“What if you’re not happy with Spyder, Jessie?” Mars asked softly. “Every relationship has its highs and its lows. How do I know you’re not going to try to cut and run when the going gets tough? If this theory is true, then you know how much danger that puts you in, right?”
His words made her want to scream. It had taken twenty-three years of this pressure cooker environment for her to realize that she needed to do something to blow off the steam. And here he was, making her look fickle and flighty. She could cope with the slurs, just hated that he was saying it all in front of Spyder. Her mate who might take all this as granted and start believing she was fickle.
“Look, the MC has been straight all my life. Longer even. How was I to know that my buying some plane tickets could have the potential to trigger this entire farce? I didn’t know there was any danger because for my entire life, there’s never been any. Now I know, I’m not stupid. We’re all entitled to make mistakes, but in this instance, my mistake was innocent.”
“Most mistakes are,” Mars chimed in gloomily. He rubbed his jaw, and like Solomon passing down a law, stated, “Relationships are hard work, Jessie. Even mate bonds. You know Annette and I fight. A lot. If anything happens between you and Spyder, if you feel like enough is enough and you want out...” He shot Spyder an apologetic look when her mate let out a pissed off snarl at the Prez’s words. “Then you have to promise to come to me first. Do you hear me?”
She wanted to promise to hit him if he maintained this topic, but decided the better option was to try to stop him from talking to her parents. “If I promise, will you promise not to tell my mom and dad? They’ll never let me hear the end of it, and it will just scare my mom when there’s no real need.”
“I’m not sure if you’re in a position to bargain, Jessie,” Kiko pointed out, though his tone was more rueful than annoyed.
She shrugged. “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”
“I’m tempted to tell your father but not your mother. I’ll not lie, Jessie, I’m very disappointed in you.”
She frowned at him and tried not to feel regret at his disappointment. It was hard when she was the focus of three male scowls. “You can still say that even though you know my reasoning why?”
“That doesn’t excuse it. You’re close to Annette. Why didn’t you discuss this with her?” Mars froze, his eyes narrowing with displeasure. “Unless you did, and she didn’t tell me?”
Jessie scoffed at that. “Like she could keep that from you anyway.” She shot him a pointed look, one that had him rearing back in surprise. “But no, Annette didn’t know. I didn’t tell her. I knew it would be unfair on her. I didn’t want to test her loyalties.”
Mars nodded at that. “For the moment, we’ll leave this conversation where it stands. But we need to react to the possibility that Spyder’s theory is based on truth.
“Jessie, I want you to tell Ava where you bought your tickets and who attended you. I want her to find out if the assistant has Cartel affiliations.”
Jessie nodded. “I’ll go to her right away.”
“Good. Once we know that, then we can figure out if there’s some foundation to this because,” Mars let out a long sigh. “As much as I dislike it, I think there’s every chance this is exactly why all of this has started. Martinez found an opportunity and he’s seized on the weakness.”
“I’ll go now.” To Spyder, she murmured, “I’ll see you later.”
He frowned. “I’ll go with you.”
“I think we’re having a low,” she retorted sweetly, using Mars’s word as reference. “But I’m not running too far. Just to the bedroom down the hall.” Her eyes flashed at the men who thought they were in charge of her life. “You can tell my parents. I can handle their shit. But if you want to hurt them, that’s down to you.”
With her nose in the air, she headed out of the Council room. Shrugging off Spyder’s hand with a glower when he tried to stop her, she murmured, “We’ll talk about this later.”
He sighed but let her go. As the door closed, she heard Mars chuckle. “She always did have an attitude to rival the iceberg that sank the Titanic.”
Geez, wasn’t that a compliment?
Irritated beyond all belief, she rushed to Ava’s room. When she knocked on the door and Ava, her fingers tapping on her keyboard, ignored her, she hollered, “Ava, open the damn door. I’m here on your stupid father’s orders.”
Within ten seconds, the door was open. “Anyone who calls my father stupid is welcome in here any time of the day or night.”
Jessie rolled her eyes, not in the mood for Ava’s shit but still willing to throw dung at Mars’s door if she was willing too. “He managed to piss you off today as well?”
“Yes, always,” was all Ava said, but there was a flash of anger in her eyes.
“Want to talk about it?” Jessie asked, tone casual. “I know my brothers are off looking for that woman embezzling in the brewery if that helps?”
Ava shrugged but her gaze narrowed down. “I found out the reason why she was embezzling. I said we should cut her some slack. He didn’t agree.”
“What reason?”
She firmed her lips. “Her mother’s ill. Dying. She’s on radical cancer care treatment, but she doesn’t qualify for any aid.”
“The money she stole went on that?” When Ava nodded, Jessie let out a low whistle. “Goddess, what a choice.”
Ava huffed. “Exactly.”
“I can kind of understand your dad’s point though.” She grimaced. “And trust me, I really don’t want to. We can’t all go around stealing shit just because we’re in a really bad financial position.”
“Even if it’s life or death?” Ava peppered. “Even if it was your mom’s life on the line? Come on, Jessie, we both know you’d do anything to save Christie. And hell, my mom drives me around the bend more than anything, but I’d still go to the ends of the fucking universe to get her back to full health.”
Jessie grimaced. “Agreed.”
“So, we both agree. He’s being a prick?”
Jessie nodded. “Motion carried.”
Their gazes met, clashed, and they both snickered.
“What’s he done to piss you off?”
“Not just him, but Kiko and Spyder too.”
“Lover’s tiff already?” Ava asked, brows lifting as she took a seat on her sofa.
“Kind of. I told him something and he immediately went to the Council. I mean, granted, it all might fit this theory he has, but still, it’s a shitty thing to do when he knows the bastards around here are like fucking dinosaurs.”
Ava held up her hands. “Whoa. Slow it down, and back right up. Start from the beginning.”
Jessie moved over to the sofa. “Mind if I sit down?”
“Sure. Take a seat.”
Jessie perched on the arm chair and slumped over so her elbows were on her knees. “I arranged late last years for some plane tickets.”
Ava frowned. “You wanted to go on vacation?”
“No.” She blew out a breath and prepared for the shit to hit the fan. “I was intending on running away.”
Silence fell, and she peeked over at the woman who was her elder by a handful of years, shared no blood with her, but was her sister by Clan.
Ava looked astonished. “You were going to leave? Without telling anyone?”
“Like they’d have let me go if they’d known,” she snapped, then sucked in a breath that was supposed to calm but did nothing to settle her anger. “I told Spyder that if it wasn’t for him, I’d have left by now. My ticket dates were for two weeks after I met him.”
“Dear Goddess. That’s playing it fine.”
“I know. The Goddess works in mysterious ways, I guess.”
Ava grimaced. “It’s always spooky as hell to realize how much she interferes in our lives.”
A shiver rushed down Jessie’s spine. “Tell me about it.”
“Go on. You were saying.”
“Well, I
told him, and he asked me a couple of questions. Like, when I bought them. Then, he drags me off to the Council room and tells Mars this whole tale he’s cooked up.”
Ava frowned. “What kind of tale?”
“Basically, that the ticket agent I used could be in in cahoots with Martinez. And everything else, from Sammy being arrested to Spyder having to persuade The Nomads to deliver that package for him, was basically all a front so they could take advantage of the fact I was out of The Nomads’ protection, and they could get to me with that window of opportunity.”
A long hiss escaped Ava. “Fuck, that could be true.”
Jessie’s voice was gloomy as she admitted, “I know.”
“My dad wants me to see if the assistant who served you has anything to do with the Cartel, right?” As she spoke, she got to her feet and headed over to her computer. Before Jessie could even tell her she was bang on the nose, Ava asked, “Who did you use to buy the ticket and do you remember the name?”
“Sunny Horizons. It’s in Houston.”
“What about the person who attended you? It’s a big ask for you to remember her name, but maybe something sticks out?”
Jessie grimaced. “I remember it because I thought it was weird. Benedicion.”
“Hispanic,” Ava grumbled. “Figures.”
“Yeah. I know. And Spyder didn’t even ask that. He just immediately leaped onto this theory of his.”
She got to her feet and stepped up behind Ava’s chair to watch her work her magic. Within seconds, and Jessie had no idea how, but Ava had managed to hack into Sunny Horizons’ email account.
“How did you do that?” she asked, astonished.
“Best not to ask,” Chris murmured, making her jump. Again.
“Dear Goddess. Do you try to sneak around or something?” Jessie demanded, spinning around and finding him, again, on the goddamn bed.
He chuckled and shot her a benevolent smile. “It’s my room. I’m not exactly hiding out.”
“You should have said you were in here, dammit. The last thing I need is someone else on the Council knowing I wanted to run away.”
“I’m not going to tell your dad,” Chris said softly. “I know how hard it’s been for you two. We’ve treated you like little girls for far too long.”
Jessie accepted his words with a shaky breath. “Thanks, Chris.”
“That isn’t to say I agree with what you did.”
Ava snorted, and absentmindedly mumbled, “I don’t agree with it either. Still, it’s not our place to judge.”
“Your father doesn’t agree.”
“Why doesn’t that surprise me? The man’s the Prez. But he keeps on forgetting that doesn’t mean he’s a god,” she stated idly as she picked up her cell phone and dialed a number. Before Jessie could ask who she was calling, Ava murmured, “Jonesy, hey buddy. How are you doing?”
Jessie’s supernatural hearing had her listening in to both sides of the conversation.
“You know how it goes. These dicks with pricks think they’re better than us.”
Ava snorted. “Tell me about it. That jackass in Internal Affairs still sniffing around?”
“Yeah, but not in the way you think.”
Ava paused, then hooted. “You giving him some?”
“Nah, that would be far too easy.” Jonesy laughed. “Anyway, what can I do for you?”
“I’ve got a name. I was wondering if you could tell me if she’s got a record.”
“Sure. Anything for you.”
“Cheers, sweets. You’re a star. The name’s Benedicion Garcia Gonzalez.”
“Just give me two secs.”
“Sure.” Ava caught her eye and winked.
But before Jessie could do more than gawk, Jonesy was back on the line. “She’s the sister of Pedro Garcia Gonzalez. He’s a drug runner for the Martinez Cartel. He’s serving four years upstate for distribution. Why d’you ask?”
Heart sinking at the realization Spyder’s theory was right, Jessie grumbled, “Son of a bitch.”
Ava shot Jessie an apologetic look, but to Jonesy said, “I’ll be in touch, hun. Thanks as always.”
“Before you go, you got anything for me?”
Ava simply said, “Soon as I do, you’ll be the first to know.” As she cut the call, to Jessie she said, “Don’t ask because I won’t tell.”
“So many damn secrets in this goddamn clubhouse.”
“Like you can talk,” Ava retorted. “You’re the one who was going to run.”
“Like you didn’t know it was on the cards, anyway.”
She pshawed. “You think I didn’t want to? I’ve had it a hundred times worse than you, and I wanted to split a million times. I didn’t though.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. “Preach, preach, preach. Anyway, you wouldn’t run, would you? Your fucking mate was here. Running away would have been beside the point. Plus, I didn’t go in the end, did I?”
“Only because of Spyder. Not because your family is here. And hell, I wanted to go to college. There’s a big difference between what you wanted to do and what I wanted.”
“How do you know college wasn’t my goal too?”
Ava cocked a brow. “Really?”
“Yeah. You’re not the only one with goals, Ava.” She was on the receiving end of a considering look that had her further defending herself, “I’d have called.”
“How often? And not before your mom was shitting herself out of terror over where you were.”
“Goddess, what is it with you two? The minute you’re alone, you’re like cats,” Chris yelled. “Back down both of you. We need to tell Mars that it’s highly probable Jessie was the target all along.”
“See what happens when you try to leave the Clan?” Jessie grumbled. “You almost get kidnapped for your pains.”
Ava snorted. “I guess I can understand why my mom and dad didn’t want me to go to Harvard. And here we were, just thinking they were overreacting.”
“Tell me about it.”
The minute Mars walked into the clubroom, Jessie had a bit of a deja vu moment. She, Annette, and Ava were all taking part in the meeting, and the rest of the Council was there too.
The only difference was now her father was aware she’d been planning to run off. Someone had told him, and considering this farce had all started because of her, it wasn’t like they could keep him out of the loop.
Still, he was sulking with her now. Which was working in her favor. It meant he was leaving her the hell alone.
Bitch of it was, now he was leaving her alone, she didn’t want him to.
Life could be a real motherfucker sometimes. She huffed when Mars took a seat and stated, “We need to figure out what our next plan of action is. We ended our last meeting with the idea that Spyder was going to get visitation rights to meet up with Martinez’s cellmate. Jessie was going to go with him to try to convince him to get on our side. But now we know why this whole thing has gone down, or at least have a theory, so we have a choice. We can leave things as they are or we can try to make it hit home that he needs to back the fuck off.”
“How certain are we that Martinez’s intention was to kidnap Jessie?” Jarvis asked.
“As certain as we can be without him actually kidnapping her,” Mars said ruefully. “The girl she dealt with is the sister of one of Martinez’s runners. A runner who is actually serving time in the same jail as Martinez.” Mars shrugged. “It could just be a coincidence of course.”
Annette shook her head. “I can’t see it. It’s just too neat. Plus, it’s the only thing that makes sense. After all these years of leaving us the hell alone, there had to be a catalyst. Jessie’s running away was it.”
Now that the words were out there, properly out and reverberating around the Council room, Jessie hunched her shoulders. Then, when she realized what she was doing, she straightened up.
It might have seemed foolhardy, but she refused to feel guilty. Point blank refused. And she didn’t care who knew that.
Her father saw her straighten her shoulders though and snarled, “Consider yourself lucky you’ve got a mate now, girl.”
“Why? Would you have beaten me with a stick?” she retorted, eyes flashing.
Mundo leapt to his feet. “It’s what you deserve. You were going to put your mother through hell, and for what?”
“To get away from you. From all of you,” she snarled. “From having every part of my life dictated to. From having to follow stupid Clan rules that make no sense. From having nothing explained to me.
“Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you think if I’d have known we were in danger I’d have run away?”
Annette’s voice was soft as she murmured, “Danger doesn’t work to a set of standard rules, Jessie. It’s not like we could have known Martinez would still be interested in the MC.”
She could tell from Annette’s tone that she was equally as offended as her father. The notion annoyed her more than anything because Annette knew how hemmed in she’d been feeling. How trapped.
If anyone could have understood, she’d figured it would be her.
Apparently not.
Apparently she was all on her own here, because unlike the last meeting, Spyder’s hands weren’t on her shoulders. He wasn’t offering her his silent support.
That hurt.
It really fucking hurt.
She sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m well aware there are no cues as to when the shit hit the fan but for twenty-three years you’ve perpetuated the belief in all us cubs that the MC was all show.” Before anyone could say anything, she demanded of Ava, “Am I right?”
The Council swung to look at the other cub in the room. Thankfully, Ava was too honest for her own good because she nodded. “She’s right. You have. I only realized we had a past when I started working on the accounts and delved deeper into things.”
“The Nomads has a reputation,” Jarvis argued. “You had to figure out we had a past.”
“That’s just it. A past. It could have been forty years ago, sixty. Hell, the Nazis aren’t exactly friends of the world, are they? And they were in power over a century ago!” She pursed her lips. “If you’d told me, if you’d told us, that even if it was unlikely, there was the potential for risk, I’d have listened. I’d have understood. And maybe I’d have still felt trapped, and maybe I’d have still tried to run, but don’t blame me for this. Not when I didn’t have a single clue about our past. The worst I knew was that Mischa was an illegal immigrant. I didn’t know The Nomads were singlehandedly responsible for saving her, dammit. I didn’t know the MC was involved in human trafficking.”
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