Blood on the Pavement
735 Words
Abby never expected to see his face again.
It was early. The sky still heavy with gray when she stepped out of the bakery, coffee in hand, to find a man leaning against a rusted-out Ford just across the street.
Faded denim jacket. Snakebite smile.
“Hello, Abigail.”
Her grip on the coffee cup tightened. “Caleb.”
He pushed off the truck like he had all the time in the world. “Still got a temper, I bet. You always did burn too hot.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I heard you were back in town. Running a cute little bakery. Making sweet things and playing house.” He stepped closer. “And I figured it might be time we settle old debts.”
Her stomach twisted. “I don’t owe you anything.”
“Oh, I think you do.”
She didn’t notice Jax’s bike until the roar of the engine cut through the quiet like a gunshot.
He pulled up fast. Parked right in front of her. Didn’t even take off his helmet before he was between her and Caleb, muscles coiled and ready to kill.
“You got five seconds to get away from her,” Jax said, voice low and deadly.
Caleb smirked. “You must be the new boy. Cute. But this ain’t your business.”
“Anything involving her is my business.”
Caleb flicked his eyes to Abby. “Funny how you never told him who you really were.”
Jax’s head snapped to her. “What’s he talking about?”
Abby’s mouth opened—but no sound came out.
Caleb laughed. “Oh, she didn’t tell you? How she left in the middle of the night with five grand and a stolen car? How she disappeared for two years while the rest of us took the fall? That bakery money smells a whole lot like guilt, doesn’t it, sweetheart?”
Abby’s heart thundered. Her legs felt like stone.
Jax didn’t blink. Didn’t move.
But Caleb did.
He stepped back, hands raised like he’d won something.
“I’ll be around,” he said. “Let me know when you’re ready to talk real.”
He was gone before Jax said a word.
Back at the Apartment
The silence was too loud.
Abby paced, fingers trembling, adrenaline still poisoning her bloodstream.
“I was eighteen,” she said finally. “My mom was gone. My job paid nothing. Caleb offered me a way out.”
She looked at Jax. “But it was a lie. I didn’t know what he was doing until it was too late. I did take the car. And the cash. But it was mine. My inheritance. They were going to burn it on meth and guns and God knows what else.”
He said nothing.
“I never told anyone because I thought if I stayed quiet, the past would stay buried. But it followed me. Like everything always does.”
Jax stood slowly.
Walked to her.
And pulled her into his arms.
“You think that scares me off?” he murmured against her hair. “Abby… that binds me to you.”
She let herself sink into him. Let herself breathe again.
Hours Later — Reapers’ Garage
The call came just after noon.
Scar was down.
Shot. Left bleeding in an alley near Saint turf.
Jax was already strapping on his vest.
“That’s it,” he said. “They made it personal.”
Vex grabbed a crowbar. “We going in hard?”
“No,” Jax said, eyes like ice. “We go in louder. I want every Reaper geared and ready. Full cut. We hit their bar at sundown. No weapons drawn—yet. We let them know we’re here.”
Ace growled. “And if they don’t get the message?”
“Then we burn it down.”
Meanwhile — Abby’s Bakery
She tried to pretend everything was normal.
She baked.
She cleaned.
She ignored the camera Jax’s crew had mounted in the corner.
Until she found the second note.
This one inside the cash register.
One word, printed in thick red Sharpie:
"RUN."
She didn’t scream.
She didn’t cry.
She picked up her phone, called Jax, and said the one thing she knew would snap every last restraint inside him:
“They were inside while I was working.”
- Writer
