Spark in the Dark

Chapter 162

Shawn began feeling sick later that night, just as she had after Carla told her the truth about Dawn's death. She went to bed early, falling asleep as Juice rubbed her back. The next day, she stayed home from Diosa at Juice's insistence. Turned out, he had called both Tara and Nero the night before and they were in agreement with him.

She tried asking him about Jax and Nero's fight the day before, wondering if he knew anything about Clay and the nomads, but he stopped her, not only because he didn't want her worrying over club shit, but also because he didn't have any answers to her questions. He had figured something was up when Clay had him sit outside Unser's place to keep watch for the nomads, but it sounded like Shawn knew more than he did.

The guys were planning on tracking down Frankie that day now that they had a good lead on where he went. Chibs had called late that night for a ride and the prospects had picked him up on the side of a highway and taken him to the hospital. He had seen someone picking up Frankie before being knocked out, which resulted him in needing his head stitched. Juice hoped to be able to ease Shawn's concerns once they found Frankie and questioned him.

After getting her settled on the couch and making sure she didn't need anything, a few times, Juice left. Shawn was beginning to think she was going to have to kick him out of the house. It only took a couple of hours before Shawn grew bored. She thought about going to Lyla's, since she must be home today, too, after being shot, but she knew that wasn't exactly what Juice would consider 'taking it easy.' Shawn had promised him she'd stay off her feet as much as possible and was going to do what was best for their daughter.

When Juice pulled in to TM, he saw Chibs sitting at a picnic table, wearing a hat. He assumed it was to cover his stitches.

"Hey, man," Juice greeted him when he got closer. "Good to see you in one piece."

"Juicy," Chibs stood and hugged him. "Good to be in one piece, brother. Check this out."

Chibs took off the hat and showed Juice his stitches. "Damn."

"You sound impressed," Chibs laughed.

"A little," Juice laughed. "Hey, I wanted to thank you for that. Shawn told me you went in her place. It's good to know my wife and kid are being taken care of when I'm not around."

"Do you remember when we were in Ireland? I asked you to keep an eye on Fiona and Karianne when Jimmy was looking for them?"

"Yeah."

"And when I thanked you for protecting them, what did you say?"

"With my life, brother," Juice repeated the words he told Chibs so long ago.

"I love all three of yous. You know that."

"We love you, too."

"Let's find the bastard who tried to take them both, yeah?"

"Yeah."

* * *

Juice arrived home late that night, feeling a little worn down. Finding Frankie hadn't exactly gone according to plan. He and Clay ended up finding him before the rest of the guys. Juice and Frankie had been alone for about a second before Clay walked in, but that second had been enough for Frankie to admit that Clay had put the nomads up to doing all the break ins. Now Juice couldn't stop wondering what Nero had told Shawn about Clay and the nomads.

He entered the house and found her on the couch. She had to TV on, but wasn't paying much attention to it, her gaze was on the laptop screen sitting on her lap.

"Hey," she said without looking up. "I thinking about painting the room gray and just having, like, a tiny bit of pink in there. You know, like an accent color?"