Jax: Black Angels MC, #3

by Fisher, A. E.

  Facing back to the dark window, I turned my eyes away from him, not answering.

  A sigh hung heavy behind me, but no more words came as I watched in the reflection of the window, Jax’s angel-borne across his shoulders walk out of the door without a glance back.

  I felt like I sat there forever, not moving, barely even breathing, all too aware of the crushing weight on my chest and the sting of my eyes as I felt the single tear run down my cheek. I knew very well what we would talk about. And I couldn’t help but think Jax would be thinking the same thing as me.

  Tonight was a mistake.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jax

  I couldn’t get it out of my head. The way she looked at me; the soft sob I heard as I was stepping out the door, her perfectly still silhouette sitting on the bed, watching my reflection leave.

  What did I do?

  The thing I had wanted to do for a long time. She was everything I knew she would be. She was what I had wanted and what I knew I had to take. Last night… after the attack and when I was shot, I went back into that place. That dark place I knew brought all my instincts forward and all my thoughts into the dark.

  I hadn’t thought. I had been getting patched up one second, and the next, I was slamming through her doorway. Seeing her back, the way she fled up the stairs at my arrival I just… I couldn’t let her escape.

  So, I caught her. I took her. Made her mine.

  I knew the moment we were done it had been a mistake.

  Because she had ran away from me once, I couldn’t resist catching her at long last, but doing that with little Ronnie because of those feelings—a young boy’s petty grudge—wasn’t something she deserved. Fucking her senseless because she abandoned me once was not how I wanted to repair my relationship with Ronnie.

  A relationship that I had almost lost yesterday until I dodged a bullet to the brain. Now it was broken for sure.

  I wouldn’t let it stay that way.

  Ronnie wasn’t a virgin. I knew that. This one mistake… we could fix it.

  “You coming in?” I turned my head up to feel the harsh whip of the hand across my cheek.

  “What the fuck?” I hissed, the burn and the shock radiating across my face as I went staggering from my bike, almost falling on my ass. I pressed my hand against the throbbing sting, looking down at the source of the pain.

  “What was that fo—”

  “You know damn well what that was for, you prick,” Anna hissed, propping her hands on her wide hips. “What the fuck were you thinking? Not only did you run off after just being shot, you didn’t contact us and could very well have led our enemy to your fucking hostage.”

  Her short blonde hair whipped in the strong breeze left by the storm that managed to pass as dawn broke across the sky.

  “One, she’s not a hostage,” I said, raising a finger at her. “Two, you’re entirely right and I deserved that.” I sighed, dropping my hand.

  “I—” Anna started to argue before freezing. Her propped hands fell to her sides, jaw slacked and wide-eyed. “Did you…. did you just tell me I’m right?”

  “Why are you so shocked?” I grunted. “I wasn’t thinking straight yesterday, but I’m very well of aware that what I did last night was stupid, now that I’m… sober. Of sorts.”

  “Put your dark side back in its little hole, or rather someone else’s hole?” Anna broke out into a knowing smirk, her red lips and dark makeup (flawless even in the early hours of the day) making her seem so much more sinister. If Anna knew anything about someone’s private life, that person had the right to be incredibly concerned.

  “Don’t be crass, Anna,” Kay’s voice followed from the doorway.

  “Yes, Mother,” Anna mocked, shaking her head, her little white bun looking like it was about to flop into the wind and fly away.

  “No way in hell would I give birth to a devil like you,” Kay tutted.

  Anna shrugged it off, not denying it before crooking a long red nail my way. “Come on then, Mr. Grey.”

  Damn, that is enticing—even if she was my Prez’s old lady and intimidated the shit out of me.

  “The boys are waiting for you downstairs.”

  Downstairs. Fun time.

  Hitting the hallway, I wound around until I came to the last door at the end of a narrow corridor. It was the one area we kept under lock and key, not wanting anyone other than a brother walking into it by accident. It wouldn’t turn out well for them.

  I knocked on the door twice, and within a couple of seconds, the heavy metal creaked open with a painful sound.

  “This thing needs oil,” I grunted, rubbing my ears.

  “Don’t start complaining.” Ripper’s scarred face popped out of the dark from behind the door. “Get in here. Prez is pissed at you.”

  “Nice to see you too, beautiful,” I retorted, giving him a cheeky wink. Ripper rolled his eyes.

  Had that been Prez, I would be six feet under before I could even take my next breath.

  Ripper behind me, we headed down the dark corridor until a square of light at the end caught my attention. I stepped into its reach, my brothers all turning to face me.

  “Did y’all call for tall, handsome and—”

  “You dicks should just let me go,” the man hissed, interrupting my amazing entrance. “If you don’t there’ll be hell to pay.”

  “For the last fucking time.” Pretty spun, growling and pissed off. My eyebrows shot up. “We’re not holding you hostage.”

  Pretty was not our calmest member, but he sure wasn’t as hotheaded as most of us, making this behavior fall into the category of his unusual behavioral traits. Must have interrupted his studies.

  My eyes went straight to where I saw my best friend and closest brother, Hunter, leaning in one corner of the room, arms crossed, black shirt and cut on tight display over his chest. I swore his little old lady, Mallory, was shrinking his shirts on purpose. My brother was fit, but he wasn’t anywhere near as cut as his tight-ass shirt was making him out to be.

  Hunter’s green eyes were dull as they met mine, giving a shrug of his shoulders. Perhaps I had missed out on most of Pretty’s behavior. Shame.

  “What’s going on here?” I mused, head-counting the room. “Where’s Prez and Lamb?”

  “Meeting with his bosses.” Ripper stepped in behind me, clapping my shoulder, pushing me out of the way to step toward the rude man. “Polo and Jasper also went as backup.” I realized then that he had been the surviving member of the mafia boys we had met at the airfield yesterday.

  “And we’re keeping him here because…?” I drawled, looking over his harassed appearance. He was showing vicious and disrespectful behavior to my brothers and despite his young age, he should know not to be rude to his hosts. Not to mention we had no reason to hold him; it was obvious that the shooter had been after both our groups, not just theirs.

  “He goes outside, he gets shot. We’ve got no one to corroborate that it was both our groups that were targeted. If our deal doesn’t go through, we don’t get our money and shit starts with the local gangs,” Mint cut in from the other side of the room where Ripper was now taking his place.

  “Ah.” I nodded. “Gotcha.”

  “You’d have known all this if you didn’t ditch us yesterday at the border,” Ripper chastised, rubbing a hand along the dark growth across his jaw. He said he wanted to soften up his features. I wondered if he hadn’t noticed the big ass scar across his face.

  “Yeah,” Pretty tossed in his two cents. “Where the hell did you go, man?”

  “I—”

  “He’ll answer that later.” A deep, heavy voice came from behind me and from the crisp, Eastern accent, I knew I was screwed.

  “Prez!” I whirled, smiling and stepping away from the hulk. Fucker made me feel tiny. “Didn’t see you come up there.”

  Wolf flashed me a white, sharp grin through his bearded face, and, fuck, I was man enough to admit it was intimidating. “It’s because I didn’t
want you to.”

  His wide head looked over my shoulder to where our guest was standing in the cell. “Come with me. You’re going back.”

  “Is the deal still on?” I asked.

  “Someone decided to fill you in, then?” Wolf snipped, raising a bushy eyebrow in my direction.

  I’m not getting off this one easy.

  I nodded.

  “Yeah, the deal’s still on,” Wolf grunted, “so long as we get this pup back to his owner.”

  “I ain’t no pup,” the young man snapped, but we ignored him.

  “You want me?” I offered.

  “Want you?” Wolf chuckled. “Fuck, no. Need you? That’s a different story. But not right now, Jax. You’re fuck all good to me now until you go get that thing seen to.” His big, sausage finger stabbed me in the shoulder, and what had been a light throb became a burning explosion across my upper chest and arm at his impact. I couldn’t help the hiss that bit through my teeth as I leapt away from his touch.

  Turning to see the damage he’d done, I realized blood had been sinking through the cotton of my shirt and was staining the grey top a dark red. The stitches had come undone.

  “Ah, fuck,” I grunted, probing the skin around it.

  Yup, hurts like a bitch.

  “We’ll be back in an hour or so. Polo and Jasper will swap with Ripper and Mint,” Wolf announced looking up to where Ripper and Mint straightened from their positions and without a word of argument moved toward the door of the cell and out into the hallway. “Hunter, you can escort him out.”

  Wolf then moved out of the way as Hunter came alongside the man. He made no move to grab him, but Hunter was among the biggest fuckers in this place and his size was enough to make the younger man move.

  “Jax.” Wolf caught my attention and I looked from Hunter’s disappearing figure. “We need to talk when I get back, got it?” His dark eyes, not flattered by the shitty lighting of the underground chamber’s single bulb hanging on a little chain, left no room for argument.

  “I gotcha, Prez.” I nodded, allowing my president to turn with just me and Pretty watching him leave.

  “I think you just got grounded.” Pretty chuckled, hit hand hitting my shoulder.

  “Ouch, you fucker,” I hissed, shoving his hand off.

  “My bad,” Pretty snickered.

  Bastard doesn’t sound all that sorry to me.

  “Get back to your studies, nerd. I’m off to go see Kay,” I grunted, giving him the finger as I turned and left the younger club brother grumbling in the cell and headed up to find our resident nurse and substitute mother.

  I needed to be at full strength if I had to add Wolf to my list of people to suck up to. Right there next to Ronnie’s name.

  I am looking forward to the challenge.

  Not.

  * * *

  Disgusting.

  Gross. Tasteless. Bitter.

  How Ronnie served this shit for just a few days here was beyond remarkable. This bar was a piece of crap, including all the people that visited it.

  But as much as I hated to even sit in the chairs that have never been washed, I couldn’t leave my post. Not after all the shit I got into trouble for. Not that it would be reason enough for me to follow my president’s orders. Despite my whimsical nature, I was loyal to my club. Always would be.

  “Loyalty is what protects the club because if the brothers have our backs, then we’ve got our brothers’ backs.”

  I pressed my beer to my lips, the stale taste not so bad, as I thought about my president’s words.

  I hear ya’, Prez.

  “Can I buy you a drink?” A smooth, chaste voice spoke over my shoulder.

  I recognized that voice.

  “Ash,” I growled, watching the brunette slide into the stool next to me. She leaned over, her skin pale under the crappy luminescent bar lights, brown hair like a rat’s nest ruffled around her shoulders in every direction. It was the dark sunglasses I was the most unsurprised to see, a new plain black pair over her face that I knew were covering the glossed eyes underneath.

  She waved her two fingers at the bartender farther down, and it took a moment before he spotted her, but when he did, he was quick to fill her palms with two Buds.

  She slid one toward me, the glass making a clink as it tripped over a chip in the old bar.

  I stared down at the Bud, the wrapper around the neck of the beer soggy from too long in an ice chiller. Even if my exterior seemed calm, I couldn’t help the bubbling beneath the surface. It wasn’t aggressive, it wasn’t hostile. It was just… unwelcoming.

  “When you left—” I turned my head toward her.

  “You won’t find the information you’re looking for in here, Jax,” Ash interrupted, not looking in my direction. Her English accent caught some curious looks, but as they noticed the back of my leather cut and registered my skull and wings crested over my shoulders, they quickly turned their attention elsewhere.

  Despite my aura in this place, I let my gaze travel the room, not wanting anybody to overhear us and gain loose lips. Even the shrill creak of the old stool I turned on didn’t make any heads turn.

  “Your Black Jack isn’t in town and even the loose-lipped gossips that swarm here won’t be able to tell you anything,” Ash continued, punctuating her sentence with another swig of beer. And then another. And another.

  I looked down at the beer she offered me, the coolness of the glass fading in the disgusting warmth of the bar. Where Ronnie couldn’t stand cold coffee, I couldn’t stand warm beer. It had yet to reach that point; however, I still didn’t reach for it.

  I looked back to Ash, so comfortable and calm as she leaned against the bar. Anybody who didn’t know her would think she was just in her own world, enjoying her time. One thing I knew about Ash, however, was that both her thoughts and actions went a lot deeper than anybody else knew.

  Well, all except one, perhaps.

  The thoughts swirled in my mind, even as I mulled over her words. But even so, I knew there was little to stop this steel-hot feeling, like heartburn stuck in my chest. “I could bring you back now,” I threatened. Even though I wasn’t planning to say it, the words found themselves stabbing through the gap between us.

  I rose from my chair, filling in the small gap between our stools, my elbow resting on the side of the bar, blocking Ash in.

  Above her head, I could see down the top of her sunglasses, and behind the dim light, I saw the faint pallor of her irises facing forward. Unperturbed.

  “You won’t do that.”

  I wouldn’t?

  Assumptions annoyed me, and I became aware of her eyes trailing down to my hand set on the bar. White knuckles as I pressed my fingers into the wood, the muscles growing tense and stiff, wondering what was holding me back from picking her up and dragging her back to club. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  Ash turned from my hand, and her head spun to face me, eyes covered once again by the tinted glass. As close as we were, our breaths mixed in the same air; she smiled.

  “You’ve been trained all your life to know what animals are thinking,” Ash stated, her voice leading. “Last time I checked, humans were animals.”

  I realized what that burn in my chest was. Though it was mostly a mix of anger and annoyance at Ash, the rest was an iron defensiveness. A threatening feeling that angered me most of all.

  Because the one thing I had always been told, by my parents, by Ronnie’s dad, by all the trainers that taught me, when looking into the heart of a beast, be aware that a door opens both ways.

  It had mystified me when I was young, but as I grew older, I knew exactly what they meant.

  It wasn’t just me looking at her.

  She was looking right back at me.

  A small growl escaped my lips, my feet shifting on the rotting wood floor as my ass slipped back onto my seat, not a creak made. My hand clasped around the beer on the bar, popping the top of it off under my palm. I brought it to my lips. “I may know you’r
e up to something, Ash,” I replied, taking a sip of the shit beer. “Doesn’t mean I like it.”

  Ash’s voice softened, tucking a stray dark hair behind her ear. “You don’t have to like it, Jax,” she said softly. “Nobody does.”

  I didn’t have to look to know whose face just passed through Ash’s mind. Anna’s face passed through mine too.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ash’s head tilt back, her smooth tanned neck exposed as she tipped the beer to her lips and chugged the dregs before slamming the glass back down. “Just buckle in for the ride, cowboy.”

  With that Ash slapped down a couple dollar bills and turned on her boots, heavy footsteps walking away from me. I stared at her empty glass….

  “Lamb’s not me, Ash,” I called after her, the footsteps freezing. “He’s looking for you. And if he finds you… he won’t let you escape again.”

  I waited for a response, for anything. But the only thing I heard was the footsteps walking away, followed by the swing of the door slamming shut.

  Not long after, I followed her out the door, unable to stay still in my seat. But as I stepped into the empty parking lot, I wasn’t surprised to find her gone.

  I wondered if perhaps she had even been there in the first place.

  But I wasn’t stupid enough to doubt myself.

  Instead, I pulled out my phone and keyed in the number.

  “Hey, Lamb,” I said. “You’re not going to like it, but I need you to listen to me….”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ronnie

  Jax had been quiet since he’d gotten back.

  I was now hiding behind Max like a coward, running a hand through her soft mane as I took my time brushing out each knot that had managed to build up in the months she hadn’t let me groom her. With the current length, her soft, coppery colors had begun to show beneath the rays of sunlight that caught it, and the dark roots looked thicker and healthier than it had been in a long time.