A Vow of Silence

Chapter 2.

Jax

My taped knuckles came in contact with a bloodied face again. The man underneath me grunted with every blow I made to his face. The other two men stood watch for guards as I completed the job. After a certain point of doing the things I did, screams and cries didn't bother me anymore. It's like when I let a Son die in Stockton, I started to go deaf, but when I found my wife laying in her own blood on my kitchen floor, all sound seemed to disappear. I was beginning to like it that way, it was the only morsel of sanity I had left.

I ordered the two men guarding the door to come to hold the bastard down. One of the guys shoved a rag in his mouth to keep his screams from being heard. The other handed me a knife and I wasted no time in carving the knife into his skin until his blood seeped onto the tile. Once I was done, I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my arm. The man was now completely unconscious, mostly due to the obscene amount of blood loss.

I used the rag that was in his mouth to yank two of his teeth. Tully was a freak for things like this, and he liked to have his collections. I didn't care much for it, but if I was going to be in prison I needed protection.

I slipped out of the room where the unconscious man lay and headed back to my cell. I needed to change out of these bloody clothes before I met up with Tully. The man wasn't a clean freak, but I also couldn't risk raising suspicion with a newly wounded prisoner and my bloody clothes.

When I headed down to the lunch room, I scanned the cafeteria until I saw Tully sitting with his crew. I made my way over to the table and without warning, I threw the teeth in front of him.

Tully looked up at me, "what's this?" He asked gesturing down to the teeth I placed in front of him. "Its teeth," I said stating the obvious, "I thought you guys were into that sort of thing. Make a necklace or something, a belt, I don't care what you're into."

Tully stared at me emotionless and my face became serious. "I was told if I wanted a sit-down I had to make the message clear. I did. Your snitch ain't going to be talking about anyone for a very long time." Tully slid his lunch tray over and without saying a word his pack of wolves disappeared. I sat down and pushed my lunch tray to the side.

"So, what do you want?"

"To clear the air between your organization and my MC. We never had any direct beef with the AB. The things that went down with Darby and the Nords-"

"Darby was a poser," Tully said cutting me off. "The Nords were a joke."

"Yeah. And we both know Zobelle was a cancer. He almost killed both of us."

"So, what about the slaughter at Gerber's Ranch? What do you know about that?" Tully pressed.

"We heard that was an internal beef," I said shrugging my shoulders. Tully straightened in his seat and made a face. I sighed, "look man, we know what's happening in Oakland and Stockton. Brown and yellow are pulling together 'cause blacks got the gun trade." Tully nodded in agreement as I continued, "Lin and Alvarez are already playing hard offense. Streets are gonna get bloody, and that's gonna impact relationships inside."

"That doesn't mean we start sharing tables with everyone else. And I doubt they'll start calling us over to their movie nights and cookouts."

I let out a laugh, Tully was such a liar. He didn't care anymore about the color of your skin than the teeth on the table. The only color this man saw was green.

"Hey, you can keep hating as much as you want. When you get to Stockton, you should let your crew know that when push comes to shiv and white needs a friend. They do best to reach out to the darkest hand in the yard."

Tully rubbed his finger over where his eyebrow would have been if he hadn't shaved it. And by that signal, I knew that this meeting was over.

"Let's go, Teller, D.A. wants to talk to you." I looked up to see a guard standing to my right and nodded my head. "So, we good?" I asked Tully.

"I might need a few things from you in the future. But yeah, for now, we're good." Tully extended his hand out to me and we shook hands. His grip lingered for a while to send a message but mine was just as firm.

I followed the guard to the holding room where Patterson was waiting for me. I figured that she'd do all the talking so I made a mental note to stay silent. There was nothing for me to say to her that she didn't already know. The last time I saw her was when I was being processed after finding my wife's corpse. That would drive any man to silence.

I sat down across from her, never breaking eye contact as I was handcuffed to the bench. She gave me a silent greeting as she opened the folder that was in front of her.

"The evidence has been processed. All the lab works back, and other than the obvious facts, the results gave us nothing. We've talked to family, friends, neighbors, and the MC, except Ortiz. He seems to be MIA. And no one can shed any light on who or why Tara was murdered."

I nodded my head, not bothering to speak a word. There was nothing to say here. If Patterson with all her DNA and forensics couldn't get someone to talk, then I would.

Patterson took note of my silence and forced a small smile on her lips. "I understand the pain you're in son. The reason for your silence." She started to fiddle with the papers as if her next choice of words made her uncomfortable. "I lost a son...and a nephew to gang violence. I didn't want anyone arrested, I wanted them all dead. Heartless, cold bullets to the back of the head like they killed my boy. That's a natural reaction, the desire for revenge is a part of grieving. The difference is, in my world, I knew that those desires would never become real. In yours, it's a very likely outcome."

I remained silent as Patterson regained her composure and proceeded to talk about my case. "We couldn't tie you to either murder or parole violation, the gun wasn't fired because it was in the house. We're gonna let you go." She wore a warm smile on her face as if vindicating me would satisfy the hatred in my heart.

"Your mother is here to see you; she can take you home," Patterson said as she began to gather up her things. She slammed her folder shut and got out of her seat, not without stopping in front of me. "You know I've been doing this for over twenty years and until today, I have only told that story to one other person."

"So, why me?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Because I needed help to connect with the man who wanted to do the right thing ten days ago! Who knew the importance of family, and that more violence will only destroy what's left of his." Patterson breathed heavily as I showed indifference to her speech. "I tried to connect with someone who took a vow of silence like you had this morning. She lost everything. Two girls and a husband were murdered in her own home and she was framed for it. She was a lieutenant for the San Diego police department at the time, so you could imagine how it was arresting one of our own. She kind of reminded me of you, and I wanted to reach out to that part of her that still wanted to do good. Just like I'm reaching out to that man in you."

I nodded my head as I refused to look in her direction. Patterson eyeballed me for a moment before leaving me in the room with hurried steps. I could hear nothing of what she said, but the only thing that stuck with me was the desire for revenge.

[Some dialogue was pulled from Sons of Anarchy Season 7: Episode 1 Black Widower]