Page 165 of Timeless

“Give me a few days.”

I looked up at him. “What do you mean by that?” He wasn’t going to get involved, was he? I dropped the spread sheets. “Troy, I don’t want you getting in trouble. My problems aren’t your problems.” I wanted to make that very clear.

“Your problems became my problems the second I realized I liked you.” He smiled at me, causing my heart to beat faster. “Night.”

I didn’t know what to say, his smile had caused my body to basically melt but it was also what he said. He liked me? As in a friend way? Yeah, it would have to be in a friend way, right?

He had nearly left, when he turned around. My eyes were still on him.

His smile twisted into a smirk. “Friday. Everyone is going to be out for dinner. Make an excuse up and don’t go.” His smirk got bigger. “And make it one of those rare days, where you don’t wear a bra.” With that said, he left.

I thought my heart was beating fast before. I just stared at the empty doorway. With him saying that, I knew he didn’t mean he liked me as a friend.

Chapter 20

Jax

In prison all you have is time. You don’t fully understand what a whole day is like until you’re in prison. That’s when you know the full length of twenty-four hours, and how fucking long a day is.

Policies, rules, cultures, clubs and gangs determine if you live or die in prison. I was a high-profile criminal, my position in the underworld was known and I was deemed a high-risk danger. My link to the club meant I had ties to the criminal gang. So, I was locked up with the murderers, serial killers, rapists, the worst of the worst. Seemed fitting because I felt ten times worse as a person as soon as the gates closed behind me.

My eyes dropped to the cigarette in my hand. Smoking had become my main outlet and right now I needed a release. I lit up the cigarette and I don’t know how many times I had told myself I’d slow back on the smoking. Still here I was in the middle of the night, smoking. My eyes were glued on Amber as she slept. I inhaled on my cigarette.

My mind drifted back to the day I had to watch Amber leave, and that guard stopping me from going after her. Being held back from her snapped the better half of me.

The piece of me that wasn’t completely sold to the devil and the lifestyle, I lost the moment I called Troy and he confirmed my worst fear. Amber was gone.

In isolation, my mistakes had been clearer to me. Amber was equal to me. I might be king but she was my queen. And I was going to make sure the fear in men’s eyes when they looked at me, was going to be in their eyes when they looked at my queen.

Amber didn’t know it just yet but she was going back to her roots. She wasn’t going to be a corporate mother anymore. She was going to step up into the position I needed her to be at, and that was beside me, not under me or worse away from me, which was where she was right now.

I reached for my phone. I knew I didn’t answer to him. Knew I could do whatever the fuck I wanted. But still, like club members had to show me respect- I had to show him respect. So, I dialed the devil himself.

I knew he would be awake. So, I wasn’t surprised when he barked a what into the phone after the third ring.

“Rev.” I took the cigarette from my mouth.

He was silent for a minute. “Jackson. Here I was thinking you’ve lost your father’s number.”

I fucking wish. I had never called him Dad. I made the mistake of calling him that when I was young, and he was quick to correct me. Rev, that was his name. It wasn’t Dad. I was never letting Jack call me King.

“Both of us know you aren’t a father,” I corrected his mistake. “So, still breathing, old man?” Seemed like I had to make some small talk with him.

He scoffed. “We both know you wouldn’t care if I wasn’t.” His voice had irony in it, using my words back at me. But he wasn’t mistaken.

“Not going to disagree with you.” I was honest. The day he stopped breathing wouldn’t affect me but it would send the underworld into mourning.

“Been keeping a low profile since you got out. Struggling to get an address on where you were.”

Of course, he was tracking me. “Yeah, well, I’m about to go back on the grid.” I butted my cigarette out. Looked like we were getting to the point of my phone call quicker than I expected.

“Three months, Jackson.”

I frowned. It hadn’t been three months since I last spoke to him. I never got that lucky.

“Three months of isolation changes a man,” he added.

So, he knew about the isolation. I knew he had eyes on me when I was in prison. Well I hadn’t let his empire slip down the ranks of being notorious, dangerous, and feared.

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