Runaway ✔

045 • Dana

Thousand terrifying thoughts shot through her head. If Danny was around, Maddox had to be too. He must've been in the crowd, he wouldn't miss this chance to see her. Her hand was shaking when she unlocked her phone. What if Maddox had caught a glance between Juice and her? She'd tried not to look at him, but it was hard to tell if he'd done the same.

The first thing she saw on the device, were six missed calls, mainly from Juice. The last one was from four minutes ago, she saw with relief.

He was alive then.

She pressed the green button and held the device against her ear. He answered within a second.

"Dana?"

"It's me."

 "Oh god, it's really you!" His voice cracked, as if he was fighting his tears. "What happened? Where are you? They haven't..."

"I'm okay." She took a few deep breaths and tried to filter out Opie's voice, who was giving orders to the one he was calling.

"Where are you?"

"Somewhere at the back of the cemetery. Behind the fence, between the bushes.

"I'm close."

"Are there no cops?"

"Not yet."

Dana walked a few steps back, to the edge of the vegetation so she could see him coming. It didn't take long before he caught her eye. She waved, and as soon as he saw her, he quickened his pace until he was running. In a fluid motion he jumped over the fence, and he hugged her so tightly she was gasping for air.

"I really thought..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but pulled her so close it hurt. She said nothing about it, she didn't even care. She wrapped her arms around him and realized how much she'd missed him. When he let go of her, his hands covered her cheeks and he looked intensely at her. He didn't mention the blood on her face. In fact, he wasn't saying anything at all, but he pressed his lips on hers and kissed her.

His mouth stunned her immediately, and she kissed him back, a little desperate even, as if it could make all the horrible things that had happened go away.

Somewhere behind them Opie cleared his throat. "Hate to spoil your little make-out session... but we really gotta go."

They pulled back their faces, smiling awkwardly. Opie was right.

"What happened? I saw a body. Was it Maddox?" Juice asked.

She shook her head. "No. A friend of him." She dropped her eyes.

Maddox.

Why was she kissing Juice as if her life was depending on it? Maddox had killed her mother. Just because he had that power. More than ever she needed to make sure he wouldn't go anywhere near Juice. No matter how badly she needed him, she had to do this on her own. If Juice would die because she couldn't keep her hands off him... she would never be able to forgive herself.

She squeezed her lips before she would cry again and turned to Opie. "You've spoken to Jax?"

He nodded. "Yea. They take away Juice's bike and get ya a bottle of water so you can wash your face. Then you go back to TM with Juice, don't want anyone to see us together."

Dana nodded quietly. Riding with Juice didn't fit in her plans to distance herself from him, but she didn't want to be too harsh to herself. She would explain her decision when they were back at the clubhouse, and she assumed he would respect that.

💀

For a while they walked through bushes, jumped over a ditch and walked through even more bushes. Eventually they reached a residential area where Opie called Jax. A moment later he found them. He gave her and his brothers a hug, and handed her a bottle of water. Finally she could wash away Danny's blood from her face.

Dana didn't say much. They followed Jax to a parking spot, where the black van was waiting. Juice's motorcycle was in the cargo hold and was taken out immediately. Kip and Cherry left the van and hugged her.

Dana was getting a little emotional by all the attention. Once again she realized how much she cared about these people, and how much they cared about her. She felt cold. There were now so many ways in which Maddox could hurt her...

"You wanna drive with us?" Cherry asked. "You look pale, honey."

"I'm fine. I'll ride with Juice."

She wanted to enjoy this last ride. She wanted to hold him close, she already knew that would calm her down.

"Okay. I get it." Cherry kissed her cheek and gave her another hug. "See ya at the clubhouse."

Dana took the helmet Juice handed her, put it over her head and looked at Opie. "What will you do? You think someone could identify you?"

"Gonna have a little chat with Unser." He grabbed his phone. "I'll make sure Hap picks me up with his car."

Dana nodded slowly and climbed at Juice's bike. She let her arms slip around his waist, holding him much tighter than she needed to.