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 it 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.
“We should help him,” Lena said. “He got me back here---”
“So my boy could just watch you die?” Aggie asked as she kept shoving Lena away from the room. “Take the gun and just go.”
Jax nodded his consent, and Lena almost turned the corner when her eyes went back to Aggie, the woman’s nostrils flaring as she aimed her gun and stepped over the shards.
“Aggie, get back!” Brutus barked. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“Like shit it doesn’t.”
Another round of gunfire thundered through the farmhouse, and Lena crouched in a corner as Aggie kept moving through the storm like she was covered in an impenetrable force field, every bullet bouncing off the walls failing to find her flesh when Jax eased Artie to the ground and crawled towards his mother.
“Get down, Mom!” he bellowed. “Just go with Lena!”
Lena hid in the corner, her fingers nervous around the trigger as she watched the door. A small part of her almost wanted Eric to barge in and take aim. Aggie seemed primed to lay waste to the man, and that was something that would do every heart in the room a world of good.
“Aggie, stop!”
She shrugged Milo’s words off and opened the door, crouching in the space of the frame as she pointed into the night air.
“Face me like a man, you coward!” Aggie screamed. “Or don’t you got the stones anymore? Like you ever even had them in the first---”
The chorus of bullets grew quiet, and Lena fought her fear as she started to crawl into the room.
“Lena, don’t!”
She slapped her hand over Jax’s mouth, his lips soft against her hand as they watched Aggie steady herself to her feet and step onto the porch. Her face stayed like slate, and Lena held her breath, clutching Jax tighter when Aggie’s harsh mask expanded into a cold smirk.
“Wish I could say the years have been good to you,” Aggie said. “But time don’t lie.”
Lena felt the other Silver Horses packing heat as she huddled against Jax’s arm, hearing nothing else until a familiar, cold laugh raced up the stairs and hit her soul.
“Don’t you see in the running for any prizes either. Wife.”
Jax’s blood seemed to boil at her side, and Lena moved with him as he struggled to his feet. Armed again, Jax started to walk towards his mother’s side when he turned back to Lena and stopped her in her tracks.
“You can’t do this with me,” he said.
“I don’t want to be alone, Jax.”
“Get back in the bedroom. Try to stay safe.”
“Don’t even think I’m leaving you now,” she said.
Jax tried to object when Eric’s voice drew closer. Milo was up when Aggie rushed from the house.
“I should have shot you in your sleep! Fuck you for threatening my son and mine!”
“Mom, stop!”
“Jax, wait!”
Milo pushed her back as the men headed to the porch, but Lena would not be swayed and followed after them, feeling the trigger curl in her finger and wondering if she really had the strength to take aim at this man when Eric Stiles beat her to the punch.
“Mom!”
Lena screamed as she watched Aggie sink into her son’s arms. Milo started taking aim at every Black Legion man in his sight when Lena grabbed his arm.
“What are you---?”
“Just help him get her back inside!” Lena screamed.
Milo grunted as he followed her order, and he slammed the door shut, the crew ducking around a fresh spray of bullets as Jax eased his mother’s body into the corner, and covered her with his jacket.
“Baby,” she moaned as she touched his cheeks. “You’re still hurt. You should go and---”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
Blood poured from her temple, and Brutus shimmied on his belly towards the others as he took hold of her hand.
“Aggie, I---”
“Looks like a flesh wound,” Milo said. “But she needs to get out of harm’s way.”
Brutus stared to hoist her off the ground when Aggie took hold of her son’s hand.
“Don’t let him win,” she whispered. “Not again.”
“I won’t, Mom. I… what the hell is?”
“She’s slipping off,” Milo said. “Get her in the back, Brutus.”
The scarred man pressed Aggie to his chest, her limp arms swinging against his back as Lena took Jax’s hand.
“You go, too,” Milo said. “Can’t have you getting in the way.”
“I’m not---”
“Lena, please!”
Jax’s lip quivered as he spoke, and she longed to take him into her arms when he pushed her back and pointed towards Brutus’ departing form.
“Look after her for me, Lena. Please just do that.”
Maybe it was all she could manage; Jax would be no good to anyone if he were frantic with worry, and Lena almost welcomed the chance to not have to use the gift of Aggie’s gun on Eric as she followed Brutus into the back.
“What’s happening?” Viv asked, her knees knocking together as she stepped away from the bed. One glance at Sully told Lena he was out cold, and for a second she thought he had left her for good when Viv thrust an empty bottle of scotch before Lena’s watering eyes.
“He just kept going,” Viv said. “Nothing left for us.”
Brutus steadied Aggie at Sully’s side as he brushed a few stands of multi-colored hair from her face. Aggie kept muttering Jax’s name over and over again as he looked up at the women.
“Tell me you can patch her up, too, Viv,” Brutus said in a thick voice. “I can’t lose her like this.”
Viv scurried around the room and bit off a hunk of the sheet. What was left of the ice was melting in a rickety bucket, but Viv fought past her shudders and started to wipe the blood away from Aggie’s face. Lena’s gun banged against her leg, and even though it was not the move that Jax wanted her to make, she took a few steps closer to the window.
“Come on out, Kid!” Eric threatened. “Or the next one is for…”
His voice drifted into the darkness, and Lena was too slow to crouch to the floor when Eric’s eyes locked on hers.
“But why wait.”