Danger Magnet

Chapter 22

Three weeks into January and Bella stuck by her feeling that this was going to be a bad year. First was her arrest, which yes she had caused herself but still, it hadn't been fun. Second her house, which the Club had helped her rebuild very quickly and was now looking better than ever. Then Hale had been dogging her steps more than ever, determined to arrest her for real and she hadn't seen her dad or mom since Christmas.

In the grand scheme of things it wasn't too bad, but things just felt like they were building. The other Prospect was getting shorter and shorter with her, making work almost unbearable when they were on the same shift. Renee had tried calling her twice more, each time Bella refused to pick up but she had a deep worry that it wasn't over with her. Obviously they were family so it shouldn't ever be over, but Renee had quite happily gone years before without any contact. Why now was she so eager to build bridges?

"Bells?"

Bella jerked her head out of the hood she was under, her mind anywhere but on her work. Jax was looking at her with a small frown of concern.

"Sorry, world of my own. What's up?" She asked.

"Not like you to be so far away, you good?" Jax asked, lighting a cigarette and offering her one.

She took the proffered smoke and lit it before answering. "Yeah just thinking about stuff."

"Not still scared to be at home are ya?"

Bella smirked back at him, though she could detect true concern in his blue eyes. "I'm a big girl now Jax, I can stay home all alone. I even sleep without a nightlight."

She could joke about it now but she had been scared the first few days back at her house, jumping at every little noise. She had made sure she was always armed with both a knife and gun, even while just sitting at her table with a coffee and a good book. Three days after she had moved back in and three days without sleep, Happy turned up on her doorstep and let himself in with two full duffel bags.

At her question of, "what's all this?" he replied very simply with; "my shit, room in the closet?"

Since then she had slept better with him in bed every night with her. Or not sleeping as was the case most of the time. She'd even stopped showering with a gun. He made her feel safe and carried on teaching her all about the multitude of weapons he had. Together they had quite the arsenal which she thought helped with the safe feeling and restful sleep.

Jax shook his head with a smirk and a small roll of his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, that's 'cause you're shacking up with Hap. No wonder ya feel safe. How's that going?"

"Great, he's really easy to live with, believe it or not," Beall replied honestly. He helped with chores, didn't leave a mess and in the privacy of their home was very attentive to all of her needs. She tried to make sure to repay the favor of course. Judging by the smile he left the house with most days she thought she wasn't doing too bad a job of that.

"I believe it, he's getting tail off you. Can't imagine he'd be as laid back if he was livin' with any of us," Jax chuckled letting out a cloud of grey-blue smoke.

"I don't know, a couple of flirty little numbers, bedroom eyes and you might have a shot Jackson. Should I be concerned you might try and steal my man?"

"Nah, thanks, I'll stick with a nice pair of tits, he's all yours," Jax said, throwing the butt of his cigarette to the floor.

"Good to know," Bella giggled as she copied him and went back to work, more focused now. It was amazing what just a chat with Jax could do.

She sang along to the radio as she tried her best to fix the shitty Pruis without bankrupting the owner, a nice single mother from the bad side of town.