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Chapter 88 TB Calls in Dark Tower

TB stepped outside to make a series of phone calls beginning with Gemma at TM to tell her about Jax's accident and to ask her to let the MC know. He did tell her that Jax's injuries didn't appear to be life threatening, but he didn't tell her how it happened. He wanted to do that in person. She told him she was on her way.

Next, he called his assistant Austin to instruct him to get Dark Tower to send two security teams to Charming immediately. One team was to come to St. Thomas and the other was to come to The Castle and secure it and tighten security. He wanted to make sure that no one tried to attack Jax in his home.

Now that this attempt failed, there was no way to tell what the killer would do next. Not only did he want to keep Jax safe, he wanted to keep Ava and himself out of the firing line as well as Jeeves who also lived at his house. He knew that you should never underestimate desperate people. This attempt on Jax's life had happened when he'd only been back in Charming a few days. That meant that the killer knew Jax was back in town and where to find him.

TB blamed himself for Jax getting hurt. He should have known that after two attempts on Jax's life, there would be another and another until the killer achieved success. He was turning up the heat on the prison, the ATF and Jax's former attorney Allie Lowen. He should have anticipated his actions would cause blowback on Jax. It was only lucky that Ava wasn't with him when he was run off the road or the outcome might have been different.

He had never faced the possibility of losing his daughter. He did love her. She was spoiled and entitled because he'd raised her to be that way. Maybe he wasn't being fair to her with the changes in his will, but since she'd been married to Jax, she was different. She was happier, so his plan was working.

He just hadn't counted on her being in danger. And again, that was his fault. He should have anticipated that Jax was in danger and since Ava was with him, that also put her in danger. If something had happened to her; that would have been his fault.

Ava watched as Gemma, Clay, Tig, Opie, Chibs were walking down the hall to the ER. She had been so focused on Jax that she'd forgotten to call Gemma. She had to give it to her father; he was really good in a crisis. He always seemed to know what to do.

"How is he?" Gemma asked.

"They are still doing tests," Ava told Gemma and the guys. "They are x-raying his body for broken bones and are doing an MRI of his head. Dr. Knowles, Jax's ex-girlfriend, said that he doesn't seem to have any internal bleeding."

"Dr. Knowles?" Gemma asked contempt in her voice, "I heard she'd come back to Charming. She isn't Jax's ex-girlfriend. Ex-stalker is more like it."

Gemma didn't like Ava, but she disliked Tara more or as she called her "Little Miss Nose in the Air" because Gemma believed that's the way Tara walked around. When she left Charming, she made it clear that she was too good for the small town. Here she was back at the local hospital. Her career must not be going so well. Served the little bitch right.

Ava found herself suddenly liking Gemma a little bit. Jax hadn't lied to her after all. Tara was just nuts. She hoped they weren't going to have problems with her. Jax had enough trouble on his hands with all the people who were trying to kill him without adding a deranged stalker to the mix.

Tara appeared. Gemma looked at her with a smirk.

"Back in this incestuous little backwater as you put it in your little high school speech," Gemma said her voice dripping with malice.

"My dad died. I'm taking a year to wrap up his estate, so I took this job while I'm doing that."

"Uh-huh," Gemma said skeptically. "I hope you're not here to chase after Jax."

"He's married to me," Ava added.

"For now," Tara said. "We've finished with Jax. He'll be back in his room in a few minutes and I'll explain his medical condition."

Gemma watched as Tara put her nose in the air, turned on her heel and left them staring after her.

"Bitch," Gemma muttered under her breath.

"Bitch," Ava agreed.

It was a bonding moment between the two women. It was the first time they had agreed on anything.

"Jax hasn't gone down on his bike in a long time," Gemma said as TB returned

"He had help," TB said. "Let's talk."

Gemma, Clay, Chibs, Opie, Tig and Ava followed him to a deserted part of the hall and he told them about the attempt on Jax's life and how Elliot had saved Jax by getting out of their car and pointing a gun at the van to keep it from running over Jax.

"I should have anticipated this," TB said.

"Thank you," Gemma said going over to TB and hugging him.

Clay watched this exchange his face expressionless. Inside, he didn't like this show of gratitude. That hug went on just a little longer than necessary. Gemma better knock this shit off with TB or he'd bounce her face off a couple of walls.

"Austin, my assistant, is calling in Dark Tower. I'm having them send two security teams down here to protect Jax, Ava and my home. If there's another attempt on Jax's life, not only will it be prevented, but we'll catch the bastards."

"Dark Tower," Tig said whistling with appreciation. He was impressed. Dark Tower provided security services to the very wealthy. There were rumors that they also provided black ops services, but that had never been proven.

"Do you think we should cancel the party on Friday?" Gemma asked.

"Dark Tower can handle security," TB said confidently, "if Jax is up to it."

"Do you think this is the same people behind the other attempts?" Gemma asked TB.

"I'd bet on it," TB said. "With all the legal screws I'm going to be turning, I should have anticipated this. No one will get through Black Tower. If we had been even a minute later, the outcome for Jax might have been fatal."

The color drained from Ava's face. She hadn't realized just how close Jax had come to being run over and killed. If she hadn't come back home, she would have been with him and she might have gotten killed too.

"We'll send the flatbed to the accident site to get Jax's bike," Clay said.

"I think the cops are going to be taking it to look for evidence. Paint transfers to match against the van if they can find it," TB said. "I don't think Jax is going to be in any shape to ride for awhile anyway."

"He won't be able to work on Monday either," Gemma added.

The small group went into Jax's ER room.

"How do you feel?" Ava asked making her way to his bed.

"Been better," he said. His face was pale and he had scrapes on his face and arms and legs that were sticking out of his hospital gown.

"What do you remember?" TB asked.

"Riding back to your house. Noticed a white van behind me. It began to pass me and swerved into me hard. That's all I remember. I woke up in the ambulance. Tried to tell them there was nothing wrong with me."

Tara appeared carrying Jax's beloved cut.

"I knew you would be worried about this," she said giving him a smile.

"Thanks, Tara—Dr. Knowles," he said wincing as he reached for it. Ava took it from her.

"I'll keep it safe until you're ready for it," Ava said carefully folding it in two and draping it over her arm.

Tara puffed out her chest and reminded herself that she was a doctor now and this wife of Jax was nothing compared to her. She'd come back to Charming for Jax and she wasn't about to let his having a wife stop her.

"You have a mild concussion, so you can expect to experience some confusion over the next few days and headaches. You need to take it easy for a few weeks because you have three fractured ribs. I'll give you some painkillers for that. Nothing else broken. You were lucky," Tara said. "I'll have one of the nurses come in and clean and bandage your cuts and then we'll release you."

"I'll call Jeeves and have him get you some clean clothes and send Elliot here with them," TB said.

"Shoes too," Ava said quickly. She was serious about not wanting those shoes inside the house.

Gemma went over and kissed Jax. Clay tried to hide his revulsion. He was sick to death of Gemma always kissing on Jax. It just wasn't natural.

Most of all he was sick to death of Allie Lowen and her failed attempts to kill Jax. He wasn't against killing Jax. It would make things easier with SAMCRO if Jax died.

What he was against was all the failed attempts at killing Jax. Now that TB was calling in Dark Tower, there would be no way anything was going to happen to Jax. That stupid bitch Allie Lowen couldn't get anything right.

He was going to visit Lowen tonight and she wasn't going to enjoy it.

Author's Note: I've been writing Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run and this story more slowly than usual because I've got a new stealth story that I've been working on and just recently finished. It's called Fighting Destiny under the name AlwaysWrite2Much. I wrote about 80,000 words in less than 9 months which is really fast for me.

It's a dark take on Jax/Tara and it opens with Tara in the bottom of a pool, her feet tied to concrete blocks and she's near death. The story reveals what happened that put her there. I know a lot of readers won't read Jax/Tara stories because they don't like Tara, but it's a good story more of a suspense story than a Jax/Tara love story.

When I get the idea for a story, I know the beginning, middle and the end. This story came to me complete. I knew not only the beginning, middle and end, I knew all the chapters in between so I knew I had to write it while the idea was so fresh in my head.

I hope you'll give it a try even if you do hate Tara. She's less annoying when I write her than she was on the show.

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