Page 13 of Jax

“Is that it?” I asked after him, propping myself back up onto two feet. “No more questions or training or… anything?”

“Max needs a few days to get used to this place and get over this morning. Until then, you just need to come and visit her once a day. Don’t go near her, just stay in her sight. The old man’s also been told not to go near her. So, yeah, until I start with Max next week. That’s it.”

With that, he grasped the door, swung it open with little care, and then left through it, leaving a resounding bang behind him as the heavy door slammed shut.

A few seconds later I heard the roar of a truck’s engine, one much smoother than mine, start up and then disappear into the distance.

I stood there until only the sound of the empty farm house filled my ears. I took a deep breath before going and sitting next to Max’s fence, glancing at the traces of where Jax had been and letting go of the weight our short conversation left on me. I took my time bathing in Max’s nearby comfort. She didn’t come closer, but even as she was, I was happy just to have her near.

Chapter Three

Jax

“So, Horse Whisperer.” Mallory nudged me in the arm, jumping up onto the bar stool that she was only just tall enough to reach. “Got to admit, that was hot.”

I waved my bandaged arm at her. “It hurt like a bitch. It wasn’t hot.”

“Cowboys are hot as shit,” Mallory disagreed, shaking her head at me, her curly red hair coming around her face.

I rolled my eyes at her, the strange little woman. She had barely waited two seconds for me to sit down before ambushing me. I wasn’t sure where the other women had disappeared to, but I had no doubt they each had their own plans to interrogate me about this morning. I normally couldn’t get enough of women, but our club women were not normal women. This one in particular.

I gave her a quick, cheeky smirk before I spun on my stool and yelled at the top of my voice, “Hunter, come get your woman!”

Mallory pinched me after removing her hands from her ears, but it did the trick as Hunter came strolling into the club, rag in his hands as he worked the oil from between his fingers.

A few moments later, his young nephew came running in behind him. He had black on his face, clothes, and in nearly every single blonde curl on top of his head. He never looked happier.

His mother, on the other hand, couldn’t look more pissed. “Hunter!” Mallory chastised. “What have I said about getting Adair filthy!”

“They’re old clothes.” He shrugged. “And he’ll wash. He wanted to work on the bike with me.”

“How’s that going for ya’, by the way?” I asked, swiveling on my bar stool to face him and the little tyke.

“It still needs a lot of work, but I’ve got most of the dents out of it. Well, out of the parts I could salvage that is.” Hunter groaned, helping Mallory down off her stool as she hissed at him. He threw his hands up in surrender, stepping safely away from her as she stormed past him to start fussing over Adair.

“Deciding to fix Ruby up from the start was a suicide mission, my friend.” I laughed, patting him on the shoulder.

“Well, since Freya was born, I haven’t had much time to work on it. She hasn’t started sleeping through the night yet.” Hunter sighed, and it wasn’t like the rest of us hadn’t noticed the dark bags under both parents’ eyes. “It’s going to take me more than a couple years at this rate before Noble’s bike is fixed. I stole the mother of his child, least I can do is give his kid his bike.”

“You didn’t steal her, and you know it,” I rolled my eyes at the big idiot. He was as loyal as a man could get, and to his true blood brother, who died a while back, he had a lot of guilt resting on his shoulders. “You just took in what he left behind.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Hunter shrugged. I could have argued more, but I left it be. No use trying to dig up history that won’t make any of us feel better.

“On another note, where is your youngest spawn?” I said, looking around the club, trying to see if someone had pinched one of our newest additions to the club.

“She’s at Janine’s,” Hunter informed me. Janine was Mallory’s mother and my only opinion of her thus far was that she was a hot cougar. One I wouldn’t mind working my charms on had I not been warned off her immediately from her even hotter red-headed daughter.

“If you need me, lemme know,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder just as Mallory realized that Adair wasn’t, in fact, wearing old clothes.

“Hunter!” she shrieked, turning on her husband while her son made his hasty retreat outside.

Hunter sighed, walked over to his wife and mid-rant, dropped his shoulder to her stomach. She screeched, and he flung her over his shoulder and took her upstairs.

Honestly, the occurrence was such a regular thing that midway through I had already turned toward the bar as I heard his woman’s ranting disappear up the stairs.

“How nice,” a voice said from ahead of me. I looked up to find Anna standing on the other side of the bar, absently rearranging the glasses under the counter from biggest to smallest.

“Wow, Pipe, your chest has gotten huge,” I teased, giving her my most charming smile.

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