AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It was true. She’d sensed it without my saying a word.
I sighed and stared at the wall. “It’s because I need to do something that’s not fucking smart… but I still have to do it.”
“What?”
“I have to meet with the Midnight Riders.”
156
Fiona
Istared at him in disbelief. “What?!”
“I know, I know,” he said grudgingly. “But I have to. I have to give them a chance to bow out before shit goes down.”
“They’ll kill you, Jack!”
“No they won’t. I won’t be talking to any of Lou’s guys, or even guys on the fence – only the ones who were my closest friends. Five guys at most.”
“Your ‘friends’?! Where were they the night Lou nearly killed us at the Roadhouse, huh?! What fucking good are they if you couldn’t count on them then?!”
He looked tired, beaten down. “What you’re saying is absolutely right… but I was on the front line with these guys, Fiona. I bled with them. I served time with a couple of them. I rode with them. We served shoulder to shoulder in a fucking war on the streets of Richards for years. I can’t leave them hanging out to dry.”
I could hear the despair in his voice. I felt for him – I really did – but I was panicking.
“Talking to them could screw up the entire plan,” I said, trying not to sound accusatory.
“It won’t. I won’t tell them anything other than to get out of town.”
“Jack – we’re this close. PLEASE don’t do this.”
“I don’t have a choice. I have to give them a chance to get out. If I don’t, and they all wind up in jail…” He shook his head. “If Kade and I are only ones to get off scot-free, just because I cut a deal with the DEA… I can’t live with that. I have to give them a chance.”
I almost cried out, But what about US? Don’t you care about ME?
But I knew he did. Otherwise he wouldn’t look so tortured.
I wanted to give him an ultimatum: them or me. And I was sure he would pick me.
But it would kill him to do it – and it would probably end any chance we had of staying together.
He wasn’t doing it for himself. He was doing it out of a sense of honor.
And that was one of the things I loved about him.
He was an outlaw who had seen too much bloodshed and tried to go straight, however imperfectly he might have done it.
Who was I to demand that he try to save his own skin and leave everybody else behind, when he’d been fighting for three years to save all of them, not just himself?
What he was doing now wasn’t that much different than when I was willing to risk everything I had with Jack in order to find out who killed my cousin.
Only difference was, he had the decency to give me a head’s up rather than lie to me and go do it anyway.
I lay there in silence, thinking – and as my fear slowly lessened, I knew what I had to do.
I rolled over in bed, put my arms around him, and looked straight into his eyes.
“I understand,” I said. “I understand because I put everything on the line to find out who killed Ali. I owed her that. I even fucked up things between us, even though I didn’t mean to. And right now, you feel like you owe your men. So… go and do what needs to be done. I’ll be here waiting for you.”
