AN: This does not pick up right after chapter 8, this would be like a flashback scene. Like it happened 7 to 8 months prior. I hope you enjoy and sorry about the wait.
"We've had a business relationship with the Sons for a long time Jackson," Alvarez said as he and Jax shook hands over the new arrangement they just made.
"Yes we have, Alvarez" Jax agreed, "I'm glad we can continue it."
"I was sorry to hear about your mother," Alvarez said solemnly.
Jax just bobbed his head in acknowledgment.
Jax and the Sons and Alvarez and the Mayans stood in the warehouse portion of Alvarez's custom car shop that also doubled as a chop shop. It was around 5 in the afternoon.
Jax watched as one of Alvarez's men came up to him, said something to him and Alvarez nodded his head in confirmation, and then sighed, "I have some business to attend to Jackson."
"Anything we can help you with?" Jax asked.
"I'm not sure," Alvarez answered honestly, then turned and began walking to the front of the building.
Jax and the Sons followed.
Once they rounded a tall stack of pallets and used oil, Jax and Sons recognized the car that was parked just barely inside the bay.
His hand went to the gun he had tucked in the back of his jeans, the other club members following suit. "I thought we were cool, ese?" Jax growled at the scene in front of him. Tara's Cutlass. A man was begging to speak to Alvarez. About 20 feet away another man was pacing back and forth, the sleeve of his shirt ripped with blood running down his arm. A woman was shaking and rubbing her arms next to him. He did not see his wife though.
"We are," Alvarez said as he turned to look at Jax who quickly pushed past him, "What's going on?"
"Why the fuck is my old ladies car here?" Jax demanded, "Tara!" he yelled out for his wife, walking towards the Cutlass. Looking into the car he saw signs of a struggle. Hearing a muffled sound he moved to the trunk. Pulling the knife from his hip he jammed it into the lock. Popping the trunk open, he was relieved and fucking pissed off to see Tara and Margaret both bound and gagged in the trunk.
Margaret's eyes looked at him wildly as she mumbled loudly behind her taped mouth. Tara looked to be unconscious. At least he prayed to God that she was just unconscious. She had a welted cut that ran from her temple just above her eye into her hair. His breathing became very heavy as he bent over Margaret to feel for Tara's pulse. Margaret was not at all surprised to hear what sounded like a growl escape his chest. He sighed with relief when he found her pulse.
Behind him he could hear Bobby and Chibbs telling him to move so they could get Margaret out of the trunk. He did as they instructed, then moved back over to Tara. He easily scooped her out of the trunk and set her on the front seat of her car. The door being opened by Happy.
"Tara," he began lightly jiggling her, "Wake up babe."
"That animal hit her!" Margaret yelled, frantically pointing to the man who was pacing in the corner, "She kept telling him he was making a huge mistake and began laughing at him when he told her she didn't know shit. He hit her with the butt of his gun! He knocked her out!" she ranted.
Leaning Tara's still unconscious form against the seat, he stood up and began walking over to the guy. The garage was divided up so much that Jax could see the couple, the man pacing and the woman because he knew they were there, but they didn't see him. The noise and distance between them was so great that they hadn't heard anything either.
Before he could get to him, Bobby stopped him speaking quietly, "Remember the road trip we took to talk about patching over the Devil's Tribe?" Jax nodded his head in agreement. "Remember the rest stop before we got there?"
"Small fucking world…" Jax snarled in understanding. He breathed in a few times to calm his shit down. He was going to do more than kick this fucker's ass. You never laid a hand on Tara without some repercussion.
After regaining his composure, Jax walked around the tool boxes and cluttered floor to an area that housed the tires. Pulling his cigarettes and lighter form inside his kutte, he put the cigarette to his lips as he eyed Suzy. Poor girl was still getting her ass kicked on the regular it looked like. He wasn't worried about her though. His mind was set on making the son of a bitch who knocked his wife out. Taking a deep drag of the cigarette after he lite it, he was glad it also added in calming his nerves.
Suzy inhaled sharply as she saw and recognized Jax. He gave her a smirk nudging his head up as if to say 'what's up' to her. She blushed, smiled and ducked her head shyly. Her heart started racing and she started shaking, for fear of what Matteo might do to her again for even showing the slightest interest in someone else. She'd already said too much this week, earning her a back hand.
Jax had away about him the disarmed people at times. Made them think he was cool, not threatening at all. He knew how to use that to his advantage.
His thumbs hooked in the belt loops of his jeans, he strolled over to Matteo, "Sweet cage, man," he got his attention, "It yours?"
Matteo stopped the pacing he'd been doing and looked up. The guy who was talking to him had been patched in. He could see by the patches he wore on his leather kutte that he was the President of his club. But it wasn't the Mayans. If Matteo wanted to be patched in to the Mayans he knew he would have to deal with other clubs at some point. If this guy was talking to him he may want to play nice. Especially if he was walking around the Mayan garage and clubhouse.
"I wish," he snorted. "Naw, I saw that beauty at a stop sign in downtown Stockton. I knew Alvarez would love it, so I brought it to him," he said proudly. The more he talked the more confidant he felt.
"Wow," Jax whistled low. Keeping the cigarette, between his lips, he began shrugging his kutte off tossing it too Bobby who was behind him, "If that's the kind of luck you have, maybe I need you in my club," Jax said calmly, remaining engaged in the conversation. All he wanted to do was cut that cocky smirk off his face and make him kiss his own ass. Then cut his fucking head off and let his wife do with it what the fuck she wanted. "The car just sitting there for the taking. You got a horseshoe up your ass or something?" he joked with the guy.
"Hell naw, man" he laughed. "Couple of bitches where sitting in it. I just pulled nine out told them to get out, give me their money and car. Turns out one of those bitches is a doctor! She has to be worth some money to someone."
Bobby whistled through his teeth "That was not the right thing to say," he said quietly to himself.
Mentally gritting his teeth at the reference to his wife, Jax took one last deep drag of his cigarette, blew it out and said, "Looks like one of 'em got a piece of ya," he gestured toward the cut on his arm.
"The young bitch shot at me! Can you believe it?" he looked at his arm.
Smiling proudly at the admission, "That's my girl," he mumbled to himself. "So what happened after she shot at ya?"
"What do you do when someone shots at you?" Matteo asked Jax but didn't wait for an answer, "Back handed her! Then she started screaming about 'This is the worst mistake you will ever make. Do you know what's going to happen to you? What I can make happen to you?' I was like 'hell yeah I do! Me and my boy are getting' patched in! Shut the fuck up!' then I pistol whipped 'er. Knocked her the fuck out, dude."
"As coincidental as I'm sure it was, she was right about one thing," by this point Jax was within arm's reach of Matteo.
"What's that?" Matteo questioned, completely unaware of the wall of anger and rage about to crash down around him.
Jax already had his arm cocked and 'loaded', and let in snap, releasing all the tension he had built up, "You made the worst mistake of your fucking life."
Suzy screamed in shock.
The force of the blow landed Matteo on his ass, his nose breaking on impact, leaving him in shock and gasping for air, "What the fuck man?" But Jax had to give the guy a little bit of credit, he popped right back up. Shaking his head, he put his fists up in defense.
A devilish smirk crossing Jax's face, "You've got more balls than I gave you credit for, ese."
"Dude, if you want the fucking car, I'm sure you can work something out with Alvarez," Matteo said, "Bitch, if you don't stop that fucking screaming, I'm gonna knock you out," he yelled at Suzy who just kept screaming and crying. Matteo swung out before Jax realized it, striking him in the face.
Jax laughed manically, "That was a good shot man," Jax gave him his due. "But you really are a stupid motherfucker if you think this is over the car. Car's going home with me anyway," Jax said cockily.
Behind him, Jax heard a gunshot ring out. From the pleading he vaguely heard and from knowing Alvarez for as long as he had, he knew the other man in the trio who had stolen Tara's car, was now dead.
Smirking at Matteo who looked startled by the gun shot, "THAT was for stealing the car," then snapping his arm out catching Matteo off guard landing on his nose again, "What we are doing here, you and me, is MUCH more personal. This thing you have for knocking around woman," Jax struck out again catching above his eye.
Staggering back a few steps, Matteo shook his head to clear his head, "This is about that fucking bitch over there? You can have her worthless ass…" he sputtered, trying to fight back.
"This hasn't got shit to do with your girl, dumbass. You picked the wrong fucking car to jack at the wrong fucking time. If my old lady called me today and told me she was car jacked, it would've taken me some time, by I would've found you. Unfortunately for you, you decided you were going to pistol whip her and bring her and her car to my associate's shop," Jax thought the guy would like to know why he was getting his ass kicked.
"What?" Matteo grunted out.
Swinging at him wit combination, Jax knocked him to the ground, "The woman you knocked out? My old lady, you dumb fuck!" Jax began wailing on him.
Suzy screamed again, shaking uncontrollably.
Bobby looked at her, feeling sorry for the girl. She looked fucking terrified. He didn't like seeing woman so hurt and vulnerable. Digging into his pocket he walked over to her, "Sweetheart," he got her attention, he flipped over ten $100 bills out of his money clip, "Now would be a good time to go," he handed her the cash, his head nudging in the direction of the door.
Her trembling hand took it, then looked over to Matteo who was getting his due from Jax, "Can't I go with you and….."
"A lot has, and hasn't, changed since the last time we met, darlin'," as he spoke, Alvarez and Tara, being assisted by Chibbs, came up next to them.
"Jackie!" Chibbs yelled out.
"Jackson!" Tara called out to get him to stop.
His arms stopped swinging, his chest heaving with exertion, he craned his head enough towards them that she could see his long hair falling in his eyes.
Alvarez stood next to him, "We'll clean up this mess. This was just an unfortunate coincidence, amigo. We still plan on honoring our agreement."
Jax nodded in agreement and pushed himself off the bloody, moaning man. After looking at Tara again, her lip swollen, her head knotted up and red. He growled low in his chest, and bent back down to the Matteo. Slapping his face, "Can you hear me?"
Surprisingly he heard a moaned out, "Yes."
"Good," he hauled the guy up by the collar of his shirt, his head hanging and rolling almost like is was dislocated. "You are going to apologize to my wife for your behavior today. For assaulting and hurting her, and for trying to steal from her. Then you're going to apologize to the woman you've been terrorizing for the last 5 years."
Jax heard what sounded like Matteo scoffing and moaning at the same time, "I know you're in pain man, but it will be over real soon, I promise."
With a little assistance from the Sons, Matteo grunted out an apology to Tara then to Suzy. Suzy finally found the strength and hauled off and snacked him a few times herself.
After literally dropping Matteo to the ground, Jax turned to Tara, Chibbs, Bobby and Suzy. His focus only on Tara.
Cupping her jaw in his hands the second he could reach her, she tilted her head back so he could see her. Clenching his jaw at the angry cuts on her face, he leaned forward and kissed the place she had been pistol whipped.
"I'm okay, baby," she whispered to reassure him, "sore and have a hell of a headache, but I'm okay," her hands reaching up to caress the top of his.
His forehead resting against hers, "Seeing you like that… I was terrified babe. I can't live without you Tara. I love you."
"Always, baby," she assured him, "I love you always."
"I don't mean to interrupt but…" Bobby gestured towards Suzy who was standing there totally stunned.
"Shit….." Jax sighed out, running his hand over his face.
"I've got her," Tara offered.
With the look Jax gave her, "Yes, I remember them. But that was before we," she gestured between them. Then she walked towards Suzy.
"I hear you need help picking up whatever pieces you have left," Tara said to Suzy. "You come with us, I can give you a place to stay with total security. Then you can work on getting yourself together and standing on your own two feet. Is that what you would like?"
Suzy squinted her eyes at her like she was confused, then it dawned on her. She was free. Her eyes darted to Jax, who had blood on his hands and shirt, and was shrugging on his kutte. She nodded her head enthusiastically when she figured it out.
"Just so we are clear. He is mine," Tara gestured to Jax, "I understand you played with him once, but he is mine. I do not share. You try to come between us, you won't like the end result," Tara promised, "Understood?"
Suzy had no other place to go and did feel safe with them. She agreed, and followed the woman to her car.