Thanks again to those who left reviews. I'm glad some of you liked the major twist. Only two more chapters left. Now onto the chapter, hope you enjoy this one and don't forget to review.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: Almost there.
"Is that why you're doing it? Because Marcus was your boyfriend?" Lacey continued to probe into her theory. Daryl's reaction confirmed it but she wanted to make sure she was right by hearing it from his lips.
Daryl glared at her. She noticed the glare softened into a frown when he saw she wasn't judging him for being gay.
"You know, if someone killed Jackson I'd want to get revenge too. I wouldn't go to this length but I'd still want revenge." Lacey saw an opening for a new plan to get out of what was happening. "Knowing the person who killed him has to live with that fact they killed him, living with the remorse and guilt, hoping it's slowing killing them on the inside, that would be revenge for me."
Daryl laughed still crouching in front of her. "I'm not stupid Lacey. That's not revenge. Jackson isn't living with remorse or guilt, I definitely know it's not slowly killing him inside and you want to know why?"
She frowned at him. "Please enlighten me."
He ignored her sarcastic tone as he answered her. "Because he was protecting you. The fool loved you before you even have into him! He loved you before he even realized it!"
"What would you know about love and caring? You're a psychopath, you killed your own brother in this stupid pursuit for so-called revenge." She said, her eyebrows creasing into a frown. "Marcus never loved you. Maybe he was using you too, what for? I don't know."
"He loved me! He told me once he had the SAMCRO case closed and you're all behind bars, him and I could be together! No more hiding!"
"Look I have nothing against gay people but do you think one of the FBI's finest and well respected agents, those are not my words, would openly admit he's in a homosexual relationship?" She asked him. "I mean, no offense to you or him, even though our relationship was based on lies I knew him well enough to know his reputation meant everything to him. The way the world is when it comes to being gay, that would ruin his reputation. It's okay when two women get it on because guys love that but when it's two men it's apparently a total sin."
She watched his fave contort from anger to rage as she continued to taunt. She knew it was a bad idea considering the state she was in right now. Her adrenaline had kicked in as soon as she woke up from being drugged. It was the only thing keeping her awake and the pain at ease.
"You don't know nothing about the relationship I had with Marcus!" He begun to shout at her before he yelled, "YOU KNOW NOTHING!"
"I know he was okay in bed," she found herself saying before she could think what could happen. "He wasn't as amazing as Jax is of course."
Daryl pulled his fist back hitting her in the face. The impact of the punch made her fall to her side, her vision became blurry before she found herself surround by darkness again.
"We found her car," Tig's voice came through the speaker. Jax had his phone on speaker so Clay could hear what was being said.
"Did you find anything?" Jax asked.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. It was just dumped, no damage to it at all..." He paused for a few seconds. Jax could hear shuffling before Tig's voice came back,
"looks like our dirty prospect left his phone behind."
"At least it's something." Clay sighed. "Bring it back here and we'll go through it."
They ended the phone call. Jax leaned back against the back of the chair he was sitting on. He was hoping there would be something on Kennedy's phone that would help them find Lacey. He stared at the empty glass in front of him, shutting everything around him out.
"Baby, go get something to eat, it'll be a few minutes before the guys get back." Gemma said getting his attention.
"Eating isn't not my first priority right now Ma, Lacey and the baby is."
"I know. How about I go make you something."
"I don't want anything," he stood up from his chair and walked to the bathroom.
He turned the cold tap on and splashed water on his face, waking him up a little more. He'd been up until early hours in the morning helping Clay, Tig and Chibs load the truck for the next run. He didn't get back to his room until four AM. Once he got into bed next to Lacey, he had trouble falling asleep so he stayed awake, watching Lacey and thinking about how lucky he was to have her after everything she'd been through since her mom died three years ago.
He didn't realize how long he'd been in the bathroom until there was a knock on the bathroom door and heard a voice. "They're back with the car and phone."
He turned the tap off and walked out of the bathroom. Tig handed the phone to Clay and Clay handed the phone to Juice, the technology guru.
Juice went straight to work on the phone, seeing if he could find anything that would lead to Lacey.
"Rise and shine sleepy head I bought you dinner and some water," Lacey heard as she started to become conscious. She opened her eyes, focusing her eyes on a rock on the floor so her eyes could readjust to her surroundings.
Once her vision wasn't blurry, she noticed the light in the room was dimmer, the sun was starting to set. She looked up to see Daryl standing there with a brown paper bag and a bottle of water.
"How did I know you haven't added poison to it?" She asked as he placed it in front of her.
"Because if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead by now."
"I thought you want me dead, why are you keeping me alive?" Her tone was questioning and curious.
"Because I want Jackson to watch me kill you." He told her. "Also I could get money out holding you ransom since half that club would do anything for you."
"Then you know it's not only Jax you should be worried about."
Daryl's eyebrows creased into a frown. "Eat your damn food, don't want that bastard child of yours starving and you need your energy." He walked out of the room pulling his phone out of his pocket.
She looked at the food for about a minute before opening the bag to see a burger and fries. Her stomach rumbled giving away how hungry she was. She begun to eat hoping this would all be over with.
"Found something yet?" Jax asked standing behind juice as he worked his magic with the phone.
"Nothing. He's deleted everything that could give Daryl away." Juice sighed.
Jax could feel his anger start to boil again. He walked away before he could hit something or someone. He pulled out his cigarettes and took one out lightening it. He took a long drag hoping the nicotine would call ease the frustration, nerves and anger. The sun was starting to go down. He had a feeling they wouldn't find Lacey tonight but it didn't make him want to stop trying.
He'd almost finished his cigarette when his phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. He saw it wasn't a number her knew and answered it. "Who's this?"
"You know who I am and you know who I've got."
"Where is she?" Jax asked glaring at nothing.
"That's not how this is going to work. If you want to see your precious old lady you will bring me $50,000. Oh and you have twenty four hours to do it in starting... Now. I'll call later with details."
The phone line went dead. Jax wanted to throw his phone against the wall but knew if he did he wouldn't get Daryl's phone call.
He was still glaring when he walked into the clubhouse to inform them in on the plan. He walked up to Clay, interrupting the conversation he was having with his mom. "We need to have a meeting."
Clay nodded. Jax handed his mom his phone "I might get a phone call, bring it straight to me if it rings."
He walked into 'church' and took his usual seat waiting for the rest of the guys to come in.
"What's going on?" Piney asked looking at Jax. He was the last one to sit down.
"Daryl called my phone."
"And?" Clay asked.
"If we want to see Lacey we have twenty four hours to get $50,000 and give it to him."
"You've got to be fuckin' kidding right?" Chibs asked shocked and angry. "This guys been playing is for over a year and all he wants is $50,000 dollars?"
"We all know it's more than that." Clay said.
"He just wants the money to make a clean escape. Why he has Lacey has something to do with killing that undercover Fed. We just haven't figured out the connection."
"He sounded like he was getting twitchy, maybe he wants it all to be over too." Jax thought out loud.
"Lacey's smart, maybe she's found something that she could use to get under his skin." Chibs smiled at the thought. "She also knows how far to take it."
Clay sighed. "So what are we going to do? We have to remember Daryl is unpredictable and crazier than Tig is on a bad day."
"We give him the money, kill him, get Lacey back." Tig suggested after throwing a small frown in Clay's direction.
"It's not going to be that simple." Bobby pointed out.
"What if it is? Lacey could be pissing him off to the point where he wants to get rid of her, but something is stopping him from killing her. We give him the money, kill him before he kills her. We get Lacey and our money back."
"Alright," Clay pointed at Jax, "you come up with a plan with these guys, Bobby and I will go sort out the money."
Jax nodded watching Clay and Bobby stand up and leave.
"So what's the plan?" Chibs asked eagerly.
Jax thought about it for a few minutes before telling the rest of the guys what he was thinking. Tig and Chibs threw in a few ideas of their own also.
They were about to finalize the plan when there was a knock on the door. "Jax, someone's calling your phone." Gemma's voice came from the other side. He quickly rushed out of the room taking his phone from her.
"Can you trace this call?" He asked Juice who nodded. Juice set everything up an gave the thumbs up to Jax.
Jax answered his phone, not letting on that the call was being traced. "That was quick."
"Jax," Lacey's trembling voice came through the speaker.
"Lacey, how'd you-"
She cut him off. "I managed to get it out of his pocket without him realizing."
"We're tracking this call, you'll have to keep talking to me."
"The heard the assholes car leave."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know, Kennedy drugged me and I woke up her. It looks like an abandoned house."
"How are you and the baby holding up?" He asked keeping the conversation going. He heard her wince.
"I'm okay."
"And our kid?"
"I got a location!" He heard Juice yell before Lacey answered.
"I don't know," he could hear the truth in her words. She wasn't telling him what happened and right now he couldn't let his anger get the better of him. "I have to go, he just got back."
"We'll be there soon, I love you." He managed to get in before the line went dead.