“Look who’s back!”
Mitch laughed loudly as he looked to Jax before peering over his head.
“On your own, Kid?” Mitch asked. “Don’t even have Artie for back up?”
“Bald man has a busted arm,” Jax said. “Wouldn’t know anything about that, now would you?”
Mitch pressed his free to his pocket and practically spun up on his heels.
“It’s the only way to deal with traitors,” he said. “You two shits are well matched.”
He stepped aside, and Jax’s heart fluttered in his chest at the sight of Lena. Her breasts were bare and trembling, and Eric has his gun to her temple as he licked her cheek with a laugh.
“Kid, to what do we owe the fucking pleasure?”
Jax hardly heard him as he searched for the entirety of Lena’s stare. When their eyes met, her terror overwhelmed him, but she forced her mouth into a faint smile. Just the sight of that put the best part of his mind at ease, and as he nodded his head, Lena followed his moves. Even scared, she was still brave, and Jax found the strength to pull his gun back.
“I’m here for Lena,” he said. “I don’t care about anything else.”
Eric answered his plea with a twist of her nipples. Lena tried not to cry out, and Jax’s skin crawled at the sound of Mitch’s laughter close to his ear.
“She is fine, Kid,” Mitch said. “But she selected to come with us.”
“That’s fucking right,” Eric said. “Thought you’d be back in bed with your new buddies.”
“Save for Artie,” Mitch laughed. “Did he bleed out or what?”
Jax kept his eyes on Lena as he absorbed the other man’s words. All those times when they had rode together, whether the collections were warranted or not…
“And you’d give no thought to him being dead?” Jax asked.
His love for Lena aside, he forced his stare to Mitch and waited for the answer.
“Dumb bald fuck,” Mitch sneered. “Never was anything to---”
Jax fired a bullet into Mitch’s face and watched his skin separate from his skull as he stumbled back and fell the ground. Only the sound of Lena’s screams as the blood pooled around his feet brought Jax’s focus back to his girl, and Jax aimed his gun again.
“Now let her go!” Jax threatened. “I’ll do you the same way if you---”
“Not if kill this cunt first.”
Jax’s heart bloomed in his chest as Eric lowered his gun, but in its place was a long shard of glass pressed to Lena’s pale pink throat.
“How about it, Jax? Think she’ll be as fun to fuck without a neck?”
Even as he hated making the move, Jax lowered his gun and pressed a single hand into the air.
“Why?” he asked. “Why did you do this to my family?
“Your… shit, Jax.”
Eric pushed Lena closer to his chest, the glass between her legs and laughed.
“It’s called a crew, Jax,” Eric said. “Your daddy was too dumb to get the long and short of it. So yeah. I laid the man down and worked all these years to keep you in line.”
Strange as it was, Jax felt a burden leave his shoulders, and he sighed as started to lift his gun.
“Didn’t do such a good job,” Jax spat.
“Point taken. Should have probably killed you when you first sniffed around this one and thought you were something special.”
Lena moaned as he twisted her nipples around his fingers, and Jax’s heart broke at the sound of the pain leaving her lips.
“Take your fucking hands off of her!”
Eric shook his head as he grazed the glass down her side, the sharp edge ever threatening to slice into her soft flesh.
“But this is so much more fun,” Eric teased. “Watching you dance for your life. And hers. Bet you’d give any hope of getting back in charge up I let her go.”
“I would,” Jax said. “Just stop hurting her.”
He forced Lena to her knees as he retrieved his gun and pressed the glass close to her eye.
“Want to see your girl blind?” Eric asked. “Or are we in agreement.”
Jax was ready to lose his gun when Lena slightly shook her head. Same move Aggie might have made… no. His mother ran. Maybe it wasn’t her fault, but she gave Jax no choice but to lick Eric’s boots and call him dad.
“Answer me just one more thing.”
He watched Eric drive Lena deeper into the dirt.
“Speak, Kid.”
Inhaling a deep breath, Jax threw his shoulders back.
“If you had it to do over,” he started. “Would you have killed me as a kid?”
Eric seemed to ponder the possibility, and as soon as their eyes met again, Jax fought the cold suddenly pouring through his veins.
“After tonight, Kid, answer is yes. Didn’t need you getting wise and making trouble.”
Jax bit down on his tongue with baited breath as Eric retrieved his gun.
“So it ends now.”
“Sure as shit does, Big Boss.”
Falling and turning to his side, Jax fired quickly. Lena held her ears, her screams muffled against the grass as Jax rose to his feet and peered down at Eric clutching his bleeding arm.
“Hope it hurts,” he hissed. “Far more than you ever gave my father.”
Eric kept groaning into the grass when Jax turned his head and saw Lena struggling to crawl away from the blood staining her soft hands.
“Lena!”
He was on her heels, absorbing her kicks and scratches as he eased her body back to the ground and gently held her down.
“Lena! It’s me!”
Even as he felt her breath calming, Jax watched with wide eyes as she brought a bloody hand to his face. Choking on a sob, she shuddered and stayed silent as he pulled her into his arms.
“Lena?”