I heard the bedroom door shut so I jumped up to see Jax walking through the door.
"Where have you been?" I ask whilst rubbing my eyes with my fists.
"Oh I didn't know you were in here." He says kicking his shoes off.
I pick my phone up to read the time to see it had just gone 7am.
"I've been here since about midnight." I say and he nods.
"I just got back from the gym so let me have a shower and then we can talk." He says and I nod.
I sat and waited patiently for him to get out of the shower. He went straight into his closet and got dressed into his all black suit.
He then came back out and looked over at me to see me sat in the same position he left me in. He sighs then walks over and gets in to bed beside me.
"We raided your mothers house." He says and I look up at him.
"There were women in the house. Wives of Dmitri and his higher up men. And some children." He says and my eyes widen.
"All the children that were under the age of 11 are being taken to an orphanage with a drug in their system so they don't remember anything." He says and I take a deep shaky breath.
"We have their wives and are ready to take action, I'm going to phone your father at about noon then probably later that evening I'll call Dmitri." He says and I nod.
"Are you okay?" He asks and I nod smiling softly.
"Look he deserves these people to be taken away from him after what they did to Alanah." He says and I nod and put my head on his shoulder.
"What did you find out about my mom?" I ask and he sighs.
"She uh she's at the warehouse Lara. Many of them admitted that she willingly put her up." He says and I sigh.
"Can I talk to her?" I ask and he sighs and nods.
"Once we put Alannah to sleep, we'll get Amara to watch her. I'll take you to the warehouse and you'll stay for the call." He says and I nod.
"What time did you fall asleep?" He asks and I yawn.
"Last time I checked my phone was roughly ten past four." I say and he nods.
"Why didn't you come to bed?" I ask and he grabs a hold of my hand.
"I didn't know you were waiting up for me otherwise I would of come up and told you." He says and I nod softly.
"I'm thinking of taking Alannah to see James today." I say and he nods.
"Um I hate to be a pain, can you do it tomorrow. I want to take you there and back personally so I know everything is okay." He says and I nod.
"Sure." I say and he climbs out of bed and softly pulls me along with him.
We woke Alannah up and then headed downstairs for breakfast. We met with everyone downstairs and started to eat breakfast.
After breakfast Jax watched Alannah whilst I had a shower and got ready. Once I was dressed into some comfy clothes for now as I was going to get changed into my office type outfits after I put Alannah to bed.
Once I was ready I head into Alannah's room to Jax and her playing with some of her toys.
I just watched then for a moment before Alannah noticed me and ran up to me.
"Do you want to go out for lunch?" Jax asks me and Alannah nods her head at me which makes me giggle.
"Sure." I say and he smiles.
"I'll be working till then then I'll take you guys out. Pick a place." He says walking backwards out of Alannah's room.
"What colour you going to wear today?" I ask walking her to the bathroom.
"Black." She says and I look at her stunned think she would say yellow.
"Like dad." She says and I smile at her.
After brushing her teeth and washing her face we head back into her room. She sat watching YouTube whilst I chose out an outfit for her. I got her dressed into some black shorts and a yellow t-shirt.
Once I had made her bed and sorted her hair out we head downstairs.
First of all Alannah had gotten Gio and Matteo to play in the garden whilst they were supposed to be working. Me and Amara were stood watching them run around the garden laughing and trying to catch each other.
"So that's were my men are." Jax says behind hs making me and Amara jump.
"Let them live a little, they're constantly working. Plus look how happy Alannah is." I say as her laughs fill our ears as Gio playfully throws her in the air.
"Dad come join us." Alannah says running over to him as Gio and Matteo start to tackle each other now.
"I don't know narna, I'm supposed to be working." He says and I roll my eyes then look at Alannah giving him the pouty face.
"Live a little Jax, I'm sure you'll have fun." I say and he sighs and passes me the 3 phones he currently had on him.
"Christ." I mutter as I watch Alannah drag him down the garden.
Me and Amara now watched and laughed at how a tiny 4 year old persuaded 3 grown men to join her in the garden. It felt good though. I don't think I've seen these men take a day of since I met them this year. So now even though it's not a day off they're releasing some energy by running around.
About a good 15 minutes later they made their way back over to us all breathless with massive smiles plastered across their face.
Alannah climbed into my arms straight away and I took her to get a drink.
"Alannah told me she wants Olive garden, so it looks like we'll be driving into the city." Jax says and I nod.
Whilst we waited for lunch time we sat in the kitchen.
Me and Amara were just talking. Amara kept giving Alannah cookies whilst she was colouring af the island.
"Oo let me have some." Gio says coming in and taking a bite out of Alannah's forth cookie.
"Hey." Alannah said and started pouting.
"You girls ready?" Jax says coming into the kitchen.
"Why're you pouting, what's wrong?" Jax asks picking Alannah up.
"Gio eat my cookie." Alannah says.
"Sounds like Gio but hey look I'll buy you more on the way home." Jax says avoiding my now stare.
Jax had plugged Alannah into her old car seat in his blacked out range rover. I got into the passenger seat and put YouTube on my phone then handed it to her to watch.
"What happened to your audi?" I ask as we make our way out of the long drive of his house.
"Nothing but I know you aren't a fan of it." He says making me smile as I glance out the window.
"How is New York treating you? I know you don't really want to be here." Jax says softly so Alannah doesn't hear him.
I put my hand over his in the gear stick and give his hand a quick squeeze.
"I want to be here." I tell him softly making a smile spread across his face.
"Tell you what I haven't missed." I say as we drive into the city.
"The traffic." We say in sync which makes me smile.
"Isn't it just as bad in LA?" He asks and I scoff.
"Not this bad." I say making him smile.
We get to the olive garden we went to once with James. They take us straight to the same booth.
Alannah for the first time ever when we've been out to eat chose to not sit next to me but next to Jax. I admit that did sting little. It's always been me and Alannah so seeing things like her run straight to Jax does hurt a but.
I'm not completely bitter about it, I did want this. I completely understand it. I'm always around, it's all Alannah's known. Jax works, he's a busy man so when she gets to see him she gives him all her affection.
I spent most of lunch just watching them. Jax has completely fell in love with her, whilst being her father. It's the simple things that I do when I go out to food with Alannah except Jax is doing it now. He was wiping the food away from around her mouth and letting her play with his hand. Alannah still isn't to comfortable in public places.
"You okay?" Jax asks as I pull my phone out of my bag. My work phone was blowing up.
"Yeah I'll be right back I need to take this." I say looking at Carter's caller ID.
I step out on to the street and answer Carter's phone call.
"Hello." I say answering and he takes a breath of relief.
"Lara are you safe?" He asks and I run a hand down my face and turn back to look at Jax and Alannah laughing in the furthest booth away.
"Well I guess, I'm at a restaurant Carter what's up?" I ask and he sighs.
"Get out of there now!" He says making my eyebrows furrow.
"Get out and call me when you get back I mean it Lara." He says and ends the call.
I rush in and pick Alannah up causing Jax to look confused.
"What's going on?" He asks and I shake my head.
"We need to get out." I say and he stands out pulling out his wallet and phone and leaving a bunch of cash on the table.
We make our way to the door when gun shots then a bunch of screams. Me and Jax cover Alannah and then make it to his car.
He makes me get in the car whilst he puts Alannah in his car seat. Alannah was just confused but was fine when I handed her my phone for YouTube.
Jax began driving away whilst going through one of his phones.
"How did you know?" He asks glancing at Alannah through the rear mirror who was now asleep.
"Carter told me to get out in his very serious tone and to ring me when I was back." I say and he nods whilst mainly focusing on the road but going through his phone at the same time.
"For fuck sake." He says making me look at him confused.
"Do you know how many files Carter sends over in fucking Portuguese. That's like me sending them files in Italian." He and I scoff.
"Will you translate for me?" He asks handing me his phone.
"Sure thing." I say and start reading over the file Carter had sent.
"Oh my god." I say through reading the file.
"What?" Jax asks glancing over at me.
"They're tracking your number plates. They have a good majority of your number plates that they've been following." I say and he glances at the mirror.
"So I guess this is them following behind us then." He says making me turn and look out the back window.
"What are we gonna do?" I ask and he shrugs.
"We can't go home." He says turning a sharp corner.
"Jax if they're already tracking your number plates they already know where you live." I say and he sighs.
"They might be on their way there." He says sighing. He takes out his phone again and calls Gio and starts talking in Italian.
"Right were going to meet a bunch of my men in about ten minutes down a street and me and Gio are gonna swap cars. I'm going to stay but he's going to take you two home." He says glancing back at Alannah.
We get to the street and the street was already packed with Jax's men.
Gio walks over to the car and Jax opens the car door to get out but I grab his hand. He turns to look at me and he looked really angry. But he softened when he saw how nervous I was.
"You'll be okay." He says and I nod.
"I know, I'm not worried about me though." I say and he leans forward and kisses my forehead.
"I'll be back in time to put Alannah to bed, I promise I'll be careful." He says and I smile and he returns it before climbing out of the car and Gio gets in.
On the way back to the house Gio had an ear piece in as if he was listening to the event back there. He kept glancing out the rear mirror and sighed which made me constantly look at him when he did that.
"Yeah everything's fine just I think we're still getting followed." He says and I take a deep breath and look through the mirror to see a car from earlier following us.
Gio looks across to me making me look at him worried.
"Have you got headphones or something for Alannah?" He asks and I nod. I put headphones on Alannah and then Gio nods.
"This is gonna sound really crazy but I need you to stay in control of the car." He says and I furrow my eyebrows.
"Basically I'm going to shoot one of their tyres out." He says and I nod.
"Um why don't we just swap seats?" I ask and he shakes his head no.
"We can't stop." He says and I sigh.
"Who said anything about stopping?" I say taking my seatbelt off.
"Jax is going to kill me." He says making me laugh.
"Jax doesn't need to know." I say and he rolls his eyes playfully.
I sit on the bit between both seats and put my feet behind Gio. Gio climbs into my seat with his foot still on the pedal. Once I successfully slide into the chair he takes his foot away and I replace it with mine.
"Right come off of the highway." He says and I nod and turn off of the highway. Gio then leads me too a quiet alleyway where I then slowed down.
Gio rolled down his window and checked his gun before sticking half of his body out the window and shooting at the car behind us. Thankfully this car was bullet proof because the car did get hit a few times but I was just grateful Alannah hadn't woken up.
We pull up right outside the front door of Jax's house and quickly rush inside.
"I'm going to find Amara." He says and I nod.
I head into the living room where I place Alannah down on the sofa and immediately ring Carter.
"Jesus what took you so long?" He asks and I sigh.
"Bit of a car chase and what not." I say rolling my eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asks calmly.
"Yeah I'm fine." I say and he takes a breath of relief.
"Look Lara I think you should stay in New York for a while." He says and I furrow my eyebrows.
"I know we already said until it's safe to travel but Lara, Jax can protect both of you better then we can. But when this is all over you need to come home." He says and I nod.
"I know, I have a duty Carter." I say and he sighs.
"I know I know but there are still things we need to sort out and we don't know how long this is going to last for." He says I sigh.
D "We have a meeting about this tomorrow, just we'll go from there." He says and I nod although he can't see me.
After the phone call with Carter I was completely on edge for the remainder of the day.
I tried to distract myself with Alannah but my mind kept wandering to Jax and his safety. Amara noticed this so took Alannah to make cookies which made her so happy.
****
At around 8pm someone had walked through the front door. I got up from my seat on the sofa and went to check who it was.
"Why is my car like that? Are they okay?" I head his voice say in a clearly angry tone.
"Oh my god your okay." I say when I see him completely fine. I rush over to him and wrap my arms around him.
After a moment he pulled back and started examining me.
"Are you hurt?" He asks and I shake my head for no. He takes a breath of relief then pulls me back into a hug.
"Is Alannah okay?" He asks and I hum in respond which let him take another breath of relief.
He pulls back from the hug and takes a step back before looking down at me.
"I've got to go to my office and figure out my next step. I'll be up to Alannah's room in about half an hour to send her off to bed." He says and I nod.
After Alannah's bath I get her into her pyjamas and just before I get her into bed Jax walks in. "Just on time." I say and he smiles.
Alannah fell asleep pretty much as soon as her head hit the pillow.
When we got out of Alannah's room I headed to my room.
"Lara, we aren't going tonight." He says and I just nod.
It makes sense to not go today after everything happened. I head into my room and get into my pyjamas straight away.
I sat on my bed and just went through my phone for a bit before I got thirsty. I head downstairs and into the kitchen where I then saw Gio and Amara making out.
I turn back around and head out of the kitchen to see Matteo making his way towards the kitchen.
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you." I say and he looks at me confused.
"Don't tell me they're making out in the kitchen again for god sake." He says walking into the kitchen, I quickly follow behind him curiously.
Matteo slams his hands on the island making them split apart.
"Get a room, there are plenty in this house and I'd prefer to not see you two making out every time I fancy a drink." He says then heads fo the fridge.
He hands me a bottle of water and looks between Gio and Amara who were just talking now. He scoffed then walked back out.
I head into my room and about midnight I got ready for bed. But then couldn't fall asleep in here.
I walk into Jax's room and crawl into his empty bed.
About an hour later Jax finally walked into his bedroom and laughed softly.
"For some strange reason I had a feeling you would be in here." He says walking towards his closet which makes me smile.
He came and got into bed beside and raised his eyebrows at me.
"You're on my side of the bed." He says and I shrug my shoulders.
"We can share this side if you really want." I say and he smiles at me before placing a kiss on my cheek.
"How did it go today?" I ask as he lies on his side and spoons me.
"It went alright really, there weren't that many people to take out."
"Did you talk to Carter?" He asks and I nod.
"He told me that you agreed to stay here for a while." He says and I nod again and yawn.
"I'm glad." He says before placing a soft kiss on my shoulder before we fell asleep.