3
Jax Is Really Alive
Chapter 34 RecapJax regains consciousness and is furious that his chance to rescue Nero is gone thanks to Ryland. He returns to the hotel room and finds that Tara and Kozik are angry with him. Kozik announces he is on Ryland's side.
Tara declines Jax's offer to join her in the shower. After showering off the filth from her near attack, she confronts Jax asking him if he knows what their objective is. Jax realizes they are going to have a fight.
Chapter 35
Jax rubbed his hand over his chin and shook his head.
"I know our objective is to get our boys back, but Nero was being kidnapped. Was I supposed to just stand there and let it happen?"
"What would happen if something had happened to you? Do you want our boys to grow up without a father because rescuing Nero was more important than that?"
Jax paced the floor. He hated this because Tara had a point.
"Nero has been a good friend to me. The people that kidnapped him will kill him."
"I am sorry that may happen, but who is more important? Our boys or Nero?"
Jax paced the floor angry because he saw Tara's point, but she wouldn't even try to see his.
"That wasn't the decision I was making. I was making a decision to help a friend. The aliens have all the tech needed to get Nero back. We should have been able to get him back easily."
"It isn't just about getting Nero back. We have to do things secretly. What if there was some big gunfight caught on video. This isn't Charming where the police can be controlled. You could get locked up even with a new identity."
Jax pushed his anger aside to look at things more objectively. Tara had a point that getting Nero back could have exposed him and the team to law enforcement. A few days locked up until he could get bailed out might hurt their chances to get the boys back.
"OK," Jax said holding up his hands. "You have a point." Jax turned and punched the wall between the room and the bathroom. He left a hole in the wall. His new alien strength had increased the damage his fist could do to walls without damaging his hands.
"You think we could move a picture to cover that?"
Jax suddenly began laughing. It was such a ridiculous situation for Tara to be worrying about the wall. Sometimes he needed to laugh at some of the absurdities in his life or the world would just get too dark.
"Are you OK?" Tara asked.
"I get it now. Of course, the boys are the most important objective. I lost sight of that when I saw Nero being taken. I just reacted."
"That's why Ry is where he is doing the job he is doing. He makes decisions keeping the objective in mind."
"If I had been the one taken, would he have let them since I'm not the objective?"
"You wouldn't have been taken. That's why the team went with you and that's why they grabbed you so fast and put you in the SUV. Protecting you was their mission."
As much as Jax would have loved to continue the argument, there wasn't any reason. The actions the team took made sense. As much as he hated the idea that someone had taken Nero, he got that he needed to keep his focus on getting his kids back and not getting distracted from that objective.
"OK. You're right."
"See, that wasn't so hard to say, was it?"
"No, it wasn't."
He didn't want to admit that Ryland was right about the call he made. He hated that he seemed to never make an error. He still didn't like it that Kozik had sided with Ryland. He thought that the MC bond should have still had some weight with him.
"I have something I need to confess about Ryland."
Jax stared at Tara.
"You want to give me more reasons to hate him?"
"I think there will be fewer reasons. I never had sex with him. I lied."
"Why?"
"Because I was so damned angry at you for sleeping with whores including Wendy. I wanted to hurt you."
Jax went to Tara and wrapped her in his arms. Maybe this was the chance they needed to finally heal their relationship.