Other Side of the Tracks

Chapter 19

Jax was in pain; Julia could tell by the way he walked toward her, the way his breathing was measured and his chest tense. Watching closely as Charlie extended his hand, Julia watched as Jax stretched his arm toward Charlie, wincing from the pain, and it made her heart sink.

"Handsome Jack," Charlie chuckled, "Glad to see you back on your feet."

"I'm sure you are," he shook Charlie's hand. "Any word on who?"

Julia looked at the ground, knowing it was so hard for Jax to swallow what Charlie had done, and listened to them discuss.

"We haven't heard shit," Nero huffed.

"Us either," Jax added.

"I heard some chatter," Charlie said smugly. "Either of you boys got beef with the Mayans?"

Immediately Jax looked surprised, thinking back to the baseball game attack, but shook his head. "I'm good with Alvarez."

"Me and Marcus go way back," Nero sighed. "He wouldn't."

"But his kid would," Charlie added. "Esai has been known to get a little overly excited."

Julia's eyes narrowed as pieces began to fit in her head. She suddenly doubted the story Esai sold Marcus and Jax and speculated Charlie had known, or assumed, they were together much earlier than she realized.

"Oh yeah," Jax smirked. His eyes met with Julia's and he could see she too was thinking Charlie had been behind it. "He's a cowboy alright."

"Then what are we going to do about it?" Nero asked darkly.

Charlie shook his head. "I'll handle it for you."

"You two have been through enough," Julia added timidly.

"As long as it's over, mano," Nero sighed. "I'm too old for this shit."

"It's over," Charlie assured him.

"I look forward to the details," Nero laughed darkly. "We done here?"

"We're done," Charlie nodded.

"We're not," Jax pointed at Charlie. "I think it's time you and I had a talk."

Nero was impressed Jax did it, let alone while at such a disadvantage, but there he was about to go head to head with Charlie Barosky all over a girl. Charlie smirked and nodded, gesturing for Jax to follow him down the long row of dock slips. Julia took barely two steps before Charlie held his hand out, stopping her in her tracks.

"What?" She was genuinely surprised he didn't want her present for the conversation.

"Let the men talk, sweetie." Charlie winked, never more condescending than in that moment, and her blood boiled.

Jax gave Julia a look, one that told her he was sorry but he agreed, so she stayed put with a cloudy expression on her face. The two men walked slowly down the dock, each equally suspicious of the other, until they were far enough away that Julia and the other Sons couldn't overhear.

"Jules says you know about me and her, she tried to end things the other night."

With each word Charlie nodded. "Dumped you the night you got shot, wounded pride on top of it all."

"She didn't want to," he rolled his eyes. "Still doesn't want to but I haven't seen her since then because of you."

Charlie stopped and turned toward Jax. "What do you want me to say?"

"You trust me enough to do business with me but not to date Julia?"

"Date?" He laughed in Jax's face. "You don't want to date her. You want to sleep with her and use her to get to me. You don't strike me as a man who works with women and I've seen it before, I've seen the guys trying to discredit her and use her."

Jax pursed his lips and listened skeptically as Charlie went on and on. "Ya done?"

"Yeah," he scoffed. "I'm done."

"You own shit," Jax said forcefully. "You have your turf and your business and your rules, she ain't blood and she ain't a partner or your heir, she's your pretty little mouthpiece. You parade her around like some damn hood ornament." Laughing darkly, he pointed at Charlie accusingly. "I don't think you even want her to run it all, I think you want to hook her up with whoever you pick and have him take over."

Charlie smirked. "So, we suspect each other of the same thing, now, don't we?"

"Yeah, guess we do." Jax stood straight and confident despite the burning from his wound.

"This where I'm supposed to offer you the spot?" He looked at Julia. "Work together?"

With the corners of his mouth curling into a smile Jax ran his tongue along his bottom lip and slowly nodded. "I think we can work something out." He leaned in closer. "I got no interest in her business, except Diosa, but I got an interest in her. I'm gonna keep seeing her, old man."

"That's your idea of working something out?" Charlie snarled while still keeping his nonchalant exterior.

"No," Jax shook his head. "This is me telling you how it's gonna be with Jules. I just got one question; what did you think would happen if you died before you got her married off?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he shrugged. "You want to get mixed in with my niece? Fine but watch your back, Teller. I'm going to be all over you, waiting for you to fuck up, watching for your first mistake."

"Not the first Barosky to be all over me," he winked.

Smugly, Jax walked back toward Julia and as he usually did, hooked his arm around her waist. She looked down the docks at Charlie, who nodded his forced approval, before kissing Jax passionately. One of the cops Charlie held in high esteem, his right-hand man aside from Julia, jogged down to meet him.

"You sure about this?"

Charlie nodded and watched as Jax and Julia blatantly professed their budding relationship for the first time. "We're going to use her to destroy him."

"You're not gonna kill him?" He asked in amazement.

"Nah," Charlie said as he started walking again. "We're gonna turn her against him, get him and his biker boys out of Diosa, and eventually, move into Charming."

Further up the dock Julia beamed at Jax, thrilled he had succeeded, and showed him with a flurry of kisses. "I can't believe it," she giggled. 

"I can." When he scrunched his nose he felt a rush of embarrassment. Jax was never usually so lovey with anyone especially in public, but he could see how excited Julia was, so he humored her simultaneously working Charlie's nerves, not that he didn't enjoy it himself even just a little bit. "You doubt me?" He asked feigning offense. She too was playing it up, mostly to rub it in Charlie's face, but neither had an idea the other was doing the very same.

"No, but I know Charlie." They headed toward her car with Jax leaning some of his weight on her. "So, what did you guys say?"  

"We'll talk at your place," he sighed. "I'll tell you everything and we'll figure out how we're gonna goad him out."

"And how we're going to take him down?" She unlocked the passenger side door. "Make him ruin himself?"

"Exactly."