Page 90 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
“Is that a threat?”
“No.It is what I call asadinevitability.You fuck around withmine, you’ll find out.”
Shock reclined against the sofa as if he had no worries at all.In fact, his color had retreated to the normal alcoholic flush he was known for.He spread his arms out, daring me to stab him in the gut, or heart, with how openly he exposed his vital organs.Hell, he even spread his legs further.One good cap in the groin and he’d never fuck around again.Literally.
I glanced up.His sergeant watched me carefully.One wrong twitch, and he’d be justified in taking me out.Behind me, I could sense Bear gearing up for action.
Shock grinned.“Jackson, you’re a lot of talk.”
He had to have heardsomeof my reputation.Anyone who paid attention to rumors knew I was the kind of president who got dirty.I didn’t slide pawns around the table to get shit done.I did it myself.Bear’s breath on my neck reminded me of the caveat—if my men let me.But sometimes, I did shit whether they let me do it or not.
This time, instead of just a glance, I addressed his bodyguard directly.“Are you ready?”
Bandit’s eyes narrowed, but he remained mute.He knew his role.Damn it.
“Fuck all this.”Shock slapped his hands on his knees.“Bring me my wife.You do that, I’ll leave, and you can entertain Nonno all by yourself.”
“She ain’t your wife.”
My declaration was answered by Shock’s snap of his fingers.One of his men brought a binder and handed it off.Shock opened it and pulled out a fancy certificate.
“My marriage certificate.”He made to hand it to me, but I wasn’t going to touch the cursed thing.If I did, I’d rip it up.
Wolf took it and scanned the page.He grunted once and tossed it back at Shock.It fluttered to the floor.No one bothered to pick it up.
Shock filled the silence.“Bring me my wife, and I’ll take my hat out of the running for regional president.”
My balls tightened.My dream job taunted me.I could run not only a chapter, but twenty of them.With that kind of power, Shock and everyone else wouldhaveto answer to me.I knew the position was dangling open for the last two years.Ever since Nonno took over, the Eastern leadership slot was empty.No one bitched about it because Nonno managed his region and the national region just fine for Big G’s sake.What had changed?I’d missed something that Shock hadn’t.I stuck a pin in that to fire a verbal round at my nemesis.
“You say thatnow.What happens when Nonno gets here?I think I’ll wait for an official declaration before I make any deals.”
He must have expected that reaction.“Have it your way.I’m tacking on another demand because of that.”Shock pulled a stapled stack of papers from his binder.“This is a court order to return my daughter.”
He knew about Zoe.Ice coated my insides, and the only thoughts in my head were how fast I could kill him.And whether I’d have enough time to take out Bandit before all hell broke loose and the space turned into a big pile of lead and blood.In that space of plotting murder, I projected calm.
This time, I took the paperwork.While I don’t speak legalese, it looked legit.I snapped my fingers toward Hickey to have a gander at the bullshit typed in neat lines.There were plenty of signatories on the bottom with one hell of an official seal.
Once my hands were free, the urge to strangle Shock made them twitch.His bodyguard opened his stance, preparing for a fight.I could take down Shock despite his weight advantage.But not his Rottweiler shadow.The odds were all wrong.
Which meant I had to resort to outwitting the son of a bitch who held my balls in a vise.
“Hickey?”
“Legit, as far as I can tell.”
Fine.Time to put money on the table and lay down a card.“Zoe’s mine.”
Shock stood up.He scooped the marriage certificate up from the floor as he did.“Not according to law.I’m legitimately her father because of this.”He shook it in my face.
I laid down another ace in my hand.“You’d have to have been living with Kate and having relations with her for one year prior toandsix months after the birth to have a claim.”When Zoe was born, I looked into a lot of law books to make sure shit like this wouldn’t happen.
“Page five.Affidavits.”
I didn’t have to see Hickey fact-checking because I knew they were all lies.“Perjury is a crime.Falsification of witness testimony is another one.”
“So is kidnapping.And I’ll make sure Kate’s charged with it.”
All the more reason to keep her away from her dick-husband.“It ain’t kidnapping if the child ain’t born yet.”This was going to get ugly as fuck.
