Chapter Seven: Crappy Liar – Part Two
Juice saw Charlotte's car gunning for him. He didn't think she would stop in time at the speed she was going. She braked hard and a squeal came up from her brake pads, stopping inches from him and the bike he was working on.
"Where's Clay?!" she yelled at him before she was even fully out the car.
"He's out."
"Jax?"
"Out too."
"Tig? Anyone here?!" she flustered.
She liked Juice, but she didn't think that in this sort of crisis he had the right head on him to figure this out.
"Tig's with Clay. Half-Sack's in the back," he thumbed behind him, "Chibs is in the Clubhouse."
Charlotte turned and ran over to the Clubhouse. Typical; any other day they'd all be hanging around on the benches, smoking and drinking, but today of all days they'd decided to go off doing errands.
Charlotte burst through the Clubhouse door, the reaper shaking when she slammed it shut. Even if he was bothered about the sudden intrusion, Chibs showed no signs of it. He remained leaning on the bar on his forearms, reading through 'The Charming Enquirer' newspaper.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked, not even looking up from his paper. A brown envelope was thrust into his chest.
"You're in deep shit! This Club is in deep shit."
Chibs raised his eyebrows and delved into the envelope, bringing out glossy, 7x9 photographs of…
"Holy Christ!" he shouted, looking at a photograph of himself, Jax and Tig beating the shit out of the Carnival folk at Fun Town. They'd been careful that night, hadn't they?
"I know!" Charlotte replied, pacing the Clubhouse floor.
Chibs started to flick through all the photographs. There was enough evidence here to put them all away for life. Whoever had taken these was good – beyond good.
"Where the hell did you get these from?"
"Long story."
She rubbed her face.
"Are you being stalked?" he asked, face turning into a smirk as he held up a picture of him and her kissing, both half naked, standing in front of her living room window.
"Stop it!" she scolded, snatching the photo from him and ripped it up, stuffing the remains inside her bag. Chibs was already calling Clay on the pre-pay.
***
"Let's just kill 'im," Tig suggested.
Charlotte had sat with Clay in the Church one-to-one and showed him the pictures, told him the whole story of meeting her mother and of Nathan Drone. Afterwards, he had called an emergency meeting and re-told the story to everybody else. Charlotte was waiting, pacing up and down outside the Church door.
"No," Jax replied sternly.
"This guy knows about the guns, the beatings, the bodies," Tig rattled off on his fingers.
"This guy is good, a'ight? He's not some two-bit punk from the street. He's been trained for this kind of shit," he said, throwing a photo towards Tig, "He's probably connected. We don't know who he works for or with. We can't just off him and expect nobody to miss him. ATF are still floating around. We can't afford to add another body to the list, another track to cover, another alibi to figure out."
"Then what the hell do you suggest? Give him a fuckin' fridge magnet? Thanks for visiting Charming. Come again soon. Then send him on his way? He's a rat you know what we do to rats."
Chibs placed a hand on Tig's arm to calm him down. He was as angry inside as Tig was on the outside, but he was using all his self-control not to show it.
"What's your master plan then, VP?"
Jax sighed. This couldn't have come at a worse time. He was still trying to reach out to Opie and this setback was costing the Club time they didn't have.
"A'ight. Here's what we do. Me and Chibs will go home with Charlie. We'll wait for Nathan to leave – he has to at some point. We'll follow him, get the memory card, escort him out of Charming and make sure he doesn't come back."
"You better make sure he never comes back here, understand?" Clay ordered.
"Absolutely," Jax and Chibs agreed.
***
Charlotte had got home first and rang Jax to tell him that Nathan wasn't outside yet. Even after the night he entered her house, Nathan still watched her from his car outside. She guessed that Sharon wanted to make sure she didn't leave town.
Chibs and Jax arrived in a 'borrowed' car and parked it in Charlotte's garage. Jax headed upstairs to the spare bedroom, peering out the window, but leaving the light off. Chibs remained downstairs, leaning back on a dining room chair, peering through the small slits in the semi-closed blinds that looked out onto the street. Madison had taken up a seat on the floor beside him and he was scratching behind her ears.
The house was still. The only noises were the news report on the TV and the soft panting from Madison.
"What are you gonna do with him?" Charlotte whispered, standing behind Chibs and looking out through the blinds herself.
"Get him to leave," Chibs replied simply, as he watched a pizza delivery bike make it's way down the street.
"You're not going to kill him?"
She was shocked by her own question. When had she decided that Nathan should die? What gave her the right to even think that? When had she turned into Judge, Jury and Executioner?
Chibs turned his head to look at her.
"Do you want me to?" he asked quietly, holding her gaze so she couldn't look away. He saw her internal struggle in her eyes.
Chibs had his own problems. The Club had come up with a plan that had been passed – Get the memory card and get Nathan out of Charming – and he had an obligation to fulfil it. If Charlotte said she wanted Nathan killed, he knew he'd then feel an obligation to her to kill Nathan--to keep her safe.
If ATF hadn't been snooping around, he would've been able to take Nathan out without a fear of a backlash, but Jax was right. Killing meant another body to bury, another lie to cover, another alibi needed. SAMCRO had no idea who Nathan was working for or his capabilities. There was no way in hell they could trip up right now.
"Yes."
He merely nodded and turned back to look through the blinds.
"I see you have company."
Charlotte whirled around to see Nathan standing behind her. Chibs stood quickly, stepping in front of Charlotte to shield her. He grabbed his gun from his waistband, pointing it at the bald headed man.
"There wasn't any space out in the front. I had to park my car in the next street. I would park in the driveway, but that'd just be down right rude of me."
"Jax!" Chibs bypassed Nathan's strange comment and yelled towards the stairs.
"I recognise you," Nathan smirked, talking to Chibs.
"Shut it!" Chibs cocked his gun.
"I don't blame you. I've got off on her surveillance photos before."
Chibs hit Nathan in the head with the butt of his gun. Nathan went down on the floor and Chibs pinned him down, taking his gun away and skidding it across the floor before grabbing the collar of his shirt in one hand, gun pointed at his temple with the other.
"Who do you work for, smart arse?"
Jax appeared in the room, wondering what was going on since he never saw a car pull up. He quickly assessed the situation, told Charlotte to stay back, and stood over Nathan with his gun pointing at him.
"Answer him!" Jax shouted.
"I work for myself!" Nathan spat out.
"Where's the memory card?"
Nathan laughed. Chibs slammed his head on the floor.
"I asked you where the fucking memory card is, asshole!"
Nathan laughed again. Chibs dropped his gun to the floor and punched Nathan in the nose a couple of times. When blood started pouring onto the carpet, Chibs pulled out his knife, putting it inside Nathan's mouth, pressing it against his cheek.
"I'm going to ask you one more time, you little shit and if you run off that smart mouth of yours again, I'm going to make your smile a lot wider, you get that?"
"We could be twins."
Chibs punched Nathan in the cheek where the knife was. The pressure on the blade pierced his cheek as well as Chibs' knuckles.
"That fucking hurts!" Nathan yelled in agony.
Chibs moved the blade onto Nathan's other cheek.
"Stop! Jesus fucking Christ, you maniac, stop!"
He started to choke on the blood that was filling his mouth.
"Ah, and I was just getting into that."
Chibs stood up and retrieved his gun. Nathan sat up on his knees trying to hold the hole in his cheek together to stop the bleeding.
"Sharon has the memory card. She has it all – everything's with her at the hotel," Nathan confessed.
"Lodi?" Chibs asked, looking to Jax.
"Cable ties then Lodi," Jax agreed. They'd take the bald-headed psychopath with them as their own insurance for the memory card.
They'd all taken their eyes off Nathan for only a few seconds, but it was all he needed. He rolled over to get his gun off the floor and then rolled under her dining-room table. Chibs and Jax shot at him and bullets hit his shoulder and leg.
Nathan raised his gun to Charlotte, but it proved too heavy for his wounded arm. His aim faltered and the bullet hit Madison instead of her.
"Maddy!" Charlotte gasped.
Nathan dropped the gun on the floor, which Jax picked up, then knocked him out with a blow to the head.
Madison's long grey fur quickly turned crimson from where she'd been hit in the stomach.
"Oh my God, do something! Do something!" Charlotte yelled at Chibs whilst stroking Madison. Her breathing was laboured and her eyes were glossy.
Chibs wanted to tell her he wasn't a vet, but he knelt down beside her anyway, searching for a pulse.
"Charlie, she needs a vet. I can't help her," he confessed.
Charlotte stood as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, scrolling through her address book to find the number for her vet. All those monthly insurance payments were finally going to pay off for Madison.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Chibs yelled after her, as she made her way to the front door. He stood to chase after her but Jax held him back with a hand on his arm.
"Wait! There's only one place she's headed; Lodi. Get the goon and let's go."
***
When Charlotte barged into Sharon's motel room, she was lying on the bed and had a belt around her arm, about to shoot up.
"Shit!" Sharon quickly took off the belt, "Knock first!"
"Get up."
"Did you get my money?"
Charlotte grabbed the lampshade on the nightstand and hit Sharon across the face. It caught her lip and it started to bleed.
"Charlotte!" she scolded, "I'm your mother!"
"You're nothing! You're nothing to me but an alcoholic, junkie, money-grabbing bitch who tried to ruin my family! You're lucky you're still breathing!"
Charlotte hit her again across the face and she stumbled over the edge of the bed, falling backwards onto the small chest of drawers.
Sharon's head made an almighty cracking sound on the corner of the wooden dresser.
"Oh no, oh shit," Charlotte breathed.
She had wanted to hurt Sharon in her fit of rage, but now she feared the whole situation had gone a step too far. Thick blood started to pool out of a large wound at the back of Sharon's head. It was quickly turning the grey stone coloured carpet a horrible crimson colour.
The only sound filling Charlotte's ears was her own heavy breathing. One minute everything had been going eight hundred miles an hour, and now it was all on pause.
She heard a noise behind her and the last person she expected to see there was Gemma.
"Gemma? What the hell-?"
"Where is she?"
Gemma didn't even bother to close the door as she stepped into the room, stopping at the sight of Sharon's body and blood on the floor. One look at the lampshade in Charlotte's trembling hands was enough to tell her what had happened.
"Oh, baby," Gemma soothed, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. Guess she wouldn't need that Beretta after all.
"I didn't mean to. She just fell."
Charlotte didn't really know how to feel about the situation.
"Junkie bitch," Gemma spat, "Give me the lamp, baby. It's okay," she soothed.
***
Jax and Chibs walked quietly down the hallway until they reached a corner.
"Go, I got your back," Chibs stated as he waited and kept watch.
When Jax saw the door was already open and he heard female voices, he motioned for Chibs to come to him. As the two men peered inside the room with caution, they were surprised to see Gemma there, too. Stepping into the room further, they saw Sharon laying lifelessly in a pool of blood on the floor while Gemma was struggling to take back the lampshade in Charlotte's vice grip.
"Charlotte, come on sweetheart; just give it to me."
The trouble was, Charlotte couldn't let go of the lampshade, because if she did, she felt like she was going to pass out.
Jax approached Charlotte slowly and cautiously took hold of her wrist. Upon seeing him there, Charlotte finally dropped the lampshade into Gemma's hands and fell into Jax's arms.
***
The others turned up at the motel minutes later. Jax had called Clay on the pre-pay on the drive to Lodi to tell him what had happened.
Juice destroyed the camera and the memory card. There was no evidence left collected by Nathan to incarcerate them.
Tig, Juice and the Prospect loaded Sharon's body into a car drove out to the outskirts of Lodi, made a grave and burnt the body.
Jax half-carried, half-dragged Charlotte to Gemma's car and the two drove back to Charming. Madison was at the vet's and would be for the foreseeable future. Instead of going home to an empty house, Charlotte took up Gemma's offer of staying overnight at her house in the spare bedroom.
Clay had paid off the night manager, giving him some spiel about how Sharon had recently gone through surgery and her stitches had opened; hence the blood on the floor. The manager accepted the money gratuitously and told him not to worry about the mess, but her mini-bar tab still needed paying.
"Clay, we've got a problem," Chibs announced.
"This night cannot possibly get any worse, Chibs."
"Back window's been smashed. Nathan's gone."
"And then again, maybe it can."
"He's been hit in the leg, he couldn't have got far."
He pulled out his gun and started to head back to the car.
"Hey," Clay grabbed his arm, "Where're you going?"
"Gonna find that prick and kill 'im."
"No more bodies, remember?"
Chibs sighed in frustration.
"He knows where Charlie lives."
He spoke more so to Jax, who had been standing there silently, than to Clay. Jax chewed on his bottom lip as he thought this one through. They already had to burn Sharon's body, which was already a big risk. Nathan was injured and would probably seek medical attention tonight. On the other hand, he was a psychopath and he did know where Charlotte lived. He even knew how to get into her house silently.
"Charlotte's staying with Gemma tonight. She'll be fine."
Jax placed a hand on Chib's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"Jax-" Chibs started to protest.
"No more bodies. End of discussion," Clay ordered.
