by Paula Cox
“Bad call, Jax,” Eric continued from beyond the house. “Now everyone has to pay the price.”
“Jesus Christ…” Viv murmured under her breath. “What do we do now?”
“I ain’t going down like some dog,” Brutus said as he cast a quick glance at Aggie. Her eyes fluttered open as he gingerly patted her pale cheek.
“We’ll handle the dirtbag. I swear.”
Jumping in one motion, tucking and rolling in the next, Brutus made his way to the broken window. He rested his body to the wall and clutched his gun. Eric’s laugher continued to fill the room, and Jax looked past Lena to his mother.
“Jackson, don’t let him get away with this. Not this time.”
“What am I supposed to---?”
“You stand. And you… fight. It’s what your father would have wanted, little man.”
Lena slowly shifted her eyes towards his face. Even as his jaw was set like steel under his lips, Lena saw the fear brimming through his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Never wanted to bring all this back to your door.”
“Too late for that now,” Aggie groaned as she fell into Viv’s shoulder. “Just…high time someone finished it.”
Aggie slipped into a fitful, uneasy sleep, and Jax anxiously reached for her wrist.
“She’s… is she…?”
Lena pressed her palm to Aggie’s chest and exhaled a soft sight or relief.
“Think she just fainted,” Lena said in a flat voice. “No thanks to me.”
“Fucking second that,” Brutus hissed from the other end of the shattered room. Jax started to lunge towards him when she seized his hand and forced his eyes to hers.
“Jax, was I wrong to come back?” she asked.
“No way,” he assured her. “Don’t even think like that.”
“But look what’s happening? You mom. These men…”
“Lena…”
He kissed her tenderly, his eyes moving down her arms until he focused on the gun still resting in her hands.
“Only if you have to,” he said, echoing his mother’s sentiments as he clasped her close and laid his lips on her brow. “But I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to stop this.”
With that he was gone, twisting and twirling on his back as he hit Brutus’ side and readied his gun.
“What’s our play here?” he asked. “Distract him so Milo and the others can pull off a sneak attack?”
Brutus looked ready to knock him out, but another cry from Eric’s lips seemed to bring him back to the problem at hand and all that ways that they might lick it.
“Best bet,” he sadly confessed. “Though somehow I doubt we’ll be standing to celebrate.”
Lena eased her body away from the table as Jax nodded his head. Even in the dim light, she could clearly see the sweat streaming down his cheeks. One more moment, one yes to Brutus, and he’d meet his maker, end up no better than his father. Just the thought of that turned her heart to ice, and Lena grabbed Viv’s shaking shoulder as she pressed her lips to her ear.
“Tell me you know how to use this,” she whispered.
“I… what?”
“If this doesn’t work, don’t let them hurt you. Or his mom.”
She lightly touched her fingers to Aggie’s still face and waited for Viv’s answer.
“What do you think you’re---?”
“They want a distraction?” she asked. “I’m the distraction. I can fix this. Can you use the gun?”
Viv still seemed unsure, but Lena had no more time to waste or wait. Abandoning the gun with Viv, she stretched to her knees and escaped the room.
“Lena! Stop!”
She shrugged off sound of Jax’s voice. Bypassing the main room and the sound of the Silver Horses entertaining their own strategies, she hit the mudroom and started to crawl up the length of the door. She was barely on her feet when a jagged shard of glass fell from her hair.
“What the hell is…?”
Realizing what she had and what she could do, she hid the broken glass in the folds of her skirt, praying it would stick as she rose to her feet and hit the night with her hands in the air.
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Well look who came out to play!”
Her flesh crawled at the sight of him, and she was almost ready to test her luck and try to run back into the house. If he got his hands on her, the last time, the first time, would seem like some kind of a warped fairy tale, cold and cruel but so much sweeter than what he looked like he wanted to do to her now. Eric left his bike, his gun aimed at her vulnerable chest as Mitch laughed from over the man’s shoulder.
“Guess the Kid just ain’t kicking it into high gear!” Mitch mocked.
“Something like that,” Eric muttered.
Lena took a few tentative steps forward when Jax appeared, his gun drawn and his nostrils flaring as he glared hard as his stepfather.
“Don’t you even fucking think about touching her again!” he screamed.
Even with her eyes on Jax, Lena’s shaky hands swaying before his face, she heard the Black Legion, what there was of them here and now, drawing their guns, and her mind filled with the horror of Jax falling and bleeding into her anguished arms.
“Stop!”
Her hand flew up, and she managed to smack Jax’s gun away.
“Clumsy little shit,” Eric sneered.
Even without his weapon, Jax was still on the warpath.
“I’ll fucking kill you for what you---”
“Jax, stop it.”
Her whisper came quick, and she slapped his face. His stunned expression tore at her heart, but she needed to make it look good if there was any hope that…
“Just let me to this,” she pleaded. “I’ll get them away from the others, and then---”
“You’re staying right here!” he screamed as he tried to keep her close.
Lena made a show of struggling, screaming and lying that she’d had enough and wanted nothing more than to go home.
“Can be arranged, slit,” Eric promised. “Get you back to Deerfield before the night is out.”
It could have been another planet without Jax, but she clung to the hope that they wouldn’t get that far. All she had to was keep them at bay, submit if necessary, and pray it wouldn’t come to---
“Stiles! This is our turf!”
Milo stood in the doorframe and, for the first time, Lena registered the fact that his own beard and dark eyes were Eric’s echo trapped in the space of a funhouse mirror. Bearded and dark-eyed to be sure, but where Milo would simply kill if the natural order was threatened from without or within, Eric Stiles would smash, taunt, obliterate until his victim was nearly past all hope.
Jax would never let it come to that.
“Find me,” she whispered. “I’ll take care of myself ‘til you come.”
Again she raced from her side, the sounds of Jax’s anguished screams hitting her back. She looked back for all of a second and saw Milo holding him back as he offered a slight nod of his head. Somehow he got it, even if it didn’t look like he entirely approved. But the move was Lena’s to make, and she tottered towards Eric’s side and bowed her head.
“You can use me to keep them in line,” she meekly offered. “I think ---”
“You don’t think anymore, slut. You get your ass on my bike and make like the dirty whore you are.”
Lena nodded her head, her body shuddering as he touched her. Jax went wild, clawing at the earth and tried to reach her. But Eric beat him to the punch and hoisted her off the ground. Lena’s legs lightly kicked against his chopper, but she forced her body to go limp and he pushed her to the back of his bike and roughly kissed her mouth. Lena felt sure she would vomit around the foul taste of his tongue, but she accepted and endured the feel of his spit swimming in her hair as he pulled on the flushed flesh of her cheek.
“What’s to stop him from coming after you?” Eric asked. “Making all kinds of trouble for me.”
Len
a searched his mind for an answer that he might even half-believe, and when she saw Jax writhing and still reaching for her, she felt that her cause was lost, that Jax would get himself killed in this moment and leave her to languish in Eric Stiles’ hands.
“I’ll keep him in line.”
As Milo spoke, he tossed his gun to the side and stamped his boot down on Jax’s back as he glared at his rival.
“Last thing we want is more trouble,” he insisted. “Never asked for these two clowns to knock on our door.”
“But they still gave you all kinds of ideas, right?”
Milo nodded and kicked past Jax, daring to take another step closer to Eric’s side.
“Can’t blame a man for seeing where it might lead. Monroes never were anything but trouble. Once Aggie’s in the ground, this one takes the next plot.”
“Take it she ain’t too long for this world?” Eric asked, his eyes gleaming around the question.
“Might already be gone right now.”
And that’s when she knew. Aggie would die one day, but this was not that night. He was playing into Eric’s ego, and Lena trusted him with Jax’s life as Eric pressed his body to the bike, holstering his gun.
“Dig the holes deep,” Eric suggested. “And just keep on steering clear of Deerfield.”
Eric roughly patted her thigh, and Lena prayed the glass would stay in place. Seeing that it did, she quivered as Eric ordered her arms around his waist.
“Or fall off for all I care,” he scoffed. “Don’t give a fuck about your face. Just keep that cunt sweet.”
Lena did as she was told, swallowing hard as she cast a final glance at Jax. His moans hit her soul, and Lena struggled to convey everything swirling around her heart with just one look.
I love you, Jax. I know you’ll find a way… just please hurry.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Are you fucking out of your mind?” Jax screamed as he regained all of his senses and pushed away from the feel of Viv icing his neck.
“Shouldn’t you be taking care of my mother?” he spat.
“Aggie’s okay,” she assured him. “Resting now. But you don’t look so---”
“Get the fuck away from me!”
Milo moved to challenge him when he pushed her off, but to the room’s surprise, Artie stumbled forward, his battered arm resting in a makeshift sling as he took hold of Viv’s shoulder.
“Kid, she didn’t do a damn thing. Don’t take it out on her.”
“Why the hell not? You sweet on her now?”
“Like you’re the only one who thinks he has a heart.”
Every other man in the room save for Milo hung their heads and shuffled their feet. Jax could care less if Viv as the nursemaid tickled Artie’s balls, but he missed the ice as soon as it left his neck.
“Watch it, cue ball,” Milo cautioned, adopting Aggie’s long forgotten pet name as Viv took hold of Artie’s arm.
“Be on my best behavior,” Artie promised. “Now what about Lena?”
Lena.
Jax rubbed his hands across his face and pictured her body shaking on the back of Eric’s bike. He got it – why she laid herself on the line in a bid to protect the others. But that didn’t change the fact that every second took her farther and farther away from him. He could cling to nothing but the length of the ride. Because when it stopped, when Eric could no longer contain himself, Jax felt sure that he would push her sweet body into the grass and hike up her skirt. The idea that he would tear into her soft flesh and slap her sobbing face, maybe do so much worse, filled his heart with dread.
“I never should have let her go,” Jax lamented. “I’m supposed to take care of her.”
He felt as if he would weep, not caring about the many eyes on his shaking form when Milo gripped the back of his neck.
“And she’s taking care of all of us,” he said. “Ever stop to think that there’s more to life than this one girl. Shit, she gets it.”
“And she wants me to come after her.”
“I get that, too” Milo said as he released Jax and sighed heavily. “Might do the same thing if it was one of my…”
His weary gaze settled on Viv as Artie brought her closer to his side under the strength of his good arm. Easy for Milo to make that claim now. Old man or not, his sister had protection. Lena was out there all alone, and Jax shook his head fast and knelt before the Silver Horses’ chief.
“Then let me try to find her,” he said. “I can’t just stay here like this. Going all kinds of crazy.”
Milo cracked open a beer and kicked away the glass still left on the ground as he flopped into an armchair and chugged hard.
“You seem so sure,” Milo said.
“Damn straight. I can… I’m going to get her back. I’ll bring her here or take her far away if that’s what you---”
“No reason you can’t be among friends. We friends now, Jax?”
Wasn’t quite the right definition of the word, but compared to Eric or Mitch…
“Sure we are,” Jax said. “So can I go for her?”
He smoothed his fingers down his chin as he sipped his beer again. Milo’s eyes appeared to dance with all kinds of possibilities as he crunched his toes to the bits of glass beneath his feet and pulled a smoke from his pocket.
“What happens if you don’t come back?” he asked.
Jax’s mind raced for an explanation, but Artie charged forward, Viv still clinging to his arm.
“That ain’t happening,” Artie said. “I’ve seen the lengths he’ll go for this girl. He’ll be back.”
Viv smiled into his face as Milo whistled all eyes in the room back to the space of his stare.
“Your man is sure,” he said. “Viv?”
The girl took a soft step to her brother’s side and looked at Milo through wide eyes.
“These two to be believed?” he asked.
“Milo, I… you never ask me about these kinds of---”
“Point taken. But I’m asking you now.”
Viv looked from her brother to Artie. He gave her a quick smile, and Jax felt his heart lighten ever so slightly at the sight. But then her gaze pierced his eyes. Jax tensed and thought it strange that any chance of saving Lena rested on the slim shoulders of this fragile girl, and his soul started to sink to pit of his stomach when Viv tossed her head back and bared her teeth in bold grin.
“I saw the way he looked at her, too” Viv said. “Milo, you have to let him try.”
Jax fought the urge to leap to his feet and pull her into an embrace as she stepped back to Artie’s side and fell into his shoulder. His gaze turned to Milo, and the man took another drag as he nodded his head.
“So says Viv,” he puffed. “Always found it hard to go against the wishes of my little sister.”
Jax was up and asking for his gun. Milo started to push the piece into his hands when he held Jax at arm’s length.
“But if I let you do this and you fail, whole new kind of trouble coming to this door.”
“I’m telling you I won’t---”
“Hey, I almost buy what you’re selling, Kid. But a little incentive, no?”
“Incentive, I---”
“If you… when you come back all bathed in glory with the girl on your arm, you give all of it to me. Make it all my turf.”
“That ain’t what he came here for,” Artie said, but Jax waved him off.
His mind flashed back to his father.
That’s my boy, Jax! Can’t wait to hand you the reins one of these days.
To go back on that was betrayal, and he drifted away from the others, Lena’s unknown fate filling his thoughts as he peered through an open door and spied his mother sleeping peacefully below a thin blanket. What would she say if she was up and coaching him to make the right move? Would she ask if Lena were worth this trouble, tell him to cut her loose? Something told him she understood even in the space of her slumber, and he wanted nothing more than to give Lena the chance to speak for herself.
>
“Fine,” he said in a steely voice as he took the gun from Milo’s hand and pushed it into his pants. “It’s all yours – even if I get back.”
Jax started to leave the house, his eyes on his bike and the way out when Milo gripped his arms and turned Jax around.
“When, Kid,” Milo said. “Wouldn’t ask this much if I didn’t think you could make it happen.”