Tex (Hell's Ankhor #5) - Aiden Bates Page 0,32

the Vipers and took a knife to the gut. I’d been the one to drag him to Ankhor Works, where Logan had thankfully been there to stitch him up. But he’d gone through that and still wanted to continue prospecting with the club. He was tough. So I was a little curious as to why a scuffle like this made him look so anxious. Now wasn’t the time, though—I’d have to talk to Blade about it later.

“Hey, Jazz?” Heath asked, a little sheepishly. “You think you could show me that move you used on the guy?”

“Yeah,” Siren said. “Pretty slick. Let’s see it in slow motion.”

“Of course, kid.” Jazz stepped into the middle of the room, and then motioned for me to follow. “Come on, Tex, you’re my victim.”

Heath stood up and walked out from around the desk to watch more closely.

“It’s easy.” Jazz grabbed my shoulder. “Here” –he knocked his foot against my ankles, and I went down obligingly, grateful he didn’t do it for real and bust my kneecaps— “then here” –his knee pressed gently into my lower back— “then here” —his wrist caught right hand and twisted it behind my back—“then the other hand, too.”

Even slowed down for instructional purposes, it was swift, easy, elegant. The tile was cold against my cheek where I was pinned to the floor, but it didn’t compare in the slightest to the distracting heat of Jazz’s hand on my wrists and his weight holding me down.

We used to wrestle when we were younger. I was usually the victor. I had weight on him, height, too. But now he was dense with muscle, and still fast, too.

That weird flipping feeling in my stomach was back.

“It’s not painful, though,” Jazz said. “Right, Tex?”

My brain felt a little slowed down, and I tried to nod, but my face was still pressed into the floor. Siren’s laugh brought me back to reality.

“Uh, no,” I said, and my voice sounded a little rough to my own ears. “No, it’s fine.”

“Just a good quick way to restrain someone without doing too much damage,” Jazz said. He released me, and then stood up and offered his hand to help me up. “Works best if the other person’s not expecting it.”

“Where’d you learn this stuff?” Heath asked.

“The joint,” Jazz said with a shrug. “Gotta watch your own back. And there are a lot of guys in there that knew a little this or a little that. I was able to hodge-podge some stuff together.”

Heath nodded, and then bit his lip like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t decide if he should.

Jazz caught that look as well. “Listen, do you want me to teach you some other stuff? Some self-defense tricks?”

“Yeah,” Heath said, lighting up. “Yeah, that’d be amazing.”

I still felt a little dizzy watching them, like the blood wasn’t getting back to my brain fast enough. I was probably just dehydrated from working in the heat of the garage, and then the excitement with the Liberty Crew guy didn’t help.

Across the room, Maverick was rooting through Grace’s diaper bag while Jonah held her in his arms, bouncing her. But his blue eyes were drilling into me, with a small smile on his face, like he knew something I didn’t.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, feeling a little embarrassed, though I wasn’t sure why. It was just a demonstration. Nothing I haven’t done a hundred times before with any of my Hell’s Ankhor brothers.

“I’m gonna get in touch with Blade and Gunnar,” I said. “We should have a quick meeting tonight. Just to make sure everyone’s on the same page about what happened.”

“Sure,” Jazz said. “Good idea.”

“All right,” I said, suddenly hot around my collar. I needed some fresh air. “Be back in a second.”

In the parking lot I had to take a few deep breaths to ground myself before I called the clubhouse. There was no reason for all of this to feel so strange and unfamiliar. Jazz’s return was supposed to be a return to normalcy—I was supposed to feel better with him around, more like myself. So why did I feel so suddenly unmoored?

“Tex.” Jazz stepped into the parking lot.

I fiddled with the phone in my hand. I didn’t know what to say. “Listen, I—”

“Club business comes first,” Jazz said firmly, but not coldly. “Yeah?”

All right. Couldn’t say I didn’t feel a little bit of relief at that. Knowing that we could work together even with—whatever this was simmering between us—eased some of the