Hard As Steel: A Hard Ink/Raven Riders Crossover (1001 Dark Nights) Read Online Free PDF Page B

you’re down here? You know, given the motherfu—” He swallowed the curse word when he noticed Ben’s wide eyes staring up at him. “Given the situation and our conversation earlier?”
    The sum total of Jess’s initial reaction was a single eyebrow lifting into an arch. Just the left one. The movement made him take in the droplets of water trailing down her face from her wavy, wet hair, the smudges of mascara below her lashes, and the shiver of her lower lip. Finally, she said, “I had a good reason.”
    “ Jessica —”
    “Ike, honey,” Bunny said, smiling. Despite being in her sixties, Doc’s sister still had her looks—and plenty of sass. “Your Jessica was a total heroine just now. So slow your roll before you say something you regret. Besides, Dare called earlier to let us know you were bringing someone up here for protection. So don’t worry. Jess didn’t spill any beans.”
    Amusement spilled into Jess’s brown eyes, and then she chuckled. “Bunny, I think you might be one of my favorite people, like, ever.”
    Bunny put her arm around Jess’s shoulder and hugged her in. “Us old ladies got to stick together.”
    Old ladies? Oh, for fuck sake. Ike wasn’t sure he could ever see himself making that leap, and certainly not with Jessica “I can indeed find trouble in less than an hour” Jakes.
    A headache bloomed behind Ike’s eyes as he looked between the two women, and then to Doc and Rodeo, Bunny’s second husband whose son Slider was Ben and Sam’s dad. The two other men stared back at him with a mixture of amusement and sympathy.
    Ike threw out his hands. “Could someone please explain what the hel—heck happened here?”
    “Miss Jess rescued Ben and me after we flipped the rowboat,” Sam said, his shaggy dark-brown hair and green eyes so much like his father’s. “Or, at least, she would’ve rescued me, too, if Doc and Pop hadn’t shown up first. But she got Ben back before he completely freaked out and drowned me while he was at it.”
    “Did not freak out,” Ben said.
    “Did, too,” Sam said.
    Ike ground the heel of his hand into his eye, a vain attempt to relieve the throbbing there. The story still didn’t make much sense to him, but if what Slider’s boy said was true, what Jess had done was big. The only thing the club valued as much as taking care of its own was taking care of those who couldn’t take care of themselves.
    “I heard them screaming for help from the house,” Jess said. “I should’ve thought twice about running down here, but I…” She shrugged, then shivered. “I just acted.”
    Ike gave a tight nod. Her words took the edge off of his anger, although his insides were still keyed up from the fear-based adrenaline flooding through him. Not to mention, the more people who knew Jess was here, the more Ike worried that a single unintentional slip could put her in danger. Again. Of course, everyone here knew that the club had allied itself with Nick and his friends—an alliance that Ike had helped broker given his close relationship with both. And certainly everyone understood what was at stake, especially after an enemy attack on the Hard Ink building had collapsed part of the roof on the large L-shaped building and killed Harvey and Creed, two of their members, two of their brothers. So it wasn’t a question of any of these people putting Jess in danger knowingly. But Ike couldn’t be too careful, not where Jess was concerned. Not given how lethal the mercenaries were that the Ravens and Hard Ink team had been fighting.
    Ike heaved a deep breath. “You boys okay now?” he asked, looking between Sam and Ben. They both nodded, and then turned to thank and hug Jess. Ike watched as she interacted with the kids, her behavior so natural and comfortable with them. And it did something…funny to him. Made him think. Made him wonder. Made him want.
    And it certainly made him look at Jess in a whole new way—and not just because his mind was playing