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“Listen, babe…” He reached for her hands and squeezed.
“Oh fuck. Kailey,” she muttered, pulling one hand back to cover her mouth.
Nobody said anything. Spencer was measuring his words and looking like he was having trouble.
“Sorry, babe,” Deacon finally said.
“How bad is it?” she asked.
“The worst,” Rider answered. “She’s gone.”
“What went down?” I asked, moving in to sit beside her.
Gigi curled into a ball, burying her face in her knees. Spencer wrapped his arms around her back and spoke into her hair.
“I’m sorry, Gia,” he said. “They used her to frame Edge. Did her the way they did Jet. Cops found her and Edge got arrested this morning.”
I moved closer, making eye contact with Spence, who caught my vibe and backed off. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her onto my lap. She was perfectly quiet, still, and curled into a tight ball, face still buried in her knees. I held her close and rocked her.
“I’m so fucking sorry, baby,” I whispered against her neck.
And then her breathing broke and she was trembling in my arms. Still in that little ball, body shuddering as she cried, trying to do it silently, trying to do it with grace.
I held her tighter, dropping a kiss on her head, thinking that her tears right now for her stepsister could be tears that our people were crying for Jojo, for Pippa, Marlena. But because Gigi put her ass on the line and came to warn us, all those girls were still breathing. And good she came to us, or she might be dead too.
And then I kissed her head again, vowing to myself that they would not get their filthy fucking mitts on her.
I felt the eyes of all the men in the room on me. Reading my body language and looking at her while she tried to hold it together. She needed the space to let it out.
“Stickin’ around a bit?” I asked through tight teeth.
“Yeah, man,” Deacon said. “We’ll hang a little bit so we can chat.”
I lifted her and carried her into the bedroom, pushing the door shut with my foot. After I put her on the bed I climbed on and pulled her close. She didn’t loosen from the ball she was in.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I repeated, kissing her forehead.
She shook some more, trying to stifle the painful sounds that I knew were coming from deep down.
“Let it out,” I invited, settling in, rubbing her back.
Finally, she looked at me with pain on her face. It was so raw, so expressive, it felt like a kick in the chest.
“You can go talk to the guys,” she said. “I’ll … be all right.”
I shook my head. “I’m here for you right now. They can wait.”
Her face crumpled and then she tried to hide it. “It’s okay, Jesse. I can be by myself while you go talk.”
I let go of her, reached to the dresser and moved the box of Kleenex beside her. “Be back with something to drink and then I’ll talk to ‘em.”
“It’s okay. Don’t want nothin’,” she whispered, taking a Kleenex.
“I’ll go talk to the boys ‘n then I’ll be back.” I kissed her head. “I’m so fucking sorry, G.” I squeezed the back of her neck.
She blew her nose, then re-curled into a ball on her side.
I pulled the blanket over to cover her up before I slipped out, shutting the door.
As soon as the door shut, the sound of her being unable to hold it back any longer, of her absolutely losing it… kicked me in the throat.
The boys were all by the fire outside.
“I put your steaks back in the fridge for you, man,” Rider said. “Those spuds were done, left ‘em on the counter.”
“Thanks. What happened to Kailey? What about Edge?”
Spence blew his hair out of his eyes, looking pained. Deacon looked like he wanted to put his fist through something. Rider’s mouth twisted into a snarl, and he shook his head, eyeing me.
Jackals nearly took Rider out not long ago. And Scott was another one fucked over by those fuckers. He’s wanted back at them for months, remembers exactly who was there the night he was ass-raped on the side of the road after they laid a beating on him. They shot Bronto in the ass while taking Ella at gunpoint. Prospects were supposed to be off limits, as were women and children. There was a truce mapped out between the clubs a few years back. It was a necessity after how ugly things got when Deke took out their VP. The Dominion Brotherhood had stuck to the terms.
And now, every man with a patch on his leather for miles around wanted the Wyld Jackals taken out for breaking every fuckin’ rule in that truce. Though I suspected nobody wanted them taken down and out as badly as Rider, though he might be on par with Edge, since they murdered his woman.
