“Thank you,” she offered instead.
With a quick nod, Jax waited for Ivan to grab the bags before heading for the door. Reaching behind him, he slid his free hand up under the bottom edge of his jacket before easing open the door and peeking out.
A gun. That’s what’s behind his back. It’s a gun.
Apparently declaring it safe to exit, the three of them stepped out onto the sidewalk bordering Sin. With his head on a constant swivel, Jax quickly ushered her into the front passenger seat of his bright yellow sports car while Ivan made quick work of putting her bags in the trunk.
During their earlier ride to the station, Poppy had been too distracted by memories from the night before to really appreciate the beauty of Jax’s ride.
The car’s black leather interior was lined with red pinstripe stitching. The fancy metal lettering on the lower right corner of the dashboard readFerrari Pista 488 Spider.
Before this morning, she’d never ridden in a car like his. Heck she’d neverseenone like this. Not in real life, anyway. Of course, she never used to be one of those women who got turned on by a hot guy driving a fast car, but…
Jax opened the door and slid behind the wheel, and damn if the sight didn’t make her want to jump his bones right then and there.
Seriously? You’re leaving town because people are trying to kill you, andthat’swhat you’re thinking about?
Apparently knowing her life was in danger affected Poppy much differently than she would’ve thought. Besides there wasn’t anything wrong with enjoying the view while she still had the chance, was there?
Muttering something to Ivan about keeping him posted, Jax pulled the door shut and buckled himself in. Pushing the button near the steering wheel, the car’s smooth engine revved to life.
With one final glance in her direction, Jax put the car in gear and began to drive.
Relaxing back into the cushioned seat, Poppy took in the scenery as Jax maneuvered through the Denver traffic. As they got to the outskirts of town, she took in the beautiful scenery.
Tall evergreens lined both sides of the highway, the ground surrounding them filled with shallow vegetation and large, centuries-old rocks. Sitting on the horizon in front of them was a beautiful stretch of what helped make up the Rocky Mountains.
No matter how many times she saw them, Poppy was in awe of their massive size and natural beauty. The massive, arrowed peaks were like magical, snow-capped walls that had been erected by God to protect the city below.
From the corner of her eye, Poppy caught sight of a wild moose. Seemingly oblivious to Jax’s speeding car, the gorgeous creature continued to feed off the smaller limbs and twigs of the woody plants he’d found.
“Did you see that?” She turned to Jax. “There was a huge moose back there.”
“I saw it.” He grinned.
Feeling a little silly for getting so excited, Poppy said, “I guess you probably see them all the time, huh?”
With one wrist resting casually on the steering wheel’s smooth leather arch, Jax kept his eyes on the road as he nodded. “At the cabin, yeah. Sometimes they come right up to the house.” He released a breathy chuckle. “When I first got it built, I went out and bought this expensive brass sculpture of one. Put it in the center of a landscaped section close to the front porch. Came back the next day to do some work on the place and found it lying on its side with one of the antlers busted clean off.”
“What happened?”
“That’s what I wanted to know. So I went inside and pulled up the security footage from the day before. About an hour after I’d left that day a male moose came sniffing around. He found the statue, thought it was real, and he—”
“Oh, no.” Poppy could only assume where the story was headed. “He didn’t.”
“Oh, yeah. He did.” Jax shook his head with a smirk. “Stupid bastard tried mounting the damn thing. Ended up knocking it over in the process.”
A burst of laughter escaped as she envisioned what he’d just described. “No way. That poor moose! What did he do?”
“He took off into the trees.”
“And the statue?”
“Was fixed and then got moved. Far away from the house.”
“I wonder if that same moose ever came back for round two.”
“He still comes around every once in a while. It’s been a bit since I’ve seen him, though. I don’t get up to the cabin as often as I’d—”