“How much?” I don’t reply. “Howmuch, Jax?”
“Thousands.” I pray that’ll be enough, because if Flynn finds out the real amount, I don’t want to be around for the fireworks.
“Alright. We have some savings, so we can deal with it. Was it the horses again?”
“You can’t repay it, Flynn, it’s too much.”
He walks back to the table, standing over me as I twist my fingers in front of me.
“Not the horses?”
“No. He’s in debt to someone.”
“Who?”
“A guy named Nick Monroe?”
To my profound relief, there is no recognition in my brother’s eyes, and he shrugs.
“Okay, who is he? We can pay him back in installments, yeah? We’ve done that before.”
“We’ve tried. Every time we pay him, he adds interest, and we’re back to square one.”
“Every time…? Jax, how long has this been going on?”
“Only a few weeks. I was trying to fix it so you didn’t have to deal with it.”
“Are you fucking stupid? This isn’t something you can fix yourself. Fuckinginterest? What is this guy, a loan shark?”
“Something like that.”
“Fuck me.” His head falls back, his eyes closed. “This is just perfect. We’re in the middle of opening a new club, Jax, does he owe more than it’s worth? Is that what you’re telling me?”
My silence says more than any words could, and Flynn curses so violently and in such colorful language that I barely recognize him.
He rants, screams, cries bloody murder, before raising a hand in a gesticulation of abject fury. That’s when he sees me flinch. It’s a learned response from years of witnessing my dad’s rage, and Flynn freezes in place, going completely still as he stares at me, lowering his hand very slowly and screwing his eyes tightly shut.
He walks over to me, pulling my head against his chest, and runs a gentle hand through my hair.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks desperately, squatting down beside me and taking my shoulders in his hands.
“I didn’t want to involve you. You left the club with us, and we fucked up.”
“Hefucked up. At some point, you’re gonna have to stop taking on this family’s problems as your own, Jax. You’ve never put a foot wrong your whole life, and you are not to blame for Scott’s behavior.”
With a sigh, he pulls his phone from his pocket and calls Scott. I listen to the sound of the ringing on the other end, and my heart sinks when there is no answer. Scott always answers Flynn’s calls… if he can.
“Where are they?” Flynn asks, turning back to me as a tear runs down my cheek.
“I… I told them not to do it. I told them.”
“Do what?” he asks with infinite calm.
“Scott said they needed to teach Monroe a lesson. When we gave him the first installment, he told us it was going to go up every week, and there’s no way we would ever be able to pay him back.”
“Jax…”
“Seb and Ben talked about torching something of his to send a message, but I told them no. I took away everything they had, I?—”
