JACK: Las Vegas Bad Boys (15 page)

“I know he’s amazing, but I can’t talk to anyone right now. I’m exhausted. Can we all go to Jack’s and just ... be? And then talk to the lawyer tomorrow? Or, Jack, maybe you can explain all of it to them? I just can’t anymore.”

“Of course,” Jack says. “Of course, baby.”

He puts his hand on my back, steadying me, and takes me home.

I
don’t want
to leave her side, but I need to make a fucking game plan about how to ensure my woman’s safety.

Once I settle her in the living room of my loft with the girls and Teri, I peel away into my office with Ace, Landon, McQueen, my dad, and Jeb.

“How you holding up?” I ask McQueen.

He looks at his dad; both men shake their heads. “This is fucking insane, is what it is.”

“You haven’t even heard the half of it,” I tell them.

“What do you mean?” Jeb asks.

“The family she grew up with was the Anarchy Motorcycle Gang.”

“What the hell?” McQueen asks, his eyes aflame. “Fuck, that’s crazy.”

“A motorcycle gang kidnapped a little girl?” my dad asks, incredulous.

“Yeah. The woman who kidnapped her was a little ... out of it. Mentally. From what Tess has told me, the woman was really protective, really wanted a child. She must have been obsessed with getting one at any cost.”

“Fuck,” Ace says shaking his head. “I mean, it makes sense—any means necessary. No way would a couple in a biker gang be allowed to adopt.”

“I suppose.” Landon shakes his head. “But damn, poor girl.”

“
Poor girl
is right,” my dad says. Clapping Jeb on the back, he adds, “I’m so sorry.”

Ace is less inclined to get sentimental. “I’m gonna fuckin’ kill those bastards.”

“I’m right behind you.” McQueen straightens his shoulders. “Who the hell do they think they are?”

“They are the most elite bikers in the country,” Landon tells them, showing us his phone screen. He’s pulled up a motherfucking Wikipedia page on the Brotherhood. “This is high-profile shit. Were her kidnappers just random members?”

“No, he was the president,” I tell them, running my hands through my hair. “That’s why she was so freaked out about her face getting press time. She was scared they’d find her.”

“And have they?” Ace asks, getting to the heart of it, fast.

“They know where she lives, know who she is. They’ve scouted out my place, her place. That’s why we went to my parents—to get off the grid. But this morning, on my way to the hospital, I saw them again.”

“We need to call the police,” Jeb says. “Get you a lawyer, the whole nine yards. If I see them, I don’t trust myself, boys.” Jeb’s eyes are as fiery as his son’s, and he’s ready to fight.

I barely know the guy, but it fucking makes me proud that Tess has a father in her corner who’s willing to fight for her too. She deserves that. My woman deserves everything.

“We can’t call the cops.” My shoulders tense, and I draw in a breath. “Tess has reasons.”

The men pause, looking at me. “Does she want to return to those people?” McQueen asks tentatively.

“Oh, hell no,” I tell them. “But her reasons are ... substantial.”

“Let’s go talk to her.” McQueen shrugs. “Because I’m fucking ready to get revenge.”

I draw in a deep breath, knowing that a gang of bikers is looking for revenge, too.

* * *

W
alking back
into the living room, I ask Tess if I could have a moment alone.

Aware of how open my loft is, how there is actually very little privacy, and how right now I would fucking kill for some, I pull her into my bedroom.

I take her by the hand into my large bathroom and lock the door.

“Don’t worry, baby—I’m not gonna seduce you while all these people are here.”

“God, Jack, I wish you would.” Tess sits on the counter and leans her head back against the wall. “This day is amazing, but also really draining. I kind of just want to go to bed.”

She closes her eyes and looks so weary. The moment she opens them again, I see how much is boiling under her surface.

“All your stuff is still at your apartment, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” she says, her clear eyes welling with tears. “I had that realization about Teri and Jeb, and fainted. I left everything when I got in the ambulance, and even though I have this family—and you—I just feel so untethered. Like I’m floating. And I don’t know where I’ll land.”

I swallow, stepping toward her. “Should I have waited to propose? I didn’t really consider the implications of your emotional state. I was only thinking of myself, of what I wanted.”

She grabs my wrists, pulls me close to her. I wrap my arms around her as she wraps her legs around me.

“Jack, I want to be your wife. I want to tethered
to you, with you
. I just need this mess to be over.”

“It won’t just disappear, Tess. The men out in the living room are ready to fucking blow up this town to get revenge. And I understand. They want to know why they can’t go to the cops. And the cops are going to be here at some point, doing interviews and reopening this case. A child kidnapping is a big deal.”

“Well, the woman who kidnapped me is dead. My dad—or the man I thought was my dad—may not even have been there. We have no idea. Maybe my mom kidnapped me alone, before she ever met my father. And if it was all pinned on my mother—well, she’s dead. She’s had her payback. The revenge has been served.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple. The Brotherhood is back, Tess. They’re still here in Vegas.”

Her face crumples, and she sobs into my chest. “No, Jack. I just want it to disappear. I don’t want to keep running.”

My chest tightens. I have my fucking answer about the music contract. I can’t be the person Tess needs me to be—I can’t offer her the life she wants—and sign a hundred million dollar contract. I can’t be on tour for the next ten years and be her protector.

I can’t be everything. And fuck, music may be my life, but it isn’t Tess. And life without her isn’t worth living.

I kiss her forehead. “Girl, it’s gonna be okay.”

“How do you know? Everyone out there probably wants to know why I’m so against involving the cops.”

“So what? We don’t owe them anything. It’s your story, baby. Your life. Let’s make this as simple as possible.”

“How can this be simple?”

“We tell them you’re exhausted. That you love them, but need to sleep. And that tomorrow we will talk with the police—which we will.”

“No, I can’t,” she says, crying in my chest.

“Shhh, we can and we will. We tell them about the woman who raised you, give them her name, that you grew up on the road, and let them know that, as far as you last knew, she died.”

“That’s all true,” she says, looking up at me, “but what if it opens the whole thing up?”

“Then we deal with it one step at a time.”

“You aren’t going to do something stupid?” she asks. “Like go chase them and start some showdown?”

“Do you want me to do that?” I ask. “Because, look, Tess—I’m not that guy. Some guy who wants to show his strength by the way he fights. I’m not a mafia boss.”

“I know you’re not,” Tess tells me. “I would never want a man like that, Jack. I don’t think fighting is what makes a man strong and powerful. Or even how much money he has or how important his career is. None of that matters to me.”

“Good. Because I don’t want to fucking own a club or a hotel or any part of the fucking strip.”

“What do you want?”

“I want to make choices that keep you safe, Tess, keep you whole. I just found you; there’s no way in hell I’m gonna lose you.”

* * *

Jack and I walk back into the living room to let everyone know that I’m exhausted and need to be alone for a while.

Before I can explain what I need, Emmy jumps in. “Oh, sweetie, we had no idea about your past. You never told us. We’re so sorry.” She pulls me into a hug and I shoot Jack a look of confusion. What did he say?

“I can’t believe you were raised by a biker gang. Tess, that is bananas,” Claire adds. “I just can’t imagine losing Sophia that way.” She starts crying and Landon pulls her into a hug.

“It’s fine,” I deflect. “I left two years ago and have been totally okay on my own.”

“Oh, love,” Teri says, wiping tears from her eyes. “It’s not okay at all. We are all so heartbroken for you. Unreal is what it is, and the fact that somehow you and your brother found one another ... after all this time ... it’s a miracle.”

“And we’re gonna kill those motherfuckers,” McQueen says. Then, looking at his mom—our mom—he grimaces. “Sorry, excuse the language.”

“No one is killing anyone tonight,” Jack says, standing behind me. “Tess is exhausted, and I’m sure everyone else is, too. There’s a lot to figure out, and we need to decide how we want to proceed with the charges and the police.”

“Call Denzel,” Ace says.

“Of course,” Jack says. “And can someone get the things Tess was packing at her studio and bring them over here tomorrow? We should get a storage unit for her other things. Can one of you guys move on that?”

“We can,” McQueen says. “JoJo’s brothers will help me in the morning. My dad, too.”

“And I’ll help, of course,” Jack’s dad adds.

I’m overwhelmed at all the people willing to help me, wanting to be here for me. I’ve never had anyone in my corner.

JoJo looks around the loft. “So are you moving in here, for now?”

“Um.” I swallow, looking over my shoulder at Jack.

“We’re actually moving in together, permanently,” Jack says, straightening his shoulders with pride. “We’re getting married.”

“What the actual fuck?” Ace asks.

“Baby!” Emmy says, smacking her husband’s chest at his outburst.

I can’t help but smile. I love that Jack just called it out. Said it like it is. He isn’t ashamed of me, or wanting to hide me. He wants everyone to know I am his.

“Jack, this is so sudden,” his mom says. “I mean, I’m thrilled; I just had no ideal.”

“I can’t live without her.” Jack says it so plainly that I know I’m just beaming. All the stress seems to disappear; he gives me strength just by being beside me.

It makes me want to be beneath him, too.

“Son,” his dad says. “I’m so happy for you. And Tess, I couldn’t be happier to have you in my family.”

He gives me a warm hug, and it fills me with such pride.

“Jeb and Teri,” Jack says. “I’d have asked for your blessing, but I proposed before I knew you were officially related. And damn, even if I knew, I don’t think it would have mattered. I needed to ask her when I did. There was no way in hell I could have waited another moment to hear her say yes.”

“Man, look at all these pussies,” McQueen says, his mouth as filthy as ever. Teri looks at her son with horror and shock, and I have a few ideas about what she actually thinks of her son’s career as a male dancer.

She must hate it—she must despise it—but there’s no denying the fact that she’s still here, with him.
That
is family. She doesn’t have to agree with everything her child chooses in order to love him.

“You were the last man standing,” Landon says, clapping him on the back. “But look how far you’ve come.”

Everyone is giving hugs and congratulations, gathered in so close to us that it feels like the perfect engagement party.

It also feels surreal, to gain two new families in the space of a day.

I need one of my self-help books to walk me through how to process all of this, because my head is spinning and my heart is exploding.

Emmy, Claire, and JoJo walk over to me, grinning. “Shit, Ashley is gonna flip out,” Emmy says, her eyes wide as she pulls me into a hug.

“Let’s keep this on the down-low until the press eases up. The last thing I want right now is another story about us,” I tell everyone. “Okay?”

“Absolutely,” Claire promises. “I’m just so happy for you. I had no idea two weeks at his parents’ house would equal a proposal.”

“Isn’t that exactly what happened to you?” I ask.

“Oh, shit,” Claire says, laughing, remembering our trip to England. “That is so true.”

“Do you think you’ll get married soon?” JoJo asks.

“I don’t know; I honestly haven’t even thought about it. I mean today has been a little monumental in terms of my life.”

“Holy shit, right?” Emmy shakes her head. “Honey, we had no clue your life was so....”

“Complicated?” I try.

“Yeah,” Claire says. “You’re always so happy and supportive. I don’t know how you aren’t bitter or broken.”