16. Family Re
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Family Reunion
"Y-you… You can't be here..."
Deja trembled in disbelief.
She closed her eyes and opened them.
But Jax was still there.
Jax tilted his head with a curious grin. "...what? Are you expecting me to just… disappear ?" he chuckled. "...rest assured, love...." His thumb caressed her cheek, and a cold shiver ran down Deja's spine. "...I'm very much here… and very much ready to take you home..."
Deja panicked. "I… I sh-shot you..."
Jax placed her fingers against his chest until she touched his bullet wound. "...next time… aim for the head ..." he smiled. His eyes glowered when he noticed her bleeding forehead. "Did they hurt you?!"
Deja frantically slapped the ground until she grabbed the first thing she could find and swung, smashing Jax in the head with the nurse's flashlights.
While Jax grabbed his head, Deja scrambled to her feet, taking off down the hallway.
Running in her medical gown, she pushed open the stairwell door, desperate to find her child.
With a frustrated sigh, Jax stood to his feet just as another door swung open. Caleb ran into the hallway, followed by another nurse. Caleb glared at the carnage Jax left in the hallway. "What the fuck happened?! Where is she?!"
"Evidently not here , Caleb ," Jax said condescendingly. "She ran off."
Caleb looked at him in disbelief. "Why the fuck couldn't you just wait like we discussed?!"
"Because she's my goddamn wife! I shouldn't have to wait to take what's mine!" Jax growled. Caleb tilted his head back, disturbed by Jax's use of the word 'wife.'
"Oh, m-my g-god!" The nurse panicked at the mutilated bodies on the ground. "D-did… did the p-patient d-do this?! I have to call security!"
"That's not necessary. Just go back to your station-" Caleb started.
"Obviously, she didn't- She just gave birth, you idiot. I did ," Jax snorted. The nurse's eyes widened in horror.
Caleb's face fell. "...motherfucker..." he sighed. "I'm sorry for this..." Caleb grabbed the nurse's head and quickly snapped her neck until her body crumbled to the ground.
Jax raised a brow. "Huh. You still clean up after yourself..."
"I have a process , you asshole!" Caleb snapped. "You can't just waltz your ass in here killing whomever the hell you want."
"I will if they get in my way of taking my wife-"
"She's not your goddamn wife!" Caleb snapped.
Jax's face rippled with rage. A blade slid between his fingers as he rushed Caleb and, with his forearm to Caleb's neck, slammed him up against the wall before jamming the blade into Caleb's shoulder.
"Let's get something straight. She's my fucking woman!
Not yours! Mine !" Jax sneered. "I don't give a shit about your pathetic town.
I'll rip every goddamn person in this building limb from fucking limb to bring her ass back home. "
With an animalistic snarl, Caleb violently smashed his forehead into Jax's, who stepped back as blood poured from his gash. Wiping the blood from his face, Jax sneered at the blood-stained face of his cousin.
Caleb ripped the blade from his shoulder without flinching and glared at Jax. "You can't just come back here like nothing happened. Like you didn't shove a knife in my fucking back and expect everything to be okay."
Jax rubbed his temples impatiently. "We don't have time for this, Caleb," he said, stepping forward.
Caleb shoved him back. "You sure as fuck had time to ask me to watch her after going 10 years of pretending I didn't fucking exist!"
"And you couldn't even do that without fucking my woman!" Jax snapped.
"I didn't fucking plan to fall in love with her, Jax!" Caleb shot back before he could stop himself.
Jax pulled back, startled by Caleb's confession when his nostrils flared. "No. No! Fuck no !" Jax growled. " You are not allowed to love her."
Caleb scoffed. "Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, Jax? Kill me?" Caleb held Jax's glare. "There he is. The Society's Puppet ." Caleb snorted. "Pretending like he all of a sudden gives a fuck about family."
Jax's jaw tensed. "Your sentiment is fucking pathetic ."
Caleb reflexively flung the dagger before Jax caught it in his bleeding palm. "Almost forgot how much I fucking hate you," Caleb sneered.
Jax slipped the dagger into his sleeve. "I haven't. And as much as I'm enjoying this little family reunion . I want my woman and my child. Now ."
Caleb rolled his eyes before grabbing the nurses' bodies and shoving them into a closet. "For fuck's sake , Caleb, just call a cleaner," Jax sneered impatiently.
"It doesn't work like that here, your fucking highness," Caleb said, closing the door.
Wiping the blood from his head, Jax followed Caleb down the hallway. "She just… ran off… The audacity ..." Jax muttered.
"I know, right? Why would a traumatized woman who just watched her ex murder two nurses, after assuming he was dead, run away like that?" Caleb said sarcastically.
Jax sucked his teeth. "She's seen me do worse..."
"No shit? Can't imagine why she didn't stick around then," Caleb mocked.
"Don't act as if you know her better than me!" Jax snapped.
"You're right, Jax. I don't. Because she's so psychologically fucked up after dealing with you that I wouldn't be surprised if she were clinically insane."
Jax laughed condescendingly. "You're such a drama queen, Caleb.
I know Deja better than she knows herself.
I know her fears. Her desires. Her needs.
Her wants. I know that she hasn't stopped thinking about me once, including while fucking you.
" Jax violently pushed Caleb against the wall and smiled mockingly.
"The only thing protecting you right now is the blood that flows through your veins.
But keep talking your shit and see how long that lasts. .."
Caleb glared irritably at Jax. "...I'm not competing with you, Jax.
In fact, I don't really give a fuck how you feel about us.
But what you need to understand is that she's traumatized.
You can't hunt her like some game of cat and mouse.
She's fragile and extremely on edge. You need to handle her with care. "
Jax rolled his eyes. "I don't have time for that. And don't tell me how to handle my wife," he said, walking away.
"She's not your wife!"
Deja slid across the hallway, nearly losing her balance. "C-Chloe?!"
She was breathing so hard and fast that her head started to throb. Her heart felt like it was going to burst out of her chest. Deja had so much adrenaline coursing through her body that she was numb to the pain from her wounds.
She ran into a random hospital room, frantically looking around. "Ma'am!" a nurse confronted her. "What are you-"
"You have to get out of here!" Deja cried desperately. "All of you! You have to leave!"
She grunted as a nurse forcefully grabbed her from behind. "You need to calm down!" he snapped.
"No, please! I just want my daughter!" Deja screamed, trying to fight him off.
"Look at her tag. This one was under psychiatric surveillance. Must've gotten loose," another said. "Give her a sedative before she hurts someone."
"No!" Deja screamed angrily. "Please, listen to me! He's going to kill you!"
"Might need a damn tranquilizer," the nurse joked before spotting the blood on Deja's gown. "Shit! She's covered in blood! The hell?!"
"Hold her down!" another nurse said, pulling out a syringe.
"No! No, please!" Deja screamed, kicking furiously until they rolled her onto her stomach. She struggled beneath them as they pinned her down and pulled her gown up, exposing her buttocks.
"This will be quick," the nurse said, sticking it into her cheek.
"You're making a mistake!" Deja cried.
"The maternity ward is on the other side. But, you said she went up the stairs," Caleb jogged down the hall, impatiently scouting the windows of each room.
"This is taking too long. How the fuck don't you know the whereabouts of your own damn hospital?" Jax snapped.
"Are you kidding me?!" Caleb growled. "You're the one who scared her away, Michael Myers! None of this would have happened if you weren't so goddamn impatient!"
"Cry me a fucking river, Caleb. I'll leave your precious town of morons when Deja is returned to me," Jax snapped.
"She doesn't wanna go with you, Jax. And if you actually cared about her, you'd leave her the fuck alone!"
Raising a brow, Jax approached Caleb. "Alone with who...? You?" he snorted. "Because you're fucking in love, was it?" Caleb winced as Jax angrily grabbed his bleeding shoulder, pressing his thumb into his knife wound. "...I didn't know you wanted to bleed so badly..."
Jax raised his blade, but Caleb swiftly shoved Jax's hand off. Twisting the blade out of Jax's grip, Caleb shoved it into Jax's waist and sneered in Jax's face. "You think I can't fuck you up, Jax?"
"Oh, I know you can't," Jax said smugly, unfazed by the blade in his waist. "Because I'm stronger than you, Caleb. Bigger. Faster. Better ."
Caleb laughed while twisting the blade. "You survive two little bullets from a woman who can't fucking stand you, and all of a sudden you think you're a god."
Jax violently punched Caleb in the stomach before ramming his forehead against Caleb's bleeding gash. "I'm perfectly fine being the devil," Jax growled, ripping the blade out of his waist.
Caleb angrily charged at Jax when he abruptly halted. His eyes widened, staring at the window behind Jax. " Deja !"
"Hold still!" the nurse ordered, injecting Deja with the syringe. The nurse, watching anxiously from the side, jumped in surprise as the door smashed open so violently it nearly flew off the hinges. She looked wide-eyed as a man in a long black coat and bloody shirt stormed into the room.
"Excuse me!" she confronted him. "You can't be in-"