I barely kept from gasping when the man said a name I recognized, and though I'd kept from making a sound, my face burned. I stared at the grass, hoping no one would look my way.
"That one knows."
I jerked my face up, meeting the gaze of the huge mountain-sized man. I forgot his name.
"That one is my mate, and you will show him respect." Aver was at my side in a flash.
Hunter and Jagger angled toward us, their gazes turning cold and calculating.
"That's enough," Knox said, standing in no-man's-land with Nash and Branson. "We all have big dicks, we know that." He turned to me, and though I wouldn't call his expression soft, at least it wasn't a scowl. "If you know who this kid is, you would be helping him by telling us where to find him."
I scoffed silently. Yeah, sure, I'd be helping Jazz by telling a group of angry men where he was. With Aver by my side, I found my voice, and it didn't even shake. "He isn't a kid. He's in his twenties, and I don't know where he is. The last I saw him was a few months ago." At Aver's questioning look, I added, "At the club."
"Do you have a phone number? Something we could track?" Faust asked.
I grabbed Aver's hand, clenching my phone with my other. "I do have his number, but I won't give it to you without his permission. I don't care what his father told you. If Jazz ran, he had a reason."
Several of the men growled, earning a sharp snarl from Bran and Madison. Both children looked eager to escape their parents' arms and show these men who they were dealing with. Knox's eyes widened before his lips curled into a smile. "I like them."
"Careful, this one will take a toe," Phin said.
While the kids distracted them, I dropped Aver's hand and typed out a message.
"What are you doing?" Knox asked sharply.
I'd already pressed send. A good thing since the five of them looked ready to rip the phone from my hands. My phone chimed with Jazz's reply.
"Did he just tip off our mark?" Faust asked, sounding none too pleased.
I read Jazz's reply and snorted before tilting the screen so Aver could see as well.
"Why'd we come here again?" the mountain man asked. "To make our jobs harder?"
If I'd come face to face with this group anywhere else, every instinct I had would've told me to run. But I could be as brave as I liked with my alpha near. "I'm not trying to make your jobs harder, but I don't know you. I don't know if you're lying. But I know Jazz. I told him you were looking for him and asked him if I could give you his number."
That got them cursing at one another, and the atmosphere in the yard dropped from questionable to decidedly tense.
"And what did he say?" Knox growled out.
I smiled slowly, enjoying the moment more than I should have. "He said it's fine and to give you his number. He said he wasn't scared of you, and, I'm quoting here, 'let the bastards try.' Do you have a pen?"
Chapter Twenty-two
Hollister
Though Nana had invited the men to stay for dinner, they'd been in a rush after receiving Jazz's phone number. I'd call my friend later to give him more of the details and to ask him who the heck he was. It wasn't normal to have your father hire five men who looked like hardened criminals to chase your son.
When they'd left, the one who'd seemed like the leader, Knox, sent me a smirk over his shoulder that I didn't trust in the slightest.
I hoped Jazz knew who he'd just given his number too.
But he'd consented to me giving his number to them, so until he called again to tell me different, I'd trust he knew what he was doing.
Aver remained a growling, stalking mess for a long time after the men left, and only the children rolling around on the blanket could pull him out of his funk. Calvin was a master at sitting up on his own now, and I figured it would only be a matter of time before Autumn could as well. She'd already grown so much.
"It's getting late. Why don't we eat dinner out here?" Nana suggested, her face lit warmly by the sinking sun.
I didn't mind either way, and no one else seemed to either.
"Make yourselves useful and help me bring the food out," Nana said.
Those of us around her looked to one another, trying to decide who she was talking to.
"Nash and Wyatt," she clarified, turning on her heel as the brothers raced to catch up.
Nash returned first with a steaming tray of corn on the cob, already soaking in butter. Next to that, Wyatt set down a platter of meat. Her grill had been going for the last hour, and I was eager to finally taste the smell that'd had me drooling.
Nana came out last with a bowl of potato salad. The boys set out plates on the table, and Nana dished a scoop of potato salad onto each one. She stabbed a chicken breast with the serving fork, the tips charred from where the fire had licked at the sugary barbecue sauce.
"Do you want one ear or two, Hollister?" she asked.
"One, please," I said with a smile. I'd been secretly worried that I wouldn't feel as close to the matriarch of the Walker family as the others because she hadn't been a part of my life in the pack until very recently.
I'd worried for no reason—something Aver had tried to tell me several times over. Already, I wondered how we'd ever lived without her, and I didn't want to try again. The last time she left, this family nearly ripped itself apart.
Nana handed me my plate, turning to dish up Riley, Kansas, Julie, the older kids, and Phin before she took her own plate and sat in the grass near where the older children waited like begging puppies.
The guys had pulled the travel cribs outside so Autumn and Calvin could sleep when their bedtime had come. Both children were out, their arms and legs sticking out like tiny X's.
"Oh, we're just chopped liver then," Wyatt whined, staring at his mate's plate.
Nana shrugged and gave Kansas a look when he tried to feed Wyatt from his plate.
"Brutal," Nash muttered under his breath, though not quietly enough so that any of us had difficulty hearing what he'd said.
I didn't want to be on the receiving end of one of Nana's looks, but as a natural helper, I had to fight to keep from jumping up.
Nana settled her hand on my knee and leaned into me like she was about to tell a secret. "Every once in a while, you've got to make sure their britches still fit."
I laughed and committed the tip to memory.
The others dished up, joining us as we sat scattered in the grass, all but Branson, who stood a few feet away, watching us eat.
"Now?" Riley asked him.
I put my corn down at the exact same time everyone else stopped eating as well. A person couldn't just ask a question like that and not expect those around him to take notice.
"Are you pregnant? Tell me you're pregnant," Kansas squealed.
Riley laughed, shaking his head before pointing to his mate standing in front of us like he was about to give a presentation.
"Riley isn't pregnant, but I do have something I want to share. I think it might answer some of the questions we've had. Or maybe not?" He shrugged and threaded his fingers through his hair.
I took my cue from Riley, who clearly had some idea about what Branson was about to say. He smiled, but it was an odd type that made me wonder if I wanted to hear whatever was coming next.