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“How’re you feeling?” I asked, still feeling somewhat shy. Last night I’d taken his cock into my mouth and eagerly drank down his cum. Standing there in broad daylight, that now seemed slightly embarrassing.
He nodded. “It was a late one. But I’m good. Let me fill you in on everything.” Heading back down the hallway, he beckoned me onto the couch in the spare bedroom. “Come here.” He patted the cushion next to him.
I sat and he put his arm around me. “How’re you feeling?” He kissed my hair, my forehead, and it felt so good to be in his arms. But there was still a lot left unsaid.
“I’m all right. I was worried about you, out with those guys.”
“Aw, Sky, I can handle myself.”
“I know that.” I blushed. I was more than sure he could handle himself in all kinds of situations. “I just meant—”
“It’s nice to have you worrying about me.” He rubbed my shoulder and I instantly felt better. Then he stopped his hand, drawing it back to rub his head like he did when he had something he was mulling over. His voice grew businesslike when he spoke next. “OK, I need to tell you everything. They want to use you as bait.”
“Bait?” That sped my heartrate up to about a thousand beats per minute.
“Bait.” He exhaled. “I tried to talk them out of it. But I see what they’re thinking. Even if I don’t like it.”
“Bait,” I repeated, trying not to sound panicked. The image I pictured, of a wriggling worm pierced by a sharp hook, didn’t calm me down.
“You got to know, I will be by your side every second.” He turned and looked at me, piercing me with his dark, intense gaze. It made me relax, if only the slightest bit. “See, Griller’s got to see you and not realize it’s a set up. You’ve got to go someplace where he’ll see you and follow you. He’ll think he’s onto you, like he’s tailing you, trapping you. Then you can lead him right to the Reapers.”
I was sure my face had gone ashen pale. “There’s no other way?”
“We went over all kinds of ideas last night. We could send him a message, tell him if he wants you, he should head here, that kind of thing. But with any kind of warning, he’ll bring back up. It’ll be a Skulls/Reapers shoot out. We need him alone.” I nodded. That much I understood.
“We could set him up to see me,” Jax continued. “Maybe let him think he’s caught me getting into a car. But there’s still a good chance he’ll be suspicious, wary it’s a trap. He knows I’m friends with Zeke.”
“He’ll call for back up.” I saw it as he explained it. “But he won’t necessarily do that with me.” I could follow his line of reasoning before he even said it. “He’ll be so angry when he sees me he’ll be like a bull seeing red. He’ll just want to murder me.”
“But I won’t let that happen,” Jax reassured me, rubbing my back.
“Plus, he thinks I’m stupid.”
“Not sure I’d put it that way.” But he didn’t contradict me.
“It’s true. He doesn’t think much of me. He never has. Might as well use that to our advantage.” I shifted on the couch, a plan materializing in my head. “If we can set it up so he sees me getting into a car, he’ll tear after me and just want to get it done.” I could picture the look in his eyes when he’d strangled me, cold and furious all at once. We could use that to our advantage, his insane urge to kill. He wouldn’t be rational at all if he saw me.
“Yeah, I don’t like it.” Jax shook his head, “but I have to agree. He’ll fall for it, if he sees you.” He reached up and stroked my hair, so much comfort and assurance in just one touch. “If we do it this way—and I’m not saying we definitely are—can you think of anywhere he could spot you? Where you know we’d run into him but he wouldn’t suspect it was a set up?”
“Yup.” I replied instantly, knowing exactly where we could find him. “Outside his girlfriend’s apartment downtown. I know where she lives. I’ve seen him heading upstairs with her. But he doesn’t know that, so he won’t suspect a thing.”
“That’s perfect,” Jax agreed, then added, “You’ve seen him with her?”
“Have you?” Something in the way he said it tipped me off that he had.
“Yeah. They’d come into the bar together.”
I exhaled, remembering how trapped and miserable I’d been for such a long, long time. But that time was over. “I guess I knew for a while he was with someone else. But then, yeah, I saw them together.”
“It’s been hard for me not to punch the man every time I saw him walk into my bar,” Jax admitted, cracking his knuckles. “Anyway, it not my bar anymore. I’m glad I cashed out of that place.”
“You cashed out? Of Ace Bar?” That was the first I’d heard of it.
“Yeah, I haven’t told you?” I shook my head no. “I guess we’ve had a lot going on.” He laughed briefly at his understatement. “Yeah, I cashed out of my partnership with Tommy, about three weeks ago. I’ve got my house on the market, too.”
“You do?” I didn’t know what to make of it. “But, why? Where are you planning on heading?”
“Haven’t got that all figured out yet. I guess now that’s a good thing. All I knew was it was time for a fresh start.”
“Yeah, I’ve been feeling the same way.”
He looked down at me, his fingers playing with my hair, his body heat radiating into mine where we touched, our arms and thighs brushing against each other. He made me feel so feminine, and such a perfect fit with him. Just sitting next to his muscular thighs made me want to twist, wrap my legs around his, straddle him and kiss and rock against him.
“We should probably head back up to Cavallo.” His voice sounded thick and deep when he spoke. “Stay at a hotel tonight.”
“Cavallo?” My heart started beating, anxiety flooding me.
“That’s where this has to go down. And we tore off in the middle of the night. I need to get back to my place and grab a few more things. I can have the rest of it packed up. You probably want some things, too. I like what you were wearing last night, but that might be hard to pull off every day.”
I blushed, remembering how very little I’d worn last night, and what he’d taken off me. Did he still have my panties?
“Yeah, clothes would be nice. And I’d love some of my photos and baking dishes, but really?” I’d honestly figured I’d have to kiss all that goodbye. My need to get away from Mike outstripped my desire for my possessions. “Don’t you think that’s taking a crazy risk?
“Not if we do it right. We have to start tailing Griller, shadow his movement, figure out when and exactly where we can get him to see you. I know a guy we can send into your apartment. If you get him a list of stuff you want, he’ll slip in, grab it all, get out in ten minutes.”
“Sounds like quite a guy.”
“I’ve never said I’m a saint, Sky. You’re the one who told me I was a good man. I never claimed to be.”
I remembered every moment of that conversation we’d had in the supply room. Did he? “Do you mean, when we—”
“Yes, when we were folding sheets. And I almost kissed you.”
“You did?” I blushed, knowing last night we’d done so much more but still, to hear his admitting his attraction had gone back that long. I knew mine had started way before then.
“I’ve had it bad for you for a long time, now, Sky. I know things heated up between us last night at the club. And maybe you were just getting into it, playing the part—”
“Jax.” I interrupted him, shaking my head. “Could you really think that? As if all this time I’ve been indifferent to you? And then I just got carried away?”
