Earning the Cut (Riding the Line Series, Prequel) by Jayna Vixen Read Free Book Online

had released her arm, stepping in front of Trish to face Dax.
    Then, the principal stepped between them, becoming a wholly unexpected ally. Maxwell pushed Dax into his office and hastily kicked the door shut with his foot. “Don’t do it, kid!” he hissed. “That man has more money than half the town. He’ll have you thrown in a cell somewhere and you won’t get out for a decade. Daxter! Are you listening to me?”
    Dax was disoriented and full of an aggressive, angry energy that literally compelled him to violence. He whirled involuntarily, putting his fist clear through the thin wall of Maxwell’s office. The shock jolted him back to reality. His vision cleared more when a searing pain shot down his wrist. He pulled his hand from the hole in the wall and turned to Maxwell, who suddenly seemed so much smaller, and weaker than before. The principal put his hands up in a placating gesture.
    “Calm down, kid.” His voice was steady, confident that Dax would obey his command to relax. He seemed to know not to touch Dax-that the contact would send him into a spiral of adrenaline and violence. Instead Maxwell gestured to the chair opposite his desk and then took a seat himself, waiting for Dax to gain control of himself.
    Breathing hard, Dax pushed his uninjured hand into his hair as a painful throb began to beat in his right fist. What the fuck just happened?! He had lost control. Big time. Even as he struggled to rein in his turbulent, raw emotions, Dax knew instinctively that he needed to learn to keep himself in check. He had been holding things in for so long and that was dangerous. Dax shook his head, trying to clear the remaining fog from his brain. Goddamn it. I am so fucked now.
    ***
    It was nothing short of a miracle that he wasn’t expelled. For some inexplicable reason, Maxwell seemed to take his side. He didn’t even get in trouble for the busted wall. Dax gathered that Maxwell didn’t like Mr. Wagner very much. The Wagners were privileged. Trish’s dad came from old money and he had an entitled attitude where he just expected everyone to do what he wanted. It was pretty obvious that he wanted Dax kicked out. But, Maxwell stood his ground, citing that although his behavior with Trish had certainly been inappropriate, Dax hadn’t violated any of the school’s rules. By a hair. If Maxwell hadn’t intervened, Dax would have ripped Wagner’s throat out and all three of the men involved in the altercation knew that.
    Dax was grateful that he had been given a pass so he tried to play by the rules. He went to class, but his attention and interest waned sharply when Trish didn’t show up at school. She didn’t call. She just…disappeared. At home, Mr. Bodecker gave him a ridiculous, bullshit lecture about abstinence and hormones. Just because you ain’t getting laid, don’t mean I gotta be a freaking monk!
    Still, he managed to hold himself in check. It was like his own personal quest to reign himself in to prove to himself that he could do it. A few weeks went by. He was going crazy with his need to see her. Dax also wrestled with his own concern. He knew that most kids didn’t go through what he had endured as a child, but Mr. Wagner had been really angry at Trish…because of him. Would her father yell at her? Hit her? Worse? Dax was having trouble sleeping at night. Each day at school, he waited with a growing desperation to see with his own two eyes and assure himself that she was okay. She was out of school for a week, and then the weeks became a month.
    Finally, Dax couldn’t take it anymore. He had been on his best behavior for what seemed like an eternity. One night when the moon was ominously full, he crept down the trellis and biked up the long hill that led to her house. His legs pumped like pistons, and his chest heaved with the effort, but he didn’t stop until he was sweating like a gorilla right outside Trish’s window. Her light was the only one illuminating the mansion she lived