Page 58 of Jagger
“Missed you, Angel,” he mumbled as he buried his face in my shoulder. I felt his lips at my neck as he nibbled his way up to my jaw. His hands slipped down to my butt, grasping me, and molding me to the front of his body. I breathed in deeply, and the familiar smell of leather and sandalwood helped to soothe my still-aching heart.
He lifted his head and brought one hand up to cup my jaw as he looked at me closely.
“How was your day?” he asked, the concern evident on his face.
I sighed before answering. “It was tough, honestly. I wanted to cry every time I glanced at her empty desk. Good news though, her aunt was granted temporary custody, so she doesn’t have to stay in foster care.”
Cole dropped a soft kiss on my lips then released me and took a step back. “That’s good,” he said, picking up my purse from the entry table and holding it out for me to slip it over my shoulder. He carefully lifted my braid out from under the strap and gave it a little tug.
“Did you have a good day?” I asked him, and he nodded.
“It was fine. I was worried about you though. Wanted to call you a half-dozen times to make sure you were OK.”
I smiled at that, appreciating his concern.
“I did get a bit of good news. My test results came back from the clinic. I’m all clear,” he told me with a playful leer.
“Good to know,” I said with a matching grin. He brought his hand up and lifted my chin, then dropped a kiss on the tip of my nose.
“We’d better get out of here before we get distracted. You ready?” he asked, and my cell phone chose that moment to ring. I looked around and spotted it on the kitchen counter, and quickly answered it before it switched over to voicemail.
There was nothing but silence after my greeting, and I pulled the phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped, noticing then that the caller ID readUnknown Caller.I put the phone back up to my ear and greeted the caller again, more formally than my initial “hello” had been, ready to disconnect the call if it turned out to be a telemarketer.
“This is Molly Walsh, may I help you?”
“It’s a little late to help me now, bitch!” the voice on the other end snarled at me. I froze as the angry words registered, then shot a startled look at Cole. I pulled the phone away from my ear and quickly hit the button to switch over to the speakerphone, so he could hear the caller, too.
“ – all your fault, you fucking bitch. My wife is sitting in jail because of your goddamned nosy ass, and I’m gonna make sure you regret it, believe me,” the man said furiously, his voice slurred like he was drunk, or maybe even high.
“You’d better watch yourself, motherfucker, before you even think about threatening my woman again,” Cole snarled into the phone, reaching his arm around me to pull me closer to him. “I’ll put you in the ground if you come anywhere near her,” he threatened angrily as he glared down at the cell phone screen in my hand.
The phone beeped as the other man – presumably Anna’s stepfather – ended the call, and I gripped it tightly as I stared up at Cole in complete shock.
“It’s OK, Molly. I’m not letting anything happen to you. Anna’s safe, you’re safe, it’s gonna be fucking OK, Angel,” Cole whispered soothingly as he tightened his arms around me. I melted into his embrace, grateful beyond words that he was with me right now.
“You need to call your principal and that school cop to let them know about this guy’s threat,” Cole said firmly, and I appreciated his clear thinking because God knew I was feeling too frazzled to have any coherent thoughts right now. “We also need to figure out how the hell he got your cell number.”
“I included my cell number in the email I sent to Anna’s mom on Friday, in case she wanted to discuss the social skills group with me over the weekend,” I whispered, shaking my head in disbelief at what had just happened.
Chapter 16
Jagger/Cole
Her eyes were huge pools of blue in her pale face, and my rage increased as I realized she was shaking. I wanted to kill that bastard for scaring her. “I need this guy’s name, Angel,” I told her, trying and failing to keep the snarl out of my voice.
“Why?” she asked warily, as she pulled away slightly to look up at me.
“The club will look into him, and we’ll step in if the cops don’t get a handle on him to our satisfaction,” I said, rolling my eyes a little at the stubborn look on her face as she absorbed my words.
“The police will take care of it, Cole. There’s no reason for you guys to get involved.“
“There’s every fucking reason for us to get involved, Angel. Aside from the fact that he shouldn’t be allowed to breathe for beating a little kid, he threatened you. He threatened you, and that shit just won’t fly with me, or the club.” Molly flinched at the angry snarl in my voice, but it couldn’t be helped. She needed to understand that any threat to her was un-fucking-acceptable, end of story.
“I don’t want you – any of you – to get into trouble over this guy, honey. I appreciate your concern, but he’s not worth anyone going to jail over, believe me. Let’s just let the police do their job and take care of it.” She looked up at me with sincerity and concern shining on her face, and I had to stifle a sigh at her innocent outlook on life. She obviously had no real-world experience to know that the police often couldn’t do their job due to a lack of solid evidence - or the need to play by the rules - and that many of those same officers would love to be able to handle things the way the 5thCircle Guardians and other groups like us did. There was a place and time for law and order, and there was a place and time for vigilante justice. This was definitely the damned time for the second option.
“Don’t worry about that. Nobody is going to jail except that piece of shit, and if he gets a beat-down courtesy of someone else along the way, that’s even better,” I said with a smirk. “It wouldn’t hurt to at least have Bull check into him, maybe give the cops an idea where to find him.”
I could see her resolve starting to waver and decided to give her one last push. “Give me a name, Molly, if not for your sake, then for Anna. She’s safer if he’s off the streets,” I said firmly, and watched with satisfaction as she looked at me and then nodded in resignation.
