Rev It Up (9 page)

Boss had always been a multitasker. No reason to assume things had changed.

“I was so screwed up back then,” he admitted. “You
know
some of the stuff I was dealing with, what I almost did during that patrol after the barracks bombing. And it all came down to the fact that I didn’t feel like I could trust myself anymore. And that scared me shitless.” He shook his head, running a hand through his hair. “I thought I’d push her away for a while. Give myself time to figure out just what the hell was going on with me. But I wound up pushing her right into Preacher’s arms.”

Boss searched his face for a long moment. “And Preacher didn’t hesitate to accept that gift, I’m sure.”

Yeah, not even for a split second…

“Preacher always was the smart one.” He shrugged. “And afterward, I was so jealous I could barely stand myself. Part of that was because I knew Preacher was the better man. He and Shell were both so goddamned
nice
, it was like watching the real-life version of Ozzie and Harriet. It made me crazy.”

“Sometimes it’s opposites that make a relationship work,” Boss mused.

“Yeah,” Jake shook his head, “and what? Suddenly you’re all Jedi Relationship Master now that you’ve got yourself a brand-spanking-new fiancée?”

Instead of taking offense, Boss wore the smug expression of a man secure in his woman. “And now? You’ve conquered your inner demon, and you’re ready to do right by her?”

“I wouldn’t say
conquered
, precisely,” he admitted. “He’s still there, still inside me, but he doesn’t scare me anymore. And as for Shell, all I’ll do is right by her…if she’ll let me.”

“It won’t be easy.”

“Nothing worth having ever is.”

“Right answer, my man.” Boss nodded his approval, and Jake felt for sure the next words out of the dude’s mouth were going to be
and
may
the
force
be
with
you
. Instead, he motioned through the door to the munitions shed. “Help yourself to whatever you need.”

Amazed at how easily that conversation had gone, Jake went to step into the building, but Boss stopped him again with, “Hey, Snake?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll do what I can to help you with Shell.”

He swallowed and nodded his thanks, realizing how much he’d missed the big, mean bastard and how much it meant to be so easily accepted back into the fold.

There was a lightness to his step as he turned and pushed through the door to Arsenal Alley, and then all he was thinking was…
ahhh, yeah
.

Because, as he stood there looking around, he was like a kid in a candy store. A very
deadly
candy store. His eyes pinged from one set of stocked shelves to the next, gleefully noting that each held more impressive weapons than the one before. But his first priority was Shell and Franklin.

So he quickly strode to a nearby shelf and palmed a simple Glock 19. When he slid out the magazine, he found the clip fully loaded.
Nice.
Slamming it back into the grip, he shoved the weapon into the waistband at the back of his jeans, carefully concealing it with the tail of his loose shirt.

Next, he chose a Smith and Wesson five-inch, double-edged boot knife. Once he satisfied himself with its sharpness by checking the tip with his thumb, he slipped it into its custom sheath and clipped it to his front jeans pocket. Again, he was careful to hide it under his shirt. And though he wasn’t wearing boots, that didn’t mean he couldn’t utilize an ankle holster…

Strolling over to the next set of shelves, he let his eyes roam over the array of polished weaponry and chose a Kel-Tec .380 Auto. Sometimes they had the tendency to jam if you soft-wristed them, but he never soft-wristed a pistol. And though its six-round capacity wasn’t much, it was the only thing small enough to fit inside the calf of his jeans.

After securing it to his ankle, he grabbed an extra clip for both the Glock and the Kel-Tec and pocketed them before beating feet out of the building.

Securing the door behind him, he turned and glanced around the courtyard at the other outbuildings, wondering what surprises they held.

Goddamn, they really did it
, he thought, taking a moment to feel pride in what Boss and Rock had built here in big, bad Chi-Town.

Then his eyes landed on Shell, and any warm fuzzies melted away like sunscreen on a hot day.

Damn.

Ice-cold fear shot through his veins, because even though he’d faced some of the most evil motherfuckers ever to be born and hadn’t batted a lash, the thought of something happening to Shell, especially on his watch, was enough to have sweat slicking his palms and sliding coldly between his shoulder blades.

“So?” she asked once he retook his seat, carefully arranging himself so his position didn’t impede his ability to quickly grab his weapons. In her chair, she unconsciously swayed side-to-side to soothe the sleeping boy, though the look on her face was anything but calm. “What’s going on?”

“Your big brother has made some enemies,” he admitted and watched her slim throat work over a hard swallow.

“Wh-what kind of enemies?”

For a moment, he thought of giving her the standard,
don’t worry, doll, we got it all under control
. But he knew that wouldn’t fly. So instead, he gave her the unvarnished truth. “The kind that want to kill him.”

“What?” she squawked. Franklin stirred against her chest, making a disgruntled noise followed by a little snort before she managed to shush him back to sleep. She lowered her voice and asked, “
Who
wants to kill him?”

“Dunno.” He shrugged, hoping to fool her with his feigned unconcern. Then he noticed her pulse hammering away at the base of her throat and realized he hadn’t quite managed it.

Obviously, you need to brush up on your acting skills, Sommers.

Okay, so he’d try a different tack. “There’s really no reason to worry, you know.”

“No?” She raised a disbelieving brow.

“Nah,” he scoffed, though the hairs on the back of his neck had twanged upright the minute all those cell phones started ringing, and they were still waving around like little danger-barometers even now. “We’re secure as long as we stay inside these walls. They’re thick enough to protect us from pretty much anything. Not to mention the security cameras keeping watch around the entire perimeter.”

“Yeah,” she huffed, hugging Franklin to her chest and burying her nose in the boy’s hair. “It’s not the security I’m worried about. It’s the
reason
for the security that’s the problem. I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have brought Franklin—”

“Look at me, Shell,” he commanded softly, his heart double-timeing it when she turned those soulful, gray eyes on him. “I’ll never let anything bad happen to you, you hear me? Never.”

I’ll die first.

And that was the
one
true thing he knew in this world…

***

Don’t say things like that to me
! she wanted to scream.

Mostly because they were precisely the kinds of words—sweet ones, not cruel—she’d longed to hear on that rainy day four years ago. And hearing them now only served as a bitter reminder that it was too late.

Too late for anything, for…
everything.

To her utter chagrin, hot tears hovered behind her eyes, and she’d be damned if she’d let him see. Quickly turning away, she placed another comforting kiss on top of Franklin’s head. “Please don’t cry, Shell,” he whispered and,
crap
, so much for trying to play it cool. “I know you’re scared, but I
will
protect you.”

He thought she was on the verge of tears because she was afraid?

Well, who wouldn’t, you daft woman? There are people trying to get in here to kill your brother!

Okay, and truthfully, she
was
scared. Petrified, in fact. But that wasn’t the reason for her tears. The sweat slicking the back of her neck and dampening her hair? Yep,
that
was from the fear. But not the tears. Oh, no. They were all about him…

Of course, it was best to let him think what he wanted, play to his assumption. At least then she could use the excuse of her fear to keep the conversation on some sort of stable footing because, for the first time, they were alone.

Uh-huh, that had
not
escaped her attention. Especially since she suspected Jake had been waiting all evening for this very thing. It was obvious he had something he wanted to tell her. It was there in his pretty green eyes every time he looked at her.

And she didn’t want to hear it. Because no matter what he said, it wouldn’t change what had happened. The only thing his words could possibly accomplish was to make her feel more pain and regret, and Lord knew she’d already experienced enough of that to last a lifetime.

“I can’t help but be afraid.” She turned back to him when she was sure she had herself and her stupid tear ducts under control. “You don’t know what it’s like to be a mother, Jake. Fear, even under normal circumstances, comes with the territory. When you have a child to keep safe you—”

“I’ll protect him, too.” Jake vowed.

And there it was again. That look of utter sincerity.
How
does
he
do
that?

“I know you will, Jake.” He lifted a brow, and she managed a weak smile. “Even after everything that happened between us, I never doubted your courage.”

“Yeah, about that…”

No, no,
no!

“Can we just be quiet for a while?” She pleaded, this time not hiding the desperation in her eyes. “I just need some peace and quiet to calm my nerves.”

His jaw clenched, and she could tell he was biting back his next words but, finally, he nodded. And in the stillness of the courtyard, the only thing she could hear was the pounding of her weak and foolish heart.

***

Rock stood with Vanessa and Boss at the second floor window of the shop, watching as Wild Bill—their resident explosives expert and Becky’s older brother—and Angel—the spooky ex-Mossad agent who’d joined their ranks under mysterious circumstances—made their way through the compound’s hand-rolled iron gates, frog-marching their captive across the open expanse.

And even as he observed their would-be assassin struggle in the Knights’ grips, his mind drifted out to the courtyard.

I
wonder
how
Snake
is
farin’ now that he has Shell all to himself?

Not too good, he suspected.

One didn’t need his particular skills for reading people, or his aptitude for picking up on subtle cues, to see that Shell’s feelings toward Snake fell far short of friendly. It was clear as day for anyone with two eyes, because whenever she looked at the guy, she appeared ready to either break down sobbing or turn tail and run. He couldn’t help but wonder exactly what had happened between—

“Is Eve on her way?” Boss asked Becky as she strolled up to the group, interrupting Rock’s thoughts.

Oui
, and there was
another
mystery. Because though it was obvious Eve Edens was a timid woman by nature, that didn’t account for the look of stark horror that contorted her pretty face the moment she heard Wild Bill was going to show up. She hadn’t been able to vamoose herself from the compound fast enough.

“Yep, she’s headed home with her tail between her legs,” Becky said, snaking an arm around Boss’s waist before turning to watch the trio of men approaching from down below. When they walked beneath the yellow wash of a street lamp, she chuckled before adding wryly, “Well, holy flaming ninjas, Batman.”

Rock grinned. The hit man, whoever he was, was dressed all in black. And he’d actually had the
couilles
to deck himself out in one of those tight, eye-slit hooded thingamabobs complete with a pair of weird double-toed, soft-soled boots.

“He looks more like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dumbass,” Vanessa mused.