Page 11 of Jake

It was odd, but Jake would give him the benefit of the doubt at least until he got confirmation that the King was trying to keep him away from her. And if he was, why would he? Did it have anything to do with why she’d looked so scared? Was Iceman the reason he’d seen that look of terror on her face at the museum?

If he was, Jake wasn’t sure he’d let the alliance between the Kings and the Souls stop him from making the other man pay. He hated knowing she was scared and if he could do something about it, he would. And if it wasn’t Iceman causing the fear, maybe the man would be willing to work with him to find who was, and put an end to it.

Jake reached the table where the prospects had laid out the food and double checked that everything looked to be in place. A glance around gave him Miles’ location, so he checked with the other man.

“What do you need me to do?” Jake asked as he stopped beside Miles.

“I think we’re good, at least for now.” Miles barely glanced at him as he kept an eye on the last-minute preparations, then turned to call out, “LINE UP!” He watched as several of the women stood and began to make their way in their direction. “I could use your help after we eat.”

“No problem, what do you need?”

“If you could oversee making sure all the plates, cans, bottles, that kind of thing, make it to the trash, that would be great.”

Jake frowned. “Doesn’t everyone take care of their own?”

“Yeah, but once in a while something gets missed. If you could just cruise around the place a couple of times, making sure we got everything picked up, that would be great. I hate leaving a mess for someone else to clean up, especially after bringing in a group this size.”

“No problem. Are you sure that’s all you need?”

“Yeah. After everyone’s through eating, I’ll have these guys,” he tilted his head toward the prospects who’d done the bulk of the work, “finish cleaning up, then we’ll be done until we call it a day, load up and head home. You’ll want to make sure to send them back for your coolers before you mount up.”

“Not a problem. I don’t think we would have forgotten them, but it’s good to have the reminder and of course I’ll take care of policing the area. You’ve done so much of the work today. Thanks for that. I owe you. I’ll have to return the favor for our next get together.” Jake made sure Miles had his number so they could stay in touch and plan additional events between the two clubs, then wandered off. He wanted to find Heather again, and hopefully work out the details on that date.

He spotted her a moment later, standing near the rear of the line to fix a plate. It only took him a moment to approach her.

“Where are you planning on sitting?” he asked, resisting the nearly overwhelming urge to wrap an arm around her waist, tug her close so he could taste her lips.

“Matt’s got seats for us over there?” She motioned toward the far side of the gazebo. “Want to have lunch with us? I’m sure if you go check with him, he’ll save an extra seat then you can come back and get your plate with me.”

He smiled. “I’ll go check with him, then once you’re back, we’ll get ours.” Unable to resist this time he bent, but instead of kissing her, because he didn’t want to scare her or see fear in her eyes, he touched his forehead to hers like he hadn’t done to anyone since leaving Mobile all those years ago.

Strange how the old habit that their group had somehow gotten into, he didn’t even remember why they’d started it, came back to him. As soon as he’d touched his forehead to hers, he straightened and went in search of Iceman.

With her in line, it gave him a chance to talk to the other man.

“Is your problem with me specifically or do you not like anyone around Heather?” Jake asked as he stepped into the seat across the table from where Iceman sat.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Iceman stared at him as if he hadn’t just lied to him.

“Sure, play it that way.” Jake stared at him for a moment, knowing their time was limited until Heather came back with her food. “Tell me this, are you trying to protect her, or have you got a thing for your cousin? Do you think she’ll ever return you feelings?”

The look on Iceman’s face told Jake what he needed to know. It wasn’t that Iceman was harboring some weird desire for her.

“Tell me what’s up and we can work together to keep her safe.”

Iceman narrowed his eyes and watched Jake for a few moments then spoke. “Her ex is a piece of shit. I don’t have a lot of details yet, but it looks like he’s mixed up with a one percent club, I don’t know which one, she didn’t remember the name. She overheard a couple of idiots talking about how he was making a deal. They’d take her in exchange for wiping out his debt.”

Jake didn’t bother to keep the surprise off his face. Though he didn’t know why. Little surprised him anymore.

“What else do you know?”

“Not a whole lot for certain. She heard them talking about her, but they didn’t know she could hear them. She acted like she couldn’t, got the hell out and left town.”

“When was that?”

“She left Alabama almost two weeks ago. It took her a few days to get up here and she’s been staying with me since.”

“Do you know the name of the club?”

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