“Why would I trust you?” The man’s lip was set in a sinister sneer.
“Because I know how you can find Striker.”
3
Jackal hazily blinked at the light filling his bedroom.
“Turn off the fucking light,” he growled, searching for a pillow on his jumbled bed. Muttering to himself, he managed to find one jammed against Rita’s side. He drunkenly dragged it upward to relieve the headache hammering a hole through his brain.
“Ice wants you.”
Jackal could barely make out Stump’s serious features as he jerked away the pillow providing the only buffer from the daylight that was beginning to lighten the darkening sky outside his window.
“Dammit!” He managed to raise himself to sit on the side of the bed, shrugging off Rita’s clinging arms that twined around his waist as he tried to get to his feet.
Jackal reached down, tempted to break her fingers to make her release him from her greedy clasp.
“Come on, Jackal … You promised me that—”
Jackal leaned over to grab his jeans from the floor, swaying as he tried to slide his clothes up his legs. Maybe the extra bottle of whiskey he had made Rita get him had been a mistake.
“Hurry, Jackal; Ice is getting pissed.” Stump helped him get to his feet, handing him a T-shirt that was sitting on the bed.
Jackal wrenched away from him. “Tell him I’m coming.”
Stump nodded, giving him a warning that Ice wouldn’t be kept waiting much longer.
Jackal took only the time he needed to take a piss and wash his face before heading into the clubroom.
He came to a stop at the sight of the empty room. “I thought you said that Ice is waiting—”
“He is. He’s waiting for us at Penni’s house.” Stump didn’t give him the chance to ask any questions before he left out the door.
Stump had already started his bike and was driving out of the parking lot before Jackal started his. The last person he wanted to see this morning was Penni. It was Grace’s day off, so why would Ice or any of the other Predators be at her house?
As he made the turn onto Penni’s street, he saw the brothers already parked out front. Jackal brought his bike to a stop. She wasn’t going to be happy to see the men gathered around her yard.
As he slid off his bike, he realized Penni’s car wasn’t parked in her usual space. It was early on a Sunday morning, but Jackal saw the barely perceptible movement from more than one window of Penni’s nosy neighbors.
He walked up her path to the door that was already open. Ice had his back turned to him as he spoke into his phone.
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll call you back as soon as I find out something new. I promise,” Ice assured whomever he was speaking to. The Predators’ president didn’t make promises he didn’t intend to keep.
Jackal looked around Penni’s apartment as Ice finished his call. It was what he had imagined her home would look like. It was filled with flowers and the frills that always made him feel uncomfortable. Potted plants rested against the windowsill, and family photos had him sauntering closer to pick up one that caught his attention. His hand circled the picture frame containing the image of the woman who haunted his dreams.
“What’s up?” Jackal asked as he felt Ice move near him.
“Grace called me to check up on Penni to make sure she’s home. She’s worried about her. Seems that she ran out of gas last night, and Grace hasn’t heard from her since. She keeps trying to call her back, but it goes to voice mail.”
Anything that upset Grace made it Ice’s problem, not the club’s.
“And you woke me up because Grace is worried about Penni?”
“Yeah.”
Jackal slammed the photo down. “I’m out of here, brother.”
He tried to sidestep Ice, only to find his path blocked.
“You’re not worried? I thought you had a hard-on for this bitch?”
Jackal’s eyes and hands returned to the photo. Penni’s blue gaze stared at him from the picture. His soul tried to shrink from her scrutiny as if she were really there. Her blonde hair and direct gaze were the direct opposite of her brother Shade, who stood next to her. They were at someone’s wedding. Everyone in the picture seemed happy, especially Penni who was surrounded by several men.
Jackal knew most of them were The Last Riders. As the Predators’ enforcer, he had made sure to know the men Penni had come into contact with when Colton had asked for their help to find a childhood friend of Vida’s. Sawyer and Vida had discovered Lily, Shade’s wife, was their missing childhood friend whom they had assumed died when they were all little.