“Whatcha gonna do?”
Turning on my heels, I headed back inside to see Reaper and Ghost waiting for me. Both men were smiling.
Pissed, I pointed at both of them. “This is all your fault!”
“I didn’t do shit,” Ghost grinned, pointing at Reaper.
“She is full of surprises, isn’t she?” Reaper smirked.
“Fuck you asshole,” I growled, walking towards him, my hand out as I ordered. “Give me your keys.”
Reaper wasn’t smiling now.
“The fuck did you just say?”
I grinned. “This is your fault, asshole. She took my bike. Give me yours. Someone has to go after her.”
“He’s right Max,” Remi said, walking over to him eating an ice-cream. Which instantly pissed me off more, because that’s was what I wanted to get Hailey and Jess but thanks to Mr. Fucking-Buttinsky I couldn’t even do that.
Reaper looked at his woman, then back at me. “He can take a fucking cage. No man’s ass is allowed on my bike, ever. My bike is sacred.”
“A cage is too slow and you know it,” I countered, challenging him to say anything different. “Keys.”
“Max. Give him your keys. Now.” Remi ordered, standing in front of him.
“Fuck,” he groaned, handing them to me. “You better not fuck this up because right now I am itching to see you in the shed, asshole.”
Leaving, I shouted over my shoulder, “If she gets one scratch on my bike, you can take me to the shed because I will whip her ass raw!”
I had just pulled up to the turn off for town when I spotted Jess idling at the stop sign. Her head was hanging low and when she turned to look at me as I pulled up beside her, I could see the tears streaking her face.
Hopping off Reaper’s bike, I walked around and turned off the ignition to my bike as a soft warm wind blew around us, birds were chirping off in the distance. When she raised her head to look up at me, I could see the desperation, the fear, the worry in her eyes.
She was scared to death.
All my anger fled. Doing the only thing I could think of, I opened my arms. The next thing I knew she was in my arms, crying.
I’d been around women long enough to know when they got their cry on it was best to let them get it all out. I’d been there for Kitty many times growing up, even held our mom a time or two but this felt different. I couldn’t really explain it. It just did. Jess wasn’t my sister and she sure as hell wasn’t my mom.
Thank fuck for that.
Jess was the woman who held my heart in her hands, not that she knew that yet. Holding her as her little body was wracked with tears, I felt the need to avenge her, to make everything better for her. To protect her. To make sure she was safe and loved.
“Just breathe baby,” I said, holding her close. “I won’t let anything happen. I promise.”
She sniffed. “You can’t promise that.”
“The fuck I can’t.”
“I want to leave Savage. I can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
Okay. She said that before. I needed her to clarify that statement. “Jess, what do you mean it’s not safe? You said the same thing at the park.”
Wiping her tears, she stepped back and muttered, “I meant I’m not safe here.”
“This club will not let anything happen to you. Neither will I.”
“It won’t make a difference because he will send someone to kill me when he learns I'm here. I’ve stayed hidden since I was sixteen, Savage. I’ve changed my name, I don’t use credit cards, I paid cash for my apartment. I tried hard not to leave a footprint. I knew I shouldn’t have come here. I should have run away again. Now that I’m here. He will know. There are men from the Florida Chapter here. They are loyal to him.”