Hostage (Predators MC #3) (28 page)

J
ackal turned
the motorcycle Rider had let him borrow six months ago. Wearily, he stared at the new Predators’ clubhouse that Ice had built while he had been gone.

He was tired, and every bone in his body hurt. He had ridden the last leg of the journey home alone, leaving Hennessy in Colt, Arkansas. And Fade, he was gone.

Jackal went to the door, expecting the room to be half-empty, but all the brothers were waiting for him. Their cheers and yells were a hollow comfort due to the brother he had left behind.

Ice slapped him on his shoulder, shaking his hand. Max gathered him in his bear hug, lifting him off his feet. Stump handed him a bottle of beer. One after another, the brothers greeted him while the women all tearfully kissed him.

Jackal went to the bar, speaking to each of them as he passed until he reached the women lining the bar, the ones who hadn’t been waiting to kiss him hello.

“Hey, Grace, Vida, Casey.”

“Jackal, we’re glad you’re home.” Grace hugged him.

Casey and Vida each waited their turn. He expected recriminations for his treatment of Penni. Instead, they went to their husbands.

“We’ll see you guys later. We’re meeting Sawyer and going shopping.” Grace kissed her husband good-bye.

Casey held her hand out to Max, who grumbled, getting out his wallet to hand her a couple of twenties. When she didn’t move away, he gave her the rest of his cash, showing her it was now empty.

Vida laughed at Colton, who just handed her his credit card.

“You make us look bad for making our husbands give us shopping money,” Casey complained.

“I made Ice fork over some, too. I asked for his credit card this morning before he left. He’s in a better mood before I get him out of bed,” Grace confided.

“I’ll have to try that. Max holds onto his wallet like it will save him from drowning.”

“Grace, wait,” Jackal cut in.

Grace and the other two women turned back to Jackal.

“Where is Penni? I rode by her condo, but she wasn’t there. I called Shade, but he thought she was at her condo. He even checked her cell phone, and it showed she was at home. When I broke into her apartment, though, it was empty. Ice said he didn’t know where she was, either. So, where is she?”

Jackal ran a hand through his long hair. He hadn’t wanted to call, too afraid she would hang up on him. His plan to show up at her door and beg his way back into her life had failed.

“Penni made us promised not to tell you,” Grace told him. “She said, if you want to see her, you know where to find her.”

Frustrated, Jackal stared at her. “If I knew where she was, I wouldn’t have driven to her condo or to her office. I even checked to make sure she wasn’t feeding the ducks before I came here. So, where is she?”

“We can’t tell you,” Vida said, giving him a sympathetic glance.

“Is she with a man? Is that why you won’t tell—”

“Penni said you would know how to find her,” Grace cut him off. “Get some rest. Ice told us you haven’t had time to sleep since you killed Raul. When you get some sleep and are thinking more clearly, you’ll know how to find her.”

Jackal wanted to throw a bar stool at the wall. Ice must have known he was at his breaking point, because he blocked the women from his view.

They left, laughing as they walked away.

Jackal pressed his fingers against his tired eyes. “They think I deserve to suffer.”

“Brother, go to bed. I saved the end of the hall for you. It has a brand new bed. It’ll feel good after sleeping in all those hotel rooms.”

Jackal had to admit to himself he was too tired to ride anywhere until he got some sleep.

“I’ll get a couple hours sleep, but if I can’t figure out where Penni is, your wife will be my next stop, and I won’t be taking no for an answer the next time.”

Ice nodded. “I’ll warn her. Go to sleep.”

Jackal nodded, passing Ice who stopped him, holding out his hand.

“I’m glad you’re back, brother. It hasn’t been the same without you.”

“Thanks, Ice. I won’t let you down ever again.”

“You’ve never let me down, Jackal, not once.”

The two men leaned into each other, slapping each other on their backs before stepping back.

Jackal finally made his way down the hallway, seeing Ice had added more rooms to the new clubhouse. He was too tired to appreciate the changes, though. Right now, all he had on his mind was getting enough sleep to figure out where Penni was.

He had googled her tour schedule. Mouth2Mouth’s next concert was a month away. If he couldn’t find her by then, he would drive there, even if it took him all night.

Jackal went into the room Ice had told him was his. Turning on the light switch, he closed the door behind him. There was a large bed taking up half the room.

Jackal sat down on the end of the bed. It reminded him of the one Penni had picked out before the clubhouse had been destroyed.

Jackal ran his hand over the metal frame then dropped his hands into his lap. Penni’s face swam in front of him.

Jackal buried his face in his hands. “Where are you?” he groaned out.

Suddenly, he lifted his head. Jerking himself to his feet, he strode down the hall, coming to a stop in the clubroom. The men turned to stare at him.

“I know where she is,” Jackal said huskily.

Ice stood up from the new, blue La-Z-Boy rocker. “I knew you were a smart man and would figure it out. Grace left her car here. I’ll drive you because no way in hell are you driving yourself.”

“Where is she?” Max yelled out before they could get out the door.

“Fuck you, Max. You figure it out.”

* * *

I
ce found a parking space
, and Jackal opened the car door, beginning to get out.

“I’ll wait ten minutes to make sure she’s there. I was supposed to call Grace and tell her if you left the clubhouse so Penni would be there until you showed up.”

“Thanks, Ice.”

“No problem.”

Jackal went into the Purple Pussycat. He strode through the room and up the stairs to the large door where he keyed in the code for the bouncers that gave them access to each room of the club.

Jackal’s heart beat hard as he neared the door where Penni and he had stayed when they had made love the first time.

Henry was talking to one of the bartenders, but he turned to watch him cross the room.

Jackal keyed in his number, but the door didn’t turn. Henry had overridden the door’s commands.

“What are the numbers?”

Henry raised a brow at Jackal’s menacing tone.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about it.” Sherri’s, Henry’s girlfriend, gloating face showed she didn’t know she was risking her own life by thwarting his attempts to enter the room that Jackal was even more sure Penni was in. There was an easier way to find out without killing the woman, though.

Jackal went to the middle door where the bouncers could look into both rooms while the clients used their services. Jackal keyed in his number again, and this time, it worked.

Jackal gave Henry a killing look before going inside.

The mirror showed that the room on the left was empty. Jackal stepped to the right mirror, and his breath caught. Penni was sitting on the bed, facing the two-way mirror and staring down at the phone in her hand.

Jackal hadn’t cried since he was kid when his mother hadn’t come home, and his father had made fun of him for it. But he cried now, knowing no one could see him.

It had been six months since he had last seen her. Shade had offered to send pictures of her, but Jackal had told him no. Jackal had known that, if he had seen her, he would have broken and gone to her. However, he’d had an oath to keep, and he had been determined to keep it. Too many lives depended on him succeeding, and one of those lives was hers.

His blood still ran cold at the thought of her being there when the explosives had been detonated. If he hadn’t scheduled the meeting with Reefer to sell him a dime bag, they would have been in his bed at the clubhouse that Saturday morning. The only reason Ice had been up was because Ice had made it a rule that, when someone was out on a job, someone had to keep watch, and he had known the rest of the brothers wouldn’t want to get up so early.

He saw that Penni had lost weight. She had been a tiny thing before, but now she looked so fragile a gust of wind could blow her away.

He walked closer to the mirror, wanting to run from the room and into the one she was waiting in. Knowing Henry wouldn’t give him the number until she told him to was the only thing stopping him. He couldn’t even fucking call her since her cell phone was at her condo, and he didn’t know the number to the one she was holding.

Jackal was about to take his cell phone out of his pocket to call Ice and tell him to call Grace and beg her to call Penni to let her know he was here when Penni suddenly lifted her head, staring at the mirror. Then she dropped the cell phone onto the bed.

She rose unsteadily to her feet. The peach teddy she wore wasn’t seductive or playful like she usually liked to wear. It enticed. Tiny straps led to her satin covered breasts, and then her skin was exposed all the way to the small patch of satin that covered her pussy. It was an all-out assault on a man’s dick.

“I know you’re there.” Her soft voice filled the small room he was in. “I can feel you.” She placed her hand on the mirror, and Jackal lifted his to place it in the same spot.

“I’ve missed you so badly.”

“I’ve missed you, too.” Jackal replied, despite knowing she couldn’t hear him through the soundproof glass.

“Before I tell you the combination to the room, I want you to listen to what I have to say.”

Penni raised her other hand to the mirror, and Jackal mirrored her movements.

“I love you. I love you so much I don’t even care what you’ve done since you’ve been gone. I don’t care if you’ve fucked a hundred women. I don’t care who you killed. I don’t even care if you love me.
I just want you.

“I don’t want to hear any excuses for why you wouldn’t see me, and I certainly don’t want to know who the women you fucked are. I don’t want any more oaths or promises, even if you plan to keep them. I just want you. I will always want …
you
.” She gave a shuddering breath, stepping away from the mirror.

Jackal waited for her to tell him the combination or to keep talking. When she did neither, he began to laugh. She had forgotten to give him the combination.

It took him a minute to get Ice to quit laughing before promising to call Grace, He waited breathlessly for her phone to ring.

When she went to answer her phone on the bed, he was already debating smashing through the mirror. However, her soft laughter had him calming long enough to hear her tell him the combination.

Jackal practically tore the door off its hinges as he left the viewing room, going to the locked door. He had to key in the numbers twice because of his bumbling fingers. Then he rushed inside, slamming the door by kicking it closed.

Penni was laughing so hard she fell back on the bed. “Do you know how long I rehearsed that speech?”

Jackal stood, staring down at her. “I take it you forgot to rehearse the number part of it.”

“Yes.” Her poignant eyes stared up at him. Penni raised herself back up, reaching her hand out to cup his cheek. “I’ve never seen you cry before.”

“I love you. And there haven’t been any women to tell you about. I didn’t want another woman. I’ll never want another woman but you.”

“I told you I don’t want to talk—”

“Too damn bad. You deserve to know that.”

Penni took his T-shirt, raising it to his chest so she could press a kiss on his abdomen. “Go ahead, then, but I’m not listening.” She snapped open his jeans, parting them then pulling his dick out.

“Uh … I guess we can talk later.”

“You took off the metal balls?” Penni angrily glared up at him.

“I was riding so long my dick was killing me.” Any other woman would cuss him out for leaving her, but the only thing Penni was pissed about was piercings?

“Can’t you put them back in?”

Jackal gaped down at her. “Right now?”

“Uh … yeah.” Penni laughed, rolling on the bed as he laid down beside her.

“Woman, I can’t put them in right now. Do you not remember how many I had? And I only had that many because I was drunk off my ass when Colton did it. We’ll have to go back to the clubhouse to put but them back in. I’ll have to be drunk to even put the Apadravya back in, and the nine balls in my dick, so no, I can’t do it right now.”

“All right, there’s no need to be grouchy about it. I’ll make you a pan of my brownies. It’ll work better than alcohol.”

“I’ll stick with my rum. I’m afraid, if I eat your brownies, I’ll end up with more of them.”

Penni propped herself over his chest. “Is it going to hurt?”

“Babe, it’s gonna hurt like a son of a bitch, but for you, I’ll do it.”

“That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“I have told you numerous times how much you mean to me—”

“But none that involve pain.”

“Babe, believe me; it involved a lot of pain to stay away from you. Sending Shade was hard on both of us, but neither of us wanted you to mourn me if Raul killed me.” He didn’t try to hide his anguished expression. The months he had been away from her wouldn’t be easily forgotten.