Jax stood stunned at the sight of Lena in the flesh. For a moment, he felt sure that he must be dreaming. No way she could be here. And this was the last way that he wanted her to see him again. “Lena?” he asked. “Is it really you?”
“You know it is, you son of a bitch!”
Sully still sputtered in the sink, but Jax loosened his hold, his eyes fixed on nothing but Lena as she charged forward and pushed him aside.
“It’s okay, Uncle Tom,” she promised. “I’ve got you now.”
Jax watched with wide, unblinking eyes as she led her uncle back to the table and sat him down slowly. Some bandage on his cheek had fallen away, and Lena seized a rag as she fell to his side and applied fresh pressure to the man’s wound.
“Here,” she ordered as curled his fingers around the cloth. “Hold that right there. I’ll take care of it.”
Sully obeyed with a nod, and Jax took a step closer as she turned away from him. As soon as she made the move, they were face to face.
“Lena.”
Now there was no question that she was here, that she were real. Her golden hair was shorter, but he still longed to touch it and peer deeper into the blue pools of her eyes. Jax started to touch her soft cheek when she shied away and pushed past him again.
“What happened to you looking out for him?” she demanded.
“What do you mean?” he asked as her grabbed her arm and turned her back to him. “Lena, I---”
“Get your god damned hands off of me!” she spat. “And put…put that thing away.”
Jax realized that his gun was still drawn and lazily aimed at her feet. Fearing that it might go off without him wanting it to, Jax stuffed the weapon back in his holster. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know that you were---”
“Save it! Like you wouldn’t have come in with gun’s blazing if you’d even known.”
Her words sliced into his soul. Maybe Eric wound him up, but it was her absence that cut him to the core. Now that she were back, if she were really back… “Lena, please.”
Throwing her hands into the air, she stared him down and stood before him like a waiting target. “So do it,” she challenged. “Take me out so you can show your daddy what a big man you are.”
Balling his hand into a fist, he stepped towards her. Sully screamed at his back, but Jax drowned the man out as he neared Lena’s side. “Don’t you ever say that,” Jax hissed. “You know he’s not my real---”
“I know what I see,” Lena said. “And you look a lot more like him than I ever thought possible.”
Jax struggled to keep his rage in check. As much as it stung when she took off with like on word, Lena knew the score. Did he respect Eric in the confines of the clubhouse? No question about it. Came with the territory. But he was still his own man. And if she couldn’t remember that much… “Lena, come on. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
She came closer to his side, and Jax longed to take her into his arms and just bury his head in her shoulder. Lena’s hold was always soft, and his skin buzzed at the memory of her hand in his when they stole off for secret moments. Every single time, the urge to kiss her bubbled around his lips. But, somehow, he held back. Not because she wasn’t beautiful. No man could ever deny that. Because she was decent, and he never felt good enough to take what he probably had no real right to. “Lena, I---”
Her palm smashed into his cheek, and he fell back with a groan. Stunned by her sudden show of strength, Jax stared at her with wild eyes and twisted his head over his shoulders. “How could you do that?” he asked. “After everything---”
“You came here to beat up an old man who has nothing!” she cried. “Can’t you see how wrong that is?”
Sully took her hand as the blood continued to soak the cloth at his face, but Lena didn’t flinch as she waited for his answer.
“I…don’t know what to...” His voice fell off at the sound of another bike roaring up the path. Jax struggled to his feet and started to move for the door when Lena pressed her arm into the air and held him back.
“No way,” she said. “Not giving you a chance to cover your tracks.”
“I’m not covering for---” He hardly finished his thought when another motor stopped. Jax narrowed his eyes and held his breath as Mitch appeared with a cold smirk and knife in his hand. Sully shuddered at the sight, and Lena looked from one man to the other as he left Jax’s side and barreled towards him with a cold glare.
“It was you!” she cried. “You did this to my uncle.” She moved to slap him, but Mitch did not hesitate to grab her wrist and twist her arm behind her back.
“Let her go!” Jax cried. “She’s not part of this.”
Mitch danced her away from him, but even as Lena struggled in his hold, she shifted her glaring eyes towards Jax. “Yes I am,” she challenged. “My family, my business. How about you put your knife away, jackass?”
Laughing loudly, Mitch kept the blade poised to meet the threat in her voice, and as soon as Jax saw him ready to slash her soft cheek, he forgot their ranks again and pushed forward. As she started to fall, Jax steadied her body with his free arm and pushed Mitch away.
“Don’t you touch her,” Jax demanded. He could feel Lena’s back tensing against his chest, and as he tried to turn her to face him, Lena wheeled away.
“Part of the plan?” she asked. “Trying to show me that you’re still a good guy?”
Jax was speechless as she tended to her uncle and ran her hand down his back. He couldn’t help but want to know her touch, and he felt himself drawn closer to her side when her head shot up and she smirked.
“Then you should have come together,” Lena said. “From what I saw, you would have taken him out one two three if I hadn’t been here.”
What would have been worse? Doing the deed and leaving her to hear about it afterwards? Knowing that she was back? Or trying to reconnect with her only to find that she now had a cruel streak running through her veins?
“Lena, wait---”
“Leave it alone, kid,” Mitch insisted as he took him by the arm. “This is a trash heap.”
Jax shook his head and tried to speak up for her when Lena gritted her teeth.
“So you should feel right at home. Always were white trash in leather.” She had told him that, revealed the whispers behind his back. But when he had her by his side and saw her smile, no one else’s words mattered, because she was on his side.
Now he peered into her eyes and clenched his fists. “Was that even true?” he asked. “Or just something you made up to get yourself some protection?”
Even as he spoke the words, he knew they didn’t really make sense. She could have taken things further, and he would have done more than beat up a few boys in the girls’ room. He would have sliced open the throat of any man that dared to even look at her. But they were friends. That’s how it always felt.
“Get out,” she said. “The last thing I need is more trouble with you or your kind.”
Jax was almost on her, his hands ready to seize her shoulders. “What the hell is that supposed to---?”
Mitch suddenly pulled him hack and pressed his mouth close to his ear.
“Means that they’re both not worth the free pass,” Mitch said. “So let’s make an example of them and get back to base.”
Without Lena, all he had was Eric’s pride to take some comfort in. The thought of heading back triumphant burned faint against his soul. And when he saw Lena waving him off with a cold gaze, he thought of dealing with the debt right then and there. He would never hurt her. Even now the idea of laying hands on her turned his stomach. But Sully was still fair game. He had a job to do and---
“You’ll have to get through me first,” Lena said.
Mitch egged him on, and Jax almost went for his gun when he remembered the creek and couldn’t bring himself to aim the pistol again. But he had to so do something. Whatever else she thought, he was still a man.
“Two days,” Jax said.
“Kid, what the fuck do you think you’re---”
“I’m giving him two days to make good.”
Jax started to turn on his heel when he looked back and met Lena’s eyes. Part of him wanted to take it back and scoop her up into his arms. But for what? So she could knock him down again and keep playing him for a fool?
“Better pay up,” Jax said. “Next time I won’t be so nice.”