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But it backfired on him because I pushed him. I always push him. I feed off getting a reaction from him. Because it’s the only way I know he feels something. He can’t deny me that. He may be hiding things from me. But when I push him, he can’t hide the way his body reacts to mine. The same way mine does to his.
And now I know Dax feels it as much as I do, I intend to push him more. I’m fed up being treated like I’m fragile. Having everyone else tell me what I need. I want to scream. I am so sick of it.
Fighting with him makes me feel something other than guilt for a change. I thought him being tender, and all the intimate moments we’ve shared meant something. But now I’m questioning whether I imagined them. Whether it was all an illusion.
But I do know this. Fighting with Dax stops me from feeling like a failure. The one who screwed everything up.
If that’s all he will give me, then I’m taking it.
Fighting with him is all I have right now.
I step through the front door and resist the urge to look back at him before I close it.
Chapter 14
Rose
“Howwasthevisitto the lawyer?” Jasmin asks, placing a steaming mug of coffee down on my desk.
“It was fine. We got the papers signed.” I click out of the report I’m working on and pick up the mug, inhaling the steam. “Thank you.”
“So my brother didn’t seem weird?”
“What do you mean?”
“I met him for a run this morning and he was the grumpiest asshole. Which only usually happens when he’s worried about something. The last time he was this bad was before… before the trial began.” Jasmin sighs, perching on the edge of my desk.
“I…” I frown into my mug as I take a sip. “He did start acting weird. There was a guy coming toward us on the phone, and he pulled me down an alley to avoid him.”
And kissed me. Fake kissed me.
“What did he look like?”
“I didn’t see him. He sounded… I don’t know. He was talking about product and stealing it. And he mentioned a Mr. Young.”
Jasmin pales, her eyes widening. “Julian Young?”
“I don’t know.” My stomach twists into a knot as the name registers. “Is he the guy who—?”
“The guy who got Dax sent to jail? Yeah.” Jasmin closes her eyes, running her fingertips over her forehead. “Yeah, he is.”
“Maybe this guy was someone Dax recognized from the trial, and he didn’t want to see him. It would make sense.”
“The only thing that makes sense is that if Julian Young’s name is ever mentioned, then there’s trouble,” Jasmin says.
“Have you ever seen him? Since Dax got out? Hasheseen him?” The idea has goosebumps prickling up my spine. What would that be like for Dax? Seeing the man who began the chain of events that led to him losing two and a half years of his life?
“Dax hasn’t seen him.” Jasmin drops her head back and blows out a breath toward the ceiling. “And hopefully, it’ll stay that way. Although he isn’t far away. His business is in the next county.”
“What does he do?”
“He runs an import and export company. Mostly overseas liquor. Rum, brandy. Wine.”
“Not gin?”
Jasmin scoffs. “No. Not gin. A fact he’s never let go. He was so pissed when Dax won that contract with Daisy Anderson to produce it here. Julian wanted to outsource it overseas where labor would be cheaper, and then transport it globally using his company.”
“But Daisy chose you and Dax, not him.”
