Page 73 of Jax

“Wait?” Mallory cut in. “What do you mean,trouble?”

Anna smirked just as a tray of shots was delivered to our table with record timing. It barely took ten seconds! I looked to Anna who dished one out to everyone before picking her glass up in the center.

“Fuck thinking. Let’s get drunk!” she cheered, and deciding it best to take my opportunity for relief and letting go by the horns, I held up my own shot glass and clinked it against hers.

“Cheers!”

And just like that, the round went down. And then another followed. And another.

In the words of a not-so-wise woman…

It was time to get smashed!

Chapter Seventeen

Jax

Iwasn’t tired. No, I was ready-to-plant-my-face-into-the-ground-and-sleep exhausted. The concrete under my vibrating bike engine was way too tempting as the moist air was beading on the chicken skin across my arms. Despite the warmth of the late evening, my body was cold, and it only sapped more energy from me.

“You’re going to sleep here tonight?” Wolf looked across to me, still straddling his own bike. He didn’t look much better than I did, but with everything we’d had to worry about these past couple of weeks, I couldn’t blame him.

“Fuck going home,” Hunter grumbled before I could give my own answer. “This’ll be my first decent night’s sleep. Plus, Mallory and the kids are here anyway.”

I looked over to the man who had already been sleep-deprived way before our most recent wave of trouble had surfaced on our territory. He had his head pressed into his handle bars, and for every moment of silence he gave me, I wondered if he was asleep.

Wolf gave a tired but amused smile at Hunter’s suffering, one I related to but couldn’t do myself. Even my face muscles had given up.

I turned to the direction of the town, to where I knew the house would be on the other side. Ronnie had been waiting almost three weeks already, and even though I had hoped time away from her would give me more time to think, I hadn’t been given that privilege. There had been too much Black Jack mess to sort out and the last week of our trip was spent calming the mafia so they didn’t shoot our asses, or worse, take their gun-running business elsewhere.

“Jax,” Wolf growled, catching my attention. He gave me a stern look. “What I said may have sounded like a question, but it wasn’t.”

Still….

“Look,” Wolf took a smoother tone. “Mint’s on watch now, so your girl is safe. And you look like you’re about to fall asleep on the floor. You’re too tired to ride, so sleep here.”

“Yeah, all right, Prez,” I grumbled, bringing up my hand to rub the phantom ache of the frown that had been planted on my face until I lost the energy to do so. “Let’s get in and hit the hay.”

“Hay’s for you, cowboy,” Wolf chuckled, a harsh grin of humor looking more intimating than amusing. “If my woman did as she was told, Dimitri will be at Kay’s and I’m gonna have myself a willing woman.”

I couldn’t help the corners of my lips turn at that statement. Although Anna was more than consenting with Wolf, willing wouldn’t have been my choice of words. Tired or not, Anna would make the man work for it.

“How do you even have the energy for that, asshole?” Hunter grumbled from his motionless lump.

Wolf smirked. “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

“What? Tell us all about those blue pills in your bedside drawer?” I chuckled, feeling the light energy and flicker of attitude I always had in troves.

At my comment, Hunter slowly rose from his near-dead state and his sleep-glazed eyes turned to Wolf. “Prez…,” he whispered, but it was the look of pity on his face, that had my laughter bursting out of my chest.

Fuck, I was nearly crying as Wolf managed to hoist himself off his bike and grab a fistful of my shirt. I didn’t have the energy to fight him off, and I was already suffocating from my laughter. I patted his huge hand in surrender, but as his fist rose, I knew there’d be no getting out of it.

“Prez!”

Pipe, my savior, jogged out of the door. The bright light from the inside of the clubhouse was like a luminescent glow glinting off our polished and well-cared for bikes. It also highlighted the horrible complexion of all three off us, pale and hungry and sleep-deprived.

“Better be something good, Pipe,” Wolf grunted, giving me a harsh glare before dropping my ass the few feet the huge monster had lifted me. My ass would have a bruise the shape of my seat, but luckily, my suspension stopped it from being a broken ass—since it was too beautiful to ever receive that kind of damage.

“Mint wanted you to call him as soon as you got back,” Pipe delivered the information while casting Hunter a curious look, tilted heavily to one side of his bike. His eyes, however, were bright under the sweeping light and they were alert at the unsure tone of Pipe’s voice.

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