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[color=e62020]“Thanks for picking me up.”[/color]

[color=6699cc]“Sure thing, kiddo. But I was surprised when you called. You don’t typically call me unless you want someone’s face caved in,”[/color] [url=https://i.imgur.com/ysQVslf.png]Reginold A.K.A. Chains[/url] said, smiling at Jade as his truck started up. 

In usual circumstances, Jade only called her cousin because she knew he was always down for a fight and wasn’t as ill-tempered like that hotheaded Leone was, but she didn’t feel like worrying most of the members of the club, especially since the way she was when she called Reg wasn’t like her usual self.

[color=e62020]“Yeah, I guess I do that a lot, don’t I?”[/color] Jade laughed but her mind was clearly elsewhere because she didn’t even put much effort into it. [color=e62020]“And thanks for not bringing your hog this time, Reg. Even if all you have is this crappy pickup.”[/color] 

[color=6699cc]“And there is my little cousin who likes to rip into my baby.”[/color] Reg laughed harder than was necessary, but a smile spread across his face. [color=6699cc]“You know I’m still trying to save up for a newer model than this here Toyota Pickup, right?”[/color]

As Jade leaned against the passenger door, she looked over at her cousin. “Is that so?” She raised an eyebrow. [color=e62020]“And what will I tell Rey-Rey about how you still haven’t paid off your tab at Edge?”[/color]

Yeah, Reg was a frequent customer at Edge. Not when it came to the dancers. He had too much respect for Jade to indulge in [i]that[/i] where she worked. She didn’t care about it one way or the other, but part of her appreciated that he didn’t give in to temptations. How he did that was beyond her because, as she was a frequent practitioner of “look but don’t touch”, something nobody ever at Eden ever abided by, a lot of her co-workers were insanely hot. Like so hot that, if they weren’t her literal family, Jade might’ve even gone for a few of them.

How the horndog of the Taylors resisted them was beyond her comprehension, but she figured his sudden silence was evidence that he wasn’t planning on paying the tab. 

[color=e62020]“But don’t worry, I won’t tell our King Serpent about it. Not like he’d dare enforce it like I suspect others would. Besides--”[/color] Jade’s humorous expression simmered down into a frown. Thinking about R2 reminded her of what transpired last night. What happened between everybody about Charlie. How memories from five years ago came back up and crashed and crushed Jade’s entire confidence. Thinking back to how R2 scared a then-fourteen-year-old Jade almost as much as he did last night.

[color=e62020][i]That gun…[/i][/color] 

She still shivered at the thought of it. 

And now she had left without saying much to Decky and Poppy. She just left a note, told Mr. Beau that she had to leave. She said she had to work, but really, even if she had to, she couldn’t walk back into Edge -- not until she sorted out how she felt about everything.

[color=6699cc]“Besides?”[/color] Reg asked.

[color=e62020]“What?”[/color] Jade shook her head, looking a little dazed and confused as she turned her head towards Reg. 

As Reg came to a stop at a red light and in front of the train tracks that separated the Northside and Southside, it felt like an eternity because neither Reg nor Jade was saying anything. Reg didn’t want to push anything and Jade didn’t realize just how lost in thought she was and everything was so cloudy.

[color=6699cc]“What’s going on, Jade? You seem lost in whatever part of your head that causes you be quiet. I know you never do that unless something pretty bad is filling that mind of yours.”[/color] 

It’s true, Reg, along with the other members of the Howling Commando Crew, knew Jade the best out of the entire club. They were all like the brothers she never had growing up. Reg was literally the closest thing to a blood brother she had. And he always looked out for her. There was a reason why she called him whenever someone got too handsy at Edge. Or when she was being stalked by some tweaker whenever she went too close out of serpent territory. Or, really, for any reason that nobody else but Reg would drop anything to help her.

But to tell him about what went through her head would be to tell what happened five years ago and tell him what she had a hand in. Even after everything was said and done, Jade still felt a pang of intense guilt over her part in the events that transpired five years ago and how the ripples were still being felt today. The sadness she still clung to and it was a sadness that couldn’t be healed from being with her sister and Decky.

[color=e62020]“I appreciate you trying to help, Reg, I really do - but right now, I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about it.”[/color] Jade looked over at her cousin’s concerned face. [color=e62020]“I just want to go to the clubhouse. I want to be with my family. Maybe help someone with their bike. I just need to find my routine again.”

[i]Find it like it was before Charlie died.[/i][/color]

As she smiled at him, Reg shrugged. He was the type to normally push her to talk because she was a hopeless case whenever she was lost in her head (which she most certainly was), but he could tell in the way she looked at him that she truly wasn’t ready.

[color=6699cc]“You don’t wanna talk about it now? I get that. I respect it. Whenever you’re ready, you know my line is always open for ya.”[/color]

She smiled, giving a rare show of affection as she leaned against his shoulder for a long moment. 

And after about ten seconds, she shook it off and looked forward. [color=e62020]“Light’s green. Let’s go home.”[/color]

Without uttering a word, Reg drove straight down the road for about fifteen miles, going deeper into the greater Boston area where the Fallen Angels clubhouse was located. It was there Jade could hit the reset button. At her real home, it was where she first knew stability. It was ironic considering the whole club, in their own way, were all unproven criminals, but in a town where nobody was a saint, Jade knew she always had angels looking out for her.

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