Page 40 of Blue-Eyed Jacks (Destroyers MC: Skilletsville PA #1)

Jackson

T he first thing I saw when I peeked over the railing was Kate. The second? Zoe. Seeing both of them whole? Well, it fucked me up. I forgot to check the rest of the scene. The dead woman at the top of the stairs wasn’t moving, but a goddamn biker at the bottom sure was.

“Freeze, motherfucker.”

All three living people stopped mid-movement to stare up at me.

“Hi, Dad.”

I acknowledged Zoe with a dip of my head. “Kate?”

“About time you showed up. You’re late.”

Bandit had his hands taped but still tried to hold them in the air. He was the only one of them with any sense.

“Sorry about that. I’d have been here earlier if you’d kept your damn tracker on you.”

Kate sucked in a breath and turned red.

Zoe asked, “Did you find Tina?”

“Who?”

Zoe looked at her mom to answer. But I knew, almost before Kate replied.

Kate’s eyes squeezed shut, then she dug deep for a brave face. “One of Shock’s hookers. She came with us. Cara killed her.” A nod toward the top of the stairs at the dead woman’s body gave me a name to put to the corpse.

“Who killed Cara?”

“Shock. Or him.” Kate indicated Bandit.

“Well?” I asked.

“I’m pretty sure it was me.” Bandit didn’t look pleased about his confession.

I scrutinized Shock’s bullet-riddled corpse in the middle of the foyer. There was more blood on the marble than in his body. “Who did that?”

Kate turned redder. Zoe blanched.

With a grab and tug, Kate pulled Zoe close. “I did,” Kate said.

“Mom.” Zoe’s face betrayed the truth.

Meanwhile, Bandit tried to stuff papers into a suitcase with his bound hands.

I stood on the final step and put the gun in my hand against his head. “What the fuck are you doing?”

Bandit froze. “Picking up the pieces.”

“You can stop that for a bit. Keep those hands in the air.”

If no police had arrived through this entire bloodbath, I highly doubted any would.

No sooner than I thought that, headlights flared through the windows as a vehicle turned from the road. I peeked out the huge-ass window but couldn’t tell whether it was a cop or not. “Zoe, Kate, get the fuck out, now.”

Neither listened. Zoe peered out one of the door’s side windows, keeping her body out of sight. I couldn’t have done it better myself. “It’s an SUV.”

“Is it the cops?” I asked.

“No, I think it’s Nonno.”

Kate threw her hands up in the air in disgust. “Fucking great. Another biker. Someone just shoot me now? Please?”

“Babe? You might not want to say shit like that,” I spit out. I was happy as fuck she was still alive, but now was not the time.

She had the nerve to glare at me. “If you knew half of what happened to us tonight, you’d mind your words, mister.”

Bandit snickered. Then he tacked on a hasty, “sorry,” and tried to hold his hands up.

“Well? Someone fill me in.”

Preferably somewhere other than here. “On second thought… Kate, Zoe, let’s get the fuck out of here.”

The door swung open wide. Nonno and five of his fucking bodyguards strode in and stopped dead in their tracks as soon as they saw Shock’s body. Nonno caught my declaration. “You’re not going anywhere, asshole.”

“And you’re not my boss anymore, so fuck off.

” I turned to put him in my sights and get closer to my family.

As I stepped past Bandit, I made sure to stay out of tripping distance.

Kate gathered Zoe to her side and guided her until we finally were together.

I pulled Zoe in for a one-armed hug. Then, I told her, “Stay behind me.”

Nonno stared at Shock’s body. “Did you do this?”

He directed the question at me.

“Fuck no. I’m not messy.” I nudged Zoe to stop peeking around me and get her ass fully behind my body as a shield. Kate stood at my side.

“I did it.”

This time, my woman lied convincingly.

Nonno frowned. He turned to the one person who wouldn’t, couldn’t, lie to him. “Bandit?”

He sent me an apologetic glance. “Zoe killed him.”

Nonno’s eyebrows lifted. “Really?” He tried to see around me to get a gander at my baby girl, but I puffed up larger to block his line of sight.

His eyes fixed on me. “A chip off the old block, huh?” He huffed out a humorless laugh. “Just like One-Eyed Jack.” His head shook in disbelief. His motion finally stilled when he fixated on Shock’s body. “How am I going to explain this?”

“Blackmail?” Bandit offered. He pulled a photo from the suitcase he’d been stuffing.

Most of the photos were crumpled. A few were blood-stained.

That would be a problem if anyone else showed up, mainly the police, but the item in Bandit’s hand was incriminating as hell. Because I recognized the face in it.

One “Tercel Timmy” stared at me from his watery grave.

Nonno took it from Bandit. He studied the photo and the notes written on the back. “Huh.”

That could mean any number of things. And since I was no longer a Destroyer, none of those interpretations meant shit to me. “We’re leaving.”

Nonno had questions. “Jackson?”

We’d made it two steps. “What?”

Nonno hadn’t taken his eyes off the photo. He started slowly. “I fucked up tonight.”

No shit? But again, not my fucking problem. I tugged Kate’s hand, indicating the gauntlet of bikers at the door.

Had to give her credit, she held her head high and took a step in that direction.

Nonno had to ruin our escape. “I promoted the wrong man because of shit like this haunting me.” He finally lifted his gaze to skewer me with his stare. “And I think you already knew that.”

I did, but there were more important things in my life than fixing Nonno’s shit.

But maybe I could use it to my advantage?

Zoe’s fingers hooked onto my belt loop. She’s more important.

“So? That’s a you problem.” I wrapped my arm over Zoe’s shoulder and kept her there all the way out the door and down the street.

Both Kate and Zoe remained quiet as I bundled them inside the ugly Subaru.

Meanwhile, Nonno stood in the driveway, monitoring my every move. But he didn’t stop me from driving away.

I headed north, then east, practically retracing the route I’d taken out of Pittsburgh with Kate the very first time.

She noticed and reached for my hand as we put miles between us and anything biker-related.

A long-ass drive later, we were in Maine.

I followed them inside the little house I technically did and didn’t own.

“Wow, this doesn’t look like the same place.” It utterly didn’t.

“I had a landlord who didn’t give a shit what I did with the place.”

Kate was funny.

“Thank God for that.”

Zoe stumbled past us. Even though she slept most of the ride, she still was in that zombie state of exhaustion, and she hadn’t eaten a single thing the whole trip. “I’m going to bed.”

That sounded like a great idea. Except, I didn’t have one here… unless… I tracked her ascent to the split attic above. Then, quietly asked Kate, “One of those rooms is yours right?”

Her shoulders jiggled with silent laughter. Her slow steps toward the stairs invited me forward. “I guess it’s ours now?”

Maybe . If nothing followed me here. “That would be nice.”

She stopped to stare at me. “What are we going to do?”

I’d thought about it most of the night, the following day, and all of this night. Long drives in the dark were great for making plans. But shit for executing them. “I think I’ll run for mayor.”

Her face stretched into amused disbelief. “No way. You?”

“What? It’s not a hard job. Sit on your ass by the ice cream shop and wave. When they don’t wave back, whip a middle finger at their back, and put ‘em on John’s shit list.”

Kate snorted. But she thought about it. “I hate to admit it, but you’d be good at that.”

No shit. I was born to run things.

The closest I ever got was president of some backwater biker gang that was nothing but trouble. And was the best damn family a man could ask for. “I gotta call Hickey. Apologize.”

Kate’s expression fell. She reached out and tugged me close. “After. Right now, we’re going to go upstairs. Sleep, maybe more. But mostly? Pretend. Okay?” Her eyes filled with moisture.

“Baby, don’t cry.”

She swallowed. “You’re going to leave me again.”

Never .

Even thinking about it, I wondered if that was a lie. “I don’t want to.”

“You never did. But you had to.”

“I’m out. The only thing that I have to do now is be a good man for you.”

I didn’t mean it as a joke.

Kate sure thought it was funny, though. She wiped her eyes and couldn’t hold in her amusement. “You? Good? Please .”

Put that way, she had a point. “I can be bad.” I pointed my eyes to the ceiling and wiggled my eyebrow.

She scrunched up her face. “Can you be bad… and quiet?”

“Let’s find out.”

I let her lead me up the narrow steps, taking time to admire her ass. I was so focused on that I hit my head when I reached the top.

“Fuck. You never fixed this?”

“The roof? Yeah, on the outside. You just need to be shorter.”

“Funny. Don’t quit your day job.” I glanced at the door to my right. At some point in the past, Zoe plastered a poster on the outside surface, warning anyone who could read that there was hazardous waste inside. “Do you think she’s going to be okay?”

“I was going to ask you that,” Kate whispered.

That deserved an honest answer. “If she’s got my instinct and your resilience? Yeah. But we’ll be there for her.” If we could. It wasn’t easy for a biker with my reputation to survive on the outside. Someone would eventually decide I shouldn’t breathe. When that happened…

Fuck it. I’d kill them. I’d kill all of them. This life already had its hooks in me. I’d brave anything the Destroyers threw at me if I could just have my girls.

“I love you for that.” Kate kissed my cheek. It took me a bit to realize she wasn’t talking about my vow to kill my former club members, but because I’d offered to be there for Zoe.