Consider Me Gone

Chapter 26.

Toni

I tried my best to forget the strange incident with Jax yesterday, but the memory still sends shivers down my spine. Although Jax had never directly hurt me, I knew that he had a few mental screws loose. You have to be somewhat psychotic to tolerate the kind of work he does.

Despite everything, I attempted to continue my routine and engage in activities to keep my mind off things. Mark was not working today, whereas I still had to fulfill my duty at the hospital. I still had to train my replacement before I could officially leave.

Dr. Adams was nice enough and I thought he would make a good addition to the team of surgeons we had at St. Thomas. I could tell that he was only using this position as a stepping stone, but I didn't feel like it was my place to say anything about it. If it were up to me, I would have told him that he was better off going somewhere else, anywhere would be better than Charming. But alas, this town was his problem now.

Strangely, my resignation had caused Margaret to be nice to me. She even got me a bouquet down at the gift shop. A part of me thinks she wishes it was Tara who was leaving instead, but she seems like she respects me now for doing the thing that her star pupil can't seem to do.

I was going to call Mark during my lunch break and tell him about it, but then I realized I had three missed calls from him on my phone. I felt immediately worried as I called him back because I had no idea why he'd been so frantic to reach me.

I immediately thought it had something to do with Jax, and I boiled with anger as Mark asked me to meet back at his place. It was a gated community with cameras everywhere, so a part of me wondered how anyone could have gotten passed security without being noticed.

When I got there, Mark was standing outside with Sheriff Roosevelt and I braced myself for whatever disaster I was walking into. I just hoped that whatever it was, my relationship with Mark wouldn't be affected because of it.

"Hey," Mark said as I walked over to him. He looked relieved to see me as if he thought I had been in danger.

"Hey, what's going on?" Concern dripped from my voice and Mark stepped aside and gestured towards his rental car. My mouth fell open as I saw the that vehicle had been vandalized. The windows were broken, the tires were slashed, and as if that hadn't been enough the word SLUT was spray painted on the hood.

"Uh," I was left speechless because I was not expecting this. I assumed that if Mark had had any problems, it would have been with Jax, not with what seemed like a scorned lover.

"Toni, it's not what it looks like. I haven't been with anyone but you since I got here. I don't even know what this is about!" Mark held my hands as he pleaded with me to believe him, but I couldn't take my eyes off the car.

Roosevelt cleared his throat, "Perhaps you can identify the suspect. Dr. Sloan believes that this act of injustice was crafted by your ex-husband."

I blinked in surprise at Mark, because I thought we agreed that we'd stay away from Jax, not bring him up in a police report. Mark didn't seem to care about the look I gave him and shot me one back. "Toni, I'm telling you, he did this!"

"And why do you believe that Mr. Teller would vandalize your vehicle, Dr. Sloan?" Roosevelt asked with his notepad out.

"His friend died at the hospital. Toni was working on him, but he didn't make it out of surgery."

"Mark!" I said through gritted teeth. I looked at Roosevelt and did my best to explain before Mark further put his foot in his mouth. "Opie was flown to the hospital. He had already lost too much blood by the time he got to me. He should have never been brought into surgery, he was marked for death by the time he came." I tried my best to clear up any confusion because the last thing I wanted to do was upset the club. I usually had no problem giving them hell on my own, but to involve the feds, something they hated when I was so close to leaving felt stupid.

I get that Mark hated Jax, but he would have to pause his hate until we were back in Seattle.

"And has Mr. Teller made any threats to you Dr. Thatcher?" Roosevelt asked. I shook my head no because I hadn't interacted with Jax since Opie died. And I hadn't received any alarming threats from the club either. I'd like to think that Jax wouldn't paint me as some monster who killed his best friend.

Roosevelt let out a sigh, "Well, since Dr. Thatcher was the one present during the surgery, I can't say with full confidence that Mr. Teller is behind this act of violence. I can question him on his whereabouts, but if he has a solid alibi then I won't be able to do anything further.

Mark was angry and frustrated upon hearing the news. I tried to calm him down while Roosevelt retrieved the photo from the tape. Mark was convinced that Jax was guilty and couldn't believe that he was getting away with it. I did my best to soothe him, as I didn't want him to engage in a confrontation with Jax.

"Here is the picture of your suspect, unfortunately, it is a woman." Roosevelt handed the photo to me, and I saw a long-haired woman with a bandana on her face. She was wearing a tank top and short shorts with a pair of cowboy boots. Not at all the outfit of someone prepared to vandalize a luxury vehicle.

"Do any of you recognize this person?" Roosevelt asked and for the life of me, I had no clue who this was, but then I heard Mark respond next to me and my heart involuntarily dropped to the pit of my stomach.

"Wait, yeah, yeah I've seen her before. I recognize the tattoo on her back." Mark pointed to a small rose tattoo that was slightly blurred on the mystery woman's back. I hardly noticed it with the first scan I gave her, and I could hardly make it out on the photo Roosevelt gave me.

"Do you know her name?"

"No, well, not her real one at least. She goes by Whiskey, she's a bartender down at Rundown Ally."

I made a face as I tried to remember the first time I went down to Rundown Ally with Mark. "I don't remember her serving us." There was a slight accusatory tone to my voice that I didn't mean to come out. I didn't want to accuse him of lying, but I'd be lying to myself if I said this felt like unfamiliar territory. It all felt the same; swearing the truth, recognizing strange women, evading blame. I didn't want to compare him to Jax, because I had grown to trust Mark, but there was also the small fear inside telling me that it could all happen again.

"No, she didn't, but after work when I'm by myself, I like to go get a drink." Mark looked embarrassed to say that because he knew how his words sounded to me. "But believe me Toni, nothing ever happened between us. I swear."

"O-okay," I looked down and turned my attention to Roosevelt. "So what happens now?" I asked while handing him back the photo.

"Well, for now, we're going to go talk to a certain bartender," Roosevelt smiled at me and then nodded his head at us before he left.

Mark and I watched as the tow truck took his rental and then he immediately got on the phone with Derek. We went up to his apartment and I sat on the couch as he jumped through every theory in the book of how Jax had to be the one behind this. But as he ranted, I couldn't help but go elsewhere in my mind.

I wanted to believe Mark, believe me, I do, but this didn't feel like something Jax would do. If Jax felt like I killed Opie, then he wouldn't aim for something as stupid as a car. He would hurt Mark and then he'd hurt me, he would fulfill this on rage and rage alone.

I couldn't make sense of why someone would send a woman to vandalize Mark's car. It just didn't add up. Jax had just married Tara, so there was no motive for him to try and break Mark and me up. I was left feeling confused and didn't know what to think.