Allie glanced down at the copies in her hands and nodded to herself. It was all here. Everything was ready to go. Now, all that was left to do was get in her car and drive over to the clubhouse. She was a goddamn professional and she had an appointment with her clients at 2:00.
"I made a few extra copies," Piper shrugged at her. "I feel like Opie would lose his head if it wasn't attached to his body, so leaving some extras at the clubhouse when you're done seemed like a good idea."
Allie looked up from the copies in her slightly trembling hands and shot her rockstar assistant a grin. "Piper, have I told you lately how utterly lost I would be without you?"
"No," she just shrugged again. "But go ahead and remember that when it's time to give me a raise."
"How about we start with you and Dylan out for a nice dinner, or bowling, on me? How's that sound?"
Piper glanced up at her from the desk, her blue eyes impassive and a little sad, and then she tore her gaze back down to the desk to stare at a stack of paperwork.
"Piper."
She quirked her eyebrows back at Allie nonchalantly. "What?"
"Is everything okay?"
Piper just shrugged again, which Allie could only take to mean that everything really wasn't okay. And when Piper's phone started buzzing a foot away from her on the desk, Piper just glanced at the screen, lifted her eyes to the ceiling and went back to focusing on the stack of papers she was sorting.
"Piper."
When Piper's phone just started buzzing again, Allie took the hint. She grabbed all the copies of her presentation and her purse, and made a beeline for the door.
"You know what?" Allie called over her shoulder. "Why don't you take that, Pipes. I was gonna get a coffee on my way into the clubhouse anyway and then I can go over all this one last time before the meeting."
"Allie, it's really -"
"No, no," Allie grinned at her as she pulled her office's door open. "I insist. Something's going on here, and when I get back, we're gonna talk about it, but it sounds like you need to handle it a little bit first."
Piper blew out a heavy sigh, and then swooped her phone off Allie's desk to answer it, shooting Allie a frustrated glance as she put the phone up to her ear. On that note, now it seemed like the best option was just to get the hell out of this office and give time to Piper to deal with whatever issue she was obviously having.
They would absolutely be discussing this, in great, great detail, when she got back to the office after her meeting at the clubhouse. Something was up, and something was wrong, but it was clear Piper also needed some space right now too. And lucky for her, Allie already had an appointment that would take her out of the office a little while too.
And since she really had plenty of time before her 2:00 appointment, she decided to make a pitstop at the little bakery about 10 minutes away from the clubhouse. Allie was really after the small coffee bar there, not necessarily the baked goods, but she had a feeling Jax wouldn't turn something down if she decided to grab a cookie or two for him with her coffee.
She'd already had plenty of coffee for the day, but since she had the time to kill, she also wanted to calm her nerves a little too.
For her first time back in the clubhouse in well over a week, Allie wanted to be on the top of her game. Ready for any question. Any hint of animosity or indifference. Or anything at all. Taking this little breather right now would give her a moment to make sure her head was on straight and to take one last look at everything she'd put together for them.
She'd purposefully kept all this work away from Jax whenever they were together, and hadn't even so much as mentioned it casually in conversation with him. If she got any kind of reactions or opinions about it ahead of time...that felt a little like cheating on a test or something. Besides, if she showed everything she had to Jax ahead of time for the sole purpose of gauging whether or not she was on the right track before showing it to the rest of the club, that seemed like they'd be doing the exact kind of thing the club didn't really want them to do in the first place.
Jax hadn't done much more than ask her how it was going, so he seemed to understand that too.
Allie smiled warmly at the girl behind the counter as she ordered a macchiato, and then tapped her finger on her chin as she perused the baked good options.
"What do you recommend?" she asked.
"Well," the girl just shrugged. "We've got some apple pie fritters that just came out of the oven or some pumpkin scones if you like pumpkin."
"Hmm, well, it's for my boyfriend," Allie mused, smiling a little to herself at the word boyfriend, "but I'm not sure which one he would like."
"Why not both?"
Allie's lips spread in a slow smile. "I think that's a great idea. I'll take both, please."
After tucking the treats carefully away in her purse, Allie took her coffee and the small spread of work she'd brought in with her, and grabbed one of the tiny tables by the window. By now, she really should have all this memorized, and she sort of did, but her nerves were starting to get the best of her now that the clock was running down on the start of this meeting.
Jax had told her things were calming down, that Piney was really the only club member who was still voicing any kind of major concerns over her continuing to act as the club's lawyer, and that she had nothing to worry about today. Piney was probably hard-wired to dislike and mistrust her, she figured. She was a woman in a position of power and influence, and now that position was also within the club. That had to make an old guy like Piney at least a little itchy, if not almost breaking out into full-blown hives. Then there was the issue of Piney's very messy history with her dad. Not to mention the fact that she'd also called Piney out on the carpet when they'd gotten into that stupid fight in the parking lot right after Lyla's attack at the studio.
If Piney was the only main dissenter at the table, then she could live with that.
Just as her eyes flicked back to the papers in front of her, light buzzing went off in her purse and she grabbed her phone, smiling at the name she saw on her screen.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Hey, baby," the smooth, deep voice told her on the other end. "You on your way yet?"
"Piper kicked me out of my office a little bit ago. I think she's having boy problems, but anyway, I stopped by that little bakery on 5th street for some coffee on my way in since I had a little time to kill."
"She's callin' the shots now, huh?" Jax laughed.
"Oh yeah, she basically told me to give her a raise today, too, which she kinda deserves and is something I probably should do anyway."
"Sounds like a lawyer in the making."
"Definitely. So, long story short, I was going to give myself another five minutes or so to look everything over again, and then I was gonna pack up and head over to the clubhouse."
"A'ight," she could practically hear his smile through the phone. "Our PI called and said he might be runnin' a little late, so I was gonna tell you to take your time, but it sounds like you had other plans, huh?"
"Pretty much. I can leave now if you want."
"Nah, take your time," he told her. "I'll be waitin' for ya."
It was a good thing there weren't that many people in this bakery right now because she couldn't stop the stupid grin that spread across her face.
"Alright. Like I said, five minutes and then I'll be on my way."
"Sounds good, Allie. Love you."
"Love you too," she smiled, then swiped across her screen to end the call and tossed her phone back into her purse.
As she straightened back up to the table, some movement by the window caught her attention, and she turned her head to see a black Trans Am pull into the parking stall next to her car. She absentmindedly shuffled the papers sitting in front of her, trying to decide if she should just pack everything up now, and glanced back at that Trans Am when the driver opened the door and stepped out onto the pavement.
Her eyes flicked back to her table, and then before she could stop herself, her gaze drifted back to the parking lot, where the driver of that Trans Am stepped closer into view as he headed for the bakery's front entrance.
Allie froze. Her heart skidded into her stomach. Her mouth felt like she'd just been chewing on sandpaper. She wasn't so sure the rest of her limbs would work right now if she wanted them to. She couldn't move. What she really wanted to do was run, but her body was frozen to this seat, at this table, in this little bakery in Charming.
She hadn't seen Tyler Chadwick in years. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she'd actually seen him in person because that time of her life was mostly blocked out and shoved up high in the tallest shelf in her mind. But she would never forget the last contact she'd had with him for as long as she lived.
He looked almost exactly the same as she remembered though. Same dark hair and dark eyes. Same chiseled jaw and athletic build. If anything, he looked more lithe, more predatory than when she'd first met him 13 years ago, but maybe the difference between then and now was that she knew better than to trust the easy smile and the smooth words.
And now, as she sat helplessly in a chair in a bakery, he walked right through the front door and breezed through the entrance without a care in the world. He was even whistling too.
The world was truly a fucked up place.
The fact that someone like him could drive around in a car like that, walk around like that, dress like that, after everything he'd done...there really was no such thing as justice in this world. He obviously wasn't suffering. He obviously had a life. Maybe even a family or a girlfriend. Nothing she'd done had really mattered in the grand scheme of things.
And there was nothing about this that was fair.
Just when she'd finally found more happiness than she could've ever dreamed of, Tyler Chadwick came waltzing into this bakery with that same air of superiority, reeking of entitlement and bad intentions.
And the longer she sat there, the more she realized that if she didn't leave right now, he just might turn around and see her.
With that thought, she scrambled to shove the papers back inside her purse, grabbed her coffee, and got the hell out of there, her heart pounding away wildly in her chest as she hurried for the same door he'd just breezed through.
She only looked over her shoulder once, just to reassure herself that he wasn't following her out into the parking lot, and made a beeline for her car. When she hit the start button in her car, her eyes drifted over to the black Trans Am parked right next to her, feeling her chest rise and fall more rapidly, feeling her nostrils flare with rage, feeling like everything inside her was on fire.
That was a really nice car. He didn't deserve a nice car. He didn't deserve a nice life. He didn't deserve anything.
Her shaking hands twisted around the steering wheel as she backed out of her parking spot and sped through the lot, and practically peeled out onto the street to head toward the clubhouse. She almost, almost pulled over right there and dissolved into a fit of hysterics. Almost.
But Tyler Chadwick also didn't deserve another drop of her tears.
She wasn't going to allow him to ruin this meeting at the clubhouse for her either, even if it was from a distance, and even if he had no way of knowing he was doing it. She'd given him his last victory over her years ago, and she'd gotten the last word. There was no way Allie was going to ruin that now.
There was nothing more he could say or do that held any power over her, unless she gave him that power. That control. But she held all the power, and all the control.
And in that moment, she knew she just couldn't keep this from Jax anymore. He needed to know. He deserved to know. And now, after what had just happened, she needed to talk to someone about it, and she wanted that someone to be him. He would listen, and he would understand. She knew that.
When Allie pulled into T-M's parking lot, he was pretty easy to spot. Draped over the end of a picnic table, his long legs kicked out in front of him, his lips wrapped around a cigarette, some smoke billowing out from his nostrils, he was waiting for her just like he said he would. And in this moment, she wasn't sure she could possibly love him more.
Jax pushed off the picnic table when he saw her pull in, taking one last pull from his cigarette and tossing it to the pavement as he sauntered over to her. With that cocky smirk slipping up the side of his handsome face, it was a wonder she'd been able to resist him as long as she had. He closed the distance between them easily, reaching out to slide a hand around her hip to draw her against him.
His lips brushed over her mouth, turning to her cheek, and then the side of her neck, before pulling his face back to smirk down at her.
"Hey, baby. Good to see you."
"Hi, Jax," she smiled back and handed him his little bag of treats. "I got these for you from the bakery. I told the girl behind the counter I wasn't sure which one my boyfriend would like, so she suggested I get them both."
"Well," Jax laughed as he took the bag from her and peeked inside. "I think that was a great idea. I'll happily give 'em both a test run and let you know which one I like better."
"That was the idea."
His eyes flicked back to her, and his eyebrows quirked into a slight frown. Jax dipped down to get a better look at her, that hand on her hip tightening around her body. "Everything alright, Allie?"
Of course he'd been able to tell. He could read her better than anyone else, and sometimes, she wondered if he actually could read her thoughts too.
"Yeah," she tried. "It's just been a weird day."
That just made the frown already creasing his forehead deepen, and he eyed her carefully, like he was bracing himself to take off running after her if she bolted right now. He waited, shifting from side to side, and now she weighed her options. There was no way they could really talk about this right now, or even after her meeting with the club because they had another meeting set up right after that.
But judging by the expression on his face, she wasn't getting inside that clubhouse until she gave him some kind of explanation. She'd also learned a long time ago that he was just as stubborn as her - and he wasn't going to settle for half-truths and thinly veiled insinuations.
"I think we should talk tonight, Jax," she told him quietly, trying not to wince when his eyebrows knitted together in a deep frown. "I need to talk to you about something...I'm ready to talk to you about something, and I think it's time for you to know."
His face twisted, and his blue navy eyes filled with everything all at once - understanding, concern, love, and a little bit of fear too. She supposed all that was fair, given the circumstances. Jax nodded slowly, stepping in closer so he could run a thumb over her cheek.
"Baby," he murmured. "Something happened in between when I called you before and you rollin' in here. You sounded completely fine on the phone, and now I can see somethin's wrong. Tell me what's wrong."
Allie blew out a deep sigh, her eyes flitted down to the pavement to give herself a moment because she knew when she brought her eyes back up to his, there'd be no going back. His eyes were like a truth serum anyway. There was no resisting or fighting it anymore, even if she wanted to.
"I ran into someone I knew in college at the bakery right after I got off the phone with you," she explained as best she could. She'd give him the details later, but for now, they just needed to get inside the clubhouse and get on with the rest of their day. "Well, I guess I didn't run into him exactly. I just saw him. I left before he knew I was there."
Allie didn't miss the way Jax's eyes narrowed at the word him, and the way his entire body went still at the word he. His chest was rising and falling more rapidly now against his leather cut, and then he rubbed a hand over his mouth. His head dipped up and down in an absentminded nod, but his eyes had shifted into cool shards of ice.
"And was he still there when you left?" his voice was scarily calm, but his eyes told a different story.
"Jax -"
"Allie," he bit out. "Was he still there when you left?"
"Yes, but -"
He was already backing away from her, handing her back the paper bag of treats she'd just given him, and shifting on his heel to turn toward the long line of bikes parked out in front of the clubhouse, but she made a mad dash for the sleeve of his flannel, tugging it to pull him back to her.
"You don't even know who you're looking for if you go over there."
"I'm sure I could figure it out pretty quick."
"Jax, please don't..."
By now, he'd shrugged out of her grip and was speed-walking toward his bike, his shoulders stiff and wrought with tension rolling off him in waves. So, she just tugged on his sleeve again, forcing his movements to slow, and silently begging him to turn around and look at her.
"Whatever you're gonna do, I don't want you to do it," she told him softly. His steps stalled, his shoulders sagged, but he still didn't turn his head. So, she stepped around him until they were face to face again, and his steely eyes softened. "On the off-chance he's still there, you're probably gonna get yourself arrested, and that's not what I want. And I don't think you really want me to see you get hauled away in handcuffs either."
Jax swallowed hard, and he took a small step back, digging into the inside pocket of his cut for his cigarettes.
"Besides, we just dropped off 10 checks all around town yesterday," she laughed mirthlessly, shaking her head a little at the irony of it all. "You would undo all of that goodwill the second word gets out you got arrested for...whatever it is you were gonna do. You know it would make a scene. You know there'd be people around who would see it, who would talk, who would wonder why you did that. What if I don't want people talking like that? Wondering like that? Did you ever think of that?"
His eyes dropped to the pavement as he brought a cigarette to his lips, lit it, and then took a few long pulls from it, turning his head to the side to keep her out of his line of vision. But she needed to make sure he really understood what she was trying to tell him, so she brought a hand to his cheek, turning it back to force him to look at her. Those shards of blue ice softened just a little, and his face twisted with pain.
"I'll tell you everything, Jax," Allie promised him, her voice calm and resolute. "I'll answer any question you have, and I won't leave anything out. I don't care if it takes us all night to do it. I want to tell you. I think I just really need to tell you too. But we can't have that conversation tonight if you're in jail."
Jax's lips quirked up at the corners of his mouth, in spite of everything, and he took another long pull from his cigarette before pushing out a heavy sigh.
"So, I think we should just go inside -"
"Allie, the meeting can wait," he cut in hoarsely. "Our PI can wait too. This is more important than any of that shit right now. I think you should get in your car and go home, and then I'll be over as soon as I can."
"And what are you gonna do before you come home, Jax?"
His eyes dropped down to the pavement again as he flicked some ash from his cigarette. When his gaze sliced back up to her, the ice was forming again.
"I'm gonna take a drive over to that bakery and see what happens. If he's in town right now, this might be the only fucking chance I get and I'm gonna take it."
Allie huffed exasperatedly, and slid the hand on his cheek down to press it firmly into his leather-covered chest. "What part of I don't want you to do that did you not understand? And if you say it's not up to me to decide, well, then you're wrong. This isn't about you, or who I saw at that bakery. This is about me, and I'm telling you I don't want you to do anything stupid and I don't want you to get yourself in trouble."
As his hard eyes narrowed at her, she realized what she'd just said - something she'd never said out loud before or even really thought before. This really wasn't about him. Either of them. And it had never been about anyone else and what they thought they knew and what they thought of her. It had always been about her. How she felt. What she knew. What she needed. She'd just never really let herself come to terms with that before now, when it really counted.
"So I'm just supposed to stand here, and let that motherfucker walk around our town and do whatever he wants? I'm just supposed to do nothing?"
She smiled up at him, letting the hand she'd kept on his chest drift back up to his cheek.
"Well, for one, you don't even know who you'd be looking for, so you'd just be wasting your time. Don't get me wrong, Jax, there's a part of me that loves that you're willing to race over there without even knowing what he looks like, but like I said, the last thing I want is for you to get in trouble. And second, we have a meeting inside the clubhouse that I spent the last week prepping for. You know me - I've spent hours and hours getting ready for this meeting, and I'm not pushing it off. I'm just not. And you've been waiting over a week to get the information your PI is bringing to the club today, so why would we let him ruin any of that for us? We have plans, we have a schedule and business to take care of, so let's take care of that business and deal with the rest of it later tonight when we're at home and when we can really talk about it."
Jax abruptly spiked his spent cigarette onto the pavement, and scrubbed both ringed hands over his face. Then he surprised her by hauling her over to him with both arms wrapped around her waist so he could bury his face in her neck and pull her tight against his chest.
"I'm not happy about this," he murmured against her skin. "But I'll play it your way for now if that's what you want."
She turned her head so their noses touched, and then brushed her lips against his mouth. "That is what I want, and I love you."
Jax blew out a quick sigh, nodding probably more to himself than anything else, and he murmured against her lips, "I love you too."
Allie smiled up at him and gestured with her head toward the clubhouse. "Now, you wanna go inside and watch me kill it in there or what?"
***
Jax leaned his elbows on the bar, bringing a lighter up to the cigarette in between his lips. He snapped the lighter shut and tossed it back inside his cut before glancing at the paper Bobby passed him from over his shoulder. He'd purposefully kept his distance from Allie the second they walked inside the clubhouse, and right now, he just needed the space to calm himself down.
If he let himself think about it too much, he just might push off this bar and make a run for the parking lot.
But at this point, it was probably a lost cause anyway because she was right. He really didn't know what this guy looked like. He really didn't think this guy would still be at that bakery. And he really didn't want his old lady and his lawyer to have to bail him out of jail today - although, he had a feeling she'd probably let him sit there for the night, in light of everything she'd just said. He wanted to be there for her, to listen to whatever she had to tell him, to comfort her, and to hold her as long as she needed him to.
All he really needed was a name. Just a name. If the guy was drifting in and out of Charming, he probably wasn't too far away, and he probably wouldn't be too difficult for Juice, or their PI for that matter, to track down.
"You alright, brother?" his VP leaned in, tipping his chin to him.
Jax just lifted a shoulder, his eyes drifting to the paper Bobby had handed him and started to skim the names of businesses and retail properties Allie had listed out for them.
"You don't look alright," Opie tried again pointedly.
"We can talk later," Jax allowed, wanting to get his head in the game for this meeting, and the one that would follow it. Even though he had a pretty good feeling Allie wouldn't want Opie catching wind of anything, he figured that at least would appease his VP for now so they could both focus on what their lawyer had to say.
Opie eyed him warily, but shifted his focus to the other side of the bar when Allie started to talk.
"This is a list of all the businesses and all the retail buildings currently for sale within a 20 mile radius of Charming. I know you'd prefer to stay within the city limits, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of the options available nearby too."
Allie paused there, letting the club members, Bobby, Juice, and Opie, who'd gathered around the bar to have a moment to peruse the list she'd given them. When their eyes met, Jax felt the corners of his lips lift. If their roles were reversed right now, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to pull himself together long enough to stand here this way, and deliver this kind of information. She was so poised. So calm. So cool under pressure. If he hadn't seen her in the parking lot, he might not have known anything was off.
In the face of something he still couldn't let himself wrap his head around, Allie was strong and collected. She held her head high, carrying on with this meeting because she'd done the work and wanted to show the club she was dedicated to her job. If they'd pushed the meeting, like he'd wanted, they both knew exactly what that would've looked like to the club, especially if they'd cancelled ten minutes before it was supposed to start. Now that the King deal had been off the table for a whole week, the club needed to start moving on other deals, and they needed to start now. Allie had come through for them once again, and apparently, she'd be damned if she was going to let anyone else take that away.
Just when he thought he couldn't love her more.
"I listed the retail buildings in order of both lowest price and lowest risk. The open business opportunities and potential for expansion were a little harder to nail down. We'd need to actually speak to the owners to suss out the valuation and the role they'd want the club to have before I could look at return on investment and any potential risk."
He glanced up from her work again, taking in the sight of her in her element, dressed like a million bucks in that dark green leather skirt and matching button-up, and rattling off facts and figures like the pro she was. Jax knew he should really be paying better attention to what she was saying, to focus at least on the sound of her voice to pull him further away from that dark current, but it was fucking hard.
Something had happened to her. Something that was going to be really difficult to hear. And he didn't know how he was supposed to stand here at the bar and listen to her rattle off all these facts and figures about something that could wait, when all he wanted to do was jump on his bike and scour the streets of Charming for whoever was responsible for the look he'd seen in Allie's eyes when she got out of her car a few minutes ago.
So he just focused on her voice and her face and her strength, and hoped that would be enough to get him through it.
"Which one do you think we should go for?" Bobby asked her from across the bar.
That was as good a question as any. Right about now, he'd willingly take whatever advice she had on this without question and without even really having heard her pitch. She was always right anyway, and the sooner the rest of the club realized that, the better it would be for all of them.
Allie didn't hesitate, clearly having already anticipated that question, and he found his lips lifting at the corners again. He still couldn't manage a full-fledged smile though. That would hurt too much.
"If I were you, I'd start with the lowest cost and lowest risk retail buildings and grab up as many of those as you can, as quickly as you can."
Sound advice from a lawyer at the top of her game. He couldn't imagine the club would need to talk through that advice for very long because it seemed pretty straightforward, pretty logical. The club had the cash ready to go, and he was sure their lawyer would get to work on drawing up the offers as soon as they gave the word.
Jax glanced around the bar to see Bobby, Opie, and Juice nodding their heads in agreement. - and Chibs, Tig, and Happy were out on a run, but would be back in time for church after their meeting with Harrison. After hearing half the club would be gone for this meeting, Piney had chosen to sit this one out, just like Jax thought he would, preferring to keep his distance from the lawyer pussy, and right now, Jax couldn't even sift through his emotions long enough to be pissed the old man was still referring to her that way around him.
There wasn't much more to say, but he could see the accomplishment in Allie's dark eyes. The sense of victory, even if the club members he'd purposefully handpicked for this meeting were the ones who'd be most likely to be receptive and kind to her. He'd never tell her that, of course - that he'd purposefully sent the members who were still on the fence about her out on a run so they wouldn't be here for this meeting. If she'd had her way, she probably would've preferred to have Tig, Chibs, and Happy here too, so they could hear her thoughts and see her in action, but he'd thought they were better off, at least for the time being, hearing it from someone like Bobby or Juice, who'd give her all the credit and all the praise at the table.
It was all about smoothing out the wrinkles, and giving it time, and Tig, Chibs, and Happy needed some more time. The King vote had gone a long way with Tig, that much Jax could tell. But they weren't there yet. And he didn't want to shove her in anyone's face either...that seemed counterproductive for everyone involved, especially Allie.
Piney would probably never come around, and that was fine. He could live with that, as long as everyone else was eventually on board.
And in the end, if she knew she'd spent all that time and all that work on a pitch to an audience he'd purposefully stacked in her favor, she'd probably string him up by his heels and club him senseless. He'd probably deserve it too, but this was just one of those times where a little manipulation never hurt anyone - in fact, it was just for the best, at least right now.
So, as Allie and Bobby put their heads together at the bar, working through the list and making plans for who was going to reach out to which owner and which real estate agent first, Jax pulled up a bar stool next to Allie and let his hand drift over to the small of her back for a moment before resting it back on top of the bar.
He'd told himself that he wasn't going to touch her whenever she was here in the clubhouse on business, but he couldn't stop himself this time. He just needed to touch her, if even for a moment.
This isn't about you.
She was right. This wasn't about him. And he needed to remember that. And so, he sat next to her, not caring how much time passed, silently waiting, patiently taking this moment in - because there'd be a before and then there'd be an after, wouldn't there? Before he knew, and after he knew. He needed to take a moment to appreciate the before, and the not knowing, because after, he had a feeling he'd be living in a murderous rage for a long, long time.
At some point, his prepay buzzed in the front pocket of his cut, and he pulled it out, already knowing who was on the caller ID.
He flipped it open to answer it, "Hey, bro, you almost here?"
"Yeah," Harrison told him on the other end. "I'm just about to pull into the parking lot. Sorry about all the back and forth today - something came up and I thought I was gonna be late, but then that changed just as quickly, so I was able to stay on schedule for you."
"No worries. I'm in the clubhouse right now, but I'll be right out."
"Sounds good, man."
Jax flipped his prepay shut, tipping his chin to Opie and Juice. "Harrison's on his way in."
Allie's head shot up at that, and she glanced at the time on her phone before quickly shuffling the papers in front of her and Bobby to clean them up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to run over. I know you guys have another meeting right after this."
"Nah," he just batted a hand at her, and then dipped a hand inside his cut for his cigarettes just because he needed something else to do with his hands. "You're fine, darlin'. You and Bobby had important shit to untangle, and it sounds like you two have a good plan we can bring to the table later."
She smiled softly back at him, shaking her head a little when he shot her a quick wink, and then she slid off her barstool, adjusting her purse strap over her shoulder. With her business here officially finished, he draped an arm around her shoulders to lead her out as she waved goodbye to Bobby, Opie, and Juice.
"Come on, darlin'," he murmured in her ear. "Lemme get you to your car. You headin' back to the office right after this?"
She nodded tightly, trying to put on a brave face, but he could see the way the last hour or so weighed on her and held her down, the weariness and emotional exhaustion written on her beautiful face.
"A'ight," he smiled down at her as he reached for one of the clubhouse's double doors. "I'll try to wrap everything up around here as fast as I can. I don't know when that will be, but I'll be over when all that's done, okay, baby?"
Allie smiled at him with another tight nod, and they pushed through the clubhouse's doors together side by side. He glanced at the parking lot, nodding to himself when he saw Harrison's familiar black Trans Am pull into T-M's lot and head for an empty stall. One meeting down, one more to go, and then all he had to do was get through church and then he could...Allie's steps stalled next to him, rooting right into the pavement underneath their feet.
He glanced down at her with a frown, and found her wide eyes fixed on that Trans Am, her lips parting in shock.
"Allie -"
"You know, Jax, I think I forgot something in the clubhouse, and I..." she didn't even finish that thought, spinning on her heel and hurrying back toward the clubhouse's double doors.
Jax's eyes flew to the parking lot, his heart thundering in his chest, and they landed right on Harrison's car as he pulled into a stall. Then he followed her lead, bursting through the clubhouse's doors right on her heels. Allie didn't stop moving until she hit the side of the bar, resting both palms on the counter to take a few shaky breaths. By now, though, the club members still inside the clubhouse had started to descend, clearly sensing that something had gone gravely wrong in that parking lot.
He approached her slowly, even as he felt his prepay buzzing in his cut, and even as Opie worriedly rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Allie," Jax tried again, acutely aware that Juice and Bobby were crowding the counter, leaning in with their elbows on the bar and watching them intently.
Her eyes shot off the counter to hit him square in the face, and he reared back at the fear churning in them.
"Jax," she whispered hoarsely. "Whose car is that?"
He frowned back at her, even as his mind slowly started to untangle what was happening here, and even as he felt himself wading in up to his neck in that dark current. "That's Harrison's car. He's our PI."
Allie sucked in a harsh breath, her eyes darting around frantically to see the concern playing out on Opie, Bobby, and Juice's solemn faces. And then, her eyebrows dipped down and she shook her head.
"Wait...what? You said his name was Harrison?"
Opie shifted uncomfortably next to them, his gaze shifting between his president and his sister, but Jax didn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't do much of anything except keep his focus right on her.
"That's not his name, Jax," she whispered.
Everything seemed to still in that moment. His heart flipped right into his stomach, and his knees nearly buckled underneath him as the truth slammed into him like a freight train. Whatever questions sat on the tip of his tongue, whatever details still needed clearing up, the most important answers and the most important details were on her face.
"What's going on here?" Juice asked lowly from across the bar, but Jax couldn't tear his focus away from Allie.
"Can you make him go away?" Allie whispered hoarsely, her eyes swimming with the answers. "Please, Jax...I'll tell you everything, just make him go away. I can't...please just make him go away."
His first instinct, and one he was sure he'd regret later, was to do what she was asking him to do. To just take care of her, and deal with the rest of this later. Sorting through all this just wasn't going to happen right now anyway, not out here in the open, with all these people watching, and with all this turbulence tossing and turning inside him.
So, on reflex, he reached inside his cut for the envelope of cash he'd planned to give their PI today, and handed it off to Juice.
"Get the intel," Jax instructed, his voice sounding foreign even to his own ears. "Give him the cash, and get him the hell outta here."
Juice took the envelope without a word, glancing at Allie grimly one more time before pushing off the bar and heading toward the clubhouse's double doors. Opie still hadn't moved from his spot next to Allie, his hand still rooted protectively on her shoulder. Bobby remained where he stood a few feet away, eyebrows knitted together in his forehead, his mouth opening and closing like he just couldn't find the words right now.
Allie reached out until her hand brushed against the front of his cut, and his hand shot out to cover it, pressing it firmly into his chest before he brought her knuckles up to his lips. He pulled her off the barstool, his hand still gripping hers like his life depended on it, and he brushed his thumb across her cheek.
Then he swallowed hard, mentally preparing himself for what was about to come, and gestured with his head toward the hallway.
"Come on, baby," he murmured hoarsely.
Opie's hand shot out to grip Allie's shoulder again, and he shook his head fiercely. "Someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on here."
Allie shifted to glance at Opie, who was looking more and more like he was either on the verge of smashing something or on the verge of tears.
Yeah, he knew that feeling. He was treading water in it right now.
"Jax and I need to talk," she whispered to him, chewing on her bottom lip in thought before tilting her head toward the hallway. "Maybe you should come with us, Ope."
The grim frown etched on Opie's forehead only deepened, but he trailed along after them as Jax led Allie down the hallway to his dorm, his arm wrapped protectively around her waist until he unlocked the door and pushed it open for them. Opie silently closed the door behind them, and moved over to the desk against the wall, where he leaned against it and crossed his arms over his chest, waiting and dreading.
Jax felt that dread finally creep across his chest and burrow its way inside his heart as he sank down onto the bed, gently tugging Allie with him. He kept a hand on her back, just to make sure she knew he was there, that he wasn't going anywhere, that nothing she said in this room would change the way he felt about her.
As if she could read his thoughts, her eyes lifted from the carpet and landed on him, and she pressed a taut smile to her lips.
"Allie," Jax prompted softly. "Where have you seen that car before?"
Her lips lifted, and then she gave him his first answer. "At the bakery today."
He nodded tightly, feeling his chest burn and heave underneath his cut. The only thing keeping him on this bed and in this room right now, though, was her.
Allie sucked in a deep breath, her eyes flicking first to him, then to her brother, and then back to him again. And then she gave him his second and his third answers.
"His name is Tyler Chadwick, or least that's how I knew him. We used to date in college..."
A/N - So the next chapter will be almost entirely a flashback of what happened between Allie and Harrison in college, with a brief scene at the end to show Jax and Opie's immediate reactions. Harrison has really been running a long con with the club (as I'm sure you've guessed at this point) and I've had this planned since he first showed up in chapter four - I've been trying to drop little pieces of Allie's past here and there, and gradually having Harrison call Jax more when he's with Allie to slowly but surely bring these two pieces of the story together, and so that by the time we got to this point, the surprise isn't that it happened to Allie, but who did it and how.
In terms of content, the next chapter will have the right trigger warnings attached to it, but if you'd like to get a heads-up ahead of time, please feel free to send me a PM and I'll answer any questions you might have before you decide to read the next chapter. Nothing is described in graphic detail, but there is a scene of that depicts sexual assault. (Again, hopefully this is not a surprise at this point).
I should also clarify here that, in case this was unclear anywhere, that I work for an attorney in my real, non-fanfic related life, and that attorney helps colleges investigate Title IX violations on campus - Title IX is sex and gender-based discrimination, and sexual assault and misconduct is included in that. So everything that you'll see in the next chapter is what I see on a regular basis in working on these cases (but I promise, no details are specific to any one case I've worked on, but it's 100 percent exactly the kind of thing we see all the time).
Like I said, if you'd like a heads-up before the next chapter is posted next week, please feel free to PM me and I'm happy to talk to you about that ahead of time.
Aside from that, I can't wait to hear your thoughts on this chapter, and on this twist, because this really changes everything now, doesn't it? As always, thank you for reading!