Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Instead of raising an eyebrow or getting his back up and taking my move as a threat, Knight’s face split in a grin. “There’s my boy. Good talk!” He clapped me on the shoulder before shifting his focus to Knuckles. “Guess I’m callin’ Church?”
Knuckles chuckled. “Yeah. I guess you are. Tell Oktober to include Mia.” He nodded at me. “Jade too. I’ll bring Hannah and tell Gunnar to bring Pippa so the women don’t feel outnumbered and overwhelmed. If either of them need a voice and can’t manage, Hannah and Pippa will help.”
I held my president’s gaze for long moments before speaking again. “Prison taught me what happens when you act without thinking,” I answered. “Jade taught me what it means to have choices taken away through no fault of my own.” I turned back to the monitor. “We tell her what we found. We increase security. We let her know we have her back. But we don’t make decisions for her. And yeah, I know technically this has nothing to do with Jade. He might be coming for her. I know this is the club’s territory, but this is still her fight. Just because he hasn’t made it to her yet because we’ve been the buffer doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have a choice in how to handle a situation that heavily involves her. Even if it’s just to ask her opinion. She needs this, Knuckles.”
He grinned. “You don’t have to explain yourself, brother. You weren’t here when I took Hannah as my old lady, but she’s basically a serial killer.” The look on my face must have expressed my feelings before I even registered anything beyond shock, because Knuckles burst out laughing. “Yeah. I had much the same reaction. Well, that and a healthy dose of --” He cut himself off before he said what I knew had something to do with sexual attraction. Because, Goddamn, when I’d watched Jade taking back her life the only way she knew how, it had made me harder than fuck. Knuckles had the same sense of pride in his woman I had in mine.
“Do I even want to know?”
Knuckles grinned. “Oh, she liked to play mind games. With men who liked to manipulate and play mind games. Only she was much better at it than they were.”
“Uh…” I frowned. “Not following.”
“Let’s just say, Eric Blackwood is exactly the kind of man she went after back then. It’s why she takes a personal interest in Haven but mostly from the sidelines. When abusers need to be taught a permanent lesson, my Hannah is the woman who takes care of the issue.”
I blinked. “Well, OK then. I think Jade is in very good hands.” The grin splitting my face couldn’t be smothered. “The more you know, eh?”
“She needs to see this footage,” Knight said as we wrapped up. “All of it. She deserves to know what she’s dealing with so we don’t blindside her in Church. She’s already going to be overwhelmed. Any woman would.”
“I know.” I pulled out my phone and typed a message to Oktober. “Getting Oktober to bring her and Mia here. They’ve got a fragile truce and formed a strong front together. I think this will help them both to focus on him and not any lingering pain.”
Knuckles shuffled his feet before scrubbing a hand behind his neck sheepishly. “When did we all start considering feelings in our decisions?” He sounded disgruntled.
Knight snorted out a self-depricating laugh. “Women do that shit to us. It’s crazy.”
“Yeah.” I actually felt a smile tugging at my own lips. “Tell me you’d have it any other way -- either of you -- and I’ll call you a Goddamned liar.”
Knuckles barked out a laugh then. “Yeah. No arguments here.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jade
I couldn’t stop shaking. The security footage played on a loop in my head. Even here, in a place I’d never felt safer and more cared for and just… at home, he found ways to reach me. Mia went quiet beside me as Knight showed us the recordings, her face pale and as angry as I felt. Oktober had stood behind her chair, one hand on her shoulder, his expression murderous. I hadn’t spoken a word since the footage ended. What could I say? Eric thought he’d found a way in. And all I could think was exactly what came out of my mouth. “I’m so fucking tired of being afraid of his fucking bullshit.”
Mia stood first, her eyes meeting mine briefly before she looked away. “I need some air,” she said. “Before I get a gun and shoot that motherfucker myself.”
Oktober nodded, his hand still firm on her shoulder. “Let’s go home, Kätzchen.” He glanced at Knight, then Rip. Some unspoken message passed between them. “Keep me updated. You tell me where to go and what to do and I’m there.”