Page 256 of Back in the Saddle

Nope.

It felt great.

He let me go and said quietly, “I really wanna take the job, and not just because starting salary is three times as much as I make now.”

Whoa!

I mean, I knew those guys made bank, but…wow.

“Okay,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say.

“Jess, I’ll be working with your boyfriend.”

Ah.

I saw his concern.

“Well, I mean, that’s the loose description of what he is to me,” I shared. “He’s more like the love of my life. But since we’re not even a month old, I’m not making that official at least for another week.”

Jeff grinned. “Just so you know, I’ll be working in their control room. I might go out in the field occasionally, but they need help there the most. Since they know about my illness, I don’t think I could push that, and I really want to work with those men.”

I nodded.

I got that.

“Is Javi going to work with them?” I asked.

Jeff cocked his head to the side. “Blew my mind, but after they left us to discuss, we talked for about five minutes, and he was all in. They’re taking on Cody too, though they told him he has to lay off the weed, and Cody won’t have a problem doing that. He’s good with computer shit, and other tech. He’ll be doing night shifts in the control room. I’ll be working days.”

So NI&S was making moves to completely fold the Shadow Soldiers into their operation, tapping a direct vein to the street and scoring themselves two really good men in the process (probably three, I didn’t know Cody that well, though he seemed solid).

I took my brother’s wrist and pushed up the sleeve of his thermal.

Doing this, the tattoo of a shadowed horse that looked like it was running directly toward you was bared.

I covered the tat with my hand and looked at my baby bro. “You boys going to be good with working with another crew?”

Jeff let out a melancholy sigh.

“Our crew included Joaq and Jamal,” he told me. “It’s not the same. We’d already talked about it. We didn’t want to stop, but we didn’t know how to go on. This is a way we can go on. We’re together, but we’re different. We’ve moved on. You know?”

So, Eric had been right.

I nodded to tell him I got it.

“Is Javi still—?” I started.

“Yeah.” Jeff confirmed before I even had to say it. “Joaq was a good guy. The best. But he could do stupid shit. Javi was trying to help him work on his control. His temper could spark, and shit would get out of hand. This makes Javi see it as his failure. He knew Clown dealt to Joaq’s sister. He thinks that’s his mistake. He thinks he shouldn’t have told them, because Joaq hadn’t locked onto his control.”

“He’s not responsible for another man’s actions,” I noted.

“I told him that. Cody told him that. Jamal’s momma told him that. He isn’t letting it sink in.”

“You should probably share that with Eric,” I advised.

“I don’t think any of those men are missing it,” Jeff informed me. “But yeah. I’ll share. There’s time before we’re totally active. They got a hella training schedule that might last two years after Mace does an assessment of us.” A smile spread on his face. “But it sounds pretty cool, and I think we’re gonna surprise them.”

I loved this. I loved it for him. I loved it for the NI&S team. And I loved it for Javi.

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