Tribulation | Jax Teller

The Cause

Jax wipes his sleepy eyes and he finds that the house is quiet – too quiet. He moves out of bed and checks his kids' rooms and frowns when he finds them empty. He doesn't like the feeling that makes his stomach heavy as he hasn't even found a trace of Noelle in the house either. It makes his feet move faster until he releases a relieved breath as he finds Noelle sitting at the kitchen table by herself with a cup of coffee.

Jax comes up to her and presses a kiss to her forehead. "Where's the kids?"

"Lena came down and surprised them." She informs him to his own surprise.

He begins making his own cup of coffee and is worried by her silence when he takes a seat from across of her. "What's wrong?"

"What did you do to Kyle last night?" She asks him quietly.

Jax sighs as he really isn't surprised by the question. He rubs his hands down his face as he thinks how the guys handled that Kyle didn't get his tattoo removed. Even though the stench of burning flesh makes his stomach turn, Kyle knew the consequence if they ever found out. And in some sick sort of way he had gotten some satisfaction from hurting Kyle.

"He didn't get all his tattoos removed." He tells her simply. The kicker of it all was that Kyle was so gung ho about being invited back to the clubhouse that he didn't even care he would be missing his kid playing in his band.

Noelle nods her head, but he knows she really doesn't care about that. "Did that Fed approach you again?" He asks quietly.

Noelle shakes her head and she sits up straighter. "I don't really think the Fed is here for SAMCRO."

Jax furrows his brows. "What are you talking about?"

Noelle rubs her forehead as she stands up and dumps her coffee in the sink. "It's just a feeling Jax."

"Babe?"

Noelle takes a deep breath as she doesn't know how Jax will take her theory. Right now she knows she doesn't want to have to deal with him proclaiming that she is being paranoid or anything. It might set her off and cause both of them to snap at each other.

"When he came into the shop, he bought some stuff," she begins and Jax nods his head. "He bought things for a girlfriend who happens to be a Neo-Natal surgeon in Chicago."

She watches as Jax processes her words and it doesn't seem to be clicking as he looks confused until it dawns on him.

Jax opens his mouth, but the door to the house opens and Chibs steps through. "We have a situation brutha."

Jax nods his head as he stands up from the table and approaches Noe, "We'll talk about this later."

She nods her head and he presses a kiss to her lips.

...

"Jesus Christ." Jax mutters as he looks at the dead body in the kitchen. The cause of death could be from the bullets and the final blow from a knife being embedded in the back of his head. He rubs his face as this is the last thing he really wants to deal with.

"Sorry, brother." Clay says voice tight with sympathy. "What happened?"

T.O, the Grim Bastards president trying to reign in his grief and anger, "I found him like this. Bullets killed him. Knife was a message."

"From who?" Chibs questions.

"It's buried in his skull." T.O says hotly.

"Calaveras." Jax answers for Chibs

"Yeah. Had to be Salazar." T.O points out.

"Anybody else see this?" Opie asks from next to Jax.