by Paula Cox
“Lena doesn’t lie.”
Deprived of his gun, Jax held a jagged piece of stone to Milo’s bearded throat and wrapped his free arm around the man’s waist. Brutus cried out as he started to draw a bit of blood, but Jax kept his eyes locked on his sudden captive.
“Lena told you what she went through. And if Sully is here now…”
Jax’s voice trailed off as he stared hard at the fallen man at Lena’s feet. She watched Jax’s eyes soften as he brought Milo to his knees and pushed the jagged rock closer to the vein throbbing in the man’s neck.
“Then he’s just like me,” Jax said. “Here for her and no one else.”
Milo managed to tilt his head to the side, and he gazed up at Lena.
“You gonna make me believe this?” he challenged.
“Because this one here just wants to get back into bed with you. He’d say anything.”
Jax pushed the jagged rock close again, groaning with each move. Maybe it was the blood just starting to trickle down his throat or the thought that Milo could turn wild and hurt her, but Lena still called for Jax to stop as her uncle plowed forward and grabbed Milo’s legs.
“They found me leaving Deerfield. I… I tried to stay hidden.”
“Obviously failed.”
“But they know… or they think they know where to find Aggie Monroe,” Sully continued. “Tried to beat the truth out of me. But I… Lena…”
Sully swiftly took his niece into his arms.
“I’m only here because I heard the same story. I took off after them. Wanting to just warn…”
He shot up into Lena’s shaking arms and brought her hands to his lips.
“Uncle Tom?”
“I took the beating and waited, Lena. Waited until they slept so I could run. They won’t find me.”
Sully held her close, and Lena started to stroke his back when Brutus pushed his gun back into his holster and started to fume.
“And like this one covered his tracks,” Brutus hissed. “They’ll be here any fucking second!”
Lena felt the danger creping all around them, and she kept Sully close as she finally found Jax’s face and looked into his eyes.
“He wasn’t trying to bring this trouble,” she said. “And he’s not the problem.”
Jax studied her face and pushed his fingers to her arms. If he didn’t already think that she was up to the challenge, this moment was more than essential.
“Am I the problem, Lena?”
“Come on, Lena,” Artie started. “Don’t say---”
“All of you shut the shit up!”
Brutus went back to is gun. But instead of Artie’s temple, he squarely aimed the barrel at Lena’s eyes.
“Lena!”
Her uncle’s voice fell away as Jax pushed her behind his back.
“Leave her---”
“Troubles started when this one showed her face,” Brutus said. “Yet she has sanctuary.”
Trading on that, clinging to his words, Lena dared to pass Jax, her back still resting against his chest as she spoke.
“And for that I’m grateful. But we need so much more than pity,” she said. “Please help us.”
Brutus laughed, and she was ready for the bullet, happy she could at least die in Jax’s arms when Artie rushed forward and tackled Brutus to the ground.
“Get off, bastard!”
Jax tried to help his friend, but Lena pushed him back and stared Milo down.
“What the hell are you---?”
She just got her fingers around the man’s collar when Milo raised his hand and ordered his man to hold his ground.
“It’s up to you in the end, right?” she insisted. “You could turn us out right now or… worse. But if even half of what I’m saying is the truth then---”
“Is it just half?” Milo challenged. “If that’s the case, you put on quite a show.”
Lena vacillated between wanting to burst into tears and slap the beard from his face. Like she could make Eric’s treatments up or would even want to. But before she could speak up, take back the wrong words, Aggie sauntered onto the scene and snapped her fingers in the air.
“Girl’s not lying,” Aggie insisted. “Even if she does come from questionable stock.”
Her eyes shifted to Sully, and Lena knew her uncle’s reputation still preceded him. Aggie took the briefest of seconds to finger his bruised face before whistling back to the house.
“Place is getting to be a regular hospital at this rate.”
Viv appeared and seemed unsure of which way she should turn when Aggie rolled her neck and pointed to Sully.
“Take care of this one,” she ordered. “Something tells me he won’t be the last.”
Viv did as she was told, and Aggie narrowed her eyes as she pressed her hands to her hips.
“Watch it, Aggie,” Milo cautioned. “Even your son’s little side piece gets that I’m in charge.”
“No question,” Aggie said. “But take it from someone who knows what Eric Stiles was and still is. This man needs to be put down like a dog. I get that. My family understands.”
Aggie’s eyes moved to Jax. Lena’s heart fluttered when she felt the umbrella term cover her like a protective shield, but Milo grabbed Aggie’s arm.
“Thought we were your family, Aggie?” he asked. “Or should we just leave the whole sorry lot of you to fend for yourselves?”
At that threat, Lena felt Jax tense against her body, but it was Brutus who suddenly stepped into the fray, his gun hidden even as he dared step up to the plate.
“Don’t put her down, man,” he said carefully. “She’s been loyal all these years.”
“And I’m loyal now,” Aggie said as she shot Brutus a quick sideways stare before returning her eyes to Milo. “Are you gonna return the favor or what?”
Lena swallowed hard as she took hold of Jax’s hand, Artie bordering her other side as they waited together for the verdict. No way Milo could just turn Aggie down like she was nothing; everything else aside, even Brutus seemed firm on that point. But Milo still pushed her away and charged towards Lena, Jax moving to hide her behind his back as Milo cracked his knuckles and cocked his head to the side.
“Aggie’s vouching for you,” he started. “What will you swear on to make me buy that these are just some happy coincidences and not some power play?”
Easing away from Jax, his hand still in hers as she took a deep breath, Lena squared her shoulders.
“What do you want me to swear on?” she asked. “My life? My uncle’s?”
“Your boy here.”
Aggie started to protest when Milo waved his hand in the hair with a sharp hiss.
“Girl had no trouble talking before. Let’s see what she has to say now.”
Feeling as if the moon suddenly transformed into an unforgiving interrogation lamp, Lena swallowed and looked around the yard. The mix of friends and foes and the sound of her uncle groaning from within the house set her skin on edge. Jax started to say she didn’t need to be put through any more paces when Lena clutched his fingers tighter and lightly nodded her head.
“I’ll do you one better,” she said. “I’ll swear on my love for him. If any of this is a trick, then I deserve to be alone. No way I want that.”
She looked to Aggie and managed a smile.
“You left him because you thought it was best. Now I want to stay for the same reason. Please…”
Lena shifted her stare back to Milo, and he stroked his chin as he conferred with Brutus, Aggie abandoned off to one side as Jax folded Lena closer to his chest and Artie buzzed his ear.
“Okay,” Milo finally said. “But you’re uncle’s presence only makes the matter all the more urgent. We need to be ready for war.”
Milo looked to Jax and extended his hand.
“You gonna do this with us?” he asked.
Jax didn’t hesitate as the grabbed the man’s arms and nodded his head.
“Time for battle,” he said. “High time.”
>
Chapter Thirty-One
“I’m fine! I--- shit!”
Lena watched Sully wince as Viv dotted his brow with a damp cloth, her uncle’s body laid out on the bed she had just shared with Jax. Even as Viv wiped the blood away and pressed ice to his battered cheek, there was no erasing the fear writ large in Sully’s eyes as he met Lena’s stare.
“All this fuss,” he said. “It’s really not---”
“Here,” Lena offered as she sat at the edge of the bed and pried the compress from Viv’s hands. “I’ve done this before. He won’t fight me.”
Sully still started to protest, but a cock of Lena’s head and a low growl passing through her teeth put Sully in his place, and he fell silent as she bathed his wounds.
“I’m fine, Lena. Just glad I got here to warn you in time.”
“We know, Uncle Tom. They’re coming, only a matter of time now.”
His eyes grew wider as he strained to sit up and seized hold of her shoulders.
“Then what the hell you doing wasting more of your time on me?” he asked. “Get the boy, and get a move on!”
“No,” she firmly said as she eased him back to the bed and pushed the blanket over his body. “Out there, on our own… we’re targets. Better to try to stand up to him and put an end to this.”
“You really think that can happen?”
Viv’s voice turned her head away from Sully, and Lena gave the girl a weak nod as she gripped the sheets in her hand.
“I trust Jax,” she said. “Don’t you trust your brother?”
“No reason I shouldn’t,” Viv whispered. “But things were a lot less complicated before all you showed up.”
“Kind of have to second that.”
Aggie appeared in the doorway.
Looking just past her, Lena spied Jax and the men preparing to do battle. She tried to focus on their decisions as to where to plant watchmen and snipers. Anything to take the Black Legion out before they breached the perimeter. And if it came to that?
“You,” Aggie said as she pointed at Lena and ordered her to her feet. “The old man needs more ice.”
“I’ll help, Aggie,” Viv offered.
“I need to talk to Jax’s girl.”
Lena’s legs shook some as she made her way to her feet, her hand lightly patting Sully’s legs before she took her leave of the room. Once she hit the hallway, she saw Jax turn towards the sound of her movements. He bowed his head, meeting her eyes for all of a second, before all of his attention shifted to Milo’s plan.
“This way, honey.”
Aggie led her towards a cluttered kitchen, empty cigarette packs and dirty dishes dotting the counters. Picking past the mess, Lena started to open the freezer when Aggie grabbed her arm and shook her head.
“Viv already cleaned the trays out,” she said.
“Then why did you---”
“Something you should have.”
They moved to a mudroom lined with boots and discarded beer bottles. Peering through the grimy glass, Lena saw nothing but dark grass and sky. Even the breeze seemed to have come to a halt. But instead of offering some kind of comfort, Lena feared the stillness was just waiting to explode in danger before she had the chance to blink again or call out Jax’s name.
“I do remember you,” Aggie started as she moved a bucket of bottles from a rusty carton and flipped open the lid. “Pretty. But such a sad little thing. Seeing your uncle again, that was to be expected.”
“He did the best he could,” Lena said. “Man never asked to raise a child.”
“And who am I to throw stones, right?”
Lena bit down on her lip; she wanted to tell her that no risk was worth leaving Jax in Eric Stiles’ clutches. Had it been her son, she would have seen them both dead first.
“And I guess Sully didn’t muck things up too much,” she continued as she pulled small sack of burlap from the carton and let it drop to her knees. “Whatever side of the tracks you started from, looks like you’re on a better path now.”
“Thank you for that.”
Aggie stretched to feet with a covered item in her hand, and she pressed her free palm to Lena’s face.
“These boys are old school, Lena,” she said. “When Eric comes, they’ll want you to hide.”
“I’m not afraid anymore, Aggie. I---”
“And the last thing Jax needs is to worry about you getting caught in the crossfire. Can we agree on that?”
On that point, she made sense, and Lena nodded as Aggie whipped off the cover just below her hand.
“Oh! What is---?”
“Like you’ve never seen a piece before. Not if you ride with Jax.”
“That’s a fact.”
Aggie pressed the cold metal between her fingers. Remembering what it was to lay waste to other empty bottles, she took aim at the glass, the barrel looking awkwardly into the open night as Aggie opened the small sack and revealed the bullets.
“You better let me do this bit.”
Lena breathlessly watched as Aggie ejected the magazine and pushed the bullets into place. As soon as the ammo was secure in the chamber, she cautiously handed the gun back to Lena and cupped her chin her hands.
“Las thing I want is for you to have to use this,” Aggie started. “But can’t have you running to Jax if there’s trouble. Boy is bound to have his hands full.”
The gun felt heavy in her hand, but Lena steadied the piece and held it tight to her thigh.
“This isn’t want I wanted for him,” Lena said. “I just came home to see my uncle, and---”
“And you couldn’t help but cross paths,” Aggie said with a small smirk. “All kinds of history that I wasn’t a part of.”
“And you are sorry for that, right?”
Aggie firmly shook her head as she fingered the edge of her boots.
“My boy is still alive,” she said. “Do I hate what happened to you? Honey, I know all too well what it had to be like. But let’s just hope…”
Aggie’s voice trailed off as she flung her arms around Lena’s neck and pressed her lips to her ear.
“I aim to part of the next chapter, Lena.”
Starting to accept and return her embrace, Lena felt her heart calming in her chest when the night began to rumble. As soon as Aggie pushed away, Lena looked over her shoulder. The ground shuddered under their feet as the house started to stir, voices from the other room harmonizing with guns being locked and loaded.
“Aggie?” Lena whispered. “They’re coming. Eric is coming.”
“Fucker doesn’t let the grass grow,” Aggie sneered. “You good with the gun? Lena?”
She nodded slowly and watched Aggie remove her own pistol from her boot as she grabbed Lena’s hand.
“Party’s going down,” she said. “Time to take cover.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Aggie pulled Lena through the farmhouse as the sound of bikes kept moving forward. Lena saw the headlights taking shape through the windows. Hardly the whole Black Legion; Eric would have left a few men in Deerfield to keep tabs on his turf. But there was still no questioning that they were cornered, and Milo barked all kinds of orders as his men armed for action.
“Sneaky sack of shit,” he seethed. “Man and his army do not get in this house. You follow?”
Those words were for Brutus, and the scarred man nodded as he started to bolt the door. Lena watched with wide eyes as every stick of furniture was turned upside down in an effort to bar the windows, and Aggie kept pulling her towards the back of the house when Lena saw Jax and raced to hold his arms.
“Jax, please stay safe,” she whispered.
He kissed her quickly, the room rumbling around them as his fingers hit the metal at her side.
“You do the same, Lena. Don’t take the time to ask any questions.”
“I have her, Jackson,” Aggie said. “You’re with the crew now.”
Lena focused on his face as she was dragged away.
Please don’t let i
t be the last time that I see him. I need him too much.
She cried out as a bullet punctured an unguarded pane, and she saw an explosion of sparkling crimson as Artie’s shoulder shattered. Jax moved fast to the bald man’s side, and Artie groaned through the pain as Jax tore at his shirt and started to bind the wound.