Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“You don’t know what I can do, motherfucker,” he threatened. “And I can guaran-damn-tee you, you just bought trouble. Now fuck off.” When neither twin moved, he roared, “Now!”
Allan bolted.
Aaron had to save face, so he glared at Jagger a beat before he turned and jogged in the direction his brother took.
Jag watched him go, caught Dutch’s eye, saw his brother’s jaw was tight, knew he was pissed (and that would be very pissed), but he wasn’t half as pissed as Jagger.
Jag then looked down at Mal.
“You okay?”
“Good, yeah, okay,” Mal muttered.
“Bud, that piece of shit kicked you.”
“I’m alright.”
“You wanna ride to the shop with me on my bike?”
Mal shook his head and he did it quick, glancing around under his brow at the kids who were hanging for the show.
Jagger felt that. At Mal’s age, he probably wouldn’t climb on the back of some guy’s bike either. And he not only grew up with bikers, he knew one day he’d be one.
It was then Jagger looked around, and he saw Martin, Colby and Dex, three of Archie’s kids standing close.
What he wanted to do was ask why the fuck Mal was coming out of that school by himself when the Harris twins might think twice if he had a crew with him.
But they still had an audience, what with two bikers rolling up like that, their bikes still on the sidewalk.
So he’d get into that later.
“Walk your bud to the store, yeah?” he asked them. “Make sure he’s good. Can you do that for me?”
“Sure!” Martin said readily and with some exuberance.
Right.
Maybe it wasn’t that he was Archie’s and they thought Archie was cool.
Maybe they just thought Jag was cool.
Colby and Dex only nodded, though Colby came forward, tagged the arm of Mal’s hoodie and said, “C’mon, Mal. Let’s get to S.I.L.”
They started to stroll off, but Mal stopped, looked back and up, mumbled a “Thanks” Jagger almost couldn’t hear, then they moved away.
Jagger watched them go and felt Dutch come up to his side.
“Okay, man, that’s an issue. There’s bullying and then there’s shoving a kid to the ground and kicking him.”
“The mom has to know,” Jag said, not taking his eyes from the retreating boys.
“The mom has to know,” Dutch agreed.
Jag was not liking this.
He explained why to Dutch. “I’ll never get to him if I rat to his mom.”
“Maybe not,” Dutch replied.
Jagger turned to him.
“Okay, probably not,” Dutch allowed.
“They can do him damage, and it’s smart not to hit him in the face, Dutch.”
Dutch’s jaw got tight again.
“You don’t just know that kind of shit. You learn that kind of shit. They’re fuckin’ twelve,” Jagger carried on.
“This is not about them, Jag. It’s about your kid. Mal. You gotta tell Archie. His mom has to know. The school has to know. But first, you need to call Archie. Someone has to look him over. At the very least, he’s got scrapes from takin’ that fall. The kid was wearing sneaks, not steel-toed boots, but a kick can break bones no matter what you got on your foot. He needs to be checked out.”
“By a doc or his mom, it isn’t cool Archie does it.”
“Exactly.”
“Fuck,” Jag muttered.
“This sucks, but it’s better than where you were half an hour ago, not knowing what was up with him. He might not like how you handle it, Jagger. But the bottom line is, you’ve found out it’s something that needs to get handled, and now it’ll be handled.”
Jag nodded.
Then he got out his phone.
Before he made the call, he asked his brother, “You wanna check out Archie’s shop?”
Dutch didn’t reply verbally.
But with the way he smiled, he didn’t have to.
They moved to their bikes with Jagger calling Archie.
She didn’t pick up, which didn’t bother him. She wasn’t prone to lounging on her couch all day waiting for a call from Jagger. And on his bike, he’d probably be to the shop faster than Mal.
They backed their bikes off the sidewalk and rode side by side to the store, parking in the rear.
Since Jagger was showing more often to see to Mal, Archie’d had a key cut for him. This meant, instead of having to walk around the building, they went to the back door.
And once they were in it, Jagger had his answer as to why Archie didn’t pick up his call.
Jag hadn’t seen Archie’s brother since Elijah was sixteen.
But there was no mistaking the tall, good-looking man who was right then openly pissed as all fuck and fully up in his woman’s shit.
Like…
Physically.
He had six inches on her but there was less than an inch between their faces, and Jagger couldn’t hear what he was saying, but there wasn’t a centimeter of his body that did not share he was all kinds of furious.
Instinct guided Jagger’s next moves, which were to get behind Archie, curl his fingers in the back of her jeans, pull her away from her brother and step between them.