Page 77 of Wolf

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Anna

“They’re gone,”Jax’s soft southern voiceannounced.

I let out a shaky breath, my head throbbing in my hands as I dropped it yet again. Pain radiated through my chest, and I felt like I was balancing myself on the edge of an endless hole just at the edges of my feet, leaning over it, my elbows on my knees, my hands holding back my hair as all I could do was stare downatit.

“Are you sure you didn’t want to say goodbye?” he asked, the sound of his voice blurred as if I were deep underwater as he propped his slender hip against the door. His belt knocked softly against the wooden doorframe, and just at the corner of my vision, I caught the action of one of his boots hooking around the back of his otherankle.

I felt like I was going tobesick.

“How am I supposed to stop them, Jax?” I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth, trying to fight the urge to gag as my stomach curled, threatening to spill its contents. “What am I supposed to do when Ash doesn’t want to fight anymore and Wolf is forced to throw her to the wolves to protect the club? How am I supposed to stand in the wayofthat?”

“Fuck, I dunno, Anna.” Jax sighed, unhooking his feet as he let his boot drop to the floor, crossing the wooden panels to drop down next to me. His heat felt humid as it touched my cool, goose bumped skin covered in a sheen of cold sweat. “You’ve done so much shit, I’m sure you could have thought of something. Sitting here like this, scared out of your mind, isn’tlikeyou.”

It wasn’t like me. I knew that. And the fear that was beginning to chew through my stomach lining was threatening to have me fire off the nearest gun into my head just to stop this horrible, overwhelming anxiety.What if they don’tcomeback?

I knew what they went to do; I couldn’t have any part in it. And I knew that, if everything went according to plan, Ash wouldn’t come back. And if it didn’t... neitherwouldWolf.

And if Wolf came back without Ash... Icouldn’t.

I pressed my hand to my stomach, my finger’s numb against the softness of the fleshthere.

“You know Wolf didn’t have a choice, right?” Jax reached out his hand, flinching as it covered my own, his skin like a furnace as he felt the depth of the chill eating throughmycore.

My stomach heaved, and I lunged from Jax’s side and raced for the toilet, barely making it before I threw up everything with horribleretching.

Fuck,notnow.

Jax quickly ran clear from the room, and for a second I thought the bastard had abandoned me. Despite being slightly annoyed, I was mostly relieved, because I didn’t want him sticking around and making assumptions. But then he returned with a glass of water. Why did the bastard have to be so nice towomen?

“Hey, are you all right?” Jax’s concerned voice had my defenses up as his dark eyes traveled up and down my body. I knew he would see a pale, shivering girl heaving up all over the toilet in the late hours of the morning. The same hours I had managed to hide away from Wolf these past twoweeks.

“You don’t look all right,” Jax quickly concluded his own answer as he dropped to his haunches, reaching with his hand, the only part of his skin, other than his face and dick—yes, I had seen it before and yes, it was big, though not as big as Wolf’s—that was spared of ink, and placed the rough, calloused skin on my forehead. “No fever, but whyareyou—”

I saw the pupils of his eyes dilate, knowing he had managed to separate what was my fear for Wolf and Ash and what wasn’t. He opened his mouth, and my heart leaped with adrenaline. “Hey,areyou—”

I would like to say Jax simply stopped there and his mind got distracted by some kind of bimbo or club slut. But although his mind was distracted and I was saved, it was because of something much worse than Jax finding out thetruth.

Gunfire.

* * *

The first screamsstarted only seconds after the first round of bulletswentoff.

“Fuck,” Jax hissed, his hand immediately reaching out to wrap around my arm and pull me to stand. My stomach rolled with the fast movement, but I didn’t have the luxury to pay attention to it as I had to focus on staying upright while Jax dragged me out of thebathroom.

I tried to pull out of his grip, but it was too strong, and all I did was jerk him, forcing him to turn and lookatme.

“Let me put my boots on,” I argued, pulling free this time as he let me rush over to my red boots. I forewent my socks and ignored the ache in my ankle and hand as I forced my feet into them and did upthezips.

The next thing I did after that was head straight back toward Kay’s side of the bed, reaching my hand deep into the drawer until I felt the cold press of metal against myfingertips.

Thank fuck for Kay, I thought as I pulled the small Glock 19loose from the clasps holding it to the roof of her drawer. I almost dropped the gun as the metal slipped on the cold sweat on my hands, my shaking fingers unable to keep my grip. I took a deep breath and gripped the cool handle as firmly as I could with both hands, fitting it into my smaller hands. Though it wasn’t as comfortable as my slightly smaller CW9 might have been, I more than preferred the fifteen-magazine round, outdoing my own gun tucked into the bedside drawer on my side of the bed I shared with Wolf on the lower floor of other side of the compound, at only six rounds permagazine.

I quickly dug through the other drawers in hopes for a second magazine but found my luck ran out. I turned back to Jax, who had his head out the door, leaning ever so slightly around each corner as he checked forenemies.

I ignored my throbbing foot and made sure to crouch lower against the opposite doorframe, giving me a wider view over Jax’sshoulder.

---