Rules of Protection (Tangled in Texas #1)(88)

Jake’s heart carried a load too heavy for any dump truck. He had tossed out some sharp, fragmented bits of regret from his dubious past, but he still couldn’t hide the deep scars that had formed on the inside.

My eyes were no longer wet when the smile slid across my face. “I would’ve liked them,” I told him. “Just like Hank and Floss. You’re lucky to have them. I can see how much they love you.”

“They would do anything for me,” Jake said, nodding in agreement. “And have, in the past. Remember when I told you I’d been in witness protection?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, it wasn’t exactly witness protection. Not officially, anyway. When I was fifteen, my dad tried to prosecute Felts on a murder charge. Dad received death threats and wanted to keep us safe. He made my mom and I assume new identities and go into hiding. We came to live here with Hank and Floss.”

For a moment, I had a touch of déjà vu, remembering when I had to change my identity. “Jake isn’t your real name?”

“Actually it is…Jake Keller. Now, everyone knows me as Ward. Even after I told everyone the truth, they continued to call me by that name. I was used to it, so I kept it.”

“I couldn’t imagine you as Jake Keller. It would be weird, like when you first called me Emily Foster,” I said with a laugh, remembering how I hadn’t answered him much the first day. “Did you like living here?”

“I didn’t want to at first,” Jake said. “But I started hanging out with the boys and dating Bobbie Jo. Soon I didn’t want to leave.” I hadn’t realized I’d made a face until he said, “Hey, don’t look at me like that! You asked. I’m just trying to be honest.”

“You can leave out the parts about her,” I said, my face souring at the thought of Jake dating Bobbie Jo.

“If you gave her half a chance—”

“I don’t want to talk about her,” I said, clenching my teeth. “It’ll only start an argument. Move on.”

Jake sighed heavily with disapproval, but went back to his story. “Mom and I had been here six months when Felts bought off a judge. My dad’s case against him was thrown out of court. When the death threats stopped, Dad thought it was safe for us to return home. Mom went, but I stayed to finish high school with the boys.”

And to be with Bobbie Jugs, I imagined. “When did you end up moving back to Chicago?” I asked, hoping to hear about their breakup and a confession that her tits were fake.

“By the time I became a full-fledged agent, my dad had already taken over as director in Chicago. I transferred there and joined his mission in bringing Felts down. No one knew I was his son. Dad and I kept the information under our hats. I always took more after my mom, anyway, with her dark hair and gray eyes, so I kept Ward as my last name. We didn’t want anyone to holler nepotism when he appointed me as the senior investigator on Felts’s case file.”

“I remember you said it was your case.”

“It was. For nearly three years, but I didn’t go undercover in Felts’s organization until about six months ago. I spent years playing by the rules, but never could get Felts on anything solid. Manning had an airtight alibi for the night my parents were killed. Although he’d been there, I couldn’t prove it. They killed my parents in cold blood and got away with it for a year. I couldn’t take it anymore. The night he killed Sergio, I wanted to take Frankie Felts down one way or another. Since I hadn’t been able to do it legally, I…well, let’s say I was willing to try another method.”

My heart thumped an extra beat at the hidden meaning. I had to ask, but wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the answer. “What were you planning to do?” I swallowed hard, bracing for whatever he would tell me.

“You have to understand I’d been having a hard time dealing with my parents’ deaths. If the FBI found out I was the director’s son, they would’ve pulled me off the case immediately. No one could know. So I headed a memorial service for them in Chicago as Director Keller’s coworker, but I buried Mom and Dad here in Texas as their son. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be on the investigation, and I know I should’ve—”

“Jake! What were you going to do?”

His eyes narrowed and his jaw twitched. “Nothing Felts wouldn’t have deserved,” he said coldly. “That night in the club, I watched Felts, waiting for a chance to face off with him. I wanted to see the look in his eyes when I told him I was Joseph Keller’s son. He would’ve known why I was there and would’ve been forced to draw his weapon.”

“Are you suicidal? My God, why would you want him to do that?”

He stared off into space for a moment. “So I had a reason to kill him. A legal one, at least.”

“But he wasn’t alone. You could’ve got yourself killed.”

“Curtis Manning wouldn’t have lived long. He would’ve been the second one to hit the floor. Two kill shots, one to each of their heads.”

His callousness shocked me. “You’re not a killer!”

“You don’t know what I am,” he said, his tone darkened by his hatred. “I could’ve killed him. I would’ve killed him…if only…”

“Something kept you from doing it,” I guessed. “What stopped you?”