Page 101 of Jake's Angel
“Sadie. He doesn’t want me.”
“Yeah, he has to. I mean, look at the signs, Aves.”
“I literally heard him tell Hawk—no, yell at Hawk—he didn’t want to fuck me. He sounded completely disgusted at the mention of me and sex in the same sentence.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” She’s still spinning her wheels trying to solve the mystery that isn’t even a mystery, but once she gets like this, there’s no point in stopping her. She’ll come to the right conclusion eventually.
“Believe me. I thought he wanted me too. After he got me off the first time, I thought there was something there. I’m telling you I misread him.”
“Back the fuck up.” Sadie spins, putting herself directly in front of me, nose-to-nose. “When did Jake get you off? You said he didn’t do anything last night.”
“Oh, umm.”
Shit.
“Avery fucking West, you better tell me or I’m going to go get Liz. She’ll drag the truth out of you.”
“No. Sadie. Don’t tell anyone. You can’t.” I beg.
“Start talking.”
“When he took me for a ride the other day. We went to my mom’s grave, and we were talking, then we started kissing.” My face is so red I canfeelthe heat. “I didn’t mean for anything else to happen, but we started kissing a little more intimately and then he helped get me off.”
Sadie squeals loudly.
“But we had our clothes on. I swear, it was nothing major. We made out for a few minutes and when it was over, he brought me here. We have done nothing else since.”
“I’m so proud of you. I wasn’t sure you’d let a guy touch you after everything you’ve been through.” Her eyes are glassed over.
“I think that was part of the reason I let it happen.” Sadie looks at me, confused. “I got tochoose.I wanted to feel whatJake could do for me and because I chose to explore my feelings, I was able to allow myself to let go and enjoy it.”
Sadie looks at me, biting her lip. “I have to ask. You did it on your mom’s grave?” She scrunches her face in disgust. “I mean, I’m happy for you and all, but you know that’s not the best place to have an orgasm—in a cemetery, right?”
I throw the pillow at her and she catches it. “I didn’t plan for it to happen there. We shared a moment, and we got carried away. Don’t yuck my yum, damn it.”
“All right, all right. Avery likes to have heated make-out sessions in the cemetery. Noted.”
“Fuck off.” I laugh. “It doesn’t matter. It won’t be happening again. He’s turned cold again.”
“No. There’s something he’s not telling you.” Sadie looks pensive.
“Sadie, it’s not a big deal.I’m a job. A club responsibility that’s been thrust on him, and he’s been acting nice because he has to. I really don’t want to think about it anymore. Can we please talk about something else?” Her wheels are still turning, so I change the subject, hoping we can get as far away from the topic of sex and Jake as possible.
“I think we need to contact Thomas. I need to find out what he knows about all of this.”
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
“Yes. Look, everyone is saying they have an idea about what happened. There’sevidenceof murder, but the only person who was there and can tell me what actually happened is him. And he seems to know something about this Cusenza person as well. He’s the one who told me to come here and let the Kings protect me. I want to know why.” I watch as she seems to battle a myriad of emotions. I know this can’t be easy for her. “I hate asking you to help me with this, Sades, but you know I’ll never be able to do this without you. I need to find out the truth.”
She hesitates for a minute before agreeing to help me set up a meeting. “Contact him and tell him you’ll meet him in Devil’s Canyon. I need at least a week to work out some things, so let’s set things up to meet toward the end of next week. It will give me a few extra days in case Hawk has suddenly become smarter than me.” She rolls her eyes. “It should give me enough time. We can’t chance meeting him here. The guys are already going to skin us alive when they find out what we’re doing, but if they found him …” She stops. Playing with her fingernails in her lap, she’s nervous. When she lifts her eyes to meet mine again, she says, “They’ll kill him, Aves. He played a part in Maggie’s death. I know he’s a piece of shit and I shouldn’t feel anything toward him but anger and hate, but …”
Placing my hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring squeeze, I let her know I understand.
“You can’t because he’s still your father. I get it.”
We sit quietly for a few minutes while I send off the text on the burner phone I’ve had hidden in my go-bag, letting Thomas know we can meet in two days. He tells us the location to meet him. It’s a diner in Devil’s Canyon. Sadie lays back on the bed quietly staring at the ceiling. I can tell by the way her jaw ticks and her brows scrunch that she’s formulating a plan to get us away from the club and out of town undetected.
While I lay here trying to forget everything that’s happened.