a/n Hello everyone! Happy Easter for those who celebrate Easter and Happy Sunday to those who do not. Today I went back in the previous chapters and made some slight formatting changes and also corrected where Juice said he was from the Broncs (he's really from Queens, my bad.) None of the changes really change the story just made things a bit neater to the eye. This chapter jumps around quite a bit but I think it's fairly easy to follow. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks so much to everyone who read and reviewed and favorited and followed this story. Big thanks to guest reviewers as I cannot thank you personally. So enjoy the next chapter.
By the time Happy left for the clubhouse Leah had cleaned the kitchen, gathered all the laundry that needed to be done and had sat down to start a new grocery list. For his part Juice just say quietly on his computer hoping nothing else would happen. He'd been surprised to see Leah freak out like that. She'd been so composed the other night. He didn't know how to handle a woman freaking out, or pissed off, or scared, or well anything other than calm or wrapping her lips around his dick. Hell he was surprised Happy of all people calmed her down at all.
"Juice?" Hearing his name Juice nervously looked up from his computer to see Leah looking cautiously at him, "I'm sorry I yelled at you this morning."
"Oh well it's alright." Juice answered not really knowing what else to say. Leah nodded at him before turning back to her grocery list. Juice turned back to his laptop, making sure all of his bugs were working.
"What's an Old Lady?" Leah asked again, this time not looking up from her list.
Juice looked at her surprised. Of all the questions he did not expect that one. When he didn't answer her Leah raised her eyes to meet his.
"Happy told me that I was in your world now, I had to learn the rules. He said I wasn't a club whore or an Old Lady," Leah explained, "I don't know anything about your world. I don't know what an Old Lady is."
"An Old Lady is a members wife or serious girlfriend. An Old Lady wears a members mark." Juice tried to explain.
"His mark?" Leah asked.
"A tattoo, in SAMCRO the women get tattooed with a crow."
"Sounds a bit Neanderthal to me." Leah commented.
"It's a sign of respect. Lets other clubs and patched members know that the woman is taken and has standing in the club." Juice gestured vaguely in the air as if hoping the explanation would appear.
"So its visible?"
"Not always. I've never seen Tara's. But once a girl is inked it's known that she's taken. A member can claim her before that, letting other brothers know she's off limits but the ink means she has respect, that a brother trusts her with telling her some club shit."
"Who's Tara?" Leah asked trying to absorb the information.
"Jax's Old Lady. They've been together for years, since she was fifteen." Juice told her.
"Oh ok." Leah looked back down at her list and for a bit Juice thought that twenty questions was over for now.
"What's a club whore?" Leah asked.
"A croweater." Juice answered.
"What?"
"Most clubs call them sweetbutts but we call them croweater's because we're SAMCRO."
"But what do they do." Leah asked, she had a decent idea but wanted to be sure.
"They sleep with members, and prospects, sometimes hang arounds. They're usually at parties and sometimes at random dinners, if held at the clubhouse. They help with the cooking and cleaning to." Juice said pushing his laptop to the side. His bugs were running and didn't need any help from him.
"Why?" Leah asked, she might be free and easy with some of her morals but she couldn't imagine just sleeping with anyone plus their friends.
"Some want to become an Old Lady and figure fucking a member will get them there, some are just having fun. The club gives croweaters some protection. If we go into lockdown they come to. If they're in major trouble because of club shit we help them out to."
"What's lockdown?" Leah asked setting her list aside. Juice sighed and rubbed his Mohawk. "Is it ok that I'm asking questions? I just want to know the basics so I don't make any huge mistakes…" Leah said quickly.
"It's alright. Lockdown is what happens if shit gets messy. All family and friends go to the clubhouse for a while." Juice told her.
"Can you tell me about the club? Not everything, nothing that could get anyone in trouble, I don't want to know details. But just enough that I don't make any mistakes. If I have to be a part of this world I want to know the rules." Leah's voice sounded small and nervous. Juice stared at her, somehow seeing her like this was worse than seeing her pissed off. Pissed off he could understand, small and scared like this reminded him too much of himself only weeks ago.
"Alright, I'll give you the basics. Nothing more than that though." Juice told her.
'That's fair, now Jax is President right?" Leah asked.
"Yeah, he is. Bobby is Vice President, Chibs is Sargent at Arms, Opie is secretary." Juice told her.
"Ok but what is a Sargent at Arms?" Leah asked. Juice spent the next hour or so giving Leah a quick rundown of the club.
"Ok I'm not an Old Lady, I'm not a croweater, what am I?" Leah asked an hour later after learning the basics of the club. It seemed that the only women in the club were fucking one or all of the men.
"Not sure in all honestly. Friend of the club I'm guessing but that has to come from Jax to be official." Juice shrugged.
~o0o~
"Hey Hap." Jax said as Happy killed his bike in the clubhouse lot.
"Hey Prez. Juice said you wanted to see me. Anything new?" Happy asked as he walked over.
"Yeah, shipment from the Irish came in. I called Galindo about it. They don't want to move the shipment until this Lobo bullshit is cleaned up. We finally got the cartel backing our play. We're moving on the Lobo house tonight. I want you there. We're going to have to question a few of them. Gonna need your help with that."
"I'll be there. What time?" Happy asked excited that finally the club could take some sort of action.
"We meet here at nine, move in at ten." Jax said.
"I'll tell Leah she can't work tonight." Happy replied.
"Na let her go in. Tig can work baby-sitting duty. He's wound too tight for this tonight." Jax decided.
"Alright, I'll let her know." Happy said smiling at the thought of Tig being put on babysitting duty. "Got anything for me while I'm here?"
"Yeah, go talk to my mom. She's throwing a fit about some towing order." Jax told him and waved him off.
Happy wandered over to the garage office. Gemma stood in the small space surrounded by papers; her reading glasses perched precariously on her nose. Her black long sleeve shirt dipped severely into her aging cleavage as she balanced on four-inch stilettos.
"It really isn't that damn hard to fill out some god damn paper work." She said not looking up from the papers in her hand. Happy chose not to answer. There were few women in this world that could put the fear of God into him and Gemma just happened to be one of them. "We are still running a business you know." Gemma looked up and over her reading glasses at Happy standing in the doorway. "Good you're here. Tell me about the gash."
"Jax said you had a towing order for me?" Happy asked.
"Yes, after you tell me about what happened Friday night." Gemma demanded one hand on her hip. Happy shrugged, Gemma maybe in charge of the garage but she was still only an Old Lady. It was up to Jax or Clay to keep her informed. Not him.
"Should ask Jax about that." He said so he didn't overstep his bounds with is president.
"Looks to me like I'm asking you." Gemma remarked. Happy sat silently figuring it to be safer than answering. They stood in a slight standoff for several moments before Gemma thosed her hands in the air in defeat.
"Sooner or later one of you is going to fill me in. I want to meet her by the way. Sooner rather than later you can tell that to my son. Take this. Flat tire out on the highway. Needs a tow in. Go." Gemma thrust the tow order in his face. Happy took the tow order from Gemma and went out to the tow truck.
"Oye, prospect your with me." Happy called across the yard.
"But I was supposed to go over to Leah's, pick up another grocery list." Al stuttered.
"After we do this tow. Hurry up." Happy commanded as he fired off a text to Juice.
"Yes sir." Al said as he hopped into the other side of the cab.
~o0o~
"Thank you Juice." Leah said. "Has Happy texted you about me working tonight?"
"Yeah just got an answer from him. Jax gave it the ok. Tig's going with you." Juice told her looking back up from his phone.
"Oh, ok." Leah said. "Will he be spending the night to?" She asked cautiously, sure she'd never had a real conversation with Tig but she had a gut feeling that something was off with him. She wasn't sure exactly what it was, maybe the slightly off look in his eyes or the way he held his rather creepy smile just a bit to tight but she'd be willing to bet quite a lot of money that the man was three seconds away from snapping. She didn't want to be around when and if that happened.
"Probably, what time do you head to work?" Juice asked not picking up on the lack of enthusiasm in her voice.
"I need to be there no later than five or I pay a late fee." Leah told him.
"What's a late fee?" Juice asked.
"I pay the bar a stage fee to dance. If I show up on time I pay twenty bucks to dance for the night. If I'm late I pay forty. Plus I usually tip my bartender a good twenty." Leah explained.
"Why do you tip the bartender?" Juice asked.
"Good manners, he'll recommend new customers to me, give me tips on who's drinking what and how much of it. Plus we have a standing deal that he makes all my drinks virgin unless I order them when I'm on my own at the bar." Leah said.
"Why do you want to know what customers are drinking?"
"Because," Leah shrugged, "what a person drinks can give you a clue to how they are. Plus you can slide up next to them and just happen to order the same thing their drinking and use it as a conversation starter. Stripping is a lot more than just shaking your ass. But I'm actually going to go get started on laundry." Leah walked out of the room her hips smoothly swishing behind her.
~o0o~
Nine o' clock sharp Happy stood in the clubhouse parking lot, to his right stood Opie and Bobby, to his left Jax, Juice and Chibs. Alvarez and his VP stood with the Sons silently and seven Galindo soldiers made up the remaining men.
"Ok plan is we go in strong. Take the men outside right away, get any women and children into a different room. We let them go." Jax began.
"What!" a Galindo member shouted out, "We just gonna let the bitches and their brats leave?"
"That's exactly what we're going to do. We take their men, Lobos expect that, understand that. In a war you loose soldiers. We kill women and children they're going to come for our blood whether we want them to or not. They'll have to in order to send a message that they're not weak and can protect their own."
"So you wanna make us look weak" The soldier called out again.
"No I wanna make us smart. We solve this with as little of our blood spilt. Now Romeo told you to follow my lead. Let any women and children go, keep the Lobo's members alive." Jax smirked at the men before him, "After all dead men don't say a word and we want these ass holes to sing. Juice break it down for us."
"OK, so the house is on the north out skirts of Charming, toward Lodi not Oakland. Both lots on either side of it are clear so there shouldn't be any nosy neighbors around. If we park a few streets down and go in on foot they shouldn't be able to hear us. I was able to hack into some of the Lobo's credit card records- I figured if they were stupid enough to rent the place in a girl friends name they might be stupid enough to use their own cards. I didn't find any surveillance equipment purchased but that doesn't really mean anything. They could have paid cash. Thing is even if they do we should be able to spot them easily." Juice explained.
"We go in strong. Guns out. Don't shoot unless you have to. I want them alive for now. We need to find out if there are any more traitors. Everybody understand?" Jax asked looking at each man in the parking lot. One by one they all nodded. "Good lets get this shit show over with." Jax ran his hand down his stubble as he walked toward his bike. They needed tonight to go perfectly. While they were hitting the Lobo safe house here in Charming Galindo would be hitting them back home in Mexico. The combination of the hits should focus Lobo attention away from Charming and back across the boarder. After that the only shit storm he still had left to clean up was Damon fucking Pope.
"Oye, Jax." Alvarez flagged him down quickly, "When this is over I want to talk to the dancer girl. I know Sons are protecting her."
Jax nodded at the request. It was a fair enough request. After all she exposed two traitors in the Mayans. "I'll set it up." He told Alvarez.
"Gracias amigo." Alvarez said as he mounted his bike.
"Lets roll boys!" Jax yelled as he started his own bike. One by one they pulled out of the lot and onto the street. They rode the short few miles to the house and killed their bikes a couple of streets away. One by one the outlaws slowly began to slink toward the house.
"Juice, you see anything?" Jax asked his young intelligence officer.
"Nothing that shows any electronic surveillance. Not a for sure they don't have any but I'm not spotting anything." Juice told his president scanning the area carefully.
"Alright boys lets do this." Jax commanded. The Sons, Mayans and Galindo soldiers began to advance on the quiet house.
~o0o~
"Ok, when we get to the club it'll still be closed to customers," Leah told Tig as the wire haired man sat at her counter eating the spaghetti she'd made for dinner. "You'll have to wait until about five to come in. Please don't act like you know me."
"Why not doll, don't wanna be seen with a big bad biker?" Tig drawled out the words as he took another bite. Damn the idiot was right bitch could cook.
"That partially, if customers think I'm attached to you its harder for me to get dances and make my money. I'm aiming for 250 tonight and wanna get out of there by midnight." Leah said tightly. The man put her on edge.
"What if I want a lap dance? As a thank you, you know for babysitting and all." Tig asked leering at her.
"You'll have to get one from one of the other girls. If we need to talk flag me down and I'll come to you at the bar like you're any other customer." Leah said firmly while still keeping a respectful tone in her voice, Happy's words played back in her head along with the information Juice gave her earlier that day.
"And this is why I beat hookers." Tig sighed.
Leah stared at him for a bit completely unsure of how to respond. She decided retreating would be the best course of action.
"I'm going to quick go get ready. Excuse me." Leah brought her plate to the sink and quickly retreated back to her bathroom. Normally she just got ready at the club in the basement dressing rooms but with Andrew staying with Mia plus Juice told her not to be alone at the club for too long. Getting ready at home just seemed easier. In her bathroom Leah took deep calming breaths. She grabbed her make up bag and began to put the layers of make up she wore to work. Twenty minutes later she was ready to go. As she walked back down the hallway she began to take her hair out of its tight braid letting it fall in to rumpled waves down her back.
"Ok I'm ready." Leah announced as she reentered the kitchen.
"Ok. Lets go." Tig responded pushing himself off the seat.
"Wait, can you leave your vest here?" Leah asked.
"Why the fuck do you think I would leave my kutte here?" He demanded.
"Anonymity? You'll draw less attention." Leah suggested.
"When hell fucking freezes over." Tig told her. "Lets go."
"Ok, let me grab my keys." Leah hefted her dance bag over her shoulder and grabbed her keys out of the shell on the table near the door.
Leah arrived at the club minutes before the clock ticked over to five pm.
"Cutting it close today Delilah." Jim the club manager commented as she walked in.
"I know Jim, lost track of time. Don't worry I'll be up before my first stage set. She walked briskly toward the board where the dancers listed their names to add hers to the list. So far only three girls had their names up. "How many girls are booked tonight?"
"Eh boss booked fifteen so about seven of you will actually show up." Jim said looking up from his list.
"Thanks, I'll be dressed and up in five." Leah said heading for the basement changing area. "Oh hey, if you end up cutting girls I'd like to go home at midnight." She paused at the top of the stairs to tell Jim.
"We'll see how the night goes." Jim told her, this time not bothering to look up. Leah nodded her understanding and said a quick prayer that the night would be uneventful. She honestly didn't know if she could handle any more surprises.