❛ Imma give you what you deserve, old man. ❜

chapter forty.

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ROBERT'S HARSH HAND slaps over Scarlett's mouth once she let out another plead for help and she whimpers into his palm, praying with everything in her that Jax heard. Her father's other hand slams around her jaw and jerks her head up so that she has no option but to look at him.

He's furious. His nostrils flared and his face twitching as he spits in her face, "You better shut the fuck up. I'm gonna go up and deal with your useless boyfriend, and if you don't stay silent, then I won't hesitate to murder you and him." He throws her face from his grip before whirling around on his heel and rushing up the stairs and out of the basement.

Scarlett chokes out a sob and looks towards the tiny window, only to see that Donna's figure is nowhere in sight.

Jax and the boys are stood on the weather damaged porch when her scream rattles the house and reaches their ears. Each of them jerk to a sharp stop while Jax's fist hovers over the door as he was previously going to knock. His arm drops and he slowly turns to look at his two friends.

Opie tilts his head, "That—"

The door is pulled open suddenly, revealing a sweaty dirty Robert Miller. He runs a hand over his hair, brushing the loose pieces away as he nods at the three menacing men stood opposite him, "Alright, boys?" He greets, "Long time no see, eh?"

As Jax listens to him speak, he's soon reminded of everything the gross man did to Scarlett and his face contorts into pure anger. Quickly, Jax takes a large forward and shoved both of his hands into Robert's chest, sending the older man stumbling backwards into the messy house.

"I've heard about your activities with your daughter, Robert!" Jax's voice raises as he waltzes inside after the man whilst he flexes his fist at his side, preparing his knuckles for what's to come. Robert backs up until he hits the armchair and nearly falls over and he flinched at the Teller's loud voice, "The fuck makes you think you can get away with that shit, hm?" He curls his hand around the neckline of Robert's grubby tank top before sending his ringed fist right across his face.

Robert's head is flung to the side, and if it wasn't for Jax's grip on his clothes, then he'd be sprawled out on the floor coughing out blood.

While Jax hisses harsh words into the old man's ear, Opie and Chibs wander around the bungalow, both of them with disgusted faces as the further they walk they notice more gross features about the place. Syringes and packets of coke scatter the floor, along with hundreds of empty beer bottles. The fucking place is a crack house, has been for decades.

"Do you know where she is?" Jax's head tilts daringly and he squeezes Robert's cheeks and pulls his head to look at him properly. He grinds his teeth at the silence, "Don't make me fucking kill you."

Chibs reaches the basement door, and kicks it open further with his foot and his eyes travel down the creaky stairs until they land on a body at the very bottom. He can only see the bare bloody legs but it's undeniably Scarlett. Who else would this fucker have tied up?

"Fuckin' hell," Chibs grinds out furiously before looking over his shoulder, "Jackie!" He calls, "You better get over here. Me and Ope will deal with him," He moves away from the top of the stairs and advances towards Robert, who's eyes are wide as he realises what Chibs has found, "I've always dreamed of draining this fucker's blood."

Confused, Jax slowly releases Robert and shoves him into Opie's chest who knocks him down to his knees on the wooden floor. Chibs nods towards the basement door before stepping around Jax and beginning to speak with Robert.

"You've always been one sick fuck, Robbie," Chibs grimaces, "But this is. . ." He can't even manage to finish his sentence as he struggles to imagine what Scarlett looks like completely if her legs were as bloody as he saw.

At his friends words, Jax's brows furrow and he moves towards the basement door. He freezes in place at the top of the stairs for a moment and his eyes widen in shock. A second later and he's jumping down the stairs like his life depends on it and once his feet land on the cold concrete of the basement, his soul caves in on itself. Scarlett is knelt in front of him with her torso naked and her arms strewn up to the ceiling with chains. His mouth falls open as his eyes take over her body. A cut travels down her stomach and her face is black and blue. Then his eyes land on her shoulder blade, right where his name was tatted on her. The area of skin is charred and burned.

"What the fuck?" He whispers before skidding done onto his own knees in front of her. Her head is hung and her eyes are closed as he grabs her swollen face and gently tilts her head up so he can look at her properly. His hands begin to shake and his fury towards Robert sky rockets to the max, "Scarlett," He speaks quietly, fearing that maybe she's too far gone, "Scarlett. Come on. Open your eyes."

"Jax?" She mutters before pulling her eyes open and once her face lands on his beautiful face she erupts into tears once more, "Oh my god."

His thumbs are quick to the catch them, and she wishes that he'd been there to catch them before, "What the fuck did he do to you?" He whispers, more to himself as one of his fingers drops to skim over the cut on her stomach, "That fucking—"

"Please just get me down," She begs, wanting nothing more than to finally be able to rest her arms, "Please."

Jax nods quickly, leaning forward and pressing a long kiss to her forehead before pushing himself from the floor to look at the chains wrapped around her wrists. Each of them are padlocked around her and he curses under his breath.

"What?" She looks up at him quickly.

"Hey, no," He notices her worried tone, catching her face in one of his hands and brushing away more tears, "I'm just gonna have to shoot the locks, alright? Can I do that, darlin'?"

Her eyes flutter closed and she nods before moving her head away from him, preparing herself for the shot. Jax swallows thickly as he slides his gun from the back of his jeans and he quickly shoots of both of the locks, leaving them to clatter to the ground. He doesn't fail to see how Scarlett flinched at each sound he created and he had to push back his own tears as he presented himself in front of her once more.

"Okay, they're gone. They're gone," His hands move up and curl around her biceps before gently tugging her arms from the hold of the chains, "You're okay."

Immediately, she collapses forward into him and he drops back onto the floor and holds her against his chest. One of his hands moves up to cradle the back of her head while the other runs up and down her bare back.

"He— he burnt me, Jax," She sobs, backing away from him slightly to show him the wound on her shoulder. Her face crumpled further as she looks at it again, "He fucking scarred me."

"I'm gonna fucking kill him," Jax snarls, the hand that was resting on the back of her hand moving around to turn her head away from her wounds, "But first I gotta get you outta here and to the hospital," She nods in understanding before dropping her head back against his chest. Jax clenches his jaw before looking over his shoulder and up the stairs, "Ope!" He calls.

A second later and Opie appears at the top of the stairs. His eyes widen in horror at the crumpled couple at the bottom and his face slowly contorts into further anger. Robert Miller is never walking again, "What can we do, man?" Ope asks.

"Call Juice. Get him to bring the van over. She needs the hospital right now and I can't ride her there," Jax orders, "Tell him to fucking hurry otherwise I'll have his head."

Already digging his phone from his pocket, Opie nods and backs away as it rings. Jax bites his lip as she moves his gaze back down to Scarlett as she sobs into him and he finally properly acknowledges that she's in nothing but a pair of small panties.

"Scarlett," He speaks quietly, tapping her back gently so she pushes away from him. Quickly, he shrugs off his kutte, "Can you hold your arms out for me, baby?"

She doesn't bother nodding and instead weakly lifts her arms so that he's able to slide each arm through the holes of his kutte so that her torso is more and less covered by it. She relaxes significantly once she feels the contact of his clothes and he takes her face in his hands once more.

"Juice is coming with the club van, okay? You gon' be okay with him and Chibs if me and Ope stay here and deal with Robert?" He asks, not wanting to leave her for a moment but he can't wait to put a burley between her father's eyes.

She puts her full head weight into his hands as she feels to weak to hold herself up any longer, "As long as you kill him then I'll be okay."

Jax studies her face closely, despite her eyes being swollen from the punches and her cheeks being slit from his rings, he can tell there isn't one ounce of life or light behind her eyes. Her lips are flat and her eyes are threatening to close as she doesn't want to hold them open any longer.

"You gotta stay awake, okay?" Jax urges, tapping her cheek gently with his index finger, "Just 'til your at the hospital. Then you can sleep for however long you like. Just know that you won't have to deal with my mom for a while." He attempts a weak joke to lift her mood slightly.

She grunts in response, trying to show him that she's not completely void and failing miserably, "She'll still be poking around. Can't help herself."

"I'll keep her away from you," Jax reassures her, and his eyebrows crease slightly as he remembers the events at the wrap party and everything else previous he's done to her. He sighs as his thumb rhythmically brushes under her eyes, "I'm sorry, Scar. So fucking sorry."

Despite her eyes being closed now, he knows she's not asleep or dead as she whispers out, "Ain't your fault."

"Jax!" A shout bounces down the stairs and Opie appears at the top and he motions towards the open front door, "Juice is here. You need any help getting her up?"

"No, thanks, man," Jax declines, "I got her."

Scarlett hums, "You've got me."

Jax nods as he manoeuvres her around so that he's able to lift her into his arms with one arm under her neck and the other under her knees, "Always will."

Scarlett's head falls back as he moves up the stairs and her eyes drift down to the space in the basement where she'd been hours strewn to the ceiling. Her blood stains the floor and her stripped clothes lay ripped up. But now, Donna sits there. She's sat crossed legged between the hanging chains, surrounded by Scarlett's blood. She looks up the stairs as Scarlett's carried away and smiles in relief and Scarlett can't help but smile softly back at her imaginary dead friend until Jax reaches the top and Donna's slowly hidden.

Jax breaks into a run towards the van and Chibs stands at the side door, holding it open in preparing for her arrival. The blonde biker places her down carefully inside before turning to Jujve and Chibs, who stand there with shocked faces at her state. He points at them both, "You get her there safe and I don't want anything else to happen to her, okay?" Jax demands, "Ope and I are gonna deal with Robert. I'll see you both at the hospital." He slips between them before striding back to the horror house, pulling his pistol from the back of his jeans once more.

"Better fucking hurry, Juicey," Chibs shoves the younger man towards the drivers seat before clanging into the back with Scarlett. He slides the door across, slamming it shut and instantly their moving. Chibs looks down as he sits on the floor with her, "Oh, Letty," He whispers noticing her expressionless face as she stares him. He pulls her body gently into his and she curls her arms around his waist, "We've got you now, lass."

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THE BOYS HAD reached the hospital in record time and Chibs had been the one to carry Scarlett as he and Juice sprinted into massive building, leaving the club van parked illegally on the sidewalk. They both moved quickly as they rushed through the corridors, not wanting waiting patients to see her in such a state. Juice shouted for Moore until they ended up at the man's office. Thankfully, Alex was able to swallows down his shock and horror as he led them to set her down on a gurney. Scarlett had watched with weak eyes as a bunch of nurses bustled around her but never once did she release Chibs' hand that she was clinging to for dear life.

Then she'd been forced to let go once she was wheeled into a separate room to be inspected properly. A large surgery wasn't needed but some stitching and a few bandages were necessary so the nurses had to fight off Juice and Chibs as they tried to force themselves in to be with her. Obviously it had been no use and soon they were banished to the waiting room down the hall; left to simmer in their anxiety as Jax dealt with business.

"What the hell happened, Chibs?" Juice stumbles out, his fingers fiddling in his lap as he thinks back to when he first saw Jax jogging down the garden path with a bleeding bare Scarlett in his arms, "What kinda person would do that to her of all people?"

Chibs grunts in disgust, "Her father."

"She's your daughter, Robert!" Jax's furious yell rumbles the weak house at the other end of Charming. The old man is on his knees in the centre of the living room with the cold barrel of Jax's gun pressed against his forehead. His nose is bleeding, his lips slit and his eyes are being to swell from the continuous beating he received from both Jax and Opie, "Why'd you do it? Why'd you nearly fucking kill her?"

Robert smiles up at the blonde biker. Never once has he pleaded or begged for his life during their interaction and it appeared that his expression always returned to a sinister smile, "Cause that's what she deserved for mucking around with the Club," He chuckles, "I liked your father, Jackson. I did. He was my best friend. And right now you're not acting like him. You're acting like Clay," He spits, "Holding that fucking thing to my head when you know you're too much of a fucking coward to finish me off."

"You wanna bet?" Jax grinds his jaw and pushes the barrel further into his skin, "Imma give you what you deserve, old man."

But then Opie speaks, he pushes away from the wall where'd he'd previously been watching from afar, "Jane," He says, motioning towards a picture of the woman that's rested on the coffee table. The glass is shattered but the picture underneath is as clear as day, "Where is she?" He's checked the house. She wasn't in the bedroom. She wasn't anywhere to be seen. It was a known fact by many that the older Millers were inseparable.

Robert shrugs, not even bothering to look down at the image of his wife when she was a teenage. It used to be his favourite picture of her. He'd even been the one to take it, but he'd also been the one who sent the frame hurling across the room a few days ago, "Fuck knows. Ran off a lil' less than a week ago. Stupid bitch." He tuts at the memory of watching his wife dash down the driveway late at night with a small bag clung to her.

"You beat her too?" Opie snarls. Surprisingly, Jane Miller had been kind to him when he was a teenager. They'd pass one another a exchange a few words and never once did she stop smiling. Opie's finally sure that her and Piney had an affair when he was a kid, which put him off her somewhat. But she never showed him any form aggression. She was nice in comparison to the man she married.

"Course I did," Robert scoffs, "I did the same with the boy."

"Jamie?" Opie asks.

"That's the one," Robert rolls his eyes, "Useless motherfucker. Couldn't even bring himself to talk to me."

"He was ten when they left," Opie shakes his head, "The fuck you expect from a young boy with a deadbeat father?"

"Scarlett protected him too much," Robert mumbles, "She'd have saved herself from a lot of gnarly punishments if she just followed my fucking rules. I wouldn't have put my cock inside her if she hadn't wandered up late every night. I wouldn't—"

"What the fuck did you just say?" Jax's voice cuts through the space between them like a sharp knife as his heart folds over. No way in hell was Robert being truthful.

Robert laughs, "Yeah, that's right. I fucked her. I—"

The deafening sound of a shot blasts through the house as Jax's finger squeezes the trigger, sending a bullet flying through the old man's brains, finally silencing his excruciating words. His body crumples to the ground and he cracks his bloody skull against the coffee table, causing the shattered picture of his wife to fall down onto his dead body. Jax's nostrils flare and he slowly lowers the smoking pistol before leaning over Robert and spitting down onto him.

"Got what he deserved," Opie nods, looking down at the deceased figure, "I'll call the boys. Get someone to clean this shit up."

"I feel sick," Jax has to put effort into tearing his eyes away from Robert and he turn's completely to face Opie. That's when his best friend notices the tear brimming Jax's eyes, "How the fuck could I let him do that shit to her?" He pulls his hands down his face, one of them still clinging onto the gun.

"None of us knew, brother," Opie pats his shoulder reassuringly, "Not even Cami. But you've settled it now. So don't dwell on the past and get to the hospital and see your girl. I'll hold down the fort here, okay?" He reaches into his pocket and reveals his phone as he gets ready to call the Sons, "I've got this."

Jax takes one last look at the soon to be rotting body of Robert Miller before he releases a shaky breath and digs his gun back into his waistband. Then he gives Opie a grateful hug before he makes his way outside to his bike. Finally he can concentrate on Scarlett.

. . .

i feel like this was very bad idkw

word count,
3300

never proof read