5

Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run

Chapter 99 Flamed

Scarlett was outwardly calm, but inside she was scared that something bad was going to happen to Jax. This wasn't his fight and she didn't want to add his death to the list of people who had been killed just because they knew her.

When she met Jax, she was expecting a charming womanizer who cared only about himself. Jax turned out to be more complex than that. He treated her with unfailing patience and kindness when she needed help with her back injury.

Lately, she'd been thinking about becoming a hermit and moving somewhere in the middle of no where or west Texas. At least then she wouldn't have to worry about anyone else getting killed.

Scarlett heard and felt the buzzing of her cell phone. She saw the call was from her father. She answered.

"You have got to be kidding me," Scarlett said. "Jax, my father is the intruder."

"Anyone with him?" Jax asked.

Scarlett shook her head.

"Thanks for calling now," Scarlett said annoyed. "You couldn't have called five minutes sooner?"

Jax laughed at Scarlett's tone of voice.

He was looking forward to meeting her father. He wanted to find out what she was like as a kid. She must have been a holy terror.

By the time Jax and Scarlett got downstairs, her father was in the house.

He looked at Jax cradling the AK and Scarlett holding a handgun.

"You two were prepared," he said approvingly. "What was your plan?"

"We were up on the third floor. When they came after Scarlett, I was going to shoot them."

Her father nodded his head.

"Good strategy. You create a kill box and make them come to you. Impressive."

"Jax, this is my father Decker. Deck, this is Jax. I met him when I was in Charming."

Decker was a little shorter than Scarlett with an average build, light brown hair and light almost amber colored eyes. He was attractive in a low key way.

"Why don't you give me your gun and I'll put the guns away?" Jax said to Scarlett.

She handed him her gun and he put the weapons away in the cabinet in the kitchen and slide the panel that kept the weapons hidden back into place.

"I can't believe you couldn't have called sooner. I really thought that a team was coming for me. I even made Jax promise to shoot me," Scarlett said.

Jax had never seen Scarlett angry, but from her flushed face to the fire in her eyes, she was furious.

"You have to always be on alert. It was good practice."

Scarlett's eyes practically shot out sparks.

"That's easy for you to say because you weren't the one who had to grab weapons and face death. You did this deliberately as just one of your tests to make sure I'm ready. I get why you do it. You think you're helping me, but I'm sick of it."

Decker threw up his hands.

"OK. OK. Maybe I didn't call to see if you were in the house because I wanted to test you. I only do it out of love."

"It doesn't matter why you do it, the results are the same. You terrorized me and I've had enough of it."

"We were about to make lunch. I was going to barbeque," Jax said. He decided to de-escalate the situation.

"This is the last time you pull something like this," Scarlett said, pointing her finger at her father.

"OK. I'm sorry Scarlett. I'm sorry I needlessly scared you Jax."

Jax couldn't help smiling at the family dynamic between Scarlett and her father.

"I'm going to take some muscle relaxers and you guys need to start grilling."

Scarlett walked even slower than usual. Having to climb the stairs so quickly had kicked up her pain level and reduced her mobility. She took even smaller steps to minimize pain as best she could.

She was still angry with her father for the stunt he pulled. He knew that he should have called her. This wasn't the first time he'd pulled something like this and she'd had enough. She would have another chat with her father about this.

Jax was another problem. Even when she told him to leave, she knew he would stay. He would never hide behind a woman.

It had seemed so simple when she and her father had planned everything out. It was different when actual people were involved. She just needed to put her head down and focus.

The pain just made everything so much more difficult. It was eroding her desire to see the plan through. She was just going to have to face facts and find a great physiotherapist and commit herself to months of therapy. It would be amazing to be able to walk again easily and without pain.

Scarlett saw Jax and her father standing around the BBQ with beer bottles in their hands having a little male bonding moment. Maybe her father would have some insight into Jax that could benefit her.

She got out the salads from the deli, set the table and poured herself a glass of iced tea. She sat down because she couldn't tolerate the pain of standing any longer.

Since they hadn't stopped at a market, there wasn't any lettuce or tomatoes for the burgers the guys were grilling. Scarlett found some guacamole in the freezer and thawed the package in warm water.

Jax brought in the burgers. They had even gone the extra steps to toast the buns on the grill and melted the cheese on the burgers. The guys drank another beer with lunch while Scarlett stuck to iced tea. Mixing muscle relaxers with alcohol wasn't a good idea.

"What was Scarlett like as a kid?" Jax asked.

"The second they put that squirming little bundle in my arms, I knew she was the best thing that had ever happened to me."

"You say that often enough, dad, and I might start to believe you," Scarlett said with a teasing smile.

Jax laughed.

"She had to have gotten into trouble at school."

Decker shook his head.

"She was always the teacher's pet. Smart too."

"Come on, there's got to be something that she did."

Scarlett looked at her father.

"Go ahead. You know you want to tell him the moustache story."

"I have got to hear that story," Jax said.

"I had this great moustache and Scarlett hated it. She doesn't like facial hair on men. Maybe that's changed," he added hastily. "I had a habit of falling asleep in my recliner in the evenings. I started to notice something seemed different about my appearance, but that didn't make any sense. I hadn't done anything differently.

"After about a week or so, I was in a rush to get to work, so I skipped shaving. Everyone kept looking at me and laughing. I finally went and looked at myself in a bathroom mirror. My moustache was an inch shorter on one side."

Jax laughed.

"He left out that he was thinking about growing a really long moustache and then waxing it and curling it. It was horrifying. I had to save him from himself. Each night, I would cut just a little off one side of his moustache to see if he would notice. After six or seven days of cutting a little off his moustache, I decided to just go for it, so I cut more, so it would be really obvious."

"What did you do?" Jax asked.

"I shaved the moustache. Scarlett was right about the moustache."

"You didn't even get punished?" Jax asked in disbelief.

Scarlett gave Jax a triumphant smile.

"My father appreciated my help with his grooming. Well, that and he and my mother had just gotten divorced. I told him I did it because I was testing boundaries to make sure he still loved me."

"How could I punish her after she said that?"

Jax shook his head and laughed.

"The moral of the story is don't fall asleep around Scarlett if you value your facial hair."

Scarlett looked at Jax's facial hair and smiled just so he'd start to wonder if she'd been doing more to him while he slept than braiding his hair.