The feeling I get when he turns to me makes my skin crawl. He looks like a rat bastard, and I feel fucking dirty just by being close to him, but the fake smile doesn’t leave his face.
“Yes, I’m looking for Marley Harlow.” His deep voice is deceptively smooth, but his appearance is almost as deceptive. He’s dressed like he’s from the area, but his boots don’t have a single scuff on them and his jeans still have fold marks like he put them on as soon as he walked out of the store with them.
The fact that he knows my sister’s name and asks for her makes my heart go into my throat.
The horse Marley is working with is uncomfortable with all the added testosterone and is stomping her foot. Marley is standing behind and to the side of Jax and I can feel her eyes on me, I can also feel her panic, so I do what I normally wouldn’t do and take my eyes off the enemy, I look at her and give my best ‘I’ve got this’ smile and tip my head to the nervous horse, “You should probably put her up before she gets too jittery.”
She only nods and starts to lead the horse into the stable, her shoulders are square, and her movements are tight and twitchy. I watch her until she disappears into the stable before I turn back to the stranger.
He’s also watching Marley walk into the stable but Jax steps up to the wooden fence, blocking his line of sight, andleans both arms on the top rail like he is the friendliest person in the world. It’s part of Jax’s act to throw him off, I’ve seen Jax in action many times, he’s neither friendly nor forgiving.
I think of Sloane up in the house right now, probably watching every move we make, and how close she came to becoming one of the statistics that we hear about every day. The fear she must have felt when she was in their grasp, the fact that she was able to escape is unheard of.
The rage I was feeling when I saw this fucker walking toward my sister intensifies and I am one comment away from pulling my gun out and shooting this piece of shit between the eyes. After working with Jax for so many years, we have learned to read each other’s tells, and he is reading mine like a beacon.
Jax pushes off the fence and stands straight, bringing the guy’s attention back to him, “What do you want with Marley?”
The guy turns and looks at Jax, his smile falters a bit, but he recovers, “I have a question about a horse.”
If I didn’t know Jax so well, I wouldn’t know that the smile he gives back to the guy is more of a threat than friendly. “You can ask us; we work with horses as well.” His voice is solid and more threatening than the look on his face, it’s one of Jax’s questioning methods he likes to use to confuse. I just think it makes him look unstable as fuck.
He’s probably never been on a horse in his life. His parents are from Serbia, and he came here when he was a small child and grew up in Nevada.
The guy turns to me again, his eyes locking on mine, there is no kindness there. “More to the point, I want to ask about a horse she has that may be stolen from me.”
Instant coolness frosts my insides, and I crook my head to the side ever so slightly, he’s not really talking about a horse, he’s talking about Sloane. The fucker actually thinks Sloanebelongs to him. My hands are at my sides and my fingers start to twitch, so I curl them into fists.
Jax climbs over the rail to stand next to me, “That sounds kind of serious, but you know Marley works with horses that have been abused.” The smile falls from his face and an icy edge is in his voice, “Did you abuse your horse?”
His eyes tighten a little and his lips straighten into a line, “All my horses have everything they need and are rewarded for their service.” He puts his hands on his hips, pushing his coat to the side, the butt of a gun barely visible under his arm.
He is suggesting that the hovels we have pulled girls from are everything they need and that the drugs they pump them full of are their reward.
Jax, being the smartass that he is, chooses to keep playing this assholes word games, “You know, all the abused horses that Marley gets has to be reported, there’s all this paperwork, and all the proper legal channels have to be followed before, and if, the horse is turned back over. There’s also the fact that animal cruelty is a felony.”
In other words, we know what you’re here for and we’re ready.
The guy’s jaw tenses briefly, he knows exactly what Jax is saying to him, and his eyes flick to the stable behind us where I know Marley is hiding until this guy is gone. “You’re right, sometimes we have to get another to replace the one we lost.”
I’m not sure what pisses me off the most, the big fucking balls this guy has to walk onto my property or that he feels comfortable threatening my sister.
Just as I am about to lose my control, Jax steps in front of me and I can see a hint of the berserker that hides in him. I don’t know what ever happened to Jax to make him enjoy inflicting pain on people, but when his eyes go from friendly to wild, I know to step out of the way.
The veiled threat is obviously directed at Marley and Jaxis pissed.
Even though he is trying to maintain his cool, the cold edge in his icy blue eyes combined with the cock-sure smile on his face hints at the levels of unhinged that he is capable of. “You go looking in the wrong places and you might find something you don’t want.”
The guy smiles like he got what he wanted in the first place, his objective was to feel us out and piss us off.
Fuck.
“I can see she’s busy right now, I’ll come back later.” The guy tips his head as he starts to turn.
“Then I’ll see you later.” Jax says to the guy as he turns and walks back to his SUV.
***
Looking at the stables and the barn behind the house through the large window in the corner breakfast nook, my thoughts are all over the place and I can hear Gray arguing with Lainey Rai down the hall, “But, Daddy, Papa needs my help. I always help him groom the horses.”
