Runaway ✔

054 • Juice

Two hours had passed since Dana'd stormed out of the office. All these time Juice tried to ignore the voice in his head that whispered girls caused nothing but trouble, and that things had been much easier between them when he hadn't committed himself to anything. But it wasn't that simple. Sure, he could go back to an unbound life, to sex without any obligations. But he knew that wouldn't make him feel any better. It actually were those repressed feelings of loneliness that had bothered him when she hadn't been around. He needed someone who waited for him at the end of the day, who counted down the hours just to be with him. And not only because he was a Son, because he was good in bed, but because of who he was. Who he really was. Whoever that might be.

He heaved a deep sigh. He had to let it go. He'd said everything he could think of. It had just been a bad timing when she'd entered the room and with her past she'd drawn the wrong conclusions. Her words that he wasn't different from all other men hurt. Had she meant the ones who'd abused and raped her? Was that really what she was thinking, or had it just been a manifestation of powerlessness? Had it been hard for her to trust him? Her last boyfriend had destroyed her life. Something he'd never considered. The development of their relationship just had felt so easy, so natural.

Patience, that was the key. It always had been the key. She'd buried her mom yesterday, and a demon from her past had plagued her. A bullet had drilled someone's head, next to her own head, and she'd been covered in blood. He couldn't blame her for being so emotional. But exactly that made it so damn hard, for he felt she needed him while she was pushing him away. Who knew how long it would take before she would let him in again?

He aimed his eyes at the screen of his laptop again and printed everything he'd found about Owan Gregor and Philippe Montez, the owner of the underground fight club. A few minutes ago he'd hacked into the customer base of Montez, but he still needed to add pictures to the names before Dana could take a look at it. He would do that later tonight. He would give Jax and Clay the intel he'd found and then he had to take Dana to Cara Cara so Happy could teach her how to shoot. He hoped she wouldn't object. The worst thing that could happen now, was Happy asking her where he was and figuring out a Croweater had been willing to suck him. Happy would at least break both of his arms and legs. The fact he hadn't done so already, gave him a ray of hope. If Dana had told her brother what had happened, he wouldn't have been here.

He walked to the workplace, relieved he could finally tell the two men something useful.

"Good job, Juice." Jax hit his shoulder and Clay gave him a small nod after Juice had shared his findings with them. He immediately felt lighter. At least one problem is solved.

The clock at the garage showed it was half past three. He hadn't lunched yet, there was just enough time to do so. When he walked into the kitchen, his eye caught the girl that had brought him his breakfast. He acted as if he wasn't seeing her, opening a locker and taking out a sack of bread.

"I hope I haven't caused any trouble," a sultry voice whispered in his ear. "I didn't know you had an Old Lady."

"You know now," he grunted without looking aside. He opened the fridge and took a stick of butter and a packaging with slices of sausage out of it. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the Croweater crossing her arms.

"You can't blame for not knowing..."

With a bang Juice closed the fridge, cutting off her sentence. "Fuck off."

She looked at him with eyes wide open.

"Get the hell outta here. Don't wanna see your ugly face ever again. Find another place to fill up your holes."

He didn't even know what her name was, so she hadn't impressed any of his brothers. He rather saw her leaving for good, so that Dana no longer needed to see her.

In silence the girl turned around and walked away, swinging her hips. Juice focused on his sandwiches again. Before he'd reached Gemma's office, they were gone.

When the door opened, Dana didn't even look. She was staring at her laptop screen, her thoughts clearly not occupied by work. He glanced at Gemma, who raised her eyebrows.

She wouldn't leave.

Juice cleared his throat, not knowing if he could lay a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. In the end he stepped sideways to her so that he wouldn't scare her off.

"Hey," he said softly. "We should go to Cara Cara. Or... have you asked someone else to escort you?"

Her eyes flashed aside, to Gemma. Juice didn't turn his head to see the expression on the woman's face.

"I've asked Kip to come along. As extra man," she clarified when he dropped his eyes. A hint of a smile played her lips.

He wanted to pull her close at the sight of it, but he restrained himself, gave her a nod and left the room.

In front of the garage he stood still and beckoned Half-Sack. He grabbed his helmet from the hook and gave Dana hers. Whether she wanted to ride with him or Sack, was up to her.

The three of them walked to their bikes. At the driveway to the parking lot stood the wench he'd just sent away. With a scrunchy face she looked at her phone. He saw Dana tense. Softly he touched her upper arm. "Relax. I sent her away. She ain't comin' back. Ever."

She looked up at him, confusion in her eyes. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Nobody will miss her." His lips curled into a smirk. "Unless you want to teach her a lesson because she was about to assault your man?"

She rolled her eyes. "You goin' down that road now?"

"Every road I can think of, until I find one that leads to your forgiveness."

She didn't say a word.

But when she climbed behind him on his bike and wrapped her arms around him so that he felt her upper body against his back, he knew the situation wasn't completely hopeless.