Fighting Destiny 13
Chapter 39 Splash
"
Jax wasn't used to using violence against women, but it didn't mean that he wouldn't use it when he had the motivation and he had the motivation. He found Ima sitting in her dressing room looking into the mirror still wearing her hot pink lingerie and robe.
He grabbed her by the throat, lifted her out of the chair and pinned her to the wall.
"Where's your fucking phone?" Jax snarled with so much force a spray of saliva hit Ima in the face.
"What the hell?" her heart hammered hard in her chest. She'd never before seen that wild almost crazed look in his eyes.
"Answer the damned question," Jax demanded squeezing Ima's neck.
"Top drawer dressing table," she croaked.
"Get it," he said releasing his hold on her neck.
Jax was between her and the door, so she had no hope of fleeing. With a sullen look on her pretty blonde face, she walked over to her dressing table, opened the door and pulled out the pink sparkly cell phone.
"Not that one," Jax said, his voice low with menace. "The one you used to take pictures of me and Colette."
Ima turned to look at him. All the color drained from her face, her eyes were as big as a baby's fist. Ima wasn't the sharpest knife in the block, but then it didn't take a genius to realize she was in deep trouble.
It wasn't good to cross Jax Teller. Worst case, he'd kill her. Best case, she'd get a beating. Her only play was to give him enough information to cool his anger and direct it away from her to where it belonged—Colette and Gemma.
She dug around into the back of the drawer and handed him the phone.
"Sit down," he ordered.
Ima sat down at the dressing table immediately. She wasn't about to give Jax another reason to put his hands on her if she could help it. She wondered if she could get past Jax and run if she could get to safety. Probably not. He would keep coming for her until this got settled.
She wondered if Gemma would keep her part of the deal and get her the directing gig like she promised. If that happened, even a beating would be worth it.
Jax found the pictures on the phone. It was exactly as Lyla said. There were pictures of him with Colette. She was kneeling before him and while his dick remained in his pants, the angle on the pics made it look like she was giving him a blow job. He checked to see if she'd sent them. It was also just like Lyla said; the pictures had been sent out. The pictures had gone to Gemma and Tara.
He was consumed with anger and the desire to kill. This was a direct attack on his family. After everything that they had been through, Gemma, Colette and Ima were trying to destroy his marriage.
Jax got his cell phone out, put it down on the top of a plastic set of drawers on wheels stuffed with make-up and hair accessories and began recording the audio. He wanted proof of what really happened.
He walked up behind Ima and put his hands on her neck.
"Tell me what you did and why and I might let you live," Jax said, his voice was soft, but it was so full of menace it chilled Ima to the bone. There was no doubt in her mind that he meant what he said. He wasn't playing games and she wanted to get out of this alive.
"Gemma came to Colette and me and offered to get us directing gigs if we seduced you, got pictures and sent them to the addresses in the phones she gave us."
"You sent those fucking pictures to Tara," Jax said shouting at the top of his voice.
"I have to think about my future," Ima whined. "I can't be a porn star forever."
Jax ended the recording and called Chibs.
"Chibs, find Colette and bring her to Ima's dressing room. We have a big problem."
Jax ended the call and smacked Ima across the face while he waited for Chibs to get Colette.
Chibs sensing that Colette wouldn't be happy to go to this meeting had an iron grip on her upper arm as he steered her into the dressing room.
"Shut the door," Jax said. He began recording on his phone again.
"Colette, tell Chibs what you and Ima were up to."
"Don't know what you're talking about, Jax," Colette said sweetly displaying some actual acting talent.
"He knows," Ima said.
"The truth now or I will beat the shit out of you," Jax said.
Chibs helped move the proceedings along by slamming Colette against the wall so hard she bounced.
"Tell him what he needs to know," Chibs shouted.
"Fine," Colette snapped shooting Ima a dirty look. "Gemma wants to break up your marriage and we want to direct for Cara Cara. She told us to take pics of one of us having sex with you and then send the pics to numbers she put in our phones."
"My old lady's number and Gemma's," Jax said.
"Whatever," Colette said with a shrug. Jax thought he and Colette had a bit of a friendship, but this cold, emotionless woman clearly had no feelings for him. She'd fooled him, played him and now he found himself hating her more than he did Ima. His hands itched to give her a beating she would never forget.
"I didn't have sex with either of you," Jax said.
"You didn't need to. We just needed to make it look like you did. When Ima failed," Colette sneered at Ima, "it was my turn. I didn't expect to succeed. It was easy. Offer you oral sex, kneel and when you told me no, I just pretended to catch my earring in your zipper pull."
"I did the hard part," Ima broke in. "I had to get the pictures at the right angle." That should show Chibs she had some directing talent. It had taken a lot of effort to get those pictures to look just right.
Chibs listened to this shocked not by the actions of Ima and Colette—he wouldn't put much past either of them, but by Gemma trying to destroy Jax's relationship with Tara. He still had some respect for her. Not anymore.
"They conspired with Gemma to either get me to cheat on Tara or make it look like it did and then send the pictures to Tara. That bitch of a mother of mine wants to destroy my relationship with Tara because she thinks if that happens I'll stay in Charming," Jax said providing a recap of the events both for his own mental clarity and for the phone recording.
"Sorry, Jackie boy," Chibs said slapping Jax on the arm. "Can't believe Gemma could be so vicious. As for the porn whores, they will never direct anything here. I'll personally see to that."
"Thanks Chibs," Jax had calmed down a lot. He turned off the phone's recording function and slipped it into the pocket of his cut.
"Hired a beautiful new girl today," Chibs said. "Looks fifteen but she's nineteen. We checked birth certificates and her high school yearbook. Gonna make a movie with three generations of women. We're gonna call it Gen 3 Orgy about a grandmother, mother and her underage high school daughter having an orgy with the high school baseball team. Colette, time to do granny porn. Ima you're getting an on screen kid."
Originally he had a different casting line up in mind all except for the new hire, but now it was time to dish out some punishment porn studio style.
Ima jumped to her feet.
"No, fucking way. I'm only twenty-five."
"How many times have you turned twenty-five?" Colette asked sarcastically.
Ima lunged at Colette. Jax and Chibs decided to just let the porn whores fight.
"What are you gonna do?" Chibs asked.
"Try to get to Tara's phone before she finds the pictures and delete them. If I'm too late, I'm going to play Ima's and Colette's confessions."
"About Gemma," Chibs said gently.
"Once we leave, she'll never see us again. She tried to set me up and destroy my family. There's no coming back from that."
Chibs nodded. He couldn't think of anything to say. He couldn't condone what Gemma had done and he understood why Jax wouldn't want Gemma's toxic style of mother love in his life anymore.
Meanwhile, Ima and Colette had progressed from slapping at each other to hair pulling. Ima was thankful she wore clip in extensions or she'd be in a world of hurt. There was a pile of bright blonde extensions and some of Colette's real hair on the floor.
Jax had enough. His anger was back bubbling over and he began to trash the dressing room, emptying drawers and breaking anything he could get his hands on except the mirrors. He didn't need seven years bad luck.
Jax grabbed Ima by the neck and slammed her head against the wall.
"You filthy fucking whore," Jax said. "Look what you've done and you've got nothing out of it." He lifted her off her feet by her neck and dropped her to the ground. He kicked her in the legs before turning his attention to Colette.
Colette had scrambled to her feet and tried to leave. Chibs blocked her exit.
"Take your medicine," he said thickening up his Scots accent for effect.
Jax put a harder beat down on Colette because he wasn't that surprised by Ima's betrayal; Colette's hurt though. He back handed her sending her flying across the room.
"Nice," Chibs said.
Ima was sitting in a heap on the floor and was enjoying watching her rival get smacked around. She hoped Jax was done beating her and Chibs wouldn't start in.
Jax grabbed her by the throat. It took every ounce of his self control not to squeeze the life out of her. He had not a shred of compassion for Colette. She'd played him and he felt like a damned fool.
After Jax slammed her against the wall a couple of times, knocked her to the ground and kicked her, Chibs grabbed him and pulled him off.
Chibs spit on Colette to show her how much contempt he had for her. It was the ultimate sign of MC disrespect.
"Get up slags and clean this up," he ordered.
"We didn't do it," Ima whined.
"Clean it," Chibs ordered raising his fist, "or you'll get some of this."
Jax and Chibs left the dressing room, walked into the office and shut the door.
"So that's how you run a porn studio," Jax said.
"How did you figure out they set up up?" Chibs asked.
"When I said good-bye to Lyla, she told me. She saw Ima acting strange, followed her and saw her take pictures of me and Colette and thought she sent them to someone. I owe her big."
"I'll be giving her a chance to direct. Maybe even let her do the Gen 3 Orgy film."
"I gotta go and try to head this off with Tara."
"I'm going to stay here and menace the porn whores."
"Menace, huh?" Jax asked with a smile.
"Somehow I don't think running a porn studio is going to be the cushy gig I thought it was going to be."
"Don't say I didn't warn you."
Jax left. Before he reached the parking lot, he got a message on his phone. It was from Tara.
You filthy son of a bitch. I HATE YOU!
Just to make it clear exactly why she'd sent him the text, she'd attached copies of the pictures Ima sent her. Well, deleting the pictures before Tara could find them wasn't an option. Once she heard the recordings though, she would see that he had been set up by the porn whores at Gemma's request.
He sent her a text but it wasn't delivered. He tried calling both her cell and the land line but she didn't answer. This was very bad. He needed to get to her.
He felt deep in his bones that she was in danger and he needed to get to her or something horrible was going to happen. His instincts had saved his life more than once and he wasn't about to doubt them now. He had to get to Tara.
He jumped on his bike and rode hard. He focused on using all his years of riding to shave as much time as possible off his return. It was twenty minutes, but he was going to do everything he could to make it in half that time.
He deliberately didn't think about Gemma and what he wanted to do to her. He couldn't even feel the depth of her betrayal. He was too focused on getting to Tara.
Jax wove in and out of traffic pushing himself to get to Tara. His jaw clenched as he swerved around railroad crossing guard arms. He didn't have time to stop for a train and he had plenty of time to get across.
Tara's van was still in the driveway when he got home. He walked into the house, took off his cut and hung it up leaving his phone inside his cut. He walked through the house calling her name. No answer.
He was shaking on the inside. Could someone have taken her? He went out to the backyard calling for her. And then he saw her at the bottom of the pool her feet tied to concrete blocks. He didn't bother to determine whether she was alive, dead or unconscious. All he knew was he had to get her the hell out of that pool.
Swiftly, he kicked off his shoes unsheathed the knife at his waist and jumped in the pool. He cut the rope to the blocks and quickly kicked his way to the surface and carried her out of the pool. He laid her flat on the concrete and began CPR. It was one of the few things he remembered learning in high school.
All he wanted to do was get her back, breathe life into her body and make her come back to him. He loved her so damned much. He couldn't lose her.
Tara, who did this to you?
Don't die. Don't die. Don't die.
"
Author's Note: Tara's fate will be decided on that concrete patio. No dramatic hospital scenes.
If Tara dies, this will send Jax on a search for the truth and he'll settle some scores along the way and get revenge. Will it destroy him this time around or can he escape Charming with Abel?
Or
Tara lives and, after she tells Jax what happened to her, he takes action. He will do whatever it takes to keep her safe no matter the consequences. Can Jax, Tara and Abel get out of Charming alive or will one of them have to die to make that happen?
The final chapter is going to have a few different scenes and a lot of narrative, so it will take a little longer to write. It will probably take me two to two and a half weeks before it's posted. I need to get it right since it's the final chapter. As I mentioned earlier, I am writing a much longer ending chapter than I originally planned.