When my fist connects, the satisfying crunch beneath my knuckles makes me grin. I’ve been waiting to do this for over ten years. If I’m going to do it, I’m going to fucking enjoy it.
Jax is stunned for a minute, probably from shock that I hit him back. But it lasts less than a breath before we are both swinging like two prizefighters. I connect with his face. He lands a hard shot to my ribs. I feel the cartilage of my nose crunch as I connect with his kidney.
Blow after blow, we are relentless. Furniture gets broken. Pictures fall from the walls. There is no fancy footwork. No elaborate grappling for kicks. Just flesh on flesh. Blood pours and flies and bones break. Neither of us backing down. Until we’re both pulled away and pushed to a corner.
Bastian stands in front of me while Rory blocks Jax’s path. Blood runs down Jax’s face from his cut eyebrow and nose. Dark bruises are already forming beneath the nasty swelling. I’m certain my face is as bad as his.
“Had enough yet, Jax?” I spit out the blood in my mouth on the floor. “Not the same when I hit back, is it?”
With teeth bared, he moves quickly past Rory, only to catch the heel of Bastian’s boot to his stomach, making him fall to a knee. “Stay there,” Bastian growls when Jax starts to get up.
Jax’s eyes narrow with a challenge as he continues to his feet. When we both start for each other again, the slide action of a gun halts us. “If either of you moves, I will shoot you both,” Rory grunts.
The gasp from across the room catches the attention of everyone. “Che cazzo. What are you doing here, Quinn?” Bastian asks before leveling me with a dirty look.
I roll my eyes at him,then turn my attention back to Quinn, who is wrapped firmly in Zane’s arm. Her long bare legs dangle inches above the floor as she squirms against him. My eyes travel up to see her wearing my old Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, and I’m betting nothing else.
A strange possessiveness rolls over me like a tidal wave, nearly knocking the breath out of me as I take in her wild, whiskey eyes and unruly curls that say she’s been doing a lot more than sleeping. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from demanding he stop touching her.
“I don’t know why women always want to protect you,” Zane drawls thickly. “And always the little, bitty things with the pretty eyes.” He tilts his head to the side with an arched brow and a cocky, knowing grin.
Jax growls, inciting a smack to the head from Rory as I choke back my own guttural response. “Enough, Jax,” his brother tells him.
“He had it coming,” Jax barks out in argument.
“I don’t care.” Bastian slices his hands through the air dramatically. “What I care about is your damn wife calling me while I’m in the middle of business.” He points at Jax with narrowed eyes. “In hysterics,no less, with kids screaming in the background, to tell me you are on your way to my house. I would ask why, but it’s pretty obvious you can’t let the damn past go.”
Jax slaps his hand away from his face then gets chest to chest with Bastian. “She’s been upset for days because he’s a selfish asshole,” he accuses. “I can’t sit back and do nothing. He can, at least, call her and tell her to leave him alone.”
Bastian looks at the space between him and Jax, or lack thereof. A dangerous smile forms on his face as he looks up to Jax,who stands a few inches over him. He stands a few inches over everyone in the damn room.
“Bastian, don’t,” Rory calls out in warning, but I’m pretty sure it’s Jax he’s warning.
“Get your brother to back off before I end his career.” Bastian’s smile never drops, and his eyes never waver from Jax’s.
“You know I’m not afraid of you, Bastian,” Jax says with his own sick smile. “Never have been.”
“You’ve never had a reason before, but I might need to give you one.”
“That’s enough,” Rory yells as he pushes them apart. “Jax,grow up. You know if he’d done what you said, you’d still be right here.”
“Can’t believe you’re letting him come between us,” Jax hisses at Bastian.
“I’m not letting anything come between us. He’s my brother. Just because you didn’t know that doesn’t change the fact. Or the fact that I take care of my family, which you are part of. And for the record, he hasn’t talked to anyone since he’s been here. Fair or not, it’s how he wants to handle things for now.”
I don’t show it, but I’m more than a little stunned at Bastian’s defense of me. We may be blood, but Jax is more of a brother to him than I’ll ever be.
“He’s going through hell,” he continues. “If he wants to do that without his friends witnessing it, sobe it.”
“Nobody forced him to be a junkie,” Jax sneers in my direction.
His words don’t affect me. He’s right. No one forced me to stick a needle in my arm. But Bastian isn’t quite so forgiving. “Lotta big talk considering your wife is an addict, Jax.”
Jax’s eyes flare with anger again, but this time it isn’t him who responds. I’ve watched this tennis match play back and forth. Listening to them talk about me like I’m not even in the room. I don’t care, but… “Don’t talk about her like that,” I snap.
There is one obviousdifference between Zoey and me. She’s clean and has been for years.
“Want me to enlighten you to when he fell off the wagon?” Bastian continues like I never said a word.
