Slade (The Protectors #6)(12)

“You did good, Jill.” Adam looked down at her. “Jax is just an * trying to—”

“Do ants have balls?” Steve spoke into his phone.

“What the hell are you doing?” Adam looked back at Steve as if he’d lost his mind.

“Asking Siri,” Steve replied, looking at his phone.

“If ants have balls?” Adam’s voice was a mix between exasperation and disbelief. “How in the hell is your phone going to know if ants have f*cking balls?”

“It’s not my phone; it’s Siri.” Steve rolled his eyes. “Come on, dude. Don’t tell me you’ve never used Siri.”

A female-like robotic voice sounded from Steve’s phone. “This is what I found on the web for ‘Do ants have balls’.”

“Ha!” Steve pointed at Adam, then to his phone looking surprised. “Well, I’ll be damned. Ants do have balls, but—”

“Steve, shut the f*ck up.” Adam smacked Steve’s phone, almost knocking it out of his hand. “I don’t care if ants have balls or not.”

Jill barely heard their conversation. Her focus was on the conversation she heard going on behind closed doors and it was pissing her off. Adam and Steve stopped talking and listened to the angry Warrior voices also. Their pitiful glances toward her did her in. God, she was getting tired of fighting for every damn thing she wanted.

“Whether I f*ck her or not is not and never will be your business, motherf*cker.” Slade’s voice boomed from the other room as if he weren’t standing behind closed doors. Even without their superb hearing, that statement was hard to miss as it rattled out into the hallway they stood in.

Glancing at Steve and Adam, Jill’s face burned. How freaking humiliating to be standing there while being discussed loudly in the next room.

“Ah, yeah…okay, but I’m telling you, she is going to get one of those boys out there killed and you released from the Vampire Council. I’ve seen it happen before, and Goddammit, she’s a liability.” This time it was Jax’s voice that reached them.

“Jill, that’s bullshit,” Adam said, shaking his head. “You know it and we know it.”

“Yeah, it is.” Jill glared at the door and before anyone could stop her, she headed that way and burst into the room they had been told to leave.

“Jill, don’t!” Adam called out, but it was too late.

“Transfer me!” Jill walked into the room, her glare going from Slade who looked pissed and Jax who didn’t look any happier. “If it’s such an issue me being here, just transfer me.”

“No one will take you,” Jax stated, not in a mean taunt, but as a fact.

Jill opened up her mouth to respond, but the realness of those words hit her pretty hard. Shutting her mouth, she looked away from her peers, swallowing hard before nodding. She felt Adam and Steve walk up behind her. “If it came down to anyone on my team dying or having to make a decision against the Council because of me, I would take myself out.” Jill jerked her chin up, praying she could do just that if the time came.

“And that will not make any of us feel any better.” Jax tilted his head, staring hard at her. “Whether you like it or not, you are a woman and a woman is a man’s downfall on the battlefield. It’s a proven fact from the beginning of time and war.”

Jill felt a frantic laugh bubble in her throat. She felt everything slipping away and had no clue how to turn it back around. “It doesn’t matter what I do, does it?” Jill looked from Jax to Slade and then back to Jax again. “When I don’t do something right, I’m a liability. And when I do something I’m good at, it’s not good enough.”

He shook his head. “Either way, you’re a liability. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you do anything.”

The room was deadly silent. Jax finally looked away, but Slade’s eyes never left her. Adam and Steve looked everywhere else. She had never felt so alone as she did at that moment.

“If she goes, I go,” Adam’s voice rose from the silence.

“Adam, don’t.” Jill shook her head.

“No, this is bullshit.” Adam pointed at Jax. “You don’t talk for me. If I had to choose from anyone to stand by me, it would be Jill.”

“Easy to say…now,” Jax sighed.

“No, easy to say, period.” Adam took a step forward, but Jill stopped him. “And I will say it again, if she goes, I go.”

“Same goes for me.” Steve stepped forward. “Not having a sharp shooter who can shoot the balls off an ant is a bad move in my book.” Steve winked at Jill, giving her his goofy smile.

Emotion gripped Jill’s throat in a choke hold making her unable to speak at all, but her eyes thanked Adam and Steve more than her words ever could.

“Jill is an asset to the VC Warriors,” Slade’s voice rolled over her emotions, almost doing her in. “And if you don’t like it, I release you from assisting me in their preparations for their initiation. I’m sure Sloan has other duties you can do. Either drop it or get out.”

Jax leaned back, looking at each of them, and then shrugged. “It’s your funeral.” He looked at Steve and Adam before turning his attention to Slade. “And your early retirement.”