The door opens then, startling us both. Smoke is standing there looking angry.
“I’m sorry,” I say on instinct.
He frowns. “For what? That meth head? Fuck him. Get your stuff. One of the prospects is going to follow you to the school to get the kids, then you are going home for the rest of the day, paid.”
“I don’t need that,” I try to tell him.
“Jane, honey,” he says, his face softening. “You are still shaking. This happened on our watch, so we pay you to take some time to recover. Go on now. Sloane shut the shop up. We are done for the day.”
Sloane nods once. “Understood. Mac fighting to come back?”
Smoke looks at me. “I would be too.”
I ignore their little conversation, grabbing my keys.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” I tell him.
He nods. “I know you will. You are the best office manager we have ever had. Now take care of yourself.”
I don’t know how I went from no one caring about me to having a whole club behind me, but I am grateful for it.
For them.
Forhim.
My nerves are shot. The moment I heard the special tone I have set for our SOS in my ear, I knew something was wrong. I would have worried no matter what, but knowing Jane was there had me panicking. I’ve never done that before.
I didn’t care about anything but hearing her voice. In my head, I wondered if her ex had found her, if she was in mortal danger.
Then I heard her voice, and everything was okay again. I knew she wasn’t quite right, but she told me she was okay and that no one had touched her. That’s what I am letting calm me right now.
“She’s okay,” Gunner tells me as I hang up with her, dialing Jagger.
Jagger answers on the third ring. “I’m a little fucking busy.”
“Yeah, where the fuck is he?” I growl into the phone.
“Tied up in the shed for you. Might have a few bruises and such, but he’s mostly intact for you.” Jagger huffs. “Fucking pathetic piece of shit. He’s jonesing for some meth. Told me so himself. That’s why he came in. He is so out of his mind that he didn’t even realize it was our garage. He only saw his next hit.”
“You keep him alive for me. I’ll deal with him when I get home.”
“Will do.”
We hang up as I dial Smoke.
“You should be riding. We have this under control.”
I ignore him. “Where is she?”
“I sent her home for the day. The prospect is trailing her and will discreetly watch the house for the night. She is a little on edge, but your girl is strong. She didn’t crumble under the threat,” he tells me.
I let out a small breath.
“She shouldn’t have to be strong. We are supposed to protect her.”
He snorts. “We did. Jagger was here before anything happened. Sloane got her to the office, so she didn’t have to see the asshole getting his ass beat. You do realize that protecting them doesn’t mean nothing bad will ever happen, but that we will always do everything to stop it, right? You can’t control everything, Mac.”
He’s right, but I want to. I want to wrap them in bubble wrap and never let them out of my sight again.
