“Your mother would kill me.”
“Because you always do as you’re told.” She chuckled and nudged him. “Wuss.” His eyes twinkled in reply, and she grinned at him. Widely. Then, nudging her chin in Sammy’s direction, asked, “He’s got to be good if he got that shit heap working.”
“That shit heap happens to be a classic,” Spyder retorted while Mundo started banging his chest.
“You’re not having a heart attack, Dad,” she retorted. “And don’t make out like you haven’t called it that a time or two. Mostly when you couldn’t get the engine running again.”
He glowered at her. “I was just biding my time.”
“Seems Sammy didn’t have to,” she retorted sweetly and was on the receiving end of the evil eye from her dad. “You going to offer him a job at one of the workshops?”
Mundo nodded. “How can I not? Boy’s got the magic touch.”
“Hear that, Sammy?” Spyder called out. “Mundo’s hiring you.”
Sammy peered up at them. “You mean that, Mr. Mundo?”
“Heck, call me Mundo, boy. Don’t need the mister round here. And yep, I surely do. Ain’t seen nobody with fingers like yours.”
Sammy beamed a smile at him. “I won’t let you down.”
“I’m sure you won’t. Your choice, though. I’m in charge of this workshop, but we only really do minor stuff here, and then there’s another in Houston. We do major re-hauls there.”
“Is there enough work for me to stay here full time?”
Mundo nodded. “Sure. We can redirect some of the work here if not.”
Sammy frowned at that and clambered to his feet. Jessie knew they had different mothers, but he looked so like Spyder at that moment, only a little shorter and a lot darker, that her heart melted at his confusion. “Why are you being so kind to me, sir?”
“You’re my girl’s brother-in-law, Sammy. Why wouldn’t I be?” Mundo said easily. He clapped Sammy on the back. “Plus, I’m one of the best mechanics we’ve got in the MC, and you’re already better than me. You don’t think I’d be a damn fool to let somebody sneak you off from under my nose?”
Sammy’s grin was slow in coming. “Well, it might be a bit dumb, yeah.”
At her side, Spyder was tense, and when she shot him a look, she saw how nervous he was on his brother’s behalf. Determined to ask Spyder about that later, she murmured, “We should show you your room, Sammy. You’ve got your own digs here.”
He blinked at her, and sheepishly lowered his head. “Thanks, Jessie.”
“Hey, it’s no trouble at all. If anything,” she confided, “My aunty Annette had to do all the maneuvering. They won’t let me do anything because they say I’m too young.”
He frowned at that. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-three.”
“I’m twenty-two.” To Mundo, and sounding concerned now, he asked, “Does that mean I can’t work here? Because I’m too young?”
Mundo blinked. “Nah, son. We’re a little chauvinistic around these parts, that’s all.”
She huffed when Sammy accepted that with just a nod. “Well, that’s fair,” she retorted, glowering at her dad who just grinned. Hell, this was still Texas. Didn’t matter how many years into the new Millennium they were, the modern woman managed to confuse the chauvinists on a daily basis.
Spyder cleared his throat. “If you want to keep on working, buddy, I can show you your room later?”
Sammy nodded. “That would be great. Thanks, Spyder.”
Her mate grabbed her hand and tugged her out of the garage. “I thought I’d best get you out of there before you exploded.”
She grunted. “I hate Texas.”
“You love it really,” he teased.
“Only here would that be the perfect reasoning for the MC not trusting me. Because I’m young and a woman.” She folded her arms across her chest. “It’s a good thing you do your own laundry, Spyder. I wouldn’t want to mix up detergent with bleach. And I think the buttons are a little too difficult for me to press, what with my dainty pinkies. In fact, I think it’s too much trouble to breathe. Goddes forbid my lungs can manage to work out how to use the oxygen in the air.”
He snorted. “I never said I agreed with that, did I? And it’s not like I could argue. We both agreed to keep him in the dark about the whole Shifter thing for a little while.”
“Might be easier said than done. You know, what with the men that turn into bears in the back yard.”
He rubbed his nose. “You have a point.”
“I made the same point when we talked about it yesterday, and the day before,” she retorted.
He grimaced. “I just wanted to get him back. To bring him home.”
“Yeah, I know,” she said, softening. “And now he’s here, you’ve got to address the fact that this is a Shifter Clan. The guys heard you call me wife earlier, so they’ll know to behave, but they can’t behave for long. This is the one place they don’t have to,” she explained. “This is their home.”
“I get that. I do. Look,” he said, holding his hands out. “I’ll tell him when I show him his room later. He’ll be glued to that engine for hours. He wouldn’t even notice if a den of Bears stormed through the gates.”
She gawked at him, somehow sensing he wasn’t joking. “Seriously?”
He nodded, and ruefully grimaced. “He doesn’t want anyone to know but he had learning difficulties as a kid. Can barely read and write thanks to dyslexia. His focus is shit, and he has some ticks and in deeply stressful situations, like you just saw, will either shut down entirely or stutter. But, when it comes to bikes, he’s a demon.”
“Why doesn’t he want anyone to know? People will make exceptions if they understand.”
“That’s just it. He doesn’t want them to make exceptions. His teachers all made him feel like an idiot as a kid. It’s given him a complex.” He shrugged. “There’s no convincing him otherwise. I’ve tried. Trust me. I’m surprised I managed to get him here, if I’m really being honest. He likes everything in its proper place, and he clings to what he knows. I can only imagine he’s just relieved to be out of jail that he’ll settle for anywhere that isn’t connected to that place.”
She processed that, then unable to help it, chuckled a little. She knew she’d offended him, but she held up a hand. “Sorry, Devon, but I was just thinking... he and Ava should get on like a house on fire. I mean, she doesn’t stutter but she’s just as particular.”
His lips twitched. “Particular’s definitely the word. For both of them.”
“Family. You have to love them, right?”
Spyder laughed. “Either that, or hit them with big sticks.”
“I certainly feel like doing that with my dad sometimes.”
“You love him, really.”
Her grin was sheepish. “Maybe. I can certainly appreciate him more now he’s not the boss of me.” She eyed him. “Not that you’re the boss of me now, buddy, but he doesn’t have to know that, does he?”
“I’m the honorary boss, but I have no power,” he teased, then leaned over and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “I was lucky to find you, wasn’t I?”
“The feeling’s mutual.” She sighed as she turned and looked around the yard. “It’s not much, but it’s home, and if you hadn’t popped up when you did, then I probably wouldn’t be here.”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
She jerked a shoulder. “I was going to run away.” Her words had her blowing out an irritated breath. “Running away. Goddess, that makes me sound like a melodramatic kid. I just wanted to live my life on my own rules, you know? I was tired of having to live like a ten year old in a twenty year old’s body.”
He frowned. “Did anyone know about this?”
“No.” She conceded. “Well, no one aside from the travel agent I used to buy my tickets. I went old school. Figured there’d be no way of tracing me that way if I left no electronic trail. I knew they’d stick Ava on my tail oth
erwise. That would have my plan blowing up before I even got out of the state.”
He blinked at her. “How long ago did you book the tickets?”
She shrugged. “Ten months ago.”
“Why did you leave it so long?”
“I’ve been paying off the tickets with my wages. I didn’t want to start my life in debt, and I wanted to have some money saved up for where I was heading. Why?”
“I think I know what started this whole shitstorm with Martinez.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Where’s Mars?”
“Probably in his quarters.” She shrugged. “Either that or the Council room.”
He dragged her along, heading for the Council room first.
“What are we doing?” she complained as she trudged behind him.
“I want to explain this once and once only,” he answered as he knocked on the Council door. When Mars bellowed at them to come in, he stepped inside without hesitation.
Jessie eyed Kiko and Mars and smiled wanly at them. If her revelation was about to be shared with them, then she really wasn’t looking forward to the repercussions. But hell, it wasn’t like she could complain if what she’d told him had something to do with Martinez.
It was his brother, after all, who’d been sent to jail by the son of a bitch.
“What’s wrong, Spyder?” Mars asked, frowning at him over some papers he was reading.
“Jessie just told me something, and I think it explains what triggered Martinez to start this whole shitstorm.”
Mars slowly put down the papers. “Tell me more.”
Spyder shot Jessie an apologetic look, which had her grimacing and holding up a hand. “I’ll tell them.” She glanced at the Prez and VP. “Now, before I say anything, I’m legally an adult in the human world. I can do anything I damn well want. Be it drink, smoke, vote, or have sex. You got that?”
Mars scowled. “You know we don’t adhere to those rules.”
“I could tell you the laws and bylaws that state we do adhere to those rules,” she huffed, and knew she could because she’d made it a damn point of pride to know exactly what rules she had by right. “But it’s by choice that Clans don’t,” she retorted disgruntledly. “However, that’s neither here nor there. Ten months ago, I decided I was going to leave. I bought some tickets. And about two weeks after I met Spyder, that was when I was supposed to take off.”
Kiko gawked at her so hard, he looked like he was about to tip forward out of his chair. If a man of his size and stature could squeak, he did now as he asked, “You were going to run away?”
She folded her arms across her chest, feeling as defensive as she undoubtedly looked. “Yes. I was tired of being treated like a baby. Tired of working for slave wages at the store.”
Mars frowned. “You can have whatever you want within reason. You know that’s how it works.”
“That’s how it works with females,” she retorted bitterly. “My brothers get decent wages, and what do they do with it? Toss it all against the wall. But me, the pittance I got? I saved.” She huffed. “How’s that for fair?”
Mars frowned. “You only had to ask your parents.”
“But that’s just it. I shouldn’t have to ask, Mars. Dammit, I’m an adult and I worked hard and a lot of hours—I should have been paid what I deserved to earn. I know you guys persist in thinking of us as kids, and hell, I know you’re all ancient and in comparison, we are kids, but that doesn’t take away from the fact we’re mentally mature enough to ‘adult’.”
“We’re never mentally mature enough to adult,” Mars stated, a tad ruefully. “You think I don’t wish my dad was around still to ask for advice?”
She shook her head. “No, of course I know you would. But asking him for pocket money because you want a new dress is a little out of your comfort zone, no?”
He coughed at that. “Just a little.”
She nodded, and pressed her lips together. “At least now, I only have to ask Spyder for money.”
He frowned at her. “Will you, now ? Well,” he admitted, “I thought we’d both put into the pot and pay our share. That’s only fair.”
“Really?” she asked, falling for him even more at how easily he accepted that. Goddess, she should have been praying for a human mate all along. They were so much more forward thinking than fuddy duddy Shifter males. “I don’t earn a lot at the store.”
“I think that might be changing now you’re mated.” He pressed his hands to the table and leaned over it. “Right, gentlemen?”
“It was only while she was a cub,” Kiko defended. “I didn’t realize the pay was so bad.”
He aimed that last part at Mars, and his tone was a little guilt-stricken, Jessie had to admit.
“It’s a good wage if we were still living in the seventies, Kiko.”
He flinched. “Shit. I really didn’t think it would be a problem. Your parents provide for everything. I just assumed it was pin money.”
“I don’t want pin money. I want what’s mine. What I’ve rightfully earned. And I want my independence. Even now that I’m mated, that doesn’t change any of that.”
Mars blew out a breath. “Okay, you’ve shaken us up a little. We understand why you were feeling constricted.”
She nodded. “Well, I wanted to make a life of my own.”
“I can’t believe you wanted to leave the Clan,” Kiko admitted huskily.
“I was desperate,” she retorted. “I felt like I was drowning here. You all treat me like a kid, and I know I am in your eyes, but I couldn’t live like that any longer. I need responsibility. Some kind of duty. I don’t want to just sit in my room like a good girl when I’ve finished my eight hour shift folding clothes all day.
“You know I’m a good worker. You know I’m smart, and you’re not utilizing me.”
“All staff say that,” Kiko retorted.
“Yeah, they do, but you can ask my manager. You ask her if I’m good at what I do, and if I’m wasted on folding clothes. It’s a given that someday, when you all think I’m ready, I’ll actually learn to be the manager of the place, but nobody’s told me when that miraculous day might be.”
“I’ll be sure to remind him to ask her,” Mars said, his tone like silk.
She didn’t trust it and hunched her shoulders at his words. Not because she thought her manager wouldn’t agree with what she’d said, but because his voice was pitched to make her nervous.
Damn Clan leaders. Always had the unfair advantage.
“What does this have to do with Martinez?” he asked after a few seconds, and she just knew that silence had been for her and her alone. To make her sweat.
He was going to tell her parents.
Dear Goddesses.
That was going to be a fun conversation.
Before she could huff out her exasperation at being ‘told on’, Spyder murmured, “Jessie booked her tickets with a travel agent.”
“Are there still some of those around?” Mars asked, astonishment coating his words.
“A few,” she confided. “Not many. But enough. Some people prefer the personal touch,” she explained as he carried on gawking at her.
“What if that travel agent recognized who she was. After all, Jessie had to hand out her identity cards to reserve the tickets. What if the agent knew Martinez or someone who works for him, and knows the bastard has a grudge against The Nomads.”
“This seems like a lot of speculation,” Kiko started to say, but Mars held up a hand to stall him.
“Carry on, Spyder.”
Her mate nodded. “Once Jessie was on her way, out of Clan protection, they could have snatched her. Getting us involved with this package drop might have been a distraction. Like smoke and mirrors. It would have worked too, if Jessie wasn’t in the picture.
“Let’s face it. Our MCs would have gone to war. Even if you’d noticed Jessie had gone missing, you’d have been focused elsewhere. Especially considering how I decided to ge
t your attention.”
“You really think Martinez wanted to abduct Jessie?”
“What better way to punish you all?” he replied softly. “I mean, the dates just add up. Jessie buys tickets ten months ago. Nine months ago, that farce is set up and Sammy gets locked up. The trial was a joke and he was in jail within a few months. Then, Martinez gets in touch with me a handful of weeks before Jessie’s due to leave? Just enough time for me to convince you to do my MC a favor and carry that package for me. Then boom, we’re at war because you’d check the package and see that it was loaded with contraband and would assume Spider’s Venom was trying to get you into deep shit.” He shrugged. “A distraction. All while Jessie’s winging her way out of here and he can get his dirty hands on her.” He cleared his throat. “I mean, the man sells skin, guys. Look at her. She’s perfect. Blonde, petite, curvy? She’s prime market material.”
Jessie blinked at that. “Thanks, I think,” she snarled. “It’s nice to know I’m worth a pretty penny on the meat market.”
Spyder’s grin was rueful. “Sorry, babe. But you know what I’m trying to say.”
Mars shot Kiko a look. “What do you think?”
“I think it sounds like it could be what went down, but we’ve no way of knowing for sure.”
Mars murmured, “You did say, Jessie, that you felt like the package wasn’t big enough in the retribution stakes. Your being kidnapped certainly hikes it up a few notches.”
She rubbed her arms as chills ran down her spine. “Just a little.” Goddess, she’d put herself, unwittingly, in so much danger.
“And that look on your face is exactly what we’ve always tried to avoid, Jessie,” Kiko said in a low growl. “All of us, this entire Clan, none of it matters without our cubs. You’re the future, Jessie. Without you, we’re nothing. That’s why we keep you tight to the nest. I know you all rail at it, and I know it gets you mad, but there are bastards out there who’ll play on your connection to us. Do you understand?”
She closed her eyes and nodded. “Do you have to tell my parents? I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Mars grunted. “That’s why I should tell them.”
Her eyes popped open. “Please, don’t. Honestly, I know I was stupid. And I’m not going anywhere now Spyder’s here. I’m safe.”
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