“Aren’t you going to kill me?” Her voice was leaden with despair.
“Why?”
“I just murdered a man. You’re a cop. You have to kill me.”
“He’ll live. And it was temporary insanity.”
“Just kill me. You don’t know what it’s like, kicking this. I’ll be dead soon anyway. Do it,” Jennifer pleaded.
Bobbi knelt next to her, grabbed her hand, and stared her straight in the eyes. “Quit being a weak ass pussy and act like a cougar,” she snapped. “You’re embarrassing me.”
“What?” Jennifer gasped, shocked.
“I don’t do warm and fuzzy. Listen the hell up. You can go to the hospital and take sedatives and go through medically supervised withdrawal. You can go to rehab. You must have something you want to live for. I know you do. Tell me what it is.”
Jennifer’s eyes flooded with tears. “Pamela’s cubs,” she sobbed. “They’re in foster care. Their dad is in prison and he never wanted them. I used to take care of them while Pamela waitressed at the club. We’d sit there and make crafts out of egg cartons and milk jugs. They called me Auntie Jennie. Now they’re in a big group home and their own pride won’t take them in.”
“Thirty days in rehab. Then I will help you get custody of those cubs. I swear to God. Look at me. Tell me you’ll do this.”
“I’ll try,” Jennifer wiped at her face. “I was with Pamela when she died. Oh, God. I begged her not to die. Vaughn sat there and watched and laughed, and then him and all his body guards all lined up and took turns with me, one after the other.”
“You just laid open his intestines. He’ll poop into a colostomy bag for the rest of his life, in a tiny dark prison cell that reeks of his own feces. And you won’t try to kick. You’ll do it.”
“I’ll do it,” Jennifer echoed.
Jax pulled Bobbi into his arms. Tyler was pressing his hand against Pixie’s bleeding wound.
“What you did was the strongest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do,” Jax told her. “I know I talked you out of killing him, but if someone caused my brother to die, I’m not going to lie to you, I might not have been able to hold back, even if it was an unarmed human lying at my feet pissing himself in terror.”
“I’m glad you stopped me,” she groaned, falling into his arms. She was wrung dry emotionally, her legs like wet noodles barely able to hold her weight. “Now get me out of here before I change my mind.”
Chapter Nineteen
“Explain to me how he’s your brother,” Jax said, glancing over at Heath, his arm tightening around Bobbi’s shoulders. “He isn’t related to you. I could smell it.” Bobbi could swear Jax still sounded jealous.
They were all gathered in Kenneth’s living room, with a tray of drinks spread out before them. Bobbi was on her third beer, and Jax’s arm was slung protectively around her shoulders.
“When I was eight years old, I ran away from my abusive foster home, and ended up living in a squat with a bunch of other runaways, both shifters and humans. I lived with them till I was fourteen, and we were closer than most blood relatives. We hustled, we shoplifted, we sold stolen property, we always found a way to put food on the table. When I say we had each other’s back, I mean, any one of us would have died for the others.” Bobbi leaned into Jax. “They are my brothers, although not legally.”
The sun was sinking into the horizon. She still felt sick, and unsteady on her feet.
“So what happened?”
Bobbi sighed. “Ironically enough, it wasn’t all the near misses we had with cops. Gentrification happened. The squat we’d lived in – one day a construction crew showed up and knocked it down. I was home alone at the time, the cops picked me up and brought me downtown. And then…funny as this may sound, this time social services placed me with an absolutely wonderful human couple, and that couple had taken in another young shifter daughter, and I sensed that she needed me. And I decided not to run away. I decided to go to high school and have something resembling a normal life. I always kept in touch with my brothers, but when they saw that I was in a nice home with decent parents, they agreed with me that I should stay there.”
“So what happened with Marcus?”
Bobbi’s smile vanished, and sorrow washed over her. “Marcus…he’d been raised in a horribly abusive home, by an uncle who was a pervert, who raped him daily for six years. Marcus killed his uncle when he was twelve, got sent to juvie, got abused there too, by the guards and the older kids. He really tried to battle his demons, but he became a drug addict, and none of us could bring him back.”
She stared at the floor. “I think that taking care of me helped force him to hold it together for a long time, as much as he could anyway. It was after I moved in with my foster parents that he really went off the rails.”
“Bullshit,” Heath snapped. “Do not nail yourself to that cross. I loved Marcus, and I’m sorry about every lousy thing that ever happened to him, but deciding to do drugs? That’s on him. He went to rehab, he relapsed. We worked overtime, two and three jobs, we saved up money to put him in rehab again, he relapsed again.”
“It’s true,” Bobbi shrugged unhappily. She turned to Jax. “But when he died all I could think about was revenge. He was with a bunch of other shifter kids, runaways, dregs of society, and they did this new mystery drug which made them go rabid and attack each other, and nobody cared. I became an Enforcer with the specific plan to use my connections and access to legal databases to track down the man who’d created the drugs that killed him, but I never found him. I stayed with the Enforcers because it turned out I was very good at it and I finally felt like I was doing something useful, serving a higher purpose. I did eventually find out that the Chemist, as Tony was called, worked for Vaughn, and that’s why I approached my bosses with the idea of taking Vaughn down.”
She moved on the couch, sinking into Jax’s arms. Jax was still here. Jax still wanted her. He forgave her; it was an undeserved miracle.
He wrapped his arms around her body and nuzzled her neck. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again, by the way,” he breathed into her ear, and despite her exhaustion, the feeling of his warm breath sent a pleasurable little shiver through her body.
She turned to Heath, snuggling into Jax as she moved. “Okay. How did you find me at the warehouse today?”
“We called the Enforcers last night when we heard that phone call between you and Vaughn,” Kenneth said. “None of us knew how to find Vaughn or you. I called in all the reinforcements I had at my disposal, and we prayed that when Vaughn showed up at the factory, you’d still be alive and we could force him to give us your location. Finding you there was an unexpected bonus.”
Heath nodded. “Once the Enforcers got that call, they pulled me out of prison, and I flew out here right away. We were doing everything we could to find you and Vaughn, but we were in the same boat as your friends here. Our only hope was that we’d snag Vaughn when he went to the factory.”
“So…the Enforcers are okay with you trying to kill Tony?” Pixie asked skeptically.
“Ah, no,” Bobbi said. “I left out the little detail that I wanted to be an Enforcer specifically so I could track down one criminal and kill him. They might have considered that a dealbreaker. Heath got himself hired by them for the same reason. That is why we’re both ex-Enforcers, as of today. That whole threatening to kill Tony incident, with Enforcers present…my bad. Oops.”
“What? They fired you?” Jax said, shocked. Then he shrugged. “Oh well. Welcome to the ranks of the unemployed. You’ll come to enjoy the taste of Ramen noodles. And we’re shifters; we can always hunt our food.”
“I can support you guys by boosting wallets,” Pixie volunteered. “You could be my new protectors, like Tommy was. Except you wouldn’t pimp me out. You wouldn’t, right?”
“Gee, you’re the best. And no stealing, no pimping, no breaking the law,” Bobbi said, firmly. “By the way, do I want to know what you have in your pockets right now?”
“Kenneth’s wallet. I think his Amex Card is made of pure gold. Seriously, think of the shopping spree we could have.”
Dominick let out a growl of anger and swung to glare at her.
“I am sitting right here. Give it back.” Kenneth held out his hand, and Pixie dug into her pocket and tossed it to him.
He turned to Jax, flipping through his wallet and counting his credit cards. “My lawyers worked out something of a deal with Hammersmith. They’ll give you $25,000 for the work you did on the Rage case, even though they did have an airtight contract which you violated when you threatened Reginald Ven Der Mere.”
Jax nodded. “Thank you. I do owe you. I don’t know how I’ll pay you back, but…”
“Well, this brings me to an idea that I’ve been batting around for a while,” Kenneth said. “Shifters, Inc. A security firm made up of shifters, watching out for our interests. I think this whole ordeal has shown us how much that’s needed. My business connections and my friends would give the security firm all the work we’d ever need.”
Bobbi and Jax glanced at each other.
“So, now I just need a bunch of crazy, dysfunctional shifters with no common sense and a tendency to rush into danger, and I’m golden,” Kenneth said.
“Huh. I don’t know anyone like that, do you?” Bobbi said to Jax.
“Nope,” Jax said. “I think he’s out of luck.”
“I have an assignment for you already,” Kenneth said. “It involves Pixie.”
“Me?” she looked shocked.
“Yes. I need a good thief.”
“Wow. Really?” Pixie’s eyes were wide with amazement. “We’d all be like the most janked-up pack ever. I like it.”
“Pack?” Jax, Tyler and Dominick said simultaneously.
“I’m not part of your pack?” Pixie said, looking mortally wounded.
“Of course you are,” Bobbi said quickly. “Because that gives me the right to cuff you upside the head every time you do something stupid. I foresee multiple concussions in your future.”
“How can we be a pack? We’re all different species,” Jax protested.
“And we annoy the hell out of each other,” Dominick added. “Well, you all annoy the hell out of me, anyway.”
“Feeling’s mutual, but you had our back when we needed it, didn’t you?” Jax said.
“I owed you,” Dominick grumbled, but Bobbi thought he looked secretly pleased.
“Does the job offer apply to my brother?” Bobbi asked.
“Certainly. Any man who can survive in federal prison for six months undercover is a man I would find very useful on my staff,” Kenneth said.
He held up his glass of Macallan Whisky. “To Shifters, Inc.!” Everyone in the room held up their glasses.
“To Shifters, Inc.!”
Pixie whispered to Bobbi “I hope he prints up t-shirts for us.”
Later, Bobbi found Pixie staring out the window at the setting sun, looking mournful.
“What? We didn’t get tortured to death and we all have gainful employment. Why the long face?” Bobbi asked.
“I don’t have any luck with men,” Pixie said.
“What do you mean?”
“The jackal I was hooking up with…that’s how Vaughn found me. I guess Vaughn’s men were asking around about me, because they’d been following you and knew you and I were buds. He sold me out.”
“Oh, Pixie. What a douche. I’m sorry. But you make your own luck when it comes to men, okay? I mean, Tyler likes you, but you’ve never even noticed.”
“What?” Pixie glanced over at Tyler, who was sitting at his desk looking at his laptop. “Look at him,” Bobbi said. “He’s watching you in the laptop’s reflection.”
“Wow. He is.” Pixie sounded amazed. “I just would never expect a decent guy to like me.”
“Something to think about. You don’t have to make a decision right this minute.”
“Huh.” Pixie looked thoughtful.
Later that night, Jax and Bobbi went back to Jax’s house, where Jax ordered pizza for them. Bobbi sat curled up on his couch, head resting on one of the pillows. Kenneth had offered to let Heath stay at his place until he found an apartment in town.
She was exhausted and wired at the same time. Her whole life had changed so fast…it felt as if someone had yanked a rug out from underneath her and she hadn’t hit the ground yet.
Her mind was bouncing like a rubber ball, from one thought to the next.
Jax is mine, Jax is mine…the refrain kept playing through her head. It was a comforting refrain, like a warm blanket she could wrap around herself.
All that anger and hatred she’d carried inside her like festering poison, her overwhelming grief at Marcus’ pointless death…she’d have to learn to let it go now.
“What are you thinking about?” Jax asked.
“I’m compiling a very long mental list of all the things that I have to do tomorrow. I need to call Captain Thorne and apologize for not being able to let him in the loop. I need to call Bradley in San Francisco and let him know that we arrested his lover’s murderer.”
“You need to get all of your belongings shipped here to Playa Linda. To our apartment.” He put heavy emphasis on the word “our” as he plopped down on the couch next to her. She leaned back and draped her legs across his lap, feeling his hardness. She breathed in deeply, inhaling his scent. Ahhh, Eau de Jax. She never tired of it.
“Yes,” she said. “I need to do that too. So. What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking that I nearly lost you and it nearly killed me. Last night was the longest night of my life. I didn’t sleep a wink. I spent all night pacing the floor at Kenneth’s house while Kenneth gathered his security forces, and we tried to figure out how to find you, and everyone tried to keep me from going crazy,” Jax said.
“So does that mean you’re too tired for sex?” Lord, she hoped not.
Jax threw back his head and howled with laughter. “Oh, you were serious. You’ve met me, right? Hello, I’m Jax. Addicted to sex with Bobbi Jo Simpson.”
Then he grew serious. “So, if I asked you to quit working in this field and promised to support you and-“
She shook her head. “I can’t do that, Jax. I’m not a stay at home kinda gal. I’m not a desk job kinda gal.”
“I understand. It was worth a try. The only thing I ask…from now on, if you’ve got any problems, bring me in. I know I walked in on the middle of an investigation, and your brother’s life was at stake, and you’d just met me, but-“
“Lying to you was torture. And I will never lie to you again. Now tell me you’ll stop inviting crazy bimbos over from Caged Heat for afternoon sex.”
Jax punched her arm. “Are you serious? I’m a victim here! You should feel sorry for me! No? Okay, fine, be like that. I will promise you this. I’ll never be with another woman, and I don’t think I need to tell you that I couldn’t stand the thought of you with another man. You are my fated mate, I love you, and I don’t want anyone else but you.”
She leaned up to kiss him, but he put his hands on her shoulders.
“Say it back.”
“I’m terrible at the mushy stuff. Don’t actions speak louder than words?” She straddled him and wriggled, and he let out a groan. Then in one swift motion he threw her down on the couch and pinned her hands to her sides.
“I’m even worse at the mushy stuff. If I can do it, so can you. Say it, or no sex.” He grinned down at her wickedly. “I’ve got nothing but time on my hands, babe. I can sit here all day.”
“Really? Using my own words to mock me?” She struggled, but he held her in place. She glared up at him. She could knee him in his groin, but she had plans for that groin in the near future, and didn’t want to risk injuring it. Damn him, he had her right where he wanted her.
She took a deep breath, and looked him in the eye. “I love you too. You are my fated mate. If any bitch tries to rub her tits on you again, I will mangle h
er. And you’re the most incredible sex I’ve ever had. Are you happy?”
“I’m always happy when I get my way. Was that so bad?”
“Terrible,” she muttered, but she was smiling.
Epilogue
“Is it really 7 a.m.? Did we really sleep that late?” Bobbi squinted at the wall clock
“We really did. You wouldn’t stop attacking me. I begged you to stop violating my virtue and let me sleep,” Jax sighed in mock sorrow, shaking his head.
“Hah. Keep that up, and maybe I will let you sleep next time,” Bobbi said.
“You’re bluffing, and we both know it.” Jax stretched and yawned. Bobbi stared admiringly. His body was magnificent. She reached up and ran her fingers along the rock hard muscles of his torso, smiling.
Then she sat up. “There’s a phone call that I really need to make.” She fumbled through her suitcase, which she’d tossed to the side of the bed, and pulled out a t-shirt, which she yanked over her head.
“I know. You want to step outside to do it in private,” Jax said, sounding resigned.
“No. I want you here for this.”
She grabbed her cell phone from Jax’s night stand, and punched in the numbers. She grabbed Jax’s hand with her free hand, and squeezed hard.
Meg answered, sounding surprised and worried. Bobbi never called just to check in. “Bobbi Jo? Are you all right?”
“Tell her I say hi!” Sam called out. “Remind her to wear her seatbelt! She was never very good about wearing her seatbelt.”
Bobbi smiled.
“I’m fine. I’ve been meaning to call you for a while. I miss you guys. Listen, I wanted to tell you. I met this guy…I was thinking about bringing him home for Christmas.”
THE END
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The Alpha Meets His Match Page 20
