‹ Prequel: Seize Control

Fate Misunderstood

016

The products in the shower of the dorm room weren't doing her hair any favors so she decided to go home to take a shower and get some new clothes. It was just past six in the morning when she woke up and there was absolutely no one in the clubhouse when she walked through it. She tossed her all her stuff into the backseat of her car and left the compound, driving through town and seeing no one out and about yet. The house felt eerie and too quiet since no one was there; she locked the door behind her and went upstairs to her bedroom to pick out some comfortable clothes for the day before heading to her bathroom to take a hot shower.

Once she once again smelled like cherry blossoms instead of Old Spice, she brushed her fingers through her damp hair and went back into her bedroom to pull on a simple gray tee shirt knotted at the bottom and a pair of denim cut-offs that were a size too big. She grabbed a pair of cheap, comfy flip flops from her closet before picking up a pair of sunglasses and making sure she remembered to put back on the necklace that Jax had given her for her high school graduation. She double checked that she'd locked the front door before she got back into her car and went back to town, stopping at the diner to get some breakfast for herself and the guys.

Tig and Kozik practically pounced when she entered the clubhouse with the bags, the smell of bacon immediately hitting their nostrils. She was able to swat them away for the most part while she took everything out of the bags and set it out on the bar buffet style so that they could all have some. While they tried to shove each other out of the way to be first, she shook her head at them in amusement and grabbed her takeout plate, which contained a short stack of pancakes and two containers of syrup. She stole a piece of bacon from Kozik as she walked past him to sit down at a table and they joined her once they had plates piled high. Piney came in from the garage a few minutes later and made himself a plate as well, thanking her for bringing it, unlike the other two ungrateful bastards.

They bickered like children the whole time they were eating and Piney just chewed his food silently as he watched them, shaking his head like an unamused, fed up father. All three of them went out to the garage when they were finished, leaving Juliette to throw all the trash away and clean up a bit. Because most of the guys were gone there wasn't that much of a mess and she had been keeping up with the cleaning, doing a little bit every day, so everything stayed neat and nothing needed to be done. The same went for the office too; she and Chucky and even Tara had been making sure that all the paperwork was getting done so there wasn't any stuff to catch up on.

Juliette was bored. There was nothing left for her to do there, there was no job for her to go to yet and there was no one to annoy since everyone was either in Belfast or out handling Club shit at home while the others were away. She hated just sitting there twirling her hair around her finger, waiting for someone to come in or ask her to do something or anything really. She felt like she was wasting time when she could be doing something productive. And honestly, she needed to do something to keep her mind off of all her family in a foreign country in a hostile environment.

She was itching to know what was going on over there. Wondering if they were okay, if they were safe, if they'd found Abel, if they were coming home soon. All sorts of questions loomed in her mind and she wanted to talk to someone so badly. If Jax or Juice or her mother could just pick up the phone and call her to let her know something. Patience was a trait she had never really developed and the waiting around was driving her crazy. In the meantime, she needed to do something to keep herself busy so she decided that she would go and see her eventual sister-in-law.

She waved at the guys as she climbed into her car and left the compound. The drive to Jax's house was about ten minutes and that was only because of the traffic lights on Main Street. Tara's Cutlass was parked in the driveway so Juliette pulled in behind her and hopped out, going around the front of her car to follow the path up to the front door. She knocked three times before stepping back to wait but after a few minutes had passed, no one had come to the door. She knocked again and waited another few minutes but still there was nothing.

Her brows furrowed as she glanced back at Tara's car, then behind her to survey her surroundings before she sighed heavily and reached up into the porch light fixture by the top of the door. She felt around blindly and her fingers grazed the edge of the gold key but it was secure on the inside lip of the fixture and it took some maneuvering to finally pull her hand out with the key between her fingers.

Juliette unlocked the door and stepped inside cautiously, calling Tara's name and then pausing to listen for any response. When she heard none, she walked all the way through the door, shutting it behind her and looking around the living room before venturing down the hallway to the bedrooms. The whole house had been remodeled since she was there last and the guest room where she used to sleep when she was annoyed with her mother was now the nursery of her missing nephew. She walked into the room, the formerly tan wall now a light blue and a white crib where the twin bed used to be. She smiled as she reached over to pick up a stuffed bear from the dresser and silently prayed that the innocent baby boy was still okay wherever he was before she put it back down and left the room to keep looking for Tara. The bathroom was empty, their bed hadn't even been slept in, and the house was eerily quiet.

The last place she went in the house was the kitchen. She hadn't thought at all about the fact that Kip had died there until she took two steps into the room and her gaze immediately landed on the linoleum floor right next to the kitchen table. It all hit her at once as she pulled out one of the wooden chairs from the table and sank down into it, her eyes never leaving the massive blood stain that someone had obviously tried to scrub away as best as they could. He had died right there. Not six inches from where she was sitting, he had breathed his last breath, his blood spilling all over the floor while she was eight hundred miles away, completely unaware that she was losing him. The man who stabbed him had stood right over there at that counter, holding the dripping knife that had caused the damage, and later walked right out the same door she'd just come through.

She sat there just staring at it for a long time before the tears started and soon she was sobbing so hard that her lungs felt like they were burning from the lack of oxygen. Somehow, as if his death weren't bad enough already, seeing the blood on the floor in the exact spot where he died made things even worse for her. It was unbearable. And suddenly she felt hot and dizzy and sick to her stomach as she jumped up from the chair, wobbling unsteadily on her feet as she hurried toward the door. She locked it and slammed it shut behind her, not bothering to put the key back into the light fixture, instead shoving it into her pocket as she jumped into her car and backed out of the driveway as fast as she could.

Sitting on the curb across from the intersection of Alpine and Fremont wasn't really where she was expecting to end up. She'd driven straight there for some reason unknown to her and then got out of the car immediately, feeling claustrophobic. Her whole body was still shaking when she plopped down on the short curb across from the little beige house. There was a for sale sign in the yard, but she still half expected to see the garage door open and the white Dyna parked inside. As she stared at the little house she'd spent so much time in, she wondered what had happened to all of his stuff. He didn't have any family and she doubted that the Club had taken it all. She made a mental note to check into it with Unser before she stood up, brushing any dirt off the back of her shorts, and crossed the empty street to go over to the house.

The key he had given her way back before she left Charming and he went to Iraq was still hanging from her key ring and her fingers ran back and forth over it as she made her way up the front steps. She slid the key into the lock and turned it, immediately hearing the click as it unlocked, and she pushed the large wooden door open to step inside, the air leaving her lungs with an audible whoosh as she looked around at the living room.

It was exactly as he left it. The last time she had been there, the house looked the same as it did now, except there were no takeout containers on the coffee table or laundry that she'd folded stacked on the arm of the chair. That last day she'd been there, she had kicked off her flip flops and made herself comfortable on the couch and then he broke the news to her that he had enlisted. It was the same day that she had been taken and Silas had been killed.

All of his furniture was there, still arranged in the same fashion as before, but the picture frames had been taken down. She wondered where they'd gone. As she continued on though the house, she noticed that everything else was the same as well. Even the stupid green J and K letter magnets were still stuck on the front of the fridge. The sheets that made up the bed were the same ones he had slept on the night before he died, the pillows even still dented in a bit where his head had lain. She sat down on the edge at the foot of the bed, looking around at the empty closet and the bare cork board that used to hold pictures of the two of them together.

There were so many memories in that house. Kip had become her best friend and they'd shared so many moments there. She'd lost her virginity there; she'd come there every time she wanted to get away from her mother; she'd spent most of her eighteenth birthday there, eating pizza and watching movies that he'd let her pick out; she'd been rescued drunk from her birthday party and brought back there to get some sleep. And now she was there alone, looking around at all his possessions and realizing that he was gone forever and she'd never get another chance to tell him how much she loved and appreciated him as her very best friend.

She'd gotten her sobbing under control in the car on the way over, but the tears were still flowing the entire time she sat on the curb and while she walked around in the house. She had just about calmed herself down by the time she stood up from the bed and walked out of the room, going back down the hallway to the living room and snatching the two little magnets on her way past the kitchen. She made sure to lock the front door back before she meandered down the front steps and back across the street to where her car was parked. The prepaid phone in her pocket began to ring as she was climbing into the driver's seat and she dug it out of her pocket, already annoyed that she was being interrupted at a time when her head felt so foggy and messed up.

"What?" she snapped once she had pressed it to her ear.

A laugh came through the speaker. "Is this a bad time?"

"Juice," she sighed in relief. "Hey, sorry."

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just-.....How's everything over there? Is everybody okay?" Still alive, she meant, but they both knew that without her having to say it.

"Yeah, we're okay," he replied, deciding it was better not to tell her all the shit they had been through since they arrived in Belfast. They'd been harassed by dirty cops, shot at, and almost blown up, but that was the last thing she needed to hear. She was already worried enough about them. "We haven't found Abel yet, but we know someone who knows where he is. It's just a matter of time."

"Good. That's good news."

There was another muffled voice in the background and then Juice agreed with the person before returning to his phone conversation. "Hey Jules, I gotta go."

"Okay."

The sadness in her voice didn't escape his notice and he felt bad that she was so worried about it all. "I'll let you know when we get more information," he assured her.

"Thank you, and thanks for calling."

"No problem, babe."

"Hey, Juice?"

"Yeah?"

"Please be careful."

"We will, don't worry. I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah," she mumbled. "Bye."

The phone beeped when the call disconnected and she tossed it into her passenger seat, breathing out a heavy sigh as she leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes for a moment. Hearing Juice's voice and finally finding out that her guys were okay and that they were close to getting Abel was a small bright spot in the huge pile of shit that had been her day so far. Now they just needed to get home safe.

--


All three of the guys were standing around the bar throwing back their beers and scotch when she finally got back to the clubhouse after going home for a much needed nap. She took one look at their faces and immediately felt the panic rising up inside her. "What's wrong?" she asked, shutting the door and walking over to them, already dreading their answer. They could have heard something from Belfast in the time since Juice had called her and assured her that they were fine.

Tig cleared his throat and set his empty bottle on the bar, throwing Piney and Kozik a look before his icy blue eyes settled on her. "It's Tara," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck with a somewhat pained expression. "She's uh-.....she was kidnapped."

Juliette felt like she was going to be sick for the second time that day and she couldn't help but think to herself that kidnapping was seriously way too fucking common in Club business. She had been kidnapped five years before, Abel had just been kidnapped and taken to fucking Ireland, and now Tara had been kidnapped as well. "Oh my God," she muttered, and she had to lean all her weight against the bar because she felt like her legs were going to give way under her at any moment. Her mind was immediately racing with all the terrible things that had happened to her when she was kidnapped by a rival MC years ago and she wanted to cry at the thought of someone else going through that, especially the woman her brother loved. "By who? You don't think they're gonna-....."

Her voice cracked so she decided to stop talking to hide any further weakness. She was already so distraught over everything from earlier with Kip, and now her sister-in-law (basically) was being held hostage because of Club business, just like she had been. That thought was too much and she had to bite her lip to keep the sob from escaping her lips. Tig immediately picked up on what she meant and pulled her into a hug, rubbing her back with one hand and cradling her head with the other. "Oh, baby, no, he ain't gonna do nothin' like that. He just wants money and we're workin' on it."

Juliette nodded weakly against his chest, but honestly his words didn't make her feel any better about the situation. He squeezed her tighter before grabbing her shoulders and pulling her back from him. "We're gonna get 'er back and she's gonna be fine, alright? None of that bad shit's gonna happen to 'er."

"Yeah," she mumbled, not meeting his gaze because her sight was starting to go blurry with the tears that were pooling in her eyes and she didn't want them to see her cry. She always hated showing weakness in front of them because she just knew they probably all expected her to be a hard ass like her mother, when she just couldn't be. Gemma was pretty much her total opposite.

Kozik shot her a sympathetic look when Tig let her go, but she ignored it as she left them alone at the bar and walked down the hallway to the ladder that led up to the roof. She needed some time to herself and the only place she could think of to go was the place where she used to do all her tough thinking.
♠ ♠ ♠
Juliette's outfit.

Let me know what you guys think, yes?? Pleeeease? :)