Scandal:The Complete Series(43)
“Your DNA? So what? You saw her earlier that day. You two were friends and worked together. It doesn’t prove you killed her.”
“No, it doesn’t. Except they think they found the murder weapon in her kitchen drawers. My fingerprints were on it. It’s all circumstantial but it could very well hold up in court.”
I consider his words, humble and to the point. “How do you explain the fingerprints?”
“I know this will sound like a bad movie line,” he says, “but someone’s trying to frame me.”
“Someone from the club?”
“Ella, I don’t even know where to begin,” he says, turning away and taking a few steps shaking his head. It’s as if he can’t face me or tell me whatever it is that is burdening him.
“Jax, I always believed in you,” I say softly. “But I need to hear this. All of it. There’s no other way for us.”
“I have an uncle,” Jax says and then turns back around to stare into my eyes. He shakes his head again and I can see deep pain in his eyes.
“An uncle?”
“Yeah,” he says. “An uncle that no one should ever have. He’s the kind of guy you never want to come across. The devil himself stays clear of him.”
“The devil?” I repeat. “Jax, you’re not making any sense.”
He exhales before he continues. “My uncle Lucius is a kingpin, a boss in the underworld, a guy who traffics violence, who has enemies stacked as high as redwoods. Both dead and alive.”
“Forgive me, but this seems fanciful,” I say, doubting his every word.
“I have been exposed to these people my whole life,” he says. “I have even been a part of it.”
“Okay,” I say, not knowing what to think. “You and your uncle make the devil blush. I get it, but what’s this have to do with Madison’s death?”
Jax scratches his jawline. “My uncle thinks an opposing organization framed me.”
“I need to sit down,” I say and plop down in an armchair. “That was a lot of bad movie lines in a row.”
He opens his arms in surrender. “I swear, Ella, it’s all true.”
“So they killed Madison? These other guys?”
He nods. I can see his eyes beginning to water. He cared about her.
“Why?” I say as my stomach becomes queasy. Madison was caught in the middle of a mob war? None of it makes any sense. How can I tell Madison’s father he lost his precious daughter because of the uncle of a boyfriend who wasn’t a boyfriend?
Jaxson looks at me, saying nothing.
“What about the man she was seeing at the club?” I say. “Was he part of all this?”
“He’s worked for my uncle before. I don’t know. He’s a lone ranger. He’s not a man you want to cross, I’ll tell you that.”
“So what now?”
“My uncle thinks he can get my case dismissed.”
“Can he?”
“I don’t know. All I care about is you believing me.”
Our eyes connect, unblinking, my mind racing and my heart beating loudly. I’d never be able to think of Jaxson Cole as a cold-blooded murderer, even if undeniable facts stared me in the face.
“Jax,” I say, almost whispering. “You’re not telling me everything, but I believe the part about you not killing Maddy.”
He closes his eyes and I win the staring competition. My brain has the strangest thoughts at the strangest times.
“Your faith means everything to me,” he says.
“Not so fast,” I say. “Is it true that you’ve been stalking me?”
An unexpected shyness overtakes him. “I’ve never stalked you.” He says the words emphatically, stressing every syllable.
“I saw the photos. Hundreds of them. Even photos of me I’ve never seen.”
“The photos are nothing.”
“Then you won’t mind telling me where you got them. Brad said you had some long-term fixation on me.”
“Brad’s a dipshit,” he says. “I thought you knew that. I assure you there was no stalking involved.”
“Brad has nothing to do with this,” I remind him. “You’re the one who has explaining to do.”
“Fine. Here goes. I stole the older photos a long time ago. We knew each other before, Ella. My mother and I actually stayed at your house when we were young. I just wanted to have something to remember you.”
“Yeah, I know that part, Jack.”
He furrows his brow. Everything he does when he’s vulnerable is fucking delicious. I want to taste his lips.
“You do?” he says.
“You’re little Jack. I know that. Jack Caleb, the boy who talked me down from a tree with weak branches.”