Page 68 of Jake's Angel

Not mine? But it was me she called for out there, wasn’t it?

Maybe … No.

Liz pulled her hand back, searching my face for a moment, then slapped me on the cheek hard, catching me off guard. “What the fuck?”

“Shhhh. You’ll wake her up, you idiot!” Her voice was just barely above a whisper.

“What was that for? I was being nice, and you slap me for it?” I whispered back at her, not amused at all by her sudden change of demeanor.

“You don’t see it yet, but you will. I’ve seen it only once before, but once you realize it, you’ll know why I slapped you,” she said, still smiling.

“Whatever. I need to get back out there before Gabe comes storming in here thinking I’m taking advantage of his little girl while she’s sleeping.” I walked back out to the kitchen, grabbed a beer, and took my ass down the hall to what would be my room. I shucked my boots off by the door and dropped my ass on the bed, sipping my beer while my mind spun until sleep finally took me under.

As if yesterday hadn’t been restless enough, these bastards decide to come in here and start shouting and cursing at each other, waking up the whole goddamn house.

Pop and Gabe are going back and forth on what to tell Avery about the dangers the club could be facing.

The Devil’s Order has always been a rival to the Kings, but ever since we rescued Skyler and Lilah from a couple of DO members, they’ve been relatively quiet. We still don’t know if Spider and his accomplices were acting on orders, or if it was Spider’s own need for vengeance that brought them back to Oakridge.

As for Marco Cusenza, we still don’t have all the details of what we might be dealing with. What we know is he made a direct threat to Avery. The poor bastard doesn’t realize what he’s done for himself. He may have thought he was threatening a wealthy entrepreneur’s granddaughter, which might’ve brought the heat of the cops on Cusenza. Cops who don’t seem to be able to lock the fucker up.

What Cusenza doesn’t realize is by fucking with the President of the club’s daughter, he’s brought the full reign of the Fury on his ass.

The Kings protect their own.

“She already knows Cusenza is looking for her. That’s enough for her to worry about for now. If we tell her too much, she’ll take off and we need her here where we can protect her.”

I’ve heard enough of this shit.

“Let me get this straight. You want tolieto heragainto teach her she can trust us?”

Gabe turns his anger toward me, but I don’t back down. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all morning. “She deserves to know the truth about who’s out there andwhyshe needs us to protect her. If you keep hiding shit from her, you’re right, she is going to leave. Only when she does, she’ll have Sadie cover her tracks. We all know she’d do it too. Sadie’s loyalty is to Avery.”

“Sadie’s loyal to her family. She’ll do as she’s told,” Pop says, as if he can force her to obey.

Not fucking likely.

Liz comes storming in from the hallway, stopping right in front of Gabe. Her eyes are shiny, and her lips have a slight tremble, hinting that she’s close to crying. “Oh, for shit’s sake. Will one of you overgrown dummies say something to the poor girl before she decides to say to hell with the lot of you? Because I’ll tell you right now, Gabriel, if our Bug leaves again, I’m going with her.”

“Calm down, Mama. Nobody’s going anywhere. We were just trying to give her time to get to know everyone. She doesn’t trust any of us except maybe Jake, here, and Sadie. She looked scared as hell when we talked to her yesterday. We don't want to make it worse for her since she's not sure about any of us yet.” Caleb is rubbing Liz’s shoulder, soothing her. She grabs his hand, tapping it with her other one.

“Avery has been lied to about her entire existence. Russell’s cunt of a wife told her Maggie was whoring herself out and her father didn’t want her. Now, she’s told her mother was murdered and her father gave her away. She has absolutely no reason to trust a damn one of you, and I’m telling you now, Gabriel, if you continue to lie to her, to keep secrets, you’ll lose the last piece of Maggie you have on this earth.”

There’s a knock at the front door. Mom doesn’t wait for us to answer. She just lets herself in. Hawk and Declan come strolling in behind her. Pop jumps up to greet Mom with a kiss.

“You look good this morning. Did you get some good rest last night?” I ask. She immediately blushes, then turns away.

Yeah, I know what she did last night and it damn sure wasn’t getting rest.

Pop notices her reddened face and hollers from the table, “Never you mind what your mother was doing last night.” The redness in her cheeks deepens and spreads to her neck.

She glances around the room and in the knowing way a mother does, and hellbent on taking the focus off herself, she says, “Who fucked-up and what are you assholes going to do to fix it?”

One sentence, and the tension in the room lessens by several degrees. My shoulders shake with laughter. Only my mom and Liz can get away with being so bold as to call us on our shit. Except maybe Skyler.

There’s a fine line when it comes to respecting the club, and Liz, nor Mom, would cross it. But it doesn’t mean they won’t point out our flaws and dumb-assery when it needs to be brought to our attention. If anyone else said something like she did to Gabe, he’d throw them out on their ass. Gabe respects their opinions even if he doesn’t always like the delivery. They’ve been around the club for a long time and know how it works.They chose this life and are as loyal as they come.Even when we fuck up.

“I’d say it’s a collective clusterfuck, but I think we can help them set it straight,” Liz teases, embracing Mom in a warm hug.

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