I glared at them; they were like a sweet rose with thorns. The lips of the devil herself.
But Wolf….
“What’s your offer?” I narrowed my eyes on her, my words cautious and thoughtful.
“I won’t tell Wolf if….” She smirked.
I wasn’t going to like this.
“…you tell me why you’re getting drunk so early in the morning?” She extended out a soft, small palm. “Deal?”
I groaned, looking at the chilled beer one the counter. “Doesn’t Wolf want his beer?”
“He can wait. He’s in my bad books for this anyway.” She pointed to her stomach.
There was no escape. “You can’t resist gossip, can you?”
I took her hand.
With a little too much excitement in her smile, she pulled her stool closer to mine, propping an elbow on the bar and resting her chin on her fist, awaiting the most interesting story of the year.
“Don’t get too excited.” I sighed.
* * *
It burned.
The hot flaming mark stinging across my cheek was like an iron whip as I stared, stunned at the wooden floor.
Everyone in the club was staring with wide, shocked eyes as the sound of the slap resonated throughout the room. Even a few of the brothers stood to attention, hands close to their weapons in reaction.
My eyes swelled with tears at the sharp pain, but I didn’t let them fall.
Fuck, I’d been hit by so many women before that I had thought my skin had turned to leather.
I swallowed the blood from my cheek before turning back to look at her. If I had thought the slap had hurt, it was nothing compared to the stone-cold expression on Anna’s face.
“You’re a fucking idiot,” Anna hissed. “Not just you, but her as well.”
“We’re talking eight years ago—”
“I’m not talking about that,” Anna growled, her booted foot taking a loud, heavy step toward me.
I flinched.
“You should know well enough by now not to leave bad blood.” Anna shook her head, her face not one of anger but disappointment. It hurt more.
Anna’s shoulders dropped. “During times like this, don’t you know how important it is to say what you truly feel rather than getting pissed and leaving her behind like that? You let her walk out, in pain and in tears, and you just left her there.”
“What else was I supposed to do?” I argued, no longer caring that my business was being aired to the whole club. “We were both mad, and she wasn’t listening to anything I said.”
“If you had something to say to her, then it shouldn’t matter if you’re mad. You say that shit.” She pointed a long red nail at my face. “Because you don’t know when you might lose your chance to say it.”
I couldn’t argue with her words. Even the brothers who had been standing on edge, waiting to intervene in our battle, had settled back. The truth setting hard on their faces; those who had seen it happen, and those who had the same thing happen to them. In a life like ours, especially when a danger like the Black Jacks was lurking around the corner meant we couldn’t live our lives like a normal relationship. There was no such thing as hesitating, and there was no such thing as having time. No patience. No backpedaling. No mistakes.
That kind of regret ruined men.
I didn’t want to be that kind of man.
I stared down at the wooden floor. The new boards had replaced the old ones that had been shot to hell only a year earlier. I remembered Wolf and Hunter’s faces when I told them about the attack. Their worst fear had overtaken them in a second. Before I could even tell them the girls were okay, they had been hit by the worst possible reality. No matter what I told them, it meant nothing until they saw for themselves that the women were safe.
If something like that were to happen to Ronnie….
I didn’t even want to imagine it.
I shrugged my shoulders back and took a deep breath, giving a quick nod to Anna. “I’m gonna go.”
My heavy boots moved forward with an ease I didn’t know I would have when facing the hurt and pained Ronnie waiting at home for me. It was time to tell her how I felt. To answer her questions about the past. To apologize for all the wrongs I had committed. And how the truth of her past shouldn’t be ignored.
No more turning a blind eye.
“I’ll see you later,” I tried to say with cool suaveness, but I barely got half the sentence out before I felt the collar of my shirt strangle my throat.
“Shit,” I choked, spinning around to relieve the pressure, as Anna’s little hand jerked me backward, throwing off my balance.
I almost crashed headfirst into her feet before I managed to catch myself, half bent over, facing my almost ultimate doom. “Anna, what the hell?”
“You’ve been drinking, asshole.” She scoffed. “You really think I’m gonna let you go like that?”
“But you just said—”
“I know,” she cut me off, letting go of my shirt. I looked up to see her back as she trotted around the back of the bar. “Let me grab my keys.”
“Mother….” I felt moved, tears in my eyes.
I was met with a sharp smack on the upside of my head. “I wouldn’t give birth to such a dumbass.”
With that, she swung her keys in her hand and walked past me, her loud red boots leading the way. She swung open the door, light glowing behind my hero like a luminescent aura.
“Let’s go get your girl.”
Anna strutted to the door, and with a smirk on my face, I walked on after her.
This woman.
“Hey, wait u—”
The click of the gun might as well have been an explosion.
I didn't even have time to think before my weapon was drawn from my side, cocked and aimed at the man holding his own weapon.
He was so close I could smell the bastard, but that wasn't the sense I was using.
My eyes were pinned to the barrel pressed into Anna's forehead, her blue eyes frozen on my own expression.
"Who the fuck are you?" I growled, low and guttural as I did everything I could not to blast this fucker’s head off just for his audacity. Walking onto our property armed was bad enough. Daring to touch a hair on her head was preparing to be put in the ground.
"You're Anatoli Ivanov," Anna hissed, adjusting her clenched fists by her side.
The tall man covered in scarred skin and tattoos gave a small nod to her before turning to me. "Did you get my message?" He smirked.
"Motherfucker!" I roared, unable to hold the surge of anger as Ronnie's voice telling me about the bastard kissing her replayed in my head.
I heard a loud set of footsteps coming from the club room door. I counted the seconds the loud creak marked the door swinging open. "What the fuck is going on out he—”
Silence.
If I was a brewing storm, Wolf became a fucking apocalypse as the hot air in the yard turned to ice as his presence behind me grew. I could feel the painful pressure of his anger weighed down in my back.
"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TOUCHING?" Wolf's roar shook the earth as he took a step near my side. His rage was white-hot, and I saw the fury in his face as his brown eyes fixed on his prey with the glare of an animal, nothing and no one else breaking his line of sight.
The compound shook loudly to life as I heard footsteps and shouts echoing inside the club room. No one came from the door, but I knew there’d be a barrage of weapons pointing out of every window and exit.
Anatoli moved fast, grabbing Anna by the arm and spinning her back into his chest. The gun pressed against the side of the temple, and the woman provided the most powerful shield.
"You're a dead man!" Wolf hissed.
"I heard you guys like the direct method." Anatoli shrugged.
"You think you’re fucking funny?" I growled. "Let's see how funny you are with a bullet your head!"
"You here for revenge? Is that it?" Wolf snapped. "Because I wiped out your f
riends?"
"Friends?" Anatoli scoffed. "Fuck, no. We were colleagues. Not friends."
"I don't give a shit about your relationships. I want to know why the fuck you're holding a gun to my woman's head!" Wolf bellowed.
"I'm here on business." Anatoli shrugged. "Plain and simple."
I took a small step into his path, blocking, if only slightly, his path to Anatoli. The gesture was enough as Wolf glanced down at me and I knew he got it.
If he was here for business, then that meant he planned to leave here alive. He had money to collect after all. He didn't walk onto a compound full of armed bikers without a plan.
"Business?" Wolf growled.
"Let's trade. You can have the girl back," Anatoli offered.
"In exchange for who?"
Anatoli's murky grey eyes scanned over Wolf in a quick assessment as if he was contemplating it before it abandoned the huge, deadly man ready to bring the earth down on top of him. I could feel Wolf’s presence behind me and I knew he was ready to jump in Anna’s place in a second.
But Anatoli didn’t want Wolf. He wanted someone else. His gaze turned away from the big man and came to rest on a different brother.
Me.
I didn't even think. I couldn't. The word was out of my mouth before I could even consider it.
"Okay."
"Jax," Wolf growled, but he didn't stop me. His gaze flickered to Anna who was glaring daggers hard at me, as if telling me not to do it.
I released the safety on my weapon and raised my hands, my gun dropping loose around my finger. My palms flattened in surrender, and I let my weapon fall to the concrete.
I kicked the weapon, not toward Anatoli or away from our gathering but back toward the club doors, toward Wolf.
"It was custom-made." I shrugged at Anatoli's casual glare.
He rolled his eyes as I took a slow step forward.
"Sorry, babe." I winked at her. "You'll have to make this up to me later."
Anna glared at me, the smallest sign of tears in her eyes before she blinked them away. "You selfish bastard."
I hoped Wolf got my message as my back turned to him and I stepped up, unarmed, into Anatoli's reach. There was a pause as he pressed his gun to Anna's forehead for a moment longer.
We only had a short window. The moment he moved the gun from her head, there was an opportunity. I was sure Mint was perched at a window, a weapon in his hands, and I knew the man was a dead shot. The second he had a gun pointed away from either of us, Mint would have to take the shot, and I hoped to fuck we had enough of a chance to make it back into the club house before the others arrived.
Anatoli release his grip on Anna's arm, his hand going to his side as he began to shift the weapon from her head.
Now—
A second gun clicked at the side of my head and I heard my plan going down the drain.
Fuck.
He held the gun close to my temple, no doubt going to leave a bruise against the skin as he released Anna from his hold.
She didn't move at first, not until she heard the gun click back into the side of Anatoli's holster.
Her steps were short and slow, reluctant to leave me behind. Wolf reached for her, grabbing her and rushing her behind him the moment he got the chance. He took the rushed opportunity to grab my gun from the ground and had it pointed at Anatoli's head.
Anatoli didn't have me pressed against him like he did Anna. He kept me at arm’s length.
"I should let you all know," he said loud and clear, not just to Wolf but to the entire compound. " You can take your shot, but your president will be going down with me if you do."
It was then that I noticed the red dot pointed at Wolf's chest. He must have caught the glimmer of the laser already because he didn't look surprised. His gun was still aimed without hesitation at our intruder.
This must be the other armored Black Jack that Lamb had been tracking. He was right about them working together at least.
"I'm not letting you leave with my brother.”
"I'm afraid you're going to have to. If you go down, they're just going to take out another." Anatoli shrugged over his shoulder in the general direction I assumed where the snipers were hiding.
"Jax," Wolf growled as Anatoli shoved at me with the gun.
I took a step backward, still facing my president as the distance between us grew.
The roar of a car reverberated through the air as a black Jeep came to a halt next to my side.
The door swung open.
"Get in." Anatoli shoved at me.
I took one last look at my club, spotting my brothers’ faces in the windows, contorted with rage and a promise of revenge.
If they all didn't look ugly enough, they did now.
Looked like I'd have to come back and represent the good looks of the club. No matter what....
I'd be back.
For sure.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ronnie
“ACHO!” I sneezed, loud enough to wake the lazy mare from her deep slumber.
Max’s head reeled up from her pile of hay where she turned to send me a lingering glare.
“It’s not my fault, you won’t move your lazy ass,” I growled, tempted to poke her with the pitch fork right in the backside. Unfortunately, I knew better.
Instead, I just returned her glare and went back to work, ignoring her. I shoveled all her dirty hay from around her, leaving the little island of hay she refused to get up from, determined to get in the way of my work.
Max had never been cooperative, but this was just pure stubbornness.
“Should’ve just made you into glue,” I grumbled under my breath.
Her ears twitched, but otherwise, she didn’t catch my comment.
Tutting, I rolled the wheelbarrow over, my back aching and sore from overwork as I continued with my task.
Smart people would say I was punishing myself for the small seed of regret that had buried itself deep in my chest last night when I’d all but strapped Jax to the cross and left him to be crucified.
I could feel that niggling thought at the back of mind, the one saying I wanted to take back the words I’d said, and even worse, the thought saying I wanted to go and apologize. But logic told me to ignore it.
It wasn’t like I was wrong after all…
All those things I had said were true. I did blame him for leaving me behind. I blamed him for making me feel like I failed him when I didn’t follow him. And that I deserved to be where I was because I was the idiot who let my real love get away.
But every rider must have a horse.
I wasn’t innocent either. Blaming Jax for things I was too cowardly to fight. Too stubborn to accept. And too persecuting to see the truth.
That I was responsible for my actions. Whatever led to them had a part, but ultimately, it was me who made my choices, and it was unfair for me to shove that entire burden onto Jax.
A huge sigh took the last of my strength from my arms as I propped up my fork and buried my head into its handle. I ground my skull against the wood, a headache brewing inside. “Why do I have to have such a temper?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
I froze.
My body screamed to turn around, but not a single muscle moved. Like a monster creeping up behind me, I couldn’t break through the ice-cold fear trapping me to even look in his direction.
People said that your heart rate rises in fear. But mine didn’t. The slow, heavy thud in my ears grew slower and slower until I wasn’t even sure I could hear it anymore. I believed I was dead until I heard that heavy thrum ripple over my deathly still body.
Max bolted to her feet, kicking against her stall, chuffing and wailing.
Her ripples sent the stall gate swinging shut between me, the barrel, and her. It would have been better to have her on my side, but a horse was creature of flight, not fight, and as much as I wished she could protect me, I didn’t want to drag her into a fight with a beast. Not w
hen I didn’t even know what it was capable of anymore. Or if it was even human to begin with.
“Isn’t my beloved wife going to look at her husband’s face?” He spat the words with venom under the guise of his soft southern twang.
My weak grip caused the pitchfork to slip from my fingers and clatter against the side of the stall gate.
The noise jolted my body, and before my cowardice could hold me back, my eyes jerked from my feet to the face that haunted my nightmares.
His jet-black Stetson sat atop his cropped dark hair, dark eyes overshadowed from its brim, but not reaching low enough to cover the warm-toned lips curved into a Cheshire cat’s smile. The cry of Texas sung from his clothes: an unchanging traditional man, bolo tie, embroidered shirt, and tight jeans. Even his goddamn boots.
Not a single hair was out of place.
“Jacob,” I whispered, like a curse that should never have been spoken. The sick churning in my stomach as the words came out of my mouth had reality setting down hard on top of me.
This was no longer a nightmare.
He was here.
He found me.
“What’s this?” he purred, his crooked grin widening even more. “You don’t look happy to see me?” Like a wild jackal cornering his prey, his boots stalked closer one step at a time. “Surely, you knew I’d find you eventually.”
The backboard of the pens slammed up against my spine, startling the breath from my lungs. I hadn’t even noticed I had been moving farther and farther away from him. “Please… no. Leave me alone,” I whispered, the boards rubbing up against my back as my legs slid beneath me. My side throbbed with a distant pain, one that robbed me of my strength, but felt numb and crippling under the emotional pain consuming my every thought.
“Did you think you were free?” He loosened his bolo with a thin hand that hadn’t seen a day of work in his life. “Did you think you could live a happy life out here? With him?”
“Jax…,” I whispered, the word like a bucket of cold water dousing over me.
Jax! He can help me. If I call him, he’ll come for sure! If only I could get to my phone or—
“He’s not coming,” Jacob interrupted.
Jax: Black Angels MC, #3 Page 31