“Jackson, you’ve already kept up your end of the bargain. You rescued me. You brought me here.”
Tears poured from my eyes. I felt as if I would die without him. I couldn’t let him leave. He had to stay.
“We made a promise to each other,” he said. “And I aim to keep my word.”
“We both kept our word already,” I said.
He shook his head.
“No we didn’t. Not yet. But we will.”
“You got me away from that motel. I gave myself to you.”
“That’s not the promise we made, Faith, and you know it.”
I looked into his eyes and I knew he was right. The promise we’d made went deeper than that. Much deeper.
“You’ll keep your promise to me, even if you wish you’d never made it.”
“I’m glad I made it, Jackson.”
The waitress came with our food. I wiped the tears from my eyes. Jackson ordered apple pie for both of us for dessert. He said we’d need our strength for what was coming.
“I’m sorry, Jackson,” I said, when the waitress left.
He reached across the table and took my hands in his.
“I really wanted you, Faith Shepherd. I didn’t know it until right this moment.”
“Jackson, it doesn’t have to be the way you think.”
“I’ve got to face Wolf,” he said.
“Why? He’ll kill you. You can’t beat a man like that. We can run. We can go north. Hide out in Washington, or Canada. Alaska even. Or we can go south to Mexico. I don’t care where we go as long as we’re together.”
I was pleading with him still.
“I don’t run,” he said. “Don’t ask me again.”
“Don’t you have anyone we can turn to for help?”
He thought for a moment. “I have my brotherhood,” he said, “but I can’t drag them into this. This is our fight.”
“Jackson, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize it would be this way.”
He looked into my eyes for a long time. When he spoke, I felt as if he was speaking to me from a great distance.
“I know,” he said.
I couldn’t eat. I felt ill. If Jackson rode out to face Los Lobos alone, they’d kill him.
“Tell me,” he said as he ate, “what’s Wolf Staten like?”
I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to cry. I looked into Jackson’s face and all I could feel was guilt. I’d signed his death sentence.
“You know him.”
“I’ve done business with him. But what’s he like as a man?”
“He’s very intense,” I said. “Like you.”
“Was he good to you?”
“I thought he was at the beginning. That was two years ago. Then the beatings started. The cheating. He put me in compromising situations with his cronies. The final straw was when he decided to lock me away in a secret apartment in his compound.”
Jackson nodded. “I’m glad you got out,” he said. “You’re too good for a life like that, Faith. You’re too good for all of this.”
I looked into his eyes. I knew Jackson was a dangerous man in his own right. I knew he’d tasted blood. He’d said he was bad to the bone. He was violent, strong, he could do what needed to be done. That didn’t make him bad in my book. That made him a man, a real man.
“Don’t leave me,” I said quietly.
“I’m going to kill Wolf,” he said. “It needs to be done. A man like that, he’ll hunt you as long as you live.”
“No,” I said, crying.
Jackson nodded. “I’m going to keep my promise to you Faith. I’m going to make you safe.”
“I never intended to get you hurt.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “The truth is, I’ve been living on borrowed time my whole life.”
“Don’t say that.”
“I can make my peace with it, Faith. But you have to do what you promised.”
“I will, Jackson. I swear.”
“You have to keep your promise to me.”
“I swear by God I will.”
“You’ll keep it tonight.”
Chapter 11
Jackson
THE BROTHERHOOD HAD A SAFE HOUSE in the hills above the desert. We used it from time to time when we needed to hide out. It was completely off the grid, had it’s own well, it’s own solar power, it’s own everything.
I brought Faith there so she could keep her promise to me. Now that my death was near, that promise was the only thing that mattered.
“What is this place, Jackson?”
“Just somewhere we can be safe.”
“Why don’t we stay here forever?”
I laughed. “I already told you, Faith. I don’t run. Not from anyone.”
I showed her around the house, a quaint adobe villa overlooking miles of desert valley. A spring fed a natural stream and trees shaded the veranda and garden. I knew she’d want to stay there with me.
Hell, I wanted to stay too, but I couldn’t. If I was going to hold her to her part of the promise, I had to keep mine too. And my promise was to make her safe. That meant taking out Wolf Staten, the head of Los Lobos.
I showed her to the bathroom. “Freshen up,” I said. “Have a rest. I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Where are you going?”
“We need firewood. It gets cold up here at night. We’ll also need something for dinner.”
“I’ll come with you.”