Consider Me Gone

Chapter 29.

Jax

I was at the clubhouse when I got the news; that Toni had been attacked while jogging. Tara told me over the phone while on her lunch break. She said Toni came to the hospital in rough shape; she had to get stitches on her forehead and she had a broken leg. She would be out for at least 4-6 months, and there was no telling what the break of time would do for her job opportunity in Seattle.

I was upset about what happened but couldn't talk to Tara about it. Our relationship has been strained recently, and I didn't want to make things worse by discussing Toni's news.

However, as soon as I hung up, I was angry. What happened to Toni was not what we agreed upon, and I wanted to know what the hell got lost in translation! The plan was only to scare Toni and make her think that her boyfriend's secret lover wanted her out of the picture. The plan never involved hurting her physically to the point of hospitalization.

I paid that dumb bartender good money to keep her mouth shut about the whole thing. I even bailed her out when she got caught on camera damaging his car! But I guess you can't pay someone to be smart.

I shook my head as I tried to figure out a way to deal with this new problem. It was obvious that my relationship with the bartender had to end, but I needed to make sure that she wouldn't rat if things got too hot. I couldn't risk being exposed, and I wasn't ready to deal with the fallout if all this blew up in my face.

I still couldn't explain what I was doing or why I wanted Toni to stay here in Charming, I just knew that I wasn't ready to lose her yet. I felt an attachment to Toni that I hadn't felt for anyone since Opie died, and I wasn't ready to let that piece of myself go just yet.

I felt much better with Toni around, as her presence gave me a sense of peace. When Opie passed away, I felt extremely unbalanced, as if a part of me had died with him. However, surprisingly, I found that missing piece of myself again in Toni, which was quite a strange and unexpected twist of fate.

I know it sounds crazy, I know that what I'm doing is crazy. But I don't know how else to rationalize this in my head. I've tried going back and forth with myself over what's right for Toni. But what's right for her, will put me back into the place of anger that I hate so much. The place within myself that I do not recognize, the man that I can't look in the mirror.

I recognize the man I was with Toni. She brings a sense of familiarity and safety that I haven't felt in weeks. And I know I don't deserve those things, but I also know I will not be the man I want without them. Without them, I will be nothing but a hollow shell of anger that knows no bounds of his revenge.

"Jackie!" I heard Chibs call out and I left the office to see what all the commotion was about. I wasn't expecting to see Mark here in the clubhouse, and I also wasn't expecting him to lunge at me the way he did.

There was a look of pure hatred in his eyes when he lunged at me, and I barely had time to react before he threw the first punch. I will admit that the good doctor surprised me with how hard he hit, I wasn't expecting someone like him to know how to throw a punch. But unsurprisingly, I spent more time fighting than he did, so it didn't take long for me to recover from the blow.

"STAY AWAY FROM TONI!" He yelled as he swung at me again. I dodged his fist and landed my punch in his gut, causing him to double over in pain.

"Or what?" I taunted him, "What you going to do to me Doc?"

Mark tried to swing at me again, but I stepped out of the way only to land a punch on his cheek. I couldn't help the smile that came to my face as he almost fell with the impact of my hit.

"I know it was you who did this to her," he continued to talk even as blood dripped from the fresh cut on his lip. "You need to leave her alone, she doesn't want anything to do with you anymore." I swung at him again, but he dodged it and continued to talk. "I'm going to leave this godforsaken town with Toni and there is nothing you can do about it!"

I was becoming angrier and angrier the more he spoke and then I just lunged at him. I was seeing pure red as I wanted to do nothing more than rip him to shreds. He knew nothing about me or Toni, yet, here he was trying to tell me what he thought was going to happen. He didn't have control here, this was my club, and I was going to make him pay for ever walking into it.

"Jackie! Jax, stop it!" Chibs pulled me off of Mark and pushed me against the wall. "Jackie, leave him, we can't handle any more heat! Let him deal with Toni, this isn't our problem!"

I was still furious but Chibs was glaring at me to quit it. I knew that killing Mark would bring nothing but unnecessary heat to the club, but man, would it be satisfying to finally get rid of him for good.

"I'll call Unser, he can deal with this sh*t," Chibs got on the phone and phoned Unser who was here in no later than twenty minutes. He took one look at Mark and shook his head in disappointment.

He then escorted Mark out of the clubhouse and into the police cruiser with Roosevelt. While watching them drive away, I wanted to follow them down to the police station and press charges. Hell, if I was feeling any more petty, I would even throw in a restraining order while I was at it.

Lucky for him, I already had a list of problems to clean up and he was on the bottom of my list. Besides if things were still going somewhat according to plan, then the trash would take itself out because Toni won't want anything to do with him.

In her eyes, I was already proven innocent and Mark is the bad guy. When she finds out that he came down to the club to attack me, she'll see him for what he is and dump him. If anything he played right into my little game, and I can't wait to see him gone.

But for now, my victory lap will have to wait, because I have a bartender to take care of.