Chapter 22 Jackal
JACKAL
Blackfoot’s song “Highway” blasts through my earbuds as I race home. There’s a fire in my belly to get there fast. First, I want to see how my man is doing. I figure I should probably help him shower and change the sheets so he can sleep comfortably.
As I think about him, his name appears on my phone, but seeing I’m less than ten seconds away, I skip answering it and just accelerate to get home faster.
There’s some leftover soup, but that isn’t going to be enough for either of us. We need something filling. I’ll grill some chicken or something.
Maybe I can convince Isla to join us.
The feel of her lips on mine has been on my mind all day.
But I’m also worried about the conditions she’s living in, and I want to see if there are any jobs I can do to help her move things along.
It’s bothering me, she was asking about someone to do her roof.
Like, if she has a leak, maybe I can patch it until she finds someone to come fix it for her.
Depending on her mood, I might tell her that I called Jinx to get a quote from him to do it for her.
I turn the corner onto our road. It’s pitch dark, one of the things I loved about this street when we first came to see the house. Beyond the tall pines that line the rear of the property, I can see ink-blue sky and stars.
“What the fuck—”
There, in the solid beam of my headlight, I catch Garrett stumbling across the street in an unbuttoned shirt, sweats, and his thick biker boots, his gun raised. He looks like the walking dead, a fucking zombie lurching from side to side.
He must hear the bike, it would be impossible to miss, but he doesn’t so much as glance my way. I speed up until I’m close to him. In five seconds, I’ve parked my bike. In another two, I’ve thrown my helmet to the ground and have my weapon raised.
“What are we doing, Bear?” I ask, jogging to catch up to him.
“There’s someone…the fence…tree line.”
He sways, knees buckling. And I reach for him.
“No,” he grunts as he crumples to the ground. “They were watching Isla.”
I grab my flashlight from my pocket and line it up with the barrel of my gun. As much as I want to drop to my knees and help Garrett stand, it’s more important I cover him.
And then, I see who Garrett was watching. A figure, hunched in the darkness, trying to blend against the tree line as he hurries.
He’s moving too fast for it to be Kevin, given the beating I delivered.
I fire a warning shot. Don’t want to kill some unarmed dickhead of a kid who thinks it’s funny to cause shit at night. But I’m also aware that Kevin didn’t run Garrett off the road.
Maybe the two things aren’t even linked, at all.
I sprint toward them, more to prove my point that I’m not fucking around. I don’t want to get too far away from Garrett, given he’s on his knees.
They have way too much distance advantage, and it’s much too dark to pick out any details, like hair color. But the build isn’t Kevin’s either.
“Kai?” I hear my name from Isla’s lips, but, like Garrett, I don’t take my eyes off the tree line. “Oh my God, Garrett.”
I hear the thud of her feet on her porch steps and am glad when they run away from me toward him.
When I’m certain the person has disappeared into the trees, I turn to see Isla stumble to the ground next to Garrett.
She’s barefoot, wearing thin pajama pants with a white tank.
He’s partly shirtless and in agony. There isn’t enough room in my chest for the anger I feel toward whoever that fucker was.
“Oh my God, Garrett. Why do you have your gun? What just happened?”
Garrett looks up at me, still on his knees, nursing his sprained wrist and tender ribs. “She…needs shoes. Carry her back.”
“I don’t want to leave you vulnerable,” I admit.
“I can walk,” Isla says.
“Kai, please.” But it’s the look on his face, the one that says she’s precious, and he can wait, that makes me act.
“Fine.” I reach down and tug Isla up into my arms. “I’ll be back for you. Stay alert. Don’t move.”
“Funny,” Garrett says. “If you think I could move, do you think I’d still be down here? And bring her home.” He tips his chin toward our house.
Isla looks up at me from beneath long lashes. “What happened, Kai? Why are you and Garrett even out here, waving your guns around? Was it my uncle?”
She’s soft in my arms as we walk back to her house, and I notice that her toenails are painted a bright pink color.
There’s something soul-deep satisfying about being her protector.
As a switch in a relationship with a Dom, it’s easy to default to submission in Garrett’s presence.
But, tonight, he lets me, and with Isla, I can let the other side of myself out.
“There was someone watching your house, according to Garrett. That’s all I know.
Saw them run away over there. It wasn’t your uncle, wrong build. ”
I tip my chin toward the tree line as I walk to her house.
She squirms in my arms, squinting. “Are they still out there? Garrett…he’s still on the street. We need to get him—”
“I scared whoever that was off, for now. We’ve got a minute.”
“My heart’s racing.” She places her palm on her chest.
“Must be because I just swept you off your feet.” I wink at her to ease her discomfort.
She shakes her head ruefully. “As much as it’s lovely, I’m still worried about what just happened.”
I place her on her porch. “You’re coming to stay with us. Pack a bag for the night. I’m gonna help the big guy to his feet.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just make sure the doors are locked.”
I place my hand around the back of her neck, squeezing gently. “You’re coming to stay with us while we figure out whether this was just a one-time thing, not connected to anything else, or something more. You can walk, or I can carry you, but you are coming over.”
“I kissed Garrett,” she says.
“Even better. You come over and we can all kiss each other and pretend this mess didn’t happen tonight.
” As much as I want to flirt with her some more, I look back over my shoulder to Garrett, who is trying to stand.
“Just get your things together, Isla. Please. He won’t move until you’re with us, and he must be in agony. ”
I leave her on the porch and jog over to Garrett, taking his good hand and the weight of him to help him to his feet. “Before Isla gets here, what the hell happened?”
Garrett’s breath shudders. “She brought dinner over. And when she left, I watched her walk across the street. That’s when I saw the guy along the side of her property. Tried to call her to warn her, but she left her phone in the bathroom.”
“The bathroom?” I ask.
It’s rare to see Garrett embarrassed, but I swear to God, he is. “You want to know?”
I kiss him, feeling the bead of sweat on his upper lip. “Yeah, I do.” Isla’s front door slams shut. “Tell me later, yeah?”
He nods and glances her way. “I like the way she kisses.”
I stroke his hair for a second while he catches his breath. “I mean, good kissers are a prerequisite of mine,” I say.
“Sweet talker. You think you can get me home without me doing any more damage to my body?”
“You think you can get your good arm around my shoulder?”
He tries and fails, leaving him gripping his rib cage. “Nope.”
I go behind him, put my arms under his. “Lean your weight on me.” We manage to take small steps, and I think about the courage and bravery of this man. It wouldn’t have occurred to him to sit and watch what happened from the bed, no matter how much it cost him to do what he did.
Isla skips up alongside me. She’s thrown a coat over her pajamas, is wearing sneakers, and is carrying a small backpack flung over one shoulder. I place my hand on her lower back to encourage her to walk ahead of us, so we can shield her.
It never occurred to me that I wasn’t complete. I knew there were things I wanted in life. A life with the club. The respect of my brothers. A home that always felt like a safe place. People I loved. Being monogamous for Garrett hadn’t felt like some big sacrifice.
I’d always felt utterly and completely whole.
Until this moment.
Guiding Garrett and Isla across the street. Protecting them both. Helping them both heal. It’s like there was a missing piece to my jigsaw puzzle and I never noticed it until now.
The door is wide open when we get there, and I let Isla walk ahead of me, before guiding Garrett to the chair next to the fireplace. “Let’s sit you down here for a little bit. A change of scenery.”
He stoically grunts as we get him comfortable.
“Can you run upstairs and get him a pillow off the bed, sweetheart?” I ask Isla as she removes her coat.
“One of the soft ones.” I wait until she’s gone, then crouch by the chair.
“On a scale of one to ten, where one is you’re miraculously cured, and ten feels like you fell off your bike all over again, what are you at? ”
He glances to the stairs. “A solid thirteen, but if you ask me in front of Isla, I’m gonna say five. I don’t want her to feel guilty.”
“Pretty sure she’d prefer the truth.”
Garrett shrugs. “And I’d prefer to not feel like a thirteen, but here we are.”
I brush my lips over his bicep. “Always being the hero.”
“Do you know who it was?” Isla asks when she arrives with the pillow and a container of food with the fork still in it, which she hands to Garrett. He puts it down on the side table and I curse that I haven’t yet unpacked coasters.
Isla has also pulled on one of my hoodies, and I get a perverse thrill at the sight. “Was it my uncle? I bet it was Kevin.”
I take the pillow from her and help Garrett get comfortable. “I already told you. It wasn’t your uncle.”
“But it must have been. He’s the one who—”
“Isla, he was the wrong build. Plus…I went and had a word with Kevin.”
“You did?” Isla says at the exact same time as Garrett.
I start to button Garrett’s shirt, but Isla bats my hands out of the way to do it for him.
“Don’t worry,” I say. “I went with Grudge, Wraith, and Atom. Kevin understands to stay the fuck away. Might be a while before he can scoop himself up off the floor, so it definitely wasn’t him sprinting along the tree line. ”
Isla stands and wraps her arms around me. “Thank you.”
I smooth my hand over her hair and kiss the top of her head. “My pleasure. I’m just gonna call Grudge. See if he can spare some prospects for tonight to keep watch, just for peace of mind.”
Isla touches my arm. “I brought you some chili for dinner. Do you want me to reheat it for you?”
“Love that you thought of me, sweetheart. Yes, please.” I step back into the hallway, then dial Grudge.
“What’s up, brother?” he asks when he answers.
“Some guy was casing around Isla’s house. Could do with some backup for security for the night.”
“At Isla’s?” Grudge asks. “She okay?”
When I first arrived at the club, I thought Isla was gonna be Grudge’s old lady one day.
Now that I’ve seen him with Lucy, I know that was never true.
But, deep down, I think Grudge might always have a soft spot for her.
Not in the having sexual thoughts about her kind of way, but with the kind of fondness you remember a first love.
“She’s shook up. Shade, however, decided to be a fucking action hero and tried to run out onto the street to shoot the asshole. Got him back inside, but he might have undone all the rest he’s supposed to be getting.”
“On our way,” he says, and before I can tell him we just need a few prospects, he hangs up.
The microwave pings just as I step back into the room. Isla is on her knees in front of the fireplace, striking a match. Garrett is watching her ass with an amused smile on his face. And I grab my dinner, a happy feeling in my gut. Despite the night’s events, this is where we’re all meant to be.
I shift the container between hands because it’s so hot. “This smells amazing.”
“Tastes good too,” Garrett says eating another spoonful.
Isla closes the glass door of the fireplace. “It was my nanna’s recipe.”
I take a bite and moan. “Good recipe. Did you eat?”
Isla nods. “I was just rinsing my dish when I heard you both outside.”
You need anything, Bear?” I ask.
“A beer, when you’ve finished your dinner.”
“I’ll get it.” Isla climbs to her knees and brushes her hands down the front of her pajamas. The pants are pink-and-white cotton. Cute, not sexy. And yet, I still want to curl my hands beneath the hem of my hoodie and feel the warmth of her skin, for a heartbeat.
“Stop there,” I say as she comes within a couple of feet of me.
She looks confused, glancing between me and the fridge. “Why? I saw inside your fridge yesterday.”
“Had a thought, and I was just wondering how you’d feel if I acted on it.”
Her head tilts to one side. “What kind of thought are you talking about?”
I tip my chin at her. “I know beneath that hoodie, you’re wearing a tank top and no bra. Looks good on you. And I was thinking that, as you walked by, I wanted to grab you, slide my hands beneath that hoodie of yours, for a second. Assess first-hand what was beneath it.”
Isla chuckles at the same time pink hits her cheeks. “‘Assess first-hand what was beneath it.’ Are you a health and safety auditor or something? Who talks like that?”
Reading between the lines, I grab for her, smiling as she squeals and dodges. “Yes or no, sweetheart?”
She glances over at Garrett, sunk in the armchair, wincing lightly in pain but watching the two of us with steady and impossibly careful eyes.
He nods. Once.
Whether the nod is for me or for Isla, I’m unsure, but she turns back to me, and I feel my heart thudding heavy in my chest.