For the first time since they had entered the Ernesto’s house, MacKenzie allowed her distress to show. The sight of her anguish further angered him. Without breaking stride, Jake flung his response over his shoulder. “I’m going to find them. You’ve waited long enough!”
“Please don’t. Let’s just get Noelle and go. After I have her back, you have my permission to do whatever you like.” In a show of renewed spirit, MacKenzie stiffened her spine in resolve. “Hell, you’ll probably have to stand in line behind me!”
“Did I ever tell you that I like the way you think, Ms. MacKenzie,” Jake said with a grin.
Before she could respond the door opened to admit Carlos and his mother. The baby was nowhere in sight.
Forgetting her words from moments before, MacKenzie went on the offensive. “Have you people lost your damn minds? You have until the count of five to turn around and go get my baby, or I’m going to get her myself. One... two... three... four... five.”
By the completion of her countdown, Lorna Ernesto was smiling while Carlos appeared uncertain whether he should heed MacKenzie’s warning, or follow where his mother led.
Up to that point, Jake had stood aside and allowed MacKenzie to deal with the appearance of mother and son. The nod Lorna gave Carlos, and his compliance to block MacKenzie’s path put Jake in motion. Before Carlos could make contact with MacKenzie, Jake inserted his body between them.
“Touch her and I will rip your arm off and beat you with it!” His look was so deadly; Carlos took an involuntary step backwards. “Since you’ve decided not to listen to her, you had better listen to me. I’m not about to give you five seconds; you are going to take me to Noelle right now!”
“You do not give orders in this house, Jacob Kingdom!” Lorna answered for her son.
Turning his whole body, Jake dismissed Carlos. He knew who was in charge of this little power play. “Lady, if I weren't a gentleman I would hurt you. If you had the sense you were born with, you’d get down on your knees and thank whatever God you believe in that I was raised by Jackson Kingdom!”
“Get out of my house, now! Who the hell do you think you are, coming up in my place and speaking to me like that?”
The look Jake gave Lorna had quelled many a strong-minded man, but he had to admit the woman had bigger balls than most of those men, her son included.
“Josh, take MacKenzie and pull this house apart if that’s what you have to do, but don’t return to this room without the baby.” There was no inflection is his voice, just a quiet deliberation that attested to his seriousness.
“My pleasure, MacKenzie, please follow me,” Josh said, on his way to the door.
Jake could hear voices from the other side of the door, but he had complete trust in the ability of his brother to keep MacKenzie safe. He also knew that Josh wouldn’t return without the baby.
Knowing Josh had the situation under control, Jake turned his attention to the two members of the Ernesto family that were currently staring at him in shocked disbelief. Pulling on every method of silent intimidation in his arsenal, he stared them down. For the moment, stillness was his friend. He wanted them to squirm; he wanted their minds to be in a place where they ran scenarios of just what he was capable of doing.
“Whatever you thought to accomplish with this stunt, know now, it’s not going to happen. You have no idea what I’m capable of,” Jake directed his words at Lorna. Then he turned to Carlos. “Whatever you’re hiding has now become my sole mission to uncover. I’m going to do you a favor and put your mind at rest; I will find your deepest darkest secret, and then I will expose it. Your family is going to rue the day it thought to devise this plan.”
“What’s it to you? That woman is nothing but a man hungry whore!” Lorna injected responding for her seemingly stunned son.
“I’ll tell you what it is to me; you chose to bring my name into this situation. Further, by using the word whore in reference to MacKenzie, you just sealed your fate. I’m going to destroy you. When I’m finished with your family, your son will be wearing a hamburger costume singing for his supper in the hope of maintaining his ambiguity. Before you thought to mess with me and mine, you should have studied your enemy.” As Jake spoke, he watched them carefully, his voice level. From the shocked looks on their faces he realized Carlos and his mother were amateurs, therefore; he needed to discover who was pulling their strings.
The silence that encapsulated the room didn’t faze him. In fact, he had been counting on their moments of introspection, and it was almost as though he could see their minds at work. Good, he thought, the time had come to tighten the screws, for this he chose Carlos.