Page 27 of Tack’s Bounty

“Babe?” he asked.

“What?”

“How’d you get those marks on your upper back? Did someone do that or was it an accident?” he asked. He turned around when she didn’t immediately answer. She was staring at him, and he could almost see those wheels turning behind her eyes as she tried to figure out how to answer him. From her delay, he guessed that he wasn’t going to like how she got them. He stepped closer, cupping her face.

“You can tell me anything,” he urged.

“I was debating filing for divorce, but for a couple weeks, Rufus had been nicer. He’d been hounding me to add him and Jolene to the business and household accounts, but I had a weird feeling. I was in the barn in my overalls and a tube top because I was cleaning the stalls to be ready for a couple new animals. He and Jolene walked in and started hounding me about the accounts again. I told him I was busy and the subject was closed. I turned my back and started shoveling again. All I heard was a whoosh, and then a fiery pain spread across my back. Before I could turn, it happened again. I dropped to the ground, dizzy and a little nauseous from it. Jolene walked over and grabbed my hair, dragging me out of the stall, saying that I was going to sign the papers. I’d just gotten Pudding, and he was still scared of people, but he came running out, headbutting Rufus in the crotch, then he hit Jolene in the side, knocking her over. While they were distracted, I ran to the truck, got in, and locked it. I stayed in there until they left. I cleaned myself up as much as I could. I went in the house and changed clothes, grabbed my checkbook and wallet, and went to see a lawyer,” she finished.

Tack swallowed and worked to keep his cool. “Babe, I will make sure something like that never happens to you again. I’m so sorry they betrayed your trust,” he vowed, pulling her against him and just holding her in his arms. All he wanted to do was go beat those two to a pulp, but right now, Sophia needed reassurance that she was safe. There’d be time enough later to make his point that Sophia was off-limits in a very satisfying way.

“Love you, babe. Now, I’ll go grab your coffee because I know you’re craving that caffeine,” he pointed out, touching her nose and working on maintaining his calm demeanor when what he really wanted to do was punch his fist through the wall.

“Love you too. Now go, I really have to pee,” she muttered, motioning him toward the door.

“You got it,” he shot back, striding out of the room and down the stairs. He walked into the kitchen. Stinger and his mom were there, sipping coffee and chatting.

“What’s wrong?” Ruthy asked, standing up.

“Why?”

“You’re so angry, you’re almost vibrating. What do we need to do?” Ruthy pressed.

“Those wastes of space across the street whipped her back with something that left marks,” Tack muttered through clenched teeth.

His mom laid her hand on his arm. “We’ll make them pay.”

Tack nodded. Hell yes, they’d make them pay, but he needed a little more information into why they had terrorized Sophia.

“Make who pay?” Lake asked, walking in. “If it’s more than one person, you probably need a protein shake, Tack, because you burned a lot of calories last night.”

Tack didn’t think anything could make him smile just then, but Lake’s jealous tone did.

“Hey, I burned a lot of calories last night,” Stinger whined.

“You burned some calories,” Lake sighed. “But when I tried to wake you because hearing Tack and Sophia going at it for the third time had me, umm, horny and hot, you bellyached that you were too tired. So nope, Tack deserves a protein shake because he gave Sophia an obviously A-plus night. B-minus or lower don’t deserve protein shakes or a chance for a repeat performance,” Lake teased.

“Oh, come on. I gave it to you against the wall like you wanted. That deserves at least an A-minus,” Stinger countered.

Tack chuckled at the two arguing on grading Stinger’s performance. He ignored them and fixed Sophia’s coffee before dropping a kiss on his mom’s head and hugging her.

“Thanks, Mom.”

“You’re welcome, son. Oh my goodness, we have an overabundance of breakfast pastries. Maybe I should drop some at the neighbors,” Ruthy suggested.

“Mom,” Tack cautioned.

“Okay, I’ll leave them alone for now, but only because it’s your right as her man to decide the retribution. Don’t make me wait too long or…” Ruthy warned.

Tack nodded, knowing exactly what his mom was talking about. When she and his Aunt Charlie had been left with their men dead and had to protect their children, his mom had invented Ruthless, a masked figure who exacted retribution from their enemies. As the legend grew, his mom and aunt let anything scary be attributed to Ruthless, even if it hadn’t been. The threat of what might happen if someone got on Ruthless’ bad side had kept the remnants of the MC safe. His mom might be willing to wait, but her alter ego needed to exact retribution for the pain his woman had gone through.

Tack headed upstairs. He was usually pretty good at figuring out situations, but this one, with Rufus and Jolene, had him a little stumped. He couldn’t figure out their motive or what they hoped to achieve as an endgame. What did they want from Sophia, and the bigger question was why had they wanted access to the accounts?

Chapter Sixteen

Sophia slipped on the cute boots that Ruthy had brought to her room. She had her first pair of biker boots. Tack was taking her on a date, but because of the threats, a couple of the MC brothers would be riding with them. Tack had said she should wear her jeans or overalls and boots, and she’d probably want her hair braided because of the wind.

Her overalls didn’t scream biker babe, so she’d chosen jeans, a cute shirt, and her new boots. She’d taken his advice and had her hair in one large braid. She’d even found a cute pair of glasses to wear.