Consider Me Gone

Chapter 12.

Jax

I sat in Toni's dark apartment as I waited for her to get back from her date. I put a tail on her all day ever since she pulled that stunt at the club yesterday. Toni hadn't stepped foot in the club in three years, and the first thing she does upon her return is draw up some crap about OSHA.

She knew that we were in no position to be handing out healthcare to the girls. They made more than enough to go out and get their own! She was doing it to spite me, and had she known about Ima coming to the club and flailing her gun around with my kid present, then she wouldn't be so quick to be on her side.

Before following her today, my only intention was to get her to make this OSHA stuff disappear. But after today, I had a lot more questions than she'd be open to.

Toni had attempted to date in the past, and as her luck would have it, she ended up on a date with one of Alvarez's guys. His name was Ghost or Creeper, I don't really remember much about him, besides the fact that Toni met him through online dating. She had no idea that he was a Mayan, and at first, Clay thought that the date was a cover-up and ordered a hit on Toni.

A part of me didn't want to believe that Toni would rat, but the evidence was stacked up against her. Our relationship with the Mayans was rough back then, so we were all under the agreement that we'd kill the guy too.

It came as a shock to everyone when we put a bug on Toni, only to realize that they were on an actual date as two strangers. But we weren't able to call off the hit in time, so Toni's date became a date from hell quickly. Thankfully, the guy lived, but Toni had to work on him right there in the middle of the restaurant.

I felt terrible seeing her cry when the rest of his crew came to get him. She was standing there in her blood-stained dress with black mascara streaks on her cheeks. I wanted to comfort her and take her home, but everyone told me to leave her. If Toni ever found out that I was involved that night, there would be no telling what she would do.

"Is this you?" I straightened up when I heard a male voice. Toni must've been done with her date.

"Yeah," she said with a giggle. I rolled my eyes when I recognized the tone of her voice. Slightly flirty with a nervous undertone, classic. "Do you want to come in?"

My eyebrows raised because if I wasn't mistaken, Dr. Pretty Boy hadn't been in town for even a month, and now she was inviting him inside?!

I got up from where I was sitting, deciding that a gentle surprise was no longer in the cards. I waited until she opened her door to be standing right there like the boogeyman. She jumped at the sight of me, and then her face settled into a scowl.

"What the hell are you doing here?!"

"We need to talk," I said plainly. I locked eyes with her date who looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Say goodnight to your...friend."

That seemed to get him out of his frozen state, and he scoffed at my use of the word. "Toni, do you want me to call the police?" he asked, totally ignoring my presence.

"No, I got this Mark. Just go home, I'll call you," she said still looking at me with a look that could kill a thousand men.

"Toni are you sure?" he said, throwing me a dirty look.

"She's sure buddy, goodnight." I pulled Toni inside of her apartment and slammed the door in his face. It felt satisfying to do that because I knew he was just standing there on the other side of the door fuming.

"Get your hands off of me!" she said pulling her arm out of my grip. "You have ten seconds to get out of my apartment, or I'll take Mark up on his offer!"

"You'd reach out to the police for help?" I scoffed, "That'll be the day." Toni and I had known each other for over a decade, she knew better than to call the cops.

"What do you want Jackson?" she asked, only this time a lot calmer.

"I need you to get rid of this HIPPA sh*t. This little revenge ploy you're cooking up with Ima needs to end, NOW."

Toni scoffed, "Revenge Ploy? Is that what they're calling it now? You smash a woman's face against a table and break her nose, and you think the consequences of your actions are a ploy? Geez, if you put on some heels and a witch hat, I would've mistaken you for your mother."

"There you go, always bringing up someone that has nothing to do with the situation!"

"Your mother has everything to do with every situation! Tell me, was it purely your idea to get rid of Ima or was that your mommy? Because I have a hard time believing that you've stopped suckin' on her tit!"

I wanted to retaliate and defend my mom, but Toni was right. It was her instruction that I followed to make sure that Ima never came back to the club. Ima's presence had caused a lot of hurt for Tara, and now some of that hurt was shared with Lyla. Gemma had advised that the best solution for everyone was to get rid of Ima. Looking back now, there was most likely a better way to go at it, but whether it was me, Tara, Lyla or my mother, Ima was not coming out unscathed.

"I don't even know why I came here, almost forgot how impossible it is to talk to you!"

Toni let out a laugh, "Of course, run home to mommy like you always do. It's what you always did best!"

"Oh yeah, I bet you would love that, so then you could go fumble around in the dark with your doctor."

"Aw, what's the matter, you want to watch? You want to jot down some notes?" Toni lowered her voice as if she was talking to a toddler.

"Trust me, babe, I don't need to take notes from someone like him?" I said confidently. I had no problem in that department, ever. And she knew that very well.

"Oh, dang, how could I forget that you've practiced on every woman in Charming." Classic Toni, always had to have the last word.

"Whatever, just get rid of this OSHA sh*t, I'm not going to tell you again," I said pointing my index finger at her.

"Ooh, if I don't will I have matching noses with Ima? Because trust me, anything you can do, I can do better. Anything, everything, better than you," she sang. I was way past my point of patience with her. She wasn't taking me seriously, and the longer the conversation went the more I remembered why our relationship went downhill.

Toni was my mirror. When I was angry, she was angry. When I was sad, she was sad. When I went nuclear, she was downright destructive. We worked well when we were on the same team, but when we weren't it was World War III.

So, as the only adult in the room, I chose not to engage with her. I made my way to the door and opened it to see her date still standing outside. I gave him a once over, that let him know I found him pathetic, and walked past him without a second glance.

"I know you told me to leave, but I wanted to make sure you were safe." I almost threw up when he said that and tried to drown out the noise of hearing Toni swoon at his "bravery." A real man wouldn't have just sat outside like a guard dog. He would have been in that room, defending his ol' lady with his life. He wouldn't have taken sh*t from someone like me.

But that's the thing, this guy wasn't built for someone like Toni. Sooner or later he'd realize it, and she'd realize it too. It was only a matter of time before this little flame fizzled out, because as much as Toni disassociated from Samcro. She would never be able to disassociate from who she was at her core.