Page 61 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
She shook her head and started for the store instead.God knows what she’d say to the clerk in there, so I followed her to mitigate the damage as much as I could.
And caught her with my prepaid cell phone to her ear.“What are you doing?”
“Calling Dad.”
“You don’t have his number.”
She glared at me.The clerk looked conflicted.
“Is everything alright?”
“She’s being stubborn,” I said.
“So are you,” Zoe shot back.
I prepared to fire something back, but the call went through, and Zoe started talking.“James Campbell Nist.They call him Jackson.”
In the pause, I marveled in utter horror and amazement at my daughter’s resourcefulness.I’d never uttered Jackson’s real name.How in the hell had she found that out?
She tapped her foot and raised that eyebrow at me.I shook my head back at her.
“Hey… yeah, you got her.”
If I hadn’t glared at her, I might have missed it.The water in her eyes as she teared up.Pain clutched my heart.What if he rejected her?How would she ever recover?I’d been an idiot to build him up to be some sort of savior when, in truth, he was just another asshole biker.Now she was paying the price for my stupidity.
Zoe turned her back on me and mumbled our location.“Yeah, we will.”
She ended the call and wiped her eyes, still trying to hide the tears from me.I put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close.“I’m sorry.”
She sniffed.“For what?”
“Everything?I love you.”
“I know.”
I squeezed her tightly.“Pick whatever you want, then we’ll get on the road again.”
“We’re not leaving.”
What?“I… I’m sorry, why?”
“Because Dad’s going to be here in twenty minutes, and if we’re not here, he said he’d tear Hell apart to find us.”
Holy shit.I wanted to be cautious, but my heart leaped out of my chest and was dancing with glee.He cared?He wanted us back?Or was he possessive like Shock?The elation I felt was mixed with terror.“I hope that’s not a trick.”
Her eyes met mine.“It won’t be.”
Oh, Zoe.My heart went out to her.So young, so hopeful.“Let’spleasebe careful, okay?I can’t lose you.And I don’t want to see you hurt.”And I had an intimate understanding of how much it hurt when he was gone.
Too soon, a distinctive rumble of multiple motorcycles made the cashier crane her neck out the windows to see what the thunder brought her way.The nervous way she emptied the till made me check the clock on the phone Zoe relinquished.It hadn’t been twenty minutes.And from the rapid approach, either the whole pack broke the sound barrier, or it wasn’t Jackson.
I grabbed Zoe and pulled her away from the window.“Go to the back, find an emergency exit.Now!”
“It’s probably him.”
“If it isn’t, I need you gone, got it?Don’t talk to anyone, not the cops, not a stranger, and definitely not a biker.”I pressed the phone into her hands.“Call John if we get separated; he’ll figure something out.”
I hoped like hell there wasn’t a way to track a prepaid phone, but I’d been away from the realm of criminals for so long that I had no idea anymore.Zoe hit my back, giving me a crushing hug, then followed orders and hid out in the back hallway.The cashier saw it, met my eyes, and nodded.
