DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sons of Anarchy or any of its characters or ideas, sadly they belong to the brilliant mind of Kurt Sutter, but I wouldn't mind sharing ;) I only own my original character Rayne and anything that seems out of place. Reviews are appreciated, but I will warn you that I don't take kindly to being attacked, I will be a bitch. Thank you for taking the time to read my story and I hope you like it.
Thank you to The-Major's-Lieutenant, toomuchforedward, Endich Furchtlos, XxMaraudersxX and danib819 for choosing to favorite and follow this story and myself.
And thank you to NicoleR85, PrincessMean, and DaughterofAnarchy88 -(love your screen name) for their reviews of chapters 6 & 7. Once again you all have blown me away!
In honor of these amazing readers and reviews, I'm giving you two chapters again!
Keep those reviews comin' :)
Jax is with Opie at the big man's house, shirtless in the hot sun, their SOA tattoos proudly displayed on their backs, pulling things out of the shed outback while Donna watches with a smile.
"How'd you get that thing in there?" Opie asks.
"By myself." Donna smirks.
Jax grabs hold of the play pen and pulls it out knocking down a tool box and a rolling cart in the process. He laughs as he looks back at Donna. "I'm sorry." He sets it down in the grass. "Looks great. How much?"
"Aw, forget it. It's a gift." Opie tells his brother carrying it out to the truck.
Jax shakes his head and pulls some cash out of his pocket placing it in Donna's hand. "No, Jax. I don't want it."
"Hey. I'm the one getting the deal." Jax says slapping her hand before he walks to the truck. "All right, see you at the fund-raiser."
"That Taste of Charming thing?" Donna asks.
"Yeah. I'm doing the fireworks." Opie tells her.
"Oh, really?" Donna asks skeptically.
"It's not a club thing, Donna." Opie assures her.
"Yeah. My mom started it years ago." Jax says backing Opie up. "It raises money for the school district."
"We'll be there." Opie says as Jax leaves the backyard. He turns to Donna. "Come on. It'll be fun. Give me some time to hang with the kids."
"Okay. We'll go for a little while."
Opie kisses her softly. "Thanks. How much did he give ya?"
"None of your business." Donna laughs.
Later that night the group sits in church as Clay explains his and Jax's trip up to Stockton to see Otto. "Chuck's been cooking the books for the Asian mob. Skimmed 400 "K" off of Henry Lin's crew. Now Otto was keeping him safe up at Stockton, but he gets out tomorrow morning. So, we protect him, we pick up the cash, we get him out of Cali."
"We're gonna split the cash with Chucky boy. Twenty-five percent goes to us." Jax tells them. "Otto wants his 25 to go to Luann."
"It ain't gonna be a cakewalk." Bobby says shaking his head. "Lin's a dangerous cat. Sneaky little bastard."
"That's why we're gonna work three-man shifts. We're gonna keep this place locked down. Chuck never leaves the clubhouse. And the garage is open for pickups only." Clay orders.
"Skim's hidden in one of the restaurants Lin uses as a front." Jax confirms. "We're gonna keep Chuck here till Sunday. Go pick up the money when the place is closed."
The group gets up to leave but Clay halts them. "Uh, wait a minute. There's, uh— There's one more thing. April Hobart wants to know if her old man can come to the fund-raiser, see his kid's band play."
"Seriously?" Rayne's eyes dart over to Opie as she hears this news, his face is impassive at the moment.
"You got to be kidding." Jax exclaims.
"That's done, brother. That's done." Tig says shaking his head.
"No, I know. But, you know, she took a big hit staying behind. She supported the club. It's for her, not Kyle. And I figured I'd throw it up for a vote."
"Let him come." Opie states.
"Are you serious?" Jax asks.
"This can't be about getting even. Not at the school." Clay warns Opie.
"It's not about that." Opie says. "Guy's got nothing, right? No club, no family. Do me good to see that. Appreciate what I got."
"Anybody opposed?"
"Yeah, me." Tig answers quickly.
"I don't agree with it." Piney says from the end of the table.
"Oh, this is wrong, man." Tig states.
Clay looks at the others who nod. "Majority rule. Vote passes. Let him come." The group stands and Clay hollers at them. "Hey, you all better be at that fund-raiser tomorrow unless you want a size nine high-heel boot up your ass."
"You coming?" Rayne asks knowing the answer already as she smirks.
"I'd rather have my balls cut off." Tig laughs and the other groan. "What? What? Too soon for that joke?" He turns to Jax. "Hey, watch Kyle tomorrow. I don't want anything going down at Gemma's gig. Keep him away from Ope."
Rayne is at the fund-raiser helping out at the SAMCRO tent with Gemma. After seeing how miserable Opie looks, she and Jax step over to have a chat with him, see how he's doing.
"Yo. You bow out of the egg toss?" Jax asks sitting down on a crate next to Ope, Rayne standing behind the two.
"Yeah. Yeah, I did." Opie looks over at Kyle laughing with his family. "I wanted the guy to be a miserable broken piece of shit without SAMCRO. I tell you, I'm having a hard time, man."
"Here." Rayne says handing Ope a cigarette and her lighter. "Thanks, babydoll." He lights his cig and hands her lighter back so she can light hers.
"You know, this club means everything to me. The only thing I ever wanted from the time I went here." He motions to the school. "But everything else— Donna, the kids, work— are all heading in the opposite direction. I just can't hook shit up. I feel like I'm missing on every front."
Jax scoffs. "I got no answers. My family plan is right out of the Sid and Nancy handbook. I'm so used to shit moving in the other direction… I don't know what I'd do if something actually hooked up."
"Ain't that the fucking truth." Rayne said with a laugh.
They watch as Kyle misses an egg catch from his daughter and it cracks all over his jacket.
"You think he's happy?" Opie asks.
"I don't know." Jax says.
They watch as his girlfriend lifts up the back of his sweatshirt, inadvertently showing them his back. Their faces grow hard.
"Tell me you guys saw that too?" Rayne said. She didn't know Kyle, hadn't been around while he was part of SAMCRO, but she knew what he had done to Opie and that was enough for her to hate him.
"Still has that tat." Opie says.
"Yeah." Jax throws down his cig and stands up, but Opie stops him.
"This is me."
Jax heads over to Donna, dodging the kids as they shoot him with their squirt guns. He laughs along with Donna as they watch Rayne chase the kids around, two squirt guns in her hands.
"Little Harry looks like he knows his way around a gun." He tries to hide his smile as Donna glares at him. "I'm kidding."
Donna's look softens. "Thanks for the crib money. Any little bit helps right now."
"Yeah, I get how rough it is for you guys. I know you always had trouble wrapping your head around the M.C. life… but SAMCRO is the only—"
"Your mom's already given me "the SAMCRO is the glue" speech."
"I'm not talking about you and SAMCRO. I'm talking about you and Ope."
"What happens with me and Opie is no one's business."
"You're wrong. He's my best pal. I love that guy more than anyone. But I also see what's happening to him. And it scares the shit out of me. Opie can't be half in/half out. It'll get him killed, Donna."
"Then I want him out. That other guy got out. Kyle."
"Kyle was kicked out. You know why? Cause the night Opie got arrested for blowing up that truck yard…. Kyle was supposed to be his getaway ride. Only the asshole panicked when he heard sirens. Left Opie behind."
"Opie never said anything."
"Cause Opie's not a rat. Brothers don't turn on each other. He did the time. That's what we do. Opie will never walk away from the club. We both know that. He's like me, and Rayne. It's all we know. It's in our D.N.A. And if you keep pulling him in the other direction— We're not the glue, Donna. You are."
Jax grabs Rayne and after a few words the two of them go to find Opie and Kyle. They find them in the locker room of the gym.
"See you two have been talking." Jax comments seeing the two wiping blood off themselves.
"Yep." Opie says. "You seem to be doing all right. New truck. Nice piece of ass."
"Yeah, I guess." Kyle says with a sigh. "I miss it man. I miss it all. I mean, when I had that cut on, everybody knew who I was. Even if I never met 'em, man, I got instant respect. Now I'm just like every other shithead." Kyle walks over sitting down on a bench.
"You started telling me something earlier. Stolen parts thing."
"Yeah. I'd love to bring it to the club. Let you guys share in the pie. It's my way of saying sorry."
"We could run it by Clay." Opie suggests.
Jax nods. "It's kind of a complicated time for us right now. So we should probably do it tonight while you're still in town."
"Yeah, absolutely."
"What about your kid's band?" Opie asks.
"Oh, hey, it's cool. I can hear him some other time." Kyle says standing up.
Opie rolls his eyes at Kyle's lack of care for his son as he walks out the door with Rayne and Jax behind him. They run into Bobby and Tig as they exit the gym, Bobby gives them a curious look. "We good here?"
"Yeah. What's up?" Jax asks.
"We gotta go. Chow mein's ready." Tig says.
"Now?" Jax sighs. "I'll catch you guys back at the clubhouse." Opie nods as he and Kyle head back to the fund-raiser.
"You gonna leave them alone?" Bobby asks.
"I'll tell you on the way." Jax says as the four head out. He sees the guy from the hospital standing behind the grill at the sheriff's tent.
"Jax, who is that guy? Is he lookin' at him?" Tig asks.
Jax is stopped quick by Gemma who smacks his chest. "You tell Clay I'm pissed off. Bad enough his sorry ass isn't here. Now he's taking all my manpower."
"Hey!" Rayne says with an indignant look.
"Oh shut up, you know you're one of them." Gemma smiles as Rayne laughs shaking her head.
"Who's that guy with the cops?" Jax asks.
"That's you're A.T.F. guy." Gemma tells him, having talked to Unser earlier after she saw Tara looking at the guy in complete fear.
"That guy was at the hospital last night watching me with Abel."
"That's dangerous brother." Tig says.
"Shit." Gemma sighs.
"Well, you keep an eye on him. He follows us out of here or leaves at any point, you give me a call."
"Pre-pay?"
"Yeah."
Gemma watches the man as the group walks out to their bikes, heading for the clubhouse.
The crew dismounts their bikes and heads into the clubhouse. Rayne pauses by the bar seeing an unknown guy sitting on one of the barstools, and even more disturbing is his hand jammed down in his pants.
"Who the fuck is that?" She asks Jax as he walks up beside her. "And what the fuck is he doing?"
"You remember I told you Otto had us watching a guy for him. Meet Chuck."
"Hi." The man says quickly still going to town on himself.
"Hi." Rayne says slowly, she looks between the guy and Jax clearly disturbed by the guy's actions.
"Oh, yeah. Otto said he had a nervous tick." Jax says shrugging his shoulders.
Rayne scoffs. "That's what Otto classifies as a "nervous tick"?" She shakes her head as they take Chuck out to the van and Jax duct tapes the man's hands to his thighs so he can't rub himself.
"Is this really necessary?" Chuck asks trying to get his hands free.
"Yeah. It is." Jax answers.
As Clay and Jax Bobby escort Chuck inside the restaurant to retrieve the money, Rayne posts up outside by the front of the van with Tig, Half-Sack and Bobby, her hand on her Beretta. No more than ten minutes later the group returns, Rayne hollers to them as she sees two cars approaching the restaurant.
"Our friends in the Beemer are here. And another interested party's been making laps in a silver Caddy."
"The shit is on." Jax says.
"All right, let's move." Clay orders. "Jax drives."
"Crap." Tig says as he shoves Chuck into the back, he hates it when Jax drives, the kid is nuts behind the wheel.
Jax starts the engine, putting the van in drive, punk rock music blasting from the speakers as he heads straight for the entrance. Suddenly the blue Beemer pulls up sideways across the driveway blocking their escape. Jax slams the van into reverse and quickly backs up, he turns heading for the second driveway, but the silver Caddy pulls up blocking that exit.
"Shit!" Jax says. "Hold on."
Again he backs up, turning towards the Beemer Jax slams the accelerator to the floor, the tires squeal as Jax rams into the Beemer broadside, the two Asian men barely having got out before the impact.
"Well, that didn't work." He says looking sideways at Clay in the passenger seat.
Jax puts the van into reverse and backs up quickly, the group ducks as shots begin firing at the front of the van from the two men in the Beemer as they stand behind the safety of the car. Jax slams on the brakes sending the group in the back tumbling across the floor, the van sputters and dies leaving them motionless.
"Shit. What's the plan here, Clay?" Jax asks ducking down in the driver's seat as the two men in the Caddy now get out and unload bullets into the van.
Clay looks into the bag and makes a startling discovery. There are plates for making money in the bag.
"This shit's counterfeit?" Jax says heatedly from his seat.
"It's not shit." Chuck argues. "It's really good. These bills will pass anywhere."
"Goddamn it!" Clay says getting up to his knees and punching Chuck in the face. "Hold up! Easy!" Clay opens the door and calls to the Asians as he steps out. "I think we can make a deal." He slings the bag over the top of the door, showing it to them. "I want to talk to Lin."
Clay steps out from behind the safety of the door as he sees Lin get out of his car and approach motioning to his men to out down their weapons. "Here's your money." He tosses the bag on the ground. "But I'm guessing that's not what you're looking for." He holds up the plate in his left hand.
"Where's the other plate?"
"It's in the van." Clay says handing the plate to Lin. "Look, we both got jerked around here. Now I need real cash. You need the cash maker. Hey, cops will be here in a heartbeat."
"I got the cops under control. Ten grand."
"Hundred."
"Thirty."
"Sixty, and I'll throw in the door prize. Hey, Chucky!"
Inside the van Jax grabs the man by the front of his shirt, balling his fists in the material. "Was there ever any real skim money?"
"No." Chuck yelps as Bobby hits him from behind. "I'm sorry!"
"You son-of-a-bitch!" Tig grabs Rayne around the waist as she lunges for the man, pissed off that they almost got killed for some counterfeit bullshit.
"Let's go!" Clay yells from outside.
"I needed protection. And I figured you guys could still spend the money. You know?"
Tig and Bobby grab the man by the arms and drag him outside to where Clay and Lin stand.
"This was not our deal! I want to talk to Otto!"
"Shut up!" Bobby snaps.
"Pay Elvis and his friends." Lin states.
"Get the other plate." Clay orders.
Half-Sack gets the plate from the van and brings it back over to Clay.
"Guys, guys, really, this is a big mistake." Chuck pleads with the bikers.
Clay and Lin exchange the plate for an envelope of cash. "Pleasure." Clay gives Lin a nod. "See you, Chucky."
The group climbs back into the van and Jax drives them back to TM. Walking inside they find Kyle sitting at the bar drinking a beer.
"How'd it go with the Chinese?" Piney asks from his position by the pool table.
"Not so good." Jax answers.
"Where's Chuck?"
"That's the upside." Clay says.
"Clay, it's good to see you, man." Kyle says standing up and holding his hand out to the older man.
The President merely tosses his bottle cap over his shoulder and walks around the bar completely ignoring Kyle's outstretched hand. "So I hear you got an offer I can't refuse."
"Something like that." Kyle chuckles sitting back down on the barstool as Clay sits behind him.
"Well, I'd better get back to the fireworks." Opie says standing up. "Or your mom's gonna be stuffing gunpowder up my ass."
"Yeah, I'm sure we're all on the Gemma shit list by now." Jax says following Ope to the door.
"I live on that shit list." Clay tells them.
"Ope?" Jax says as he follows the big man down the hall towards the dorms to the back door. "You okay with this?"
"Yeah. You?"
"I'm good."
Opie sighs. "Look. About what I was saying earlier, it doesn't mean I don't want this."
"I know."
"I'd rather be dead than be that guy."
"Yeah. Me too." Jax says. "You should get going. I can hear my mom swearing from here."
Jax stands behind the bar next to Rayne, things were still tense between them due to the attraction that was still there, but they were dealing with it like adults. Bobby sat at the bar across from them beside Kyle, the four of them downing shots.
"So, Bobby. You tell Kyle about the Knucklehead?" Jax asks after a glance over at Clay.
"Who got a Knucklehead?" Kyle asks interested.
"'48, mint." Bobby says picking up his beer.
"Bullshit."
"It is so beautiful it'll blind you."
"Where?" Kyle asks taking the bait that Jax put out there.
"Come on." Jax says putting out his cig. "Let's go take a look at it."
"You want to see it?" Bobby asks.
"Uh-huh." Kyle asks too drunk to notice they were setting him up. "Let's go."
"Right this way, mister." Bobby says leading the way to the garage, the group following them out.
"Where's the Knuckle?" Kyle laughs as he stands in the garage between two raised lifts. He hears the door slam and notices that the group is surrounding him. "What is this?"
"Take your shirt off." Jax demands.
Kyle laughs. "Come on, Jax."
"Take it off!" Jax snaps as Bobby and Tig grab Kyle and rip his shirt off.
"You son-of-a-bitch!" Bobby yells turning Kyle around so the others can see the tattoo on his back. "You see that?"
They let Kyle go, he whips around panting, rubbing his hands over his head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Clay. I know I was supposed to black it out. And I tried, man. I went a bunch of times. And I couldn't— I couldn't do it." He wrings his hands together, popping his knuckles. "This is the only thing I have left, Jax. Please, I'm sorry."
Jax nods before Clay asks. "Fire or knife?"
"Answer him." Jax says low as Kyle turns back to him.
"Jax." Kyle's tone is pleading. He rubs his hands over his head, exhaling sharply as he contemplates his choice. "Fire."
Jax steps forward handing the bottle of alcohol to Kyle, he chugs it halfway down before Bobby takes it and hands it back to Jax. Bobby and Piney lift Kyle's arms up, chaining his wrists to the lift plates. Behind him Tig lights the flame on the welding torch holding it at his side.
Rayne calmly steps around to face Kyle, leaning down she catches his eyes. "I want you to know, I wasn't here six years ago. I have no idea what happened to get you voted out, so I'm the neutral party, which is why I'm the one doing this." She leans in close to his face speaking low. "But Opie is like my brother, you hurt him, therefore you hurt me. So trust me when I tell you, I will take pleasure in this."
She steps back around taking the torch from Tig, while Jax takes a swig from the bottle and then pours a copious amount onto Kyle's back. Rayne steps forward letting the flame touch the skin, instantly searing the flesh black. Her face is blank, just as Happy always taught her to be in times like this. Kyle's screams reach a crescendo as she moves the flame over his back, but within minutes he stops, growing quiet as his body goes limp. The smell of burning flesh fills the air in the garage, assaulting their noses as Rayne finishes the last part on his lower back, before Bobby and Jax release Kyle's wrists and he crumples unconscious to the ground.
Tig and Half-Sack load him in the van and drive him to St. Thomas. Tig drags Kyle's body out of the back wrapped in an old blanket and dumps him on the ground in front of the entrance. Kyle's ex-wife rushes out of the hospital having been told by Gemma that she needed to go to the hospital.
Back at TM Jax and Rayne stand on the roof of the clubhouse together. They both knew they had done the right thing by Opie, but there was still a part of them that wished things didn't have to be this way any more. The more the two of them read and discussed the things that JT had wrote, the more they wanted to change the way the club lived.
