There was a pause. “She said she has something to tell you.” Another pause. “And that if you don’t see her, she’s going to come in … Miss Garret, stop!”
The doors of his office slammed open and Pandora stood on the threshold, his flustered-looking PA behind her.
Jax shoved his chair back and stood up, his heart tightening in his chest.
It had only been a day or two since she’d gone but he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from her. She was in the skinny jeans she always preferred and a tight black T-shirt, her black hair down her back. Her face was flushed and her dark eyes glowed with familiar determination. So fucking beautiful.
“Mr. Morrow,” his PA began.
He didn’t even look at her. All he could see was Pandora. “It’s okay, Grace,” he said thickly. “Miss Garret can stay.”
His assistant frowned but backed out of the room, shutting the doors behind her.
Silence fell.
“Hi, Jax,” Pandora said, her voice quavering just a little.
He could hardly speak but he forced out the words. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She thrust her hands in the back pockets of her jeans, her chin lifting, strong and proud. Shit, she wasn’t a princess. She was a fucking queen.
“I’ve got a couple of things to tell you.”
“Things? What things? You don’t remember me saying that if you came back, I wouldn’t let you leave?”
Her throat moved but she didn’t flinch from his gaze. “I remember.”
“Then, Christ, what are you—”
“Are you going to let me speak or what?”
He took a breath, his heart hammering. Desire was rising inside him, intense and burning and he knew this time it wasn’t going to be easily beaten down or controlled.
“Talk to me,” he bit out.
“Okay, so firstly, I went to see Dad.”
“You went to him alone?” He gripped the edges of his desk to stop himself from going over there and shaking her or pulling her close, he wasn’t quite sure which. “Are you completely insane?”
“Probably. I just … couldn’t let you or your company take the fall for my father’s blackmail. It’s not fair. So I made him stop.”
Jax blinked at her. “What? How?”
“I hacked into his systems a few years back, mainly because I was bored and I was honing my skills. I didn’t do anything with any of the information because…” She paused, her voice thickening. “Because I guess, like you said, he’s my dad, you know? And I didn’t have anyone else. I thought … I thought he loved me. But he didn’t. Not really. If he did, he wouldn’t have kept me locked up for years or handed me over to his damn colleagues.”
“Pandora, I—”
She held up a hand, stopping him. “I haven’t finished. So I left myself a backdoor in his system and last night, I went in and downloaded all the information on him I could get. Then I went to see him and told him that if he released any information against Morrow, I’d use what I had against him.” Her mouth tightened. “It would send him to jail for a very, very long time.”
Shock swept through him, along with an icy fear. “You little idiot. Didn’t I tell you not to do that? He could have killed you.”
“He didn’t, obviously. Even he wouldn’t stoop that low.”
“Why, Pandora? Why did you do that?” The raw feeling had begun to burn like fire in his chest but he didn’t move. He couldn’t. Like if he did, he’d shatter something. He didn’t know what it was and he didn’t know what to say but if he stayed still, if he stayed quiet, perhaps it would all become clear.
“Why?” Her eyes were very dark, liquid. “Because I figured out something. I figured out why I left you.”
“You wanted freedom. You didn’t want to be trapped.”
“No. That wasn’t the reason. I left because I was in love with you and it scared the shit out of me.”
He felt like he’d been turned to stone. “What?” The word came out as a whisper.
“I thought love meant being in a cage. Because that’s what Dad did. He told me it was for my own good. My own protection. And I believed him. For a long time, I believed him.” She took a breath, her T-shirt pulling tight across her breasts. “Then I met you. And you let me make my own choices. My own decisions. You didn’t keep me in a cage. You gave me everything that was missing in my life, and when I wanted to go, you let me.”
He could barely speak. “You know why, don’t you?”
“Yeah, Jax. I do.”
“Because I love you.”