Chapter Five
Jax
“I’ve seen some stupid motherfuckers in my time, but this guy takes the fuckin’ cake.” I was watching Shotgun go through the files on Alistair’s phone while we were still in the air. Holly had called Celeste and Wrath, both of whom had said nothing other than how happy they were that she was OK. They hadn’t mentioned how worried they were or how stupid it had been of her to take off like she did, and I breathed a small sigh of relief. After that, she and Shotgun had discussed what she’d found.
Holly had gone to sit in the crew section while Shotgun and I looked this over. Shotgun because he was the Black Reign MC tech guy. Me because I wanted the information first, Goddamnit. If Wrath got this before me, he’d murder the man the second he stepped off the aircraft. Shotgun said the plane’s sat connection was secure and not as slow as I might think, but he wanted to take more than a couple of hours to analyze the phone data. Working on this now might not speed things up, but it didn’t hurt to try. We were less than an hour out, but we continued to comb through what we could. The more questions and answers we had before we had to interrogate the man directly, the better.
“Surely to God neither him nor the senator could be this fucking stupid. There’s got to be a simple explanation.” Shotgun sounded as perplexed as I felt. Thing was, I absolutely could believe this guy was that stupid.
“I mean, no one ever accused anyone in Washington of being smart. Right?”
“Humm… You have a point there. OK. So, if we assume they are that stupid, is there any possibility we’ve interpreted this wrong? I mean, maybe the phrase, ‘get top dollar for the bitches’ could mean almost anything.” Shotgun actually said that with a straight face.
“I want you, Eden, and anyone else you want to have eyes on it, to make sure this is legit, not some blackmail scheme or political entrapment or whatever bullshit they do in Washington to get and hold power. I want concrete proof, Shotgun.”
The other man raised an eyebrow. “You givin’ me orders, pup?”
“I’m lead in the field on this one, so yeah. I’m givin’ you fuckin’ orders.” I kept my gaze leveled on Shotgun until the man burst out laughing.
“You’re so full of shit. And a dumbass.” Shotgun looked genuinely amused, not like he was calling me out for not showing respect for my elders. Which reminded me, I needed to apologize to him for that very thing. And phrase it that exact way. Should be fun. “You were trying to stare me down, bro.”
When I continued to stare at him, he cracked up again. “Over a video call! Which means you’re lookin’ at my eyes, but you’re really lookin’ into the screen. Not the camera.”
“I don’t know how Eden puts up with you, man. Now I’m thinkin’ you’re the one who’s stupid.”
The other man grinned at me. “In all seriousness, Jax. Don’t kill the fucker. In fact, stay as far away from him as possible. Let Razor babysit.”
“You afraid I’d kill him?”
“Absolutely that’s what I’m afraid of. Not that I care overmuch, but El Diablo will. You know he takes killin’ seriously. And if these guys really are guilty of human trafficking, El Diablo gets to set and carry out their punishment.”
“I can be as creative and diabolical as El Diablo.” I winced. Because yeah, I sounded sulky.
“Not sure I’d bet on you there, Jax. Just get Holly as far away from that guy as possible.”
I started to tell him I could absolutely get behind that plan when there was a bloodcurdling scream. Followed by several battle cries.
“The fuck was that?” Shotgun’s eyes were wide. You comin’ in hot?”
I hurried out of the little room to the main part of the plane and to where the women had been sitting in a group. Razor leaned against the bulkhead in front of the seating separating the passenger section from the crew section. In one of the seats, Chris Alistair was tied with his hands behind his back and his legs tied at the knees, spreading them as far apart as they’d go in his chair.
“Nothing.” I shrugged. “The girls are having a, err, therapy session. Yeah. Therapy session.”
“Great.” Shotgun’s dry tone and the roll of his eyes nearly made me grin. But I honestly didn’t feel like it at the moment. And yeah. I knew the other man was trying to take the edge off my anger. “I’ll let El Diablo know you guys are bring home a half-dead senator’s son.”
“You’re assuming he’ll be only half dead.”
“Point.” Shotgun gave me a little wave before ending the call.
I wasn’t sure how much I trusted myself to be anywhere near Alistair at the moment, but I had to get Holly and make sure she was ready to face everyone when we landed. No doubt her mother and father would have some words. Wrath and Celeste would give Holly time to process, but I was feeling more than a bit protective of her.
With a shrug I went forward to the crew section. Fuck that little prick, Alistair. If the girls castrated him, so much the better. There were usually soldiers at the monitor banks, but this mission had been extraction only. This close to home, Mechanic kept up with the flight instrumentation and Razor would be back in the cockpit before they got ready to land.
Holly sat in one of the console stools. She was spinning around and round. Whenever she slowed, she’d push off with the workstation and start spinning again. I’d seen her do this same thing all the time at the bar in the compound. It always meant she was stressed about something. When she was little, it had been her cancer. Having childhood leukemia meant she’d grown up used to needles and medications and chemo treatments…
Part of the reason she’d caught my interest was because, when she first came to Black Reign, she’d given Wrath what-for when he and Celeste had been going through a rough patch after they’d first gotten together. The door to Celeste and Holly’s room hadn’t been fully closed, and I heard Holly’s shrill little voice in the hallway. She’d said, “Don’t you hurt my mommy again, or I’ll get Blade to do surgery on you. He said if it hurt when I woke up, it would hurt even worse if he hadn’t put the needle with the medicine in my arm to make me sleep.” I’d only been a teenager, but even I could tell the child meant it, and she was fully confident Blade would do exactly what she described. That show of protection for her mother told me how much she loved Celeste, and how brave she was to stand up to a man as big and scary as Wrath. She’d been all of about four at the time, and already hell on wheels.
I was reluctant to say anything to break her concentration. She’d used to do this for hours. She said it was comforting. I didn’t have to start the conversation, though. Holly did it all on her own, after she’d thought through what she wanted to say. It was her way.
“Turns out, Andrea wasn’t as great a friend as I thought.” She gave a self-deprecating snort but looked anything but amused. She kept twirling on the stool.
“Some people are shit, baby. Don’t know what to tell you there.”
“The whole reason I came on this stupid trip was to protect her.” She stopped spinning, her hands gripping the workstation desk tightly. “I never guessed she might have her own agenda.” She turned her head to meet my gaze then. “Did she know about the attack, Jax?”
“Lookin’ that way, baby. Unless me and Shotgun are both wrong, it looks like she was eyeball deep in this shit. And believe me, it’s shit. I’d say the senator and Chris are both lookin’ at hard prison time, but this is the kind of stuff that gets people killed. Prison or not.”
“Yeah. Not that I expect anyone to go to prison.” She leveled me with a look. Yeah. This girl was definitely aware of how “Uncle El” dealt with problems like the Alistairs.
“You gonna be good with that?”
“With Chris? Yep. I won’t lose a moment’s sleep over that motherfucker.”
“But you’re upset over Andrea.”
“She’s been my friend for a long time. Even though I know in my heart she’s a horrible person, I need to know the why of it. Maybe she was threatened. In which case, it’s still not all right. But I’d rather she threw me under the bus than someone who didn’t have people who cared about them and were willing to put a sophisticated GPS tracker in my phone and my watch, then send an expensive paramilitary plane to come get them.”
“Dear Lord.” I sighed, rolling my eyes. “Holly, it is not OK for you to wade into danger. That’s what you have me for. Me and every man in the fuckin’ club. You tell us, and we take the danger.”
“I didn’t know, Jax,” she whispered, turning away from me. “I had a feeling, but that’s it. I couldn’t send in the cavalry based on a feeling. Besides, she’s my best friend. I gave her my misgivings and she didn’t share them. I was trying to protect her without causing problems for her.”
“Hey. Look at me.” She shook her head, but I stepped closer and gripped her chin gently and turned her head toward me. “Did you give me gray hairs with this stunt? Yeah. An abundance of them. I have a feeling it will always be like that with you. You were trying to protect a friend. While I wish you’d’ve gone to me or Wrath, I’m proud of you for protecting those you love. Just promise me that next time you’ll come to me. OK?”
“I suppose I owe you that much. More, even. So, yeah. I’ll make that promise.”
I grinned. “Good.” Then I brushed my lips over hers in a tender caress. It wasn’t an aggressive or intense kiss, but the sensation nearly brought me to my fucking knees. Holly was perfectly still beneath me. She was sitting on a raised stool, but I still towered over her. She didn’t resist, but didn’t participate for several seconds.
As I was about to pull back and reassess the situation, Holly sighed and surrendered to me. Her hands went to my sides, and she pulled me closer to her. I framed her face with my hands and deepened the kiss, lapping at the seam of her lips until she opened her mouth to let me inside.
The taste of her was intoxicating, the scent of her hair, the feeling of her body against mine. My heart pounded in my chest, a quick staccato rhythm. I pulled away reluctantly but needed to make sure she was good with my kiss. I hadn’t exactly asked her, though I knew Holly wasn’t the type of woman to sit passively while a man assaulted her. Not even me. Especially not me.
Her eyes fluttered open, wide with surprise and what I hoped was desire. Her breathing came in shallow pants, her cheeks flushed with a rosy hue. The sight of her -- tousled hair, swollen lips, and bright eyes -- nearly undid me. With all the self-control I could muster, I stepped back slightly.
“That was, uh,” she stuttered, searching for the right words. “Unexpected.”
“Is it?” I smiled at her, my hand still caressing her cheek.
A small crease formed on her forehead as she tried to process what had just happened. She narrowed her gaze in concentration. When she looked up, she framed my face in her hands much like I had hers and leaned in to kiss me.
This time, our tongues danced together, exploring each other in a slow, rhythmic waltz. It was a sweet longing and surrender, of promises and a possession so acute, I had to keep myself from growling. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her.
Her hands threaded into my thick hair, gripping the strands in an almost spasming hold. She returned the kiss with equal passion and longing. I could almost believe maybe she felt the same way about me I felt about her. Did she? Could she see me as something other than an annoying, overprotective older brother? Because I stopped seeing her as my little sister years ago.
When I pulled back this time, Holly grunted her displeasure. I looked down into her upturned face to see her flushed cheeks and nearly glazed eyes. She seemed dazed, as if she couldn’t quite believe what had happened but wasn’t willing for it to end. At least, that’s what I hoped she was feeling. God knew I was.
“Jax.” She sighed my name, her eyes still wide and shocked. There was also what looked like a wildness blossoming inside her. I could see it plain as the nose on my face. One second she was simply dazed, the next she was locked on me. Like the prey had now become the predator. And, wouldn’t you know it, that show of aggression made me hard as fuck.