Fall Into Me (Into Me Series Book Three)

Chapter Thirty Two - Pavlove

Jackson's POV

"Remind me why we're doing this at the ass crack of dawn?" Connor wonders, his feet falling heavy behind me.
"Because it's Jet's birthday and I need to be ready to leave by lunch so I can surprise her at work and you can set up at the house with Riley and Jordan," I explain, for the fourth. fucking. time.
"Jet's lucky we love her," Jordan grumbles, shaking out his jacket sleeve soaked with rain.
"No, we're lucky she loves us," I correct him, shooting him a dirty look.
"Alright, killer. Relax," Jordan says, holding his hands up innocently.
"Come on, gramps. Let's get this over with so you can be psycho elsewhere," Riley urges, nudging me forward with his elbow.
I narrow my eyes at him, "Fuck off, kid."

Am I being a little dramatic? Probably, yes. But it's Jet's birthday and I want it to be perfect for her, especially for all of the shit I've put her through this past year.

"Why are you in such an ass mood, man?" Connor wonders.
"I'm not in an ass mood," I reply defensively, a low growl to my voice.
"... sure," Connor replies, shoving his way past me toward the hotel lobby.

Truth is, I haven't been able to shake the never-ending worry that Jet and our little one have been giving me. I want to always be there with them, protecting them and ensuring they're both okay. That's why I came home. I refuse to be a useless father. And when I woke up this morning and Jet was nowhere to be found, I damn near shit myself. Turns out she was just making fucking cookies at three in the damn morning, not at all comprehending why I was so panicked.

Jesus tap dancing Christ, she's going to be the fucking death of me one of these days.

At least I convinced her to go back to sleep after feeding her a bunch of the warm cookies from the oven so I could sneak out to work without getting questioned. As far as Jet knows, I went for my usual morning run with Brian and then helped Brian out with moving a bunch of furniture around in the nursery cause Susie can't before heading into work. She's still out cold. Thank god. The last thing I need is her worrying about me.

We walk past the group of local pigs in civilian clothing standing outside of the hotel and taking a smoke break who nod at us. I nod back, grabbing my pistol from the holster on my hip, trying to avoid scrunching my entire face up at the smell of the cigarette smoke. This should be a nice, easy, quick in-and-out case. Walk in, grab Slimy McDouche Face and his pals, throw some cuffs on, and get the kids out of there.

Thanks to Riley, almost all of our jobs have been like this lately. He and Jordan worked on developing a two-part system for every case while I was in Cleveland. A few days previous, we send a few people in and "blow our cover" to let the rings know we're after them. They then "get caught" and "taken", usually Nyx, Heath, Mac, or Veronica, followed by us trying to bargain with the ring's leadership to give us our agents back. We then make a "failed" rescue attempt so that the ring's defenses are low, thinking that we lost our luster. And then, a few days later, we burst down the damn door, grab our agent, and leave with people in cuffs.

Now, listen, I hear you. I also hated the idea of it at first. The idea of the agents that I'm responsible for getting taken and possibly beaten while we sit on our asses made me sick to my stomach for the longest time, until I saw just how well this whole system works. Well, and the fact that Nyx and Veronica told me not to worry about them because they, and I quote, have "pain kinks" and that "the torture is actually really fun."

I had to hear it so you did too.

In fact, the exact words from Nyx's mouth were "Pain kink plot twist!"

You're welcome.

We hit the stairwell and start our ascension, no words being spoken. Cases where it's just Connor, Jordan, Riley, and myself are my favorite. We know each other so well that we can predict the other's moves before they even make them. It's a sort of harmony that you only get when you have worked together as long as we have. Well, that and the fact that we're practically brothers... I mean, besides Connor and I actually being brothers.