Impact [Jax Teller//Sons Of Anarchy]

Chapter Five

“You must be out of your mind.” The words came out of my mouth almost like a reflex. What this agent was telling me, what he was asking of me, was not only dangerous but stupid. There was no way in hell that I would ever do what he was suggesting.

“I don’t think I made myself clear enough,” he said. He was leaning forward against the steel table which my hands were firmly cuffed to. “You don’t really have a choice. Well, unless you really consider prison as an option.”

I looked him dead in the eye. “I’m not doing this. I’m not going to be your little rat. You can find someone else.”

He nodded slowly and turned his head to the side. “Officer Rhodes, Agent Malone, could you please give me a minute alone with the girl?” You could tell from his tone that he was trying to sound polite, but he was truly making a command.

Both the officer and the agent exited the room.

“I don’t think I need to remind you just exactly the kind of trouble you are in. You have previous misdemeanours that somehow you got lightly off of, and now you are facing some time in prison. And yes, you will be going to prison. I will make sure of it.”

My expression remained unchanged. My face was blank. I was not new to being threatened.

“You can’t make me do anything I don’t want to. I’d rather go to jail than die. I’m fully aware of what happens to snitches.”

He laughed, stood up straight and started walking around the table.

“You think you’re so special, do you? You think that the world owes you something? All because you didn’t have the best of childhoods?”

He was behind me now; his hands on my shoulders.

“Let me guess, you had a deadbeat dad, he probably left before you could even walk. No, no, he was never around, was he? You were probably left to a single mom that didn’t care enough so she probably dumped you off somewhere else. You dropped out of high school or never even went. You probably developed a habit involving the bottle or snorting shit up your nose so you hung out with a man whom you imagined would be just like your father and ended up selling yourself to either feed your little habits or his. Tell me if I’m wrong.”

My right eye twitched for a second. He came around me and sat on the edge of the table. “You might think you are special, girl, but here’s some news: The world doesn’t owe you shit. You control your own life and whatever outcome it has, you brought it all on yourself.”

He leaned in a little closer. “Now I’m going to walk out that door and when I come back you better have an answer for me and I sincerely hope that answer is yes. You might not know this, but I can make your life a nightmare, inside or outside of those bars.”

He stood up and straightened his jacket. He walked out the door.

When I heard the door close I let out my breath. I hadn’t realised that I had held it the entire time he was talking. To tell you the truth, I did feel more than a little threatened. My mind was rushing with different scenarios. One involved me lying on the floor of a prison cell naked and bleeding, another had me chained to a pipe, beaten and bloodied just before a gun was placed next to my head. Neither seemed more pleasant than the other.

Slowly the door creaked open and for some reason I flinched. I hadn’t made up my mind yet and this agent was back to threaten me into doing his bidding.

Surprisingly, Officer Rhodes appeared before me instead. He went to sit on the chair opposite me. He sat in close, intertwining his fingers and placing them before him. He seemed nervous.

“Quinn,” he said softly, “I don’t think you fully understand the seriousness of your situation. Now, I know they’re offering you a choice between prison time or time spent as an informant, but I want you to think very carefully. Yes, there is danger involved with doing what they are asking of you, but if you are arrested this will stain your record. You’re over eighteen now, this will stick. If you choose prison you could be looking at never getting to fix your life. You could be limited to the jobs you might want to seek and you could never reach your full potential.”

He wearily ran his hands through his hair. “It’s not too late to be someone, Quinn. You still have time. And I’ll do everything in my power to try and keep you safe if you promise that after this you’ll strive towards becoming the incredible woman that I know you can be.”

His words struck me. After all this time, after all the hardship I had put this man through, he still had respect for me and he wanted me to turn my life around. I was so shocked. I never had anyone believe in me.

The door swung open again. This time it was Agent Barone.

“Do we have a decision?” he asked standing next to Officer Rhodes.

“I’ll do it,” I said.