All characters, etc from Sons of Anarchy belong to Kurt Sutter.

Ashleigh Carter is my own small piece of warped imagination.

Any mistakes are my own. Feel free to point them out but please be nice.

CHAPTER 25:

Wednesday arrived bright and clear. Ashleigh had obtained a gunmetal Jaguar XF for the day. She didn't want any of the club members spotting her car. She didn't want whoever the leak was getting suspicious. She'd been keeping the Jaguar well away from Charming so that no one would associate her with it.

She knew that the van was going to be full of what looked like boxes of Harley spares, but all the boxes had false bottoms that were filled with bricks of cocaine. The van was headed across state to the docks to unload the boxes onto a ship bound for the UK via Spain. Ashleigh had scouted the route that the run was supposed to take several times and had identified the most probable places for any ambush to take place.

She parked up at the edge of town and waited until the van passed her with the two outriders on their bikes. She let it get ahead of her as she reached over to the passenger seat and opened the briefcase that had been sat on it. The briefcase was custom made to hold the high powered rifle that she preferred for sniper work. It was the work of seconds to assemble the gun. The case went with the corporate suit image. Police tended to pull you over if they saw a large gun in your car. She was wearing dark blue jeans, a black t-shirt and light hiking boots. She had her hair in a high tight ponytail and she'd thrown a suit jacket across the back seat. She was aiming for a corporate-working-mother-casual look. If corporate working mothers had a flick knife in their back pocket, another knife strapped to their ankle and a nine mil Berretta with an extra clip strapped to their thigh.

She wasn't worried about tailing the van closely. She wanted it to look like it was on its own. There wouldn't be much other traffic on this road. If she drove right behind it she'd stand out like a sore thumb. She was betting the Niners would set up their ambush in one of the old, abandoned, one-horse towns along the route. They'd most likely already be in place. Given that she didn't know precisely which location they'd pick she'd just have to keep a reasonable distance so that she could help whenever and wherever needed. She had picked the Jaguar for the speed of its V8 engine, and as a dark saloon it didn't stand out too much. She had extra supplies in the boot.

Once the gun was assembled she stowed it in the foot well of the passenger seat and pulled out. Chibs and Opie were driving the van. Happy and Jax were flanking it on their bikes. She wasn't pleased with that, they were too vulnerable, but it had to look like a normal run. Ashleigh used the Bluetooth hands-free set up to make a call.

"Hey Jax, it's me. I'm behind you by about five minutes."

"OK, Ash. Let's hope this is a smooth run." He replied.

They kept the line open but didn't speak again. As they left Charming the landscape became flat and barren. After while the odd weather worn building started appearing, precursors to a town ahead.

"Shit!" She suddenly heard Jax say. "Alvarez was right."

"Hold on. I'm nearly there." She heard gunshots

She saw the town ahead. She floored the Jaguar. She saw the van stopped sideways in the main street with the doors open. Gunshots were still ringing out. She made a right turn, away from the main street. She parked, got out of the car with the rifle and made her way back to the main street on foot. Using a building as cover she could see that the ambush was on two sides of the van. Jax and Happy were off their bikes and were with Chibs and Opie trying to use the van doors as shields. All four were firing back at their attackers.

She could see one dead member of the ambush party hanging out of a window in a building on the opposite side of the street. Two more were on that side in the windows of a dry cleaners and a bakery. The structures must be less solid than they looked or these guys were idiots. If they'd have gone up to the first floor they would have had the advantage of elevation and this would have been over already. As it was, the Sons were able to hold their own, although they couldn't do much more, pinned as they were in the middle of the street

Ashleigh braced herself against the building she was using for cover and put the rifle against her shoulder. Both parties were busy shooting at each other and hadn't seen her. She breathed deeply. In two shots both the Niners that she'd spotted were dead.

After a few more shots were exchanged between the two groups she spotted the hiding places of the remaining Niners, there were two. She left the rifle leaning against the building knowing she wouldn't have room to use it. She pulled the Beretta out and sprinted around the back of the buildings knowing that anything that fronted on to the street was likely to be a shop and would therefore have a delivery door at the back. She crept into what had been a café where she'd spotted one of the men. She had the gun to his head and had fired before he'd even knew that there was someone behind him. He'd been too preoccupied firing at the Sons to realise he had company.

The last ambusher realised his friends weren't firing anymore. He decided to try and escape. He was exiting the rear of his building just as Ashleigh was looking cautiously out of the back of hers. She stayed in the doorway and watched as he looked around before making a run across the back street. She aimed and fired. He fell. She made her way over, keeping low and close to the buildings as he was still moving. He spotted her and raised his gun. Ashleigh fired again and he stopped moving. Damn! she wasn't going to get a chance to question him.

She made her way back to the van to see what the damage was. She didn't like that her heart was in her mouth at the thought of him being hurt and forced herself to walk casually on principle.

"What the fuck?!" Chibs exclaimed as he saw Ashleigh saunter across the road. She'd re-holstered the Beretta.

"Hey guys. You carry on with the run. I'll take care of this." She smiled brightly when she saw that all four of them were unhurt. The van looked a little worse for wear, but at least the tyres were intact. It would have been a bitch to unload the cargo to get to the spares.

Chibs and Opie just looked at Jax and Happy who both shrugged and headed back to their bikes. "Oi Jax!" Opie shouted. "Why didn't you tell us you'd arranged back up?"

Jax walked back over to them. "There's a leak in the club. The only person who knew Ashleigh was back up was Happy. Don't get pissed at me for not trustin' you. I do trust you both. That's how come you're in the van. If there's a turncoat I didn't want his gun on us as well as these guys'."

"Who were they?" Chibs asked.

"Niners." Jax replied.

"Do you know who the leak is now?" Opie asked.

"No, but now I know four people that it isn't." Jax shrugged.

Opie and Chibs were visibly unimpressed, but got back in the van and drove off followed by Jax and Happy. Ashleigh watched them go and then got down to work.

Later that night, she was sat in the kitchen waiting for Happy to make it home. Eventually he walked in, followed by Jax. She got beers for them all before saying, "They must have been dropped off. There were no vehicles anywhere close. I'm sure by now their brothers are looking for them, but they're not going to find anything."

Jax nodded. "Thanks for today. Ope and Chibs are still pissed at me, but they understand. We've got a run for the Irish comin' up. I'll keep this one on a need-to-know basis. If we start hearin' rumours again we'll have a better idea of who's screwin' us over." He finished his beer and left, thinking that any day they all made it home in one piece was a good day.

Happy clinked his bottle against Ashleigh's. "Here's to comin' home alive again."

"Damn straight baby." Ashleigh said and drained her bottle. "Let's go celebrate properly."