Page 131 of Jax

But it didn’t mean I was powerless.

It was time to pay a little visit back home.

* * *

The door creaked open, light sweeping across the rich, woven rug spread across the wooden floor.

Jacob stepped into the room, running a pale hand through his dark, cropped hair, a slight shadow creeping across the length of his jaw. Looked like someone had a rough journey back.

“Long night, Jacob?”

“Shit!” Jacob bellowed, his back slamming against the door. Brown eyes were dominated by white when his eyes hit me, and his skin turned even paler.

“Jackson… but I t-thought—” Jacob stuttered.

“That I was dead?” I scoffed, leaning back in the comfy black leather chair. “You know, you should have reinforced the fences instead of wasting money on such a nice chair.”

“But the Black Jacks—”

“—are currently sitting in our basement.” I sighed, running a hand through my free hair. It had knotted on the race back here. I really needed to cut it. “The ones that lived, that is.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have trusted those bastards!” Jacob hissed, shuffling toward the wooden cabinet against the side wall. He turned his back to me, for just a moment, his hand sliding down into a small wooden drawer. I hadn’t thought there was another shade of white to his skin, but it appeared the moment I threw the little hand pistol onto his desk. The empty shells pinged off the wood and onto the desk as they spilled from the empty magazine. Their ringing hung in the air as they pitter-pattered onto the hardwood floor.

“Were you looking for this?”

“Jackson, listen to me—”

“I don’t think I will,” I grunted, allowing my feet to drop to the floor. Their heavy thud jolted through Jacob, his body bucking back into the desk behind him, causing some expensive ornament to roll and shatter on the floor. Jacob didn’t look away from me, though, as I lifted myself from his well-oiled chair, not making a single breath of sound as I stood to attention.

I kicked a casing out of my way as I strolled around the desk.

It is about time I got this over and done with.

I could feel the weight of my gun sitting against my spine, pulling on the waistband of my still damp jeans. I had caught the downpour as I had driven over state lines, and even after the hour it took to get to the farm, I hadn’t dried. I’d probably catch a cold at this rate, but, hell, I’d been shot twice now. A cold was nothing.

“Jacob.” I sighed, my feet stopping less than an inch in front of his. The glossed shine of his shoes, clean from even a speck of dirt were an eyesore next to my grimy black riding boots, covered in all kinds of nasty.

“What do you want, Jackson?” Jacob spluttered, his eyes daring to meet mine. They were full of malice and fear, his eyes looking more like pale shit, than any warm brown. “Is it money? The inheritance? The farm?”

“I don’t need such things.” I shrugged, my shoulders making the slight effort to roll back. My hand slid to my hip, and Jacob’s eyes darted down at the movement.

His head tipped forward, and I lunged, my mouth coming close to the side of his face with a force that could crack bones, stopping only millimeters from the extensive flesh of his face he called an ear.

“You listen to me good, Jacob, because I’ll only say this once,” I growled. “I couldn’t give a shit about money, or this fucking farm, or your petty jealousy toward me. I didn’t give a shit, and you shouldn’t have either. You could have run this place into the ground and I wouldn’t have given a fuck.”

I could feel the heat in my stomach bubbling in the distance. Any other man would have felt the rage and have beaten him within an inch of his life, but I wasn’t any other man. I felt my muscles relax, my lips flatten into a single line, and my body grow as calm as a quiet ocean.

“But you hurther. You did the one thing that I can never forget and will never forgive.”

Jacob’s head tipped up slowly, his eyes coming to meet the silver barrel only an inch from his face, eyes growing impossibly wider in surprise and fear. But it wasn’t until I saw his eyes flinch away from the gun, and his gaze reached my face that I saw the understanding of what was coming next dawn on him.. I wasn’t sure what he saw, but the second he looked, his body began to shake, eyes wide, raised brow, and dropped jaw, all stiff with fear.

“Jackson! P- please don’t do this! Ple—”

“Goodbye, cousin.” I cocked back the hammer.

“JACKSON!”

BANG!

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