Vengeance (11 page)

“Two black eyes, a split cheek and a torn lip.
You probably need stitches.”

“Wait for Jax, we will go from there.” Jack says sighing and kneeling in front of me.

“What did you go and do that for?”

“She was hitting on….
wwwwhore
.”

“Ok angel.” He says gently.

Half an hour later, I hear my husband’s very irate voice screaming at PJ.

“What the fucking hell were you thinking bringing her out in this state?”

“Layla was taking her, we just came to watch them, keep them safe.”

“Some fucking job you did.”

I feel somebody grip my chin; I open my eyes to see Jax. He is blurry. There is two, no wait, three of him. I giggle.

“J-J-Jax.”

“She is so drunk.
Fucking hell.”

He yanks my face from side to side, assessing the damage.

“Hospital?”
Jack says carefully.

“I don’t think we have any other choice, she is fucked up.”

“Stand up.” He orders.

I stand and stumble gracefully forward into my husband’s arms. He grips me and puts his arm around my waist, holding me up. I sway and sing the entire way down the path to his car. He hesitates.

“You throw up in my car, and I will kick your ass.”

I laugh, giggling and falling to the ground when he lets me go to the open the door.

“Jesus.”

He leans down and lifts me up; my legs feel like jelly. He shoves me into the car and buckles me in, pausing for a moment to stare at me again. He slides his shirt off and presses it to my cheek.

“Hold this against your cheek.”

I hiccup and hold the shirt against my cheek. It smells of him. He gets in the car and reverses out, then begins driving to the hospital. I come in and out of consciousness the entire way. My head lolls to the side and more than once, Jax has to push me back up in my seat. When we arrive at emergency, a lady comes out with a wheel chair. She’s very pretty. Why are some nurses so pretty?

“Oh my, she has done a job of herself.”

Jax hauls me out of the car and into the wheel chair; I slump forward. He grasps my shoulder and yanks me back.

“She has done a fucking wonderful job of herself.”

I peer up at the
nurse,
she is blushing and smiling stupidly. Hello! I could be dying here!

“Do you know what happened sir?”

“Call me Jax and she got bashed.”

“I think we have the other girl here, she came in only ten minutes ago.
From the Z-bar?”

“That would be it. How bad is she?”

She looks at me, then at him. “Your girl here did a good job sir, err, Jax.”

He grins. Oh so now he is proud. “That’s my girl.”

The nurse flushes. “Is this your girlfriend?”

“Wife.”

“Right, of course.
Bring her in and we will get her checked out.”

Jax wheels me in and then stops at a white
bed,
I peer at it, my head lolling. I think I am going to be sick.

“Jax, sick.”
I croak.

The nurse hands him a bucket just in time; I empty my stomach with a groan. Jax pats my hair and lays me on the bed. The nurse takes away the bucket and comes back in a moment later with a doctor.

“Well, this is the other girl. You did a better job on her than she did on you.” He smirks.

I groan, my stomach hurts.
Really hurts.

“Are you in pain?”

“What does it look like?” I snarl.

He leans down and examines my face. He isn’t very gentle.

“Stitches in that cheek Emily.
Ice on that face.
We will keep her overnight in case of a concussion. The other girl said they landed harshly on the ground.”

“My stomach hurts.” I groan.

“It
will
, you drank a lot.” The doctor
mumble
s.

“But, it really hurts down low.”

“Probably poisoning.”

“My wife is saying something hurts mate, you best check it out.” Jax says in a tone that has the nurse rushing to my side.

I fall in and out of consciousness, after I throw up about four times. That was the stomach hurt. I open my eyes and see the nurse giggling at Jax.
Seriously?
I snort and they both turn.

“Don’t worry, he likes pretty girls. He is a wonderful lover, real big dick, piercings and all. He can’t help himself really…”

“ENOUGH!” Jax roars.

The nurse blushes furiously.

“I am
sorry,
my wife doesn’t hold her tongue well.”

“It’s ok Jax.”

“That’s sir to you.” I snap.

“Do you mind if I have a moment with my wife?”

The nurse nods and leaves. I fold my arms. Jax glares at me and leans down close.

“That’s enough from you, stop running of your mouth and causing problems.”

I frown. “You were flirting with her.”

“I was laughing because she said the other girl is carrying on like a two bob watch. Stop over reacting.”

“Can you blame me?”

His face softens, and he strokes my hair back. “I am here, aren’t I?”

“Yeah
yeah
.”
I grumble.

The nurse re-enters. “We will put her in a room for the remainder of the night, to make sure she doesn’t have any further injuries. Room one hundred and one. Follow me.”

I stand, and Jax takes my arm. I am still swaying. He leads me down the halls after the nurse, and we stop at a nice little room. I fall onto the bed and am out again in minutes. When I wake it is morning and instead of Jax sitting beside me, I see Mack, Sam and my little brother Eli.

“Hello little brother.”
I croak.

Mack stands and brings Eli over. “Say hello to your sister.”

I nurse Eli and he dribbles all over my lap. I love him, even though it hurts like hell, I love him.

“Where is Jax?”

“Gone home to freshen up and get Lilly. He is in a foul mood this morning.”

I snort. “I bet he is.”

I punch in Jax’s number and send off a text.

How’s Lilly?

Good. I won’t be long.

Did I wake you?

No.

Are you ok?

I don’t know. How are you feeling?

Ok.

Do you want me to bring you some food?

Please, it’s awful here.

Alright, I’ll be about an hour.

Thanks Jax.

XX.

I tuck my phone away and stare up at Mack and Sam.

“You can go, Jax will be here soon.”

“Are you sure
love
?”

“Yeah, I am going to ring
mom
anyway.”

Mack nods. “Say hi for us.”

“I will. Thanks Daddy. Thanks Sam.”

They both hug me before leaving. I open my phone and ring my mother explaining what happened. She is quiet for a long moment.

“Oh baby, you do know how to get yourself into sticky situations.”

“Yeah, I know. How are things there?”

She pauses. “Not too bad, a little tense.”

“Is everything ok?”

“Well Steffan has taken a mistress, so it’s tense.”

“HE WHAT?”

“It’s how it works love, you know that.”

“No mom, it’s not. It’s wrong.”

“I am fine.”

“Mom, come and visit. Please?”

I am sure she will say no, but when she pauses, I realize she is thinking about it.

“You know, I will think about it. I miss my grandbaby.”

“Well, you’re always welcome.”

“Thank you honey.
Take care won’t you?”

“I will mom, I should go. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

I hang up and pull out a magazine. An hour later Jax
arrives,
he has Lilly by his side. She bounds through the door and onto the bed, hugging me tightly.

“Hi baby.”

“
Mom
my, I was scared.”

“I am ok, just a little sick.”

I look over at Jax, and he just doesn’t look happy. He leans over and smacks a quick kiss to my cheek. He hands me a bag with food then sits on a nearby chair. Ok, something is seriously up. As if she can read my mind, Layla walks in. She sees me and rushes over, hugging me tightly.

“Ok Jade, you silly girl, look at your face.”

“Listen, I love you to death Layla and I want to see you, but can you take Lilly for a moment?”

Layla looks at Jax, and then nods sympathetically.

“Hey
Lilz
, want to go and find a vending machine?”

“Yeah!”

They walk out, and I turn to Jax.

“Jax what’s wrong?”

“
Nothin
.”

“Come on…I know that’s a lie.”

He stands and tosses Lilly’s bag across the room.

“This is what’s wrong! I am a pirate and here I am with a
God
Damn
ed bag on my shoulder, wiping snotty noses and sitting in a hospital with my wife who has recently lost my baby and gotten herself beaten up. This is not the life I thought I was going to have.”

I feel like he has punched me. “You…said you were done with being a pirate.”

“I thought I was but…Ben is still hanging around, and here I am doing this!”

He throws his hands in the air and glares at the roof. Oh, crap.

“I…you never said anything…I thought you were happy.”

“I love my kids, I love you but Jade. …I am a
God
Damn
ed pirate.
A pirate.
It’s all I have ever been.”

“You were living on the island happily!”

“Because I was going out on my ship, I was on the ocean! Here…I have nothing. You work, I don’t and even if I do, it’s not right.”

“Well what do you want?” I cry, hurt.

“I want to keep part of me alive. This isn’t me.”

“
God
Dammit
, you chose us, you chased us. If this isn’t what you wanted, you should have gone!”

I feel so hurt, he is saying he is bored, unhappy and wants his old life back.

“
S
top thinking of yourself.
I love
you,
and my kids, I would never lose that, but I love my ship, my crew and my life.”

“You have kids now Jax, you can’t live that life.”

“Why not?”
He yells.
“Why not?”

“It’s dangerous!”

“Not when it’s just me and the ocean. Lilly doesn’t have to be with me out there, and I rarely get to see Aiden.”

“What are you saying?”

“I am saying I need to go back to my ship. I can’t just give it up.”

“And what if you die?
Then what?”
I shriek.

“I have managed this long.”

“You are going to kill and steal…how the hell is that a good way to bring up your kids?”

“They don’t need to know!”

“And what about me, when your out at sea for months at a time?”

“If we lived on the island, we wouldn’t have to be apart that long.”

“And what will you have me do there Jax? WELL?”

He curses at the roof.

“You brought that house, you set us up here. If you didn’t want it, you shouldn’t have.”

“I was trying to do the right thing.”

“You know what
fine,
if you want to go back to being a pirate go. I am not going to stop you, but I certainly will not wait for you.”

He glares at me. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounds like.”

“So you would rather not have me at all, then to miss out on a few months here and there?”

Ok that is stupid. “I don’t want to be without you Jax.”

He softens a little. “It will be no different to me working Jade, I will go out for two months two or three times a year, and I will make us money, live that life and come back.”

“And what if you turn the way you used to? Screwing around and becoming hard again. You’re good now Jax, you were so hard back then.”

“I know what I want Jade, I want my family, but I want that too. I don’t plan on having any women on my ship nor do I plan to stop. I have a lot of loose ends out there, I need to tie them.”