even from the truth.

“Yes.”

Annalise waited for more. I looked down at the key in my hand.

“Once, I owed your mother my life.” Her brows drew together. “What does that mean?”

I turned toward the door.

“It means I intend to repay the debt.”

“Jaxon.”

I stopped. When I looked back, she was standing in the same place, but something in her expression had softened.

“Thank you.”

Two simple words. They shouldn’t have affected me but they did.I gave her a small nod and walked away before she could see how much those words had gotten under my skin. I had barely made it halfway down the hallway when my phone rang.I answered immediately. “What?”

“We found something.”

I stopped walking. The seriousness in his voice erased whatever thoughts had been in my head.

“What?”

“We found a message for you. We found it in the car.” A cold feeling settled in my chest. 

“Read it.”

“You promised to protect her. Now let’s see how far you’re willing to go.”

My blood went cold. I stared down the hallway toward Annalise’s room. My hand tightened around the phone. They had taken the box and they had failed to take the key but whoever was behind this knew exactly what that key meant. More importantly, they knew about the promise I’d made to Clara. They weren’t testing Anastasia anymore. They were testing me.

And I had a feeling they were about to find out just how far I was willing to go to keep my word.