[MC #4] Mafia's Angel

Part 1

As usual, Friday night is spent in the so-called beauty room built at the biker's clubhouse, but Jamie can't find it in herself to be as cheerful as the other ladies. She's pretending to be fine, but that's only a mask she's put in public to hide her real feelings. She's used to doing that in front of people, so no one suspects anything.

The ladies don't notice the pain Jamie is in thanks to her remarkable acting skills, which makes her thankful for all the classes she took years ago. It's really helpful that she can hide her emotions like this.

She'd hate to ruin their fun.

As the night progresses, Jamie slowly lets go of her inhibitions and starts drinking more to dull the pain in her heart. It's not the best remedy for it, but even temporary relief is welcomed. It's getting increasingly harder to pretend that nothing happened, to show a happy face to other girls, to act like everything is fine.

Nothing is fine.

Nothing is okay.

And it's killing her to pretend otherwise.

"I think it's time for me to go, ladies," Jamie announces with a smile, even though she's internally screaming in agony as the horrible memories flood her mind. She doesn't want to show the girls what she's like when she's losing herself in the darkness.

They shouldn't see how damaged she really is.

"Awe, you're ditching us already?" Maggie, the wife of the vice-president of the club, whines sadly, holding onto Jamie's hand tenderly. "Stay a little longer, JayJay." JayJay? She's drunk.

"It's late, Mags, I think it's time to go back," Jamie argues weakly. As much as she likes seeing other ladies so happy and carefree, so she doesn't want to ruin their fun. With a gentle pat to Maggie's shoulder, Jamie gets off the couch she's been sitting on and waves the ladies goodbye. They sigh sadly seeing their friend leave, but they know better than to try to stop her forcefully. Every woman in the group knows that sometimes it's better to give someone their space and not force them to share their secrets.

Even though Jamie thinks she's hiding her pain well, the ladies know exactly what's going on. They're simply playing along to not make Jamie feel bad. If she wants to hide, then they should let her until she's ready to share her thoughts.

Thanks to the club's generosity, Jamie, Claire and Ella have been staying at a house in the outskirts of town, which used to belong to one of the club members before she moved in with her fiancé. It was really nice of the bikers to give the girls they've rescued a place to stay. Because of the girls' past, the bikers decided to not force them to live with a group of men, since the girls might be uncomfortable with it, and let them stay at their sister's old house for which they had no use. Ghost, their sworn sister and at the same time the only woman patched in the club, used to live on her own in her lovely little house, but after her fiancé's parents' death, she moved in with him, so her house stayed empty until now.

Thankfully, no one in town is stupid enough to break into a house that belongs to the bikers, so Ghost's old place is considered a safe house for people who need the club's help. It also has an elaborate security system that's now directly connected to the club, which makes it easy to know if anything ever happens there.

Jamie really likes the minimalistic interior of the house, and internally thanks Ghost for keeping everything simple and convenient, but cozy and homely at the same time. It's such a lovely place that Jamie doesn't want to leave it anytime soon, as bad as it may sound.

Though she might have to do it.

"Again..." Jamie sighs dejectedly when she sees a familiar name on the screen of the phone she also received from the club. It's Jace, a man who has taken an interest in Jamie a while ago and has been insisting on taking her with him to Montana.

Since Jamie knows exactly what would happen if she didn't pick up the call, she reluctantly accepts it. Knowing how long her calls with Jace usually last, she sits comfortably on the bed in her bedroom and waits for the man to speak.

"Hello, Angel. What took you so long to pick up? Are you okay?" Jace asks frantically, clearly getting the wrong idea.

"I picked up as soon as you called, what do you mean long?" Jamie sighs incredulously, rubbing her head tiredly. On her way here, she's sobered up a little, so now she's getting sleepy. She always becomes drowsy after drinking, but that's because she can't fall asleep otherwise.

"I'm sorry, Angel, I was just worried," Jace immediately accepts his mistake and apologizes, much to Jamie's surprise. "How was your night, love?"

Jamie can't help but smile at the man's sweet concern. "It was fun," she shrugs, lying through her teeth. "We drank a little, shared some gossip, you know, the usual."

"Gossip, you say? Anything interesting?" Jace asks curiously, pouring himself a drink before he settles in the leather chair by his desk, loosening his tie comfortably. He hasn't even finished his work, but he couldn't wait to call his angel. He loves their late night talks, even if he has to stay late to finish his work because of them.

"Nothing much. But I have to say, I didn't expect your brother to be such a mother hen," Jamie laughs quietly, making Jace smile adoringly at the lovely sound. He really likes hearing it and if he could, he'd listen to it all day.

"Is that so? I didn't think Don had a fatherly bone in his body," Jace jokes, just to hear his Angel laugh again.

"He does. Ruby keeps complaining that he's so overbearing she can barely keep him away from their daughter."

"And what do you think about it?" Jace implores softly, gazing at the starry sky through the huge window in his office behind his desk as he concentrates on his Angel's sweet voice. How nice it would be to show her the beautiful sight he's admiring right now. For months, he's been trying to convince her to come with him to Montana, where he lives, but she keeps rejecting him, much to his dismay.

But he's not one to give up easily.

"What do I have to do with Don and Ruby?" Jamie chuckles incredulously, hugging her soft pillow tightly to somehow suppress the feeling of loneliness that suddenly hits her. "It's not like I can say anything about how they raise their daughter."

"I meant to ask what you think of Ruby's words. Is Don really that bad?" Jace clarifies with a laugh.

"I don't know, actually," Jamie shakes her head, even though Jace can't see her. "Maybe? If I were to describe him, I'd say he's a doting and loving father, even if he gets a bit overprotective of his daughter. It's cute to see him fret over Tina all the time and keep her away from the guys by saying they're spreading germs to the baby and so on," she laughs amusedly as she remembers the argument Don had with Tank this morning. "Just this morning he argued with the Prez. As he played with his son in the common room, he came up with an idea to hire Maggie as the kids' nanny and have the three babies, Max, Valentina and Isaac play together. Don instantly refused and said he won't let his daughter catch the boys' germs. He said in no uncertain terms that Tina won't play with the boys unless she says otherwise. And seeing how Tina can't talk yet, it'll take quite some time for her to express her desire to play with the boys," she retells the story she witnessed this morning, getting a loud laugh from Jace.

"What a clever way to keep the little princess away from boys."

"Yeah, this excuse will work for about a year, so he's set for a while," Jamie giggles softly, making Jace smile at the sound.

The two of them talk for a while, sharing some unimportant news and gossip about what happened over the last two weeks, since that's when Jace was last in Walford. He visits regularly, not only to see his niece, but also his Angel. He misses her terribly when he doesn't see her often. He's wanted to take her to Montana really badly, but at the same time he knows he can't force her.

Not to mention that it might not be the best moment to bring her with him, especially with the shitstorm that's heading his way if the letter he received is anything to go by.

He'd rather not put his Angel in danger.