Until Series(278)

“You think this shit’s easy? There aren’t even instructions in English! All this shit is in Chinese,” Cash complains, shoving the piece of paper at me.

I don’t even bother looking for English directions; I just look at the picture, glance at the pieces, and immediately start to assemble the fence.

“You have always been a fucking show-off,” Trevor says in disgust, making me laugh.

“You’re just mad I’m smarter than you.”

“You wish, motherfucker,” he replies, helping me put pieces together.

“You girls going to stand there and watch, or are you going to help us out?” I ask Asher and Cash, who are both just standing over us in identical poses with their arms crossed over their chests.

Realizing they’ve been called out, they immediate jump into action. It takes thirty minutes to get the last piece attached, but once we’re done, we all stand back to appreciate our hard work.

“That didn’t take long to do once y’all stopped bitching,” I pointed out, just to rub it in their faces.

“We would have figured it out…eventually,” Cash says, smiling—something he does a lot more these days.

“How are Lilly and Ashlyn doing living with you?” I ask him.

“Good. They’re settling in. Never thought I’d be thankful to Jules for anything in my life besides Jax, but she proved to be useful getting Lilly to live with me, even if the situation was fucked up.”

“True,” I agree; Lilly is the best thing to happen to Jax and Cash. Every time I’m around them as a family, I see the love she has for my brother. In the beginning, I was worried about her intentions, but now, I know she is exactly what Cash said she is—a good woman.

“How’s work been?” Trevor asks. He always asks me the same thing, and I know they all want me to go back to working with them, but I can’t; I love what I do.

“Good. Busy.” I give him the same vague answer I always do.

“Guess there’s never a short supply of criminals. At least you have job security,” Asher says, laughing.

I look at my brothers and chuckle. I’m blessed to have such an awesome family, and I can’t wait for everyone to meet Sophie.



I pull up in front of Sophie’s house a little after ten; all of her lights are out, but that’s not going to stop me from seeing her right now. I’m about to get out of the car when I see movement. It’s dark out, but I can see someone in all black walking around the side of her house. I reach over and open my glove box, grabbing my Glock. I get out of my car and put the gun in the waistband of my jeans at my back. I pull my hoodie down over it before heading towards her house.

I stay in the shadows, watching as the guy walks around to her backyard. I follow but then stop long enough to send a quick text to Kenton with the address, along with a code telling him that I need backup.

I watch the person as they walk from window to window, and I can tell that whoever it is is trying to find a way inside. He tries the last window at the back of the house, and when I see this one open, I pull out my gun and walk up behind the person. Just as they are getting ready to climb inside, I put my hand to the back of their sweatshirt and yank them back.

“What the fuck?” a male’s voice cries as I place my gun to his head.

Rage like I have never felt in my life consumes me. I feel out of control and know I could kill this guy without a second thought.

“I was just going to ask you the same question, motherfucker,” I say near his ear. I start to pull his hoodie off, but he turns slightly and I feel a sharp pain in my side.

In sudden shock, I drop to my knees and watch as the guy takes off running. I fight to take back control of the muscles in my body that have been seized by the voltage from the Taser.

“Nico?” I hear Sophie’s voice behind me. I look over my shoulder and our gazes meet before she looks down at my side, her eyes going wide. “What happened?”

“Sophie, go back inside,” I tell her through gritted teeth. I don’t want her out here if the guy is still around.

“But—”

“Sophie, go back inside. Now,” I say, watching as she does what she’s told before I pull out my phone to call Kenton to let him know what just happened.

After I finally get control back, I check around the house to see if I can catch the guy’s trail, but there is no sign of him. I’ve circled the house three times when Kenton pulls up and parks behind my car.

“Cops are on the way,” he says as soon as he gets out.

“Good.” I run my hands down my face.

“How the hell did he get the drop on you?” he asks.