Chapter Ten #2
He jerked his head in the direction of the Harleys, and I dutifully turned toward them.
Dead center on each gas tank was an emblem with a pair of stylized, tattered wings spread wide.
In the middle of them sat a grinning skull wearing a motorcycle helmet.
I didn’t grow up in the MC community, but even being new to it, I recognized the design.
It was for the Specters, one of the largest and most notorious outlaw motorcycle clubs in the country.
They were right up there with the Big Four on the FBI’s watch list.
I turned back to Jakob. “Your parents are in the Specters?”
He nodded. “My father is a founding member.”
My next exhale came out sounding more like a wheeze.
It felt like he’d just gut-punched me. Suddenly I was less touched that Jakob had brought us here and more terrified.
This was why everyone was afraid of him.
Not only was he frightening in his own right, but piss off Jakob, and you piss off Daddy.
If Liam was a founding member, he was arguably one of the most dangerous men in the state, if not the country.
No one would want to make an enemy out of that man. Not unless they were suicidal.
I looked past Jakob. His parents were leading Gran through the front door.
Molly, not wanting to miss out on the excitement, went tearing up the walkway after them.
Gran said something to Liam, and he glanced back at Jakob and me with a wily look on his face.
He nodded and turned back to Gran. Gran said something else and nudged him in the ribs, and he threw back his head and laughed.
His whole face lit up with it. The sight did nothing to stem the fear flowing through my veins.
I turned back to Jakob. I wasn’t about to insult him by insinuating that his parents were a danger to my grandmother, but I had to know that she was safe. “Promise me that Gran will be okay here.”
He met my gaze with steady, unflinching focus. “She’ll be okay here.”
It would have to do for now. If he was lying, if his parents did anything to hurt my gran, I’d call in a favor or two with friends still in the service and reap my revenge on the entire Larson clan, to hell with the consequences.
Deep down, I didn’t think it would come to that. And the fact that I trusted Jakob with my grandmother’s safety scared me more than anything else had today.
Liam Larson crossed his arms over his chest and stared at his son. “So, after Krista went inside, what did you do?”
The three of us stood in the Larsons’ beautiful Italian-style kitchen.
Just outside, visible through the massive, sliding glass wall that faced the river, Gran and Jennifer sat on the back patio, sipping lemonade as they chatted.
The sun was starting to dip toward the horizon, and the day had taken on a sort of hazy golden glow.
Jakob leaned against the marble counter. “We waited.”
Liam cocked his head and grinned at me. I tried not to squirm.
“My son must really trust you if he stayed put outside,” he said.
“We needed to find out what was going on with Dr. Perez,” I told him. “I had a decent chance of getting that information out of the receptionist.”
“When did you start suspecting the guard with you?” he asked.
He had the same intensity as his son. It made it hard to meet his eyes as I answered him.
“When it became clear that the receptionist was wary of him. Annie’s pretty tough.
She didn’t even buy my sob story about Jakob yesterday, so when I realized she was rattled, I knew something was wrong.
Then I noticed he wasn’t wearing a name tag. ”
“You have good instincts,” Liam said, and between his smile and open praise, my cheeks started to feel a little warm. “What happened in the elevator?”
I told him about the fight. “If he’s a Joker, he’s new,” I said when I’d finished.
“What makes you think that?” Liam asked.
“Unlike the other guards, I didn’t see any visible tattoos on him, and he hasn’t been in a lot of close-quarters fights. He projected the hell out of his first punch, didn’t guard himself, and let his pain slow him way down. It’s why I was able to take him out so fast.”
Liam’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “Why do I have a feeling that you’re being modest?”
I shook my head. “I’m not. I assume you noticed my limp?”
He nodded.
“The guard either didn’t see it or didn’t realize its significance. His opening move was to punch me instead of kicking my leg.”
“Ah,” he said, but he was still looking at me like he thought I was holding out on him.
I really wasn’t. Yes, I was faster and better trained than the guard, but if that big son of a bitch had taken me to the ground, that would have been a much uglier fight.
“When did you call Jakob?” Liam asked.
“As soon as I got out of the elevator,” I said.
He turned to his son. “And how did you respond?”
“I told everyone to get out the biggest guns they had, and we walked up to the front door open carrying them,” Jakob said.
Liam grinned. “I’m assuming they saw that you were loaded for bear and hightailed it out of there?”
Jakob nodded.
Liam clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Good job. Without that show of force, their pride might have gotten the better of them, and they could have tried to turn that nursing home into their Alamo.” It was hard to miss the pride in his tone as he let his son go.
“Did you get out of there before the cops showed up?”
“Yeah,” Jakob said.
Liam turned to me. “Expect a phone call from them. They’ll probably want to question you about what happened.”
My stomach sank. “Lovely.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll send a club lawyer with you, and she’ll bury them in bullshit.”
“We’ll?” I asked, looking between the two men. “Wait, are the Kings a subchapter of the Specters?”
Jakob nodded.
Oh sweet Jesus. “Please tell me the Jokers aren’t a subchapter of another club.”
The smile fled from Liam’s face. “They’re a sub of the Bandits.”
Great. Just wonderful. Two of the biggest outlaw motorcycle clubs in the country had neighboring subchapters on the brink of open war. That would mean nothing good for Kearny.
I turned toward Jakob. “I need to go home and get some stuff if I’m going to stay here.”
He pushed off from the counter. “I’ll go with you.”
His father nodded in the direction of the garage. “You should take the Mustang. No one will recognize it.”
“Keys still in the same place?” Jakob asked.
“Yup,” Liam answered.
Jakob went to get them, and I went to steal Jennifer away from Gran for a minute. It turned out Jakob’s mother had trained as a nurse, and I assumed that was partly why he’d brought us here, knowing Gran would need some special care while we hid out.
The glass slider looked like it weighed a ton, but it whispered open from the slightest touch of my hand. Must be nice to have money.
“Jennifer, can I talk to you?” I called.
She looked at Gran.
Gran waved her away. “Go right ahead, Jen. I’ll be fine out here with this view for company.”
Jennifer smiled and squeezed Gran’s hand as she got up.
She had the kind of steady focus and calm demeanor that lent well to the nursing profession, and after seeing her interact with Gran this afternoon, I felt a little less nervous about leaving Gran in the Larsons’ care for an hour or two while we drove back to Kearny.
Jennifer came inside and closed the door behind her.
She was younger than Jakob’s father by about a decade, in her late forties or early fifties.
Not a single strand of gray was visible in her wild red hair.
Her face was still youthful, like Gran’s, either thanks to genetics or a healthy appreciation for sunscreen.
Intelligence shone through her bright green eyes as she met my gaze.
“What’s up?” she asked, the lilt in her voice hinting at her Irish homeland.
“I don’t know how much Jakob told you, but Gran has Alzheimer’s.”
“Yes, he said.”
“Well, with a lot of Alzheimer’s patients, upheaval like this can throw them a bit.
She’s had a good week so far, but I wouldn’t be surprised if after the chaos of today she goes downhill.
You might need to repeat yourself a lot.
Or she might get confused or upset as to who you are or why she’s here. ”
Jennifer looked past me to where Liam stood in the kitchen. “Okay,” she said slowly.
“I just wanted to warn you because right now I’m her only familiar face, and after I leave, she might immediately start slipping,” I said.
Jennifer frowned. “Didn’t Jakob tell you why I got my nursing degree?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t even know he was bringing us here, let alone that you were a nurse.”
Her frown deepened, and she looked to her husband. “You need to go talk to your son.”
Uh-oh, she’d gone your son on him. I’d just landed Jakob in some shit with his parents somehow.
Behind me, Liam sighed and wandered off into the house.
Jennifer turned back to me. “My mother had Alzheimer’s. She passed away two years ago.”
I blinked at her.
“I got my degree so I could bring her over here and be her full-time caregiver,” Jennifer said. “She lived with us here while Jakob was growing up.”
Heat crept into my cheeks. “He didn’t say anything. Yesterday when I gave him a rundown on Alzheimer’s symptoms, he just stood there like a stone.”
She put her hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry. I love that boy more than life itself, but sometimes I just want to shake him until his teeth rattle in his head.”
She gave me a little shake in demonstration, and despite myself, I grinned.
“I feel like such an idiot,” I said.
She squeezed my shoulders. “Don’t. Jakob plays his cards close to his chest, even with us. Growing up with parents in an outlaw club can instill a certain healthy level of paranoia in a child. And after his time in the service… ” She let go of me and shrugged.
“How long was he in for?”
“Eight years.”
“Did he go in right out of high school?”
She nodded.
“Has he talked about any of his missions with you?” I asked.