Page 81 of Kiss Marry Kill
“What’s up your ass? Why are you having dinner with me and not the hot little piece of ass that you’ve been holed up with for the last three weeks?”
“Never mind. I’ll eat alone.”
Joey patted Jax’s shoulder roughly. “Don’t be a little bitch. Come on, we can go to the Burger Bee around the corner.” They walked out and headed to the nearby restaurant.
“Seriously, though. Why are you here with me and not with Megan? How’s she doing, by the way?”
“She’s fine. Ryan’s in jail,” he said, as if that was all the explanation needed.
“So . . .”
“So . . . threat’s over.”
“And she was just a job?”
“Mind your own fucking business,” Jax said as the server walked up and took their order.
“You think Brian can handle it? Shoulda gone myself.” Jax referenced the mission Joey was prepping for with Annie. It was a charged situation in a potentially dangerous location, and he hadn’t planned any of it, too busy playing house with Megan in the last weeks.
“They got it, Jackson. You know they do. I wouldn’t send some inexperienced rookies over there if I wasn’t sure.”
“And the intel? You think it’s good?” Jax asked, anxiously. “Last mission was FUBAR.”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t on us. That was bad intel from the Feds. This was planned carefully and it’s the best intel we could’ve gotten. We’re being paid more than our normal rate. The mission will be easy, so long as the mark is amenable to being escorted back to the States.”
“They’re never amenable.”
Joey chuckled. “Of course they’re not. He’s facing two life sentences for drug trafficking and accomplice to murder and the dude’s never even left his apartment until now when he ran the fuck away like the pussy he is to Colombia.”
“Just ’cause he’s sitting behind a computer all day helping these drug lords behind the screen doesn’t mean he’s not dangerous. Don’t underestimate him.” Joey always had a soft spot for the computer dudes, mostly because he was a computer dude too.
“I haven’t. I’m dangerous and I sit behind a computer all day.”
“That’s questionable,” Jax teased. “But fine.”
Joey nodded. He’d been going twenty-four hours without sleep, much like Jax. “Jesus, this bounty-hunter business is fucking tiring.”
Jax chuckled and took a bite of his burger. “Try to get some rest. Tomorrow will be a long day.”
“How about the tour? Everything’s already in place.”
“She told me not to go, but let’s stick with the original plan other than that. I’ll stay behind. I’ll cover the costs.”
“Jackson . . .”
“I’m not talking about it. Her security is shit. Even if Ryan’s in jail, she needs better security.”
“If this is about you feeling guilty about the way things went down with Ryan, or if you’re comparing this to the shit that went down in Iraq, I swear to God, brother, I’ll kick your ass myself.”
The man knew him too damn well. Jax rolled his eyes and decided to ignore Joey as he finished his burger.
* * *
Two nights.
Two nights without Jax. He had copied her on emails to the label regarding security, so he was obviously still going on tour, regardless of what she’d told him when he’d walked out. In a week she’d be on a plane heading to the first stop, Atlanta. She had a million things to do, and she wasn’t going to sit around and wait for Jax to get his head out of his ass, no matter how hurt she was.
She missed him something fierce, but she also had work to do now that the threat was over. The bad guy had been caught and was behind bars, and she should feel relieved she was still alive.
