"Jax."
Mel's hoarse voice grew louder.
He realized it was coming from the backroom, and he slid his gun in the back of his jeans.
He sprinted to the room, his eyes widening in horror as he saw a beaten and bloodied Melanie in the middle of the floor, sobbing heavily.
"Jesus christ."
Jax fell to his knees, wrapping his strong arms around me.
"I tried. I tried fighting him off."
"It's okay, Mel. I'm here," he stroked my hair, trying to soothe me.
Jax pulled away from me, enough for him to study my face.
"I'm taking you to the hospital."
I shook my head, wiping my tears away with the back of my hand.
"No, I don't need to go to the hospital."
"Yes, you do."
"Nothing feels broken."
"Just because nothing feels broken, doesn't mean it's not. Come on," Jax stood to his feet first, taking my hands in his to help me to my own feet.
"I'm not going to the hospital, Jax. The doctors will just ask too many questions and report this. Can you please give in, and take me back to the house?"
He hated when she was right. Probably because he hated to be wrong.
He nodded, removing his kutte. He handed it to me to hold.
I took it in my hands as he pulled his dark blue sweatshirt over his head.
"Here. Wear this. It's cold outside."
I smiled weakly, taking the sweatshirt.
I handed back his kutte, and he slid the leather over both of his shoulders.
"Thank you."
I put the oversized sweatshirt over my outfit, flinching as I felt my ribs expand under my skin. My hands pulled the rest of the sweater down, letting it fall to the middle of my thighs.
Jax took my hand, and we began walking toward the bedrooms.
"Where are we going?"
"The bathroom. If you won't let me take you to the hospital, the least I can do is clean up that pretty face of yours."
"It doesn't feel so pretty right now."
Jax turned on the faucet, setting the water to a warm temperature.
He ripped off a few pieces from the paper towel roll that sat on the sink, moving it under the water.
"Who did this to you? Did they take anything?" He started wiping off the dried blood from underneath my nose.
"I don't know exactly. There were two of them, and they were all dressed in black. They stole the camera and the main computer that was in the editing room."
Jax's rage boiled underneath his skin.
"There is some good news."
"What?"
"One of them mentioned a name."
"What's the prick's name?"
"Caruso."
I jumped back slightly as Jax started cleaning a cut on my right eyebrow.
"Sorry, Mel."
"It's okay."
"This shit will get settled. I can promise you that."
"Okay. "
"What should we tell your mom when we see her?"
"Shit, I forgot about that. Uh, I got mugged on my way to my car."
"Sounds legit. "
He started to laugh as he put down the used paper towel, picking up a fresh one.
"What?"
"Looks like we are going to add another lie to the list."
Gemma almost dropped the plate holding the ham she just pulled out of the oven when she saw Melanie enter the house behind Jax.
"Oh my god, what the hell happened?", Gemma put the ham down on the table, and ran over to me.
"Where's my mom?," I asked, looking around before I answered Gemma's question.
"At the store. She's picking up a cake and some ice cream for Ellie and Kenny."
"What happened, sweetheart?"
"Two assholes broke into Cara Cara. They stole the camera and computer."
"Holy shit. Come on baby, let's get you changed and bandaged up."
I nodded, and Jax reluctantly let go of my waist as Gemma walked me down the hallway.
Luanne and the club fell silent as they all met outside on the back porch.
"Oh my god. Is Mel okay," Luanne asked, covering her mouth.
"Yeah, she will be. You ever hear of a guy with the last name, Caruso?"
"That son of a bitch."
"I take it you know him."
"You bet your ass I do. It's Georgie Caruso. He's been trying to drive me out of the porn industry for years. "
"His name is Georgie?", Juice asked with a smile, while the rest of the club didn't find the humor in this situation.
"I need an address. He's not getting away with doing this to Mel."
Everyone shook their head in agreement, making their way to the front of the house where the bikes were.
Gemma and I came out of the bedroom, only to find Kenny, Ellie, Neeta, and Abel at the table.
"Neeta, where did they go?"
"Jax just said he and the club were going to take care of a current problem, that's all he said to me," Neeta placed Abel into his high chair.
Gemma and I looked at each other.
Worry washed over me.
I hope they were going to be okay.
I can't imagine anything happening to them, to Jax.
"You hungry, Mel?", Gemma started making me a plate of food.
"No, thank you."
She placed a plate of food that contained everything she and my mother made today.
"Sit. I won't ask twice."
The front door opened, making all of us look in the direction of the the front door.
Linda kicked the door closed behind her, placing the two bags she had in her hands on the table.
"Okay, I got four types of ice cream, whipped cream, pie, cake, you name it, I.."
Linda stopped rambling as her eyes fell on her daughter.
"Mel bear, jesus christ."
"Mom, I'm fine."
She walked away from the bags, and touched my face.
"What happened?"
"I got mugged on my way to my car. "
"Is that why the club is gone? To find who did this to you?"
" Yeah."
"Good. Besides Unser, the cops don't do shit in this town."
Gemma and Neeta didn't let me clean off the cluttered tables.
I picked up Abel out of his high chair, bringing him in the living room with me.
Ellie and Kenny were passed out on one of the couches.
With one hand, I picked up the zebra print blanket off the back of the couch, draping it over the both of them as best as possible.
I reclined in the loveseat, holding Abel close to me.
He looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes that he inherited from his father.
He wrapped his small hand around my finger.
"He's beautiful, aint he?", my mom looked over my shoulder, staring at her "grandson."
"He is."
"Here. He's probably hungry. He wouldn't let any of us feed him earlier. Maybe he was waiting for mommy to come home," she handed me his filled bottle.
I smirked as Abel's hands found the bottle, helping me bring it to his mouth.
"See."