Page 68 of Jax

Wolf had me flipped and on my stomach before I could recover, his arm leaned over my shoulders, huge hand pinning me down by the neck, immobilized.

“Get off me, Wolf!” I growled, trying to kick him off. The fucker was double my weight at the least. There was no way I could force him off.

“No. You’re going to listen to me, Jax.” Wolf growled over my shoulder. “You’re not strong enough to fight with brute strength, you hear me? You only fight because you use your brain. Without that, you’d have long since been dead by now. Roscoe knew it, and so do I.”

“What’s your point?” I hissed, a splinter in my cheek beginning to sting.

Wolf pushed my face harder into the wooden floor. “You’ve got your head stuck so deep in this girl’s shit that you haven’t been using it.”

“I haven’t?”

“You think I’m a dumb shit? I can see the way you look at her.” Wolf growled over the vibrations of boots coming closer. “You almost got yourself shot and killed the other day, asshole. And now you let a gun for hire break into your house without your notice? I’ve lost one brother already and have come close to losing others. I am not going to lose another, Jax. You hear me?”

“Jax!” Mint and Pretty’s voices were yelling as they reached us. They were lunging for Prez before I could even respond, and I felt his weight jostling on my back before they managed to tear him off. Heat flash across my ribs as I pushed off the wood.

Arms came around my shoulders and I was hoisted to my feet.

“I won’t sort your shit out for you, Jax.” Wolf shoved Pretty and Mint off his arms. “I am not your dad. And you ain’t no boy. I’m your president, and your only job is to listen to my orders and say ‘Yes, sir!’ You hear me?”

Wolf stood with his shoulders pulled back, a red mark coming up on his arm and splinters from the broken door covering his clothes, but otherwise the man was unharmed.

Bastard.

“Fuck you,” I growled, a grin pulling on my lips.

A smile turned on my president’s face, and his shoulders relaxed. “Cocky shit.” He shook his head, turning and pushing past my brothers with ease before heading down the stairs.

“So, it was your turn this time.” Pipe patted his hand on my shoulder. “Prez’s lessons are always so tough.”

“Sometimes it’s the only way to get us dumbasses to understand,” I groaned, stretching my muscles and feeling the bruises that would surface by tomorrow. That takedown was a rough one.

“Neanderthals.” I peeked my head around Pretty’s figure and saw just the top of Anna’s head peaking over the stairs. They glared at me but otherwise didn’t say anything else.

I had a sneaky feeling she knew what Wolf was doing in my room.

Had I been using my head, so would have I.

I smiled.

“Want a drink?” Pipe offered, looking over my reddening skin.

“Nah,” I said, clasping his shoulder. “I gotta go sort my shit.”

My brothers all gave me knowing smirks and a roll of their eyes.

“There goes another one.” Mint shoved at Pretty’s shoulder.

“Another fallen comrade!” Pretty returned, both treating me as if I wasn’t there.

“Hey!” I snapped. “I’m not dead.”

They ignored me, wailing dramatics as they headed down toward the stairs. Anna joined in under Pretty’s arm.

“I call dibs on his room!” Pretty added to Anna.

Pipe, Mint, and Anna all sneered.

“You can have it.”

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