A/n: the name used in the first part of this chapter is a nod to Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Points to whoever can figure out the reference.
Fort Collins, Colorado
All the Nomad Sons were on high alert upon the minute they walked into the lobby of the hotel Rane had booked for them, especially Rane when he did not see Dale or Annna out front to greet them upon their arrival.
In spite of the paranoia festering in all of them, the Nomad Sons kept their composure so Tara, Abel, Tommy, Angelica and Angelina would not get spooked.
The front desk clerk looked kind of...weird. Rane looked him in the eye for a moment.
"Reservations under G.S. Hartman." To anyone who did not know him, Rane's voice came off as unassuming and casual. To the Sons who knew him, fought alongside him and rode under his command, they knew that something fishy was going on and it involved the clerk who was thumbing through the hotel files to find their reservation.
In a matter of minutes, four keys were handed out. Angelica and Angelina's room was adjoined to Abel and Tommy's room while Tara's room was adjoined the room kept by the Nomad Sons.
Rane gathered everyone together and started handing out keys. "Hank and Tara are bunking with me. Psycho, you're with Moran and Snake Doctor."
Turning his attention to the Californian brothers and the New Yorker sisters, Rane handed Abel a key and then handed Angelica the last one. "Abel, you and Tommy get your own room. Angelica, you and your sister get one of your own."
Walking through the hallways, everything was quiet. Too quiet. "You all hear anything?" Swamp Man asked. The other Sons shook their heads. "No. I hear nothing." Moran said plainly.
"Yeah. No noise, chatter, yelling, TV blasting, couples going at it hot and heavy. There's nothing." Swamp Man said. Growing up in the Bayou, there never was a night where there wasn't the sounds of crickets, frogs, bugs, gators and other creatures crawling across the ground, climbing the trees or wading through the swamp waters.
The silence was not calming or comforting.
Thankfully, it did not take long for them to reach their rooms, which happened to be close to each other.
"Yo, Snake, ya got 'em?" Psycho asked.
"Yeah, Danny. I got 'em. Ready to take a shellacking and two months of KP?"
"I'm ready to take 6 jars of Apple Pie off your hands for free." Psycho remarked as he, Snake Doctor and Moran walked into their room, closing the door behind them.
Swamp Man opened the door and motioned for Tara to enter. "Ladies first." Though he was well mannered when he needed to be, Swamp Man knew not to turn his back on Tara for one minute.
"Hank, you get yourself and Tara set up. I got to reach out to Jonas." Rane ordered before taking his cell phone out and dialing a number before disappearing down the hallway.
Tara was about to ask why everyone was suddenly on high alert when Swamp Man said, "You have more important things to think about than who my Pres is calling."
She wasn't pleased to hear him talk to her in such a way but the look on Swamp Man's face left nothing open for discussion or debate. Tara sighed in resgination and walked into the hotel room with Swamp Man behind her.
When he was well out of sight far enough so they could not hear him, Rane hung up the phone and made a beeline for the lobby. To no surprise, he found a mousy young lady at the front desk. "Where is Lincoln?"
"He's in the main dining hall, sir."
"Don't 'sir' me. I work for a living." Rane growled before storming into the dining room where Lincoln Potter sat at a corner booth, munching on chicken tenders, blanched green beans and mashed potatoes. "This is a fine establishment though Mr. and Mrs. Hosken's preferred clientele leaves much to be desired. Manners, decency, acquiescence to the law. Things like that. It's not that I think you lack in the first two, Rane. It's only that you have none of the third every time you wear that cut of yours."
"What the hell are you doing out here, Lincoln? Dale and Anna have not broken any laws." Rane growled as he advanced towards Potter, who wiped his mouth daintily with a napkin.
"Operating an establishment which aids to harbor criminal offenders is rather vague and minor in the grand scheme but it's enough to warrant a charge of harboring criminals and obstructing justice. That not withstanding, I wanted to see if you would accomplish your mission. You always were keen about accomplishing your missions in your time as a Navy SEAL. I admire that. Even if you turned out an outlaw biker, I have not lost my respect for you."
In the blink of an eye, Rane grabbed Lincoln by the front of his shirt, pulled him over and across the table before he had Lincoln dangling a foot off the ground. "Do not do anything rash, Rane."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because of this." Lincoln said as he calmly took a device out of his pocket that looked like a beeper. "I press this button and your MC brothers get introduced to five SWAT teams who are trained to shoot upon the slightest sign of hostility."
Rane sat Lincoln back down behind the corner booth roughly. "Start talking."
"Like I said, I wanted to see if you would come through. I would strongly advise that you keep Ms. Knowles in your sights and make sure she gets to Reno."
"What happens when she gets there?" Rane asked.
Lincoln looked at Rane in the eye and said simply, "Justice."
Rane was about to leave when Lincoln said, "Do not worry about Dale and Anna Hosken. They were not arrested. Just escorted home for the time being."
The only response Rane gave was a nod of the head before he walked out of the dining hall.
"Who's the woman in the picture?"
Tara basically kept to her side of the room that was closest to the bathroom while Hank 'Swamp Man' McCoy was nursing a shot of moonshine after checking his sidearm and backup piece as if he had done it a million times in his life. One look in the Bayou native's direction and she saw a picture pinned on the headboard of his bed. It was of a beautiful woman in her mid 40s with dark hair, deep brown eyes and a soft smile.
Swamp Man looked at it for a moment and said, "My Old Lady, Skyla. She lives down in New Orleans. I see her every now and again."
"Girlfriend or wife?" Tara asked, put off at his casual tone. Hank gave her a hard look and said, "Don't wear anything that can be traced back to loved ones. That's one of the many laws of the Nomad charter and one of the many prices paid for the life we lead."
"Why aren't you with her? Why leave her in New Orleans and run off to nowhere?" Tara asked, surprising herself with why she bothered to ask a Son something so personal.
"I'm not on the run like you. I know that for a fact." Hank said, downing a shot of his infamous moonshine. "We all had our reasons for going Nomad just like you had your reasons for leaving Charming. It was something we had to do or it was something we thought had to be done."
He reached into his bag, took out a spare shot glass from his duffel bag, filled it with his Swamp Special and offered it to Tara. "If there ever was a time."
"What's that you're drinking?" Tara asked as she slowly approached Swamp Man.
"My own recipe. Hits you like a runaway train and goes down hot with a smooth finish." Swamp Man said. He poured barely a finger's worth and handed it to Tara, who looked at the portion incredulously. "Do you really think I'm that much of a lightweight?"
"I know you are that much of a lightweight." Swamp Man replied.
"Could you fill it with two fingers at least?" Tara said before realizing the innuendo she just used. From the raised eyebrows, Swamp Man caught it right away. "I don't know. Can you fill it with two fingers?" Swamp Man joked as he poured a full two shot portion of shine into Tara's shot glass. The look on her face made him laugh. "I have dealt with my share of disgruntled women in my life. It'll take more than a glare and the silent treatment from you to make me cringe."
Tara swallowed the whole shot of Swamp Special. It was supposed to show she was no pushover. It felt like someone threw a Molotov cocktail into her mouth. Tara was thrown into a coughing fit as Swamp Man watched on. "Rookie mistake. Tastes good, don't it? If it doesn't, your sinuses get cleared up in a hurry. That's for damn sure."
She felt a buzz pass across her brain, making her feel a bit lightheaded. Damn, this is some good stuff. Tara thought to herself.
"You wanna go for round 2?"
"Considering what I've gone through, why not?" Tara said with a sense of nostalgia and grief. "Jax and I, we had some wild, crazy times together and a lot of it started from a couple of drinks. He's the only one that could get me into trouble, get me out of trouble and I still could not find myself to hate him."
"So the two of you are on good terms?" Swamp Man asked as he poured himself another shot and reluctantly gave Tara a second helping.
"I don't know what terms we're on." Tara spoke as she thought of what was. "We loved each other once. What I did before I left Charming, he will never forgive me."
It was practically common knowledge among patched members of the Sons of Anarchy MC what depths and what distances Jackson Teller was capable of going to, whether for good or ill. He had an equal capacity for love as he did for hate.
Tara drank half the contents of the shot glass. "He is going to kill me."
"Why would you think that? You're his Old Lady; the mother of his kids. Not even he could be that cruel." Swamp Man said. The laugh that came from Tara's mouth, he never saw coming.
"Then you do not know Jackson Teller at all, Swamp Man." Tara said spitefully.
In all his life, whether as a SEAL in the Navy or a patched member of the Sons of Anarchy MC, this was the first time Hank 'Swamp Man' McCoy ever heard such a statement out loud.
"I had an aunt who cooked up a kick ass barbecue every 4th of July. No matter how bad things got, a bite of whatever she put on that grill made us feel better. We don't got a grill and she's back in Louisiana but we got a dining hall and they got some grub. My treat."
Tara expected a stone cold killer just like Psycho, Happy, Tig and every other Son wearing a Reaper on their back. She never expected him to be considerate or slow to reach for his sidearm.
Or someone who showed kindness and generosity. "Alright. I could go for a bite to eat."
Getting into their swimsuits was a challenge. They both were so strong that tearing out of them would not have required any effort on their part. On top of that, their breasts were so big that their string bikinis looked like micro bikinis. Angelina had to tie Angelica's top for her and vice versa. When they took a look in the mirror, they marveled at how much cleavage they showed off while managing to be covered up to a proper level.
Walking out of their room with large beach towels in hand, Angelica and Angelina spotted Swamp Man and Tara walking towards the dining hall. They kept quiet until the Nomad Son and Tara disappeared from sight. "Do you think the boys would like to go with us for a dip in the pool?" Angelina asked her big sister.
Angelica smiled. "It might be as much fun for them as it can be for us." While they were trying to be upbeat, the Cortez sisters were at odds with whether or not to tell Abel and Tommy what they knew about Jackson Teller and of their mother, Tara. A lot of what they heard in New York about Jackson Teller would not earn him the title of Father of The Year and what Sharky told them, Tara was not going to be Mother of The Year either.
Pushing that out of their minds, Angelica and Angelina brushed their hair back over their shoulders and knocked on the door to Abel and Tommy's room.
The look of surprise and amazement on Abel and Tommy's faces were priceless. "Hi, boys." Angelica said. "Angelina and I are going to the pool for a swim. Would you like to join us?"
"We would enjoy your company." Angelina said politely while somehow making such a simple statement sound seductive without meaning to.
Abel and Tommy could only nod silently. "Alright. Get in your swim trunks and grab some towels for yourselves." Angelica instructed. "Don't keep us waiting." Angelina added for fun.
There was not another time in their lives when Abel and Tommy changed into their swimsuits at the drop of a hat like they did right then and there. Two minutes later, the Teller boys walked out with the Cortez girls to the pool.
Though Abel and Tommy were both getting to heights of 6 feet, the Cortez sisters were easily ten times stronger than they were at the minimum. This was not lost on them. It was also very difficult for them not to watch Angelica and Angelina's huge boobs bounce with each step they took.
Abel and Tommy watched as the pair of tall, brawny and busty New Yorkers set their towels upon lounge chairs before they dove into the pool. Rising up from the water, Angelica and Angelina had water cascading down their bodies as their hair was slicked back. Abel and Tommy wasted no time in diving in at the deep end.
When they were children, Angelica and Angelina loved swimming alongside their younger brother, Angelo and their parents. Whenever they played in the water, all the troubles of the world fell away for a moment and all was right with them.
It was fun swimming and playing with Abel and Tommy. For the time they had until the Reno rendezvous, everything was right in the world. They had to focus on the fun they were having now because it turned their stomachs to think of what was yet to come.
It turned Angelica and Angelina's stomachs to think that the cute, sweet teenage boys smiling at them shared any genetic design, temperament or traits as Jackson Teller.
No matter how platonic their relationship was, there was something about the Teller boys that touched Angelica and Angelina.
Abel and Tommy then brought up a topic that brought both girls back down to Earth. "Tell us about your brother." Abel said, curious about the third Cortez he had only heard about in passing. "Is he as big as the two of you?" Tommy asked.
Angelica and Angelina smiled, thankful for the distraction. "Angelo has dark black hair like Angelica and dark brown eyes like me. When we learned how to cook, Angelo learned from us." Angelina said as Angelica smiled at that warm memory from years ago. "As big and strong as we are, he's bigger and stronger. His upper back is 2 inches wider than Angelina's and he's 6 feet 2 inches tall." Angelica added as she and Angelina thought of him.
Both women had a look on their faces that bordered on homesickness and something else they couldn't put a finger on.
"Is something wrong, girls?" Abel asked.
"We were just thinking of home and how far away from it we are." Angelica answered. Getting themselves back from the brink of a mental funk, Angelica and Angelina turned their attentions back to Abel and Tommy. "We love the two of you and care about you. Do you believe that?" Angelina asked.
"Of course." Abel said while thinking to himself What are they getting at?
"Do you trust us?" Angelina asked. Abel and Tommy nodded their heads.
"A while ago, Angelica and I were asked to move in and live with you two for what's left of your school years. How do you feel about it?" Angelina asked.
"We would love to have you both live with us." Abel asked.
"Who asked you?" Tommy asked.
"Sharky from the Nomad charter. I don't know for sure but I get the feeling he won't be the only one who's going to ask that from us." Angelica said as she and Angelina maneuvered Abel and Tommy to the wall, gently restraining their arms with their strong hands while pushing their breasts against their chests.
There was so much that they were fighting to keep a lid on, both from what they knew and what they felt. As hot blooded and sexually confident as they were, they did not have any ideas of sleeping with the sons of Jackson Teller. Not with what they knew about the National President and the fear lingering in their minds that what was within Jax Teller could be in his sons.
"It's getting late. Tomorrow's a big day. We ought to get some rest." Angelica said as she and Angelina led Abel and Tommy out of the pool.
Snake Doctor and Psycho stared down each other as Tommy Moran read a paperback copy of A Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Jules Verne.
Psycho and Snake Doctor played a Nomad version of paper rock scissors to see who would go first. From the right hook Psycho delivered and the shiner over Snake Doctor's left eye, the Nomad Sergeant at Arms got to throw down the first domino.
"You got any bets on who's going to be carried out of Reno in a bag, Danny?" Aaron asked as Danny placed a double six on his side of the domino.
"If she is able to sneak in a gun without SAMCRO being able to find it on her, odds go to Tara. Otherwise, I have no idea who's going to leave the meeting alive." Psycho knew what it meant to lose a loving mother to an asshole father. It was not pretty and the slim chance he gave Tara was as close to optimistic as he could get.
"That is depressing. Can't say it's a lie. Can't say that's what's going to happen either." Snake Doctor said as he placed a two/four piece down.
"You think they're going to make up and all would be right again? I saw the look on Gemma's face and the depth of the chest wound. There's no going back for them." Psycho put a six/three piece next to the double six.
"We have to talk." Rane still surprised them with his stealth. The former Navy SEAL looked upset and that was enough to catch Moran, Psycho and Snake Doctor's attention, ending the dominoes game right there.
Like many others in the club that knew of Jackson Teller, Swamp Man had high hopes for him.
In the last days of his rule, Clay had become the bane of the club when avarice and duplicity replaced what may have been brotherhood and honor. His hands were failing him and that went a long way to making him step down from the club.
Swamp Man, like many other Sons, thought that the club would finally have the leader it needed when Jax took up the mantle.
Hearing what Tara told him, Swamp Man began to rethink what he knew of Jackson Teller.
"He shot an 8-ball of crank into his drug addict ex-wife and risked putting her into a relapse?"
Tara nodded. "How do you know that?" Swamp Man asked.
"She told me all about it. Given that she had everything to lose if she relapsed, Wendy had no reason to lie."
Swamp Man shook his head in disbelief. "He better have had a damn good reason for doing what he did. So far as I know, Tig and Juice are still alive. Rane told me the second mayhem vote on Clay was unanimous. However hardened and unhinged Jax became, there's nothing to call for a vote of non-confidence or mayhem. Is that why you ran? Did he threaten you?"
Tara shook her head. "I ran because I know he is capable of."
He was about to ask what it was until he thought about what he heard so far. "Whatever it is that you may have done, he can not touch you in Reno. You may not be a member of the club but that does not mean we are going to watch your sons become orphans or have to explain to them why their mother got thrown a beating."
"We? Who is that? You and your brother Nomads?" Tara said incredulously. "The only reason I agreed to see Jax in Reno is because if I had refused, he would have had all the US charters hunting me down. Then I would have been dragged back to him. He has no control over me and I won't let him think that he does. How do I know you all won't turn into a firing squad upon his say so?"
Swamp Man looked her in the eye without flinching or blinking an eye. "You gladly took a shot of my moonshine. I am a Son and you still accepted what I put in front of you. We are not a bunch of bloodthirsty, gun-slinging, pussy hunting, backstabbing pricks. Or is that all you think of us?"
Tara did not respond to that. The silence spoke more than she thought as Hank smirked wistfully. "You wouldn't believe it to look at him but Psycho was once a kid. He loved his Ma very much. Lost her too soon if you ask me. Even a guy like him had a mother who loved him."
Hearing such a thing about one of the scariest Sons she had ever seen was enough for Tara to ask, "What happened to her?"
"What happened to her is what made Psycho swing a Louisville slugger at that asshole father of his. The first hit landed in the back of the head. All the other hits that came after that went a long way in cementing Psycho's namesake long before he hung a Reaper on his back."
In spite of the brutality, Tara felt guilty about judging Psycho so harshly.
"Don't mention it around him. He's a tough man to get in a good mood without having to dispose of a body. You know what, we ought to get back to the room. If there was ever a reason to soak up my moonshine, this is it. You might need some to get ready for tomorrow."
"I'd have to agree with you on that." Tara said as they walked back to the room.
Though they never were promiscuous in their lives, Angelica and Angelina were born with hot blood in their veins. When they became teenagers, their libidos took off like a rocket and never came back down to Earth. Yet somehow the Cortez sisters showed great levels of restraint, responsibility, maturity and self control.
While still in their revealing swimsuits, Angelica tucked Abel into bed while Angelina tucked Tommy into bed. "We'll be right next door. If you need anything, knock on the door and we'll be there." Angelica said, pointing to the doors that adjoined their rooms.
"Sleep well. Tomorrow's a big day." Angelina said before she and Angelica got up and walked through the adjoining doors to their room.
Once the door closed behind them, Angelica and Angelina took off their swimsuits and started doing pushups and sit ups to build up their upper body strength and strengthen their cores. Apart from keeping in shape, it helped to work off the sexual tension or at the very least manage it.
Having worked up a sweat, Angelica and Angelina took a shower together so they wouldn't smell rancid in the morning. It was a good thing that the shower had a curtain instead of frosted walls or they would have felt like sardines in a tin.
Once they checked the bed for bed bugs or any other infestations and seeing it was safe to sleep in, Angelica and Angelina got under the covers and slept together. Their physical contact with each other helped to ease the uneasy feeling in their minds that something bad was going to happen in Reno.
Reno, Nevada
The city was not ostentatious like Las Vegas but there were enough lights to make Reno considered by many to be the lesser cousin of Sin City. Rane was in the lead as they drove through the streets. For a while, Tara had the tempting impulse to pull a 180 spin and haul ass in the other direction. That did not happen. It would not have helped her and there was no other place for her to run to.
Some time later, the city began to fade from view as they entered into the more rural areas and then into the Tahoe National Forest.
Since all the Nomads present were military trained, they did not see the forest for the beauty or the serenity it possessed. All they could see were the multiple places enemy combatants could be concealed and all the choice spots for sniper nests.
Rane motioned forward upon sight of a cabin located within a clearing. Scattered around it were members of the Redwood Original. Chibs and Tig were talking together while leaning against the cabin. Bobby was cooking some food on the grill of a portable barbecue with Rat Boy and West assisting him. Happy was nowhere to be seen so he was probably inside the cabin.
Upon parking, everyone dismounted their vehicles. Angelica and Angelina stretched their legs and arms as Abel and Tommy got out of the SUV.
Though it was great to see their Nomad brothers again, it was seeing Jax's boys that brought most of SAMCRO out to Reno. Abel looked like the spitting image of his father with short, bright blonde hair and green eyes. Tommy's hair was a shade darker than his older brother's but short and parted to the side. His eyes had a light shade of green.
They remembered most of the club. Bobby embraced them warmly and offered fresh burgers off the grill. Tig joked about how the girls in Chicago were probably fighting each other in droves over them. Chibs was the one who noticed Angelica and Angelina right away as well as Rat Boy, who wound up clutching his jaw with his right hand. He made the mistake of asking if how many times they went under the knife. He never knew a slap could feel like a punch until both Angelica and Angelina put a right and left hook into both sides of his jaw.
The sound of the cabin door opening caught everyone's attention, especially as Happy emerged from it. He looked at Tara, Abel, Tommy, Angelica and Angelina before motioning for them to approach.
Tara held Abel and Tommy's hands in hers almost as if she were afraid they would slip away. Angelica stood behind Abel as Angelina stood behind Tommy.
Every step towards the cabin made Tara feel like the condemned prisoner taking the long walk to the executioner's block.
The bright light of day was blacked out by the shade inside the cabin.
Standing there in front of them was the man she loved and feared.
The National President of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club.
Abel and Tommy looked at him and said, "Hi, Dad."
Abel and Tommy walked up to their father, who did not waste any time in wrapping his arms around his two boys, who had grown to be in his image.
Tara was as calm as she could be throughout this father and sons reunion until he turned their attention away from her and Happy started advancing towards her. She felt and heard her heart beats as if they were mortar blasts. Her hands began to shake uncontrollably.
When he was close enough, Tara whispered, "Please, Happy. Don't do this in front of my boys."
"I have to, Tara." Happy whispered roughly as he closed the door, shutting out the world around them.
Apart from three men, no one else had any idea what was about to happen.
A squad of fifty men scattered about in 5-man cells slowly converged toward the cabin. Though they were armed to the teeth, none of them were in a hurry.
Upon reaching 20 yards from the target, they instantly went on stand by.
Until they got the go ahead from their superior, all they could do was wait.
A/n: The story needed some revisions but I'm staying true to the original plot I had in mind minus the part that clogged up the story the first time around.
