by Paula Cox
“What do we got here?”
“Check out the patch, man.”
Jax was powerless to resist as his body was shoved to the ground and a hard boot pressed down against his neck. Pinned in place, he scraped his nails against the dirt and tried to listen.
“Shit! Now that for sure ain’t a good sign.”
“Well was once before, and---”
“And that’s why it’s a bad omen now.”
“So what do we do?”
For several seconds that seemed to stretch endlessly, there was nothing but silence. Even as his head throbbed and his lungs burned with each breath, Jax managed to shift his head to the side. Looking up at a hulking shadow without a face, he spoke slowly.
“I’m looking for someone. I---”
“Who the fuck said you were allowed to talk?”
As soon as the boot left his neck, Jax was hoisted up by his hair, but before he could clearly take in the features of the man, he was felled by a sharp rap to his cheek, and as his head started to sink to his shoulder, he was roughly pushed up a rickety flight of stairs into the depths of the house.
Once he was inside and he heard the door slam shut behind him, there was the unmistakable click of a deadbolt going into the place. Jax tried to make sense of his surroundings. The smell of stale smoke mingled with whiskey and beer hit his eyes like a fresh punch in the face, and the eyes of the men that he was able to focus on regarded him with nothing but contempt.
And there was no trace of his mother anywhere to be seen.
In short order, he was pushed into a dark, dank room. He moaned at the feel of his head slamming into a hardwood floor, and when he tried to call out for release and make some kind on an escape, a sharp heel to his groin sent him screaming out in pain.
Rolling into a corner with no hope of any way out, a threatening man glared down at him under a face coated in jagged scars. “What did you think you were up to, bitch?” the man hissed as he spat in Jax’s face. “Just thought that you’d get the lay of the land and we’d never know that you were here?”
That was never the plan. As much as he wanted to get back to Lena and hold her close, he was here for a purpose, and he propped his body up on his aching elbows and tried to talk. “No,” he managed.
“Got some news for you,” he continued, the man punctuating his words with sharp kicks as he smirked under his scars. “Only report you’re gonna make is to your maker.”
“No!” Jax repeated as he waved his arms in the air. “I’m no spy. I’m just trying to get some help!”
“Like I’m buying that for even a second!”
Jax’s speech was stilled by a sharp crack to his cheeks, and he wheeled back, searching for a place to lay his pounding head when he felt his hair pulled to the roots. Having no choice but to meet the man’s eyes, Jax fought the urge to rip his damaged skin from his cheeks and pound his exposed nerves. That would do him no good, and again he tried to explain all of his reasons for begin there when the scarred man stuffed something soft and damp and stinking into his mouth.
“Let’s say you take a powder,” the man said as he cracked his knuckles and glowered.
Jax moaned into the makeshift gag.
“You cut into my dinner time, cunt,” he continued. “And no one gets between me and my chow.”
Pushed to a ratty mattress atop a creaking bed, Jax tried to spit the rag from his jaw when a wave of fatigue washed over him. He suddenly felt as if he was falling under deep, dark water, and the big man’s voice seemed a million miles away.
“Besides, gonna take me some time to come up with the best brand of punishment.”
Overwhelmed and needing sleep, Jax made one last effort to lift his fingers to his mouth and pull the rag away when he lost all train of thought. With no way of determining how long he drifted, Jax twisted his head at a soft hand running leisurely across his cheek. Looking up from the bed, there was Lena, bathed in a warm light. Her smile was soft and sweet as she leaned down to kiss him.
Lena! How…? Unable to leave the bed, his arms like two concrete slabs at his sides, he felt her finger tracing the line of his lips. She shouldn’t be here; how the hell had she even found him in the first place? His lips failed to work as he tried to ask the thousands of questions flooding his mind, but her kiss tender and gentle against his mouth erasing all pain. Returning her smile, he savored the feel of her settling at his side as she cuddled close to his heaving chest.
I missed you, Jax. I’ve missed you for so long.
He inhaled the scent of her hair and nodded into her neck as their eyes locked again.
Promise me you won’t be mad.
Mad? What reason would he ever have to cross with her? Trying to tell her that not one thing that had gone down was ever her fault, the sight of her leaving the bed stunned him. As he desperately watched her move across the room, the door was unlocked and pushed open. And Eric appeared at Lena’s side. No! Why is he here? What the hell does he want?
Eric laughed with menace as Lena hung her head, and he pressed her under his arm. It’s like this, kid. You done gone and got yourself bashed and thrashed. And sweet young thing here promised to be real friendly if we let her loser of an uncle draw breath for another day.
Looking to Lena with fear and questions swirling around his shining eyes, Jax fell from the bed but couldn’t make another move closer to her side. Lena!
I’m sorry, Jax. But you never came back.
Eric held her tighter to his side and licked her cringing face as he shot Jax a smirk. Could have had it all, Kid. All you had to do was learn how to share. I’d have gotten tired of her in due course.
But in this moment, he pressed his hand under her skirt. Lena’s face went blank as she endured the assault of his hands, and just when Jax felt sure he could find his way to his feet and pull her into his arms, Lena vanished into thin air. And there was nothing but Eric barring his way.
But don’t worry, Kid. I’ll pass her around to the others. Little bitch is bound to make a nice ornament. Maybe a chance at her ass will be like a rite of initiation for any new pledges.
Jax shook violently, feeling as if he were caught in the throes of an ice storm with no cover, and he tried to raise his fist to Eric’s smug face when he found himself back on the bed. His heart pounded as he tasted the remnants of the rag, and when he was finally able to pry it from his mouth, he shot up straight, his eyes racing wildly around the room. And he knew he was right back where he had started. Just a dream. But oh my God…
Leaping to his feet, Jax clawed the air as he ran to the door. Once he hit the frame, he twisted the handle around his trembling fingers, but the door would not give way. Still he kept trying, and when there was no hope of turning it open, he fell to his back and kicked hard, his voice rising to the top of his lungs.
“Let me out!” he screeched. “I’m here to give you Eric Stiles. I’m like you! I want that fucker put down!”
What if he had Lena again? What if it was already too late? The thought curdled in his stomach, pushing up his throat until he thought he might choke on it when he swallowed back the bile and the rage and went for the door again “Listen to me!” Jax screamed as he continued pounding his tight fists against the closed door. “I’m trying to find my mother, I---”
His speech was cut short by the feel of the door swinging open, and Jax tripped over his own feet as his body went flying to the cold hard floor littered with sawdust and ash. Wiping the mixture of dust from his eyes, Jax managed to make his way to his knees only to be felled by another punch to his jaw.
“Big tough buddy boy,” the scarred man said upon his return. “Need your mommy to kiss it and make it all better, punk?”
Jax slowly tilted his head to meet the man’s dark gaze, his blood boiling at the insult, and he struggled to fight back when the heel of the larger man’s boot crushed into his sides.
“Think you can fight me?” he spat. “Got another thing coming, you cunt pussy!”
&
nbsp; Jax was dragged to his feet, and he winced at the feel of his back slamming into the far wall. As he sucked in a ragged breath through his gritted teeth, he felt a rain of fists crushing into his shoulders, the scarred man’s aim shifting every few seconds to knock into his jaw. Wheeling back, Jax’s eyes went wide at the sight of the promised knockout punch aimed squarely at his nose and, seizing what felt like his chance, Jax finally spit out the only words that might save him as he still managed to stand. “Aggie Monroe,” he choked out. “I’m her son.”
The big man stopped mid-punch and looked at Jax as if he was speaking in tongues and making total sense in the space of the same breath. “Say that again, punk?”
“Aggie Monroe,” Jax moaned. “I’m…I’m Jax.”
His attacker paused, his eyes seeing to dance around the truth of what Jax was saying and what, if anything, he was going to do with the Intel. Before Jax could wipe away the blood dribbling from his lip, his body was tossed to the bed, and again the door slammed shut.
Curling painfully onto his side, Jax groaned through the throbbing coursing around his brain and closed his eyes in an effort to keep the room from the spinning. In his beleaguered state, he felt certain he had made the wrong call. No way his mother was here; no way she would run with a man like that. Then again, she was the one who set her cap to Eric Stiles, and maybe there was something to her leaving the man once she knew who and what he was. But to leave her son?
What the fuck? What was I thinking? Even if she’s here, she won’t help me. She never did. And what about Lena?
Fearing that he’d left her harm’s way with only a simple lesson and the little time they might have managed to buy, he struggled to sit up on the edge of the bed only to be assailed by another dizzy spell, his eyes burning in his head with pain and tears as he turned his head into the pillow and whispered her name. “Lena, Lena, I’m sorry.”
A single sliver of light filled the darkened room, and Jax narrowed his gaze at the sight of a slim figure stepping slowly into the breach.
“Lena?”
“No, little man.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jax blinked hard at the sight of the tall woman moving through the shadows. Standing at her full height, the woman flicked the switch on the wall and revealed a shorn head of hair, salt and pepper in shade with just a few red streaks indicating a former luster long gone.
“Mom?” Jax asked.
Her face was worn and weary with lines surrounding her mouth and sad eyes. But those eyes were unmistakable and, even before she spoke again, Jax knew with utter certainty that he had at least found her. But if the pain in his head were any kind of a sign, he and Lena might have been better off to keep moving.
“Long time no see,” Aggie said in a flat voice. There were no tears in her eyes, no quiver in her lips. She simply moved with sure, slow steps into an adjoining room, and Jax shifted uncomfortably where he sat at the sound of running water.
Aggie reemerged with a basin of water in her hands and a towel flung over her shoulder. She started to sit at his side when she suddenly seemed to think better of it. Setting the basin aside, she pulled a wooden chair to the foot of the bed and motioned her son to come closer. “Sorry about that,” she continued. “Old Brutus is a bit of a hot head.”
“Guess he’s just not used to visitors.”
“Some truth to that. We tend to keep to ourselves in these parts.”
Jax winced as she brought the dampened towel to his cheek and started to wipe the blood away. Even though her face stayed hard, he found himself transported back to simpler moments, times when she retrieved a damp rag or simply spit on the back of sleeve to clean one mess or another from his cheeks. But in those days, Aggie wiped away any toothpaste or peanut butter with a smile and a joke.
None of that now. And if he didn’t know any better, if somehow he had found himself blinded in the wake of Brutus’ attack, he would have no real way of knowing this was his mother at all – just a stranger who sort of, kind of had her voice.
“Damn fool thing to be sneaking around out here on your lonesome without any backup. Especially with those skulls and wings on your back.
Maybe he should have left his coat with Lena and kept the shirt for himself.
“Still my seal,” he reasoned. “And Dad’s. Despite everything else, gotta take some pride in that.”
A mirthless laugh left her lips as she continued cleaning his face. “Word is that Eric’s made quite the name for himself,” she said. “Not exactly your father’s methods, but enough to keep good old Deerfield on its collective toes.”
He started to confirm her version of events when she whipped the wet towel over her shoulders again and opened the door. “Gonna need some ice here,” she called out. “And let’s hope to hell that nothing’s broken.”
Standing before him again, Aggie gingerly eased the jacket from his body and pressed her fingers to his sides. Jax flinched under her touch, but when he failed to scream out in total agony, his mother seemed satisfied and softly nodded her head. “Looks like you’re all in one piece,” she said. “More or less.”
Right on cue, another woman appeared with short dark hair and violet eyes. Her smile was sympathetic as she handed over another towel wrapped around a pile of sweating cubes. “Is it true, Aggie?” she asked. “This your boy?”
“It would appear so.”
Jax felt a sharp tug at his heart at the tone in her voice. Not one hint of joy at his reappearance, no pride taken in the man he had become. He started to turn his head away, biting down on his busted lip when the other woman slipped closer to his side.
“Sorry for the welcome wagon,” she said.
“Someone should tell your boy not to roll it over guests.”
“I told you, Jax,” Aggie said. “We ain’t aiming to make friends around here.”
And his mind flashed back to the note. I’m done here. Don’t want to do this anymore. “Maybe… no. This is a mistake.” Jax tried to stand, but his wobbly legs gave out from under him, and almost immediately his body crashed back down to the bed.
“Easy there, soldier,” the other woman said as she made the move that his mother couldn’t or wouldn’t and sat with him on the bed. Her touch was light and gentle as she brushed a few bloody strands of hair from his eyes. “Bet you’ll clean up just fine,” she promised. “And now that you have your mama to look after you---”
“That’ll do, Viv,” Aggie insisted. “I can take it from here.”
Viv shrugged her shoulders and took off with a tender tap to his cheek. As Jax watched the woman go, he was struck by the fact that a stranger was showing him more kindness than his own flesh and blood, and as Aggie returned to her chair and started to ice his bruises, Jax echoed her unfeeling tone of voice.
“Hate to be such an inconvenience to you,” he said. “Can tell you’ve really been living it up.”
Aggie snorted as the ice melted down his face, the thawing stream falling to his chest. “Is that what this is?” she asked. “Well color me surprised.” As hint of her familiar stare crossed his eyes, and Jax tried to touch her when she pushed back with a sharp sigh. “So what’s the deal?”
“Deal?” he asked.
“Trying to snatch some power that ain’t quite yours yet?
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Eric would never let you sit at the grown ups’ table.” She narrowed her gaze into a tight glare. “A real soldier would call him out and take him out on his own turf. Not come crawling to a rival with his tiny tail tucked between his legs.”
“I---”
“Not that I don’t get it,” she continued. “But this is still kind of pussy shit, little man.”
Jax pushed her hand away as a surge of adrenaline coursed through his veins. Suddenly finding his way to his feet, he stared Aggie down and balled his hands into hard fists. “You are one to fucking talk,” he hissed.
Aggie tossed the ice aside and reached into her pocket.
Slipping out a single, hand-rolled cigarette, she flicked a Zippo to attention and lit the end of the stick. “What do you think you know, little man?”
“Don’t even fucking call me that.”
“Hey! You sought me out. And after all I did for you.”
“What you did?” Jax asked, feeling as if he was about to lose his mind. Again his head started to spin, but instead of falling back to the bed, he collapsed to his knees and pressed his palms to her slim shoulders. Smoke wafted from between her parted lips, but Jax didn’t do as much as blink as he gritted his teeth. “You left me with a maniac,” Jax hissed. “I don’t know if you knew what he was from the start or if you just figured it out when you were in too deep.”
