Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(178)

“It worked at first. The Bastards weren’t ready for us to start picking them off, to start killing them. But soon enough that changed. They got wind of what we were doing and started to hit us back.

“Which was when it happened. Back then, we didn’t have all the rules we had now. Larkin went out on a deal—should’ve been a real simple drug deal—and he brought Jolene along. I guess he was trying to impress her or something. I never understood why he’d f*cking bring her along.

“I was there that night. I met them in the field where the deal was going down. Jolene never even looked at me. We sat there for fifteen minutes waiting for the dealers to show up to buy our shit, but they never came. Instead, the Bastards came.

“When the bullets started flying, we got out of there as fast as we could. I took a slug in the leg, but that’s wasn’t so f*cking bad. As we were getting away, though, I saw something that I have never forgotten to this day.

“It was Jolene’s back, covered in blood.

“We rode for a while to put distance between us and them, and by the time we thought it was safe to stop, Jolene was nearly dead. We got her off the bike and tried to patch her up, but it was too late. She died there on the dusty ground that night, looking up at Larkin like she couldn’t believe it was happening.”

Jetter stopped talking for a second. He went real quiet, and I just stared at him. He took a deep breath, let it out, and then continued.

“I went over to the Rebels after that. I couldn’t look at Larkin anymore. I know he made a mistake, and he knows it too. He made all the rules we have now right after Jolene died. No outsiders on deals, shit like that. But I could never forgive him.”

“What changed?” I asked.

“Time, mostly. Time and I now know that he was a f*cking kid; we all were. We all f*cked up. Larkin’s been paying for that mistake for a long time.”

I nodded slowly, surprised by the whole thing. “I didn’t know about that,” I said.

“Would you tell people if you were him?”

“No,” I said, “I wouldn’t.”

“Well, now you f*cking know. Still think I’m a scumbag?”

I stared at him, wondering that exact same question.

He had a good reason for what he did all those years ago, but that didn’t excuse all the shit he did after that, all the lying and the death that followed. Jetter may have left for noble reasons, or at least he thought they were noble, but in the end Jetter was still just a selfish f*ck.

Maybe a selfish f*ck with a sad backstory, but still selfish.

“Yeah,” I said, “but maybe a little bit better.”

He laughed and stood up. “Fine. That’s fine,” he said. “Can’t hold that against you.”

“That’s all then?”

He smiled and nodded. “That’s all. You got to know me; you saw the trailer.”

“So I can go now?”

“I’m not holding you against your will, Janine.”

I pushed off the wall and headed back into the main room and toward the front door.

“Janine,” he called, following me. “One more thing.”

I paused and looked at him. “What?”

“This is happening,” he said with a serious look on his face, “whether we want it to or not. Things are moving fast. You’re going to have to come over to my side sooner or later.”

“Maybe,” I said. “We’ll see.”

He stared at me. I turned and quickly left the trailer, resisting the urge to run as fast as I could.

Clutch was still leaning up against his bike, chewing on a piece of grass. He looked up as I approached. “That was fast,” he said.

“Let’s go.”

“You got it.”

He got onto the bike and I climbed on the back. He kicked it to life and we headed toward home again.

I couldn’t get that story out of my mind. I couldn’t imagine Larkin doing any of the things that Jetter said he did, but why would Jetter lie? It did explain why Jetter would betray the Demons the way he did back then.

But I couldn’t let myself get sucked into his game. I didn’t know why he told me that story or brought me over, but Jetter was a liar and a cheat. We all knew that about him. I couldn’t get blinded by him.

Clutch rode back toward the clubhouse, and I gripped his body, holding tight. Clutch felt like the only stable thing in my f*cked-up life.

Even if he wasn’t solid at all.





26





Clutch





I couldn’t stop thinking about the look on her face as she came out of Jetter’s trailer.

She’d looked confused and afraid. She probably wouldn’t admit that shit to me, but it was right there plain as day on her face. I was supposed to pretend like I didn’t see it, act like nothing was happening, but that was getting harder and harder.

I wasn’t the type of man to hold back. I hated not taking what I wanted, even when I had damn good reasons for keeping myself in check. But there was only so much a man could take before he gave in and did exactly what he wanted to do.

Halfway back toward the clubhouse, I pulled off the road. I could feel Janine’s grip tighten on me as I hit a bumpy dirt road, but I ignored it. I was going somewhere on a total whim, not totally sure what my endgame was, but I was at the point where I didn’t care anymore.