Page 72 of Waging War
“It’s okay, really. I actually came here hoping to speak with Jack. A lot has happened in the last couple of months, and there are some things I need to discuss with him.”
Her smile is so bright it squeezes my heart. “Let me go grab the others. Stay here.”
I make quick work of stuffing my knife back into my bootstrap. No sense in alarming Jack that I nearly stabbed his baby momma.
Moments later, footfalls sound outside the locker room.
“You crazy bitch!” I hear Juliana before I see her, and I bite back a smile as she peels around the doorframe. “Where the hell have you been?”
Just like Cassidy, she rushes me. Her arms wrap around me tightly as she rocks us so hard my heels come up off the ground. That familiar scent of her fills my lungs. That ocean-and-suntan-lotion smell takes me back to the very early stages of our friendship, and I take a deep breath, cramming my face into her hair as I swallow a swell of emotion.
The last time I saw my friend, she was being carted off on Derrick’s shoulder. Accessing the memory, I can still hear her screams melded with mine that night as we’d shared the deep, unforgiveable pain of betrayal.
When we separate, Jack, Micah, and Derrick fall in line behind her.
Micah tosses me a playful smile, while Derrick saunters up beside Jules.
She leans into him, grabbing the wrist he drapes over her shoulder.
“Where ya been hidin’, crazy?” he asks.
“Jackie’s been hiding me.” I pause as each of their eyes take on the same murderous glare. “Don’t worry, I got upgraded from a mansion basement to a shitty studio apartment.”
It’s meant to lighten the mood, but not a single one of them cracks a smile.
Jack kisses Cassidy’s temple, and for the first time, their open affection makes me uncomfortable. Just yesterday, Ben had me bent over my bike, reduced to a writhing mess, and now I’m left with resentment for company.
I don’t want to admit that I miss those touches as badly as I do.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say that we’re happy you’re safe, Hazel.” Jack’s eyes soften before giving his condolences. “I’m sorry about Kenneth.”
“Well… that’s sort of why I’m here.”
Jules tilts her head. “What do you mean?”
“He’s alive.”
Stark silence seeps into the room
“How?” Jack asks. “We saw Jackie make the shot. Hell, Sash even said when she left him at the hospital that she knew he wasn’t going to make it.”
Needing to shake some nervous energy, I begin to pace. “I’m told that he missed on purpose.” I then turn to Jules. “And as hard as it is to believe, it looks like he’s still on our side.”
Micah shakes his head. “No fucking way.”
“According to Ben, it’s true. Jackie relocated him to another hospital without telling Bruce. Dad told me that himself.”
Jack cocks a curious look my way. “Ben?”
Wringing my hands, I pace as I spend a few minutes catching them all up to speed. Between Ben keeping watch over me for Jackie, the mansion being ransacked, and Ben’s shady exit yesterday, Juliana throws up a hand. “Wait, so are you here looking for Ben?”
“Not exactly. I’m here because I need help breaking into Bruce’s new compound, and we need some extra muscle.”
Jules curses. “Puta,you really are half-crazy.”
I smirk. “Probably. But it beats waiting for Ben or Jackie to finally make a move. The Wolves can take them, but unfortunately, we can’t do it without a little extra help.”
Jack crosses ink-stained arms over his broad chest. “I haven’t heard from Ben in weeks, if not longer. His calls are brief and sporadic. I never know where he is, and I doubt he’d even tell me if I asked.”
