Sons of Anarchy: Bratva by Christopher Golden

it. Sometimes the house loses. Sometimes the cards go the other way, and the house gets burned to the ground.”

 
    5
    Jax held his son Thomas in his arms and pressed his nose against the boy’s head. Thomas wasn’t a baby anymore, but his head still had that baby smell, reminding Jax of his most important role. His sons were his world, his reason for breathing. People talked about the measure of a man, but to any man with children, the only real measure was in the eyes of his kids. If someday they learned the things he had done for the club, for brotherhood, and to try to build the future he wanted for them … he hoped they would understand why. But the more time passed, the more he realized that giving them that future mattered more than them forgiving him for what he had to do to get them there.
    Laughter and the sound of splashing came from the bathroom. He kissed Thomas on the head and nudged the door open. Tara Knowles knelt beside the tub, washing the hair of Jax’s older son, Abel. They both looked up at him—his old lady and his boy—and their smiles tugged at him. Abel’s hair was full of suds, and Tara had been sculpting it into strange curls and waves, showing Abel in a hand mirror.
    “Hello, Daddy,” Tara said.
    Abel tried to throw a handful of soap bubbles at him but they didn’t go far.
    “I’m headed out,” Jax told her.
    Tara stood and reached for Thomas, who stretched out his arms for his mother. Jax kissed the boy’s head and handed him over. Tara smiled again, and it lit up her angular features. Her face could turn a man to stone if Tara was displeased with him, but she had a dark beauty that made him reach up and trace the contours of her face.
    “Be safe,” Tara said, kissing him even as she took Thomas in her arms. “You come back to me.”
    “Don’t I always?” he asked with a grin.
    “If you know what’s good for you.”
    The lightness of the conversation hid a darkness beneath it. Tara didn’t want him to go—not with just Chibs and Opie to back him up—but she wouldn’t tell him to stay, either. Jax had not shared the details with her, only that Trinity was in danger.
    Tara had wrapped her arms around him, pressed her body against his to remind him what he would be missing while he was gone, and knitted her brows as she stared into his eyes.
    You have to go, she’d said. I love you for that. But you never knew she existed until half a year ago. Don’t die for her .
    He didn’t plan to, but they both knew the risk was there. For everyone, yeah … and moreso for the people in their world. The life they’d chosen meant he was sticking his head in the lion’s mouth on a regular basis. One of these days, the jaws were gonna chomp.
    Jax went to the tub and splashed Abel, who kicked and splashed him back. He kissed Tara and Thomas again, then turned and left without looking back. He picked up a small bag by the door—just a change of clothes and a few things—and went out, closing the door behind him.
    *   *   *
    Chibs and Opie were little more than shadows in the driveway as Jax stepped outside. Their bikes were familiar silhouettes, comforting ghosts awaiting new life.
    Opie lit a cigarette, the flame momentarily illuminating his face. Jax approached them as the moon slid out from behind a scrim of clouds.
    “You set?” Opie asked.
    Jax went to his bike. “She understands.”
    Opie shook his head, reminding Jax of a bear. “Wish Lyla did. Maybe Tara can talk to her.”
    “I’m sure she would if you want.”
    Opie exhaled cigarette smoke. “She’s gonna have to get used to it. She thinks we’re going to end up in Vegas with a roomful of whores.”
    Chibs stepped between them, threw an arm around each of them, and grinned the devil-may-care grin that always seemed to lift the spirits of his brethren.
    “We get this sorted out, maybe we save that bit for the return trip,” he said.
    Opie smiled, took another drag on his cigarette, then dropped it to the