Live Fast, Die Young - Chapter Two

Anarchy Automotive was a new business housed in a new building. Sophia couldn't ever call the site just a building though, because it more closely resembled a compound. A ten foot tall chain link fence blacked out with a tarp kept anyone from seeing inside the grounds unless they entered through the gate at the front, which was the only entrance and exit on the whole property.

Sophia pulled her bike onto the lot and killed the engine, hanging her helmet on the handlebars.

She was early, always early for everything. Not because she actually cared about being on time, but because she needed time to acquaint herself with a new thing. Working for a former 1%-er MC definitely warranted taking an extra half an hour to get used to. She would be enquiring about that too, she had no issue with people that had colorful pasts, lord knows hers was bad, but she was in the green now and she'd like to keep it that way.

The lot was dead at nine in the morning which Sophia thought to be strange, since most people usually stop by to get oil changes and minor fixes done before going into work in the morning.

With six bay doors this would be the biggest shop she's ever worked in. Turning on her heel she surveyed the entirety of the compound, noting the clubhouse pushed back to the far right corner, obscured from wandering eyes that might be watching on the street by the privacy fence. Opposite the clubhouse was the garage, and attached to that was an office for conducting business. At the front of the compound on the right was a parking lot, empty aside from Sophia's bike. And to the left, across the way was a separate garage with 3 bay doors, two were closed and one was not. Sophia let her curiosity take over and stepped towards the open door.

Dark grey cement walls, and red doors gave way to a small scale garage dedicated entirely to motorcycles. New tools called out to Sophia, begging to be touched, she obliged them, running her fingers over the shiny metal surfaces of wrenches, screwdrivers, mallets, and pliers. The walls were covered in Sons of Anarchy memorabilia, and curiously enough photographs. Mixed in through out were what Sophia could only describe as family portraits. Pictures of Chibs, Tigger, and Happy were all over the walls, but more then that were pictures of men she had never seen before. Looking to the patches on their kuttes Sophia could tell they were old pictures, of people she guessed were no longer in the club. And then she remembered, two years ago when the news had covered the death of the club president, his death had come after the mysterious deaths and murders of multiple club members and affiliates. A long and tumultuous past was what followed this club around like a shadow, lurking, waiting to bare its ugly head.

She was standing in the middle of a shrine, a shrine to people who had lived and died for this club. And up on the table in the middle of the garage was a bike in the middle of being restored, an old Dyna, recked to shit and barely pieced together. For the first time Sophia realized this club was more then what it seemed, a family that had been broken and was trying to piece itself back together. Finally in the green she could appreciate how far they had come, and she knew from the way Chibs had talked to her yesterday, that they were proud of where they were now, proud that they had taken something that had been in such a bad way and turned it around, even if their brothers weren't there with them to appreciate it.

"You shouldn't be in here." Happy's gravelly voice was like a gun shot in Sophia's ears.

"Shit, you scared me." Hand over her heart she spun around, to find him standing in the doorway. "Sorry, I saw the door was open, and I was curious…"

"Don't be," He gestured with his arm, guiding her out of the garage, "Curious that is." he growled in her ear, before skulking off in the direction of the larger garage.

In all her snooping Sophia must have zoned out, because she hadn't heard the roar of bikes pulling onto the lot. Parked in a meticulously straight line outside of the club house, Chibs, Tigger, and three other men she had never seen before, stood around chain smoking and looking, for lack of a better word, rough.

"Sophia, love!" Chibs called from across the lot, throwing down his cigarette and marching towards her, "So glad you made it, sweetheart." Chibs quickly pulled Sophia into a hug, not giving her a second to prepared herself for the physical contact.

"Hey..." she spoke into his shoulder, awkwardly patting him on the middle of his back. The faint smell of alcohol rolled off his person and Sophia pulled away, knowing that alcohol could turn even the nicest men into predators, and these weren't nice men not by a long shot.

"Fun night?" She asked, scrunching her nose up, and willing the smell of alcohol to float away with the wind.

"If I told you, I'd have to kill ya." He winked at her before stepping out of her personal space and attempting to stretch his hangover away.

"Work?" She questioned, pulling at the sleeves of her coveralls.

"Oh yeah, two part test! I want a tune up-"

"Excuse me?" Sophia questioned, preparing herself to leave as soon as possible, "I'm not fucking around dude, what do you want?"

"Tune up me bike," Chibs snickered to himself, while Sophia let out a silent 'oh', "then you can work with one of the guys on a car."

Chibs pulled his bike into the smaller garage, opening up all the bay doors and letting the nice California breeze in. Sophia quickly set to work checking his tires, breaks, looking over the engine, changing the oil, checking the battery, changing the air filter and looking over all the valves on the bike. The whole process took her just about an hour, and Chibs stayed the whole time, watching silently from the corner of the garage. When she was done she started the bike up for him, revving the engine a couple times before hopping off and letting him take a turn around the block.

And so he did, riding lazily around the outside of the compound, cigarette dangling from his lips, no helmet on his head. When he pulled back into the lot he dismounted the bike with a satisfactory smile on his face.

Chibs made his way towards Sophia before remembering the way she had acted when he hugged her earlier. A curt nod in her direction and he began to stride over to the larger garage. Now that they were officially open all the doors had been let up, the office door was propped open, soft music flowing out, and one car was in the bay hood up with a lean, tan body working beneath.

"You said you weren't as strong with cars, aye?"

"Not as strong, no, but still good." Sophia stepped in closer to the car taking a look. A five year old Honda Civic, reliable and easy to find, also the most stolen car in the US.

"Clutch hydraulics are shot, show us what you can do, if you need help Hap knows what he's doing. After that we'll have you do a tune up and change the oil." Chibs.

Sophia was confident in her ability to fix this problem, having delt with clutch hydraulics before at the shop she currently worked at, on motorcycles and on cars. Something she wasn't comfortable with was Happy standing over her shoulder watching her work, breathing quietly out of his nose and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end.

"Dude, back the fuck up, please." Sophia snapped when Happy had leaned over her, his chest touching her shoulders, reaching for the correct valve after Sophia had grabbed the wrong one. Happy growled in her ear before stepping sideways, his shoulder still touching Sophia's, but no longer standing directly behind her.

"Back!" Sophia raised the wrench in her hand, preparing to hit him with it.

"Don't make threats if you ain't gonna follow up, little girl."

That's how Sophia ended up pushed up against the Civic by Happy, blood trickling down the side of his head, her arms bent awkwardly over her head, held in place by one of his rough hands while the other squeezed at her throat hard enough to leave bruises.

One of the guys she hadn't been introduced to yet came running in and pulled Happy off of her, as soon as the new guy was out of her way Sophia launched herself at Happy, jumping on his back and wrapping her arm around his neck. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held tightly to her own bicep trying to cut off his air supply.

"I always follow through on my threats you fucking nutter!" Sophia screeched in his ear, subsequently drawing the attention of Chibs, Tigger, and a very tall, unorthodoxly beautiful woman.

"I'll fuck-ing kill you,b-bitch" Happy rasped reaching back and grabbing onto the short brown hairs on Sophia's head, just long enough for him to thread his fingers through.

"What the fucks going on here!" Chibs hollered, all movement ceased in that moment. Happy let go of Sophia's hair, his hands moved down to hold onto her legs, keeping her in place. While Sophia didn't unwrap herself from the the tanned mans body she did let up on his neck and subsequently felt sorry when he began to suck air into his lungs.

"Sweetheart get down from there," The tall brunette pushed her way past the leather clad bikers and made her way towards Happy and Sophia, dressed in a smart, black pencil skirt and a crisp white blouse. "That is no way for a lady to act. Come on I'll make you some tea." The woman pulled Sophia's arms from around Happy's neck, shooting the man a glare and instantly he let go of her legs, Sophia crashed to the ground, flat on her ass.

"You-" Sophia lashed out trying to kick Happy in the shins but was pulled away by the brunette in the direction of the office.

"Venus Van Dam, it's a pleasure I'm sure." A dazzling smile graced her features, Sophia was about to fire back more insults but stopped when she saw Tigger shooting her a warning glare out of the corner of her eye.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Sophia Hernandez." Venus ushered her into the office and pushed her down onto a plush leather couch before making her way over to the kettle of hot water on the kitchenette in the corner.

"Cream and suga?" She asked, pouring water over tea bags in two mugs.

"Just a bit of cream, please." Sophia picked at her nails before spinning the rings on her fingers again.

"Hernandez, huh? I hope you don't mind me saying, but you don't look Hispanic."

Sophia awkwardly cleared her throat, nodding her thanks for the cup of tea, "I was adopted, birth parents weren't Hispanic, but my real parents were."

Venus caught on to the end of Sophia's sentence and immediately regretted prying, "oh, Sweetheart! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to pry, goodness."

"It's okay, they've been dead for nearly ten years now. They died right before I graduated high school." Sophia looked away out the window trying not to focus on anything for too long for fear she might start crying.

"Well, your with us now. We'll be your family, and if those idiots out there won't have you then I'll just take you all for myself." Venus sent a wink her way and Sophia couldn't help but to laugh.

"Thank you, that means a lot." She sipped at her tea again and finally leaned back against the couch.

"So your a mechanic, Sophia?" Venus gave off serious mother hen vibes, and Sophia was more then comfortable with her in that rule, something about Venus calmed her down and she liked it.

"Amongst other things yeah, I do mostly motorcycles but I've been working with cars for the past couple years now. It was hard for me to find work back home, so when I moved out here I picked up on cars, made me more attractive to employers I guess."

A sparkle passed through Venus' eyes, one that wasn't missed by Sophia, before the older woman began speaking, "Are you already employed with another garage?"

"It's a small mom and pop operation, I was gonna leave there or step down if you guys decided to bring me on, but now I don't know if that will happen. I sorta ruined my chances out there, didn't I?"

"Sweety you didn't ruin a thing, if anything you might have just sweetened the deal. Its good that they know you can stand up for yourself. Besides if you can go toe to toe with the club VP, I think your good."


Eh... I don't really know how to feel about this chapter but I'm sick of messing with it so I'm gonna post it.