A/N-So this was just kicking around in my head and wouldn't leave so I finally decided to write it. Basic set-up: Kate is Otto and LuAnn's daughter; Otto is in jail and LuAnn was killed by George. She doesn't want to have anything to do with her parents' lives or connections, which will inevitably come back and bite her in the ass. I'm leaving Tara out of this one just to keep things from getting overly complicated although Abel (and possibly Wendy) will feature in this at some point.
The title comes from the song "LoveSong" by the Cure but I'll be using the 311 version later on in this story. I'm thinking of it as the anthem for things to come in this story and for the most part, I have most of the details ironed out, which it always a good thing. Btw, the rating will most likely be bumped to M in later chapters...I know this is just set-up for the rest but I hope you like it!
LOVE SONG
Chapter One
It was almost closing time. She'd finally finished the inventory she'd putting off the entire week and had filed it away in a slightly disorganized hanging folder underneath the dusty counter. Taking a mental note that it was time for that spring cleaning she was, naturally, putting off, she took another anxious glance at the clock. 6:47. Still not time to lock up.
She supposed she'd known what she was signing herself up for when she'd opened up the bookstore. Working 10-7 every day, save for Sundays, wasn't fun by any means. But it was either that or hire an employee, which was something she was in no position to afford. Business was slow but with summer coming, she was praying things might start to turn around. If it didn't, all bets were off and the one thing she had worked for her entire life could easily be swallowed up whole.
Another glance at the clock told her it still wasn't yet time for her to lock up and take the two second trip upstairs to Jake, her golden retriever, re-runs of Law and Order: SVU, and a microwave dinner. But, she reminded herself, that was exactly what she had bargained for. Zero personal life for self-reliance and complete independence. It was a fair trade, at least, most of the time.
She took another quick pass around the store, checking to make sure nothing had fallen out of place since the last time she'd checked and then double-checked that everything was shut off in the café. After that, there was nothing left to do. But, then again, things could always be shittier.
For a fleeting moment, her mind drifted to an image of her parents: her father rotting away in jail for a crime committed on behalf of outlaws, motorcycle club outlaws at that and her mother, who had been found strangled on the floor where she produced porn movies. Yeah. A little boredom on a slow business day was nothing compared to the alternative.
She shook her head as if to shake that image out of her brain. She rarely thought of them and it was strange that she was suddenly thinking of them now, even if she had nothing better to do.
When the low roar of motorcycle engines erupted from underneath the crack of the doorway , it seemed as if everything went still. She couldn't move. Even if she wanted to, she didn't know what the hell to do. A few seconds later, the roaring abruptly stopped and she knew instinctively that it was only a matter of moments before whoever had ridden those bikes here would be entering her store. She went into full-on survival mode, knowing immediately that the reason why those bikers were here, regardless of which club they belonged to, most likely had something to do with her father, which meant a storm of shit would soon be coming down on her. A snap-like reflex went for the handgun underneath the counter and quickly shut off the open sign as her eyes roamed frantically for a hiding spot. Her only real hope of safety was the bathroom. There wasn't any time to call the cops. If even she did, those bikers would have long since finished with her.
A heartbeat later, she was headed for the back of the store as fast as she could without knocking any shelves down. And then, she heard the light trilling of the bell she'd tacked onto the door only months before. Any other time, she'd be jumping with elation at that sound because it meant a customer was there, hopefully to spend money. But now, she wanted to tear that damn bell off the door and smash it onto the heads of whoever was here.
"We're looking for Kate Delaney?" A low, husky male voice called out.
She froze. That accent wasn't Irish or Spanish, which meant whoever the voice belonged to wasn't necessarily one of her dad's enemies. In fact, it was a little familiar.
"Kate?" The voice called out again.
This time, she was beginning to piece together why that voice was so familiar. Before she could stop herself, she slowly turned around on her heel and stared down the long aisle at the voice's owner, Jax Teller, and the tall, grim man standing next to him, Clay Morrow.
"Kate?" Jax repeated slowly, as if he wasn't quite sure who he was seeing.
She bit her lip and slowly nodded. "Yeah."
His eyes widened slightly and he glanced quickly over to Clay, who had the same glimmer of confusion in his grey eyes. It seemed like they were having some sort of conversation, except for the fact that they weren't actually speaking. A moment later, Jax's intense gaze was fixed back on her and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She hadn't been under his gaze in nine years and had forgotten what it felt like. It was completely unnerving. Even from across the store, she could see that he hadn't changed much since the last time she'd seen him. Maybe he was a little bit taller and his cornsilk hair almost grazed his shoulders, and he had a slightly unkempt beard now. But his eyes were exactly the same.
Both men, in their intimidating leather cuts, moved closer to her and were soon mere feet away. One look at Clay's somber, road-beaten face and she instinctively took a slight step back. She looked immediately to Jax, expecting the same fear-inducing stare but instead found a faint glint of kindness, almost softness in his ocean blue eyes. Well, at least one of them wasn't here to murder and/or kidnap her.
When both of their gazes shifted to the handgun gripped tightly at her side, she shrugged and almost loosened her grip.
"You won't be needin' that, Kate." Jax said softly, gesturing to the gun.
"I'm…sorry," she looked down at the gun in her hand. "I wasn't sure who was here and…"
Jax immediately nodded and held up a hand. "Hey, no worries. We get it. There's nothing wrong with packin', especially when you're all by yourself but…I think Clay and I would both feel a lot better if you set it down, especially since neither of us know if you can actually use that thing."
She knew he'd intended it to be a joke but she saw nothing funny about this situation. They wouldn't be here if they didn't either have bad news or they needed something from her. She wasn't sure which was the lesser of the two evils.
Still, she figured it was best to do as they asked and gingerly set the gun down on a nearby bookshelf.
"So…" she started slowly.
"I know you're wondering why we're here," Clay spoke for the first time, his voice rough and gravelly. "And don't worry, this has got nothing to do with your old man. He's fine…as far as we know at least…but that's beside the point…"
As he was speaking, she ironically realized that that thought hadn't even crossed her mind.
"I figured it's best if we skip the small talk," Clay continued firmly. "The club has recently run into some…financial and political issues…if you will, and we're currently in the market for some storage space. We've had a little trouble with our warehouse and need a new, more discreet place to keep our cargo until we find something more permanent."
She swallowed slowly, already feeling bile creeping up her throat. So far, the shit storm she had predicted was well on its way.
Clay paused for a moment, waiting for her to object. When she stood silent, he decided to continue.
"We'd like to move the majority of that cargo into the basement of your store. It's a perfect location for us since you're far enough away from Charming that no one would suspect anything and you'd barely notice we were here. Hell, I could even send a few prospects over to give you a hand for free if you wanted."
"Besides," Jax added with a lop-sided grin, "the last place anyone would expect to see Samcro is in a bookstore."
Both chuckled but a quick glance at Kate told them she was not amused. So, instead of making fun of her business and the way she made her living, they shut up and waited while she tried to make sense of what was happening here.
Several uncomfortable moments passed before she could finally absorb everything that had been said. Of all the reasons she could think of for them to be standing in front of her now, this was not one that had fallen onto that list. It wasn't necessarily an unreasonable request except for the part that involved illegal activity and the part where she wanted absolutely nothing to do with Samcro and the lives they led because of it.
With a clenched jaw, she finally responded: "I'm sorry…but I seem to have missed the part where I was obligated to Samcro."
Jax winced slightly and glanced over to Clay, who had his jaw firmly set and his crossed tightly across his chest.
"I don't have to remind you that…" Clay started.
"That's right," she cut in, "You don't have to remind me. I know exactly who my parents are and in case you haven't figured it out yet, if I wanted to be part of Samcro and everything that it is you guys do on your little bikes, I would be living in Charming and I would be part of Samcro. I am not my father. And I sure as hell am not my mother. I have no interest in the fact that Samcro needs a new warehouse. And I will not be a party to illegal activity."
Jax sighed while Clay ran an uneasy hand over his face. They both shared another glance before Jax bit his lip in slight frustration. She had no idea what was going on between the two of them and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out.
"Listen, Kate," Clay began again. "I didn't wanna have to do this but you owe Samcro a debt."
She couldn't stop the knee-jerk reaction. Her jaw dropped open in shock and she could feel the blood rushing from her face.
"What? No…that's not possible…"
Clay nodded slowly while Jax watched the scene with a hint of sadness in his eyes. It was as if this entire exchange was causing him physical pain and it was difficult for him to maintain any sort of eye contact with her. The minute she looked to him for confirmation, all he could muster was a pained smile and a nod. Then he had to look away.
"Before your dad went to prison, he set up a trust for you on loan from Samcro. If I'm not mistaken, you cashed in on that trust a few years ago to start this nice little store of yours. That means, according to the club, that you owe us. And what we need in return for this nice little store of yours is to use your basement. That's all we're asking."
Her head was spinning and she felt like she needed to sit down. It just didn't make any sense. A trust from Samcro? She didn't know anything about that…except for…
"I was told that money came from a trust my grandparents set up for me when I was born." She whispered finally.
Clay nodded, finally a little kindness in his eyes. "I think Otto knew you'd never take it if you knew where the money really came from."
She sighed and shifted her eyes up to the ceiling. "I guess he was right about that."
There had to some loophole, some way to get around this and get her out of the grasp of Samcro. This was the absolute last thing she needed or wanted and she would be damned if all her efforts to stay away from her parents' lives went to shit. There had to be something.
"Where's the paperwork?" She asked triumphantly, feeling like she had gotten them. She was positive biker outlaws would never leave a paper trail.
Clay gave a soft chuckle and gestured to Jax, who dug an envelope out of a pocket in his cut.
"Smart girl," Clay said as he handed the envelope to her.
Her heart sank as the only out she could think of was smashed. She didn't need to look inside to know what it was but she did just for spite. And there it was. All in black and white, $50,000, signed by both Clay and her dad on September 21, 2004, just one week before he went to prison. He must have known his last job would end badly. The funny thing was that hadn't even been quite enough. She'd still had to take out a $25,000 loan to cover the costs of starting up the café. And paying them back wasn't an option either. She'd have to liquidate everything in the store and she had a feeling they wouldn't give her any sort of reasonable time to do it. She knew enough about Samcro to know not to get her hopes up. Apparently, it seemed like she was always going to be in debt, in one way or another.
"So I don't really have a choice in this, do I?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
For this first time during this uncomfortable exchange, Jax spoke: "Not really, Kate. It will be easier for everyone if you don't fight us on this one."
With a deep sigh, she looked to the ground for strength. "So," she began slowly. "Let me get this straight: you guys store your 'cargo' in my basement here until you find something permanent and then…we're even, just like that?"
Clay nodded with approval. "Just like that."
"So how long can I expect visits from your biker friends?"
Jax smiled good-naturedly at the dig but Clay just snorted.
"You can expect them as long as we need storage space. Look, Kate, it's just like Jax said: all you have to do is cooperate and we'll be outta your hair in no time. As soon as we find a more permanent spot, you never have to see us again."
She cocked an eyebrow their way. "And if I don't cooperate?"
Clay's lips set in a firm line. "That's a card you don't wanna play. Trust me."
There was a moment of thick silence, Clay's veiled threat hanging heavy in the air. Jax shifted uncomfortably in the narrow aisle and chewed on his bottom lip. It was clear he was done with the tension and the blatant animosity between Clay and Kate.
"Ok," he said finally, in an effort to keep the peace. "So here's what's going to happen…I'm gonna crash here tonight—"
"What-" she objected sharply.
Jax held up his hands defensively. "Hold on, hold on…just let me finish, alright? We've got a load of cargo with us that we need to dump and the club decided that I should stay until the next load gets here to keep an eye on everything."
"You mean keep an eye on me."
Jax shook his head. "That's not what I said."
Her eyes lifted to the ceiling and she ran a tired hand through her long blonde hair.
"Might as well have." She muttered wearily under her breath.
As her gaze shifted from Jax's sympathetic eyes to Clay's slightly impatient ones, she was beginning to realize that this was a fight she never had a shot at winning. It was clear she didn't have a choice and it was even clearer that more than just her business depended on her silent cooperation. She was very much aware of the damage Samcro could cause; she'd seen enough of it herself at far too young an age to think any different. And as the gravity of her situation closed in on her, she realized that if she made it out of this with all limbs and organs intact, then she was pretty god-damned lucky.
At this point, that was the best she could hope for. Everything else was at the mercy of Samcro.
Without another word exchanged between them, Jax and Clay retreated back to the small parking lot and the next time she saw them, they each had an oversized rolled-up blanket tucked under their arms. She didn't need to ask, even if she wanted to, because it didn't take a genius to figure out what was hidden away in those blankets. She silently took them down to the basement and went back upstairs before she could see where they stashed their 'cargo'. It was probably best for everyone involved, most importantly her, if she didn't know exactly where they were being hidden.
A slight nagging crept up into her mind and it took all her remaining strength to push it down. Then it came back up again. Shit, all it took was a couple of minutes with two Samcro members and she was already thinking like a criminal, like an accomplice. It was enough to make bile snake up her throat.
She didn't speak to Clay as he left and let out the breath she'd been holding ever since he'd stepped into the store. She felt a hell of a lot better now that he was gone. Even though he'd always been friendly, even kind to her when she was younger, there was something cold about him now that frightened her.
Jax's voice yanked her out of her thoughts..."Kate? Did you hear what I said…?"
She looked up to see him standing a few feet away from her now and wasn't sure how long he'd been there. "What?"
"I said if you're not cool with this I can sleep in the store." He replied simply, as if sleeping on the hard floor of a bookstore was no big deal to him.
"What?" She shook her head. "Why would you do that? If you're going to babysit me, you might as well sleep on the couch. At least you could watch TV."
He shrugged and watched her carefully as she grabbed her discarded handgun from the shelf and headed back up to the front counter.
"Do I want to know why you own a gun?" He called out from behind her.
"Probably not." She answered back curtly without even turning her head back towards him. Well, if she was being completely honest, she wasn't sure she wanted to share that information with him even if he wanted to hear it.
Once the gun was back in its resting place, he silently followed her out the back of the store and up the steep stairway to her apartment. It was awkward having him so close to her like this, like they were old friends or something. They'd never been particularly close but then again, the last time they'd seen each other, she had been 16 and he had been 20. He hadn't had a reason to be all that interested in her then and while he'd never ignored or been unkind to her, he had always treated her like the child she was. She faintly remembered him ruffling her hair with a greasy hand whenever she visited Teller -Morrow or casually asking when he was going to have to start beating the shit out of her boyfriends as he took a long drag from his cigarette when he didn't have an arm draped around his new flavor of the day. And she'd swooned like the 16-year old girl she had been. That part, albeit begrudgingly, she clearly remembered. She couldn't blame her 16 year old self for being hopelessly attracted to him then. It was innocent enough, just a few stolen glances when he wasn't looking, minor cardiac arrest when he found the time to smile at her, and as far as she could tell, it had gone completely unnoticed by him since he'd had much more mature and available meat at his disposable. And in the nine years that had passed, she'd since learned that bad boys were nothing but that-bad.
All this made it even more puzzling as to why he was acting this way now. Why did he care about her now? No one had given two shits about her after her dad went to jail and her mom ended up in rehab and then back in the porn studio. She had a feeling Jax and Clay had been putting on some sort of act with her to get her to cooperate without much of a fight. It was the only way she could rationalize the sympathy reflecting in his eyes.
"So," Jax said softly behind her as they climbed the stairs. "Is there gonna be an angry boyfriend waiting inside to kick my ass?"
She laughed, in spite of her previous thoughts, and shook her head. "No…nothing like that. Just Jake, my dog. I have to warn you though…he doesn't really like guys too much."
"Oh great." She heard him mutter under his breath.
"Yeah…he's a little overprotective."
She heard Jax let out an exasperated sigh from behind her. Smiling at this little victory, she fumbled with the keys a little by the door which sent Jake into a frenzy from inside. A cacophony of low, menacing barking howled from the other side of the door and she heard Jax take a cautious step back.
"Whoa, what kind of dog do you have?" He asked hesitantly.
She just laughed. "A completely harmless golden retriever."
"Golden retriever my ass—that sounds like a damn pit bull or something." Jax replied skeptically. "Damn good guard dog you've got there, though."
"Trust me, I know he sounds tough but he's really just a big lap dog."
"Yeah—I hope so." Jax replied uneasily, running a hand through his overly long hair.
"Wait a second…are you scared of my dog?" She crinkled her forehead in disbelief. There was no way the hardened criminal and motorcycle outlaw was scared of a big baby like Jake.
"What? No. I just don't feel like losing an arm or my dick tonight…no big deal."
She chuckled again and finally found the keyhole. When she pushed open the door, Jake immediately had his front paws on her and even though he technically wasn't supposed to jump up like that, it was a welcome she counted down the minutes for every day. She ruffled his neck and gave him a quick kiss on the top of his head before she pushed his furry yellow body down.
"Hey buddy..." She whispered to him as she pushed further into the dark apartment. She flipped on a light and Jake immediately froze, staring down Jax with a dark glaze in his eyes. She hadn't seen that look in a while, but in his defense, it'd been awhile since Jake had had to deal with a man in their apartment.
Jax, however, seemed to welcome the challenge Jake presented and knelt down with his hand outstretched to the statue-like dog. Kate watched, unable to believe her eyes, as Jake lowered his head and stretched his neck out to get closer to Jax. There was some sort of male dominance thing going on right now that she didn't quite understand and she waited anxiously, almost childishly, for the moment when Jake snapped his jaws at Jax to get revenge on him, and by extension, Samcro, for her present imprisonment.
Much to her dismay, Jake took a hesitant step forward as Jax remained crouched down where he was, waiting. Jake sniffed Jax's hand for a moment, investigating whether this stranger was a friend or foe and still, Jax waited patiently while the dog decided if he was worthy of his trust. Jake continued probing all the scents surrounding Jax and still, Jax waited. Then, Jake looked up at Jax and his long fluffy tail began to sway from side to side. Knowing he had passed the test, Jax reached up with both hands and began to rub behind his ears.
"There you go, boy," he murmured. "Not so tough, are you?"
Jake responded by licking Jax's face.
"Dirty rotten little traitor…" Kate muttered darkly under her breath. She'd been hoping for some sort of confrontation, for Jax to be cowering in a corner while her scary golden retriever bared his teeth to defend her honor. She'd been in this scene before, with other men, but it had played out much differently. Jax had asserted his dominance, apparently, and Jake had decided he was worthy. Go figure. Jax, it seemed, was not the type of guy to cower for anyone and if her normally distrustful and overprotective loyal companion was this easily accepting of him, then this arrangement was going to be even more of a pain in her ass than she'd thought.
This was going to be a long fucking night
A/N-Oh boy...she's in trouble already and she doesn't even know it yet. At least she's going to put up more of a fight than Jake :) Lots of reviews will definitely motivate me to get the next installment up faster...just saying...R/R!
