Page 23 of Jackson

I watched the muscles in his back move as he grabbed the pan and jiggled the pancakes out onto a plate, giving me a nice show on how strong he really was underneath all of that firefighting gear. Even without him being shirtless like that, I knew he was built. But seeing him without anything covering the starkcontrasts of his muscles had me wanting to reach out and touch them.

He was certainly strong enough to throw me, all one hundred and thirty pounds, over his shoulder like I was nothing.

“Syrup?” he asked, while opening the fridge.

“Sure, thank you.”

He hip-checked it shut before walking over to me with the plates, the bottle of thick syrup tucked under his arm.

The smell was divine as the plate was set down in front of me. He drizzled a nice helping of syrup over my pancakes before moving it over to his and doing the same. A set of silverware was already laid out nicely on a cloth napkin next to me.

“Thank you... for everything, Mr. Hall.” I spoke quietly, not at all surprised when Roxy nuzzled her face onto my thigh.

He chuckled. “Please, call me Jax.”

CHAPTER 9

Ayen

By the timeI made it back to my cabin, it was well after roll call and the beginning of the third day of our training.

Jackson, or ratherJax, had left soon after breakfast and walked me back to my cabin where one of my COs, Barlow, was waiting for me.

“You’ve got this cabin to yourself for the time being, Gonzalez.Don’tmake me regret that decision.”

I nodded to him before ducking inside to change into my uniform for the day.

I hated that Tyson had been sent back to SAC and I hadn’t. He’d only acted out of self-defense and yet, he had been punished just the same as the two who’d started the altercation.

He was the one who had been looking forward to this work program since signups were posted. He’d talkedmeinto comingalong and yet here I was, the one who got to stay while he was shipped back.

It didn’t seem fair. Not when Tyson was a good guy who only wanted to do the right thing at the end of the day. He had a hot temper but only when it was triggered. I’d never quite asked him what he’d been sentenced for, but from the stories he’d told me, it had something to do with drug peddling for one of the local cartels.

Petty shit that a kid his age, sixteen at the time of his sentencing, didn’t need to be caught up in, let alone serve a ridiculously long sentence for.

As sad as my sentencing had been, my five years was nothing in comparison to his eighteen. By the time he’d get back out onto the streets, he’d be well into his thirties. I had no doubt that he’d make something of himself, but waiting until that could happen had to be torture.

Thankfully, it was never too late to turn your life around with a drug charge on your record. People dealt with that kind of shit all the time.

Mine was a different story, but that was something future me would get to deal with. For now, I simply needed to keep my head down and continue surviving. Three more years and I would be up for parole.

By the time I got changed and out the door again, Barlow already had an impatient frown etched into his face.

Wordlessly, he led me back to the training grounds where there was a demonstration already going on. I sat on one of the stumps in the back, keeping to myself while I tried to concentrate on what was going on.

I hated that feeling of being alone. Without Tyson around to buffer my social awkwardness, I was going to be doing a lot of shit by myself for the next six weeks. And while in hindsight it wasn’t as bad as being thrown in the hole for misbehaving when I got back to the prison, I was also going to heavily miss the companionship.

I knew most of the others in this program but we weren’t friendly. Not like Tyson and I were.

Whatever. I was a grown ass adult. I needed to get my act together and stop being upset that I no longer had a friend to hang out with. This program was meant to look good on my record and hopefully, get the parole board to give me a lighter parole sentence once I got out.

I was already looking at a minimum of a year being monitored.

Hopefully, that would be it, though.

A shadow suddenly loomed over me, causing my entire body to tense. I waited, feeling the person behind me hovering closely and hoping they’d pass by soon. When nothing moved, I forced myself to look up.

Jackson was standing right by my stump with Roxy lying down at his feet, her head resting on top of one of his shoes. His arms were crossed over his large chest while he watched the demo ahead of us, a blank expression on his face.

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