Page 117 of Jax

“If you had something to say to her, then it shouldn’t matter if you’re mad. You say that shit.” She pointed a long red nail at my face. “Because you don’t know when you might lose your chance to say it.”

I couldn’t argue with her words. Even the brothers who had been standing on edge, waiting to intervene in our battle, had settled back. The truth setting hard on their faces; those who had seen it happen, and those who had the same thing happen to them. In a life like ours, especially when a danger like the Black Jacks was lurking around the corner meant we couldn’t live our lives like a normal relationship. There was no such thing as hesitating, and there was no such thing as having time. No patience. No backpedaling. No mistakes.

That kind of regret ruined men.

I didn’t want to be that kind of man.

I stared down at the wooden floor. The new boards had replaced the old ones that had been shot to hell only a year earlier. I remembered Wolf and Hunter’s faces when I told them about the attack. Their worst fear had overtaken them in a second. Before I could even tell them the girls were okay, they had been hit by the worst possible reality. No matter what I told them, it meant nothing until they saw for themselves that the women were safe.

If something like that were to happen to Ronnie….

I didn’t even want to imagine it.

I shrugged my shoulders back and took a deep breath, giving a quick nod to Anna. “I’m gonna go.”

My heavy boots moved forward with an ease I didn’t know I would have when facing the hurt and pained Ronnie waiting at home for me. It was time to tell her how I felt. To answer her questions about the past. To apologize for all the wrongs I had committed. And how the truth of her past shouldn’t be ignored.

No more turning a blind eye.

“I’ll see you later,” I tried to say with cool suaveness, but I barely got half the sentence out before I felt the collar of my shirt strangle my throat.

“Shit,” I choked, spinning around to relieve the pressure, as Anna’s little hand jerked me backward, throwing off my balance.

I almost crashed headfirst into her feet before I managed to catch myself, half bent over, facing my almost ultimate doom. “Anna, what the hell?”

“You’ve been drinking, asshole.” She scoffed. “You really think I’m gonna let you go like that?”

“But you just said—”

“I know,” she cut me off, letting go of my shirt. I looked up to see her back as she trotted around the back of the bar. “Let me grab my keys.”

“Mother….” I felt moved, tears in my eyes.

I was met with a sharp smack on the upside of my head. “I wouldn’t give birth to such a dumbass.”

With that, she swung her keys in her hand and walked past me, her loud red boots leading the way. She swung open the door, light glowing behind my hero like a luminescent aura.

“Let’s go get your girl.”

Anna strutted to the door, and with a smirk on my face, I walked on after her.

This woman.

“Hey, wait u—”

The click of the gun might as well have been an explosion.

I didn't even have time to think before my weapon was drawn from my side, cocked and aimed at the man holding his own weapon.

He was so close I could smell the bastard, but that wasn't the sense I was using.

My eyes were pinned to the barrel pressed into Anna's forehead, her blue eyes frozen on my own expression.

"Who the fuck are you?" I growled, low and guttural as I did everything I could not to blast this fucker’s head off just for his audacity. Walking onto our property armed was bad enough. Daring to touch a hair on her head was preparing to be put in the ground.

"You're Anatoli Ivanov," Anna hissed, adjusting her clenched fists by her side.

The tall man covered in scarred skin and tattoos gave a small nod to her before turning to me. "Did you get my message?" He smirked.

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