Page 67 of Texas Hold Em'
“Am I a bad person if hearing that makes me feel better?”
He smiled with his eyes again. “No, not at all. You aren’t alone. Whatever happens tonight, I’ve got your back, and I trust that you have mine. Right?”
I nodded firmly. “Right.”
Brody left me to my thoughts in the kitchen and went to join Tex, Abel, and Knox in the pit. Mason and Suzie lingered outside the bedroom door, speaking softly to each other, and Grant spoke with Sam and Jackson. Soon the three of them made for the pit as well, but Jackson looked in my direction and, seeing that I was alone, put a hand in the small of Sam’s back and muttered something to her.
She looked warily over at me and nodded.
My stomach threatened to climb up my throat and suffocate me as Jackson walked toward me.
He stopped a few paces away. “You and I need to have a word.”
“We do?”
“Come with me.”
Wordlessly, with my heart leaping wildly in my chest, I followed the President of the Devil’s Luck out of the apartment and into the humid hallway of the warehouse. He closed Tex’s door behind us and turned to face me where I stood under a flickering light mounted to the wall with my arms folded over my chest.
“We’re in this now,” he said. “There’s no going back. So I need you to know something.”
“What is it?” I practically squeaked.
He moved in on me so quickly I forgot how to breathe. One minute he was standing in front of the door, and the next his massive frame was swallowing up all of my vision as he towered over me. “Ifyou’re fucking with us and playing with Jameson’s life, you’re going to have me to answer to. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”
I nodded.
“Say it.”
“I understand.”
“For your sake, I hope you do.”
The Nokia buzzed.
Jackson’s eyes slid down to it, clasped fiercely in my hand. “Is that him?”
I didn’t want to look, but my eyes were pulled down to the tiny flip phone and the little blue light winking in the corner of the front display screen. I swallowed hard. “It has to be.”
Neither of us said a word. The sound of our breathing filled the empty hall.
Finally, Jackson reached out and took the phone from me. He flipped it open, and when he read the words aloud, his voice was thick with gravel and apprehension. “I’m waiting.”
“That’s all it says?”
Jackson flipped the phone closed. “We have to tell the others. It’s time for us to leave.”
He turned back to the door.
“Jackson.”
He didn’t look back at me, but he didn’t abandon me out in the hall either, which told me he was willing to hear what I had to say—and holy hell did I need to say it. The words were burning me up inside.
“I’m going to keep him safe,” I said. “I’m not going to let anything happen to him. And I’ll have Brody with me. We’ll do what needs to be done.”
Jackson pushed the door open. “See that you do.”
CHAPTER 29
