Jax (The Protectors, #8) - Teresa Gabelman Page 0,2
talk to you later, and tell Sid sorry I was being an asshole."
Caroline hung up before Lana could respond and tossed her phone away from her. She then covered her eyes. Man, she had to get a grip. It was only a dream, yet it seemed so different. She quickly turned her head to look in the corner where the little boy had appeared earlier, but he was gone. Her phone ringing pulled her focus away. Sitting up, she saw Lana's picture flash on her phone. She grabbed her cell and hit Ignore. Knowing Lana would continue to call, she sent her a text saying she was okay and not to worry.
Looking down, she wasn't surprised to see her hands shaking and knew that if she sat there much longer thinking, she was going to lose it. "It was just a dream," she hissed to herself as she stood.
Walking to the kitchen, she went to start some coffee, but stopped. She needed to release her pent-up energy, which was weird since she'd just woken up. She was not a morning person and it took no less than one pot of strong ‘knock you on your ass’ coffee to get her going, but this morning was different.
Heading to her room, she grabbed a pair of sweats, a hoodie, and tied her hair in a sloppy ponytail. Searching around, Caroline found her tennis shoes and quickly put them on. Once finished, she headed for the door, but paused and looked at the coffee pot, knowing once she finished with a run she would want a cup. With a sigh, she hurried and started a pot before taking off out the door.
******
Jax followed Sid and Lana down Caroline's dirt driveway. Blaze and Steve were behind him. They had set this time to come out and work on the roof, but after talking to Sid, the roof was the furthest thing from his mind. His patience was wearing thin. Dodging the ruts and puddles from the heavy rain they'd had the previous night, he maneuvered his motorcycle and passed Sid down the driveway.
He searched and missed nothing as he pulled his bike to a stop and hopped off. In five strides, he was on the front porch knocking on the door. When he heard nothing inside and Caroline didn't come to the door, he cursed, grabbed the knob, and opened the door.
"Caroline!" Jax called out, his gaze not missing the buckets and pots scattered throughout the house catching what rainwater the tarp they had placed on the roof didn't. It was pretty bad for a two-story house. He wondered how many damn buckets she had scattered upstairs. "Dammit," he hissed. He had wanted to stop by last night or at least call to make sure she was okay and the roof hadn't caved the rest of the way in, but Sloan had kept them so busy he hadn't had a minute.
"She here?" Lana ran inside with Sid close behind. "Where is she?"
Jax didn't answer, but walked to the coffeepot and felt it. "She's here somewhere." He cocked his head to listen, but couldn't pick up anything. It didn't look like a struggle had taken place, but it was hard to tell, with the house being in the chaos period of remodeling. "What did she say when she talked to you?" He turned toward Lana, his eyes darkening.
"She just said she had a dream. She seemed flustered, but that has happened before with our dreams." Lana frowned, but didn't add any more. "Caroline!" she called out.
Steve and Blaze had made their way inside. "What's going on?" Steve checked out the house, then walked over to peek down into the bucket before glancing up at the ceiling. "This place is definitely a stinker."
Everyone stopped to look at Steve. "What the fuck is a stinker?" Sid glared over at Steve.
"You know"—Steve spread his arms out, looking around the place—"a dump… a stinker."
"Where in the fuck do you come up with this shit?" Sid shook his head, still eyeing Steve as if he were some funky alien, but Steve just shrugged before walking around.
"Don't let Caroline hear you say that," Lana warned. "She won't invite you to dinner."
A piece of ceiling broke away, crashing in front of Steve. "And that would be a bad thing?" He stepped over the plaster. "You know, Blaze, you could do your 'hot to trot' thing and save Caroline and us a lot of misery by burning this baby to the ground."