Jax

by Penny Anglene

  Jax

  Ink-Fusion Book I

  Penny Anglene

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Acknowledgments

  Contact or follow me:

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2019 by Penny Anglene

  Cover design by Tracie Douglas @ Dark Water

  Covers: www.facebook.com/darkwatercovers

  Editing and Formatting by Maggie Kern @ www.facebook.com/Ms.Kedits

  Model - Simon Marini @ https://www.facebook.com/simonripleymarini/

  Photographer - Golden Czermak @ https://www.facebook.com/FuriousFotog/

  This book is a work of fiction. The names characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used factiously and are not construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations are entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. Except for short quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced, in any form, or used in whole or part by any means existing or produced in the future without written permission from the author.

  ***Warning***

  This book may have triggers for some people due to violence, crude language, and sexual situations. If you have any of these this book may not be for you. Please, consider this warning before proceeding.

  Dedication

  I started reading romance at an early age of twelve. My mom was a loyal reader of Harlequin until the day she passed away in 2009. It’s her love of reading that got me hooked on not only reading but also the inspiration that I always wanted to write my own romance novel one day. I finally did it. If it wasn’t for years of watching her with a book in her hand, I don’t know that I would have had the courage to do so. So, from the bottom of my heart, I want to not only thank her, but also let her know how very much I miss her. There isn’t a day that goes by that you are not in my thoughts. I love you, Mom. Until I see you again.

  This one’s for you!!!!

  Prologue

  Ria and Debbie - Age 15

  I’m sitting on my bed, polishing my toenails a bright purple, just bored out of my mind. It’s summer break from school and I’ve been out for a week. If this is what the summer is gonna be like, I’d rather be back there, so I can see everyone. I hear the phone ring downstairs and wait to see if someone answers it. It’s stopped, so someone did.

  “Ria, honey, phone,” my mom bellows up the stairs.

  “Okay, mom, I’m coming,” I yell down. “Sheeeit,” I mutter under my breath. My nails are wet; they’re going to get messed up, I think to myself. I get up and hobble with my toes in the air, praying they don’t get messed up. I get downstairs and mom gives me a kiss on the forehead.

  “It’s Debbie,” she says.

  “Thanks, Mom.”

  I pick up the phone. “Hey, Debbie, whatcha doing?” I ask with a chuckle.

  “Not a thing, want to go and walk the trails today so I can get out of this madhouse? The guys are in and driving me nuts. I need to get away for a few hours. I am bored outta my mind,” she mutters loudly. I hear her brothers giving her crap in the background.

  I snicker and tell her, “Yeah, let’s do that. I’m bored too.”

  We agree to meet up in an hour out by the state park. I go back and let my mom know what we’re doing and where we’re going. She lets me know she will drop me off out there and will pick me up at five. I love the trails out at Audubon.

  I go back upstairs and get ready. My hair is longer, so I put it up in a rubber band. I decide on shorts because it’s a little warmer outside today; maybe some of the guys from school will be out there. I’m really wishing the new guy that Debbie is crushing on is out there too. I get done with the hair and clothes making sure I look good, make my bed and head downstairs. I let Mom know I’m ready and go into the kitchen to grab a banana to eat. I ate a big breakfast, eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, around eight this morning, so I’m not really ready for anything else right now.

  “You ready Ria?” my mom asks with a big smile on her face. I nod my head yes. “Sophia get in the car and buckle up,” Mom tells my sister. She is already whining to go with me, I just look at my mom with eyes that relay I don’t want her with me today. I love my sister, I really do, but she is three years younger, and she wants to do everything with me. I just want to hang with my bestie today.

  My mom smiles. “Sophia, not today honey,” she says in a voice that you just don’t question.

  I smile and mouth ‘thank you’ without a sound.

  It takes us about twenty minutes to get to the park, and when we pull up, I see Debbie ahead of us. Looks like Pete is dropping her off.

  “Ria, don’t leave from the park. I will be back at five to pick you up, okay?” mom says.

  “Okay, Mom,” I respond and with a smile, I lean over and give her a kiss. I go to open the door, lean back over and give her a big hug. “I love you, Momma. I’ll see you here at five.”

  I have a great mom. She always listens to me, no matter what. I get out of the car and yell at Debbie. She waves and we meet up. Pete is yelling, “Did you hear me Debbie? Don’t leave here.”

  “Yes, I heard you the first time you yelled out at me; I understand, Dad,” she yells sarcastically. Yep, sounds just like her. They must have been going at it again. Since Pete got on at the local sheriff’s office, he has gotten bossier.

  We meet up and I give her a hug. “Is Pete, being a jerk again?” I ask.

  “Yeah. I am so done with it. Watch my back, watch for strangers, don’t talk to anyone we don’t know. Same stuff since he became a cop. I am so sick of it. He told Mom we shouldn’t be coming out here by ourselves. Mom finally told him to hush. It wouldn’t hurt any to let us go walking,” Debbie says, partly mocking Pete’s voice.

  She hands me a bottle of water and we decide to go to the bathroom before we head out. We head in and are talking about what we want to do this summer. We for sure want to go to Holiday World, a local theme park; it isn’t too far from us. We’re washing our hands when she asks me if I think she’s pretty.

  “Debbie, I don’t understand why you always ask me this. You are so pretty. I love your hair. I’d love for my hair to look like yours, long, red, and a little curly. Why are you asking me this again?” I ask.

  “Well, I kinda like that new boy from our math class. You know the one that came during the last month of school. He is soooo cute. Don’t ya think?” She giggles.

  “Yeah, I know the one. Why don’t you call and ask him if he wants to hang out with you?” I tell her.

  “I don’t want to make a fool of myself. What if he thinks I’m ugly or something?” she moans.

  “Won’t know until you ask,” I mutter. “Look, he would be so lucky to be asked out by you. You are so pretty,” I tell her in a teenage dramatic girlish voice.

  “You think?” she questions yet again. I nod my head. We leave the bathroom and head out. We talk and walk the trails for the next two hours. I ask her if she wants to come spend the night with me. She says she needs to ask her mom, but she wants to. We had a great afternoon talking and cutting up. Her brothers are all at home and are driving her crazy. I honestly love all of them, and they treat me just like they do Debbie. They can be so funny and bossy, and they like to play board games and watch televis
ion with us.

  As we’re heading out of the last trail, for some reason I have chills going up and down my arms and neck.

  “Ria are you okay? You look a little funny.” Debbie stops walking.

  I nod as I tell her, “I am fine. Just got chilled for a minute,” I mumble.

  As we start walking, I’m looking down at the ground because this trail is really uneven as you come out of it. Debbie is right behind me; this is an extremely narrow area and only one can go through it at a time. I take the first step out and as I look forward, there is an old dark van sitting there. Looks like no one is in it. That seems strange. I hear Debbie cry out and turn to see what’s wrong. I see a shadow as I am hit on the side of my head. I go down on my hands and knees not understanding what’s happening. Debbie is sobbing. I can’t concentrate as I hear her yell out and then silence. I am shaking my head trying to focus and I’m hit again and lifted up over someone’s shoulder. I think I hear two voices, but I can’t stay focused long enough to understand anything. I don’t even hear the birds anymore. I keep asking what’s going on. Last thing I remember is hitting the floor of the van, and Debbie screaming.

  Libby’s POV

  I’m at the park where I dropped off Ria three hours ago. Debbie’s mom, Jackie, pulls up next to me. We both get out and start talking while waiting on the girls. We’ve been talking for some time when I look at my watch. It’s now five forty-five.

  “Jackie, it’s getting really late. The girls are always on time. Always,” I say in a scared voice.

  “I know, Libby. I think I’m going to call Neil and have him come out so we can go look for them,” Jackie says.

  “I’ll call Astor too.” I dial the number at home and before he can say a word, I’m crying and talking as fast as I can. He has to tell me to slow down so that he can understand me. “Honey, I’ve been here for an hour waiting on Ria, she isn’t here, and I’m worried.”

  I hear Jackie telling Neil the same thing. I grab Sophia out of the car as we start walking around the main area asking if anyone has seen them. I had forgotten to grab a picture from my wallet, so I was describing her and Debbie both. We continued to look, but so far no one has seen either one of them. I had one lady tell me she had seen them over two hours ago on the one trail, furthest from the restrooms. She showed me which one, by taking us to it. Both Neil and Astor have shown up. We are by our vehicles, so I grab a picture of Ria and Jackie gets a recent one of Debbie. They tell us to question people as they come off the trails. They go down that last trail that the girls were seen on.

  They get back an hour later. They found water bottles on the ground as they were coming off the trail. Neil seems to think they were the girls, so we decide to call the police. Neil has called his boys, although Pete is working, he has dispatch call him as well. The police and family all start showing up at the same time. Jackie and I are both a mess but holding it together. At midnight they call the search off until six in the morning. We all go home. As I remember that Astor’s sister hasn’t been notified of what’s going on up to this point, I have Astor call and let her know we will call tomorrow with any updates as there are none tonight. I fall back onto the couch and watch as the clock slowly ticks away as I stare at the door and window hoping for a miracle that she just got lost and comes home. I sit there all night with Astor, his arms around me as I rock with tears slowly rolling down my face. Every once in a while, I sob. Astor continues to hold me and when I snivel, he does too. We are still on the couch when we get a call at five letting us know that the search is on standby because of the rain. They said it isn’t safe. I think, if it isn’t safe for us to search, it isn’t for my baby either.

  We’re told to stay by the phones, and they would call as soon as they start the search. It’s seven and still raining, it hasn’t stopped or slowed down any.

  At eight thirty-four that morning the doorbell rings. We are both startled, I think we dozed off a little. We jump and race to the door. It’s Pete.

  “Any news, Pete?” I ask with tears in my eyes, lips trembling. My grip on his arm is strong but shaking uncontrollably from the lack of sleep and nerves. Not knowing anything is slowly draining me both physically and mentally.

  “Libby, Astor.” He nods. “Let’s sit down for a moment.”

  I look at Astor, sob, and start to collapse to the ground. He grabs me up and leads me to the couch.

  “Please just tell me. Do you know where my baby is?” I ask with desperation in my voice.

  “About thirty minutes ago, someone found Debbie in a ditch. She’s alive but badly beaten. Right now, they’re taking her to the hospital. This is what I know—Debbie said that as they were coming off that one trail where the water bottles were found, and someone knocked her from behind. She vaguely remembers Ria hollering out. While she was on the ground, she had seen Ria there too. The next thing she remembers is that both of them were thrown into the back of the van. It was dark in color and that is about all I know. She has no idea where Ria is now. She did say that the guy was talking wildly. Like he was crazy. We have an all-points bulletin out. The FBI has been called in because it’s so close to the state line.

  There’s a good possibility that it’s been crossed,” he tells us with a wobbly voice. “The FBI is going to be here very soon to set up a line so if anyone calls, they can trace it.”

  “I need to see Debbie,” I sob, falling into Astor’s arms. “I need to talk to her,” I say with a wild cry.

  The doorbell rings—it’s the FBI.

  Chapter One

  “Dammit, Sassy, let me in the door before I trip. Just a minute and I’ll pick you up. Jeez, you would think you haven’t seen me in a month.” It has been seven hours but still. Picking her up I take her toward the back door to let her outside to go potty. I head back in to the front door, stop and make sure that I re-locked it, and pick up the shit I dropped on the floor while being attacked by my four-and-a-half-pound Yorkie with a black and silver body and white face. I take the groceries that I stopped and bought, and I start putting them away. I really wasn’t hungry, so, I grab a glass of sweet tea and let Sassy, who was scratching on the door, back in.

  The phone starts ringing.

  “Hello,” I answer.

  “Hi, honey. How was your day at work?” my mom asks.

  “It was good, Mom. Long but I got through all my clients on time. I saw your friend Meri today. She just wanted her hair washed and set. She also made an appointment for some function she said you and she are attending in two weeks. So, it looks like I get to see your friend two weeks in a row. I feel so privileged, Mom. I guess they’re having some sort of a fundraiser for cancer. A bunch of them smut-writing authors that the both of you like are having a signing and donating the money.”

  “I can’t understand why you don’t read these books with me and your sister. It’s called ‘Authors and Dancers Against Cancer.’ Last year, she said they raised well over three thousand dollars.”

  “Have fun, Mom,” I say with a snicker. We talked for a little while longer and hung up. My mom, Libby, calls my sister Sophia and me at least every other day to check up on us. Astor Comis is my daddy and his family hails from Greece. Although he’s an American, he has the Greek personality. The women in my family are both blondes. Daddy’s hair is a shade or two darker brown than mine, it’s also shorter than mine; mine goes to the middle of my back. I’m about five feet four and weigh one hundred and thirty-five pounds.

  I own my own business and have four other stylists that rent space at my salon, Unique Styles. I have owned my own business for the last two years. It has grown by leaps and bounds. We set our own hours, although we make sure that someone is always working from nine to five daily and Saturday from nine to noon. I have a large client base and can sometimes see up to twenty people in one day.

  Laura, Mary, Becky and Alexis don’t have as many clients, but they keep just as busy. These ladies are a part of my family. They are all married but Laura is getting a divo
rce from a man that just isn’t in love with her anymore. According to her, anyway. That left me the odd person out in the group.

  I have been in one relationship and he was verbally abusive. It lasted all of about six months and I kicked his ass to the curb. Last date I went on, I left in the middle of the date. He was a hand-grabbing piece of shit. We hadn’t even sat down for dinner and he was expecting some pussy, his words not mine, and that wasn’t happening.

  As I sit here watching the news on a Friday night with nothing to do, I holler at my baby girl. “Come here, Sassy. Let’s watch some tv together.” She looks at me, ignoring me as she trots down the hallway. Shaking my head, I get up to gather my weekly laundry and get it done. I clean my little two-bedroom cottage home for the week and put my laundry away. I decide now it’s not too early to take my shower and head to bed for the night. Talking to myself, I need to find myself a beefed-up man cake. I want to find a tattooed, muscled beefcake that rides a Harley. Wouldn’t that just shock the hell out of everyone. As I am drifting away to sleep, I think, In my dreams!

  If I only knew then…

  I wake up with the sun shining through the cracks of my mini blinds. Sassy is dancing all around me on the bed getting her morning hugs in. I get up to go to the bathroom and finish washing my hands. Sassy is trying to crawl up my legs. I stoop and pick her up on my way to let her out for her morning business. I go make myself a cup of hot coffee. I take my first sip as my childhood friend Debbie calls wanting to know if I would go with her after work, so she can get a tattoo. I agree and set up a time to meet around four o’clock that afternoon at my house. I let Sassy in and feed her as I go get ready for my half-day at the salon.