Page 130 of Parrish

Chapter Forty

Jack Parrish

Tearing myself away from Reina, I knife off the bed and move across the room trying to contain the rage churning in my gut.

“Is that why the club is on lockdown?” she asks as I pull a shirt over my head. Ignoring the question, I slice my eyes to her.

“Get dressed,” I order. “I need to get you over to the clubhouse.”

Leaving no room for argument, I turn and make my way towards the closet. Shoving the hangers out of my way, I punch the code into the safe built into the wall. It opens, and I quickly grab the nine-millimeter. Reaching behind me, I shove the gun into the waistband of my jeans as Reina fills the entryway.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on.”

“Reina, I don’t got time for this,” I hiss, slamming the door to the safe.

“Too bad,” she spats. “My son was in that car, Jack. He could’ve been killed, and I heard you tell Wolf to keep Danny with him. You wouldn’t do that if he wasn’t safe.”

“No one is safe,” I tell her. “Not you, not me, not him. Why the fuck do you think I made you sign yourself of the hospital?”

Hiking the sheet around her body, she crosses her arms and stares at me with an expression I can’t read.

“Who is it?”

“For fucks sake Reina—”

“I’ve kept my mouth shut, Jack. I’ve stood by your side and rolled with the punches but not when it comes to Danny. I saw the fear of God in our boy’s eyes, not you.”

Losing my patience, I close the distance between us and grab a hold of her arms.

“What do you want me to say? Huh? You want to hear how a bunch of cocksuckers broke into Lacey’s house while she and Danny were sleeping last night? Should I tell you they ransacked the joint and covered her walls with blood? Will that make you fucking move?”

I watch her eyes widen as she swallows, keeping her lips tightly pursed.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

She’s fucking kidding me, right?

“When should I have told you? You didn’t remember shit until you walked in the door and even then, it was the fucking holes in the wall that you remembered.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Look, I ain’t trying to fight with you right now. I get it, really, I swear I do but, you gotta trust me. I can’t have you fucking doubting me. When I say we gotta move, we fucking move, Reina. You want to give me heat, you give it to me when this shit with the cartel is done.”

“The cartel? That’s who you’re going after? Have you lost your goddamn mind altogether?”

That one stings.

It fucking cuts.

In all the years we’ve been together, she’s the only one who has never pulled the crazy card on me. It didn’t matter if I was breaking her heart or stomping on her morals, she never let on that she thought I was losing my fucking mind. To her, I was just her broken toy. The man she thought she could fix with love and light.

Now, memories and all, I’m a liability to her and our son.

The sad thing is, for the first time in a long time, my head is fucking clear right now. There ain’t no voice whispering in my ear. No fucking bird following me around. I’m straight and I’m not looking to paint the streets with blood. If me and my men ambush Javier, none of us will live. A man with connections like his will have men avenging his death for years. He won’t stop with us, he’ll go after our families too and he won’t stop until there is no trace of us at all.

The only way to eliminate him and his hit squad is by handing him over to Ritzer and if all goes according to plan, he will never be able to trace the demise of him and his empire to me or anyone in the club. Blackie will be released, and we can all go back to our regular scheduled programming. I can fucking retire from this shit once and for all.

“Jack, please listen to me. I know the last few weeks have been hard on you. Between the meds not working and all the changes with the club. The deal with the district attorney and the accident, you’ve had a lot of weight on your shoulders. Me losing my memories and seeing Danny hurt, it put you over the edge, but you need to stop. You need to slow down and breathe, baby,” she says, laying her hands over my chest.

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