Stronger with You (With You Trilogy)

by R. J. Sable

  I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed him tight. I felt so much stronger and safer when Jason was around. I hated that he had to leave.

  “I’ll be close by, little squirrel,” Jason said, reading my mind as usual. “I’m only a phone call away, but you don’t need to worry. Nothing will happen to you.”

  “I know,” I nodded. It wasn’t that I was worried something would happen. I just didn’t want him to go. “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Jamie,” he cupped my chin, brushing my cheek with his thumb. “More than I can explain.”

  I nuzzled contentedly against his hand, pressing a kiss to the slightly rough skin of his palm. I loved it when Jason kissed my palms, he always did it so tenderly and it made me feel so cherished. I hoped he felt the same when I kissed him.

  “Carter,” Jason called and all my brothers turned to look in his direction. “Craig,” he clarified, gesturing for Craig to come over to us.

  “What’s up?” Craig nodded.

  “If anything happens to her, I’m holding you personally responsible,” he said sternly.

  “Overprotective much?” Craig raised his eyebrow.

  “I’m not fucking kidding, Carter,” Jason warned.

  I could feel how tense he was as he held me against him, my back to his front. I’d normally be quite enjoying it but now I just felt bad for how much worry I was causing him.

  “Relax, Reed. She’ll be safe with us,” he assured Jason. “She’ll be safe with me.”

  “If I see so much as a tiny bruise on her tomorrow…” Jason growled.

  “I said, she’ll be safe,” Craig growled back.

  They stared each other down a while longer but eventually Jason seemed happy and left me with my brothers, taking my house keys with him. He made sure to give me a delicious goodbye-kiss before he went, away from the prying eyes and protests of my brothers.

  ***

  Seeing as my brothers were on home turf, I didn’t expect to have to queue to get in to the club that evening. I’d never been out in Derby before. I’d only been living at home for a few months after I’d turned eighteen and I don’t think it occurred to them to drag me out with them. I knew enough to know that, between them, they knew everyone they needed to know in town.

  They were greeted by name as we made our way up to a fairly nice looking club. Nobody even ID’d me so I figured they knew exactly who I was as well. I spotted Ian’s friend Rob as soon as we walked in. He owned the club and had set us up with a pretty good table and enough drinks to incapacitate a rugby team, which was effectively what was going to happen.

  I looked at the thirty shots lined up in front of Matt and had to shake my head in disbelief. Nobody could drink that much and live to tell the tale. They’d started drinking at the restaurant, all except for Craig who had been appointed to ‘Jelly Duty’ once again since he wasn’t drinking anyway.

  “Sorry,” I pouted up at Craig as I followed him to the bar to fetch some juice and water.

  “What for?” He grinned.

  “Having to look after me for Jason and Ian,” I sighed, resting my head on his arm.

  “It’s not a problem, Jellybean. I’ll always look after you,” he smiled a genuine smile.

  “Sometimes it’d be nice if people thought I could look after myself,” I grumbled.

  Craig laughed out loud and I glared at him. Once he’d laughed at me a while longer, he regained control of himself and looked at me apologetically. “It’s not that we don’t think you can look after yourself, Jellybean,” he assured me. “It’s that we think we can do it better. It helps flatter the male ego if you let us go on believing it.”

  “None of your egos need flattering any more,” I grumbled.

  He laughed at me again but gave me a kiss on the forehead so I let him off.

  I was about to ask him about Isabella when I saw his facial expression change. He looked worried. I followed his gaze but couldn’t see what he was looking at. The club was pretty full and he seemed to be focussed on the dance floor.

  Craig swore under his breath and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, guiding me back to the table.

  “Where’s Ian?” He shouted over the music.

  “Taking a leak,” Jake answered.

  “Keep an eye on Jelly, I’ll be right back,” he nodded.

  Jake motioned for me to sit down next to him and I obliged, still wondering what was up with Craig.

  The number of shots in front of Matt was now down to around twenty and judging by the way Karl was swaying slightly in his seat, I figured he’d had a good few of them.

  “Smithy!” A voice interrupted us. “What a coincidence.”

  I turned around to see the source of the voice. I’d never heard anyone call Matt ‘Smithy’ before and judging by the look on his face, he wasn’t very keen on it.

  “What the fuck do you want?” Matt scowled, addressing the group of guys behind us.

  I didn’t like the look of them at all. A few of them were sort of jittery, eyes darting all over. They all stank of cheap aftershave and had that general chav-vibe that usually didn’t bode well. I was impressed they could stand with the amount of bling they were wearing but maybe fake gold didn’t weigh very much. I’d bet my student loan that they had a handful of ASBOs between them.

  “Your sister owes us money. A lot of money,” the snarling, ape-like one said bluntly. His three creepy friends hovered round him.

  I could tell this was about to turn nasty. My brothers obviously could as well; they were already stood at Matt’s side looking very serious.

  “You need to leave. Now,” Karl said, stepping in front of the ape.

  “Me and your mate have got a little business to sort out,” the ape shook his head, not intimidated by Karl at all. “I want my money, Smithy.”

  “I don’t give a fuck. That’s between you and Stacey. It’s not my problem,” Matt snarled.

  Their eyes were all locked on each other as the tension boiled between them. I glanced over at the ape and his back-ups. Four of them versus Matt and my four brothers, the odds were in our favour. I saw one of the twitchy goons make a move into his pocket as though he was going to grab something.

  “She said you’d have the money,” Ape continued, stepping closer to Matt. “We’ve been waiting a while now. We’re starting to get impatient, mate. It’d be a shame if she got hurt.”

  “I don’t give a fuck what you do. You’re not getting anything from me,” Matt snarled, stepping closer to the ape so that they were nose-to-nose.

  “You need to leave,” Karl repeated, stepping to Matt’s side.

  “Reckon she’d still make as much cash if she were missing a few fingers?” Ape continued. “She’d have to offer discounted handjobs,” he smirked. “Still, a whore’s a whore.”

  “You need to shut the fuck up, right now!” Matt growled, giving the guy a hard shove backwards.

  The goon made for his pocket again and I realised what it was he had there. He’s got a knife. My heart rate shot up. I hadn’t been too worried at first because, let’s be honest, my brothers were all more than capable of handling themselves in a fight. But the knife changed everything. They could get killed.

  Ape’s goons took a step forwards as he stumbled backwards but he quickly righted himself and regained his calm and cocky composure. The same couldn’t be said for his twitchy thugs.

  “We could always work summit out,” ape smirked, stepping back in front of Matt. “She could work it off in no time,” he said, reaching his hand out to brush my cheek.

  I took a step back, freaking out. The way he looked at me was creepy and I didn’t like what he was implying.

  “Don’t fucking touch her,” Karl growled, shoving the guy again to get past and stand in front of me.

  They need to back off or they’re going to get hurt. I needed to let Karl know that at least one of them had a knife. Their eyes were still sensibly locked on the other group of guys, but I needed them to look at me.
>
  “How much money?” I asked. I knew it wasn’t particularly sensible to draw the attention of the ape but I needed to get the message to my brothers.

  “See, she wants to help,” Ape grinned, turning to look at me.

  My brothers were all glaring at me now, looking thunderous. But at least I had their attention

  “No, I just wanted to know,” I shrugged, trying to keep calm whilst I made the sign for knife a few times, hoping the ape would disregard it as idle hand gestures.

  “Shut up, Jelly,” Matt snarled. He never was any good at sign language.

  Karl had seen me though, I think the twins might have too. I wasn’t sure whether they’d understand. Ian was the one who taught me but they’d picked up quite a lot over the years and I was suddenly very grateful.

  “I’m not going to tell you again. Get the fuck out of here,” Matt warned, tearing his gaze away from me to glare at the ape.

  “Not until I get my money,” Ape said, narrowing his eyes at Matt.

  I took a step back as Matt launched himself at the ape and my brothers jumped on his wingmen. I saw two of the goons pull knives and felt sick to my stomach as I watched them lunge at my brothers. One went for Karl and the other went for Danny. People around us had stopped to stare. I could hear my own heart beating in my ears louder than the music.

  Karl reacted quickly and disarmed the guy who attacked him effortlessly. I don’t think I’d ever been more grateful that my brother was in the military. Danny was still in danger though. He’d seen the knife and I could see the fear in his eyes. Rick shoved the guy he was fighting with off of him to help Danny. Please don’t let them get hurt.

  The knife came within centimetres of Rick’s face before a flash of colour tackled the goon to the floor. Ian held him down, crushing his wrist against the floor until he dropped the knife. Before I could blink the guy Ian was on top of was unconscious and Craig and some bouncers were holding the rest of the guys to the floor.

  “Two more for your collection,” Ian smirked, picking the knife up off the floor by the end of the blade and handing it off to Rob who was observing as his bouncers pulled the group up and began dragging them off to the back of the room.

  “You guys all okay?” Rob asked, scanning my brothers anxiously.

  “Fine,” they nodded.

  I scanned the twins quickly. Neither of them appeared to be bleeding. None of my brothers looked even the least bit injured. I breathed a sigh of relief. That could have gone so much worse.

  “What the fuck are you doing letting knives in here, Rob?” Matt scowled, his chest still heaving. He looked more than pissed. I’d hate to be on the receiving end.

  “Good question,” Rob frowned. “They should have been checked. I don’t even know how the fuck they got in here. They’re not the usual clientele. I’ll look into it. In the meantime, I’ll have some beer sent over. You should go enjoy your birthday.”

  Matt scowled but didn’t comment. Rob motioned for Ian to follow him and the rest of us returned to the table.

  “You okay?” Craig asked, his hand on my shoulder.

  I nodded and smiled. “Is that why you disappeared?”

  He nodded. “I recognised some of the Normanton lads. I knew some of them from school.”

  Normanton was one of the rougher areas of Derby. It was also where Matt lived before he moved in with my family.

  “What took you so long?” I frowned.

  “Sorry,” he laughed. “I had to find Ian. He went to find Rob and I went to fetch the guys from the door.”

  I felt pain surge in my arm as Matt grabbed it and span me around to look at him. I could still see the fury in his eyes and wasn’t happy that it was all directed at me. I lowered my eyes and relaxed my arm, hoping he’d loosen his grip.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” He growled, pinning me against the table.

  My fingers tingled from the pressure on my arm, sharp pains pulsing into my wrist.

  “I’m sorry,” I apologised automatically but I wasn’t really sure what I’d done.

  “You had no right to stick your fucking nose in my business,” he scowled.

  I watched him pull back his other hand and knew he was about to hit me but I didn’t fight back, I’d already seen Craig jump up and I knew he’d given Jason his word. I knew he wouldn’t let him hit me.

  To my surprise, Karl grabbed Matt off me before he could hit me, not Craig. He twisted his arm behind his back, holding onto his thumb and nothing else.

  “She was saving our asses, Matt,” Karl said, his voice low and calm. “Didn’t you see her signing?”

  Matt blinked twice and stared at me, obviously not understanding.

  “If she hadn’t told us they had knives then that might have gone a lot differently,” Danny nodded, smiling at me appreciatively.

  “I didn’t see,” Matt said, his shoulders relaxing immediately. “Shit.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at me guiltily. “Sorry, Jelly,” he grimaced.

  “It’s okay,” I smiled meekly, holding my arm against me because it was still hurting quite a bit.

  “Snap out of it, bro,” Karl clapped Matt on the shoulder. “Don’t let this fuck up your night.”

  “Stupid fucking bitch is still causing problems,” Matt sighed, dragging his hands over his face.

  “Forget about her,” Karl dismissed. “Let’s get wasted.” He grinned and handed Matt a shot and took one for himself. They clinked glasses and knocked their shots back.

  “Now,” Karl announced. “The next task!”

  I sank down into the bench next to Craig and relaxed, glad Matt had diverted his attentions elsewhere. I didn’t like him being pissed. I definitely didn’t like him being pissed at me. For the first time for as long as I could remember, I was actually angry that he’d been about to hit me. I hadn’t done anything wrong.

  “Thanks,” I said to Craig, wrapping my arm around him and giving him a small hug.

  “What for?” He frowned, returning my hug.

  “You were going to stop him,” I smiled.

  “Yeah, well,” he shrugged, trying to brush it off. “Jason hits harder than Matt.”

  He grinned and I grinned back. I knew that wasn’t the real reason. If that were true he would have fought back against Matt more often. He’d given Jason his word and that was not something he took lightly.

  Ian returned with a few waitresses and a lot of beer. The alcohol distraction tactic seemed to be working well. Matt was back to laughing and drinking. I wondered idly what Ian was planning for the grand finale he’d mentioned on the phone. I was getting sleepy though and didn’t waste much of my remaining energy thinking about it. Instead, I rested my head on Craig’s shoulder as I smiled and watched the others getting drunker and drunker.

  Ian signed across the table to ask if I was sleepy.

  I nodded and stifled a yawn. He smiled and signed back that I should message Jason to take me home.

  I thought it was pretty strange of him to let me go home before all the others. I also thought it was telling of the fact that he was starting to trust Jason, which made me smile. I text Jason, telling him where I was and asking if he could come and pick me up.

  Sure :) I’ll get a taxi

  and text you when

  I’m there.

  Love you xxx

  Ian motioned for me to follow and took me to fetch my coat from the coatroom.

  “You text me as soon as you get home, understood?” He asked with a small smile.

  “I promise,” I nodded. “Thank you for letting me go home early, I’m exhausted.”

  “It’s not for your benefit,” he grinned. “The rest of the night is not suitable for your eyes.”

  I frowned at him curiously, not sure if I wanted to know what that meant.

  “You’ll find out in the morning,” he grinned. He kissed me on the head and gave me a hug before handing me over to Jason. I grinned at him and he hugged me before helping
me into the taxi.

  “I missed you!” I grinned, squeezing his hand in mine.

  “I missed you too,” he beamed back. “My day was boring as hell. Tell me about yours.”

  I regaled him with the events of the day, leaving out nothing. I even filled him in about the knife fight, which had him clenching his fists and looking at me like I’d killed a puppy.

  “You could have been hurt!” Jason frowned.

  “But I wasn’t,” I smiled. “None of my brothers would have let them hurt me, Jason. Even Matt would have rather taken a knifing himself than let me get hurt. They may be overprotective but sometimes it pays off.” Every word was true. My relationship with Matt was shaky at best but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would give his life to save mine.

  “They do have redeeming qualities,” he admitted. “Are you sleepy?”

  I nodded and pulled his arm around my shoulders.

  “Let’s get you home then,” he smiled, stroking my arm through the fabric of my shirt. “And naked.”

  “Reciprocal,” I mumbled sleepily.

  Chapter 33

  Sunday, 3rd March 2013

  Jason gave me the compulsory disapproving look as I snuck out of bed to put some clothes on.

  “They won’t be up for ages, Jamie,” he sighed. “I heard them get back at around four this morning.”

  “Ian will be up before seven, I’d bet my life on it. It’s not worth risking an argument if he comes in here,” I said, slipping back into bed once I had knickers and a t-shirt on.

  “But I want skin on skin,” he pouted.

  “Me too,” I reassured him. “But it’s Ian’s house, Ian’s rules.”

  “Does Ian own the house?” He asked, lifting my t-shirt up to reveal my stomach and breasts before pulling me into him and drawing the cover over us.

  “I think so, never really asked to be honest. They all pay the same rent though,” I shrugged, placing gentle kisses to his chest.

  “Bit harsh making your own brothers pay rent,” Jason frowned.

  “They pay like £250 a month. That’s peanuts. They put all the money in the same account and use it to pay for all the bills, food, and other stuff. Works out pretty well as far as I know,” I explained.