“Are you fucking out of your mind?” Jax screamed as he regained all of his senses and pushed away from the feel of Viv icing his neck.
“Shouldn’t you be taking care of my mother?” he spat.
“Aggie’s okay,” she assured him. “Resting now. But you don’t look so---”
“Get the fuck away from me!”
Milo moved to challenge him when he pushed her off, but to the room’s surprise, Artie stumbled forward, his battered arm resting in a makeshift sling as he took hold of Viv’s shoulder.
“Kid, she didn’t do a damn thing. Don’t take it out on her.”
“Why the hell not? You sweet on her now?”
“Like you’re the only one who thinks he has a heart.”
Every other man in the room save for Milo hung their heads and shuffled their feet. Jax could care less if Viv as the nursemaid tickled Artie’s balls, but he missed the ice as soon as it left his neck.
“Watch it, cue ball,” Milo cautioned, adopting Aggie’s long forgotten pet name as Viv took hold of Artie’s arm.
“Be on my best behavior,” Artie promised. “Now what about Lena?”
Lena.
Jax rubbed his hands across his face and pictured her body shaking on the back of Eric’s bike. He got it – why she laid herself on the line in a bid to protect the others. But that didn’t change the fact that every second took her farther and farther away from him. He could cling to nothing but the length of the ride. Because when it stopped, when Eric could no longer contain himself, Jax felt sure that he would push her sweet body into the grass and hike up her skirt. The idea that he would tear into her soft flesh and slap her sobbing face, maybe do so much worse, filled his heart with dread.
“I never should have let her go,” Jax lamented. “I’m supposed to take care of her.”
He felt as if he would weep, not caring about the many eyes on his shaking form when Milo gripped the back of his neck.
“And she’s taking care of all of us,” he said. “Ever stop to think that there’s more to life than this one girl. Shit, she gets it.”
“And she wants me to come after her.”
“I get that, too” Milo said as he released Jax and sighed heavily. “Might do the same thing if it was one of my…”
His weary gaze settled on Viv as Artie brought her closer to his side under the strength of his good arm. Easy for Milo to make that claim now. Old man or not, his sister had protection. Lena was out there all alone, and Jax shook his head fast and knelt before the Silver Horses’ chief.
“Then let me try to find her,” he said. “I can’t just stay here like this. Going all kinds of crazy.”
Milo cracked open a beer and kicked away the glass still left on the ground as he flopped into an armchair and chugged hard.
“You seem so sure,” Milo said.
“Damn straight. I can… I’m going to get her back. I’ll bring her here or take her far away if that’s what you---”
“No reason you can’t be among friends. We friends now, Jax?”
Wasn’t quite the right definition of the word, but compared to Eric or Mitch…
“Sure we are,” Jax said. “So can I go for her?”
He smoothed his fingers down his chin as he sipped his beer again. Milo’s eyes appeared to dance with all kinds of possibilities as he crunched his toes to the bits of glass beneath his feet and pulled a smoke from his pocket.
“What happens if you don’t come back?” he asked.
Jax’s mind raced for an explanation, but Artie charged forward, Viv still clinging to his arm.
“That ain’t happening,” Artie said. “I’ve seen the lengths he’ll go for this girl. He’ll be back.”
Viv smiled into his face as Milo whistled all eyes in the room back to the space of his stare.
“Your man is sure,” he said. “Viv?”
The girl took a soft step to her brother’s side and looked at Milo through wide eyes.
“These two to be believed?” he asked.
“Milo, I… you never ask me about these kinds of---”
“Point taken. But I’m asking you now.”
Viv looked from her brother to Artie. He gave her a quick smile, and Jax felt his heart lighten ever so slightly at the sight. But then her gaze pierced his eyes. Jax tensed and thought it strange that any chance of saving Lena rested on the slim shoulders of this fragile girl, and his soul started to sink to pit of his stomach when Viv tossed her head back and bared her teeth in bold grin.
“I saw the way he looked at her, too” Viv said. “Milo, you have to let him try.”
Jax fought the urge to leap to his feet and pull her into an embrace as she stepped back to Artie’s side and fell into his shoulder. His gaze turned to Milo, and the man took another drag as he nodded his head.
“So says Viv,” he puffed. “Always found it hard to go against the wishes of my little sister.”
Jax was up and asking for his gun. Milo started to push the piece into his hands when he held Jax at arm’s length.
“But if I let you do this and you fail, whole new kind of trouble coming to this door.”
“I’m telling you I won’t---”
“Hey, I almost buy what you’re selling, Kid. But a little incentive, no?”
“Incentive, I---”
“If you… when you come back all bathed in glory with the girl on your arm, you give all of it to me. Make it all my turf.”
“That ain’t what he came here for,” Artie said, but Jax waved him off.
His mind flashed back to his father.
That’s my boy, Jax! Can’t wait to hand you the reins one of these days.
To go back on that was betrayal, and he drifted away from the others, Lena’s unknown fate filling his thoughts as he peered through an open door and spied his mother sleeping peacefully below a thin blanket. What would she say if she was up and coaching him to make the right move? Would she ask if Lena were worth this trouble, tell him to cut her loose? Something told him she understood even in the space of her slumber, and he wanted nothing more than to give Lena the chance to speak for herself.
“Fine,” he said in a steely voice as he took the gun from Milo’s hand and pushed it into his pants. “It’s all yours – even if I get back.”
Jax started to leave the house, his eyes on his bike and the way out when Milo gripped his arms and turned Jax around.
“When, Kid,” Milo said. “Wouldn’t ask this much if I didn’t think you could make it happen.”