Page 60 of Hidden Desires

Chapter Sixteen

With Nick behind the wheel and Davis in the back of Autumn’s SUV, Jackson climbed in the passenger seat. “We all know she’ll escape your father’s hold so one of us needs to be on the look out for her and her protection.”

“I will,” Nick said. “Where are we going? To crash the dog fighting party?”

“Yeah. Davis has been watching them and said it was set for tonight. What a perfect way to end all this bullshit and get him out of all our lives.” Jackson still couldn’t understand how he got the pictures of them. “You’d better not leave me alone with the bastard either because right now I could kill him and not think twice.”

“Calm down, Jack.” Davis stuffed his phone back in his pocket. “Autumn doesn’t want conjugal prison visits for the rest of her life over something as stupid as that. Just suck it up and at most blacken his eye or break his jaw.”

Nick snorted. “Is Jeff on his way?”

“Yeah. He’s meeting us there.” Davis leaned forward. “There’s also some special news. Kristin is pregnant.”

Jackson thumped his head against the head rest on his seat. “Don’t tell your sister.”

“She’s not okay, is she?” Davis asked.

“She’s tough. That’s about all I can say.” Jackson rubbed his eyes. “She feels guilty about not wanting the baby she miscarried with Gallagher and is grieving for this one.”

“Gallagher knocked her up?” Davis asked. “When did this happen?”

“A few years back. That’s what made her have the whole emotional thing when your father said your mother miscarried.” Jackson glanced out the window. “She’ll be fine though. She just needs to get her life back on track and Gallagher isn’t helping matters any.”

They rode in silence the rest of the way to Gallagher’s compound, talking only about their plan for when they got there. Jackson knew he was reacting based on his own emotions and the need to protect Autumn but he would see that Gallagher’s taunting ended tonight. Serious consequences or not.

* * * *

It’d been a long time since Autumn snuck out of her bedroom window like a love-struck teenager, a first for sneaking out of her own house. But this is where she found herself after making excuses to go to bed early.

She unlocked the window over her bed and slid it up. Thankfully she lived in a one-story house unlike her parents back when she was eighteen. She couldn’t count how many times she had to climb down trees outside her bedroom window to meet Jackson in the middle of the night. The man really could have been the death of her.

Once she jumped to the ground, she dusted herself off and pulled the window down. She parked her car to the side of the house instead of in the garage by pure dumb luck.

Autumn glanced around, knowing how her father was and how he had the ability to pop out of the shadows at any given moment. All was clear. She walked to the side and immediately noticed her SUV missing. Jackson. His truck was in the garage. Her brother’s were in the drive, yet she had no keys. And her father’s Lexus SUV sat at the end of the driveway beckoning her name.

Autumn smiled feeling like a cat burglar in the middle of the night. Her adrenaline spiked as she moved toward the vehicle. Her father always kept a spare key underneath in the fender. Being a country boy, and living on a ranch, he always forgot to take out his keys when in town.

She bent down and found the box and slid the key out. He was going to be so pissed at her, but she couldn’t help it. It was Jackson’s fault for treating her like a little kid and her father’s fault for imprisoning her in her own house. Once inside, she started the vehicle and pulled out of the drive.

She had overheard Davis mention something to Nick about a dog fight at Gallagher’s tonight. That had to be where they went. It’d been three years since she’d seen his place and she could honestly admit she never wanted to grace the grounds or Frank’s presence ever again.

So why was she going?

Autumn changed lanes. It didn’t matter. Jackson wouldn’t treat her like a little kid when she could and always had handled her problems herself. Her father may see her as the helpless victim as the rest of her family does, but she is perfectly capable of laying out Frank Gallagher all by herself.

“I’m ending it. . . . And I’ve stepped aside for the most part and watched you ‘handle’ it the entire time I’ve been here. . . . I’m not handling it, Autumn. I’m ending it. There’s a difference.”

Jackson’s words flooded through her mind along with his past. He took a gun. He shot his own father. She couldn’t help thinking his “ending” it meant the worst. Military trained. Dedicated to protecting his family. She worried about Jackson and knew it’d be up to her to keep him from hurting someone.

Amidst her thoughts a phone rang in the silence of the car. Autumn glanced to the side and picked up her father’s cell phone. The caller ID read Jackson’s cell number. Autumn picked it up and answered it.

“You just can’t obey orders for anything, can you?” He sounded angry. “Where are you, Autumn? And don’t you dare pull any bullshit with me.”

Autumn pulled down Gallagher’s street and slowed the car. “I’m close to Gallagher’s house. Why?”

“Turn around and go home.”

“No.”

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