Page 76 of Jax

I almost missed the small groan had it not traveled with the shiver up my spine as her fingers tightened around the hem of my shirt.

I stilled.

“Ronnie, what are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Her muffled breath into my shirt made it up to my ears. The heat from it hitting the sweet spot between where my jacket stopped, and my jeans began had a twinge in my stomach that I did not need.

But that wasn’t what had my attention.

“Sliding your hands up my shirt ain’t gonna get you nothing, darlin’,” I growled, the tone coming out deeper and huskier than I would have liked. It only seemed to encourage her, as her fingers traced the lines of my abs, wrapped around from behind me like a small monkey, pressing her tits into my back. I could feel the hardened nubs even through my thick riding leather. The briskness of the cool night air had them like razor blades, almost threatening me to touch them. Not that it would require much coaxing on any other night.

Think of dead puppies. Dead puppies and ugly chicks. And that one time I walked in on my parents fucking.

Yup. That last one did it.

I caught the hands around my waist, pretending they were just weird appendages I’d been needing to see a doctor about and turned at the sound of the door opening behind me.

I wasn’t surprised by the echoing silence following a black-eyed Mint—and I didn’t mean the band. Wolf looked done. Plain and simply done. His woman trailed behind him, as did Mallory, both quiet while a steaming Bell glared at Mint’s back. Hunter was at the rear, his black clothes blending in like a looming black shadow behind them.

Nobody said anything as they came to a gathering on the sidewalk.

“What happened?” I mused, looking between Mint and Bell, Hunter and Wolf seeming to steer clear of the two of them.

Mint’s green eyes narrowed into a glare in my direction, and I took that as his “don’t fucking ask” as Pipe walked out the door, keys in hand.

“Give me,” Mint growled, and the prospect did as he was told. He marched over to one of the two trucks parked askew outside the bar. Wolf had parked his bike next to mine with about as much care as I had. They both looked like they were about to topple over from half-bent pegs holding them up.

Mint reached for the passenger door, swinging it open and stopping with crossed arms, looking to the drunken group of women. “Get in,” he growled, eyes pointed at one girl in particular.

“I’m not getting in that car,” Bell hissed. “Not with you.”

“Perfect,” I interrupted, before this got any more heated. I knew where this was going and Mint sure as shit didn’t need another black eye. Risking releasing the hand I had holding the wandering limbs under my shirt, I plucked the set of keys out of Mint’s hand.

The man gave me a baffled look as I exchanged them for the keys to my beloved Harley. “Take care of her. Both of them,” I mumbled, patting his hand on his shoulder as I opened the back of the truck.

Arguments erupted as soon as I turned my back, between everyone but Hunter and Mallory as his wife followed him with a pale face to his own black truck, leaving Wolf arguing with Anna about riding on his bike after drinking, and Mint about simply being near Bell. The girl was so fired up, any alcohol she had managed to get her hands on was long out of her system.

Bell would end up on the back of Mint’s bike, and although our princess needed disciplining and our newest member being warned about what touching Roscoe’s daughter would mean, it wasn’t the night to do it.

I opened the passenger door, dropped the girl off my lap and into the seat. Her head lolled, almost suffocating herself with the rat’s nest of hair bunched up around her shoulders. The stale beer seemed to stick the mess together and getting that out would be a mess tomorrow.

“Jax,” she mumbled through her lipstick smeared lips. She slapped them together every couple of seconds, and I figured she needed a drink—water, not beer.

“What?” I grumbled, digging through the glove compartment to see if we kept any water bottles in this thing.

Just as I thought it was a lost cause, and that the ridiculous glove compartment was compartmented with way too many different sections, I spotted a bottle in the very bottom.

Got…

“Don’t leave me.”

I froze. All the raw emotions of those few words, everything it meant, every emotion it carried, and every whispered word… it hurt in a way I’d never experienced. An emotion I’d never felt. An emotion I’d vowed never to have.

Regret.

It took a minute or two before I remembered how to breathe. My heart throbbed in my chest and my mind reeled at the realization. But that was as far as I allowed it to go. Even if the emotion had a name, even if I knew deep down what that meant, both in the moment, and for my future…I couldn’t face it. Not yet. Not tonight.

Ishook free of my mind and leaned back into the car, pulling the seat belt across her and clicking it into place. Her sleeping breaths told me she had passed out, and the calm lull had me breathing easier as I shut the door on her and climbed into the driver’s seat.

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