. ༄. The throbbing pain caused by her broken nose gave her the worst headache she had in her life and waiting for Jax to come back became harder every minute. She wanted to explain what happened with her own words, not letting anyone tell him only half the shit that happened.
When her nose kept bleeding heavily, Dawn had enough and dragged the young woman on her feet after downing her shot of Tequila and slamming the shot glass down on the bar.
"We're not waiting any longer. I'll get you to the hospital", Dawn stated. They had only met today but the Trager woman didn't care, she was already worried about her new friend.
"No, it's only a matter of time before Jax gets here", Cleo retorted, her look stubborn but her voice held insecurity.
"Nah, doll. Dawn's right, you need to see a doctor", Tig joined the conversation as he put a hand on Cleo's shoulder to give it a soft squeeze.
"What about Abel and Thomas?", the brunette sighed.
"Gemma's with them, they're taken care of. Jax is going to kill us if we let you wait for him with a broken nose instead of forcing your ass to go see a doctor", the man with the black curls and piercing blue eyes said firmly.
"Fine", Cleo eventually gave in and scratched her forehead. "Just do me a favor and let me tell him what happened, okay?"
"Yeah, sure", Tig nodded. "You call if you need anything", he said, turning his attention at his daughter. "Make sure you two get there safe, give me a call once you're there."
"I'm twenty-six years old, daddy, I can take care of me and my new friend here" Dawn smirked while grabbing her bag. "See you later."
"You could be fifty and I would ask you to give me a call. Now get out of here", Tig grinned and watched the two women leave the clubhouse.
As if Cleo had smelled it, Jax and the rest of the guys were back in town only five minutes later and in a pretty good mood. Seemed like everything was going down the way they wanted to, which was a good thing. Yet Tig had to break the news to Jax and probably ruin his good mood.
⸻
"This sucks. Hospital's I mean", Cleo muttered under her breath while still holding the white cloth pressed against under her nose. Who had the idea to give her a white cloth to stop the bleeding? Didn't matter, she'd throw it away anyway afterwards.
"Why? You don't like them?", Dawn inquired, jumping out of her car to open the door for Cleo. "I mean, no one likes them but St. Thomas isn't so bad. At least it wasn't back then."
"Well, it is if you got a real good surgeon fired and the hospital's supervisor hates you for it", Cleo tried to joke, yet there was nothing funny about it honestly.
"You did what?", Dawn asked amused.
"Long story but Tara deserved it", the brunette shrugged.
"Yeah, I need to hear the full story later. But first we get your nose fixed", Dawn nodded enthusiastically before shooing Cleo towards the hospital.
"¿Cuándo vuelves a casa, querido?" [When are you coming home, my dear?"], a man behind them asked, startling both women as they hadn't noticed anyone coming from behind. Hospital stuff and other people were walking around so they didn't pay attention to anyone walking up to them.
Cleo would recognize that voice amongst thousands, it always sent a shiver down her spine. In the past she loved his deep voice, it gave her butterflies every single time. Now his voice made her skin crawl.
"Oh, I'm already home, Adrian", Cleo said after turning around to face her ex boyfriend. "What do you want?"
"Bullshit, Charming ain't your home, Chica. What happened to your nose?", he inquired sternly as he took a step closer.
"I think that's close enough, man", Dawn held her arm out, signaling Adrian to stay exactly where he was now. She had no idea what was going on but every idiot would see how uncomfortable and annoyed Cleo was.
"That's none of your business. What are you doing here anyway? You're following me?", she huffed, her voice slightly muffled because of the cloth and her bleeding nose.
"Yeah, I did", the man shrugged nonchalantly, seeing no reason to lie. At first he respected Dawn's signal but he quickly changed his mind and almost closed the gap between Cleo and him fully, gently taking the cloth that was soaked with blood from her hands to study her nose. "Blondie did that to you? I swear I'm gonna kill him."
"What the hell? Why would you follow me?", she asked, baffled by his honesty. As he came closer, she wanted to back away first but the wall behind her made it hard. "Don't call him that. And no, he didn't⸻ he's not like you."
His cold eyes stared into her green ones. He saw nothing but disgust and disappointment in them. It didn't leave him untouched, not at all. Maybe he never showed it but he really loved her, he had just loved her the wrong way.
"It wasn't my intention to hurt you, Cleo", he grunted, his jaw clenched as he brought his hand up to her face only to have it slapped away immediately by the brunette.
"Throwing a fuckin' glass ashtray in my face was an accident then or what?!", she hissed.
Adrian's lips formed into a thin line, his eyes filled with actual regret. "It wasn't supposed to hit your face! I was just so fucking mad."
"Yeah, sure", she snorted a bitter laugh. "Even if it was an accident, you risked hurting me and it didn't seem like you felt bad about it!"
"But I did. I fucking hated myself afterwards", he whisper-yelled as he looked down at her since she was much smaller than him.
"Right. You hated yourself so much for it you had to fuck the next best Croweater to show me how guilty you feel about hurting me. In our fuckin' bed", she yelled at him, drawing some people's attention at the fighting pair.
Adrian was quiet as he had no answer ready for her. He fucked up multiple times but he knew him cheating hurt Cleo the most. Being hurt physically by him scared her, but being cheated on actually hurt her. Her face as she caught him was still in the back of his mind and haunted him every night.
"Just fuckin' go and leave me alone", the brunette muttered as he was still giving no answer and turned on her heel to get inside. She was over Adrian, without a doubt, but she was still hurt by his actions to this day. Hearing all those rumors about Jax a few months back that he was a man whore had concerned her because she was cheated on already. But she learned not to judge and she was glad she never did.
Dawn could only shake her head. She hated men who hurt their women, especially when it was physically and ended in an abusive relationship.
"Wait", Adrian's voice suddenly sounded desperate, even a little broken. "I was an idiot, impulsive and hurtful towards you. I'm sorry about that, Cleo." He took a few steps towards her again, giving her more space this time. "Todavía eres mío, mi corazón." [You're still mine, my heart.]
It felt like a cold hand was squeezing her heart at his last words. Was it a threat or did he want to impress her and be cute? She wasn't sure honestly and that was the thing that scared her. Would it be better to be careful or shouldn't she take it too serious at all? It was hard to read Adrian sometimes and now it was one of those moments when she wasn't sure what to think.
"I'm not", was all she replied softly. Maybe he would finally leave her alone if she was talking to him respectfully instead of yelling at him. "I'm happy, okay? My life is finally getting better. I'm sober since a while, I have a great boyfriend and two little boys around me that I already love with my whole heart. Maybe you should work a little on yourself and find your other half⸻ but it's not gonna be me, Adrian."
At her words, his face turned stone cold and his eyes dark and filled with venom. She was happy but he wasn't the reason for it and his ego couldn't accept that.
"Your dad told me to get you", he said coldly and decided to ignore the little speech she gave him. It would only end in another fight and he knew exactly he wouldn't be able to control himself and everything would escalate. No matter how much he loved her, he wouldn't be able to change⸻ not even for her.
The way he he looked at her made her swallow dryly. Yelling at him might would've been better. With her words, she had only hurt him more and woken the beast inside him, yet she wanted to know what her father had to do with him following her. "My dad? Why would he tell you to get me?", she asked confused.
"I'm working for him since a while. You're not answering his calls or texts, it worries him. You should know him better, Cleo, he won't leave you alone until he knows what's going on", Adrian explained, stretching his hands out to the side with a shrug. "It's up to you if you wanna give him a visit yourself or if I have to take you."
"You can try and take her, idiot. Wouldn't be the first time hurting her, huh?", Dawn's voice was dripping with venom. Her mother had a boyfriend once just like him and the Trager woman felt the bile rose in her throat only by looking at Adrian. "Seriously, you better leave now."
She nodded to the right where a bike came to a stop. It was no other than Jax and Cleo let out a relived breath that she was holding back for a few seconds. Maybe she was able to fight Tara, but she would never be able to fight someone like Adrian.
Adrian glanced over to the blonde biker who took his helmet off and eyed him suspiciously. "This ain't over", he seethed at his ex before Jax walked over. Adrian jogged across the street where his car was, got in and drove off with squeaky tires. Apparently he wasn't wearing his kutte and didn't ride his bike when he was working for her dad.
"Who was that guy?", Jax asked immediately with a concerned frown but when he saw Cleo's swollen, bruised nose and all the blood he ran a hand over his face and gently cupped her face in his hands afterwards. "Jesus Christ, Tara did that?"
Apparently Tig still told him what happened even though she had asked him not to. Those guys were worse than some gossip girls in High School.
Jax was fuming and his ex would get payback for that one. He wouldn't hurt her physically but he wouldn't let her get away easily with bullshit like that.
"I'll explain everything later, okay?", she asked pleadingly. Right now all she wanted was to get her nose checked out, get back home and crawl into Jax' bed with him.
"Yeah", Jax nodded briefly, giving her time to breath. The day must've been more than exhausting for her and he wasn't going to pressure her into telling him everything right now, they would have enough time later at home.
"Thank you, Jax", she whispered as he pressed a kiss on the top of her head, his hand resting on the back of her head. She closed her eyes for a brief second, taking in that moment with him. God, he was so much different than Adrian and she was grateful to have him by her side.
"Let's get you checked out, babe", he told her and gently shoved her inside, nodding Dawn with them. He wouldn't let her drive home back alone in the dark, not until he knew who that guy was from before.