The Life of the Sons

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Kenzie.

She'd been there in that room and stared at him like he'd been....

Nothing.

The silence that started created still resonated in abel's bones. And seven years hadn't changed the way his heart fluttered at the sight of her. Shed just grown the hell up and had changed tellers.

The way she'd taken her hand out of thomas' when she'd seen him. It almost made him leave. But abel had come for his dad not for her.

Kenzie would never be his again. It hurt him to admit that to himself as he took the stairs two at a time. The rage of her parting filled his blood with pain.

You left me. The words cut through him like a knife and then some. All he had wanted to do then was hold her-- but that wasn't his right anymore.

"You let her in the club," he snarled closing the club's door behind him.

Jax teller glanced up from the table and sighed. His old man hadnt aged. There was no silver to his golden hair and he only had a few new sets of lines around the edges of his eyes and mouth. He was the same battered old man abel had run out on.

"She wanted in. I let her become a prospect," he said with a shrug.

"Women aren't allowed in as members. Just old ladies,"

"Things change,"

"How do you keep her safe?"

If others found out they'd go after her. Use her. Break her. It was why women weren't allowed. Why they had to be alienated from it. He didnt want to picture kenzie being hunted down and used by other clubs to get back at this one.

"She doesn't ride or go out on missions very often. And she only wears her patches here," jax replied. "I know you loved her abel but she was vigilant on joining,"

"Its a bad omen for a woman to be in the club,"

"Is it because she's in the club you're so pent up or did she say something to you before she sped off?"

Perceptive. Like Gemma. Jax teller certainly knew when things were off and when things needed to be fixed.

"I left," abel said slipping into a chair and fumbling with his hair. "I left it all."

"She never did forgive you for it," jax said.

"She shouldn't forgive me for it! And I shouldnt be trying to fix it. She's Thomas',"

Jax wrung his hands together. "Thomas,"

"Tell me everything dad," abel said as his old man leaned on the table his head in his hands.

"I just need you here. Now. Thomas always looked up to you, always wanted to be you. Maybe now.... I dont know. I just see him becoming so reckless." He seemed to watch memories as abel settled into the chair. "He nearly killed the mayans prospect for flirting with kenzie. Flirting. Jesus it was like watching a wasp attack a passerby. Violent."

"He loves her that much?" He didn't want to know how much those two had grown close to each other. He wouldn't be able to face either of them if he did. Because deep down he'd wanted to come back to kenzie.

"I wouldn't call his feelings love," jax said. His eyes, so much like abel's, hardened. "A part of him does. But a part of him finds her to be like a possession. An old lady and nothing more,"

"Do you think what happened is retaliation?"

"No,"

"Thomas?"

"We're hurting for funds around here," jax admitted. "I wouldn't put it past Thomas to go to drastic measures to make sure we go to a wealthier mc to sell our guns to. He's been suggesting getting back into full on porn again but I think that has to do with the porn girl he fucks once and a while,"

It was starting to sound like early jax years all over again. Abel watched as his father processed abel's stillness.

"That would be extremely drastic,"

"Kenzie doesn't know if he was home or not," jax continued and another tug sent his chest into aches. Living together too. He'd done this. Pushed them together. "She was at the strip club till this morning."

And stripping. He ground his teeth together. If she was his old lady she'd been in something more respectable. Something worth her brains. He noted having a talk with Thomas about old ladies and their jobs.

"She likes her job, abel," jax said reading him like an open book. "It pays better then what we make and she likes it. I told her she could get a better job. A respectable one but she told me it was fun. Different. I didnt fight her after that,"

The old kenzie would have blushed at being naked in front of one man. Another thing he was responsible for. What other changes did his leaving create?

"I'll stay," he spoke carefully. "But once this is done I'm leaving again. I built a life for myself in seattle. A good life,"

He'd opened his own motorcycle shop on the outskirts of Everett. Abel's motors and tinkers. And it had done well for him in the last six years. Well enough he planned on building a shop in Tacoma and Olympia before the years end.

Then jax had called and he was here with the shop being watched and managed by his manager. He'd told him a few months for family matters and he would be back. Jason had given no indication that he wouldn't be able to handle it and abel had hit the road.

"I understand," jax said. "Do you ever regret it?"

"When I think of her," he said getting up and exiting the room.

When he thought of her it was like a sledgehammer slamming into his chest. And now when he thought of Thomas touching her the way he used to--- hot iron branding his skin was how he would compare the pain it caused. Nothing good would come out of this visit, abel thought.

He left the ice cream parlor behind as he rode down main street. The open road lined with the ma and pa shops that survived for decades. People eyed him like they had on his way in. He rode like that for an hour, exploring the roads and houses again until he found a house for rent.

It didnt take him long to call the number, arange the meeting, and sign a contract for six months. The owners seemed thrilled while the hole ripped through his chest.

Charming. This town had a way of bringing people back it never intended to let leave in the first place.

Tomorrow abel would get to work fixing this mess. Tonight he would drink.