Falcon
I didn’t feel any better for standing by my original convictions in regards to Clementine. I kicked myself all the way back to HQ. I took the time to ride by her apartment building to see if I could talk to her, but when I went up to her apartment, no one answered the door. I didn’t even know what I had planned to do if she had answered. Was I going to play nice and try to find a way to keep things going between us or was I going to just completely burn that bridge and pretend it never meant more than just a way to get to her brother?
I pulled back up to HQ and went back in to find the new guys hanging out with other members besides Zeke and Collin. It seemed they were fitting in just fine, so at least that set of worries could be put to rest.
I ran a tired hand through my hair and grabbed a beer from the bar before heading back up to my private room. I felt like I had been running a marathon, though time itself seemed to be dragging all around me. I was ready to go after Leo and his men, but it seemed like everyone else was just sitting around with their thumbs up their asses.
I took out my phone and called Nathan.
“Yeah, boss?” he answered.
“Are we ready yet?” I asked. “I mean, is everyone ready to go after Leo and his men? I’m ready. I’m tired of waiting to do this.” I laughed.
“I think we’re just waiting on the word, brother,” he told me.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day,” I told him. A smile spread across my face while I took a long drink from my bottle.
Then, a call beeped in on my phone.
“Hey, I’ve got a call coming in from a number I don’t recognize. I’ll let you guys know what we’re doing in just a minute.”
I took the incoming call and hung up with Nathan.
“Hello?” I answered cautiously, keeping my voice firm.
“Jackson Falcon Urloch,” the smug voice on the other end greeted me.
“Leo, old friend, how have you been?” I responded to his arrogant tone with a kind of mocking friendliness.
“I was doing fine until your name came back up,” he told me.
“Well, what can I say, Leo? I’m a popular guy,” I bragged.
“That may not be working in your favor right now, Falcon, unfortunately. You may find yourself getting a little too popular with the wrong people.” He sounded vaguely threatening, but he usually did. It didn’t help that I already knew what he was calling about, and it made me feel good to know I was getting under his skin so.
“That’s a risk I have to be willing to take, I guess,” I said. “How can I help you today, Leo? I’m sort of busy at the moment.” I was trying to rush him to the point, if there was one.
“I assure you, Falcon, I am terribly sorry to bother you, but I do need your help with something,” he said slowly, smugly. He sounded so satisfied with himself for taking his time in getting to the point.
“Shoot,” I said, and laughed.
“Are you sure you want to say that to me, Falcon?” he joked.
“I knew you were going to say that, Leo. Get to the point.” I dropped the humor from my tone. I was ready to get this over with. I smiled as I thought about how nice it would have been to be able to have someone over there, wherever he was, while he was talking to me, and as he got to the part where he started to threaten me, they shot his ass dead right there on the phone.
Unfortunately, we weren’t that organized anymore.
“Sorry, Falcon. I couldn’t resist. Anyway, the reason I’m calling is because your name came out of my little sister’s mouth again, Falcon.”
“You should have seen what went in her mouth,” I told him. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”
“So it’s true,” he said contemplatively.
“I guess so,” I agreed. “What’s true?”
“Despite my threats and warnings, you went and slept with my little sister anyway,” he growled.
“Is that what she told you?” I asked, knowing that by dodging the question, I was really getting under his skin.
“Yes, Falcon, that was what she called about this morning. You are a despicable human being,” he said.
“I agree, Leo. I am absolutely horrible. And as for what I did to Clementine, there’s just no excuse for that,” I told him, making it clear that if he pursued this conversation any further, I could give him all the nasty details he really didn’t want to know.
“That’s enough. I don’t need to know anything else,” he said quickly.
“You don’t want to know how good it felt? I mean, if you’re keeping her for yourself, you might as well start hitting that. It’s good, Leo. She moaned and cried out. She grabbed me with her hands and with her lips. I mean, she wrapped around me and stretched herself to let me inside,” I taunted him.
“That’s enough!” Leo shouted.
I just laughed at that point. What the hell was he going to do through the phone? Not a damn thing.
“Falcon, you have tested my patience time and again, and you have disrespected me countless times on top of that. I hope you understand this is the end for you,” he threatened.
“Yes, Leo, you’re right. This is the end of our relationship. I’m sorry it had to end with me taking your sister to bed and robbing her of her virginity by making her think I was falling for her, but that’s how this works, isn’t it?”
“I know what you’re trying to do,” he said, laughing the whole time. “You’re trying to make me lose my cool. I don’t know what it is about you people, but everyone wants to see me get angry. Or, well, they think they do until they actually see it. Unfortunately for them, it’s usually too late by then,” he continued.
“Yawn,” I mocked him. “You sure do talk a lot, Leo. If you could just get to the point, your threats might carry a little more weight. Then again, maybe I should be sympathetic. I did beat you to your sister.”
“Fine. You want a threat? I’ll give you a threat,” he growled. “I’m coming for you, Falcon, and when I’m through with you, you will be nothing more than a memory.”
“So, about the terms and conditions of my parole,” I started. “You know, they’re recording my line every time I get on the phone,” I lied, again, just trying to get under his skin and piss him off. It was so much fun to do.
“You’re lying,” he said.
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but they’re trying to make sure I’m not getting back in touch with my old friends at the MC. They’re trying to make sure all of my business dealings are legit. And they’re looking for anything they can get on anyone connected to or otherwise associated with me.” It was so hard to keep a straight face. “Then again, who knows? I may be full of shit, and you may also be about to get a knock at your door.”
“You’re a dead man, Falcon,” he threatened.
“Good one, Leo,” I said laughing in his face. “I’d like to see you try.”
“I don’t have to try, boy. Revenge is already on its way,” he said just as calmly as he said anything else. Then he hung up, leaving the line ominously silent.
My veins turned to ice. My heart froze. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. The thing was, I felt like I had already known revenge was coming and that I was somehow in danger.
I slowly put my phone back in my pocket and headed downstairs to warn anyone who was hanging around that we needed to prepare for whatever Leo had planned. Then again, the best defense was always a good offense. We could have just left HQ empty for him while we all stormed the warehouse where he was supposed to be involved somehow in a massive deal going down over the weekend.
We weren’t even sure what role he was supposed to be playing. Our information was so infuriatingly incomplete, and that may have been what was giving him the upper hand here. Other than the fact that he knew I had a soft spot for his sister, of course.
Speaking of Clementine, she was walking in through the open bay door when I walked downstairs. No one seemed to notice her except for me. I breathed a sigh of relief, though, realizing she must have been the revenge he was threatening. He must have sent her to make things worse on me.
“Did your brother send you?” I asked when I walked up to her.
“No. What does he have to do with anything?” she snapped.
“I just got off the phone with him,” I told her. “He told me he was sending you over here.” He hadn’t, but she had to be the revenge he had sent.
“You know, Jackson,” she said, flooring me by using my real name, “it occurs to me that you and my brother have a closer relationship than either one of you would like to admit.”
“He was just calling because you called him freaking out when I wasn’t there this morning,” I told her.
She looked down for a moment, and I took the opportunity to catch my breath. I wanted to take her in my arms and hold her. I could tell she had been crying, and recently at that. She wasn’t here for revenge. The anger in her voice was forced. She was hurting, and she wanted answers. Unfortunately, at that moment, I couldn’t afford to let her in. It was in my best interest to keep her at arm’s length and to continue pretending that this had all been for the MC.
“Can we go somewhere private to talk?” she asked, looking back up at me with her wounded blue eyes.
I didn’t stand a chance against those beautiful eyes. I considered taking her up to my room and taking her again, adding insult to injury, but I decided against it. “Sure, we can go up to the boardroom,” I told her. “Come on.” I held my hand out for her to start up the stairs in front of me.
I walked behind her and watched her ass in the dark pants she wore to work above me on the stairs. I could have grabbed her right then and made her mine again. I could have thrown everything away in one brief moment of lust. But my lust felt like it was trying to turn into something else, something far more distracting than mere desire. I couldn’t have allowed that. I had to keep it together.
“Right there,” I told her when we reached the landing for the second floor. She walked into the hallway and waited for me to show her into the boardroom.
I could have thrown her over the table where the MC met, and I could have taken her from behind right there, but I had to behave. If I slipped up and slept with her again, there was no telling how nasty things could have gotten for the MC.
It was bad enough that she had even shown up at HQ in the first place. I needed to handle this situation and get her out of here so we could go ahead and make our move. I felt like Leo’s revenge was simply a stall tactic to give him a chance to make a move first. No way.