It hadn't taken Tara long after Jax had left her alone and supposedly jilted at the hospital for her big brain to figure out just what he'd likely be doing. It was the who that really hurt but she'd deal with that bitter slice of painful realization later, when her lover turned temporary foe was done ferreting out and using her weakest vulnerabilities as weapons of retribution against her in the middle of his own damn clubhouse.
It fucking hurt like the son of a bitch Jax currently was but she couldn't afford to let any of that show right now or it would finally break her just like the jackass intentionally crushing her heart right now obviously wanted. Instead, Tara silently watched and waited as the crow inked over her backbone stood poised to swoop in for a stealth attack that would once again claim what had always belonged to her.
The golden pair tangled in an all too carnal display of sloppy, almost drunken, oral delight had yet to realize the awkward lull that had descended on the live audience to their x-rated tryst. Spurts of cum were surely about to join the spit, sweat, and girth of Jax's cock inside the porn queen's mouth when Juice regretfully offered from beside her, "You shouldn't have to see this, Doc. Let me take you home."
His words were purposefully quiet but her nickname resounded within one biker's slightly inebriated head as if his Puerto Rican brother had loudly hurtled it into their cinderblock confines like a battle cry of old and, instantly, guilt stricken blue met her steely gaze down the length of the bar. For a split second, Jax had started to automatically push the double penetration diva away before he quickly regained his brutal resolve and shoved the fake blonde's head even further down on his shaft until the woman almost choked and her man intentionally groaned his pleasure.
That fucker.
"Seems like you're almost done," Tara all too evenly volleyed back in a skirmish she had no intention of ever losing. "I'll just wait here until you finish."
"Tara," her name inescapably slipped past Jax's lips as a guttural exclamation; a ragged mix between a harsh warning for her to leave and an uncertain plea of something else entirely but it finally alerted the pitiful gash on her knees before him that the triple rated prima donna was no longer the female holding the biker's rapt attention no matter how hard the bitch sucked.
"I've seen you with other women before Jax, this isn't anything I'm unaware of, Kohn made certain of it," Tara crossed her arms and nonchalantly added without flinching away for even a millisecond. "Fuck them all if you need to; it's not going to change what we are to each other."
Tara could almost feel his manhood shrivel within her own mouth along with his tattered pride as Jax registered her full meaning. Roughly, he pulled away from the trick and told his latest darlin' to go wait in his room. Pathetically, like the well-trained whore Ima had become, she obediently sauntered off toward the back after shooting a victorious he's mine smirk in Tara's direction.
Mentally, Tara scoffed along with a few other disbelieving crow eaters who were a little more vocal in their skepticism now that she had finally sounded firm in her position as Jax Teller's Old Lady. That pussy must be as stupid as Ima was easy if the porn vixen really thought her overly exploited shit would distract Jax for more than a tawdry romp or two. Whatever the bottle blonde did with him wouldn't mean a damn thing to Jax past his purely physical release because this wasn't about the porn bitch at all.
It was about them; it always would be.
Even more so now that Jax wouldn't be able to brush her off so easily and send her back to the safer life he thought Tara should be living without him after all that had happened recently. Unashamedly, she squared her shoulders for the next part of their confrontation as Jax haphazardly hitched his loose jeans back over his hips. There was nothing for her to be embarrassed about tonight, she wasn't the one indiscriminately fucking in front of everyone, demeaning what they were to each other, in an effort to punish him or drive him away.
Finally, once he was buckled up again, Jax advanced on her. His low voice was hard, almost like stone, as he ground out, "I don't want you here, Tara."
"Yeah, I got that," she coolly rejoined through a distasteful curl of her lips without giving a step of her higher ground in front of the still lingering crowd, "but the prince doesn't always get his way."
Purposefully, she pulled the nondescript envelope of cash from her bag and slammed it down between the discarded beer bottles and empty shot glasses littering the bar top in front of him. Nodding at it, she explained, "That's the rest of the money from the clinic."
"The guy was supposed to call me to pick it up later, why'd he bring it to you," Jax growled through his furiously clenched jaw. His angry expression and aggressive posture broadcasted his displeasure that she was still somehow entangled in the Son's illegal activities with high def clarity.
"My colleague wanted to make sure I knew that one of their patients had been asking questions about me after we left," she leveled without any qualms.
"Babe, this is exactly what I was talking about. You shouldn't be involved in this shit," Jax ran a frustrated hand over his bearded scruff before he instinctively demanded. "Who was asking questions about you? What did they want to know?"
"It doesn't matter," she succinctly replied in a rapid dismissal of his query.
"The fuck it doesn't," Jax contradicted just as swiftly since all signs of his earlier buzz were now completely gone. "This could mean your career if they bring charges."
"Isn't that my business now," Tara slowly reminded him since Jax obviously had already forgotten his bogus little spiel about him being done with her earlier.
"Tara, this isn't a game," he sharply warned as his brothers nodded their grunting agreement from behind her like they were a gruff version of a barber shop quartet at his assessment.
"I know that," she calmly refuted in the face of his raging concern, "but it's also not your worry."
"That's bullshit," Jax uttered with a feral undertone. "Everything about you is my business."
Tara completely ignored his claim- just stoically looked at him for a lingering moment more- before she finally turned to the trio of brothers gathered behind her. Almost uncertainly, she softly requested, "Will one of you call me from Ireland when you find Abel to let me know that he's okay?"
Conspicuous looks shot back and forth between Jax, Tig, Juice, and Bobby before the latter nodded a hesitant response, "Sure, Doc, we'll make sure you get news when we've got Abel back."
"Thanks," Tara gratefully murmured as she walked past them with her head still held high while she exited the clubhouse.
"Tara," Jax's raised voice now followed behind her like her very own talking shadow. "Tara, where the fuck do you think you're going?"
She could have told him that it had probably been Darby who'd caused the raid on the clubhouse earlier. Or, that she was headed to his house where she truly belonged to wait for him to bring Abel home. And, maybe, she should have but, then again, if Tara had done any of that then it wouldn't be readily apparent to everyone in the clubhouse right now that she simply owned Jax - heart and soul- as he trailed after her without thought to anything else he was leaving behind.
Yet, it was only fair since Jax had indelibly marked her as his long before her pale skin had ever born even the first hint of his crow.
She was still hurt by his words and his careless actions over the last few weeks but, eventually, all of that could still be worked through because as she'd painfully learned since their burgeoning little family had been capriciously ripped apart when Abel had been taken by the Irish that nothing was really a deal breaker to Tara anymore. As she peeled out of the Teller-Morrow lot into the cloying darkness with Jax following so closely behind- so hot on her heels for a whole slew of answers he felt were rightfully his- Tara decided that she just might have to give him one that he certainly wasn't expecting tonight as well.
After all, Abel should know that he was going to be a big brother and Jax needed to understand that neither of them would ever really be done with the other. The sooner they both fully comprehended that implacable truth the better because she was sick and tired of him trying to fuck up what neither of them would ever truly be able to walk away from now. The unshakable bond of love that had been conceived when they were mere teens was now tangibly growing inside her and nobody, not even her badass biker, was going to keep her from owning her place at Jax's side ever again.