Other Side of the Tracks

Chapter 23

The next morning, while Ryan prattled on about his last call shift the night before, Julia imagined how Nero's conversation went with Jax. It wasn't pretty, that she was sure of, but she couldn't help wonder how bad it was or how hurt he was. If she asked Nero, he wouldn't have told her how angry Jax was or given her details of the show he put on to hide his heartbreak and the insults he spewed against Charlie and even Julia, although those were weak and meaningless, would have remained unspoken.

"How are you even up right now after such a busy night?" She asked as a way to hopefully push him out of the bakery and back home. "I'd be sleeping if I were you."

With a sweet little smile, he shrugged. "I wanted to see you. I'm glad you agreed to try this again."

"Yeah," she rolled her eyes. "Crazy how Charlie just randomly told you that, huh?"

"You're too proud to admit it," he said knowingly. "You never would have come to me."

"Thank God for Charlie," she said sarcastically. "Go back to your place and sleep so we can have dinner tonight."

His face lit up. "That sounds great," he jumped to his feet and kissed her cheek. "I'll pick you up at seven at your apartment?"

"Sure," she forced a weak smile.

Ryan was barely down the block before she snuck out and raced over to Diosa. She wanted to torture herself, she needed the gory details, but she doubted Nero would enable her self-deprecation.

"Hey Kiki," Julia smiled as the hostess greeted her. "Is Nero here?"

"Yeah, in his office." Leaning in closer, Kiki whispered in Julia's ear. "Did you really break up with Jax?"

Julia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger, and realized it must have been all over the house by now. "I did."

"Oh good," Kiki nodded. "He was upset, he uhh, spent the night. I was so mad until the girls said you dumped him."

"Colette, right?" Julia asked, her chin quivering as she spoke.

"How'd you know?"

"She was clearly attracted to him," Julia shrugged. It was more than that, though; it was a way to hurt Julia, in one of the worst ways, and disrespect Charlie in one fell swoop. "I'll be in with Nero."

"Okay," Kiki waved cheerfully.

As Julia passed the stairwell she could see Colette walking Jax out, her hand wrapped around his, heading to the steps. Even as exhausted and sorrowful as Jax looked Julia still felt awful, angry, and sick. She scurried into Nero's office so neither of them saw her.

"Whoa, mama," Nero turned as she burst through the door. "What's the rush?"

"I didn't want Jax to see me," she huffed. "Guess he bought it?"

Nero nodded sadly. "He did, I'm sorry."

"What did I expect?" She scoffed. "Sex is a way of life for those guys."

"He loves you, Julia."

"Don't say that," she shook her head. "I need to kill Charlie."

"What?" He drew his head back.

"He lied to me my whole life, probably threatened my mom into keeping her mouth shut, and just...he did all this, Nero. It's not even Jax, if I wanted I could just walk away from the business to be with him, it's about everything else."

"And how do you think you're gonna do this?"

"No one knows about all this shit so, I'm gonna fuck around with the books and maybe make some vague threats or something and either get him killed or say he attacked me and do it myself."

"He did attack you," he sighed. "You need to think about this," Nero warned. "It sounds sloppy and dangerous."

"I want this," she sneered. "I didn't go through all this shit just to let him take it from me. Fuck that old bastard."

"Calm. Down." Nero said softly. "I don't want to see you thrown off Stockton docks, Julia."

"Then what do I do?" She asked desperately. "I'm scared he's going to snap and kill me or I'll be left with nothing and out on my ass."

"Give it time, let me think about it, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you," she sniffled. "You're literally a lifesaver."

--

"Jax," Bobby was somber when he greeted his President outside the clubhouse. "We have to talk."

His face twisted in annoyance but he nodded and followed Bobby through to chapel. "What?"

Handing Jax a fake ledger Clay had put together Bobby frowned deeply. "She wasn't coming to us for help, she was scamming us."

"Where did you get this?"

"Clay got it from Gemma who said she stole it from Nero, apparently."

Shaking his head, Jax tossed the leather bound book on the table and turned, punching a hole in the drywall. "This is bullshit. Somebody is lying. I did those books with her, made deposits together, she didn't scam us and this," he tapped the book, "Didn't come from Nero."

It made sense although Bobby was as sure as Jax. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm gonna talk to the one person not talking to us." Jax spat. "Me, you and Ope are gonna sit down with Nero. Tonight."

--

Shortie for the holiday weekend! Votes and comments, please! xoxo