What She Didn't Know | Twilight Fanfiction

5. Run-in

Jacob

A light ocean scent clung to the morning mist blanketing the landscape Saturday morning.

Jacob had awakened early to work on his Volkswagen Rabbit for a while before he headed to Forks to help Jessica paint. He'd just finished straightening up the makeshift shop and was scrubbing the grime from his hands with a rag when he felt a ripple in the air coming from outside that made his skin crawl. He lowered the hood of the car and went to investigate the strange feeling. While his eyes drifted over the area, a flock of birds scattered into the air. Below the brief commotion, Jacob thought he glimpsed an enormous black object at the edge of the trees, but the fog obscured image evaporated into the mist with the blink of his eyes. Seconds later, he spotted the true source of the raised hair on his arms. Sam Uley and his disciples.

Jacob grimaced and dropped back into the garage out of sight, continuing to watch them. Jared Cameron and Paul Lahote were flanking Sam a pace or two behind him, but their synced movement with his was eerie. Though Sam was larger than them, in the white haze, they resembled a creepy cloned gang. It was bad enough seeing them around La Push; he hated whenever they stopped by to see his dad.

Sam knocked, then entered the house while his sidekicks stayed on the porch. Jacob couldn't understand why Billy had become so close to Sam over the last year or why he and the other council members ignored the way Sam and his boys roamed around La Push, intimidating everyone. It was beyond time he found out, though, so he snuck from the garage circled around behind it and made a run for the back kitchen window. He'd tried listening in on them a few times before, but both Sam's and Billy's voices always went silent whenever he got close enough to hear anything. He thought, since Sam had just arrived, he might have better luck this time. In anticipation, he flattened himself against the house, placing an ear against the dewy glass window.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you eavesdropping isn't polite?"

Alarm gripped Jacob, causing his posture to tense, but having recognized the aggravating, cocky voice, he shoved the spooked feeling down, pulled together a calm mask, and turned to face Paul. "I'm just checking the caulking around the windows." Irritated with himself for even responding and with a made-up excuse, he resorted to one of Quil's tools when dealing with people he didn't like. A smart mouth. "Never mind what I'm doing! What are you doing sneaking around our home?" Fury rose in him at the truth of his question.

"I didn't sneak around your house. I came right up, out in the open when I saw you scurrying by like a nosy little rat."

"Oh, yeah? I doubt you saw anything. Your head is so far up Sam's ass these days, I can't tell where he ends, and you begin."

Feral rage twisted Paul's face. His bulky frame had tightened, his skin appearing to thin and stretch over more protruding muscles and tendons. He looked about to spring like an elastic band stretching too far and ready to snap. Jacob refused the cautious urge to step backward, instead letting the sight of Paul's outrage fill him with satisfaction.

"Watch yourself, Black!" The way Paul was huffing and puffing, he seemed hardly able to speak. "And I thought Quil would be the first of you three stooges to earn an ass beating."

"Paul!" Jared only said his name when he came up behind Jacob and stepped beside Paul, but Jacob sensed an unspoken command beneath it.

Facing off with these two alone scared Jacob a little, but answering to the stronger belligerent voice inside him, he damn sure wouldn't let them know it. He glared at Jared. "I don't need your help. But what I do need... is to know how Sam fits both of your heads up there?"

Paul stepped forward as Jared's arm crossed Paul's chest to block him from taking another step. If Jacob struck a nerve in Jared, the only sign he showed was a twitch of his set jaw. He thought he heard an animalistic growl come from Paul, though. He'd become such a weirdo since he started palling around with Sam and Jared.