“Jax, will you watch your language,” Ryley chastised him, probably for Wednesday’s sake. She knew I didn’t mind the flurry of f-bombs coming my way.
“I don’t give a fuck about my language,” he shouted back. “What I fucking care about is you, and I don’t want those evil fuckers within a hundred miles of my wife.”
“Wives, girlfriends, grandmas… no one would want any female within a hundred miles of those two,” I joked, but my light-hearted banter in this heavy atmosphere fell flat.
Instead, Jackson turned his furious glare on me. “Why did you bring her here? You could have called me. I’d have come to meet you anywhere to help you. Any time of the night or day, I’d come, you know that. But I can’t have the likes of the Contis knocking on my door. Not now.” Ryley sighed and snaked her arm through Jackson’s in a bid to placate him.
“You can tell him,” she urged, smiling and resting her head lovingly on his shoulder.
Jackson took a deep breath. “We found out this morning that we’re having a baby. Ryley took a test. Well, a few actually.” He grinned down at her. “And I just want to protect her. Protect both of them. I’ll help you in any way I can, but I won’t have the Contis’ men coming round here scaring my wife, or throwing their weight around.”
I stalked across the room and grabbed Ryley into a massive hug.
“Congratulations, blondie. You too, Daddy-o,” I said, patting Jackson on the arm as I held his girl. “I told you it’d happen for you, didn’t I?”
She nodded into my chest, and when she pulled away, I could see the glisten of tears in her eyes. They didn’t need my shit on top of all this. I knew how desperate they’d been to have a baby. I didn’t want anything to fuck that up.
“I won’t drag you into this, I swear. If the Contis go anywhere near Ryley, I’ll shoot the fuckers myself. I just need help getting out of the city. I don’t have much time. Julian rang just now to say they’re already at my place.” I turned to face Wednesday, who was still huddled on the edge of the sofa looking dazed and confused. “That girl deserves some peace in her life. God knows she didn’t get it when she was chained up in their barn like a fucking animal. Please, just help me to help her.”
Ryley gave a little hiccupped cry and Jackson ran his hands over his face.
“Luca has a safe house. Give me a minute and I’ll ring him. See if he can put her up there for a while.” Jackson reached into his pocket for his phone, but before he made that call, I needed him to know the score.
“Not just her. I’m going too.”
He frowned then nodded in agreement. He understood the situation without me spelling it out. I couldn’t take Wednesday to a strange house and leave her there. What kind of man would that make me? I had a duty of care.
“Fine.” He walked towards the kitchen so he could make the call in privacy. “You might want to ditch your car and your phone too. The Contis will have every one of their men out looking for you. Best not to give them a head start. I’ll see if we can sort a burner phone and get one of Luca’s men to take you and lose your car at the same time.”
“I’ll put together a suitcase for you both,” Ryley chipped in. “Some of our clothes and other bits and pieces you might need. My things might be a bit big, but they’ll be warm and clean.” Ryley walked towards the bedroom, but stopped as she came to the side of the couch. Then she bent down to look into Wednesday’s face. “I know you don’t like to talk. Cill told me a little bit about you. I just wanted to say that you can trust him, and us too. If you ever need a girl to talk to, I’ll always be there for you. Whatever it is. I don’t know what you’ve been through, but I know a bit about how cruel some men can be. That’s not something you’ll ever have to worry about with Cill though.” She looked up at me as she spoke. “You hit the jackpot with that one.” Ryley pushed herself up to stand and stroked her flat tummy fondly and smiled.
“Thanks, blondie. You know I love you, right?”
“I love you too, Cill,” she said, turning as she walked towards the stairs, blowing me a kiss over her shoulder.
Luca Marquez didn’tlike me, but he was a sucker for helping people, especially someone in Wednesday’s situation. So he stepped up to the plate and then some, offering us his safe house on the coast for as long as we wanted it. He also sent his men to deal with my car and gave us a Range Rover to get us the hell out of there. The SatNav was already programmed in with where we needed to go and all the security codes and keys were passed to us. I knew I sounded like a whiny teenager, but I couldn’t help moaning when Luca’s man, Leo, jumped into my car to take it away.
“Watch the paintwork, and don’t rev the engine, you fucker. She’s special.”
“Don’t worry, mate. We’ll have her back to you in one piece. That’s if you manage to get out of this in one piece yourself.” Leo slammed the door as he laughed, and I would’ve kicked out at him if it wasn’t for the fact that he was sitting in my car. What sort of idiot kicks his own car?
I could see Wednesday getting twitchy standing to the side of me, and I didn’t fancy doing a lap around the block to chase her ass down, so I headed for Luca’s car and opened the door for her.
“Hop in, princess. Let’s get this show on the road.”
She scowled at my term of endearment and flared her nostrils as she climbed in. I found myself wondering what it would take to get her to talk to me. How long before she opened up? I was a damned persistent guy, after all. I made a bet with myself that I’d have her answering me back within the next few days. No one could hold their tongue that long, surely. Not when I was hell bent on getting her to speak.
Our situation was pretty dire.We had two angels of darkness on our tail, and she was carrying a whole lifetime of fucked up shit in her head. We were on the run and running out of hope. So, I figured some light-hearted relief and bonding time was needed. There wasn’t much else to do on the drive to the coast.
Maybe I could make her crack sooner than I thought. Maybe I could find out why she’d been taken in the first place. And maybe, just maybe, I could bring some light to the darkness that was creeping over her, over both of us, every second that we stayed in this godforsaken city.
‘I had to save her.’
‘It wasn’t right.’
Those words swam around in my head as I stood to the side of the men butting horns over their cars and revving engines. So many people were being dragged into this sad and sorry mess.
My mess.
