Chapter 13 Roderick
The house is quiet. It usually is this early on a Sunday.
It’s the one day everyone seems to sleep in just a little, and after last night, I can’t say I blame them.
Hell, if my body would let me sleep in, I would have, but I wake up every day at five, no matter how late I go to bed.
I could get two hours of sleep or eight.
It doesn’t matter; the most I can do is occasionally get a nap if I’m really dragging ass, but even that is rare.
So even though I’m pretty sure I only slept for a little over two hours, I’m still down here making coffee.
I intended to continue my research, but after a few hours, I realized I needed caffeine to ensure I was actually functioning well enough to grasp the information.
Two hours of sleep might be enough to function, but I’m not sure it was enough to be useful.
Thankfully, caffeine is a fantastic stand-in.
While I wait for it to brew, I go over every detail of last night to see if I missed anything.
Last night, Spencer went after Jade, and I stayed here damn near losing my mind.
Everything inside me wanted to go with him, but I just couldn’t.
It doesn’t matter whether I enjoyed Jade’s company.
It meant nothing. She is our leader, and I would respect her decisions no matter how uncomfortable they made me.
Spencer was gone for just over an hour before he was back, with Jade trailing behind him. Neither of them said a word when they walked in the door, but I could feel the tension rolling off both of them.
Spencer made a beeline to the kitchen, and Jade went right up the stairs without so much as looking at either of us.
Once again, I ignored the stupid little voice in my mind that told me to go after her and instead followed Spencer.
He hadn’t been out of my line of sight for long, but when I rounded the corner into the kitchen, I found him already downing a beer.
Fuck.
It must have been worse than I thought if he was still this upset now that she was home.
Pulling out the stool next to him, I sit without a word. I know he will tell me eventually, but if I push him, he might snap at me instead of explaining, and I would rather not have it out with him right now.
He slams the bottle down with enough force that I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter, and just like I thought, he starts talking.
“I don’t give a fuck who she is or what she’s in charge of.
She doesn’t go out alone anymore,” he growls out before finishing his beer and wiping his face with the back of his hand.
“What happened?” I ask against my better judgment because I really don’t have the patience to wait anymore. If he decides to fight over this, I’ll just go to Jade for answers.
To my surprise, he talks without a hint of an argument.
“I don’t know what happened before I got there,” he says, pushing away from the counter. He walks over to drop the beer bottle in the bin before going to the fridge to grab himself another.
“She won’t fucking tell me,” he yells, as if he hopes she will hear him. She won’t, not with how big this house is, but I don’t dare tell him that right now. He slams the cap off the beer but doesn’t come back to sit, instead taking a swig while pacing the kitchen.
“When I got there, Hazel and Leo were dancing, but Jade wasn’t with them.
I did a sweep and found her near the DJ booth with Jake.
” His knuckles turn white around the neck of the bottle, and this time, I at least understand his anger.
Of all the people for her to be with at the club, Jake is probably the worst.
As if he can sense my thoughts, Spencer stops pacing to look at me.
“It gets worse,” he tells me before resuming his long strides back and forth.
It’s almost unnerving to see him this wound up.
I know he’s not very fond of Jade or her being here, but he understands that it’s our job to keep her safe.
I can’t say whether he would have reacted this poorly just last week before we knew who Jade was, or if this is because he knows now.
It doesn’t matter either way.
“By the time I got to them, he was with them too. I don’t know what was said before I got there. It doesn’t really matter, but…” He stops dead in his tracks. His shoulders slump as if all the fight has left him, and it only makes me more concerned.
“Who, Spence?” I ask, pushing my stool back to go to him, unable to sit there any longer.
He looks up at me. The grave look on his face is so unlike his usual uncaring, relaxed expression that I know whatever happened tonight isn’t something he was ready for.
“Randall.”
He says his name so low I hope I heard him wrong, but the moment his name registers, everything makes sense.
His anger, his worry—it all makes sense.
“She was afraid of him, Rick,” he explains, his voice still just as low, but as we stand there in silence, he might as well be screaming.
I can’t picture it.
Jade isn’t afraid of anything, hasn’t been from the moment we found her in a fucking pit in the ground of a sex trafficking, rundown building. She wasn’t afraid of us or Kratos, not of fighting, or parties with hundreds of people she’s never met before.
Nothing.
So why would she be afraid of a man she shouldn’t even know well enough to have a reaction to?
“He called her by her name, and touched her so easily, and she stood frozen, as if rooted to the floor, Rick.”
My eyes snap up to look at him, but he’s not looking at me. His eyes are fixed on his hands as he clenches and unclenches them into fists.
“I pulled her away from him. I don’t know what they were saying before I got there, but she looked uncomfortable with his hand in her hair, and I didn’t like how he was looking at her.
She was trembling…” He trails off before he clenches his fist again, lookings back up to meet my gaze, and I can see his anger like it's a tangible thing swirling in his eyes.
“She was fucking trembling, Rick,” he shouts at me, his earlier worry replaced with anger.
“The same girl who we found in a hole, who goes toe to toe with Kratos, and who is the leader of the biggest gang in Chicago. The same one who stabbed a fucking knife in her leg to prove a point after she let me drug and kidnap her was trembling in front of that piece of shit.” He’s seething now, and I feel my temper flare as his words reflect my own thoughts.
I’ve spent years keeping my mask in place, but when it slips, it’s never good, and I can’t afford to lose my shit right now.
Taking a deep breath, I square my shoulders. I’m not sure if Spencer’s line of thought is the same as mine, but if it’s not, he’s going to hate what I’m about to say. Hell, he won't like it either way. I don’t even like the idea of voicing it, but I have to because I’m pretty sure I’m right.
“Jade would only be afraid of him if she had a reason.” Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I push on.
“And the only reason she would have would mean they have history together.” The words leave a bitter taste in my mouth, but I can tell by the look on Spencer's face that he’d come to the same conclusion.
His lips pull down in a frown, and his brows pinch together before he lets out a roar and whips his still half-full beer at the garage door. It shatters, beer leaking down the wall, but neither of us moves to clean it. Shit, neither of us gives it more than a passing glance.
“Fuck.”
His shout rings out around the kitchen, but he doesn’t stick around as he all but runs from the room.
He pauses in the doorway, not bothering to turn back around and face me.
“He’s dead, Rick.” I hear him say before he takes the last step and disappears into the living room, to go, God only knows where.
It doesn’t matter, though. I know he won’t do anything stupid without getting clearance, not after his last stunt, no matter how badly he wants to.
His bedroom door slams closed a moment later, and once again, the house falls silent.
I head up to my office, my brain whirling with so many thoughts I can’t really stick to one thing.
The only thing I know for sure is that Randall is a problem that we needed to handle yesterday.
Unfortunately, Randall has been a thorn in our side for years, and we haven’t been able to get an ounce of dirt on him.
We know he’s dirty. Even though we assumed he dealt in skin, we haven’t been able to pin a single fucking thing on him. We looked into him heavily a few years back, but after weeks of coming up with nothing, we had to let it go in favor of handling the scum we could actually get rid of.
This time, he won’t get the luxury of us having other things to focus on because if he has that kind of effect on Jade, he’s a big enough threat to pull all of our attention and resources.
And I can’t think of anything that sounds more worth it than making that fucker pay.
I pass by Spencer’s room, the sounds of loud angry music leaks through his door. He's probably already diving headfirst into his own search. I’ll wait until tomorrow to see if I can dig anything up, and we can compare notes. Hopefully, without either of us losing our shit.
Continuing down the hall, I stop outside of Jade’s door.
Unlike Spencer’s, Jade’s room is silent, and I wonder if maybe she went to the library instead. She spends a lot of time down there at any given time of day. Normally, I would assume she was in Zander’s room, but considering he’s still out following a lead, I doubt she’d be in there alone.
I stand there for a moment longer before I force myself to continue to my study. Jade’s grown and is more than capable. She doesn’t need me checking in on her. If she needed something, she would tell us.
As much as I know that to be true, it only makes the idea of her reaction to Randall piss me off even more.
What did he do to her?
Could I even handle the answer to that question?
I reach the office, stealing one more look back at Jade’s door, and realize it doesn’t matter what he did. He’s going to pay either way, just like Spencer said.