Jag mutters, “Jem’s gonna have my balls you keep smokin’ in here. Take it to the balcony. Coffee, Kill?”
“I’m good, thanks, Jag.”
Jessa gets outraged. “My nerves, Jag. My nerves are shot and you’re offering Killian coffee. And P.S… fuck Jem. Sanctimonious bitch.”
“Smoke it out there.” He opens the sliding door and glares at her. “Then come talk to Kill. And shut yer trap about my fiancée or I’ll be really pissed.”
She huffs and heads out the door, all but stomping her feet, then turning to me.
“Are you coming?” she asks.
“I’ll wait until you get your fix.” I lean back and relax.
She aims a glare at me before taking a long drag and leaning her back against the railing.
“My woman is ready to kill me and Jess,” Jag mutters, sliding the door shut. “All that drama ruined plans she had and now she’s dealing with my sister and those two are like bleach and vinegar together. And I’m about to take it out on you.” He points at me before thrusting his hand through his hair.
“Me?” I gesture to myself, “Your sister shouldn’t have been there. She seduces Tony and casts her spell on him so the guy turns up to his job with her when we both know he should never have let her talk him into that, and what the fuck?”
“Can’t find good help,” Jag mutters. “Wouldn’t have happened if I was still your right hand.”
“Yeah. You hired and trained the guy. Where’d you go wrong?”
He snickers and relaxes a little.
“Though I’d have tried to talk you out of keeping a hostage. What gives?”
I ignore the question. “We know where things went wrong. That siren you share DNA with,” I say. “That’s part of why I’ve gotta talk to you. I need you to take over security for my clubs. Things are amped and that’s comin’ from all around. I’ll explain the rest later. She gonna keep her mouth shut about this? Because Jagger…” I give him a poignant stare.
He sighs. “It’s a mess. I know. But man, I’m busy.”
She’s coming back in, eyes blazing at me.
“We’ll talk after,” I say to Jag and turn my attention to his sister. “Talk to me. Leave nothing out. Start at the part where you decided to seduce Tony.”
She flops onto the couch.
“No. Leave that part out,” Jag growls.
“My mistake,” I raise a hand and toss a smirk at him.
I wait while she examines her fingernails.
“Any time now, Jessa,” Jag pushes.
“I don’t take well to rejection. As you can probably guess.” She’s still looking at her fingers.
I scoff and fold my arms.
“And you’re the only one who has rejected me, and you’ve done it more than once. It stings every time, too. When you said you were off the market permanently, I got pissed off and that changed to feeling sorry for myself, so I got drunk and made a scene, hoping you’d show up and I could try one more time to get you to come back to my hotel or something. Tony has always had a crush on me and when it was him taking me back instead of you, it started out just as an ego stroke, getting him to stay, but then I was having fun. He’s actually a really sweet guy. And it feels good that he’s so into me. But then he was being all secretive about what he’s doing for you, and you know how I hate when people try to keep secrets from me.”
“So you snooped in his phone and decided to snoop some more by talking him into taking you to the gig he had to take care of for me.”
“Yeah, and then you canceled so that meant I wouldn’t get to find out what it was. So I deleted the text from you and talked him into taking me. It was actually easier than I thought it’d be. He’s a teddy bear.”
“Probably because he knew that chapter was coming to a close with that guy. If you hadn’t done that, he wouldn’t have gone and the guy wouldn’t have escaped. Your stunt nearly got Tony killed, Jess.”
She looks remorseful. I don’t know if it’s legit or not.
“What happened when the guy came out of the house without Tony?”
“To back up, when we got there, Tony wouldn’t let me go in to use the bathroom, so I was in a snit. Then your hostage comes limping out, gets in the car, not even seeing me until his door was shut. And then he freaked out and fumbled until he got that gun pointed at me. I nearly had a heart attack but managed to think quick and talk fast, and next thing I know, he’s driving off, freaked that you might come back. Swears he’s not gonna hurt me and apologizes that he’s got me as a hostage but says he needs leverage in case you start chasing him. Starts spouting off that you stole his girl, married her, and locked him in there so you could torture him.”