Tipping my head to the side, my lips gently tip up. “I’m fine, Tuck, I promise. The nightmares are not every night and I’ve got Gray and Mason watching my every move. Annoyingly so.”
His gaze moves over my head to look at something or someone for a moment, and then back to me. “I heard there is more than just Gray and Mason watching your every move. Kinley says that Jax has been at the ranch a lot lately.”
It’s true, Jax has been to the ranch maybe five or six times in the last eight months, but since the fire, he’s been around much more.
“He’s Mason’s best friend, Tuck. They meet up at the ranch sometimes when they go out on jobs. It’s no different from when Jesse comes with you when you’re on leave sometimes.” I shrug my shoulder as I divert the conversation by mentioning his friend he serves with. Looking at him through my eyelashes with an eyebrow lifted, I say, “Don’t read anything into it.”
To be honest, Jax has started to grow on me. I’ve noticed he goes out of his way to help me, and he hangs around my stables a lot when he is here.
“Not reading, just making sure my sister is comfortable and feels safe. Especially in her home. I know that you haveMason and Gray here, but if I need to come home for any reason, all you have to do is call.” Tucker shares the same protective streak as Mason and Gray. Where Mason is a smart-ass and Gray is the responsible grump, Tucker watches and observes, thinking of every possible outcome.
Tilting my head again, I smile up at him. “I love you, too, but everyone here is fine.”
The deep rumble of a V-8 crunching gravel in the driveway has both of us turning our heads toward the house. A black Dodge Charger with nearly blacked-out windows comes to a stop near the house.
Without looking at me, his voice low, Tucker asks, “Know who that is?”
“Uh-uh.” I shake my head as I hold my hand up to shade my eyes.
Who would show up at a wedding after the ceremony?
A man wearing more clothes than necessary in the slight June heat gets out of the car. His longer black hair is pulled into a man bun on his crown, and he casually turns in a circle, taking in his surroundings like he has all the time in the world. The muscles in Tucker’s arm tense under my hand. There’s something about the guy that makes me want to hide.
A gasp to my left near the wedding party table gets my attention and I look to see Hallie stand and clap her hand over her mouth. All the blood drains from her face and she seems to visibly shrink into herself. I immediately look for Mason.
His head is dipped to Sloane, who is whispering in his ear. From one second to the next, he rights himself and all hint of humor or good nature falls from him, and he transforms into a soldier. Tucker keeps my hand in his and pulls me to Mason. We get to him at the same time Jax does. He seems to appear out of nowhere next to us.
Mason keeps his eyes on the stranger by the house and turns his head just enough to talk to Tucker and Jax withouttaking his eyes off the menacing figure next to his car. “It’s Hallie’s ex, the one who beat her and put her in the hospital.”
My heart beats erratically in my chest and I take an instinctive step behind Tucker who’s also taken a soldier’s stance, his hands curled into fists at his sides. His arm curls around my torso and pushes me behind him.
The setting sun is casting shadows over the driveway, so it’s hard to see details from our distance, but he looks like an angry person. His long five o’clock shadow looks purposeful and if he didn’t look so angry, he might be handsome, but I already know what he’s capable of and it makes him ugly to me.
The energy around me turns static, and Jax’s head swivels in my direction. What I see in his eyes has me sucking in a startled breath, something feral is hiding in those icy blue orbs and has come close to the surface. He looks over my head, his eyes scanning the area behind me, and takes a step that puts him next to me, the heat from his body warming my skin.
“Go with your father.” His voice is low, but gentle. I look up at him, my breath coming fast. His finger brushes my forearm so softly that I wonder if he really did it. “I won’t let anything happen, don’t be afraid.”
“Marley, Sloane.” My father’s deep, gravelly voice is right behind me. For a second, Jax holds my eyes and gives me a small nod before I feel my father’s hand grab mine and I turn to go with him.
CHAPTER FIVE
JAX
WHILE MASONand Tucker keep an eye on the shit stain who thought it was a good idea to pick a fight today, I ensure the girls are safe with their father and Marley’s brother, Gray, before turning my attention to the dumbass standing next to his car like he’s got nothing to lose.
He doesn’t know what he just fucking stepped into.
When he starts to walk down the small incline from the house, Mason barely turns his head in our direction. “I don’t want him down here close to family and guests.”
“Lead the way.” I say, keeping my eyes trained up the hill.
I’m not sure what incenses me the most, his big fucking balls that told him it was okay to show up uninvited, or the swagger as he walks and scans the area like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
Tucker and I walk with Mason to meet him half-way. Hostility is wrapped around him like a living, breathing thing that reaches out to taunt me like an old friend. The rage that Ikeep locked inside like the monster he is, greets his aggressive malice like a lion approaching his prey. His eyes slide to me.
He feels it. Like recognizes like. I hold his stare for a moment. The tiny twitch as he narrows his eyes at me for just a second confirms it before he looks away.
Everything about him is dark, his clothes, his hair, and his eyes that slide lazily across us walking toward him before looking out over the guests like he is looking for someone. Trying to remember the details of his relationship with Hallie, I was told she put up with him as long as she did out of fear, but the last time he beat her, it was so severe that she was in the hospital.
