Jack & Coke (The Uncertain Saints Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “My God,” Tasha exclaimed loudly. “Can I film this?”

  I hastily ripped my shirt down over my chest, concealing my breasts.

  Mig growled, shielding me with his body as I repositioned my clothes.

  Only when I was completely covered, did he sit up.

  And neither my sister nor I missed the huge erection that filled out the front of his jeans.

  “You must be Tornado Tasha,” Mig said.

  Well, more like growled, but I wasn’t going to get into semantics.

  “Seriously, Annie? Why do you have to tell everyone that?” She asked, walking into the room like she didn’t just catch me on the verge of having sex with a hot and sexy man.

  I smiled at her, nearly spontaneously orgasming when Mig brought his fingers to his lips while my sister had her back turned and licked my juices off his fingers.

  My mouth dropped open.

  He grinned.

  Then he was gone, leaving me with a smirking Tasha.

  “So…you have something to tell me?”

  Chapter 13

  I don’t have a bucket list. However, my fuck-it list is novel length.

  -Mig to Annie

  Mig

  “Do you think when a mattress is on top of a car, it’s a prostitute making house calls?” Annie asked her sister.

  My head turned, and a laugh bubbled up my throat.

  Amazingly, I was able to hold it in.

  Annie was notorious for making random comments like that, and when alcohol loosened her tongue, she said even more ridiculous comments than she normally would.

  “No,” Tasha said. “That’s just weird.”

  “But why else would someone put it on top of their car?”

  Peek was laughing uproariously at the way our conversation had turned.

  I’d made a comment, not even a minute before, how Annie couldn’t keep her mind on the task she was given if you got her distracted, and he didn’t believe me.

  So to prove my point, I started talking about how I wanted to go mattress shopping, and she’d gone off on a tangent about prostitutes and mattresses.

  “Annie,” I said sharply.

  She looked up at me with wide, brown eyes.

  “Yeah?” She asked.

  “Do you have the chicken ready yet?” I asked, knowing without a doubt that she didn’t.

  She looked down at the chicken that was still just as fatty now as it had been when I handed it to her ten minutes before.

  “No,” she said. “I’m working on it.”

  “Mine’s done!” Tasha exclaimed.

  I turned my eyes to Tasha, struck once again how different she was from Annie.

  Where Annie was short, Tasha was tall.

  I’m talking five or so inches over Annie’s five feet four inches.

  Annie had lovely curves, and a beautiful abundance of breasts to work with, whereas Tasha could maybe fill up a B…if she was lucky.

  They did have the same wavy, curly-when-it-wanted-to-be, brown hair.

  But their eyes were different colors.

  Annie’s were a warm shade of honey brown, while Tasha’s were a darker shade that looked almost black.

  And their attitudes.

  Swear to Christ.

  Tasha was a little timid, looking at the gathering with wide, nervous eyes.

  She looked like she’d never been out amongst the general population before…and maybe she hadn’t.

  Annie, though, my sweet Annie, was easy going, got along well with Lenore and the rest of the club. Didn’t sneer at the women that showed for the party…nor the men.

  Not that I cared if she got along with the men.

  She stayed by my side, keeping her eyes, as well as her attention, on me.

  Tasha had loosened up after Annie had poured some drinks down her throat.

  Not that Tasha had realized there was any booze in her drinks.

  She’d been told they were lemonade.

  And Annie had laughed behind my back as Tasha had drank one after the other.

  Now, though, Annie was just as sloshed as Tasha, and the boys were enjoying the shit out of it.

  “That chicken is butchered,” Annie laughed. “There’s more chicken on the fat you cut off than on the chicken that we’re supposed to cook.”

  I looked over at Tasha’s chicken, and thought that just maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to give a knife to two drunk girls.

  “It’s alright,” I said, taking Tasha’s knife. “I’ll cut these up. How about you ladies go take a seat next to Lenore.”

  Lenore was sitting on the couch with Griffin sitting beside her, rubbing her pregnant belly like one would a pet.

  She looked cute…and it made me think of Jennifer.

  Of my child.

  This life I’d been given was not how I’d expected it to play out.

  If I had ever thought about a woman carrying my child, I’d have seen myself doing much the same as Griffin was currently doing.

  Never in my life would I have imagined myself watching my child grow in the belly of a woman that I despised.

  “So I have some news for you, and I’m not sure you’re going to like it,” Casten said once the women left to take up seats across from Griffin and Lenore.

  I looked over at him, then back down at the chicken.

  “You looked deeper into Cornell? Autrey?” I asked.

  He’d told me he was going to do it.

  We’d gone the official route, and, of course, there was little to nothing new there to be found. So Casten started to dig deeper, unofficially, of course.

  Casten was a bounty hunter.

  He’d found Ross Autrey for me, not that it had done much good, though. Then he’d started looking into Liam Cornell.

  I hadn’t expected any news at this point, and it somewhat surprised me that he already had some.

  It’d taken him days to find anything on Autrey.

  Whomever was covering their tracks was good.

  “Yeah,” he said, leaning his hips against the kitchen counter next to me. “I had to double check…but what I found…it’s bad.”

  I sighed and put down the knife, walking over to the sink to wash my hands.

  Once they were clean of chicken guts, I started out the door.

  Casten followed me silently.

  Once outside, I saw Apple talking to someone on the phone.

  “Yo,” I snapped. “Core!”

  Apple turned around like his ass had been cattle prodded.

  “Yes?” He asked, hanging up on whomever he was talking to.

  I grinned.

  “Go cut up those pieces of chicken. Try not to make them any smaller than they already are,” I ordered.

  Core, who’d we’d just started calling that since the night he’d helped me with Annie at Hail House, practically ran inside.

  “I kind of like that name. Wish I would’ve gotten something cool like that,” Casten said.

  I snorted.

  Casten had been dubbed ‘Big Ten’. Something he never went by because he said it made him sound like a surfer.

  Ours wasn’t really the type of club that cared what you wanted to go by.

  You went by what you wanted to go by, and that was that.

  “Tell me what you got,” I said softly.

  He opened the file that he magically pulled from his back pocket, and my stomach rolled.

  ***

  Casten roared off the second Tasha was clear of his bike, not even looking backwards to make sure she was safely on the concrete.

  I laughed under my breath, getting off my bike as I did.

  The man had it bad, and he didn’t stand a chance.

  Seriously, there was nothing a man could do if one of the Garcia sisters put you in her sights.

  All Casten could do was hold on for the ride.

  Annie waved goodbye, and I walked slightly behind Tasha
to her front door.

  “Don’t forget that you promised to help me out tomorrow with practice,” Tasha said as an afterthought.

  I looked back in the direction I’d left Annie, who smiled and waved at her sister in acknowledgement.

  “I’ll be there…with bells on!” She screamed.

  Tasha snorted and continued to walk, glancing at me once we got to the door.

  “You’re not going to hurt her, are you?” Tasha blurted suddenly.

  I blinked.

  “Not intentionally, no,” I replied softly.

  She nodded, studying her feet for quite a while before she looked up at me, smiled, then went inside without a backwards glance.

  I turned and walked away once I heard the doors lock, heading to my bike where Annie was leaning over, playing with the key chain.

  “What are you doing?” I said loudly, making her jump with a guilty look on her face.

  “I’m sorry,” she laughed. “I just like your keychain.

  I nodded.

  “It was a bullet I got in Iraq,” I said, not offering up an explanation as to why it was on my keychain.

  I knew she wouldn’t let it go.

  Although, I’d hoped she’d leave it alone, I knew she wouldn’t.

  Annie just wasn’t made that way.

  She was always thirsty for information. Curious.

  Especially when it came to me.

  “You were in Iraq?” She asked.

  I laughed.

  “Yeah, you could say that,” I responded evasively.

  I wouldn’t be telling Annie about my time there.

  Not tonight. Not after we’d had such a good time together.

  One day she would have to know more about Iraq and my deployments, but not right now. We were too new. We had too many things we needed to work on first before we started on the demons of my past.

  Annie must have realized that Iraq was a sore subject, because she smiled and turned around towards the bike.

  “Don’t forget to get her up by eight. The game starts at nine,” Tasha ordered, making us both turn to look back at the opened door.

  Annie waved at Tasha, acknowledging that she’d heard.

  “Where does she have to be?” I asked.

  “The high school. Tomorrow is the alumni volleyball game at our old high school,” Annie replied, smiling slightly.

  My thoughts immediately went to tight little shorts, and how fuckin’ hot they would look cupping Annie’s ass.

  It didn’t surprise me that Tasha had been a volleyball player.

  Tasha may be a knockout, but she had nothing on Annie.

  Annie who was short and curvy.

  I hadn’t realized that short girls played volleyball.

  “We’ll get you there on time.”

  Annie smiled and remounted the bike. She sat there with her eyes closed.

  “Helmet!” I barked.

  “Shit,” she said, covering her heart. “You scared me.”

  I smiled down at my feet as I straddled the seat in front of her, waiting patiently for her to slip the helmet onto her head.

  “Sorry,” I said once she was situated.

  She wrapped her hands around my waist.

  “I wasn’t truly asleep, but really close to being there,” she admitted.

  I patted her thigh.

  “Your place or mine?” I asked.

  She squeezed me tighter.

  “Where is yours now?” She asked curiously.

  In answer, I started the bike and headed back towards the river.

  I was staying on a house boat.

  One that Griffin had been staying at during his and Lenore’s separation.

  Not that the separation had gone on for long.

  Seemed the houseboat was bound and determined to kick its occupants out before they thought they were ready to commit to relationships.

  The haze of clouds made the ride feel ominous, but Annie seemed to enjoy it, despite it being on the cooler side.

  We arrived at the clubhouse once more, and she was practically asleep on my back.

  And by the time I’d motored across the lake on the boat, she was asleep.

  How, I didn’t know.

  The river was louder than fuck, and it wasn’t a gentle ride.

  The wind was picking up, and waves were white capping, but Annie didn’t budge, and I wondered idly if she’d make it to her game in time in the morning.

  A quick ride from the clubhouse to the house boat, I tied us up while Annie, out like a light, snored softly, not a care in the world.

  Her complete trust in me was humbling.

  But for the first time in a very long time, since my first deployment in Iraq, I was afraid.

  I was afraid not only for Annie, but also for me.

  After reading what Casten was able to uncover about not just Liam Cornwell, but my ex-wife as well, I was left reeling.

  And I wasn’t sure how the hell I was going to get myself out of this without leaving a huge, gaping hole in my heart.

  Chapter 14

  When I’m through with you, even the neighbors will need a cigarette.

  -Mig’s secret thoughts

  Mig

  “What the fuck are we doing here?” Casten asked, walking beside me down the corridor of Jefferson High School.

  “Exactly what I want to know,” Wolf grumbled.

  I took Nathan from Wolf’s hands, delighted to hear him giggle for the first time in weeks.

  “Because, for some reason, I was roped into it,” I said, blowing a raspberry into Nathan’s neck.

  He was looking really good, and I was happy to see that he’d started to come back to his old self.

  “How was a six foot three motherfucker, such as yourself, ‘roped in’ to anything?” Ridley asked.

  I waited until we made it into the gym, entering the door that Annie told me to enter through, and pointed.

  “That,” I answered, pointing at Annie’s small shorts that covered slightly more than panties would.

  “Damn,” Casten hissed, his eyes going to Tasha.

  Tasha was wearing much the same as Annie was.

  Short shorts that could double as a pair of those boy shorts underwear, a ribbed tank top, knee pads, long socks that came up to her knees, and white shoes the likes I’d never seen before.

  I snorted, then walked to the bleachers, stepping up on the first bench to take a seat on the second.

  The shoes reminded me of those old 80’s shoes that the women used to wear to work out in, offering what I guessed was ankle support.

  I had to admit, Tasha looked good.

  But she wasn’t Annie.

  “The little high school girls aren’t doing it for me, but motherfucker, look at the other side,” Ridley drawled, looking at a young woman who was still in incredible shape, even though it was blatantly obvious that she hadn’t been in high school for a while.

  “My eyes haven’t made it past that ass,” Casten mumbled, mostly to himself.

  “So why did the cops get called out to your house this morning?” Ridley asked, keeping his eyes on the woman.

  I sighed, shifting Nathan onto the floor between my legs.

  He immediately got down and started across the court.

  Annie, having seen the little boy, broke off from where she’d been setting a ball, and picked Nathan up.

  Nathan and Annie had met at the party last night, and Annie had fallen in love.

  Nathan had a way of making women melt, so it wasn’t much of a surprise.

  “Nate!” Annie crowed, bending down to gather the boy into her arms.

  Nathan squealed, and Annie took him to a cart that was holding about fifty balls, pulled one out and handed it to him.

  He wrapped his chunky arms around the ball as far as he could, then laid his head against the top of it.

  I turned away from the sight of her holding
a baby.

  My God, how I wished, yet again, it’d been her that I’d gotten pregnant.

  Things would be so much simpler, easier—happier—if it were her carrying my child.

  “We went to my place last night, so this morning I had to make a hasty trip by her old place, next to my house, to get her some clothes she was storing there, to wear to this,” I said. “And when I pulled up on my bike, Jennifer, who was home at the time, came out of my front door thinking I was there to see her…which I wasn’t. I’d originally intended to meet with her this morning to confront her about what Casten showed me last night, but I called and canceled when Annie asked me if I wanted to come with her.”

  “And she got pissed,” Casten said dryly.

  I nodded. “She got pissed.”

  Wolf chuckled when his son threw the ball, causing Annie to bend over for it.

  He continued to do it, too, thinking it was a fun game.

  I, of course, thought it was awesome.

  Annie kept bending over, giving me a fine show.

  “Needless to say, she started wailing and carrying on, accusing me of cheating with our neighbor. Called me every name in the book,” I continued. “And the old woman on the other side of my house called the cops.”

  Ridley nodded.

  “Not really sure what she expected. You can’t just scream profanities in your yard like that. I could have charged her with disturbing the peace,” Ridley growled.

  I clapped my hand down on his shoulder causing him to jerk forward slightly.

  He glared at me.

  “What?” He asked. “She would’ve deserved it.”

  She would have, but I was trying not to be petty.

  “Thought she was going to have a coronary when I told her to stop it,” Ridley continued.

  “Why didn’t she?” Wolf asked.

  I snorted. “She probably would have, but I got her calmed down enough that I could get gone before she could start back up again.”

  “The last time you gave into her temper, you ended up marrying her,” Casten observed.

  I sighed.

  “He told her he’d go to her doctor’s appointment this afternoon,” Ridley said when I didn’t answer fast enough.

  Casten laughed.

  “You’re so fucked. You won’t be able to keep Annie for long. She’s not going to put up with your shit…nor your ex’s,” Casten informed me.