Chapter Four
“Ten thousand,” Wolf simply told her.
Jade blinked, like her mind needed a second to catch up, or maybe it was the weight of it. The number was too big, too sudden to make sense right away.
“Derek took it,” Wolf continued, voice flat, stripped of anything unnecessary. “From the club. Not by accident, or mistake.”
Jade stared at him. “Ten thousand,” she repeated, slower this time, like the words tasted wrong in her mouth. “You think I have that kind of money?”
“I don’t think you have it,” Wolf said honestly.
She laughed, a sad and unpleasant sound.
“Good. Glad we’re on the same page,” Jade said.
She shifted her weight, like she was bracing herself for something she didn’t want to hear. Wolf didn’t make her wait.
“The club wants it back,” Wolf simply told her.
He watched the way her shoulders stiffened, the way her breath hitched just slightly before she forced it back under control.
“How?” she asked finally.
One word, but there was no panic in it. Wolf felt something flicker at that. Jade was becoming more and more interesting, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
He kept his tone neutral. “That’s the problem.”
Jade’s eyes narrowed.
“No,” she said. “That’s Derek’s problem. Not mine.”
Her chin lifted a fraction higher, defiance settling back into place like armor.
“He’s the one who took it,” she went on. “Go find him.”
“I will.” The certainty in his voice didn’t waver. “But until I do, the debt doesn’t disappear.”
Jade’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I didn’t take anything from you.”
“No, you didn’t,” Wolf agreed. Another beat, then he added, “But you’re connected to him.”
The words were quiet, and final.
Jade’s gaze sharpened, something like anger flashing hot and fast.
“That’s not how this works,” she said. “You don’t just get to decide I owe you because he screwed up?”
Wolf didn’t answer immediately. He watched her instead. The fire in her. The way she refused to fold even when the ground was shifting under her feet. Most people would already be bargaining, pleading, trying to soften him.
She stood there and fought, and it was doing something to him. Something he didn’t bother naming.
“That’s exactly how this works,” he said finally.
The baby’s cries hit a higher pitch. Jade flinched this time. It didn’t escape him. He kept going anyway.
“You’re tied to him,” Wolf said. “His problem becomes your problem until it’s resolved.”
“That’s not fair.” The words came out before she could stop them. Wolf’s mouth curved slightly, not quite a smile.
“Fair?” he repeated. “This isn’t about fair.”
Jade’s breath came faster now. He could see it, the way her chest rose and fell, the way her control was starting to fray at the edges. Behind her, the baby cried harder. Jade turned her head halfway this time, torn.
Wolf spoke before she could. “There’s another option.”
That got her attention. Her gaze snapped back to him, wary now.
“What?” Jade demanded.
Wolf let the silence stretch for just a second, then simply told her. “You work it off.”
Jade blinked. “What?”
“At the clubhouse,” he said. “We need staff. Waitressing, mostly. It pays better than whatever you’re making now.”
Her expression shifted from confusion to disbelief. Then to something sharper.
“No.” The word came out instantly. “I’m not doing that.”
Wolf didn’t react. “Think about it,” he said. “It’s honest work.”
“I don’t need to,” she shot back. “I’ve seen the girls there.”
Her voice dropped, edged with something between disgust and fear. “I’m not one of them. I’m not going to be one of them.”
Wolf stilled. Something cold flickered through him at that.
“You think that’s what I’m offering?” he asked.
Jade’s jaw tightened.
“I think I know what goes on in your clubhouse,” she said. “I’m not stupid.”
“No,” Wolf said quietly. “I didn’t say you were, but you’re wrong.”
Jade didn’t look convinced. Why would she?
“We’re not talking about that,” Wolf continued. “We’re talking about a job.”
Her laugh came again, sharper this time. “A job.”
“Yes.”
“Right,” Jade said with a roll of her eyes.
She shook her head, already pulling back, already trying to close the door again.
“I’m not working for a biker gang,” she said. “Find someone else.”
Wolf stopped the door again before it could move more than an inch.
Jade’s eyes flashed. “I said no.”
“And I told you,” Wolf said, voice dropping just enough to cut, “the club doesn’t take kindly to thieves.”
The words settled heavy in the air. Jade went completely still.
For a second, the only sound was the baby crying behind her, filling the silence with something raw and desperate. Wolf held her gaze. He didn’t soften his stance or look away from her.
“Derek took from us,” he said. “That makes this a problem that needs to be handled.”
Her throat worked as she swallowed. “I don’t know anything.”
“I know,” he cut in. “But that doesn’t change the situation.”
“I have a job,” she said, her voice thinner now, stretched tight. “I have a kid. I don’t have time to—”
“It pays more,” he reminded her. “So you’ll be able to pay off Derek’s debt quickly and even have some leftover for yourself and Jane.”
Jade faltered, just for a second. Wolf saw an opening and decided to keep pressing her. Eventually, he knew she would cave. She had to, because right now she was only answering to him, not King or the club, not yet. She was fortunate that way, and didn’t know it.
“How much do you earn at the diner? Minimum wage?” Wolf asked.
“$8 an hour,” she admitted.
“Well, we pay our serving staff twice that,” he said.
Her eyes flickered with undisguised interest. That landed, of course it did. He’d seen the apartment. The building. The exhaustion written into every line of her. She was drowning, and she knew it.
“You’d be working,” he added. “That’s it.”
Jade’s gaze snapped back to his, sharp and searching. “I’m considering it, but I’m not sure I can survive in that kind of environment.”
“You’re a tough woman,” he said. “No one would touch you.”
He didn’t know why he said those last words, he certainly hadn’t planned on saying them.
“What?” Jade asked, looking dumbfounded
“You’d be under my protection.” The second the words left his mouth, something shifted in him. Wolf didn’t move, didn’t react outwardly, but the awareness was there, sharp and immediate.
He didn’t make offers like that. Wolf wasn’t the sort to make promises like that.
He avoided conflict if possible, didn’t get involved in matters he wasn’t supposed to and yet, he didn’t take his words back.
He watched her process his offer, watched the suspicion war with something else.
Hope, maybe, or Jade was just that desperate to find a way out.
“You expect me to trust that?” she asked.
“No,” Wolf said. “However, I don’t make statements I can’t enforce.”
Jade searched his face, like she was trying to find the lie. Wolf let her, because she wouldn’t find one. Behind her, the baby’s cries hit another peak. Jade flinched again, harder this time. Her control cracked just a little more.
Wolf saw the moment it shifted. The calculation.
The numbers running through her head. With the better pay, she could handle the rent and bills better.
Jade sagged her shoulders, the fight draining just enough to make room for something heavier.
There was resignation on her face but not defeat.
Wolf had a feeling it would take so much more to bring such a woman down.
“If I do this,” she said slowly, “it’s temporary.”
Wolf didn’t interrupt. He didn’t move, he just watched her, waited, giving her the space to finish like he already knew she would.
“Until I find Derek,” she went on, her voice tightening slightly around his name. “Until he pays what he owes.”
Her sharp gaze locked onto his again, despite the exhaustion dragging at her, the crying baby behind her, and everything stacked against her.
“This isn’t permanent,” she added again, firmer this time, like repetition might make it real.
Wolf studied her. Most people didn’t bargain with him. Didn’t stand in a doorway with nothing and still try to dictate terms. They folded, or they begged. Sometimes both. She did neither.
Even now, even cornered, even with no good options, she needed to believe she had control over something. For reasons he didn’t bother examining too closely, he respected that.
“Fine,” he said.
It wasn’t entirely a lie. If Callahan surfaced with the money, if the debt was settled, then, yes, this would end, but until then, she would belong to the MC.
“You’ll start tomorrow night,” Wolf added, tone shifting back to business. “Do you know where the clubhouse is, or do you need me to pick you up?”
“I know where it is,” she snapped immediately. “Everyone in town does.”
She paused, then added tartly, “So they can avoid it.”
That almost pulled a reaction from him. Almost. Wolf nearly smiled, but he held back.
“And you don’t need to pick me up,” she continued, lifting her chin a fraction higher. “I’m not going to run.”
Wolf believed that.
“Good,” he said simply.
Jade shifted then, finally breaking the stillness just enough to glance back toward the apartment, toward her baby.
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” she said, already turning back to him, “my baby needs me.”
Wolf stepped back from the door. The first real space he’d given her since she opened it.
Jade didn’t relax. Not even a fraction. Her body stayed tight, coiled, like she expected him to change his mind, to push, to take back the ground he’d just given.
“Be ready,” he said.
Then he turned and walked down the hallway without looking back. His footsteps were steady, unhurried, echoing faintly against the worn walls. Halfway down, something tugged at him. A pull, subtle and unfamiliar.
The awareness of her still standing there, watching him despite the fact she told him her kid needed her. Tension lingered in the doorway. He had the sudden, inexplicable urge to look back. To see if she was still there, maybe he could say something else, but Wolf didn’t even know what.
Wolf didn’t slow, but he acknowledged one disturbing fact. Something had shifted. This was supposed to be simple. Find Callahan, apply pressure, and resolve the problem. Meeting Jade altered everything. Dealing with her was not going to be easy, and that was going to be a problem.