Chapter Sixteen #2
I stared at him for a minute before answering.
How did he manage to look dangerous even while crouching?
Maybe it was his preference for dark clothing or it had something to do with the way his muscles bunched like he was a heartbeat away from springing into action.
Whatever it was, I was thankful for the reminder that the man I was sleeping with could be both unforgiving and violent.
It made me feel less fucked up about the fact that what he’d just told me hadn’t scared me away in the least. In fact, it made me want to go shoot something. Or more like several someones.
“I still want in on this,” I told him.
His eyes flashed with approval, and he leaned in and pressed a quick, hard kiss to my lips.
He pulled away just as swiftly and opened his mouth to say something more, but his gaze slipped past me, and I heard another whisk of air as the door opened behind us.
I turned in my seat just as Liam stepped onto the patio.
Behind him, Gran and Jennifer stood at the kitchen island, chatting.
Liam glanced at them and then shut the door, his expression troubled as he headed over to us.
Jakob rose from his crouch as he approached, and the two men towered over me.
“Let me send a few Specters with you,” Liam said, voice low. At that moment he didn’t look like one of the most dangerous men in the state; he looked like any anxious father might when their kid was heading into trouble.
“And have someone say I can’t fight my own battles without my father backing me up? Pass,” Jakob said. “Plus this is Kings business. Let us try to handle it first.”
Here again was the reminder of past military experience.
We’d been taught from day one of basic training to handle all our problems at the lowest level possible.
One of your fellow soldiers being an asshole to you?
Find a way to get them to stop. Only if you can’t do that do you bother your sergeant with your bullshit.
Liam nodded, still tense. “You’ll keep me in the loop, though?”
Jakob shot him a sideways look. “As long as you promise to stay out of it until I ask for help.”
The tension finally broke as Liam grinned. “I promise.”
An hour later, Jakob and I climbed into a nondescript minivan that had been gathering dust in the Larsons’ oversized garage.
The Mustang was great if you wanted to get somewhere fast, but it had limited trunk space and no air-conditioning, and today was supposed to top out near one hundred degrees.
While I’d spent more time with Gran, Jakob and Liam loaded up the van.
Afterward, they switched out the license plates on it, and miracle of miracles, I managed to keep my nosy mouth shut instead of asking why.
I tugged my seat belt on and glanced into the rear of the van as Jakob drove us down his parents’ long dirt driveway.
The back seats were folded into the floor, and a stack of oversized duffel bags full of God knew what sat behind us.
I lifted my gaze to the side panels. Several circular metal patches stood out against the paint.
The longer I stared at them, the more I began to suspect that they covered up bullet holes.
Beneath them, a white spot smeared across the carpet in the way back.
It looked like someone had dumped a gallon of bleach there to get rid of a bloodstain.
Please don’t let us get pulled over, I prayed. The only thing that could make this thing look more suspicious was a FREE CANDY sign plastered on the side of it.
“What’s with the bags?” I asked.
“Killing two birds with one stone,” Jakob said. “We’re going into Kearny. We might as well drop some shit off for my father.”
So, guns or drugs or some other illegal Specter/King business, then.
I turned back around and watched the flowing field of grass out my side window.
Part of me had been worried that the duffels were full of weapons for us.
I’d been with Gran and Jennifer while Jakob and Liam made a game plan for today, and I was still clueless as to what we’d be doing in Kearny.
Spying on Magnolia Hills? Tracking down the assholes who put Dr. Perez in the hospital?
Jakob’s phone rang, and he lifted it from the cup holder between us and brought it to his ear. “Where is he?” he asked, not even bothering to say hi.
I could barely hear the muffled answer, let alone make out the words.
Jakob frowned. “We’ll be in Kearny in an hour. Let me know if he moves before then.” With that, he hung up.
“Let me guess. That was the King you have watching Magnolia?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. The person I put on Redding. He’s over in Weyhome now.”
I frowned, absorbing the news. “Isn’t Weyhome where the Jokers are from?”
“Yeah, and he just walked into their clubhouse. Motherfucker isn’t even trying to be circumspect.”
“Is the person you have tailing him going to be safe there?”
“She’s ex-HUMINT,” he said. “She’ll be fine.”
HUMINT was short for human intelligence, the military’s version of spies, people who went into enemy territory and blended in with the locals, all so they could feed information back to headquarters.
Spying on a rival motorcycle gang would be a walk in the park for a woman with that kind of background, and I relaxed a little into my seat as we made our way up the drive.
“So, what are we going to do?” I asked.
“We’re going to go drop this shit off,” Jakob said, thumbing toward the duffels in the back. “And then we’ll wait to hear where Redding heads after he leaves Weyhome.”
“Are we going after him?” I asked.
Jakob shook his head. “Not yet.”