"Where to boss?" Joaquin asked picking back up his pack of Red Vines and pulling one out.
"Back home I guess," He shrugged using the rolled up part of his flannel to wipe the blood from his temple and flinching as he touched the cut "Betty do you need a ride home?" He looked down at her, watching her pull her sleeves over her hands nervously.
"Actually I can't really go home until 1am… I'm at work remember?" She pulled her lips to the side checking her phone, the screen lit up showing 10:15 pm, and also a text from Archie, Jughead couldn't help but read his name and tense up, wanting to ask what it said, but she never fully opened her phone and just slipped it back into her back pocket.
"Kev, can I hang out at your house for a bit?" She looked up at him, and he seemed to hesitate awkwardly.
"I was actually going to maybe see if we could go to the Wyrm for a bit?" He blushed looking at Joaquin.
"Seriously? I thought you hated going there… I had to beg you last time!" She laughed.
"Yeah that was because you were all dark and determined Betty, and she scares me," he shrugged "besides the last few times were fun!" He smiled at Joaquin lovingly. Betty's face was etched in shock, Jug assumed she was hearing that Kevin had been at the bar quite a bit for the first time.
"Dark Betty?" Jughead couldn't help but let the name stick in his brain. She blushed shaking her head and laughing it off.
"So we all headed to the Wyrm?" Sweet Pea asked looking around at all of them, they all kind of shrugged or nodded. "Cool," He mounted his bike, pulling his helmet on and roaring his bike to life, pulling away without another word.
"What car are you in?" Jughead looked at Joaquin who was pulling all the cups off the table and holding them in his arm.
"Kev's," He nodded as he rounded the table to the large trash can on the other side throwing all their trash away.
"I'll meet you there," Jug started grabbing his jacket off the seat and pulling it on before throwing his leg over his seat and sitting down. Joaquin and Kevin started to walk away, and Betty stayed next to him from some reason. "You okay?" He asked eyeing her carefully and she blushed, twisting the green fabric of her hoodie in her hand.
"I umm… did you maybe wanna, I don't know," She sighed.
"Spit it out Cooper," he laughed having no idea what was going through her head, but finding her nervousness cute.
"Maybe I could go with you…" She stared down at her feet while she spoke, and he tilted his head to the side taking in her words.
"You wanna ride with me?" he raised his eyebrows, not being able to hide the smile on his face.
"I mean, if I can… I don't know how though," her blush was spreading from her cheeks to her neck, and he leaned forward grabbing her face in his hands.
"You coming!" Kevin called from a ways away.
"She'll ride with me!" Jug yelled back not taking is eyes off of her, he could see the slight fear in her eyes as she looked back at him. "Trust me?" He asked a playful smile on his lips, she just nodded her eyes wide. He pulled his helmet off his handlebars and placed it on her head gently.
"Hold on," She said pulling it off and holding it in one hand, while she reached up with the other one pulling her scrunchy out of her hair and letting it fall over her shoulders placing his helmet back on her head snuggly the glass over her eyes making her blink as she tried to see through it.
"Hop on," he pulled himself up on the seat giving her room, she timidly grabbed his shoulder as she strained to get her short leg over the seat, once she was on he reached back with one hand grabbing her hip, "scoot forward," He commanded, and she tried to but her legs barely reached the ground, "Put your feet on those pegs," He pointed down and she obeyed, using them to push herself impossibly close to him.
"Like this?" She asked in a hushed voice, her contact with him making them both freeze.
"Yeah like that," He let out a long exhale trying to keep himself in check, "but you should really wear my Jacket, it's safer," He leaned out of her grasp and pulled his jacket off handing it to her, she pulled it on, "Do you want me to move the gun?" He asked trying to be respectful of how it had made her feel.
"No it's okay, but won't you be cold?" she asked reaching her arms back around him and snuggling into his back.
"I'll be fine," he tensed as her small hands clasped together right below his ribcage. He started his bike, and looked over his shoulder at her the front of his helmet pressing into his back. "Just hold on okay?" He felt her nod against him. And took off, he pulled his bike around the tables and weaved back through the cars the way he had came in, her arms held him impossibly tight and somehow he didn't even feel the cold. He sped down the road, keeping his speed at a normal rate trying not to go too fast and scare her. After while her grip seemed to loosen a little, and her head even pulled back a little as she seemed to get comfortable enough to look around. He could get used to this, and he smiled as the wind whipped his hair back, enjoying that he could share this with her. He pulled up to the Whyte Wyrm oddly wishing he could keep riding with her and force her to stay close to him, but he pulled around the back his wheels hitting the dirt and went to the back wall slowing his bike to a stop. He cut the engine pushing his stand down, and sliding off to the side, pulling his leg over the seat and looking to Betty who was still sitting on his bike, trying to pull the helmet off but failing, he reached his hands out grabbing the bottom and lifting it easily off her head, without him in front of her she slid forward on the seat almost losing her balance and grabbing the handle bars, making her back arch adorably, he took a step back, watching her, a very hungry feeling erupting low in his abs. His leather Jacket dwarfing her and her long blonde hair messily laying around her face, and he couldn't remember a sexier sight, she started to try to pull her leg off and he stepped forward, stopping her and holding her on the bike.
"Wait," He growled in a low husky voice making her look up at him, her eyes wide. "I wanna remember this sight," he felt his body already reacting to her, and he dipped his head down with every intention of capturing her mouth with his.
"Jug," She stopped him with her hand on his chest, looking past him, and he turned his head following her gaze, seeing Kevin and Joaquin standing by a parked car.
"They already know," He looked back at her longingly silently begging her to let him.
"Kevin doesn't know that I… that I actually cheated or anything," she blushed looking away embarrassed.
"Fair enough," He sighed, he grabbed her hips lifting her effortlessly off the seat and pulled her against him, her arms instinctively wrapped over his shoulders, and her let her slowly slide down his body holding her so tightly to him, he knew she felt all of him, her feet hit the ground, her arms still wrapped lazily around his neck as she looked up at him and let out a shuddering breath, her lips stuck slightly open. They stayed like that neither of them making any moves to break their embrace his hands digging into her hips, trying to hold himself back, but he was losing his composure far too quickly. Kevin and Joaquin walked over, the Northsider clearing his throat loudly. Betty pulled away quickly, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.
"You guys are like magnets," Kevin rolled his eyes playfully but he gave Betty a disapproving look, and Jughead suddenly felt extremely defensive and protective, he glared at the boy but caught Joaquin looking at him shooting him a look, Jughead's lip twitched angrily but he forced himself to look away.
"C'mon," Joaquin tried to distract Kevin pulling his hand and leading him to the back entrance. Jughead followed them in, holding the door open for Betty and letting her lead the way inside, they made their way through the dimly lit hallway, passing the cigar lounge where he had first taken Betty, he watched her look at the door knowingly. They walked into the main area of the bar, that was now significantly more packed. Sweet Pea was already inside at the bar top with another drink, talking and laughing with Toni. Joaquin went straight to a pool table, Kevin at his heels, waving kindly at a few guys he must have met a few times. Betty turned to Jughead expectantly standing in the middle of the open floor.
"Want a drink?" He asked looking her up and down, she ran her hand threw her hair pushing it to one side.
"Sure," She smiled timidly letting him lead the way. They walked up to bar, his long arms leaning on it, waiting for Toni to come over, but when she didn't Jug pushed off the wood, patting a stool and waiting for Betty to sit down, before walking to the end of the bar and walking through the opening to the back, he walked back to where Betty was.
"What'll you have beautiful?" He asked leaning closer to her.
"Are you allowed to do that?" Betty laughed propping her elbows on the wood.
"It's my bar, I can do whatever I want," He smiled cockily.
"It is not, and no he isn't allowed to do this," the voice came from behind him and he turned around to see Toni leaning against the back wall that held all their bottles, her arms crossed over her chest, her black crop top covered by a dark grey Jean jacket, her low cut black jeans showing her toned stomach and her belly button ring that looked like a snake with red diamonds for eyes. He saw Betty looking at her from the corner of his eye, clearly intimidated by the girls obvious sex appeal, she took a step forward hitting her hip against Jughead and pushing him out of the way.
"You know I basically own it, it's only a matter of time before Mick signs this place over to me…" Jug defended himself glaring at the girl for ruining his game. She just rolled her eyes ignoring him.
"Lets try this again.. What'll you have, beautiful?" She smiled sexily at Betty leaning a little too close for Jughead's liking.
"Just a root beer, if you have it?" Betty blushed looking down shyly.
"Holy shit, you're cute," Toni stepped back looking to Jug and then back to Betty. "She is fucking cute," She said to Jughead smiling mischievously.
"I know, back off," Jug warned his voice low, and Toni laughed pulling a cup out, grabbing the spray nozzle and filling it with the carbonated liquid while her other hand expertly grabbed a metal scoop full of ice filling the glass at the same time, she grabbed a straw shoving it in and handing the glass to Betty.
"Thank you," Betty smiled politely and took it, playing with the straw mindlessly before taking a sip.
"What about you Jones?... What happened to your face?" Toni asked wiping her hand on a towel, and motioning to his busted temple. He had forgotten about it until then, he scrunched his nose up feeling a little bit of pain, he hadn't seen it yet, but he didn't think he would need stitches or anything. She took the towel in her hands and filled it with ice handing it to him, he pulled it up to his head and pressed it against his swollen, broken skin, closing one eye against the sting.
"I got it," He said stubbornly, taking a step around her "Cock block," He whispered accusingly in her ear as he passed her, making her laugh, he grabbed a tumbler off the back wall and flipped it up grabbing a bottle of Blue label Johnny Walker off the wall.
"Oh you're going for expensive shit tonight," Toni teased eyeing the bottle.
"I'm celebrating that Betty got on my bike," He smiled proudly still holding the ice against his temple, Toni raised her eyebrows and looked at Betty, who was laughing shyly.
"Oh shit, so Root Beer over here is a biker babe?" She laughed leaning close to Betty again.
"We are working on it," Jughead smiled to Betty, plopping a few ice cubes into his whiskey he had poured. He took a large sip, followed by another and refilled his cup. Toni reached next to him for the first aid kit from under the bar, and pulled it up, opening it and getting out a small gauze pad and rubbing alcohol, tipping some on to the small square and looking at Jug expectantly, he raised his upper lip in a scowl but moved his makeshift ice pack and let her clean it, hissing slightly when the alcohol hit it, she pulled out a butterfly bandage meant for closing wounds, and stepped closer to Jughead putting one side on and pulling it tightly to the other side.
"Someone got you pretty good," She said lovingly rubbing her thumb under it. "Now get the hell out," Toni scolded laughing and pointing to the break in the bar top, Jughead rolled his eyes, but obeyed walking swiftly out and around back to Betty's side.
"Who is that?" Betty asked nodding her chin to Toni who was at the other side of the bar helping customers, the large snake spray painted on the back of her jacket visible now.
"Toni Topaz," Jughead watched Betty take another sip of her soda.
"Is she a…"
"Serpent, yeah she is," he finished cutting her off. She opened to her mouth to say something else "and a lesbian, or I guess bi sexual, I don't know, I can never keep track, she is kind of fluid I guess, she likes what she likes, she refuses labels," He shrugged assuming he had answered Betty's question. He turned around leaning back on the wood next to her and looked out at the room filled with people.
"You sure you don't want anything stronger?" He asked motioning to her root beer.
"No, I've drank more alcohol in the past week then I ever have in my life.." She laughed trailing off. Jughead leaned closer to her, a comfortable silence falling over them as he just enjoyed having her next him, but something was eating at him and he couldn't stop the question that came next.
"Are you gonna text Archie back?" He asked, She looked up at him a pained look on her face.
"You saw that?" She squeaked out her guilt obvious in her voice, Jughead just nodded. When she didn't answer him he kept pushing.
"How did it really go?" He asked the loud rap music playing over them, which was what Toni liked to play when she was bartending. Betty looked away, taking another sip of her drink.
"Honestly?" she asked catching him by surprise, her voice oddly sad.
"Yeah, they only way this works is honestly," He tilted his head to the side waiting.
"He somehow didn't suspect anything, I mean he did, but he thought it was with Joaquin, when I told him I really was with you he seemed to drop it, he asked me over for dinner, but I had no Idea what to say to him, it sounded exhausting to be around him so I pretended to have to work, when I texted Kevin he was with Joaquin and said it was fine if I crashed their date, and I figured I needed to talk to Joaquin to explain to him…" She trailed off. Jughead watched her and waited, in a way testing her to see if she would be completely honest. "Archie kissed me and Joaquin saw and I wanted to explain it to him I guess," she finished looking away embarrassed.
"I know," Jug looked straight ahead of him his jaw clenching at the thought. He finally looked back at her and she was watching him already. "I don't like it," He said sternly.
"I know," She nodded "I'm not sure what happened, I still not sure what's happening and why he doesn't suspect anything," she shook her head in confusion .
"Sometimes people refuse to see the things right in front of their face, people tend to only see what they want to," Jughead looked out into the crowd, knowing damn well he had used that fact to his advantage several times in his past. "I gave you a week, I know that, but if I find out that you kissed him again, or anything else, I won't be happy and I can't promise I won't do something about it," He looked at her sharply, an edge to his voice "And Betty…" He made sure she looked at him his eyes boring into her "I will find out," He tried to make it sound as non threatening as possible but the coldness in his voice visibly made her shiver. He looked back out across the bar trying to pull himself from the dark place that his mind was going. He felt her hand grab on to his forearm, he looked down at it, her touch pulling him back to himself slightly.
"Okay," She nodded squeezing gently. He took a sip of his drink, flipping is body back around and shaking his nearly empty glass catching Toni's attention who strided confidently over and silently grabbed the bottle off the shelf and refilling it for him, he nodded in thanks, and turned back around. Sweet Pea had walked over quickly obviously with a purpose, making Jughead look at him questioningly.
"Gears is asking for you," He said in a clipped tone, before turning quickly and walking away and towards the computer room, an uneasy feeling twisted in Jughead's gut. He stood up straight placing his drink next to Betty.
"Go, I'll be fine," She smiled sweetly and he nodded briskly and bee lined straight to Gears, his stomach in knots, the anxiety growing with every step, he should have never brought her back her he scolded himself, feeling conflicted between wishing she were home and safe in her bed, and being grateful that she was with him where he could ensure her safety and control the situation. He made it to the room, and found Sweet Pea standing over Gears, both of them watching something intensely on the screen.
"What is it?" He asked doing everything he could to hide the panic in his voice, going instinctively to the cold, hard leader he had learned to become.
"We got visitors.." Gears looked up his lips twisted in disgust, and Jughead hurriedly rounded the desk standing next to Sweet Pea.
"Castle?" He asked searching the screen for what they were talking about.
"Luckily no," Gears reassured, looking up at him, then back at the screen and pointing to the entrance on the screens. Jughead let out the breath he was holding, relief flooding through him realizing it wasn't necessarily a threat, two well dressed Japanese men stood at the entrance talking to T-Dog, the Yakuza wasn't supposed to be there, but they were loyal customers and had a pretty good relationships with the Serpents. Jughead recalled the angry look on Gears face, and remembered that he has some specific bad blood with Japanese mafia, the boy had a habit of using his middle finger to adjust his glasses, and one particular time he and a member of the other gang had gone at each other because of the disrespectful gesture, almost causing a massive war, Jughead and the leader of their New York branch, Tagomi, had calmed it down and handled the situation, but only under the understanding that Gears could no longer be a part of negotiations, which Jughead didn't argue with, in fact he tried to keep the serpent out of most meetings because it had caused problems more than once, and Jughead would rather just keep his crew safe and not risk it.
"We'll handle it," He squeezed Gears shoulder and watched the camera as T-Dog let them in, nodding respectfully. Jughead started out of the room Sweet Pea at his side.
"Why the hell are they here?" Sweet Pea asked as they both walked around the pool tables slowly.
"Beats me, but they don't usually show up for nothing," Jug gave him a sideways look, seeing the two men standing just off to the side of the front door, he noted that Tagomi wasn't one of them meaning hopefully it wasn't too important. Sweet Pea stopped walking, slamming the back of his hand into his leaders chest, catching Jughead by surprise, who stopped with him following his gaze to the bar where Betty sat, a head of dyed burgundy hair next to her.
"Fuck," Jughead stared wide eyed a whole new sense of panic rushing over him. Effie leaned close to Betty, her tight black halter top dipping low in the back showing off the ink on her skin and her skin tight skirt impossibly short over her fishnets, was she wearing that earlier? He raked his brain, not remembering at all.
"You gotta handle that brother," Sweet Pea stared too "I got this for now, just make it fast, they'll probably expect to talk to you," Jughead looked at him gratefully and nodded before walking back to Betty, the pit in his stomach only matched by the anger as he scowled at the back of Effie's head, as he closed in on them, he noticed his cup of whiskey on the bar had a dark red lipstick mark on it, the only word that kept repeating in his head was shit, as he braced to do some damage control.