Page 11

Mason

T he second the door shuts behind J-Bird, I round on Jax. “What the fuck man? It’s bad enough we made the mistake of fucking the Prez’s sister like some common club bunny this afternoon, then you gotta make it worse by riding in like her fucking white knight? Acting the savior and then playing happy families taking her and the kid out for dinner? Wake up man, she’s off limits. What the fuck were you thinking?”

I know exactly what he was thinking, he’s got that hangdog look about him that tells me the stupid bastard has gone and started having feelings for Emma. Ty comes to the same conclusion as me, voicing my thoughts.

“Fuck, man. You like her, don’t you?” he says, raising an eyebrow.

I can tell from Jax’s stricken expression that he does. Hell, we all like Emma, there’s nothing not to like. But wisely, he doesn’t voice this, he lets his rational mind do the talking. I’m not about to say that either. The best thing for all of us is to pretend this afternoon was a meaningless mistake.

“No. Of course not, I barely know the chick. I was just doing my job, making sure the kid was okay. Taking them for dinner meant nothing. I just had to sweeten her up, didn’t I? The last thing we want is for her to go running her mouth to J-Bird and tell him that his best friends fucking used her as a spunk rag,” he says, his crudeness giving away that he doesn’t see her that way at all.

He thinks he can lie to himself as well as us. That makes two of us.

“Fine,” I say, though I don’t believe him for a minute. “But from now on we keep things strictly professional around Emma. She’s just a girl, she’s nothing special.”

“Easy peasy,” Jax declares jutting his jaw out. “You know there’s a line of bunnies at the club waiting to suck my cock.”

I look to Ty who shrugs nonchalantly. “Sex is just sex, and beautiful or not, Emma is just one woman. The Iron Serpents come first. One fuck doesn’t change anything. I can control myself.”

I stare at them making sure my point is heard, that they know how serious I am. Having sex with Emma was a huge mistake.

“Good. The sooner we find out who is after her kid, the better. Then we can get back to the club and far away from Emma. First thing tomorrow, Jax and I will go pay a visit to Bess. She knows everyone and has eyes and ears throughout the county, if anyone can help us find out what’s going on, it’s her,” I explain.

“Is your contact the hot redhead with the massive tits?” Jax asks.

I nod. “You know damn well who she is,” I grunt, shooting him a look. “Hopefully, she’ll be willing to share some info with us, for a price. Doesn’t matter how close we were back in the day, with Bess there’s always a price.”

“Oh I bet I know the price,” Ty chuckles. “Why haven’t we gone to her sooner?”

I ignore his insinuation, answering the question, “Because Bess usually drives a hard bargain.”

“I’ll bet she does,” Jax chuckles.

I ignore him, continuing my explanation. “If we could find out another way it would be best, but it seems we need to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.”

“Ty, that means you’ll need to stay behind to keep an eye on Emma and Max. Think you can handle it?” I ask.

Tomorrow is Saturday so Max will be home all day with Emma, yet another reason I want to go out. I don’t want to have to be stuck indoors playing happy families. I wouldn’t even know how to act around them both. Fucking and fighting I can do. Hanging around with a young kid and a woman I find myself inexplicably drawn to but is utterly off limits, I have no idea how to act.

“Sure. Piece of cake,” Ty agrees with a shrug.

My guess is he’ll just quietly stand guard while they amuse themselves. He’s not one for small talk or worrying about social conventions or being polite. Which is why he’s the perfect one to stay behind. Jax will be too friendly and give off the wrong impression, and I’m cold and distant when I’m uncomfortable. I’d probably make Emma think I hated her guts just by trying to avoid getting into a situation like this morning again.

Not that I think I’m irresistible or anything. I’ve no idea what Emma’s thinking, perhaps she believes it was a mistake and regrets it. Chances are that’s exactly how she feels.

I don’t know why the thought makes me feel a little wounded.

At that moment, the sound of a creaking step grabs our attention. We freeze, listening for the culprit. A second later there’s the quiet but unmistakable sound of a door gently being closed.

“Shit, do you think she heard us?” Jax asks, looking guilty as hell.

“It doesn’t matter either way. It doesn’t change things,” I reply though I feel a knot in my chest at the thought of Emma hearing the callous way we were talking about her. “She’s probably relieved that we’re not going to be salivating over her and pushing for it to happen again. She probably regrets it. A nice woman like her isn’t going to be interested in guys like us. She had her fun, wild experience, but that’s all we were to her. Don’t kid yourselves otherwise. It’s better this way,” I insist, though the words sound hollow even to my ears.

***

It’s quiet downstairs when I wake up the next morning. Usually, Emma and Max are up early and in the kitchen at this time, fixing breakfast. But this morning the kitchen feels empty and cold in their absence. The smell of homemade pancakes and sizzling bacon are missing as are the usual sounds of chatter and laughter over the bright kids’ cartoons playing on the TV. It’s funny how quickly I’d grown accustomed to our morning routine, to seeing them there.

Without thinking, I head upstairs to check on them, it’s not normal for them to be in bed still at this hour, and they went to sleep early last night. But as I reach Max’s door, I can hear the sounds of him giggling inside, Emma’s melodic voice talking back in hushed tones.

She heard us last night. That much is clear. She’s obviously waiting for Jax and me to leave before coming out. Or perhaps she intends to hole up in Max’s room all day.

I feel like the world’s biggest asshole. But if that’s what I have to be to keep them safe and prevent this messy situation from becoming any more complicated, then so be it.

Fighting the urge to knock on the door and go inside to apologize, I spin on my heel and head toward Jax’s room. I rap on the door in two short, sharp bursts of my knuckles. I can hear Jax moving around inside and a second later he answers the door, his hair still wet and a towel slung around his waist.

“Hurry up. We leave in five,” I bark at him, already turning and starting to head back downstairs.

“What about breakfast?” he asks, confused by my urgency.

“We’ll grab something on the way,” I call out over my shoulder before making a beeline for the front door.

I need to get out of this house, away from Emma and the guilt I feel. I need to focus on the task at hand. On making sure she and Max are safe so that everything can go back to normal. Although I suspect that nothing will be the same again.

***

As we pull up to Bess’ house, I’m unsurprised to find her laying on the floor of her garage under an impressively large Harley with a wrench in hand and heavy metal music blaring out of the speakers.

“Bess!” I yell out, trying to be heard over the noise. After calling out to her a few times with no response I nod to Jax to go turn off the music. With the blaring metal coming to an abrupt stop, we finally have Bess’ attention.

“What the fuck?” she grumbles as she appears from under the bike.

When her eyes land on me her scowl turns into a smile. “Well, fuck me sideways if it isn’t Mace! What are you doing here?” she says coming over to hug me.

“It’s good to see you Bess,” I say, pulling back to take a look at her. “You look well.”

She’s in her usual outfit of a white tank stained with black grease, a pair of overalls slung low on her hips, and a bandanna wrapped around her forehead, the bright red flames of her hair pulled back into a messy plait. Her skin is tan and thick with grime from working for hours in the sun.

“And you look like shit,” she quips, flicking me with the rag she has in her hand. “I take it this isn’t a social call?” she astutely observes.

“Fraid not,” I reply with a shake of my head and a shrug.

“Well, why don’t you two come on up to the house for a drink and we can talk?” she says, not waiting for a response as she starts to stride confidently toward the house.