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“I’ll have something for you in about six hours, give or take a few extra minutes.”
“If you saw Rollins, then you can bet he saw us,” Lucas pointed out as they left the house. “And he could be thinking the same thing we are, in reverse. Take out the home team and set up here until they’re needed. Finding your place would be easy enough.”
Jack flicked him a mocking look. “Worried about me?”
“Covering bases,” Lucas stated. “I say we bunk down at your place, Jack. You have the bed in the basement, the spare room, and the couch. Rollins gets nosy, he sees the four bikes outside, he won’t consider it in his best interests to do something stupid. Besides, when it comes time to exterminate the roaches, I’d like to be there, if ya know what I’m sayin’.”
Rollins wasn’t above attacking if he thought Jack would be a future threat, just as Jack considered him and his team a threat. The other man wouldn’t know that, but there was no doubt he’d consider Jack a future hindrance to whatever he was there to do.
“Plenty of hot water and towels,” Jack offered. “Make use of the guest shower.” Then he turned to the electronics guru, Hayes. “I want sensors around the house and coordinating alerts at Poppy’s place that are jam-resistant. If you need funds let me know and I’ll have them wired to you.”
Hayes shook his head as he mounted his Harley. “Been working on that already. Hank and I have almost everything we need. Jam-resistant requires a mix of old and new components. Just a matter of finding what you need. I should have enough to go ahead and get started, though.”
Jack mounted his Harley and within minutes they were riding along the scenic, winding mountain road leading away from the house.
He paid careful attention to those instincts that would warn him they were being targeted, but so far, nothing more than an odd disquiet about the mission blipped his hunter’s radar.
That would change soon if this mission didn’t wrap up quickly, and he knew it. Once he took out Rollins’s team, word would circulate, and there were always those teams that would challenge them just for the hell of it.
Life would change. If they weren’t careful, the danger level would change as well. If he wasn’t careful.
Jack was a damned careful man.
Poppy hated waking up early on the days she didn’t work. It never failed to irritate her and completely threw her off balance. But for some ungodly reason her mother thought it was a good idea for her and Poppy’s father to stop by before she had time to shower or apply the cover-up to her neck.
She’d been as nervous as a cat in a roomful of rocking chairs when her father stared at her neck for long seconds. When he didn’t say anything, just hugged her as he always did and headed for her coffeepot, she almost breathed a sigh of relief.
Her mother clucked her tongue at her, then flashed her a teasing smile.
“It’s so good to know you’re seeing someone, sweetheart,” she said sweetly, then laid in the guilt trip with, “I’m sorry you didn’t trust me and Daddy to tell us. You know I always liked Jack Bridger when he was a boy… Be sure he comes to the house with you tomorrow.”
She had known her parents saw Jack whenever he came to town, but she’d fought not to question them over the years and reveal how much it had hurt her feelings that he hadn’t sought her out as well.
“He sent the prettiest vase of flowers this year,” her mother stated as she and Poppy moved into the kitchen. “I keep telling him I enjoyed feeding him all those years ago, but he just thanks me and brings more flowers the next year. And your daddy doesn’t admit it, but he loves heading to the home supply store with those gift cards Jack leaves lying next to the door.”
Jack left them on the tall stand next to the door because her daddy always waved him away, telling him he’d do the same for any kid. Which her father would have, but Poppy knew that over the years Jack had endeared himself to her parents.
Two hours of her parents’ subtle nosiness had her gritting her teeth before she could finally usher them out the door and get her shower. So much for hiding those marks on her neck from her father. She should have known her brothers would blab. They never could keep a secret.
After that, there was no time to relax with her own coffee before starting her day. If she was going to make it to Lilith’s birthday dinner that evening at the bar, she was going to have to complete certain things early.
One of those things was a trip to the store, which she hadn’t managed to get to Friday. She grimaced as that thought had her knees going all jelly, and her vagina moistening further. She couldn’t seem to convince that part of her body that she was upset with Jack.
He’d taken the house key she’d placed on the counter, but he hadn’t left his phone number, or taken hers. So evidently, being included in her social life wasn’t too damned important to him.
When she left the house and hurried to the SUV to make the much-needed trip to the store, she noticed that the bikes were gone; they hadn’t returned yet from wherever they’d gone. One day soon she was going to have to find out what was going on, and she knew it. Making herself do that, though, was getting harder by the day.
She’d heard the bikes leave early that morning, before her parents arrived. Jack wasn’t one to have overnight guests in the years he’d made his trips home. Not friends or women. From the gossip she’d heard, he didn’t hang out with anyone, not until this summer with his biker buddies. He worked on the house, went out for a few beers at the Downtown Bar and Grill, then returned home. Always alone.
She drove to the end of the alley, came to a stop, and was about to pull out when a large, tan, super-duty pickup suddenly sped around the corner without stopping and almost slammed into her.
Hitting the gas at first sight of it, she barely avoided the crash with the larger vehicle. The fact that it would have slammed into her car door, and at the speed it was traveling sent her straight to the hospital, wasn’t lost on her.
She’d glimpsed the driver and knew she hadn’t seen him around. He wasn’t a local. And he hadn’t looked nice, as he appeared to be yelling at the man sitting next to him in the passenger seat.
Both were big, brawny, though the one in the passenger seat kind of resembled the South American she’d seen at the bar several nights ago, before Jack had arrived. He’d asked her to dance, but she didn’t dance with men either she or her friends didn’t know, and she’d politely declined.
Shaking her head at the driver, she checked the rearview mirror, just to make sure they hadn’t followed her, then made the next turn and continued on her way to the grocery store.
