The Biker's deadly obsession

Chapter four

Jax’s pov

She didn't believe me.

She didn't f*****g believe me.

But why the hell should she?

I'd betrayed her, destroyed her in front of everyone who mattered. I sent her to prison myself, watched them drag her away and did nothing to stop it.

I'd expected this reaction. I had prepared myself for her hatred.

But I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt.

“ I don't expect anything. I just have a question for you.”

Bailey stiffened at my words, like she already knew what I was about to ask.

"Is she mine?" The question came out before I could stop it.

“Is she my daughter?"

I knew the answer, I had known it from the moment I had seen that baby carrier two years ago. But I needed to hear her say it.

Bailey's hand tightened on the doorframe. She stood there for what felt like an eternity and I could see the war in her eyes.

A part of her wanted to deny it, to keep this one thing from me.

Then, quietly: "Yes."

The single word hit me like a freight train.

I had a daughter.

A four-year-old daughter who was sick, a daughter who didn't know who I was.

A daughter I'd never held, never protected the way a father should.

My hands curled into fists on my knees.

"Why didn't you tell me?" My voice came out rough and barely controlled.

Bailey laughed bitterly.

“Tell you? How exactly was I supposed to do that, Jax? Send you a letter? 'Hey, remember when you betrayed me and destroyed my life? Well, surprise, I'm pregnant with your kid.' Is that what I should have done?” The pain in her voice and on her face was unmistakable.

"I would have…"

"What? Come rescue me?" She shook her head. "We both know that's not true."

But it was. God knows I would have rescued her.

If I'd known, everything would have been different.

But there was no way to find out. I stayed away from her to protect her, or at least that’s what I convinced myself.

would have found another way. Would have burned the club to the ground with my bare hands if that's what it took.

"I found out two weeks after I got to Northpoint," she continued, her voice flat.

“I gave birth in the prison hospital with guards watching, held her for three hours before they took her away." She narrated and every word was a knife in my chest.

My woman, pregnant and alone in that hellhole. Rage bubbled deep inside me.

“ They later brought her back due to poor health. That's how I managed to keep her. Otherwise she would have gone to the system.”

That was the fate of a child born inside a correctional facility.

"I didn't know." I said, the words tasting like ash in my lips.

"Would it have changed anything if you did?" She fired back and the look of disappointment and defeat made my heart crack.

I would have changed everything. I would have found a different way. I would have protected her differently. I would have been there when she needed me most.

But I couldn't say that.

I couldn't make promises I had already broken.

She stood there another moment, studying me with those eyes that used to look at me with love. Now they just looked tired.

"Bailey…"

"Goodnight, Jax."

She said, turned and went back inside without giving me a chance to say anything.

Looking at her back disappear through the window, her earlier accusation struck me.

She thought I sacrificed her for power.

What she didn't know was that that power came with a price called scars.

Every scar in my body was a payment, a representation of a piece of my soul traded for the strength to protect her from a distance.

It was never for myself or my ambition.

She even thought I had killed her father to get ahead.

Marcus Reyes had saved my life.

He found me beaten half to death in an alley when I was seventeen, my old man's work written in bruises across my body.

He brought me to the clubhouse, gave me a purpose and taught me what it meant to be part of something bigger.

“You protect what's yours, boy. Whatever it takes without hesitation."

That's what he told me the night he gave us his blessing. The night I asked if I could be with Bailey.

He gave me one rule; to protect his daughter no matter what.

I'd failed him.

When they killed him, I should have exposed them immediately.

But I'd been nobody, just another member with no power and no proof.

So I'd made a choice.

I chose to get the power first, then get revenge.

Now, it seems I miscalculated. I sacrificed Bailey.. . and our daughter too.

I walked and stopped outside Lily's door. I pressed my palm against the wood, knowing my daughter was sleeping just on the other side.

I missed everything in her childhood, her first cry, her first word, her first steps…

I missed four years of her life because I had been too busy playing the long game. I was too busy building power and gathering evidence and convincing myself it was all for the right reasons.

I had told myself I was protecting them.

But really, I'd just been afraid.

I was afraid that if I went to Bailey too soon, without enough power, without enough proof, I'd lose her all over again. That the club would take her and Lily both and I wouldn't be strong enough to stop them.

So I waited and watched from afar.

The result? My daughter grew up without knowing my name.

I moved to my own room, grabbed a cigar from the drawer and lit it.

I let the smoke fill my lungs as I looked at my reflection in the window.

The scars weren't just on my body. They were etched into my face now.

There were lines around my eyes from too many sleepless nights and a hardness in my jaw that had not been there five years ago.

I had become exactly what I needed to become. The Devil's Reach MC's most feared Enforcer.

I had crawled through blood and violence and betrayal to get here. I had done things that would have made the old Jax sick to his stomach.

All to protect a woman who now looked at me like I was a monster.

Maybe I was.

But I was her monster, I had always been hers.

And I was going to prove it.

The club wanted to clean the house? Fine,let them come.

Let them send Reaper and Knuckles and every other killer they had.

I'd been preparing for this war for five years.

Now it was finally time to fight it.

I took another drag of the cigar, exhaled slowly.

"I don't care whether you believe it or not, Bailey," I said quietly to the empty room. To the woman sleeping on the other side of that wall. "I will not make the same mistake I did before. I will protect you and our daughter, even at the cost of my life."