9. Raining Blood
CHAPTER NINE
Raining Blood
“Motherfuck… Nearly forgot how annoying it is hacking through bone…” Caleb pressed his foot into a corpse’s skull, wedging his ax from its back.
“Don’t be such a bitch,” Keith teased, hacking an arm from the torso with his machete. “You used to do this shit in your sleep. Now you sound like a fucking intern.”
“Fuck off,” Caleb muttered, flipping Keith off. Caleb glanced at Jax, who was crouching near the pile of dismembered corpses, and caught the way his cousin silently studied the identification documents from their pockets.
“Well, we usually have cleaners for this,” Ian said, changing his bloody gloves for the second time. “But seeing as we don’t have any allies in this district, we’re on our own.”
“What else is new?” Keith shrugged, tossing a dismembered arm.
“Though, being targeted by a First-Class Reaper so aggressively is… fairly new,” Ian noted.
“And avoidable if someone hadn’t lost their shit…” Caleb muttered.
“If you have shit to say, Caleb, say it to my fucking face,” Jax said calmly, flipping through licenses.
Caleb tilted his head back and laughed. “I don’t need to look at your dumb mug to tell you how fucking reckless you are.”
Jax snorted. “Ironic coming from a man running a town like a blood farm.”
“Says the man who put a fucking target on the back of the woman he loves,” Caleb snapped back.
In seconds, Jax shot to his feet, his hammer flinging in the air before Caleb blocked it with his ax.
Expertly flipping his switchblade between his fingers, Jax swung at Caleb and shoved the blade through his palm.
Snarling with anger and pain, Caleb swung his ax before Jax caught it, slicing his hand.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Keith said, roughly pushing them apart.
“Fucking great! Now look what you’ve done!
” Ian snapped angrily, pulling on his third pair of gloves.
Caleb winced as he ripped Jax’s blade out of his palm while Jax barely flinched, tossing Caleb’s ax with his bleeding hand.
“I literally just bandaged your wounds,” Ian said irritably as he grabbed Jax’s bleeding hand.
“Stupid. Moronic. Petulant. Fucking children.”
“Now you’ve gone and pissed him off,” Keith grinned, lighting up a joint.
“You know how hard it is to get Ian to shut the fuck up once he gets going?” Keith teased.
Ian cussed Keith out in Gaelic as Keith cackled.
“Oh, the nostalgia. Ian bitching. You two trying to kill each other. Just like old times, right?”
“No,” Jax and Caleb said simultaneously, sending Keith into a fit of laughter.
“Don’t act like you didn’t miss this,” Keith teasingly nudged Caleb.
But Caleb irritably shoved Keith off. “If I never see you pieces of shit again, it would be too soon.”
“You have a way with words, cousin,” Keith smirked.
Ian took Caleb’s bleeding hand, but Caleb snatched it back. “I can take care of myself.”
Ian sucked his teeth. “Don’t be such a child,” Ian snapped, yanking Caleb’s hand back.
“Imagine fighting over a woman you both fucked at the same time,” Keith laughed.
“We were drunk,” Caleb muttered.
“Stop moving,” Ian lectured.
“That was a mistake,” Jax growled. “I would’ve killed him if I had the chance.”
“Pussy-ass bitch, follow through on your promises for once in your fucking life,” Caleb argued.
“Hey! Fuckheads!” Keith shouted. “Calm the fuck down! For the love of Roselyn!” Keith strolled up to Jax. “You know what you need?”
“Your disgusting breath out of my goddamn face?” Jax muttered.
“A joint,” Keith said, handing it to him.
“So you can calm your shit.” But Jax looked at the joint skeptically.
“I know you think that you’re fucking Zombie Hercules resurrected to be the Devil’s personal Reaper.
But newsflash, baby boy, you’re annoying as fuck!
Even more than you used to be. I need you to take a hit so you can be somewhat tolerable,” Keith smiled sarcastically.
Jax’s nostrils flared as he snatched the joint. “You irritate me.”
“Ditto, you geriatric son of a bitch,” Keith smirked, watching Jax take a hit.
“Don’t touch it,” Ian said, bandaging Caleb’s hand.
“Yes, Dear,” Caleb rolled his eyes when he saw Keith approach him with the joint. “I don’t fucking think so. Not after you two just-”
“We’ve all eaten the same pussy until we were drunk off her shit. Get the fuck over it, farmer boy,” Keith said, handing the joint to him. Caleb sharply exhaled as he grabbed the joint and took a hit. “See? Don’t you feel better already?” Keith smiled.
“No,” Caleb and Jax said.
“You guys are so fucking cute, answering at the same time,” Keith teased as Ian smirked, amused. Caleb and Jax glared at each other, disgruntled.
While Ian tossed a lit match onto the bodies doused with gasoline, Keith lay on the ground as he looked up at the night sky and blew smoke from his lips.
“You know when you’re nose-deep in her tight pussy, just going fucking ham on that ass, and you’re fucking her so good with your tongue that her thick, soft thighs just…
suffocate the shit out of you? God, I wanna fuck the shit out of her right now. ”
“Keith, I will cut your fucking tongue out,” Jax snapped.
“Can you shut the fuck up?” Caleb snapped simultaneously.
“Someone’s sexually frustrated,” Ian grinned.
“Someone needs another hit,” Keith said, passing the joint again. “It’s like you guys are competing to prove who’s in denial the most.”
“Like when they used to compete over the most kills,” Ian smirked.
“First of all, you guys competed. I’m above that,” Jax shrugged.
“Bull-fucking-shit,” Caleb snorted as Keith cackled. “You just had to be number one at everything.”
“I couldn’t help it that I was better than you,” Jax grinned as all three men groaned.
“No wonder you talk so much shit. Your head is so far up your ass,” Caleb smirked as Keith cackled.
“I don’t talk shit. I am the shit,” Jax smirked as the guys laughed even harder. “I taught you everything you know.”
“Right. Right. I just perfected it,” Caleb teased.
Jax laughed. “You’re just as delusional as that time you thought you killed the governor at that masquerade.”
“...for the love of Roselyn…” Ian sighed.
“Here we go,” Keith smirked.
“Uh… I did kill the governor,” Caleb said.
Jax snorted. “You maimed him.”
“I decapitated him!” Caleb snapped.
“Your little blade cuts hardly counted as decapitation. It was my blow that killed him,” Jax smirked.
“Asshole, don’t mock my kills! He was already dead!” Caleb laughed, throwing a rock at Jax.
“I wouldn’t mock them if they actually got the job done, and I didn’t have to clean up after you all the damn time!” Jax teased.
“Liar. You just liked dragging me along with you,” Caleb smirked.
“You were a brat,” Jax snorted.
“You loved my company,” Caleb teased.
“Can’t see why,” Ian snorted as Caleb and Jax laughed.
“He’s so cute when he’s jealous,” Caleb said, playfully pinching Ian, who swatted him like a fly.
“Middle child syndrome,” Jax grinned as Caleb and Keith cackled.
“You guys can fuck right off,” Ian snapped as their laughter reached an octave higher. “Annoying brothers. As usual,” he smirked.
Caleb’s smile slowly fell. “...at least you still have your brother…” Silence thickened the air as Caleb caught Jax’s gaze. “Do you guys even miss him or… am I the only one who still gives a shit?” Caleb asked.
Uncharacteristically, Jax’s face softened. His eyes glazed over with guilt. “He was family. We loved him.”
“I guess that love was just… conditional…” Caleb said, locking eyes with Jax. “Right? We were always disposable to you.”
Jax looked at Caleb, almost broken-hearted. “...I thought the world of you…”
Caleb’s nostrils flared. “And yet, you took my world from me.”
Jax stood to his feet, his eyes hardening, his face turning to stone. He opened his mouth to speak before clamping shut. Caleb felt a lump form in his throat as he watched Jax walk away.
“Whatever you think of him… you’re wrong,” Ian said. “He’s been through a lot, Caleb.”
Caleb snorted. “What Reaper hasn’t been through shit?”
“Look, he may annoy the shit out of us, but we’d follow him into the fires of hell without question,” Keith said.
Caleb shook his head. “Of course you would. He’s your brother.
Don’t you get it? You guys have each other.
I have no one. Jax took that away from me.
And don’t give me shit about the girlfriend he claims I killed, because I didn’t.
” Caleb pulled back and snorted. “...but something tells me he already knew that…”
Ian and Keith exchanged glances as Caleb got up and left.
Standing in the bedroom doorway, Jax stared at Deja lying in bed with Chloe nestled in her arms. His pupils dilated, and his fingers trembled as Caleb’s words echoed in his mind.
Minutes passed before Jax finally crawled into bed. Wrapping his muscular arms around Deja’s body, he felt her instinctively push back against him and hum her content to feel his warmth against her. He kissed her temple and caressed Chloe with his thumb… but his mind was on Jamie.
“I was always disposable to you!” Jamie’s voice echoed, sounding every bit like Caleb.
Jax felt something wet slip down his face and touched his cheek until he realized it was a tear. His nostrils flared with distress as he pondered… why everyone he loved and tried to protect ended up hating him in the end.
“This bag has her diapers and her milk. I pumped, so you should have enough for the time I’m gone. Her pacifiers, clothes, um, baby, am I forgetting anything?” Deja asked, looking around.
“We’ve written everything down,” Jax said, handing Debra a notepad. “Including some Scottish lullabies that soothe her.”
Debra squinted. “Is this… English?”
“No,” Jax said. “I emailed you a YouTube link.”
Debra blinked at Jax. “She really likes the Gaelic language,” Deja chuckled.
“Let me start practicing my yodeling,” Jared joked.
“Pops, that’s not- Never mind,” Deja rolled her eyes. “Okay, we have to go. Please don’t open the door for anyone you don’t recognize. Don’t answer calls from unknown numbers.”