13. Jade
Jade
The sky looks like a bruise, all purple and gray with storm clouds rolling in from the west while the wind picks up enough to rattle the shutters and make the pine trees sway outside the cabin windows.
It’s Tuesday afternoon, just past one, and the light already has that dim, heavy quality that makes it feel more like evening than midday.
The cold is seeping through the walls despite the space heater running in the corner, and I wrap my arms tighter around myself even though Shadow’s borrowed flannel does nothing to cut the chill that’s settled into my bones.
I stand at the kitchen window watching the weather build while behind me, Shadow sits at the table methodically cleaning guns with the kind of practiced efficiency that tells me he’s done this ten thousand times before.
The click-slide-click of metal parts being disassembled and reassembled fills the room along with the sharp smell of gun oil, and somewhere outside, Razor’s doing his third perimeter check of the day while Hawk’s been gone for over an hour to meet with someone about our plan—wouldn’t say who or where, just that he’d be back before dark.
Which leaves me here doing what I’ve been doing since we made the partnership deal yesterday: waiting while the men turn my intel into actionable plans I’m not part of executing because I’m not trained and I don’t know how to navigate MC politics or plan operations or any of the things they do without thinking.
I get it, understand why I’m sidelined, but that doesn’t make it easier to stand here watching the storm build while my son is two hours away with my sister, and Tyler’s still hunting, and I have no idea what comes next.
The burner phone on the counter buzzes, and the sound cuts through the quiet like a gunshot.
Shadow’s on it before I can even turn around, checking the screen while his whole posture shifts into something alert and tense. “It’s Linda,” he says, holding the phone out to me, and my stomach drops straight through the floor because Linda wasn’t supposed to call unless it was an emergency.
I snatch the phone from his hand, nearly dropping it because my fingers won’t work right. “Linda?”
Crying comes through the line immediately—not quiet sniffles but ragged, panicked sobbing that makes my heart stop.
“Jade—” Her voice breaks completely. “Jade, oh my God, two men came to my house this morning, and I didn’t know what to do, and Mason saw them and?—”
“Slow down.” I grip the counter so hard my knuckles go white. “What happened? Where’s Mason? Is he okay?”
“He’s okay, he’s with me, but these men—” Another sob cuts through whatever she was going to say. “They came around ten, maybe ten fifteen. Big guys with motorcycles and leather vests with patches, and they knocked on my door asking about you.”
Everything in the room disappears except Linda’s voice while the rain starts outside, hard drops hitting the roof like bullets.
“They wanted to know where you were, when I’d last seen you, if I knew where you’d gone Friday night.
” She’s breathing fast, that hyperventilating sound people make when they can’t catch their breath between crying.
“I told them the truth—that you’d had car trouble, that you called Saturday saying you were with a friend, that I hadn’t heard from you since.
But they didn’t believe me, Jade. I could see it in their faces. ”
“Did they hurt you?” The question burns my throat.
“No, they didn’t touch me, but Mason was playing in the living room with his dinosaurs and one of them—the tall one with the neck tattoo that went all the way up to his jaw—he looked past me and saw Mason.
” Linda’s voice drops to something rawer, more terrified.
“He smiled at him and said ‘cute kid’ like he was commenting on the weather, but his eyes were cold and empty, and it wasn’t a compliment, Jade. It was a threat.”
My knees buckle, and I slide down to the floor with my back against the cabinets while the phone presses so hard against my ear it hurts.
“What did you do?”
“I told them to leave, told them I didn’t know where you were, and they needed to get off my property.
” Some of Linda’s stubborn streak comes through despite the fear.
“They left, but then they sat on their bikes at the end of my driveway for twenty minutes just watching my house. Mason asked why the motorcycle men were looking at him, and I didn’t know what to tell him, so I called Jerry—you know, my neighbor who used to be a cop—and the second he stepped outside and started walking toward my house, they started their bikes and drove away. ”
I’m going to be sick right here on this kitchen floor.
“Where are you now?”
“At Jerry’s house, two doors down. I grabbed Mason the second those men were out of sight, threw some clothes in a bag with Spike and his blanket, and we ran.
” She pauses, and I can hear her trying to control her breathing.
“But, Jade, what if they come back? What if they figure out where we went? What’s happening?
Who are these people and why are they looking for you? ”
I can’t answer those questions, can’t explain without making everything so much worse.
“Stay at Jerry’s and don’t go back to your house. Not even for a minute.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll fix this. I promise I’ll fix this.”
“Jade—”
“Tell Mason I love him.”
I hang up before she can ask more questions I can’t answer, and when I set the phone down, my hands are shaking so badly that it rattles against the table.
Shadow’s crouched in front of me with concern tight across his face. “Jade. What happened?”
“Ruthless Saints went to Linda’s house.” My voice sounds dead even to my own ears. “They saw Mason. They threatened him. They told Linda to tell me Tyler’s looking for me.”
Shadow’s jaw clenches hard enough that I can see the muscle jump. “Fuck.”
The front door slams open, and Razor’s back, soaked through from the rain that’s really coming down now, rifle in hand and water dripping from his shaved head. He takes one look at me on the floor with Shadow and goes completely still.
“What’s wrong?”
“They found Linda,” Shadow says, standing. “Saw the kid. Threatened him.”
Razor’s expression doesn’t change, but his hands curl into fists around the rifle. “When?”
“This morning, around ten,” I tell them. “Two members. Watched the house for twenty minutes.” Something breaks inside me, and I’m pushing myself up, using the cabinet behind me because my legs don’t want to hold my weight. “I need to get him. I need to go get him right now.”
“Jade—” Shadow starts, reaching for me.
“No.” I’m already moving toward the door, toward my jacket hanging on the hooks, toward anything that gets me closer to my son. “They know where he is, and I’m not leaving him there.”
Razor moves to block the door, and he’s not aggressive or threatening, but he’s six feet of solid muscle and immovable as a brick wall.
“Move,” I say.
“No.”
“MOVE.” I try to shove past him, but it’s like shoving a mountain, and he doesn’t even rock back on his heels.
“You go there now, and they’ll be waiting,” Razor says in that flat, emotionless voice that means he’s stating facts.
“They’re watching Linda’s house and the neighborhood, so the second you show up, they grab you and maybe grab the kid too for extra leverage, and then Tyler has exactly what he wants. ”
The words hit me like a physical blow, like a fist to the stomach, because he’s right and I know he’s right, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
“Razor’s right,” Shadow says from behind me. “Going there now is suicide for you and potentially for Mason.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?” I spin on him with rage and fear and helplessness boiling over into something that feels like violence.
“Just wait here while my son is sitting two doors down from where Tyler’s men were this morning?
While they’re probably still in the neighborhood watching?
While Tyler knows exactly where to find him? ”
I can’t voice the scenarios playing on repeat in my head—Tyler finding out Mason’s exact location, Tyler using Mason to draw me out, Tyler showing up at Jerry’s house, Tyler hurting my baby just to punish me for running.
The door opens again, and Hawk’s back, shaking rain from his jacket while his boots leave wet prints on the floor. He takes one look at the three of us—me wild-eyed and shaking, Razor blocking the door, Shadow hovering—and his expression hardens into something dangerous.
“What happened?”
“Ruthless Saints found Linda’s address,” Razor says without moving from his position. “Threatened the kid this morning. Two members. Told Linda to tell Jade that Tyler’s looking for her.”
Hawk’s eyes cut to me, sharp and assessing. “Is Mason safe right now? This second?”
“He’s at a neighbor’s house two doors down, but they know where Linda lives, and they watched her house for twenty minutes, so they’ll come back, and they’ll figure out she went to Jerry’s and—” My voice is shaking as badly as my hands.
“We’ll get him.” Hawk’s voice cuts through my panic like a knife, certain and final. “But we do it smart, so Tyler doesn’t see it coming.”
“How?” The word comes out desperate and broken. “How do we get him when they’re watching?”
Hawk’s already pulling out his phone and dialing, and someone answers on the second ring. “Viper. I need a favor.”
He walks into the living room with his voice dropping low, and I hear fragments of the conversation—something about a female rider and moving under the radar and a safe house and how fast can you get there.
Shadow guides me to a chair with his hand firm but gentle on my elbow, and I sit because my legs won’t hold me anymore, while Razor finally moves from the door to lean against the counter and watch the window with his arms crossed.
The storm outside intensifies with thunder rumbling in the distance and wind howling through the eaves, and I can see my breath when I exhale because the temperature just keeps dropping.