"How did you get a car so fast?" I asked Jax as he loaded my suitcase into the trunk.
He shrugged, picking up his own bag before settling it next to mine. "I'm awesome."
I rolled my eyes, getting into the passenger side of the small white Ford. I wasn't sure how far away we were going or even where, but some time in the last hour, Jax had figured out where he wanted to go and procured a car, all while I packed up my stuff and filled Hannah in on our situation; well, our partial situation I should say.
She was rightfully upset after what happened yesterday, as she had been out on campus and had to hurry back to the dorms when she got the lockdown notice. I tried to ask her more about it, but it seemed that nobody had any information yet about the casualties, if there were any.
She wanted me to stay with her, but she also understood my reasoning for leaving the campus. Besides, I knew Blake would take care of her while Jax and I were away. Hopefully, we wouldn't need to stay away for too long anyway; I just wanted to try and return to some sense of normalcy.
I settled into the car, the material of my sweatsuit keeping me warm and comfortable as the wind whipped around us. With any luck, we'd be able to out-drive this storm.
Once Jax was settled and we started into the drive, I relaxed a little; it felt nice to put some distance between us and the campus after everything that happened.
Jax and I chatted for a while, neither one of us bringing up our newly defined relationship or the horrifying events of yesterday.
I hoped he wasn't having any regrets about us. I didn't want to bring it up incase he was, but in my head, I had zero regrets. In fact, I wanted to do it again. Nay, needed to do it again. Sex with Jax was the only thing that could distract me from thinking about yesterday.
I had asked Jax this morning if he knew any details, and he said he didn't. But, part of me felt like he was holding something back; like he was keeping me in the dark for some reason.
Still, I didn't feel like pressing him; not when I still had growing anxiety about the weather on top of everything else. I had been staring out the window, and the dark clouds from earlier looked even darker. I could see rain coming down not too far off in the distance, though, it wasn't raining on us quite yet.
I pulled my sleeves of my sweatshirt down and crossed my arms over my chest.
"Are you alright?" Jax asked, perceptive as always.
"Yeah..." I hesitated.
"What are you thinking?"
"That if it starts raining, I'm gonna turn into a basket case," I blurted, keeping my eyes trained on the dark clouds ahead.
"I never think you're a basket case," he said, his tone light.
I forced a smile in his direction. "Well, thank you, but I'm being serious. If it starts raining, I can't be in a car... it's too much."
"Well, then it's a good thing you have an overly prepared bodyguard," he smiled, casually reaching behind him to grab a small bag.
I cocked an eyebrow at him while I grabbed the bag from his palm. "What is it?"
"It's your storm survival kit," he said.
I looked inside the bag, pulling out a sleeping eye mask, AirPods, and Benadryl.
"You're so cute," I giggled. "But I don't know if I want to take the Benadryl... won't that make me super tired?"
"Yeah," he chuckled, "that's kind of the point. It's going to rain, Em. We're going to be driving right through it at some point, and we still have a couple hours until we get to where we need to be. Get some sleep. I need you to sleep through the storm so that you don't get scared."
I hesitated, turning the eye mask over in my hands. "Don't you need me to stay awake? What if you get bored? Or tired?"
He shook his head. "I'll be fine; I've got the radio. Besides, I won't be able to focus on the road anyway if you're scared. You get all shakey, and it worries me."
Just then, a low rumble echoed around the car. I tensed, instinctively grabbing onto Jaxon's corded forearm. He shifted, placing a warm palm on my thigh as I continued to hold on to him.
"Go to sleep, baby."
*******
"Emery," Jaxon's voice drifted to me, low and soothing.
I blinked my eyes open, momentarily forgetting I had the eye mask on. When I pulled it off, I was surprised to see that it was sunny.
"I would have carried you inside, but I didn't want to startle you since you had headphones in. We're here," he informed.
I felt so groggy still. "Where's here?"
He smiled, "let me show you."
I grabbed onto his hands as he helped me from the car, noting that the ground was squishy and muddy. It must have rained here too, but I was in my slippers and didn't want them to get ruined.
"Hold on," I said, "I need to get my shoes from my bag."
"Oh, oops. I already brought our bags inside," he said, turning his back to me. "Just hop on."
I giggled, launching myself up onto his back. He easily hooked his arms under my thighs, holding me in place as he walked us forward.
"So, where are we?" I asked again as he headed towards the stairs.
We had parked in the front of the house, which looked kind of like a cabin. It was made up of stone and wooden logs, and the damp grass surrounding it smelled fresh from the rain.
"Lake Tahoe," Jax responded. He kept me on his back as he ascended the stairs to the wooden patio.
"It's beautiful here," I breathed, looking over his shoulder to take in the view.
"I know," he said, "I came here once with chief as a kid and thought it was breathtaking. Never had a reason to come back though until now."
He stopped at the door, allowing me to slide off his back before opening it up. Before I could go inside, he scooped me up in his arms.
"What are you doing?" I yawned. "I can walk, you know."
"I know that. Maybe you should just let your boyfriend be romantic and carry you over the threshold," he teased.
I beamed. "Boyfriend?"
He smiled down at me as we entered the living room. "You heard me."
The interior was more modern than I had anticipated, and though it had platinum white walls, the wooden beams and accents throughout kept the place feeling cozy.
Jax approached the plush brown sectional in the middle of the living room, swinging me to and from his body as if he was going to throw me onto the couch.
I squealed, holding tight to his neck with my good arm. "Wait! Don't throw me; I don't want to hurt my elbow if I land wrong."
"Oh shit," Jax said, placing me gently onto the couch, "I forgot about that, I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"
I shook my head "No! Of course not. I Just wanted to prevent it."
He relaxed a little, settling in beside me.
"So? What do you think?" He asked.
I rested my head against his broad shoulder. "It's perfect. Thank you for this. I thought we would just be staying in a random hotel somewhere."
He pressed his lips to my forehead, giving me a soft kiss. "No way. You deserve better than that."
"So, now what?" I asked, yawning again. I wanted nothing more than to take Jax right now on this couch, but the Benadryl was still in my system, and currently, all I could think about was continuing my nap.
"Well," Jax said, yawning also. "Why don't you take a shower to try and wake up a little while I figure out something for dinner?"
I snuggled further into his side. "Or we could lay here and take a nap."
He shook his head, looking at his watch. "It's already 5:30; if you nap again now you'll never sleep tonight. It's best that we stay up."
"Fine," I whined. I knew he had a point. But, if I wasn't going to get my nap, then I had better ideas of how to spend my time.
I stood from the couch, reaching a hand down to him. "You're tired too- come shower with me."
I could see the glint in his ice blue eyes as he grabbed my hand and stood from the couch.
We didn't even make it to the bathroom before our clothes were off, my legs were around his waist, and his lips were crushed to mine.
********
"How much longer on dinner?!" I called from my spot on the couch. We had gotten groceries delivered, and Jax insisted on cooking while I lounged on the sectional and drank a glass of wine.
"Wouldn't you like to know," He called back.
"I'm hungry," I whined, "and bored."
"Why don't you put something on the TV?" He suggested.
I shrugged. Honestly, I had been too lazy to get the remote from off the TV stand, but he had a point. I was being needy and should probably find something to do.
I peeled my body off the couch, grabbing the remote before sitting back down. It was interesting using a TV that had cable; I hadn't used anything but streaming services since watching sports with my dad before everything happened.
A brief look at the guide told me that nothing interesting was on, so I settled on the news. Maybe there would be something about the shootings on campus?
I had only been watching for a couple minutes when my heart slammed against my ribcage so hard, I felt like I might just pass out.
There on the screen were photos of the "UCLA shooting victims."
Ten victims, I counted. Ten young lives cut way too short, and on my campus.
But it didn't stop there. The reporters continued to talk about the several other shootings across California, expanding the image of 10 victims, to 32 pictures instead.
My heart was pounding, tears were already streaming down my face, and I felt like I could barely breathe at all while looking at the photos, because one thing was becoming glaringly obvious.
They all looked just like me.