Wolf (The Henchmen MC #3) (28 page)

And then he got the call...

TWENTY-THREE

Wolf

I'd spent time in holding cells before. They weren't fun, but they weren't the worst places in the world either. I had mine to myself, giving me nothing but time to think.

And those thoughts? Yeah, they were about Janie. As if anything else would occupy my mind.

I'll never forget the raw panic on her face when she shoved me awake to the cruiser lights dancing off the walls. It was such a strange thing to see on her face until I realized it was there because of me. She wasn't the type of woman to worry about cops. Working at Hailstorm, she had had more than a few run-ins with them herself. She was freaking out because she didn't want me to get locked up.

And fuck if that wasn't one of the nicest feelings in the world, to realize someone gave a damn enough about you to worry. Granted, I was pretty fucking sure she had no idea she cared, but she did. It was in the look of helplessness on her face when they put me in the cruiser. It was in the momentary relief I saw when I came out of interrogation before she realized I was cuffed. Then it was in the devastation and outrage when she charged across that station toward me and started hollering. It was in the momentary hopelessness I caught sight of before I was led away.

She cared about me.

And wasn't it some sad, sick, cruel twist of fate that I cared about her too and wouldn't see her again except through a pane of resistant glass?

But it was okay.

I was alright with that.

I did what needed to be done.

I got her safe.

I slayed her demons.

And in return, I got several days with the most unpredictable, frustrating, interesting, capable, headstrong, funny, and loyal woman I had ever met in my life.

It was a fair trade.

I was supposed to be transferred to county that day so when I heard the door open and footsteps coming toward me, I stood up and stretched out the sore muscles from sleeping on a bed meant for a man half my size.

Collings came alone, standing outside the bars and looking at me for a minute.

"I hope you have a clue what a lucky fuck you are," he said, shaking his head.

"What?"

"I had a good woman once. I constantly chose this job over her company until she couldn't take it any more and left my sorry ass like she should have years before. I know a thing or two about what it's like to lose a woman who did nothing but her best for you. So I hope to fuck you don't make the same mistakes I made."

What the fuck was he talking about?

"Collings..." I said, shrugging a shoulder.

At that, he gave me a smile, unlocking the door and pulling it open. "Do you have any idea the kind of hell and headaches your woman has caused in the past forty-eight hours?"

"Janie?" I asked, brows drawing together. I mean, 'hell and headaches' sure had her name written all over it, but I had no idea what he was talking about. Last I heard when I saw my lawyer, she was camping out at the compound. I figured Lo would drop in and drag her stubborn ass back to Hailstorm and help her get her life back on track.

Collings laughed, the sound raspy like he hadn't made the sound in so long the vocal chords they required got dusty. "The one and only."

"What'd she do?" I asked, feeling a pit settle in my stomach. Reign, Cash, and Repo better the fuck have not let her get herself into trouble because of me.

"What hasn't she done?" Collings asked, shrugging a shoulder. "She uncovered unprocessed rape kits and leaked the news to the press about them sitting in storage, implying a police cover up I'm sure we all know has footing. She gave me an olive branch of letting me put my name on those cases and get them off to the lab before the story broke."

"For?" I asked, knowing there was no way she did it just for the fuck of it. She was a logistical pro. That was what she did, next to hacking and making bombs and refusing to use a filter when she spoke.

"A boot print disappearing. It's the only evidence we had on you and she knew it." Of course she did. That was my girl. "But that wasn't enough for Janie."

I felt my lips twitching. "'Course not."

"Now we can't prove any of this, but let's face it, we know who is behind this course of events. My partner, Marco, found himself jumped in an alley next to his apartment. Beat him unconscious. Janie is a strong fighter and all, but no way did she take him down. My money is on her getting one of the Mallicks in on it. Eli, judging by the sheer violence he inflicted. But she still wasn't done..."

Jesus Christ. Had she slept at all?

"She must have smelled something on Marco that didn't sit right with her because she did some digging. In that digging, she found something that the force missed when they accepted him. And that is a connection to the Abruzzo family. So naturally your little spitfire paid a visit to the Grassi family who paid a visit to Marco who suddenly signed out of the hospital and promptly went missing." Collings paused, shaking his head, a strange smile toying at his lips. "I've got to say, I knew women could bring a wrath that makes the plague of locusts look merciful, but Janie is in a league her own."

"Telling me things I know," I shrugged, though inside my heart felt like it was going to bust free of the confines of my ribcage. She was on a tear. I should have known there was no way she was just laying low over at the compound painting her nails and challenging the guys to grappling contests.

"Well let me tell you a bit more about the repercussions of your woman's little rampage. Such as IA coming in to investigate. Now I bet Marco is going to have a lot of blame fall onto his head. He's the perfect scapegoat. He's gone. He wasn't on the force for long. All of his open cases are being gone over by other detectives. And, well, it's the damndest thing..." he trailed off, brows lifted in confusion, but he was smiling.

"Damdest thing?"

"All the evidence in your case seems to have never existed in the first place."

"You don't say," I said, feeling the smile spread.

"Crazy, that. Marco must have been one crooked son of a bitch to frame a good, upstanding citizen such as yourself."

"Damn straight," I agreed.

"So needless to say, you're free to go with the full apologies of the NBPD for your unlawful detainment. We'll get you your clothes back and call someone to pick you up. Janie, I assume?"

I felt my head shaking. "Reign," I corrected.

"Now listen here, son..." Collings started, sounding almost agitated at the idea that Janie went through all she did for nothing. "Did you not hear a thing I said about good women? And Janie, lawlessness aside, is as good as it gets."

"Know that," I agreed, nodding.

"Then why the hell don't you want her to come and pick you up?"

"What time is it?" I asked.

Collings' brows drew together and he reached for his cell. "Six-fifteen."

"Last time she caused chaos?"

"Yesterday afternoon," Collings supplied.

"She's sleeping."

Collings' head jerked back, brows drawing together. Then he considered me for a moment and nodded. "You know, Wolf, all lawlessness aside for you as well, I think you're probably a pretty decent man too." He paused. "When that news story broke, Wolf? There were pictures. The women's faces were blurred out but what was being done to them..." he shook his head. "But even masked, the resemblance was too strong to deny. One of those women was a very young, very brutalized Janie." I closed my eyes tight against that image, swallowing past the bile that rose up my throat. One day, I hoped that image would fade for me, just like I hoped it would fade for her. Until that day, I was okay with shouldering some of that with her.

"Some men deserve to die, Wolf. That's why I believe in capital punishment. Some men shouldn't be given the luxury of breath after the shit they have done. But that shit can take twenty years. Twenty years sitting in a cell eating taxpayer money, wearing taxpayer money. If there's one thing this job gives you when you've done it as long as I have, it's perspective. I'd rather pieces of shit like Lex Keith meet a bloody end on the street then live large in a cell, still running an enterprise built on blood and pain from behind those bars. These streets are safer for women with that bastard good and dead. And if by making that happen, you bought your women a sense of security and closure she never would have had any other way, well then, I'm happy for you both."

With that, he walked out, coming back a few minutes later with my clothes.

Ten minutes later, Reign was walking into the station, trying his best to hold back a smile.

"Thank fuck you're free, man. I got my hands full with my own woman. I can't be dealing with yours too. She had Summer and Lo doing target practice yesterday. I saw my life flash before my eyes."

"She's a good shot," I objected as we walked out toward my waiting truck.

"Someone must have taught her the coin trick," Reign said, giving me a look from the passenger side as I turned the truck over. "She's doing alright, Wolf. I know you were worried. Keeping busy kept her sane. And having Repo to keep her company when she couldn't sleep helped too. In fact, left the compound to find them both passed the fuck out on the couch in front of half-finished beer and a mostly full bowl of popcorn."

"Good," I nodded, turning off toward the compound.

"Know we don't do this cheesy shit," Reign said when the silence stretched. "But when Summer was new in my life, you told me she was a good woman. For you, that was practically a fucking conversation so I figured now that you got yourself a woman, I should say something..."

"So say it."

Reign snorted. "I like her for you, Wolf. Someone told me a year ago that you'd end up with someone like her, or anyone at all, I'd have said they were crazy. But I could say the same thing about Cash and Lo."

"Reign..." I laughed, rolling my eyes at him.

"Fuck off. Ain't used to this sharing shit. What I'm saying is, she's good for you. And you're sure as fuck good for her. Tame her a little bit."

"Janie? Tame?" I asked, smiling as I parked the truck. "Wouldn't want her tame," I added as we climbed out of the truck and crossed toward the front door.

And I
wouldn't
want her tame. Did I like that she felt comfortable enough with me to show a softer side on occasion? Yes. But I didn't want her because of her potential to be something other than what she was. I liked the whole package. I liked the foot-in-mouth comments. I liked how she could fight over the most asinine little things with as much passion as the shit that really mattered. I liked that she was capable in everything she put her mind to, but was open to suggestions to get better. I liked that she was a shit cook but a fucking spectacular crime-scene cleaner. I liked that she obviously had no experience letting men in and that scared her and she was hesitant, but she didn't try to push me away either.

It was a rare thing in life to find the person who complemented you, who was strong where you were weak, patient where you were restless, giving when you were all used up. That was what I had with Janie. It wasn't that one of us was always strong or patient or giving, it was that we both had it in us to pick up the slack the other had to put down.

I was under no alpha-man delusions. She would fight me tooth and nail. She would rage and rant and spit and claw. There was no controlling her, no taming her. But there was nothing more beautiful that a wild animal. And there was nothing more heartbreaking than seeing one of those wild animals broken in a cage.

"She needs to sleep," Repo said, eyes on me as I walked in. He was squished into the corner of the couch shirtless, Janie taking up all the space even with her tiny frame.

"So do you," I said, nodding at him, taking in the red eyes and blue smudges beneath them. Like Janie, he could go the better part of a week without sleep at times due to some trauma he still hadn't felt comfortable sharing with any of us and maybe never would.

He nodded, moving Janie's feet off of his legs, and standing. "Good to see you free," he said, nodding at me, then moving off toward his room.

"Well, I'll leave you to it," Reign said, giving me a knowing smile. "But make sure you ask her what she came in here and declared to all of us when she got back from seeing the Grassis yesterday."

"What'd she say?" I asked, moving toward the couch and crouching down beside her, brushing her hair out of her face.

"That's for her to tell you, but make sure she does."

With that, he was gone and we were alone.

I should have done the right thing and left her there, sat down in the spot Repo abandoned and let her get the rest she obviously needed. But I needed to have her close, pulled up to my side, head on my chest. Being pretty fucking sure you'd never hold the woman you cared about again, yeah, that did things to you. I needed her.

I reached out, slipping a hand under her knees and another around her shoulders, curling her into my chest then lifting her up. The jostling motion made her grumble in her sleep before her eyes snapped open at the motion as we moved toward my room.