“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.”
Lena 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.