Jagger awoke the next morning to his phone ringing incessantly. The first time he reached over and shut it off. In seconds it rang again."I think someone is really tryin' to get in touch with you," Bianca grumbled, putting her head under her pillow. It wasn't his pre-pay so Jagger knew it wasn't Liam or one of the other members of the club. "Somebody better be fuckin' dead. It's 5 a.m.," he growled into the phone."Sorry, but I figured you would want to hear this."Jagger recognized Rooster's voice, and just like that he was awake and sitting up, his mind working on all cylinders. "Talk to me.""I took my suspicions to my superiors yesterday. With what evidence we had—I embellished where yours came from slightly—they issued a search warrant for Raymond Tucker's house and his office at the school. We are executing that search warrant today. I'm giving you a personal heads up. I've also called Liam."Jagger reached over and shook Bianca awake. "Are you teaching today?" he a
"What do we know?" Jagger asked as he rushed to Liam's side in the parking lot of the school."I haven't been able to talk to Rooster that much, he's been with the feds, but Money Bags is walking around at this point. Somehow he got into the school after they put it on lockdown," Liam explained."Even though this wasn't supposed to be that dangerous and they 'had everything under control'?" Jagger could tell that Liam was holding something back. "Where is Bianca?""She was in the library with the class that she was shadowing for the day," he told the younger man, running a hand through his hair."But what are you not telling me?""At some point," he cleared his throat, "Money Bags went to the library and took Bianca out. He's got her, and they aren't sure what he wants to use her for."At that moment, Jagger felt complete and utter rage. The words he had spoken to her, warning her of what could happen, replayed in his mind. Why hadn't he insisted that she stay home on this
The two of them went down with a loud thud, both of them grunting as they hit the side of the metal table. Bianca could feel the coldness of the gun in her fingers, but her shoulder ached something awful from where she had hit it on the way down. Blood dripped from her forehead, remnants of where she head butted him moments before. It stung as it ran into her eyes, and she wanted nothing more than to reach her fingers up and wipe at them. That, however, would require her letting go of the gun."Give me the gun, Bianca," he told her.She wasn't sure if he expected his gruff voice to scare her into giving it back or what, but she wasn't about to fall for any game he wanted to play. Rolling them over, he landed so that he lay on top of her. Money Bags was heavy compared to her, and she fought to drag breaths into her lungs."No!" She struggled, bringing her knee up, catching him between the legs.That gave her just enough time to right herself and stand up, pointing the gun at him
Jagger did his best to enter the hospital room quietly and not bother Bianca. As he pushed the door open, he spotted Meredith sitting in a chair at her bedside."You don't have to be quiet," she told him. "They had to give her a mild sedative about twenty minutes ago. So she'll be out for a few hours.""What happened?" he asked as he sat her stuff down before walking over to kiss her forehead. As his lips touched the skin, she stirred slightly before relaxing into sleep. He could tell she was more relaxed because he didn't see her eyes moving behind the lids."She had a little bit of a freakout. Nothing major," Meredith assured him. "She was in shock and I think everything just crowded in on her. She really wanted you, and the on-call doctor told her that you hadn't arrived yet. Her blood pressure bottomed out, she started shaking, and her teeth started chattering. So they gave her something to calm her down. Nothing really heavy duty. Just something to make her relax."He nodd
Jagger sat on the porch of Doctor Jones' office.Waiting.He had allowed two weeks to go by. Two weeks in which he had wordlessly given Bianca the space that she requested. He had let her stay at her own apartment, not pressuring her to stay with him. The way she tensed every time he came near, the way she refused to meet his eyes, the way she shrank away from anything resembling a real conversation between the two of them. Now, he was ready to move forward—tired of waiting on her to admit she needed him. Instead, he was going to make her see just how much she needed him in this journey with her.Meredith had been right on many of the things she had assumed when she handed Jagger the card for Doctor Jones. He did have issues that needed to be worked on—just like he knew Bianca did. They had issues together. In the past two long, lonely weeks he had spent without her, he'd worked on himself. Now, more than any other time in his life, he was equipped to handle whatever she needed f
"Where are we going?"Jagger glanced over at Bianca and grinned. They were coming through on the other side of the hurdles that had been placed in front of them. It was nice to see her excited about something. "Just sit over there and look pretty," he told her, a full smile breaking out over his face as she huffed."Seriously. I'm worried that I didn't dress okay."He allowed his eyes to take in her body. The weather was finally beginning to get warm and what she wore was a reflection of that. A t-shirt covered her torso, a skirt stopped just about halfway between her knees and her upper thighs, and cute little sandals sat on her feet. The pink color of her toenails shined back at him, providing him with a glimpse of summer."You look fine, baby," he assured her."I'd still like to know where we're going."As he took the exit onto I-65, she saw that they were going south. "Can you figure it out?" he asked, as he reached over to take her hand in his."Are we going to Nashv
"So where are we going now?" Bianca asked as they walked from the rooftop sushi bar back to her car. "Are we heading on home? It's getting late," she said as she checked her watch."Not just yet," Jagger told her as he put his arm around her waist. "I have a plan for us. We're not actually going back tonight.""We're not?""Nope," he grinned as her mouth formed a little 'o' as what he was saying finally dawned on her."Well, where are we staying then?"He loved the fact that he could surprise her—even though she fought him at every turn. "I got us a room."Bianca grinned. "A room where?""At a nice hotel."The smile fell a little on her face, and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. "You shouldn't have spent a bunch of money on this," she fretted, twisting her hands together."Hey." He reached to her with his hands and his fingers caressed her neck. "You let me worry about the kind of money I wanna spend on you."It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him t
Bianca held her degree in her hands, marveling at how it felt. She smoothed her hand over the case that covered the piece of paper she had worked so hard to earn. Tears burned the back of her eyes as her dream came to realization. It had been so long in coming that she at one time thought it would never ever get here. But it had. She hadn't given up, and she had really and truly made a dream come true. She stood in the clubhouse, holding it, gazing at it, not fully believing that she actually had it."Whatcha got there?" Jagger asked, as he came up behind her."I finally got my degree," she grinned up at him. "Awesome, baby! 'Bout damn time too. That pissed me off so bad when I realized you didn't get your actual one the day you graduated."Bianca laughed. "I know, I thought I was gonna have to keep you from going after the people in the front office."He blushed. "Well, you worked hard for it and you deserved it. Sorry, but it really did piss me off.""It's fine, it was c