Thank you for all the reviews and alerts, I'm so happy everyone is enjoying this story as much as I am!


Disclaimer: do not own, not for profit


The 8th time…

Happy made his way silently into the safe house. The feds had all been taken care of, not dead, he didn't want that kind of heat on him or his club, but definitely incapacitated. He slunk through the house, dark room after dark room, expecting his mark to be in bed asleep. He swung the bedroom door open slowly, praying it wouldn't creek.

"Fuck!" he let out as half yell half growl. His witness, a 22 year old man who apparently hadn't been as drunk as Tacoma thought when they dragged his friend out of the bar to execute him was sitting on the floor, propped up against the bed, cold and pasty. Wrist slit, blood just barely seeping out the mostly coagulated wound. Happy checked for a pulse through his gloved hand just to be sure. He made his way back out of the house, down two streets to his bike and froze.

A leggy blond was perched on his bike, straddling it backwards; smirking at him.

"You!" He took a few more steps forward; they were still about a car length apart. "You!"

She sat up straighter and crossed her arms across her chest, carefully tilting in her head in anticipation.

"You fucking bitch!"

"And you, big guy, funny, I didn't hear any shots…. You must have a damn good silencer…." She got off the bike with a touch more flourish then necessary and took a few steps forward, staying just out of arms reach. "Been a while. What are you at now? 8 or 9?"

"He was number 9." Happy glared at her.

"Correction, he was number 42." Her smirk turned into a wide ass grin as Happy's blank expression melted into a look of shock and horror. "Nice work with the Feds by the way, they're gonna be so pissed when they find out it was a suicide. I mean a conk on the head, tied up, and no one to charge with murder…"

"What the fuck was your interest in him?" Happy demanded closing the distance between them.

"Absolutely none, I'm not actually here, won't even get paid for that shit. I just wanted to piss you off."

His eyes flared and before he could think of the consequences of his actions his hand was wrapped tightly around her neck, and he had lifted her a good 6 inches off the ground.

"It worked. I'm pissed." He tightened his grip but she didn't fight back, didn't pull away, didn't try to grab at his hand or flail her legs, she didn't even whimper, or wince at the pressure. Instead she stared; with the advantage of being lifted off her own feet she stared directly into his eyes, no fear, not even anger, just a dead blank stare, almost a dare to squeeze just that one iota tighter.

"What, you got nothing to say now bitch? No smart come backs? What's to stop me from snapping your pretty little neck, right here and now?" Happy was getting sick and tired of this game they were playing. Jax and Clay had warned him to play nice if he saw her again 'organization as big as what she claims could do one hell of a favor for us' had been Clay's words. But here, on this dark street, his kill being ripped from him, he didn't give a fuck about favors.

They both heard sirens in the distance, growing louder. The Feds must have come to, or someone had gone by the house to check on things. Flashing lights appeared in both their peripheral visions, running now would look to suspicious, Happy set Star back on the ground, but didn't loosen his hold.

"Kiss me." She ground out with the little bit of air she was still able to get. Happy started to growl at the demand, but then realized her ploy and brought his lips close to devour her mouth. By the time the cop car pulled up alongside them Happy had let go of the grip on her neck and instead had one hand tightly on her ass, the other wound in her hair, her own arms gripping at the back of his neck and head, pulling him closer.

"HEY!" The officer in the passenger seat shouted out the window shinning a flash light at them.

Star tore herself away from the kiss, giving the officer a sheepish smile. "Officer, we um… were just..." she stumbled and giggled; like a teenager caught under the bleachers by the janitor.

"Clear the road." The officer said sternly, not needing an explanation as to the near fuck fest he had interrupted.

Happy wrapped a protective arm around Star. "We ain't doin' nothing wrong man." He made his voice lighter, knowing his low growl would otherwise give him away.

"Go do nothing wrong behind closed doors. Crime scene up ahead, road's closing." Star reached behind her and grabbed the helmet off Happy's bike.

"Yes officer." She giggled again and nipped at Happy's ear before clipping his helmet on her head. He eyed her and then dragged her over to his bike, if she wanted to ride off with him he certainly wouldn't turn her down.

They'd only gone a few miles before Happy took the first highway entrance ramp he saw, wanting to get this bitch back to the Tacoma clubhouse so he could finally get some information out of her.

"Pull off here." Star said loud enough for Happy to hear. He grunted and sped up. He suddenly felt the familiar nuzzle of a gun to his side. "Pull off here." She repeated calmly.

"Bitch you shoot me going 90 we both die." Happy gunned the throttle once again to prove his point; eating up as much road as he could.

Star seemed to concede, or at least gave the illusion of it. He felt her shift slightly, obviously sticking her gun back into her holster; where ever the hell she had it hidden as he hadn't felt the damn thing when he had her pressed against him in front of the cop. She settled against him once more and Happy ignored the odd feeling that came over him when she wrapped her arms tightly around him for safety; at least he did till a wave of nausea came over him. He fought through it, keeping his bike up for another few miles before he finally pulled off to the side of the road. Star leapt off the bike and he struggled with the kickstand till he was finally able to make it down the small hill at the side of the road and fall to his knees. He gagged and then heaved until finally everything he'd eaten and drank for days it felt like fought its way up his esophagus. Star stood back watching, amusement flickering across her face.

"What the fuck did you do to me bitch?"

"Come on Hap," she gave him a little spin. "Where'd you think I pulled that gun from?" She smirked and pulled out a small tube, the same diameter as a gun nuzzle. "Don't worry; it'll wear off in a couple of hours. Oh, yeah, you're not gonna want to drive till you're done puking…"

Happy tried to stand and fell back down to his knees. He was light headed and the nausea wasn't lifting. He couldn't imagine anything could possibly be left in his system. "Don't" He tried to stand again and made it only a step before falling. "You fucking owe me bitch!" He pushed himself back up to standing. "This what I fucking get for helping you?!"

"You're really not getting it Hap. We're not on the same side. Now, I need you to take a step back from the killing for a while. There's shit going down, shit you have no part in, and don't need to get involved in. So listen to me very carefully. Rouge River. You have a charter there. They need to get the fuck out. Not permanently. I have no beef with your club. But I can't have them stepping on my toes. If they do, they will go down. You got that?"

Happy glared up at her. "This how you repay me, tell me I gotta move a fucking charter?"

"I owe you a favor, not your club. This shit don't count. They get in my way they go down, send 'em out Hap, give 'em an alibi, and get them the fuck out."

Happy didn't have the kind of authority it would take to move a charter. Rogue River was small, but they still had business to conduct. "When? How long?"

"Friday by the latest. A week or so. They'll know when they can come back." She began to walk back up the hill, slipping whatever the fuck she had used to drug him back into her jeans pocket.

"Where the fuck you think you're going bitch?" He had to pause more than once to dry heave as he yelled and he knew he didn't sound nearly as scary as he wanted to.

"Got shit to do, and ah, I really don't like watching…that…" She waved her hand at him on his knees and jogged a few more feet up the hill. "Call a brother to come get you." She yelled over her shoulder and Happy simply grunted. He wasn't calling his brothers for this shit.

"Fucking hell" He screamed into the night when he heard his own God damn Dyna rev up and peel out. She took his fucking bike. His fucking bike! His Dyna, his pride and fucking joy!


Kozik eyed his brother, when he'd gotten the call in the middle of the night he had thought it was a confirmation of the kill, not his best friend and brother on the side of the highway poisoned with his bike stolen. He wanted badly to mock the man, but seeing the best assassin the club had sprawled out on the bathroom floor sick as a fucking dog made it hard to completely enjoy the moment.

"KOZ!" The prospect yelled down the hall. "Koz, Koz, oh shit!" the young man came to a screeching halt in the bathroom door way. "Umm…. Some guy is here with Hap's bike…" He pointed behind him for clarification.

Happy growled and tried to stand, Kozik knowing better then to tell him not to he grabbed his brother's arm and hauled him outside. "Bill?" Kozik asked seeing an old club friend; he supplied Tacoma Auto with most of its car parts and supplies.

"Kozik, good to see you man. Look, ah, I opened up my 2nd bay this morning and this Dyna was sitting in the middle of it with a note." He pulled the note out and handed it to him.

Kozik read the note quickly, it was typed and in an open envelope. 'Drop off at Tacoma Auto, care of Happy Lowman.' "Short and Sweet. Thanks Bill, we got it from here. Any damage? Break in, or such?"

"Not a thing, had no idea someone was in there till I found the bike. Alarm never went off neither." Kozik nodded and handed the note to Happy; nodding Bill away with another 'thanks'.

"Come on Hap, you should be in bed."

"Fuck you."

"Not till you're all better." Kozik teased and hauled him back into the club house.

He popped his head back into Hap's room an hour later. "How you feeling brother?"

Happy responded with a grunt. His nausea was finally gone but he still felt like shit. He was dying to know what the fuck he'd been dosed with.

"Had the prospect look your bike over. She didn't fuck with anything. If you want, I can have him ride it around just in case. Don't want it going haywire with you on it, that's what the twits are for, right?" Hap grunted again, finally opening his eyes. "Umm, got a question though. Your saddle bags…You emptied those before the job right, 'cause there wasn't much in them."

Happy finally looked up. "There should be nothing in them." He said certain he had removed every last thing that could be traced to him or the club in case he had been cut off from his bike after the job.

"Right… well," Kozik held up a bottle of ginger ale and a box of saltines "Like I said…there wasn't much." He tossed the items at Happy, now knowing for certain the girl had left them there for him to find and bit his lip to hide his grin.

"Fucken'… just fuck" He threw the items off the bed. "I fucking hate that bitch!"


So, not one of my favorite chapters, it felt a little forced, I knew which scenes I wanted to happen but I had a little trouble in getting there. It'll be a few days before the next one is up; I want to explore my options before I commit to something.

For those of you following my other story, The Reluctant Lion Heart I have the next chapter about 80% done, and it should be out sometime Friday.