Page 44 of Unleashed
The knock again, this time to a tune, three beats and a pause, that tells me it's Jett.
"Give me a minute!" I shout and sprint to the bathroom. Wipe away the evidence. Splash water on my face. Toss the towel in the hamper and walk back.
I open the door. Jett doesn't move. Just looks me up and down suspiciously.
"Did I interrupt something?" he asks, his eyebrow raised.
I open the door wider. "Shut the fuck up."
"Hello? Any pretty girls here?" he calls into my empty house.
Silence.
He chuckles and turns to me. "Ah. Just you and your hand girlfriend tonight?"
I roll my eyes.
"Did she do a good job?" He pauses. But then his face drops. "Did you wash your fuckin' hands, Ace?"
I laugh, walk over, and tap my hand on his cheek. "What do you think?"
He bats me away, gagging.
"You always have been a disgusting little shit, Ace."
I shrug, heading to the refrigerator and grabbing two beers. "Well, what do I owe the pleasure of this evening visit?"
He takes the beer and drops onto the other end of the sofa, flicking on the television. Puts his boots up on my coffee table. Makes himself at home because Jett treats every building he enters as if it were built specifically for his comfort.
"Well, Hunter gave me a very vague job to do. And I'm wondering if my plan is too fucked up."
I rest my elbow on my knee and lean forward. "Explain."
He sighs. "Apparently, a reporter is coming into town tomorrow to meet with him. But he can't, so I have to go bring them here. He said we gotta make sure they kill the story."
"Hmm. Okay. And your issue is?"
"Am Ibringingthem here, ortakingthem?"
I arch a brow. "Interesting dilemma."
He chews his lip. "Yeah. See… how do we know we can trust them to kill the story? I assume it's something to do with what happened—Hunter getting arrested, all that shit? What if they just go and leak it anyway? We gotta scare them. That's how we do it. The cowboy way. Fuck the money."
I run my hand over my jaw. He has a point. But Hunter would've said if he wanted it handled differently.
"Did Hunter use the wordkidnap?" I ask.
"Well, this is where the lines are blurring. He said he'll send me the location, I'll meet them, and bring them to him."
Jesus Christ. I pinch the bridge of my nose.
"Look, Jett. I don't say this often. But I agree with your idea. We can't trust reporters—especially not with the skeletons we've got hiding. We can't pay them off. We need to show them they can't publish anything. We also need to know what their fuckin' story is. It could be anything—we've got a whole graveyard here." I take a pull of my beer. "So yeah. Kidnap them. Bring them here. Keep them tied up in the barn, then I'll help you send the message."
He grins. "And this is why I came here and not to Colten."
Colten would've said no. Colten would've saidlet's talk to Hunter first.Colten would've been right. But Jett came to me because I'm the brother who says yes first and thinks later, and honestly, that's served us pretty well so far.
I'll do anything to protect my family. I've done it before. I've got blood on my hands that doesn't wash off.
