One Rule

Chapter 10

The next day at work, I got a visitor I wasn't expecting. Tara came in with blood all down the front of her.  "What happened?" I asked, feeling the bridge of her nose, trying to determine if her was broken.

"Your mother," she deadpanned.

"I'm gonna need more than that," I replied.

"I came up behind her, and I must have scared her," Tara explained.

"She clocked you pretty good. I think it's broken. We'll take X-rays to confirm."

"Thanks Diana."

"Anytime." Once the X-rays confirmed the damage, I turned her over to one of the doctors to let them reset it.

I called Jax on my break later that morning, "So Mom hit Tara in the face. Broke her nose. She came in with blood all down her front."

"Jesus Christ," he groaned. "She's been weird since that car wreck."

"I agree. I feel like I'm missing an important piece of the story," I replied.

"We'll get to the bottom of it." He let out a deep sigh, "Thanks for the heads up, sis. I'll let you know what I find out."

"Thanks. Love you, brother."

"Love you too."

Gemma wasn't the only person acting weird. Things between my dad and Jax have been really tense recently. I know I'm not the only one that senses it. Opie mentioned it recently when I took his kids for the weekend. That wasn't the only thing he mentioned.

"Do you know Lyla? She's one of Luann's girls,"

"Yeah, she's sweet. Why?" I asked.

"I met her the other day when she came in with a flat. She seems nice."

"She is nice. Do you like her?"

"I don't know."

"You could do worse. You also don't have to rush into anything. Just take it slow and see what happens."

I actually ended up giving Lyla a ride to the garage to get her car once it was fixed. That's how I ended up at TM the day the van exploded...

I'd been standing close to the van when Chibs got in and tried to start it. He started screaming for me to run when he got out. I ran, but the blast still threw me forward. I hit the ground hard. I'd put my hands out to break my fall. I was lucky because I didn't hit my head, but my wrists hurt from breaking my fall.

I tried to get up on my feet, wanting to help Chibs, but I stumbled and was about to fall again when Opie caught me and kept me upright.

I could tell he was saying something because his lips were moving, but the ringing in my ears was so loud. "Can't hear you," I said, probably too loud. "So loud."

He walked me over to the picnic tables and sat me down, facing the table. Opie knelt down next to me, and pulled out his phone to type a message.

There's a lot of shrapnel and glass in your back. It doesn't look deep though.

"Am I bleeding?" I asked.

He started typing again. Yeah. There's a lot of blood. Does it hurt?

"I can't feel anything, yet. I'm sure that shock has set in," I replied. "Did someone call 911 yet?"

Yeah, they're on the way. Stay here.

"You don't have to worry about that." I put my head down on my arms and closed my eyes. I took deep breaths trying to steady myself.

I looked up when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Clay and Tig were standing in front of me on the other side of the table. I watched their lips move, but all I could hear was a ringing in my ears. I shook my head slightly. Clay squeezed my hand and leaned over to kiss the top of my head. Tig squeezed my shoulder.