While they were speaking in the truck, the others had arrived. She hadn’t seen some of them enter, so they must have come in the back way or been in the apartments.
It was almost one in the afternoon. Ranger looked like he’d just gotten out of bed, wearing just his gray sweats and his cut. His white-blonde hair was getting nearly long enough to be put up in a ponytail. If it wasn’t for his icy-blue eyes, one might mistake him for being Albino.
Ghost was in jeans, a tight tee, and his cut. His boots looked wet, so he must have been outside, though he had no coat on him that Jenna could see.
Keys exited the kitchen. He was gulping down a large bottle of orange soda and had a bag of gummy worms in his other hand as he headed towards his laptop with screen extenders on the front bar. She couldn’t see his feet, but there was a good chance he was wearing slippers instead of boots.
Demo was standing next to him at the bar, his always-present legal notepad in front of him. Sometimes Jenna thought he used it because it wigged Keys out how the man could stay so organized without using a computer for every little thing he did.
Lucky was removing his winter coat. He still had his welding apron on, which meant he’d come from work. His dirty blonde hair was more gray-blonde recently, and Harper absolutely got a kick out of her ol’ man turning into a silver fox.
Bear was wearing scrubs. Jenna didn’t know why, since he no longer worked as an RN at a hospice facility. He’d quit to spend more time at home with his and Tessa’s ‘cubs’ while she continued to work full-time at the local ER. He also was on the club’s payroll as a part-time medic. The scrubs implied he was doing something medical, but she had no idea what.
Bulldog had Georgie, his almost two-year-old daughter against his chest. The poor baby had an ear infection she’d developed while Jenna was still recovering from her relapse.Jenna would have offered to take Georgie so Bulldog could concentrate on the meeting, but nothing made that little girl feel better than being in her daddy’s arms. She might be miserable, but she was quiet and content curled up against her father.
Hagerty was sitting on a barstool next to Darrin and Viktor. As soon as Jack and Jenna entered—him steering her over to the couch—Ghost dismissed the prospects. They left out the front doors.
Jumper was sitting on the couch already. He and Aerial scooted over as Jenna and Jack approached. He was wearing a pair of ripped jeans, a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and his auburn hair was pulled up in a bun. Jenna always thought he’d look right at home in a mountain cabin chopping firewood with an axe.
Ghost turned to Jack. “What’s going on?”
“I know who our sniper is. His name is Griffin Shaw.”
Keys immediately started typing on his computer. “Shaw? I had him on our list.”
Jack nodded. His face was slowly morphing into that hardened mask again, but it never touched his eyes. He was staring at Jenna, even though he was talking to the room as whole. “And I dismissed him.”
“Why?” Ghost asked as Keys handed him a tablet. Jenna assumed it had Shaw’s information and maybe a picture on it.
“Because last I heard, Griffin Shaw was on death row. Never crossed my mind that it could be him, but it makes complete sense. Everything that has happened fits his MO.”
Jenna saw Keys frown behind his computer screen. “Hewasscheduled for execution, but I don’t see a date. I don’t see any information on his file after that was scheduled.”
“Because he wasn’t executed,” Hagerty spoke up. “He was transferred.”
“Where?” Bulldog asked as Ghost passed him the tablet next. He continued to rock his daughter, holding her with one hand under her butt while holding up the tablet with the other to read.
They must have already introduced Hagerty to the group while Jack and Jenna were still out in the truck because no one questioned who he was or what he was doing here. Jenna wished she’d been privy to that introduction because she still didn’t completely know those answers.
Hagerty looked over to Jack in question, who nodded to him. “I trust these men with Jenna’s life. You can too.”
He always said that. Even as teens and young adults. It was never ‘I trustso-and-sowith my life’. It was always ‘I trustso-and-sowith Jenna’s life’ or ‘my kids’ lives’. Like Jack valued their lives above his own. Stupid alpha male mentality. Sometimes Jenna just wanted to hit him upside the head and scream that his life mattered too. Not less than hers. Equal. But that was something he’d never understand or get behind.
Jenna remembered standing in the Zarins’ kitchen while waiting on Jack and Mr. Zarin to finish working out. She was helping Mrs. Zarin cook dinner as Lilly did her homework at the kitchen table.“You’re falling in love with a fine young man,” Mrs. Zarin had told her.“Just remember, there are certain sacrifices when you fall for a man like him. He’ll always put you first, and maybe he doesn’t come out and say ‘I love you’ in the conventional sense, but he’ll tell you every day, in his own way.”
Jack had never faltered in telling her how much he loved her, never thought himself too manly to say such things. He’d always been true to her, and more importantly, to himself. And she’d known from the beginning that he would always put her first, that he’d never stop fighting for her, and eventually their family.
Fucking hell. She couldn’t be mad at him for not telling her something that happened thirty years ago. He hadn’t betrayedher, and he hadn’t harmed her. In his mind, he was protecting her. Motherfucker.
Her anger left her, evaporating almost as quickly as it had come. Rolling her eyes, she took his hand. Jack’s lips twitched, telling her he knew he was forgiven. Frustration filled her veins, because stupid logic had presented a good defense for his actions before they got a chance to have angry sex.
Jack squeezed her hand and leaned in close to her ear. “I cannotdo the dishes later, so you can get mad at me for that.”
Jenna smiled, because that sounded like a fucking good plan. Literally.
“The CIA snatched him up,”Hagerty announced to the room, drawing Steel’s attention back to the current situation.
Steel sat up but did not let go of Jenna’s hand. “For how long?”
