Read Online 05 Desperate Match by Lynne Silver - Free Book Online

had turned his back, knowing Adam and Rowan had his. In one deft move, Adam caught Jack and held him immobilized in a bear hug. “You don’t want to do this.”
    Jack struggled, finally kicking out with his legs. Streams of curse words flowed from his mouth. “Bring me my fucking wife. I’m gonna kill her. I’m gonna kill you.” He couldn’t budge in Adam’s arms. Words were all he had.
    Rowan leaned in. “You don’t want to threaten us.”
    “The fuck I don’t. Where’s my fucking wife? You took her. She’d never run from me.”
    “We’ve got your wife,” Rowan said. “You will never see her and you will especially never touch her again.”
    Jack spat and it landed squarely on Rowan’s cheek.
    He wiped the spittle with his coat sleeve and turned to Steven. “Can I hit him? Please say I can hit him.”
    Steven looked at him. “Not in front of me.” He turned and climbed into Rowan’s waiting SUV with the darkly tinted windows. A wide grin spread across Rowan’s face.
    “You’re gonna hit me?” Jack taunted. “You can’t do shit. Cripple.” He continued struggling, but Adam had no trouble holding him in place.
    “Let him go,” Rowan said to his brother.
    “You sure?”
    “Yeah. When I beat the shit out of him, I want no doubts in his mind that a cripple kicked his ass. No calls of foul play.”
    “All right. Your move.” Adam unhooked his hands from across Jack’s chest and stepped back. The smaller man surprised them both when he spun and caught Adam in the jaw instead of going after Rowan as they’d both expected. Seeing his brother’s head snap back made him see red. He launched himself at Jack and lit into him until the smaller man was in a heap on the ground. He used every trick Xander had taught him, using his knees, elbow and feet to make up for his missing arm.
    Rowan spat on him, then leaned down to whisper. When he was finished delivering his message, he stood. “Ready?” He strode to the driver’s seat without waiting for his brother’s answer. Everyone was belted up and the car in drive, when the shots started. Jack had obviously crawled into the house and gone for the guns.
    Rowan peeled out faster, and they escaped with bullets flying ineffectively after them. “Shoulda killed him,” he said
    “You do not want a murder charge,” Steven said. “No matter how justified.”
    “Can’t believe I let you take him without getting in a shot,” Adam said, rubbing his jaw. “Loren won’t be happy if I have a bruise.”
    “She’ll kiss it better,” Rowan said.
    Adam didn’t respond, but smiled slightly. “Let’s go home.”
    Rowan nodded and sped off down the dark highway. For the first time ever, the word home conjured images of his small dorm room at The Program, not his tiny dilapidated housing he’d shared with his mother. In his mind, home included Jill waiting for him. He shook his head and focused on the road. He needed to get it together. Jill might be his match on paper, but they were nothing more than that in real life. She didn’t find him sexually attractive thanks to his arm, and he wasn’t too hot on her. He preferred his woman to be sexually adventurous and aggressive about finding pleasure. It’d been clear Jill saw sex as a necessary evil.
    He’d spend the next few months helping Jill ditch the abusive husband, get a job, and get back on her feet. Then he’d go back to Shep and see about finding another woman who could be his true match.
    * * * * *
    “Mom, I’m okay.” Jill squeezed the phone handset to her ear, reveling in the lightness of her new haircut that didn’t tangle on the phone. She was alone in Rowan’s apartment. Hers now, too, she guessed.
    After her makeover, Xander’s mother had pointed out that her parents were probably worried if Jack had called them looking for her. She hadn’t been close with her parents for the last six years; Jack hadn’t allowed it, but Judy was right, she owed them a phone call.
    She’d been on