Page 22 of Babe

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Gunner

Jax grunted and shifted around in the driver’s seat. Ace lifted his head from my shoulder enough to look at him before tucking his face back into the curve of my neck. He’d been in the hospital for a few hours—just overnight—before Jax and I snuck him out. They’d managed to stop his rectal bleeding, and Rico had stopped by with pain meds for Ace that he took out of his own supply that apparently, he normally sold.

I didn’t care. Didn’t ask questions. As long as it was safe for Ace to take and it kept him out of pain, I’d turn a blind eye.

When I asked Jax if he could be trusted, Jax had told me yes. And honestly, I trusted Jax’s judgment. He wasn’t one to beat around the bush, and he was so damn blunt, I didn’t think he was capable of lying to anyone. He just, quite frankly, didn’t give enough of a fuck to do so.

Ace had been silent since I got him to the hospital. He refused to verbally answer the doctor, and most of the time, he just slept. He hadn’t even bothered saying, “Papa,” when he needed something. He just reached for me. Thankfully, I was good at reading his nonverbal cues, and Jax knew all of his information, so he was able to fill out the remaining hospital paperwork that I couldn’t.

I gently stroked my hand over my boy’s purple hair, and he snuggled deeper into me. He was dissociating hard—had been for hours. I was antsy to get him home so I could properly take care of him. He needed a shower, food, and cuddles. So many fucking cuddles. I’d hold him for days. No matter how long he needed me to.

Jax’s phone rang, and he grabbed it, swiping his thumb across the screen to answer Blakely’s call. “Hey, sweet girl. What’s up?”

“I’m trying to leave to come up to the cabin with you, but Shaw is being a dick and has us all on lockdown. Can you please talk some sense into him? I’m armed. I’ll be in your truck. I’m safe.”

Jax sighed. “I know you are. Let me call and talk some sense into him. Sit tight for a sec, alright?” He ended the call with Blakely, and a moment later, he called Shaw, the ringing of Shaw’s phone as we waited for him to pick up filling the cab of the truck. Ace groaned and reached up to cover his ears. Thankfully, Shaw picked up quickly.

“Jax?” he grunted.

“Let my woman out of the fucking clubhouse, Shaw. I want her with me. She’s under my orders.”

“It’s not fucking safe, Jax, and you know it,” Shaw told him, sounding exasperated. “Stop being a fucking macho man asshole and open your eyes for two fucking seconds. We almost lost Ace, and we all taught him self-defense?—”

“Stop,” I snarled, covering Ace’s ears with my hands. He shivered in my hold, his breath falling across my skin as he sighed before sinking deeper into me. “He can hear you.”

Shaw heaved a tired sigh. “You really want to put Blakely at risk?” Shaw asked Jax. “You and Gunner might have wiped out several players, but some of those were big time politicians, attorneys, and members of law enforcement.” He wasn’t wrong. They’d been getting ready to do an auction when Jax and I had burst in with Rico’s men. Rico had a catastrophic clean-up on his hands. Jax and I had gone in with guns blazing, and we hadn’t given a single fuck about the bodies we dropped. Our only goal was finding Ace and getting him the fuck out of there. “There’s going to be blowback from this. A lot of heat. They could target Blakely.”

“If you’re that fucking worried,” Jax snarled, his patience wearing thin, “then bring my woman up here yourself. But I want her with me, and I can’t leave Gunner and Ace alone. Gunner is going to be too preoccupied with Ace to protect either of them properly.”

I tried not to take offense to that. He glanced at me, taking in my scowl, and shrugged his shoulders, unapologetic.

“You expect me to just leave everyone here and?—”

“If you’re gonna bitch about what I decide to have my woman do, then yeah. I expect you to bring her to me, brother. I’m not arguing about this any longer. I’m tired. Ace has a concussion and a headache. Conversation’s over.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Shaw snarled. “Fine.”

The call abruptly ended, and Jax flexed his fingers around the steering wheel. I glanced at him as I dropped my hands from Ace’s ears to wrap my arms back around him. “Are tensions always this high between y’all?”

Jax shook his head. “Nah. Normally, we’re all pretty chill. This whole sex trafficking thing just has all of us worked up. And Ace…” He glanced at my boy before focusing back on the road as he wound around another sharp curve. “Ace has always been the baby, hence his road name Babe. We’re all fiercely protective of him, even though we know he can handle his own. Having him kidnapped and beaten and violated has made all of us a bit…”

“Pissy?” I suggested.

He snorted. “Sure. We’ll go with that.” He eased to a stop outside my drive and then turned, carefully making his way up the narrow driveway. “We also did leave a huge mess—one that wasn’t prepared for. And Shaw doesn’t trust Rico the way I do, so he’s… I don’t know. In his feelings?”

I chuckled at his choice of words, and Ace’s hand dropped from my shoulder to rest over my chest, where it vibrated with my laughter. I covered his hand with mine, giving it a gentle squeeze. “You say that like you don’t have your own feelings.”

Jax shrugged one shoulder as he eased to a stop in front of my cabin. “Honestly, I don’t. Not like normal people do. I’ve always felt… detached. I love my woman to the best of my ability. My anger comes and goes pretty quickly—doesn’t ever stick. I’m very… calculated. Ace likes to joke that I’m a psychopath, but to be honest, I don’t think he’s that far off the mark.” He looked over at me. “That gonna be a problem?”

I shook my head and pushed open the passenger side door. “Nope.” I eased from the truck with Ace in my arms, then kicked it shut before striding to the house. Jiggling the keys in his hands, Jax searched until he found the house key, then unlocked the door, swinging it open. He headed straight to the kitchen, and I turned for the stairs, needing to get my boy out of these clothes Jax had picked up from Walmart and into a shower.

“I’ll start dinner,” Jax called after me.

Once I was upstairs, I gently set Ace on the foot of the bed. “Let me go start the shower, baby, okay?” When he nodded, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his forehead, letting them linger for a moment before I forced myself to leave him be so I could get everything in the bathroom ready.

I turned my back for two fucking seconds, and Ace lost it.

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