it is better than me losing it. I link our fingers together and tighten my grip on his hand.
“Where the fuck are you going, Oakley?” Jax demands. His tone holds no room for argument.
Oakley looks right at me as though she knows I’m the one who’ll cave first. Fuck she’s already got us figured out.
“Oakley,” Jax shouts, and she jumps and steps back.
“I have to leave.” She turns her back to us and no matter how desperately I want to grab her and pull her into my arms, I trust Jax and I know if anyone can fix this, it’s him.
The front door slams and I’m thankful for Shelly being smart enough to take Logan out of the house.
Oakley shakes her head. “You don’t understand, Jax. I can’t stay here, he’ll find—”
In that instant, every shred of control I had, unravels and disappears. Three steps is all it takes to put me in front of Oakley. She backs up against the wall, her hands by her sides.
“The fuck do you mean he’ll find you? Who the fuck is after you, Oakley? And don’t even think about lying or so help me I will spank your cute bare ass until it’s burning bright with my handprint.”
Eyes wide, she stares at me as though I’ve got two heads. Just as quickly, her stare of shock turns to one of utter determination. She shoves her way past me, shouting. “Spank me? Who the hell do you think you are? It’s none of your goddamn business! Now get out of my bedroom.”
Using my height and size to my advantage, I crowd her. “Now is not the time or place, but so help me, Oakley I will not hesitate to show you exactly who I am to you.” I growl. “Now, you’re not leaving this house until you tell us what the fuck is going on or I will tie to you the goddamn bed and force it out of you…”
Fuuuck man. So not the time or place for sexual innuendos.
“Oakley,” Jax says, his tone gentle now. “We just wanna help you. Please, tell us what’s goin’ on.”
Sighing, her shoulders slump and she crosses her arms around herself, resigned. “Fine. I’ll tell you what’s going on, but then I am leaving…” She gives each of us a death glare. “And you will not stop me.”
I shrug. “Fine.”
She jolts, not expecting me to agree and turns her attention to Jax, and he nods in agreement. We’re good liars we need to be.
“My real name is Elizabeth-Oakley Manningham. My father’s name is Chad Manningham, but he goes by—”
My attempt to school my features is a dismal failure. Her real name! And her father is... “Holy Saber.” I was not expecting that.
“Yeah, so you’ve heard of him, right?” Oakley says.
Jax’s brow furrows in confusion, and I explain, “Holy Sabre. Guns—Trafficking. The Preacher turned arms dealer?”
“Holy fuck!” he says before he slumps down on the end of the bed.
I urge Oakley to continue. “I was ten years old when I realized what he did for a living. Or should I say, what he really did for a living.” She lets out a self-deprecating laugh. “I thought he was the best dad in the whole world. We’d go to church and listen to him preach, trust in his words… in him.” She pulls up her sleeves and traces the scars on her arm with her fingertips. “Mom hated it. We’d have these guys come to the house all hours of the night and day demanding to see Dad.”
Her shoulders slump. “When he moved his operations from our farm to a warehouse out of state, we thought we’d be safe. But he…” Oakley stands and folds her clothes as she talks as though the action will lessen the impact of her words. “He made a deal with some cartel. He’d already been trafficking guns for years but they brought something new to the table—drugs. Dad thought it’d bring in more money. It did, but it wasn’t enough. He went deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld obsessed with making as much money as he could. He started distributing drugs through the church but instead of giving his supplier their fair share, Dad started skimming off the top. A little at first and more as it went unnoticed. By the time the FBI got involved, half the suppliers men were dead, and for three years we thought he’d died too.”
She sighs. “I wasn’t even sad. I didn’t miss him because there was