Jake (Demented Souls #16)

9

“Y ou need something, sir?” Jake asked Lurch when he finally found him.

Lurch turned and stared at Jake for a moment, as if confused. “No. Is there a reason you’re asking?”

“I was told you were looking for me.”

Lurch frowned and shook his head. “I said your name in reference, but I wasn’t looking for you. If I needed you, I would have called or texted.”

“Good to know. I’ll go check on how lunch is going then.”

He turned away and slowly made his way toward the edge of the parking lot where the grill was set up. Along the way, Jake scowled and wondered if Iceman had simply misunderstood what had been going on or if he’d deliberately given him a false message. But why? Maybe to get him away from Heather? But from what she’d said, Iceman was her cousin. If that was true, then his motivation couldn’t have been jealousy. Then why had he sent Jake on a wild goose chase just to get him away from her?

It was odd, but Jake would give him the benefit of the doubt at least until he got confirmation that the King was trying to keep him away from her. And if he was, why would he? Did it have anything to do with why she’d looked so scared? Was Iceman the reason he’d seen that look of terror on her face at the museum?

If he was, Jake wasn’t sure he’d let the alliance between the Kings and the Souls stop him from making the other man pay. He hated knowing she was scared and if he could do something about it, he would. And if it wasn’t Iceman causing the fear, maybe the man would be willing to work with him to find who was, and put an end to it.

Jake reached the table where the prospects had laid out the food and double checked that everything looked to be in place. A glance around gave him Miles’ location, so he checked with the other man.

“What do you need me to do?” Jake asked as he stopped beside Miles.

“I think we’re good, at least for now.” Miles barely glanced at him as he kept an eye on the last-minute preparations, then turned to call out, “LINE UP!” He watched as several of the women stood and began to make their way in their direction. “I could use your help after we eat.”

“No problem, what do you need?”

“If you could oversee making sure all the plates, cans, bottles, that kind of thing, make it to the trash, that would be great.”

Jake frowned. “Doesn’t everyone take care of their own?”

“Yeah, but once in a while something gets missed. If you could just cruise around the place a couple of times, making sure we got everything picked up, that would be great. I hate leaving a mess for someone else to clean up, especially after bringing in a group this size.”

“No problem. Are you sure that’s all you need?”

“Yeah. After everyone’s through eating, I’ll have these guys,” he tilted his head toward the prospects who’d done the bulk of the work, “finish cleaning up, then we’ll be done until we call it a day, load up and head home. You’ll want to make sure to send them back for your coolers before you mount up.”

“Not a problem. I don’t think we would have forgotten them, but it’s good to have the reminder and of course I’ll take care of policing the area. You’ve done so much of the work today. Thanks for that. I owe you. I’ll have to return the favor for our next get together.” Jake made sure Miles had his number so they could stay in touch and plan additional events between the two clubs, then wandered off. He wanted to find Heather again, and hopefully work out the details on that date.

He spotted her a moment later, standing near the rear of the line to fix a plate. It only took him a moment to approach her.

“Where are you planning on sitting?” he asked, resisting the nearly overwhelming urge to wrap an arm around her waist, tug her close so he could taste her lips.

“Matt’s got seats for us over there?” She motioned toward the far side of the gazebo. “Want to have lunch with us? I’m sure if you go check with him, he’ll save an extra seat then you can come back and get your plate with me.”

He smiled. “I’ll go check with him, then once you’re back, we’ll get ours.” Unable to resist this time he bent, but instead of kissing her, because he didn’t want to scare her or see fear in her eyes, he touched his forehead to hers like he hadn’t done to anyone since leaving Mobile all those years ago.

Strange how the old habit that their group had somehow gotten into, he didn’t even remember why they’d started it, came back to him. As soon as he’d touched his forehead to hers, he straightened and went in search of Iceman.

With her in line, it gave him a chance to talk to the other man.

“Is your problem with me specifically or do you not like anyone around Heather?” Jake asked as he stepped into the seat across the table from where Iceman sat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Iceman stared at him as if he hadn’t just lied to him.

“Sure, play it that way.” Jake stared at him for a moment, knowing their time was limited until Heather came back with her food. “Tell me this, are you trying to protect her, or have you got a thing for your cousin? Do you think she’ll ever return you feelings?”

The look on Iceman’s face told Jake what he needed to know. It wasn’t that Iceman was harboring some weird desire for her.

“Tell me what’s up and we can work together to keep her safe.”

Iceman narrowed his eyes and watched Jake for a few moments then spoke. “Her ex is a piece of shit. I don’t have a lot of details yet, but it looks like he’s mixed up with a one percent club, I don’t know which one, she didn’t remember the name. She overheard a couple of idiots talking about how he was making a deal. They’d take her in exchange for wiping out his debt.”

Jake didn’t bother to keep the surprise off his face. Though he didn’t know why. Little surprised him anymore.

“What else do you know?”

“Not a whole lot for certain. She heard them talking about her, but they didn’t know she could hear them. She acted like she couldn’t, got the hell out and left town.”

“When was that?”

“She left Alabama almost two weeks ago. It took her a few days to get up here and she’s been staying with me since.”

“Do you know the name of the club?”

“No. she wasn’t sure, and I haven’t had time to look into it when she wasn’t with me. She gets anxious when left alone for too long and sometimes it’s all I can do to go to work. I’ve called in a couple of times because I couldn’t leave her like that.” He turned and watched the woman in question. Jake assumed it was not only to make sure she was okay, but to be sure she wasn’t approaching and might hear them talking about her. “She didn’t want to come today because she was afraid your club was tied to them, I convinced her it would be safe and that she would be surrounded by me and my brothers and would be safe. Then by chance, someone she knows from down there is here. How can I not draw conclusions?”

Things were becoming more clear to Jake. “Until I walked into that museum and saw her, I hadn’t seen her or heard anyone speak her name since my family left Alabama roughly twelve years ago. I was just as surprised to see her as she was to see me. And the look of terror on her face before she spotted me just about gutted me.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to continue. “I’ve thought about her over the years. I want to help her in any way I can.” He wasn’t going to admit to this near stranger how he felt, at least not all of it. But he needed her cousin to trust him. To tell him what he knew so Jake could help protect her. So he could make sure she was safe. He needed to do that, even if he could never have what he wanted from her.

And he wanted now, a hell of a lot more than he’d wanted twelve years ago. More than he’d known existed twelve years ago. But did she want it? That was what mattered.

No. What mattered first was making sure she was safe. He also wanted her happy but happy came second to making sure she was safe. Somewhere farther down the line was wanting to be with her, so far he wasn’t considering it right now.

“Tell me what you know, before she gets here.”

“I already did. That’s all I know.”

“You said she didn’t know the club, do you know the ex’s name?”

“Mitch Coleman. She’d been seeing him for the better part of a year, had moved in with him. She said she went home, knowing he wasn’t there, grabbed a few things and got the hell out of Dodge. I didn’t know until the next morning. She stopped for the night, slept then called me.”

“Do they have anyway of tracking here up here?”

Iceman turned and watched Heather again. She was getting closer to the table where all the food was laid out, which meant they were running out of time.

“Maybe. I don’t know what kind of resources they have. I’ve been hoping that it’s been this long, they’re not following her, but I can’t count on that.” He turned back to look at Jake. “I had her take some precautions, but there were others I just couldn’t risk.”

“Tell me.” Jake pulled out his phone so he could make notes of anything he’d need to check.

“I had her pull cash and use that after she called me from Tennessee, but I couldn’t have her get rid of her phone. I needed a way for her to call me or to call for help if she had trouble on the road. And her truck is only a few years old. I don’t know if it has any kind of tracking in it. Fuck, it just occurred to me that the asshole could have planted some kind of tracker in it. I didn’t even think to check it.”

“But you said it’s been almost two weeks, so one might think that if they were looking to get her back, then they would have made it up here by now.”

“That’s possible. It’s also possible she’s just a low priority at the moment or they’re waiting for her to let her guard down. Maybe waiting for the heat to die down on something else or even this. The longer they wait, the less it seems like them when they do snatch her.” Iceman shrugged. “I don’t know these guys, and she said she’d only met them a couple of times, but they gave her the creeps. Said they talked about things no one who cared about staying out of jail would say in front of someone they weren’t sure wouldn’t turn them in.”

Jake was quiet for a moment as he considered that. He and the Demented Souls were careful what was said around anyone, not about the things that could be criminal, but about the things that could get them killed. The criminal stuff that had to be proven, or at least they had to have evidence of some kind. Maybe knowing that had made this club, whatever it was, bold.

“Good to know. What else do you know? Is the club from Mobile or maybe one of the surrounding areas?” MC’s and even motorcycles had barely been on his radar the last time he’d been in the area. Hell, he’d considered himself lucky to have the old beater pickup he’d worked his ass off for the summers of his freshman and sophomore years to buy.

They talked a little more, Jake taking down all Iceman could tell him. He’d do some inquiring once they got back to the ranch.

As Heather approached, they changed the subject, Jake asked Iceman how long he’d been in the area as she sat down, not next to him as he’d hoped, but beside her cousin. Maybe with time he’d get her more willing to come over to his side.