Page 23 of Jager's Prey
I hid in my room, only coming out when my mother called for me to help her set the table. I did so dutifully, trying to avoid the explosion I knew was coming. For dinner, I sat beside my mother, and ate silently.
For the first time in a long time, I ate everything she put on my plate.
Then my mother’s need to have conversation with her partner sent my father to a bad place and the world exploded.
When the smoke cleared, my father’s hand was fastened to the table for my mother stabbed a fork into it after he slapped her.
She’d plunged it down so hard, the fork’s teeth went through the hand and lodged itself into the wood of the table.
Grabbing a chicken drumstick, I took off for my bedroom, locked the door and hid in the deepest, darkest corner of my closet I could get to.
“You okay, Mack?” Cage tapped my thigh to get my attention.
I smiled. “I’m okay.”
Cage stared at me for a little bit longer then went back to the conversation he was having with Jager about Nigeria. She didn’t remember much about the country. Since she was brought to New Orleans, she hadn’t gone back. But she’d moved from New Orleans to New York then finally settled in Montana.
“What was it about Montana?” Cage asked. “I mean, New York always felt happy to me.”
“It is…sometimes.” She replied. “But it can get to be much.”
“If you could live anywhere, Mack.” Cage pulled me in. “Where would it be?”
I thought about it. “There’s this place in Jamaica, where bamboo trees are grew on both sides of the road. And they’re so tall that even though they’re across from each other, their leaves merge overhead. Running along that road, is a river with the clearest water you’ve ever seen.”
“That sounds nice.” Cage sighed.
The moment we had was warm—I didn’t want it to end but eventually Cage had fallen asleep on my bed with his head on my thigh.
“I don’t think he’s slept much before.” I told her.
Jager caressed his hair back and smiled. “I almost don’t want to take him home because we don’t know what comes after, where he’ll end up.”
“We’ll make sure he’s okay.” I promised her. “We won’t leave him unless we’re one hundred percent sure. Okay?”
“Thank you.” Jager rubbed her nose then the back of her neck. “Let me take the plates. And then we’ll get him into bed.”
“Don’t wake him.” I told her. “I can sleep on the sofa.”
“But your leg…”
I patted her shoulder. “Will be okay. Let him sleep.”
“Jager?”
“Mmm?”
“If you can’t sleep tonight.” I allowed my voice to fall for a breath. “You can come to me.”
“For?”
“Anything you want.” The words left my lips before I could stop them.
Jager stepped close, gripped my hips, and kissed me. At first, I didn’t move.
I wasn’t even sure I was breathing.
Then her breasts pressed into my chest, and it was like being sucked through a wormhole into the most beautiful of places. Slowly, I dragged my right palm up her side, across her shoulder so I could palm her throat.
