Man of the House(179)

I couldn’t tell him the truth, which was I wanted to fuck his adopted daughter before I reported everything.

That wouldn’t go over too well.

I headed off toward the back office and knocked. I heard some faint talking, and finally Larkin called us in.

I glanced at Janine and gave her a quick nod before pushing the door open.

Larkin was sitting behind his desk while Jetter stood, leaning up against the wall, his arms crossed.

“Clutch, Janine,” Larkin said. “We’re busy. What do you guys need?”

“Larkin, it’s important,” I said.

“How important?” Jetter asked.

I gave him a cold look. “Not for you to decide.” I looked back at Larkin. “Something happened last night.”

He sat up straight. “Are you two okay?”

“We’re fine, because of Clutch,” Janine said quickly.

“Have a seat,” Larkin said.

Janine walked in and sat down while I shut the door behind us. I hovered to her right, as far away from Jetter as I could get, not because I was afraid of the fucking scumbag, but because I was afraid I’d try to fucking strangle him to death while looking right in his pussy fuck eyes.

Which surprised me. Everyone in the Demons hated Jetter for a bunch of reasons, and I was no exception. Hating Jetter wasn’t the surprise.

No, it was that I thought it was personal. Before, I’d hated him for what he’d done to our club in the past, and for what his pussy club was doing to us in the present. It was never really about him the man before.

Suddenly, though, hating Jetter felt personal. I hated who he was and what he was doing. I hated him because Janine was claimed by him, and that pissed me off.

The thought hit me like a hammer, and I realized everyone was staring at me.

“Clutch?” Larkin asked. “I said, what happened?”

“Right,” I grunted, gathering myself together. This was not the time to look like a fucking idiot. “Some Snakes followed us last night,” I said. “I led them out to this old gas station out on the desert highway.”

“And?” Larkin asked.

“And I killed them, paid off the owner. He’ll keep his mouth shut.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me sooner?” Larkin asked, nearly yelling.

“Dad.” Janine held her hands up.

“You wait, sweetie,” he said. “Clutch, why the hell didn’t you get in touch with us until now? This is serious. We might need to do some fucking damage control.”

“Dad,” Janine said, more forcefully. “I asked him not to.”

There was a short silence. “Why?” he asked finally.

“I was afraid,” she said.

“Why would you be afraid?” he asked softly. “We can protect you.”

“I know that, but I was worried you’d call everything off.”

Larkin nodded slowly.

“Nothing is getting called off,” Jetter said suddenly. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

Larkin gave him a look of undisguised disgust.

“Oh,” Janine said. “Good.”

“And you listened to her?” Larkin asked, looking at me.

“She was very persuasive,” I said. “I finally convinced her to let me come to you guys today.”

“You shouldn’t listen to a woman that way, Clutch,” Jetter said. “You can’t let them get you by the balls.”

I clenched my jaw and wanted to go after him, but I held back. Jetter was a cunt, but there was nothing I could do about it. Going after him would just cause more problems.

No, the important thing was that Janine had just lied for me. We had never talked about her fears or why we had waited so long to tell everyone. We both knew the truth, and she clearly understood that we couldn’t tell them that. So she had lied for me, right to her father’s face.

I couldn’t decide how I felt about it, but that didn’t fucking matter. All that mattered was that we were past the difficult bit.

Larkin looked at me. “Tell me about what happened. Who were these guys?”

I went over the whole thing again, but this time in detail. I told him as much as I could about the guys, though I didn’t remember much or get a great look at them.

All that mattered was that they were Snakes, and there was no doubt that they had come after Janine.

When I finished, Jetter looked at Larkin. “I don’t like this,” he said.

“Clutch did a good job,” Larkin answered.

“True, the boy did well, but the Snakes clearly know what’s happening and want to stop it. They’re going to come again.”

“So what do you propose?”

“I want the girl. I want to watch over her. She is mine after all.”