Spark in the Dark

Chapter 23

Shawn sat at the bar after the game as Jax counted cash in his hand. He handed some to Juice, then some to Shawn, then pocketed the rest himself. There was a skinny, blond guy behind the bar Shawn had never seen before.

"Sack, get me a beer," Jax told him. "You want one, too?"

"Sure," Shawn said as she put her cash in her pocket. "I'm sorry, but, Sack?"

"Short for Half-Sack," the blond guy told her.

"Ok, look," Shawn began, "I know I'm not supposed to ask how you guys get your nicknames, but... how the hell did you get your nickname?"

Jax and Juice both smiled, waiting for Half-Sack to explain. They both stopped when he went for his belt and realized he decided to show rather than tell.

"What the hell is he doing?" Shawn asked them.

"I was in the army. Got my one nut blown off," Half-Sack explained as he pulled down his pants to reveal the reason for his name, all while Jax and Juice tried to talk him out of it.

"Oh, my God," Shawn said at the site.

Just then, Tig came out of the room behind the bar and saw Half-Sack with his pants down and slapped the back of his head.

"What the hell you doing showing my kid your deformed nutsack?" Tig demanded.

"Oh, shit," Half-Sack pulled up his pants. "I didn't know she was your kid. Besides, isn't your kid, like, a porn star? She sees nuts all the time."

"I'm actually a producer, but you're not wrong. I do see nuts all the time," Shawn told him, then excused herself and walked down the hall to the bathroom.

Tig watched her go, then turned to Half-Sack once she was out of site.

"You ever pull your pants down around my daughter, again, and we'll have to start calling you No Sack. Got it?" Tig threatened him.

"Yeah, got it," Half-Sack said nervously.

Watching Tig threaten Sack made Juice very uncomfortable. It was a reminder that something much worse would happen to him should Tig ever found out about him and Shawn had been up to the last couple of weeks. As soon as Shawn came back to the bar, he went to the bathroom himself.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Jax asked Shawn after Juice left.

"Sure," Shawn said taking a sip of beer.

"It's about Juice."

Shawn suddenly felt very nervous. "What about him?"

"Do you think he's gay?"

She laughed, though she hadn't meant to. "No, I don't. Why?"

"I mean, I don't care if he is, but he never hooks up. Ever since he got his patch, he doesn't pay any attention to the girls around here. Even before that he didn't look at them much."

"Juice isn't gay. Trust me. I have excellent gay-dar."

"Only one way to find out," Jax said with a sly grin and called over one of the Cro Eaters who were hanging around that night. Juice came down the hall and Jax approached. "Juice, meet Candy. Candy, this is Juice. Show him a good time, darling."

The Cro Eater smiled and grabbed Juice by the cut. "Oh. Man, I'm good."

"Dude, you never cut loose," Jax told him. "Go get your rocks off so the rest of us can stop wondering about you."

The girl began to pull Juice down the hall and some of the guys cheered. Juice looked at Shawn, but she wouldn't look back. He disappeared down the hall with Candy as Shawn took the last mouthful of beer.

"Want another?" Jax asked as he returned to the bar.

"No, I gotta go. I have work in the morning," Shawn told him and said her good byes to the others. She walked out of the clubhouse and made it to her car before the tears came. Blinking them away, she started the car and pulled out of the lot.

As much as she wanted to go in there and rip that girl off him, Shawn knew she couldn't. Juice wasn't her's and he was never going to be her's.