I've Got This Friend

Chapter 17

Three weeks. It had been three weeks and Mae hadn't heard anything from Jude; no calls or texts she even felt freer when she went for her morning jogs. Every morning, despite the lack of contact, she still scanned the video recordings from the night before while having her coffee. It wasn't her favorite thing but it cemented her new feeling of safety.

Mae stepped out of her house, stretched, and as usual took the first left as she began her jog. It was the same path every morning, the same playlist on her iPod, and the same few neighbors milling about. She felt free, a smile on her face as she upped her speed, when suddenly the sick feeling of eyes on her ended the careful fun. With bated breath, she looked back only to see Opie cruising behind her wearing a wide toothy smile.

"You jerk!" She shouted, pulling her ear buds out, and walking to the curb. "How long were you following me?"

"Just a block." Opie hooked his arm around her waist and gave her a tug toward him. "You look good."

"Mmm hmmm," she gave his beard a hard tug. "Where are you off to so early?"

"Wahewa business, they're early risers apparently."

Mae looked down the block and pulled a face. "You're going all by yourself? It looks like you're checking up on me."

"I went ahead." He admitted, his thumb running along her collarbone slowly as his hand sat on her shoulder. "Just to check up on you."

"What a sweetie." With a light giggle, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "I have a late one tonight, psychiatrist supervision meeting with the other therapists. We all discuss our clients and their progress."

Nodding, he kissed her just as the others rounded the corner. "Call me if you need anything. Do you want me to pick you up?"

"I think I'll be okay." Opie wasn't thrilled that she'd ask him to put murder on the backburner. If Jude was in hiding, she didn't want to make anything messy or dangerous if it wasn't necessary. "He's been gone so I want to get back to living my life. Thank you though, you're sweet." Flashing Jax, Juice and Bobby a shy smile, she waved and kissed Opie one last time. "Be careful, have a good day."

"Yeah I will, you too, babe."

--

"No," Mae shook her head. "He's not a risk, not from what I've seen in sessions. He truly wants to move passed it all and doesn't want to be discharged. He knows he won't be deployed again but something is better than nothing."

Her supervisor nodded and scribbled something on her paper. "When we discussed his meds I was thinking the same thing, he's focused on that goal. The only concern I have is him focusing too hard, he needs to stay even."

"I agree." Mae smiled and checked Private Eckerson off her list. "He's my last."

"How are you?" The supervising doctor asked. "I know you lost one of your clients a few months back."

"It's been about three months give or take." Mae frowned. "I'm okay. There was nothing I could have done for Kip and it's a shame and I grieved but I'm doing well."

"Good. Attachment causes problems."

"I know." Mae forced a smile. "Who should I send in when I leave?"

The doctor flipped to a list of clients. "Aaron Fuller. Have a good night, Mae."

Sending in her coworker, Mae went back to her office to pack her things when there was a knock at the door. It was after hours and while the receptionist had gone, the guards remained at the entrance of the building. She was far from concerned.

"Come in."

The door opened and closed quickly and when she looked up, Mae's breath caught in her throat and the color drained from her face.

"Jude," she said in a weak but still a somewhat warning tone. Looking at the bouquet of flowers in his hand Mae knew how he got in the building. "Delivery guy, very cliché."

"It's not about originality." He grinned and, placing the flowers on her desk, he sat across from her. "All it took was three weeks to throw you and that fucking ape of a man off your game."

"You've still been watching haven't you?"

"Everyday." He grinned. "When you go home tonight watch the videos from last Wednesday again."

"I watch them every morning."

"Those are the looped edits. Whoever wired your place was good but he should have checked that the whole system wasn't compromised."

Mae whimpered and bit her lip to keep from making another unwanted noise. "Look, Jude, just get it over with. Whatever you're going to do, just do it and that'll be it."

"What do you think I'm going to do?"

"I don't know." She pushed her chair away from her desk. "Beat me with a pillowcase full of bars of soap?"

Jude lifted his shirt to show Mae a gnarly scar, about five inches in length, right above his belly button. "I got shanked, Mae, you know how much that hurts?"

"No," she shook her head.

"You don't want to know what they did to me in the infirmary."

She didn't want to know, she really did not want to know. "So is that what you're going to do?"

His lips curled into a lopsided smile. "I don't know. I never knew how tight your little body was until I saw you and that asshole fucking. I wouldn't want to ruin it."

"I'd rather have you stab me." She spat bitterly. "I'll never have sex with you."

"That's a shame." He sighed. "I've been into some pretty interesting photography subjects."

From his jacket, he pulled rolled up photographs, the same size and high quality as the ones she'd seen before, and dropped them on her desk. It featured Opie mainly, a few of the other guys littered the shots, in extremely damning positions.

"Now," he pointed to the first photo. "Homemade ammunition isn't exactly illegal all the time, there's some ways to get around that, but really what law abiding citizen needs thousands of rounds for automatic weapons?"

"I don't know anything about his club business." She stuttered.

"That's sweet, really it is." Jude looked around her office drawing out the conversation and scaring her more and more.

"So what do you want to keep this quiet?"

"I don't know yet." He admitted. "I'm just having fun seeing you squirm. The COs did that to me, I guess I kind of get it now. So, here's the deal pretty bird, if you say anything to anyone, your biker buddies or the cops, I send these pictures and more to the locals and you will feel every ounce of pain I felt."

"Okay." She mumbled, terrified and sick. "Whatever you want, I'll do it."

"Good," he walked backwards toward the door. "See you soon."

Mae broke down once the door shut again. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed hysterically until her chest ached and her makeup was completely washed away. It took close to an hour for her to calm and make it out to her car. She heard her phone's shrill little text tone and dreaded seeing Opie's name.

"You okay? It's getting late, I'm just checking on you."

Mae began to cry again and with shaky fingers typed a curt response. "I'm fine. Just leaving now but I'm exhausted, I'll call you later." After that threat, Mae wanted nothing more than to curl up in Opie's arms but she saw now the danger she posed to him and the club.

--

Whenever I write Jude I always picture Shia LaBeouf! So now he's Jude! Creepy, sick Jude. Thanks for all the comments and votes, you guys rock! xoxo