Just to clarify the timeline of this:
- The night of the party and Hap/Cor kissed
- The day when the guys leave for Ireland and the afternoon that the girls get abducted.
- The day that Salazar tells the guys that he has Tara and Corey and the guys visit Alvarez.
This chapter starts on the third day (two nights) after the Happy/Corey kiss.
Now that's sorted...
... ON WE GO!
"We're gonna be ok Doc. He didn't kill Miss Murphy. She'll have told the cops where we are and you know the guys aren't gonna let anything happen to you."
Salazar had just left the room after making the call to the sons. Corey could see the worry and tension in Tara's eyes and had waited until Salazar and Luisa had left before she offered any words of support.
"Please just stop talking like you aren't getting out of here too." Tara said with a pained expression "I don't know him well but I cant imagine Kozik not doing everything he can to get you out of here too, even if you are dealing with this remarkably well." Tara said with a weak smile and she was answered with a humourless chuckle from Corey.
"I aint dealing with shit. Just not thinking about gettin' out. Thinkin' like that means you got hope and hope kills ya in the end."
"Don't talk like that. If you don't have hope then what's the point." Tara nearly snapped, and her muscles flexed as if she wanted to reach for her stomach, for her baby.
"Hope aint done shit for me Doc. I hoped my mom would get better. I hoped my brother would come home. I hoped that Kipp would live. I hoped I'd be able to protect Abel. Now they're all dead and Abel's gone. So excuse me if I don't hope that we get out of here, and I focus on just doing it instead of all this hopin' and prayin' shit. Hoping, it ain't worth a damn thing, you just gotta do it."
"God Corey I-"
"We should try and sleep. Save your strength Doc." Corey cut her off bluntly, before leaning her head back against the wall, eyes staring at the ceiling.
And Tara had nothing to say.
"We really trusting that ATF bitch?" said Piney as they all went back into the bar after Stahl had left.
"Ain't got another option" sighed Kozik, leaning his elbows on the bar and running his hands through his hair. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lauren walk in from the parking lot. As Unser walked up to the bar Kozik muttered
"Gimme minute."
Before walking over to his old lady.
Lauren had volunteered to go in the pick up with Jax when he moved the rest of the scrips to a few small clinics about a mile outside of Charming. When Jax had been called back to Charming to see his mom and catch Oswald's plane, it was Lauren (who had a little prior experience with illegal narcotics) who had stayed for the day, over seeing the hand over of the scrips and had been trusted to manage the cash transactions at each of the clinics. Combine this with stopping the night at a friends house and it had dawned on Kozik the moment she arrived that Lauren didn't know what had happened to her friend.
"Hey baby" she smiled warmly at him, pressing a kiss to his cheek before pulling back and frowning slightly, brow creased in concern.
"Kozik? Baby what's wrong?" she asked him, taking his hands and running her thumbs over his knuckles soothingly. Kozik didn't speak for a moment, looking like he wasn't sure if this was a good idea.
Finally he managed to get out
"It's Corey."
"You got 5 minutes before I drag your ass out." sneered Luisa, and Tara kicked the door slamming it shut.
"Bitch." she muttered to herself, before shaking her head and looking around the room.
"Focus." Corey's words echoed in her head "Hoping, it ain't worth a damn thing, you just gotta do it."
Tara pulled back the shower curtain but there was nothing there that was useful. She sat on the edge of the bath, hands pressed to her chin in thought. She caught sight of her reflection for a moment and tried not to think about how exhausted and pathetic she looked in her current situation. Her reflection did nothing to inspire confidence that she could do much to help herself or Corey.
Reflection.
Her reflection.
"Two minutes!" yelled Luisa, breaking through her reverie and Tara quickly sprang into action, standing up she looked around before grabbing a frayed looking towel. Wrapping it around her hand, she bit her lip with nerves, as she pressed as had as she could against the aged mirror and she said a silent prayer of thanks that the mirror made no noise as it cracked.
"How's that for 'just doing it' Corey?" she whispered to herself, for the first time cracking a small, but genuine smile as she looked at the broken shards. She heard Luisa's phone ring outside, heard her muffled voice as the girl answered the phone.
"Little Bitches!" came the cry from outside the door, before Luisa kicked it in to find-
Nothing.
The room was empty.
Until it wasn't.
Tara lunged form behind the shower curtain, slashing with her broken piece of mirror, feeling it cut through the woman's flesh and blood spurted. Luisa tried to fight her, and Tara grabbed her by the shoulders, slamming her once, twice, three times into the door before pushing her around and backwards into the bath, the shower curtain being pulled down with her.
Snatching up Luisa's dropped gun, Tara ran from the room.
Kozik was fuming.
The idiot fucking feds had fucked up the drop and now it was his kid's life on the line.
Tig had been forced to get between him and Stahl, though from the look on the man's face he had been stopping himself from gutting the bitch let alone stopping Kozik.
"Picking a fight with that bitch ain't gonna help us now. We gotta focus man come on!" said Tig as he hurried to catch of with Kozik as the blonde stormed back to his bike.
"Focus? Focus on what man? The fact that Salazar made us? That the feds have just handed us the shit pile they made? That it's my kid, MY KID, he's gonna kill now? Don't really want to focus on that Tiggy." he growled, getting on his bike, and kicking it into life.
"Listen idiot, you and me, we got our beef but that girl is the only thing I like about you, so yeah I want to get her and Tara back just as bad as you. But brains before bullets Kozik."
Kozik looked down at his hands, clenched around the grips on his handle bars.
"I can't lose her man." he said not looking up at Tig "I- I just can't."
"I know. And you wont. We're gonna get her back. And then you can beat the living shit outta Salazar to ya hearts content." promised Tig.
"Shit Tara what the fuck?!" exclaimed Corey as the door opened and the Doctor ran through, gun in one hand, jagged shard of mirror in the other and blood covering her arms.
"Come on we gotta move." was the Doctors only answer, as she used the mirror shard to rip apart the zip ties around Corey's wrists. Massaging the raw flesh, Corey clambered to her feet, wincing in pain as she did so. Tara motioned for her to follow and the two fo them hurried out of the door and towards the stairs. As they started down them Tara said quietly
"I couldn't find a phone to call 911, so let's just get out of here."
As they rounded the bend in the stair case, Tara let out a gasp as Salazar walked through the door. He did a double take when he saw them, and then both he and Tara raised their guns, Salazar shouting
"Drop the gun!"
"No, you drop it!" answered Tara as Salazar looked past them up the stairs, shouting
"Luisa!"
When there was no response he shouted louder calling his girl's name, with a slight edge of panic
"LUISA!"
"She's bleeding out in the bathroom" said Tara and Corey couldn't help but be impressed that the doctor was keeping her cool.
"Lemma see her." Demanded Salazar walking forwards. The whole way up the stairs to the half way landing and round to the bathroom, Salazar and Tara kept their guns trained on each other. As they approached the bathroom door, there was a weak cry of
"Hector!"
"Oh shit!" hissed the man himself and Tara said coldly
"You need me to keep her alive."
"You do something!" he ordered but Tara shook her head.
"You let Corey go first. You let her leave and I'll save her."
"No fuckin' way Doc." growled Corey shaking her head vehemently. Luisa whimpered in the tub and Salazar grit his teeth hissing something inaudible in Spanish.
"Okay." he said finally, every muscle in his body visibly quivering with tension. "First we get Luisa in the car. We get her out of here then that bitch can go." he jerked his head at Corey.
"Doc..." said Corey in a warning voice but Tara ignored her and nodded her head in agreement with Salazar's words. Salazar turned to Luisa crouching down, and running a hand over his face before grabbing one of Luisa's.
"Oh baby, god my baby."
Slowly, Tara lowered her gun. She quickly turned to Corey
"He reneges on this, you shoot him." she murmured quietly, pressing the gun into Corey's hand. Checking that it was fully loaded, she cocked it and said with a cary level of intensity
"With pleasure."
Tara was sat hunched over Luisa in the back of the car, Corey crouched beside her as Salazar drove up the highway. As Tara was working on securing the stretch of cloth she'd torn off a curtain around the wound, Salazar suddenly pulled the car to a skidding halt.
"you get out." he ordered, and Corey glanced out at the darkness of the night drawing in, before looking balefully at Tara.
"Doc, come on. I can't just le-"
"OUT!" roared Salazar, climbing out of the drivers seat, ripping open the door and grabbing Corey by the hair. As he yanked her backwards, Corey tried to twist so that she could get off a shot, but Salazar anticipated the move, grabbing hold of and twisting the gun away from her. With his free hand, he stuck it in the waistband of his pants and then threw Corey away from him. She hit the ground with a groan and from inside the car she heard Tara cry her name.
"You stay where you are!" Salazar snarled at the doctor, pointing his own gun at Corey, who was slowly getting up off of the ground "You keep fixin' Luisa or I shoot her, right here an' now!"
Tara looked helplessly past him at Corey who gave her a single nod in understanding that Tara's only way to help her now was to keep trying to save Luisa.
Salazar took three large strides towards her and pressed the metal right against her forehead, bending his arm so that he could growl into her face
"You one lucky bitch. Shoulda killed you at the start!"
"But you didn't have the balls, eh Sally?" stupid or not, no one could deny that to her credit Corey showed absolutely no fear, even with the cool metal of a gun and a livid Salazar pressed right up against her.
"¡Puta perra!" (You fucking Little bitch!) he spat, before his free hand crashed into her stomach, doubling Corey over and sending her down to one knee as she gasped for breath. She pressed a hand into the dirt, turning her head to blink up at the silhouette of Salazar, in time to see him raise his gun hand into the air. As it came down towards her, she whispered into the night
"I tried Jax."
There was a thud.
Before there was nothing.
The next morning dawned bright and sunny.
A dark van pulled sharply into the gates at TM, and Tig ran out, pulling open the doors and saying
"Welcome back boys."
Clay and Bobby were out first, followed by Jax, who went round to the front and helped Gemma get Abel in his basket out of the van. As the rets of the guys piled out of the van, Kozik approached Tig and sad quietly
"You and Piney got this?"
"Yeah. Why?"
Kozik jerked his head at Happy, who was stood by the back of the van, dark eyes watching the two of them intently.
"Think it's best if I'm the only one in punching range when he finds out."
"Better you than me." was Tig's only answer, as he turned to Clay and Jax.
"Listen, something's happened. It's Tara." was the last thing Kozik heard Tog say as he walked to Happy and said quietly
"We gotta talk."
"What?" Happy rasped as he followed Kozik inside.
"Salazar." Kozik said simply, trying not to give away too much emotion. He saw a muscle in Happy's jaw jump slightly and he growled out
"What about him?"
Kozik swallowed, and said in a voice tight with supressed emotion
"He took Tara. A-a-and Corey."
Outside, where Gemma was sat with Abel on one of the benches as Tig spoke to the guys, she heard the sound of glass shattering inside the clubhouse.
"Clean that up" Kozik said to Chucky who was behind the bar who nodded and said
"I can accept that."
Happy was motionless which was unnerving after his out burst that had resulted in the shattered mess of glass by the wall. Kozik wished he would say something, pace, hit him, something, but he just stayed disturbingly still, his eyes burning holes into the floor.
"Where?" he finally barked and Kozik raised his hands almost desperately before letting them fall back against his sides saying
"I don't know man. If I did he'd be dead alrea-"
"No." Happy cut him off and Kozik looked at him curiously.
"No. Kill's mine." growled Happy and Kozik didn't think there was a person on earth who'd dare to try and argue with him.
Suddenly Tig hurried into the room, closely followed by Jax, who wore a similarly murderous expression to Happy.
Tig held out his phone and said earnestly
"You guys are gonna want to hear this."
Phew that was tricky to write.
So Happy knows.
I hope people understood why I wrote his reaction the way I did.
Your reviews mean so much to me guys, please keep writing them! They make me want to write more x
More soon.
Geronimo xx