He watched the tacitly amused and flushed smile she gave Quinn as the larger man offered a soft greeting in her direction, her face crashing into a sort of almost affection as both he and Trager passed by her. Chibs hung back quietly, catching the way Tig leaned into and over the bar beside her, his words too quiet to overhear as he groped a hand below the bar and fumbled for another bottle. He caught the trip of laughter that breathed off her lips as she nodded into the way his friend cracked the top on a fresh whiskey and aimed toward the glasses that were still settled in front of her. His shoulder benched into the hall wall, shoring up the sudden sway of wanting that slaked over his shoulders as he watched Trager brace beside her and pour to subtly warn off any possibly negative responses to her presence.
"She may not know that look on your face." Teller's voice was a trailing whisper at his shoulder. "But we do, brother. And some of us are seeing it a hell of a lot."
Chibs felt his face wince into the implication, avoiding looking to his side as he continued the watch Tig talk with her. "She says you'll make me choose between the two of you. But she knows where that lands. Why d'you think she came to you on her goddamn knees? Christ, Jackson, I'm too old t'play games anymore."
"She sold her badge for you and Charming." Jax's tone went low but calm. "I'm not forcing anything but what she offered in exchange."
"Sure," Chibs shot him a tightened sidelong glance, "and what was that? Her goddamn pride?"
"She makes it easier for us to do what we have to in order to get things back, Chibs. We make Charming whole again. And you keep a balance between her and your club. It's a win/win, especially for you. Let it go."
"Suddenly you're defending a woman you'd just as soon see driven out of the county?" the Scot snorted his head into a shake. "You're gettin' more than a leniency of law. I'm not stupid and I don't like bein' shut out of it."
"That's too bad." Jax dropped a sharp finality between them, jaw angling long. "Because you're too close to it."
"What's she promising you, Jackson?" he caught the side of his fist into the other man's shirt sleeve, face slacked drawn. "I need to know."
Jax cocked his glance down into the way fingers were prying fabric before looking back up. "Ask her."
"We don't discuss business." Each word was a thudding staccato of strong accent.
"She's your alibi." Jax hushed back tightly as he turned into the other man's chest, shoulders bricking up tightly as they faced each other. "Doesn't matter the charge, or the repercussion. If you land in a cell, she becomes your cover. Charges get dropped because San Joaquin's best is gonna swear up and down that you were with her. And I'm pretty sure you've left your mark all over her place to prove it. Are we clear now?"
"It'll end her goddamn career." Chibs hissed into the younger man.
"She's a resourceful woman. She'll figure it out." Jax exhaled slowly with a slight shake of his head, an intentionally darkening glance of scrutiny and accusation roving the older man's face. "Are you in love with her, Chibs? Did you really let yourself go there?"
He couldn't match the blue of the boy's eyes and instead let his jaw lift his head to the side, staring into a void of space as he breathed out. "No."
"Jesus Christ." The pursed press of the younger man's lips as he shook his head was enough to catch Telford's breath up in his lungs. "You just lied to my face whether you realize it or not."
"Did y'just let yourself love Tara?" he asked quietly into the jaded disbelief Jax was panning over him, watching the furious sadness that swallowed the blonde's face toward a haunted raging.
"Tara wasn't a cop." Jax sharpened over him as he levered tighter between them. "And don't you dare put that on a level with this."
"And why not?" Chibs let the younger man bleed a visual rage over him, feeling the tensing of their bodies against each other. "We loved her too, Jackie, but she was never fully in. She was here for you, not this club. She still paid the price, though. Didn't she, boy?"
He took the punch he'd intentionally drawn, laxing his jaw into the way he saw it coming for his face, letting it lay a ring bloodied bruising on him that maybe he sure as hell deserved.
"That's pretty much exactly what I meant when I said that me being here makes some people edgy." Her voice was a little tinny, echoing in ringing ears as she leaned into the way he'd slung his spine into a turned stool, head back and his palm caged up under a throbbing jaw, "Christ, Filip. What did you do?"
"My bloody fucking alibi?" he snapped back at her as she tipped his head back with a towel to his lip, catching the way Tig hung back a little even though the rest of them had cleared the room behind Teller. "You handed him your career just to - "
"Shut your mouth." She clapped over him tightly, jamming the towel tightly into the bleeding that was blanching the white fabric a muddied color. "You don't get to tell me how to handle my business, do you Telford?"
Fury tamped down the muscles of his body as he stared over the way she was silently pressing the towel into him, a hard exhalation shattering off his lungs as he jerked his head to the side and caught Trager's eyes. He avoided the way she glared on him by wiping a shaky hand against his mouth, tasting penny metal blood and too much anger.
"Go." He nodded toward the door. "Not your fight, Tiggy. Y'don't need this on you too."
Trager shook his head slightly to one side as he backed toward the door, "I'll wait. Just lemme know when you're ready."
He blanched the other man a knowing look. "Tig."
"He's got everyone else. I'll wait." Trager shunted off before stepping out Diosa's doors, letting them hush closed behind his intentionally softened boot steps.
"Why couldn't you just leave it alone?" she slapped the towel onto the bar, watching him run his tongue against his teeth before spitting a hash of blood from between his lips with a look of distaste.
"That rage has been a long time makin', sweetheart. I just let it come home." He slowly shook his head back and forth, a mottling of reddened up swelling starting to discolor his face enough to otherwise pale him. "Better it land on me than the others - that's what a VP's for. B'sides, my fault, my face."
She shook her head, not completely believing the thrown off vacancy of his voice as he let his head bank back onto his shoulders again, eyes squeezed shut. "What did you do?"
"Gave him his strength." Chibs admitted softly as his head turned back down, a hazy melancholy raking his eyes darker. "Let him be the gavel."
"I don't mean for him." Ally shook her head slowly, her palm laying flat and long onto the denim on his thigh, gripping into the inseam to hold him still and tight. "That wasn't just boys being boys, Telford."
"No." he answered softly, his tongue touching carefully against the split that laid his top lip open on the right side. "But he's gonna need that drive. I gave him the channel."
"What did you do?" she repeated and pried her fingers tighter into his pants as he let his tongue run against taste of blood. "Why draw him out when this gets us - "
"It gets us nothing if it falls apart." He shunted into her, a hand catching into the shirt she was wearing and jerking tighter. "Nothing, Althea. It was the wrong choice. Back off it before it screws you over."
Her eyes filled in dark as her jaw angled slowly to the side, a certain cutting knowledge settling over her and glossing her glance, "It won't work twice in a row, Scotty. You can't play the same hand at the same table."
He flinched her an ever tightening glance, glaring into the way she was watching his face for a tip of emotion.
"And you say I'm the one who lights fires." She murmured as her hand soothed against his tensed leg. "What did you do that has you starting fights, Filip?"
He just blinked as his head angled slowly, a swallow going bitter down his throat as his face went paler, "I chose you."
"Oh, no," she leaned a slow shake of the head forward, hair breaking her shoulder as she let her weight into his chest. "you didn't. But it's sweet as hell that you think you did. Though, you're pretty dumb in your execution."
"I just - "
"You may have thought you were choosing me, Filip, but you were taking care of your boy at the same time. Which is enough for both of us right now. So just let it idle." She whispered as she searched over his split lip, her fingers catching his jaw as she pressed her thumb tentatively along the way the blood was starting to tack up on already welted skin.
"Y'won't let me fuckin' win, woman." He flicked her a tired glance, head leaning forward into hers. "What d'you want?"
"A long hot bath with a bottle of wine, a joint, and a Scot." She teased over him, forcing his head up by the rise of hers, her eyes still focused on his mouth. "But you have to go play bad guy now. So, you're just gonna miss the other three."
"And you?" he questioned cheekily into the implication.
"And me." She finally smiled her lips gently to the opposite side of his mouth.
He caught her face still before she could pull away from him in an attempt to keep him balanced between anger and despondency and his hands were chilled cool against her skin, colder than usual as he looked over her face slowly. His eyes were thin and blackened up as he shook his head minutely, confusion darkening the lines of his face before he pressed his head forward and drove a kiss on her that had the metallic mingled taste of blood and whiskey tainting on her tongue. It suddenly had her spine wiring taut as he laid a groan into her teeth and dug his fingers into her hair to keep her locked into the kiss. The sudden upstroke of his body into hers added a sort of wary tremor but he soothed the tensing of her frame with one hand wiping onto the back of her head as he broke his lips from hers and drove his forehead forward. His eyes were closed as he exhaled, a racket of a sigh off his lungs as he pressed harder on her.
"That felt like a goodbye." She whispered into a suddenly cautious hitch of breath, hands lifting in worry as he shook his head against hers, eyes still down closed as he wrapped his arms against her ribs.
"No." he shunted between them as he shook his head, fingers catching her hair up behind her ear. "That was a whole new hello, Cu Sith."
She blinked him a quirked glance of confusion that he just smiled into, "Scotty, even when I can understand what you're saying, you don't make sense."
"Tiggy's waiting." He smirked as she wiped carefully against the freshly opened split, watching as he kissed against her reddened thumb. "We gotta catch up."
She blinked a surprised smile into the fact he'd switched the words around this time. "I'm not clearing your speeding tickets, Telford."
The fact he grinned as he turned her swayed some of the concern out of her, the comfort of his hips lining up against hers settling her lungs as he walked her out.