Let It Be Me

As soon as Ian left, Austin called Kip to come stay with her again. He let her know he was actually already on the way, so she left the door unlocked for him.

When Kip arrived, she was out on the balcony smoking a cigarette. He took one from the pack and lit it, eyeing her carefully.

"What's up, sis?"

Austin shrugged. "Nothing."

"Liar. When's the last time you had a smoke?"

"Maybe I'm picking up new habits." Austin sighed, taking the final drag and dropping the butt off the balcony to the ground below. "Jax came by to let me know that club voted to keep Dougie in. There was a guy here. It didn't go over very well."

"Well, what did you expect? Jax is pretty hard up for you, Aus."

She shook her head. "It wasn't like that. I didn't know he was coming over, and it wasn't like it was a date, the other guy. I mean, I thought at first it was, but then the truth came out."

"The truth?" Kip frowned.

Austin ran a hand through her hair and explained everything to Kip. He tensed throughout the explanation, knowing this had the potential for huge repercussions.

"I've got to let the MC know what's been happening, Austin. I can't keep this from them anymore. I'm already at risk of getting labeled a traitor."

"Please, Kip. Not yet. Give me time to talk to Jax – I want to explain to him first. I owe him that much."

Kip took a long drag on the cigarette. "Fine. But you tell him as soon as you can. We can't keep hiding this."

.:.

Jax shook the blonde awake when he got up the next morning. He told her she needed to be gone by the time he was out of the shower. She didn't seem too happy about it, but at least she didn't make a scene like Nikki.

By the time he made it out to the garage, a few others had already arrived. Austin was one of them and she didn't look pleased. As soon as he walked in, she slammed the toolbox she was looking in shut and approached him.

"Really, Jax? The girl from the party. That was kind of a low blow, don't you think?"

"I don't have to answer to you."

"You're right, you don't. You just have to live with that douchebag move."

"Kind of like the one you pulled last night? You know, you could have waited for things with you and me to cool down before dropping your pants for some other guy."

"It wasn't like that!" Austin exclaimed. "If you would just let me explain that to you –"

"No," Jax interrupted. "There's nothing to explain. I get it. You should just get back to work."

The look on her face was pure hurt, and for a moment Jax felt guilty. Then he remembered seeing that guy in the doorway of Austin's apartment, trying to give some semblance of protection over her, and the anger took him over again. She didn't say anything else, just did as he said and went back to her work.

.:.

She didn't even bother trying to approach him when the work day was done. She would just have to call Kip later on and let him know that he had free rein to fill the club in on the whole ordeal because Jax was never going to listen to her until someone else told him what was going on – and maybe not even then. She had told him he didn't need to be her hero and that it wasn't his job to keep her safe. She couldn't blame him for finally listening to her.

She dropped herself on the couch again, reaching for the remote to turn on the television. She flipped over to some crap TV program and let herself doze off. Of course, if it wasn't one thing, it was another; her phone rang, breaking her away from her nap. Yawning, she flipped it open.

"Hello?"

"Hey Austin."

She shot into a sitting position. "Mom?"

"Yeah, it's me. How are you, baby girl?" her mother asked.

"I'm doing all right. You got my message then?"

"Yes, I got it. Listen, you shouldn't leave me messages anymore, okay? I'll see the missed call and get back to you as soon as I can."

Austin frowned. "Are you all right, Mom? What's going on there?"

"Lance is still around. Don't worry, he doesn't do anything to me, he just gets real angry if I talk about you. I had to get my phone replaced after he heard your voicemail."

"I'm sorry. I didn't even know he was still with you."

"I know what he did to you, and that you feel like it's my fault. Your father came to me at the club and told me what Kip told him. Austin, you've got to talk to these cops. They can protect you."

Austin sighed and put a hand on her face. "You don't worry about that, okay? Maybe you need to get away from him though. He isn't exactly the picture of morality."

"And I am?" her mom laughed. "Look, I know we haven't ever had a close relationship, Aus, but you're still my daughter. Before Lance, we were getting to be at least civil. I want you to take care of yourself, and to do that, you need some serious protection."

"Don't worry, Mom. I've got it. The MC looks out for me." She paused. "I'm going to come back one day, and you and I will … work on working things out."

Her mother chuckled. "All right. I love you, Austin."

Austin was shocked. She couldn't ever remember her mother saying that. "I love you too, Mom."

They disconnected the call, and Austin sat on the couch mulling the whole thing over. Her Mom had to know something more from Lance to even bother to make a call and see that she was protected. Maybe the situation at hand had grown more serious than she even knew.

"Enough," she said out loud. "Enough."

She grabbed for her keys, not bothering to lock the apartment behind her. She was just going to have to make Jax listen to her. If he wouldn't, she would find Kip and they would take it to the club together.

No one was in the garage or the office when she arrived, so Austin went right for the clubhouse. She called for Jax but he didn't answer. She went for the bedroom but he wasn't even there.

"The one time I actually come looking for him …" she muttered to herself. She went back out to the hallway, only to literally bump into Dougie.

"Shit, I'm sorry," he said.

"It's fine. Have you seen Jax?"

"He's not here?" Dougie asked, an evil grin starting to form on his face.

Austin shook her head. "I have to find him."

"Wait, wait, wait." Dougie gripped her arm, pulling her back to the bedroom. "I may not have this opportunity again."

"I know who you are, Dougie. I know why you came here and you won't get away with it."

"I can make anything look like it's your fault. The club voted me back in; I have the benefit of the doubt."

"Fuck you." She spit in his face and tried to run, but his grip was much stronger than she expected. He backhanded her and threw her to the ground.

"You're going to pay, Austin. You can't just beat the shit out of someone and expect there not to be consequences. I'm going to finish what my father started."

He leaned over her and started working on her belt. Austin yelled, but he only hit her again. She kept yelling just the same, intent that she wasn't going to have this happen again.

When Dougie went to undo his own pants before he even unbuttoned hers, the zipper stuck and he was momentarily distracted with both hands working on the zipper. Austin kneed him in the groin, pulled the gun from the back of her waistband and pointed it at him.

"I am not going through this again!" she yelled. "You piece of shit, you don't just get to decide to … fucking …"

Austin didn't know where she was going with that, so she just kept the gun pointed at him. Dougie started to get up, but she brought the gun down hard across his face.

"You stupid bitch!"

She kicked him in the face, and he fell to the ground again. She kicked him over and over; she had done serious damage this way once before, no reason she couldn't do it again. She cursed him out loud, yelling some things that didn't even make sense as the tears started to fall. All the months of anger and keeping her secret in came out in tears and violence.

Dougie was starting to become a blur, and she wasn't sure if it was from her tears or from stomping his face. Austin wondered why her energy wasn't dwindling and she could only gather that it stemmed from all that anger.

Her tears had progressed to sobs when strong arms grabbed her from behind. A familiar, comforting voice told her quietly that she had to stop, that everything was all right now.

"Let go of the gun, Austin," Jax told her, taking it from her grasp and putting it in his own pocket. Dougie groaned from the floor and Austin lurched at him again. Jax kept his hold on her though, hugging her tight until finally she turned into his chest and threw her arms around his neck.

"Don't go anywhere," she begged. "Please."

"I'm not," Jax promised. "I'm here."

He walked them out to the main room to get away from Dougie and sat her down on the couch. Keeping one arm around her, he called Clay, alerting him that there was a situation and they might need a body moved.

When her sobbing subsided, Jax held her face in his hands and wiped the last few falling tears away.

"What were you doing here anyway?"

"I wanted to talk to you about last night."

Jax let her face go and stood. "I don't want to hear about last night, Austin. I don't want to hear anything that has to do with you and that guy."

"If you would listen to me, you might feel differently about that."

"Whether you want to admit it or not, we have something and you –"

"This has nothing to do with us, Jax," Austin interrupted him in a stern, almost angry tone. "It has nothing to do with you and me."

"Then what does it have to do with? You and that guy?"

"The Sons," she said. "It has everything to do with the Sons."

Now she had his full attention.

.:.

They waited for the rest of the MC to arrive and all gathered in the chapel. Austin had asked that Gemma be included, too, and they agreed. She sat between Jax and Clay with Kip standing nearby as well.

"It's not the shortest explanation," she warned them.

"It's all right," Clay assured her. "Tell us everything."

Austin took a deep breath. "A few months before I left Carolina, my mom started dating this random guy. I didn't recognize him from the strip club or her usual hang-outs, but she told me he was a customer. He came home with her one night and just stayed. And my mom let him, no questions asked.

This guy, Lance Stern, liked to drink about as much as my mom liked to be high. There were some nights when he would get ridiculously drunk before she got home from work. Once, he tried to put his hands on me. I fought him off, of course, and when he was convinced I wasn't giving it up, he got violent. I should have left then. I had always told myself that no matter the situation, I wasn't going to stick around some guy who thought he was a man because he could hit a woman. It was almost a shock though, I don't know why.

So I stayed. Maybe to protect my mom, maybe to pretend it didn't happen. I really don't know. Anyway, it went like that every couple of weeks. My mom tried to talk to him, but it didn't do any good. Kip had given me this handgun, just in case, before he left and I kept it locked up in my closet. After Mom talking to him didn't make a difference, I moved it to my nightstand.

Then, about two months ago, I was asleep and he busted into my room. He pulled me out of the bed by my hair and literally ripped my pants off. Told me the matter was no longer up fro discussion and because I had made him wait for it, he was going to take his time. By the time I squirmed over to the nightstand, he already had his fingers inside me.

I got a hold of the gun, cocked it, and put it to his head. He stopped what he was doing but didn't move his hand. I moved the gun down to his arm and told him if he didn't remove his fingers I was going to shoot his arm off and remove them for him. He backed off, I found another pair of pants and managed to get them on and get my keys without anything happened. I was a pretty angry person anyway, but that just made it so much worse. I slipped into my boots and literally kicked the shit out of him. I broke bones, I fucked up his face. While he was passed out, I packed my shit and went to the police station. I told them exactly what happened, then they had me sit in a room for four hours until some FBI hotshot came in."

"Oh fuck," Tig breathed.

"Yeah. Apparently Lance was an informant – and a registered sex offender. When they couldn't get anyone in Charming to rat on the Sons, they started looking for other connections. Nothing was coming up, but then they got to Kip. Kip Epps, the prospect who had an illegitimate half-sister back in Carolina who he'd been close with and still talked to on a regular basis."

Jax frowned. "They set you up?"

"They set me up," Austin confirmed. "They knew what Lance was about and figured that some mid-twenties, unstable girl with daddy issues would fall for his whole act and give up information about the MC. I never gave Lance the opportunity to get that close to me to talk about Kip, so they left me out as bait, knowing that he would eventually do something that would drive me to the cops.

Feds told me that if I came out here, I would have guaranteed protection. All I had to do was give up the club."

Jax pushed out of his chair. "Fuck me, Austin. We all trusted you!"

She shook her head and gripped his arms, forcing him to look at her. "You don't understand, Jax. After two weeks, Charming was home. I was connected to all you guys and you became my family. I couldn't turn my back on the first real family I'd ever had. So, I called the FBI and told them to call off my police watch. I told them I wasn't going to rat on hard-working, honest people and that they could shove their little investigation up their asses."

"Really?" Jax asked skeptically.

"Word for word. Then, as soon as I could afford it, I got out of the clubhouse so that if they were still watching me, it wouldn't interfere with whatever the MC has going on. I know they called off my protection though, because no one was supposed to know I was here but two days after I called them, Dougie knew where I was."

"Where does he tie in?" Bobby questioned.

"Lance and Dougie Stern. Father and son. My best guess is that Dougie found out what I did to his dad and came out here to find me for retaliation. Pretty sure he's the one who sent those Mayans, too. When I got here earlier and he realized we were alone, he told me that there were consequences for the things I had done, and that he was going to make me pay."

"What happened to Lance anyway?"

"He's an informant, and I guess the FBI felt like he got his when I beat the shit out of him. All I know is that he's still living with my mom."

"All right," Clay said. "Juice, Bobby, Tig. Get Dougie to the hospital. Tell them he's been gone for a week and we found him like that. If he lives, we'll deal with him then. In the meantime, we need to figure out if the feds are still on Austin or not."

"Chibs and I will go see Unser, see what he knows," Opie spoke up.

"Fine," Clay said. "Let's all get out of here, get some rest."

As everyone dispersed, Gemma beelined for Austin, hugging the younger woman fiercely. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know how you'd react. By the time we were close, I thought it was all done."

"But when Dougie showed up …"

"I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want anyone to have suspicions. I didn't want to interfere in the club's business."

Gemma hugged her again. "No more secrets, sweetheart. We can't take care of you if we don't know what to protect you from."

Austin nodded. "I promise."

"Good girl."

Gemma left with Clay; Austin felt someone's hand slide through hers, interlacing fingers. She looked to her left and there stood Jax. She couldn't describe the relief she felt just in having him there with her.

"Jax, I'm so sorry …"

He shook his head. "Not here. Let's get you home and we'll talk, okay?"

Austin nodded. She allowed Chibs to check out her face and her ribs to make sure none of her injuries were exacerbated, then accepted the helmet from Jax and got on the back of his bike while he drove them to her apartment.