by Brandy Ayers
“You aren’t going back to work tonight.” Jax kept his voice firm, despite wanting to scream and tell her everything she needed to know about him to put her mind at ease.
She only looked at him like he was insane. “Of course I am. I’m paying rent for two places, and tuition, food, and clothes for Rose. I don’t have a choice.”
Jax picked Harper up. Her legs automatically wrapping around his waist made him happier than a pig in shit because it meant her body still trusted him, even if her head was playing tricks with her right now. In two steps he had her pinned against the wall where he had devoured her just a little while ago.
“Woman, you are not stepping foot in that club again.” He gripped her tighter in one arm so he could reach around to grasp her cotton-covered breast with the other. “This is mine.” He pulsed his demanding cock into the space between her legs, making her gasp with desire and shock. “So is this. No man gets to see what’s mine ever again.”
“Jax—”
“No. Harper, I don’t want to hear it. You have other options; you just don’t know about them yet. I want to tell you everything, but I can’t. Not yet. But I will soon. Trust me.” The desperation in his voice sounded so foreign to his own ears. He had never begged anyone for a damn thing before today. But he would beg his woman to stay put. Because if she were in The Beanstalk when they moved to take it down he’d never be able to concentrate on getting those girls to safety. He’d only care about Harper and ensuring she got out alive. But as much as every inch of him screamed to place her above all others, he still had a job to do. A job that innocent lives counted on.
“I don’t understand.” Harper searched his face. Looking for any clue as to what on earth he was talking about.
For a second Jax feared she’d be able to see it all written out on his features. She might not have finished college, but her perceptive abilities weren’t something that could be taught in a classroom. “I know you don’t, baby. But understand this: nothing you just told me changes how I feel about you. If anything, it makes me fall harder and faster for you. You’ve given up so much, gone through so much, but you’re still strong, still caring, still loving.” He leaned his forehead against hers, breathing in her sweet scent. “I don’t fucking deserve you, but I don’t give a shit. I’m taking you. You are never stepping foot in that club again. I will care for you, always. You and Rose, and hell, your mom too if she needs caring for. My mom was a fucking junkie that forgot she had a kid half the time. But yours did the best she could with the circumstances she had, and she made you the woman you are today. Just knowing that makes me respect her without ever having met the woman.”
“Jax, how are you going to take care of us on what you make at the club? I make more than you and I barely make ends meet from month to month. And I’m not willing to sacrifice Rose’s level of care for anything.” More tears rolled down her cheeks. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Even for you.”
It killed Jax that he couldn’t reassure her. Let her know that he had more than enough money to care for them all. Would make more if he had to. But he couldn’t tell her any of it yet. “You trust me, Harper?”
It didn’t insult him in the least when she took time to consider his question, quietly contemplating him as she formed her answer. Just the opposite, it made him proud that she took the safety of her body and heart as seriously as he did.
“Yes, I do. I probably shouldn’t, but I do trust you.”
“Then, Harper, I need you to trust me now. Do not go to work tonight. Call in sick or just don’t fucking show up; I don’t care. But you cannot go to The Beanstalk tonight. I’ll explain everything tomorrow. Tell you everything about myself, but it has to wait until then.”
Harper brought her hands up to his face and stroked his beard soothingly as she looked at him in confusion. “Why Jax? Why do you have to wait?”
“I wish I could tell you, but I can’t. Not yet. Just promise me you’ll stay here. Please.” Jax’s heart hammered in his chest, true fear taking over his body that Harper would be hurt if she insisted on going to work. Damn it, he’d tie her to that crappy futon if he had to. If it meant keeping her safe.
“Okay, Jax, I won’t go to work. I promise.”
Jax blew out the breath he’d been holding. Relief like he’d never known swept through his body. He cradled Harper in his arms and carried her back to the bed. Before laying her down he pulled the T-shirt and panties off her body once more. “When you’re in bed next to me, no clothes are allowed. Let’s get some sleep.”
He tucked her small, curvy body against his much larger one, folding his arms over her and drawing her as close as he could get her. As long as she rested in his arms, he knew she was safe, and that knowledge helped him drift off into the most peaceful sleep he’d ever known.
***
“So, finally found yourself a woman, did ya, Agent Povero?” Marlene’s smoke-roughened voice set Jax’s teeth on edge. The tall thin woman lounged on one of a dozen folding chairs set up around the table they would use to map out that evening’s operation. She folded her hands behind her head, a shit-eating grin on her face. Jax had never met a man that could rival that woman’s level of douchebag. “She’s a pretty thing, too. Don’t worry; I conveniently left her out of my report to the director.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His handler couldn’t possibly know about Harper. They’d only been together one night, the best night of Jax’s life. They spent the rest of the night sleeping and waking up to make love in a sleep fogged haze, before collapsing again into sleep. Leaving her that afternoon had been the hardest thing he’d ever done. She looked like an angel with her hair spread across the pillow and her sinful body splayed across the mattress for him to admire.
“I think it’s cute how you continue to underestimate me. Jax, how many cases have we worked together now?” Marlene leaned forward, resting her elbows on her splayed denim covered knees.
“Too many.”
“You didn’t go back to your apartment last night. Didn’t call and check in. You thought I’d just let that slide, did you?” A chunk of her salt and pepper hair slipped out from the haphazard ponytail it was always in and drifted down to cover her eye before she impatiently shoved it out of the way. “Did you forget we have trackers on all agent vehicles?”
Jax shook his head. He’d been so consumed with Harper he’d completely forgotten about his check in protocol.
“Color me surprised when I find your truck parked a block away from one Harper Ryan’s apartment. I was even more surprised when I took a lap around the building and heard you two fucking like the apocalypse was due any minute.” She whistled low and quirked up one eyebrow, as if they were just a couple of buddies trading stories about their conquests. “I mean damn, I heard the stripper screaming like a cat in heat all the way out on the street.”
“Don’t fucking talk about her like that.” Anger surged through Jax. He clenched his fists at his sides, hoping to cut it off before it boiled and spilled over. He respected Marley; they worked well together. But she didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut. “I don’t hit women, you know that, but you’re walking a fine line right now.”
Marlene stood from her chair, advancing on Jax until only a few inches separated them. “Agent, I could take you down before you ever landed a punch, and you know it. I’m faster than you, even if I am twenty years older.” She took a step back, dropping her aggressive stance. “Now I just said I kept her out of the reports. I know she has nothing to do with the illegal activities in that place as much as you do. We’d figured she was clean from the get-go. And you could get in a shit ton of trouble with this if it got out. I’ve got your back. But I need to know your head is in the game right now. Not mooning over some chick with big tits and bigger baggage.”
“My head’s in the game. The quicker we get this over with the quicker I can get her away from this place.”
“I knew there had to be a reason you went
after this case like a pitbull over a bone.” Marlene resumed her relaxed position in the chair she’d sprung out of a moment before.
“I’ve treated this case no differently than the dozens that came before it.” Even as he said the words he knew they were a lie.
He’d approached the case with a single-minded obsession. There had been many nights where sleep escaped him in favor of his going through surveillance tape upon surveillance tape, staking out George and Royce as they went about their business. He gathered enough evidence to put them both away for life.
The only thing he couldn’t figure out was how they lured the girls away. Most their victims were street kids, either homeless or with very little supervision to speak of. The type of kids that no one noticed much. Fewer questions that way. But those kinds of kids also had amazing self-preservation skills. They wouldn’t go off with a random guy that came up to them on the street promising a better life. And if they were taking girls off the street kicking and screaming, the local police would have heard more about it.
Jax had a feeling that was where the elusive third partner came in. He just hadn’t been able to prove it.
It would be nice if Jax could say he did all that for the good of the victims and the country. But Marlene was right. He did it for Harper. He needed this case to be over so he could be with his woman. So he could show her the real him.
The door to the abandoned warehouse Jax and Marlene waited in swung open with a crash. Two large men in full combat gear strolled over to the table.
“Damn, aren’t you guys supposed to be covert or some shit?” Marlene sneered at the newly arrived special agents.
“Don’t worry. We know how to get the job done when the time comes.” The agent leered at Marlene, taking in her modestly covered body from head to toe. “I could give you a demonstration if you like.”
Damn, the guy had balls talking and looking at Marlene like that. She wasn’t an unattractive woman, but Jax had never so much as thought about her in that nature. The fact that this guy thought he could talk to a supervisory special agent in that manner simply because she was a woman pissed Jax off. He started toward the special ops asshole, ready to spew forth a tirade the guy wouldn’t soon forget, but Marley held up a hand, stopping him in his tracks.
She never changed her relaxed stance in the chair, simply tipped her head to one side and regarded the man in her usual shrewd way. “Kid, you’d be curled in the corner crying for your mommy before you could even get your tiny dick in hand. Now, we have a job to do. Think you can stop picturing me naked for long enough to do it?”
The agent simply quirked one side of his mouth into a cocky grin and nodded.
They gathered around the maps and blueprints spread out over the table. The plans showcased everything they had learned about the club in the months leading up to the undercover operation, and everything Jax had learned since starting at The Beanstalk.
At twenty three hundred hours, Jax would place a small incendiary device in the backroom. After returning to the bar he would set the device off, causing a harmless but vicious looking fire. Jax would evacuate as many people from the club as possible. At the same time, two men planted in the audience would quietly make their way to the storage room containing the underground tunnel entrance. Jax and the two agents would then gear up using items Jax had been stashing in hiding places throughout the room. Once suited up and in the tunnel, they would radio the second team.
That is where the special ops guys came in. They would have twenty agents hidden in the overgrown woods surrounding the house holding the victims. At that point, the latest truck with its payload would already be pulling up and getting ready to off-load the latest round of abductees. On Marlene’s order, the entire team would descend on the house, arresting as many of the men as possible. The goal was to take them alive and prosecute, but the use of deadly force was also possible. Jax and the two agents in the tunnel would secure the basement and prevent the men from escaping that way. Once George, Royce, and all their henchmen were neutralized, the recovery team would come in and evaluate the victims before transporting them to locations where they would get the help they needed, and be questioned for any information they may have picked up along the way.
If all went as planned, by 0100 hours, The Beanstalk would be taken down.
Chapter 12
Harper
Before she even opened her eyes, Harper knew Jax no longer lay beside her. She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep, but the sheets where his hard, warm body had been were now empty and cold.
Slowly, Harper opened her eyes and stretched her limbs out. Muscles she hadn’t used in years pulsed with a delicious soreness. Flashes of the wild lovemaking came back to her, and Harper smiled despite herself.
Sitting up, she noticed a piece of paper on the counter across the room. A messy scrawl that she had to concentrate on to make sense of covered the page.
Harper, I’m sorry I had to leave before you woke up. I thought about waking you with another round of my mouth on your sweet little cunt, but you looked too angelic while you slept. I have some things I need to do before work, things that will make for a better future for the two of us. I used to only see endless days of emptiness when I thought about the future. But now I see your face and the faces of our children. Don’t forget your promise to me. No working in the club tonight, or ever again. I’ll see you soon, and we can start getting to know each in the way I know you want. I want it too. But I don’t need to know anything else to know how I feel about you.
Jax
Harper bit her lip in an effort to rein in the crazy smile spreading across her face at his sweet note. She didn’t really need to know anything else to know Jax was her future as well.
His words from earlier pushed their way back into her mind. She didn’t know why he couldn’t tell her about himself yet, but it seemed to be important. His reluctance to let her in scared her, but not enough to make her walk away.
He wrote that he had something to do to make their future together better. Harper realized at that moment there was something she could do as well. Glancing at the clock, she was shocked to see it was already ten thirty. Her shift should’ve started an hour ago, and she hadn’t called in. She knew she owed George nothing, but still she felt bad not explaining to Kandy why she wouldn’t be there tonight. Or any other night from then on.
It had to end tonight. Despite her promise to Jax, Harper knew what she had to do. As she headed to the shower, she felt a slight twinge of guilt over going back on her promise and heading to the club. But she had to do this, had to quit and never look back.
He would understand once he knew she wasn’t going there to dance, but to begin the rest of their lives.
***
Stepping into the club, Harper looked around for what would be the last time. It felt good to walk in with her head up, when every time before she had done the opposite. It looked even worse today than it had every other time she’d come to work. Darker, dirtier.
A glance in the direction of bar showed Jax wasn’t in his usual spot pouring drinks. She unlocked her phone and checked the time. Eleven o’clock. He must’ve been in the back for some reason, since it wouldn’t be time yet for his break.
Not having him there yet was better though. She could march into George’s office and quit, find Kandy and explain, then tell Jax the good news. Maybe they could even leave together, put this place behind them and find a new way through the world together. The thought made her smile.
Gathering her strength, Harper took a deep breath and headed towards the door she had avoided at all costs over the last three years. She had only stepped through it on one other occasion, when Kandy had gotten her the interview with George. He’d been an asshole, demanding to see her tits before he gave her the job dancing. The only reason Harper had complied was because Kandy stood right next to her the whole time, making her feel stronger than she really was. After evaluating her tits he’d agreed to employ her a
nd told her to come back the next night.
The memory pissed her off.
Not bothering to knock, Harper barged into the disgusting office. But what she saw made her take a step back in shock. George was nowhere in sight. Kandy, however, sat behind the desk in jeans and T-shirt, opening and closing drawers.
Her friend’s head shot up at the sound of Harper’s intrusion. “Harper, where the fuck have you been? And why are you in George’s office?” Kandy went back to sifting through the contents of the drawer.
“I came in to quit. I’m not going to dance anymore.” Quickly, Harper closed the door behind her, not wanting any of the nosey bitches that were always hanging around waiting for their next fix to see Kandy searching George’s office. “What are you doing?”
“Looking for something. That little shit is hiding something. I know it.” Kandy slammed the drawer closed in frustration, and moved on to the top of the desk. She continued talking to Harper, not bothering to look at her, and seeming to not really care about the words she said. “That’s good, Harper. I’m glad you’re getting out. This place is going downhill fast. You deserve better.”