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“Then I better let you get back to work.” I pull away from her and start making my way toward the door.
“Jessie,” she calls out after me, but I ignore her and head out because I can’t help feeling wounded.
“Hey…” Mads rushes out after me, stopping me before I can reach my bike.
“You know how much I hate fighting,” she says in that sweet voice that turns me fuckin’ weak.
I look back at her, suddenly aware that she’s standing out here wearing nothing but my T-shirt and her panties, so I walk her back onto the porch, pressing her into the wall with my body.
“Then stop fighting me on it,” I whisper before kissing her.
I hate fighting too.
“Would it be so bad?” I ask, pulling away from her lips. “I see at how happy Nyx and Ella are with Dylan, and I really fuckin’ want us to have that, Mads,” I admit.
“I know you do,” she whispers. “But now’s not the time, there’s so much happening right now. Let’s just get through this and we’ll talk about it again,” she promises me with a smile.
“Jess,” someone calls my name from the other side of the yard.
“I don’t think there’s ever a right time, Mads.” I pull her head down to my chest and press a kiss on top of it. Then I guide her back through the door before I turn around to see who needs me.
“How’s Troj?” Skid asks, looking concerned, this shit that’s happened can’t be easy for him to deal with. Not after what happened to Carly.
“Not good, he’s lashing out and I don’t know how to make him focus on what’s important. The girl left town last night,” I tell him.
“With the other guy?” Skid frowns.
“By herself.”
“Jeez, that’s brave after what she went through.”
“It ain’t right. He ain’t acting like himself. He shouldn’t have let her go. He should be at her side, Skid. I don’t know how to be there for him, he’s slipping further and further.”
“He’s just trying to keep breathing right now, Jess,” Skid explains, he gets it. The man in front of me has been through hell, he’s been broken and a real sad intuition tells me he’ll never recover.
“I gotta head into town and pick up supplies for Marilyn, need anything?” I check.
“Nah, I’m good.” Skid shakes his head as I get into the truck.
“Just don’t give up on him, he may be pushing you away but when he’s ready to face up, he’s gonna need ya. He’s gonna need all of us.” Skid taps his hand on the hood of my truck before he makes his way back to his cabin.
I pull away and head down the track, putting Skid’s advice on hold so I can go back to trying to figure Maddy out. None of it makes any sense to me. She’s great with Dylan, always smiling when she’s around him. She’ll make the perfect Mom, and it’s hard for me to not feel disappointed that she doesn’t want what I do.
In fact, I find myself getting more and more frustrated by it.
When I get to the club gates, I notice the Mercedes parked opposite and when I turn left toward town, I watch in my rearview mirror as it pulls out to follow me.
“Fuckin’ Hawker,” I mutter under my breath. We don’t need him hanging on our tail, not at a time like this. And the worse thing about it is, he’s not even being sly.
He wants us to know he’s got eyes on us. How the fuck are we supposed to get anything done around here with him all over our asses? Roswell hasn’t had anything called in related to what we did last night yet. He’s keeping us updated.
The commune we hit is on rural land, and it could take days for anyone to notice the massacre inside that house. I got faith in Grimm, he covers every little detail. That place will be clean of anything that could come back on us. But Hawker being so close has me on edge.
He’s been surveilling Cooper. Maybe he already knows they’re dead and is working on his gut instinct.
He follows me all the way into town and when I pull up outside the grocery store, he parks in the spot right behind me.
I watch the random guy who steps out the deli shop. He’s walking a toddler with his hand and got another kid balanced on his hip as he steps up to the station wagon in front of me. And suddenly it hits me.
