Chapter 9 The Ocean At Night

"Do... Can I help you with anything?" Jaxon asked as they stopped in front of the door she assumed would be her room for the night.

She looked down at the gown and her nose wrinkled in disgust. The white had turned brown from blood-Brian's blood. She was going to burn it the first chance she got. "Something I can change into, please," she answered, giving him a small smile.

He nodded and opened the door for her. "You and Aelina are almost the same size. You can borrow her clothes."

She stepped inside and looked around the room. It looked good, like a five-star hotel room but all she could focus on was the king-size bed in the middle. It looked like comfort, like bliss, like sleep.

"Good night, Calista," Jaxon said softly and she turned to face him. Their eyes met and held, and if her life depended on it, she wouldn't be able to look from those eyes.

She had wanted to see his eyes again and the universe had answered.

Thank you, universe.

"Your eyes are so..." she blurted out before she could stop herself and she pressed her lips together before it ran off again.

He cocked his head, a little smile on his face. "Are so what?"

She swallowed. Well, she had started it, she might as well finish it.

"Deep," she said softly. "Expressive. Soulful. Beautiful."

The smile was gone from his face, and an emotion flashed in his eyes, there and gone before she could understand. He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. He... he looked vulnerable. "You think so?" He looked away from her, his hand tightening around the doorknob. "My mother used to say it looked like the devil's eyes. 'No one's eyes should look that dark,' she would say. 'Only if you're the devil.'"

Her heart ached for him. And she wanted to find his mummy and maybe give her a slap or two.

"They're lovely, Jaxon," she said more softly, but she pushed a little edge in her voice so he would know she meant it. "Have you ever seen the ocean at night?"

"A few times," he answered, looking back at her.

"Your eyes are that beautiful."

He blushed. He legit blushed! The pink raised slowly to his cheek and sat there. He swallowed hard, and rubbed the back of his neck shyly. "Uhm... thank you."

She smiled, a strange, warm feeling stirring in her chest. "You're welcome, Jaxon."

He walked out of the room, muttering as he closed the door, "Good night, Calista."

"Night, Jaxon," she whispered even though the door was already closed.

She wanted to sleep like how a cat wanted to knock things off the table, but she still stood there for a while, trying to understand. Trying to understand what this feeling was in her chest, and trying to understand what kind of a mafia leader Jaxon was.

She didn't know much about them, but she knew they were supposed to be intimidating brutes who wore nothing but suits and have more tattoos than a barista at an indie coffee shop.

Not... what Jaxon was. He was nothing like that. Not even close-well, except the suit part, but you get the point.

She sighed before she finally left that spot and walked to the bathroom that could fit five grown men.

This mansion was money.

***

Jaxon took a little time to get himself together before he went to join the others, trying to get his heart to stop racing, and the flush out of his skin.

Your eyes are that beautiful.

Nobody has ever said those words to him before, nobody has ever thought his eyes were beautiful. He hadn't had a good relationship with his parents before they died, especially his mom as she was always quick to tell him how his eyes were like the devil's. His father didn't care what color or shape his eyes were; all he wanted was the perfect heir.

He failed.

Jaxon took a deep breath and walked to the sitting room where the others were waiting for him.

"Lovely for you to finally join us," Aaron grumbled as Jaxon sat beside Aelina, his arms crossed, his ankles crossed on the table.

"Take your damn legs off the table," he ordered without looking at him. He turned to Aelina. "Can you borrow Calista some of your clothes she can sleep in?"

Aelina was already on her feet. "Sure!"

He watched as she zoomed towards her room. He then turned to the men. Jacob had his laptops in front of him, and Aaron had his damn legs off the table.

"Brian is steady?" he asked Aaron.

He nodded. "Asleep like a log."

He turned to Jacob. "Tell me."

"It wasn't the Russains," Jacob informed, typing furiously on his laptop, occasionally adjusting his glasses when they slipped too far from his nose. "I dug into the digital." He pointed to his laptop screen, adjusting his glasses again. "Right before the attack-literally within a fifteen-second window-every single comms tower in a five-block radius was jammed. Phones, cameras, Wi-Fi, GPS-gone. Dead zone."

Jaxon leaned forward, his brows furrowed. "Jammed? That's not normal."

"Exactly," Jacob replied. "You need military-grade equipment to pull this off. It's not something anyone can just buy off the web. You need serious resources, inside connections-and most importantly-planning. That takes time."

Aaron frowned. "The Bratva don't do that. They like to let people know it was them. They'd rather blow up a car in broad daylight and leave a calling card."

Jacob nodded, pushing his glasses back when they almost fell from his face. "The Russians are not patient. And they most definitely don't have this kind of connection to pull this off. And whoever did this? They didn't want attention. They wanted total black. Get the job done and disappear back into the shadows." He hit a button on his laptop and the screen displayed a static-filled map of the city with multiple red dots. "And get this-after the attack, the signal came back online like nothing happened. Clean. No residual trace. Like ghosts."

Jaxon rubbed his jaw, his mind racing. "Why did they shoot Brian, though? They want me, right?"

Jacob sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "I don't know, boss."

"So," Aaron said, looking between the both of them. "What does this mean?"

"It means," Jacob answered, looking at Jaxon, "someone untouchable wants you dead, wants all of us dead."