Hope all you readers had a Merry Christmas!
Chapter 28
Maddie had been settled into her new place for a while now. It was a one level three bedroom ranch style home that not only had more space than her condo but was also in a better neighbourhood. She liked the quiet suburban street where kids rode bicycles after school until their parents called them in for dinner and people took their dogs for walks at night. She had sold the condo that Piney had purchased for her and took that money along with the life insurance he had left her and bought this home shortly after her visit with Otto. Although she had heard what he had said, she refused to leave Bakersfield. This town was her home and it was home to Rosa Lowman who Maddie still frequently visited, although now she'd call beforehand to make sure not to run into Happy.
She opened the door for her lunch guest, smiling at the tall uniformed man who'd become another consistent person in her life, often stopping in on his lunch breaks. She walked him out to her porch, smiling in relief at the sight of the sheriff's car parked in her driveway. Although her life had been filled with outlaws, since everything had gone down with Opie, Maddie found herself comforted in knowing that she knew somebody who hadn't been tainted by the Sons. He thanked her for lunch, polite as always.
"And you're always welcome Officer Davis" she smiled. The rumble of Harleys made her smile waver, and when she saw the group of men pull up in front of her house, the smile disappeared altogether. The change in Maddie's demeanour didn't go unnoticed by Officer Davis. "Friends of yours?" he queried, although it was clear they weren't.
"No, friends of my brothers" she said, tightly as Jax, Tig, Chibs, Bobby, Juice, and Happy dismounted their bikes and hung up their helmets in unison.
"Do you want me to stay?"
"No" she said, shaking her head. "They're harmless for the most part, except the bald one with the all the tattoos…." Maddie trailed off, unsure of how to explain her issue with Happy without revealing the whole story. There was no way to casually bring up the fact that until somewhat recently she'd been having the steamiest sex of her life with a man who killed people for a living. She hadn't told Officer Davis of her affiliation with the Sons, and she had no intention of reopening the gaping wound that was the deaths of her brother and father.
"Are you sure?" he asked again as they started to walk down her driveway.
Maddie gave him a reassuring nod. "I'm sure. Thank you for the offer but I'll be fine."
As he walked down the driveway to his patrol car, he stopped to greet the Sons. "Gentleman."
"Officer" Jax replied, giving him a nod before his gaze went to Maddie who was standing on her porch with her arms folded and her face thunderous. Before he could say anything to her, the officer spoke again.
"Thank you again for lunch Madelynn. I'll see you tomorrow night?"
Maddie gave him one of her brilliant smiles, despite feeling two black orbs boring holes into her. "The pleasure was all mine, and yes I'll see you tomorrow night Officer Davis."
The group of bikers and Maddie waited for the patrol car to leave the street before acknowledging each other. "You going to invite us in Madelynn?" Jax asked.
"Do I have a choice?" Maddie retorted. When she didn't get a response, she walked inside, leaving the door open for the men to follow. "Didn't think so" she spat over her shoulder.
She walked to the kitchen and began cleaning up the lunch plates as Jax took a seat at her table. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed the rest following him into her kitchen as if they belonged there, as if they had a right to invade her space. As if they hadn't been complicit in the deaths of all the people she loved most in the world. "Really Maddie, fucking a cop now?" Jax asked, taking off his gloves.
"Who I'm fucking is none of your business. And since it didn't work out so well with the last guy I was fucking," she said, glaring at Happy, "I decided to try the other side of the law. Why are you here?"
"Why'd you move Maddie? You hiding from someone?"
Maddie snorted in derision. "If I was, I'm not very good at it since you found me."
"Not really an answer Mad."
"The neighbourhood is better."
"Talked to your neighbours, they said someone broke into your place. Why didn't you call us?"
Maddie ground her teeth and tried counting to ten to calm herself. She made it to five before turning on Jax, green eyes flashing. "Really and what would you have done Jax? Based on past experience with crimes against my family, I'm guessing that you would have stood by and let it happen. Besides they didn't take anything - it was just some pervert who stole my underwear. You might know him Tig, he took the dirty ones so it sounds like someone you might know. Now if we're through discussing my missing panties, why are you here?"
"When you saw Otto what did you tell him?" Jax asked.
"Exactly what you told me to, to get rid of RICO."
"He tell you how he was going to do it?"
"No."
"What was your exact conversation with Otto?"
"Why, what he'd do?"
"Killed a goddamn nurse to invalidate his statement."
"Jesus Christ!" Maddie exclaimed. Maybe all the time spent with her crazy aunt had finally rubbed off on Otto. It was all kinds of wrong, but she couldn't help being impressed by the lunacy of Otto's methods.
"Yeah killed her right in front of my wife, making her a fucking accessory to murder."
Maddie stood silent for a minute, trying to process what she had heard. There was something shady about the whole situation. "Why was Tara there?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. "Was it me you didn't trust, or was it her? It's a slippery slope when you stop trusting family, like your predecessor. It sucks doesn't it Jax when someone does something to your family that hurts you and it's out of your control."
"Did you fucking tell him to hurt me Mad?" Jax said, standing up.
"No... I told him I wanted you to hurt, to feel my fucking pain, but I told him it wasn't fair to hurt the rest of the club because I was pissed at you. I didn't know what he was going to do Jax, I would have told him not to. I never asked him to hurt you and I would never fucking involve your family."
"Well now you're going to fix it Maddie. Otto can't talk, he can't give a statement against Tara."
"And how do you expect me to do that Jax? Otto fucking killed someone, they're never going to let him have visitors."
"I arranged a phone call through his lawyer. You fucking tell him to fix this shit or it lands on you."
"On me? How is this my fault? Old sins have long shadows Jax, don't you dare blame me for this!"
Suddenly Jax was all blue eyed innocence. "Not saying it was your fault but you're the only thing Otto gives a shit about now."
"And if I don't are you going to have Hap kill me?"
"Don't fuck with me Maddie" Jax warned, slamming his fist down on her table and causing her to jump.
"Fine, I'll make the call, but Otto's a loose canon. You knew that before you asked me to go in there and you sure as hell knew that before you put your wife in a room with him."
When his phone rang, he motioned to her and the empty chair at the table "Sit."
She sat avoiding eye contact with the men who surrounded her and waited for Jax to put the phone on speaker. "Otto."
"What do you want Jax?" came Otto's gruff reply.
"I'm here with our friend Maddie, she apparently didn't know your fucking plan on getting rid of RICO."
"Otto" Maddie spoke, her voice wavering "what have you done?"
"Shit Maddie you didn't listen to me did you? I told you to get the fuck out of town and move away from this shit."
"I moved... just not out of Bakersfield."
"Who's there with you?"
"All of them. Otto you have to fix this. It's not fair to Tara, she isn't involved in this and none of this is her fault. She's a mother Otto, she has kids who need her."
"I didn't have any other way to hurt Jax, she was my only option."
"Fix it Otto, you fucking fix it."
"I will, you know Jax I wasn't ever going to hang your old lady out to dry. You didn't have to get Maddie involved, I just wanted you for a second to have your life crumbling out of control and no solution. Give me a minute to talk to Maddie."
"No dice Otto. I don't trust you two to have conversations alone."
Otto took a deep breath before speaking. "Sweetheart I'm sorry this fell on you. This is it Maddie, this is the end of the road for me, no more visits, no more phone calls. I'm going to tell you what your pop never did, he loved you baby girl, he was a dick but he loved you. The day you were born, you should have seen the smile on his face. He toted you around telling everyone how pretty his baby girl was. Then shit with him and Mary was bad and the drinking and the women got control of him. But when he'd come to see me, he'd always tell me about you how proud he was of you being so smart. I think that's what scared him about you, you being smarter than him." Otto's voice was rough with tears as Maddie's began to fall. "Maddie you listen to me this time, you get out of this life. Move where they can't find you. You do it before they take everything from you, do you understand Maddie?"
Maddie let out a small sob before speaking. "What if they've already taken everything Otto? I have nothing left."
"Maddie I'm so sorry sweetheart. I love you kid, now go so I can have a word with Jax. I don't have much time."
Maddie stood on shaky legs. "I love you Uncle Otto" was all she said before rushing out her back patio door.
With his dark eyes, Happy watched her go. He saw the hitch in her shoulders and knew she was crying. There was nothing he could do and even if he could, she wouldn't take his comfort anyway. He remained seated with the rest of the men as Otto spoke to Jax. "Jax I fix this and you have to promise me that you leave Maddie alone, she's broken but not completely. In one way or another, the Sons already took everything else from her, let her be."
"I will, and for what it's worth I'm sorry brother."
"One more thing Jax, Maddie's not to know what happens to me. I don't want her there when they flip the switch - no phone calls and no fucking wake. She doesn't need to go through another one."
"Alright brother."
When the call ended the men sat at the table, their eyes fixated on the girl outside who was clearly crying. "What do we do about her? We can't just leave her like this" Bobby said.
"Is there anyone here she doesn't hate?" Jax asked turning to Juice and Chibs.
The two looked at each other before Chibs spoke. "I'll go" he sighed.
At the sound of Chibs' boots on the patio, Maddie turned and looked at him, her eyes still wet with tears. When he got closer to her, she launched herself into his arms. "Chibs I want my dad, I want my fucking dad" she sobbed into his leather. The familiar smell of the men that she'd grown up with invaded her nose, making her heart hurt more.
"I know love, I know" he soothed, holding her tighter as the men stood and watched.
When her tears had abated, she pulled back from Chibs and looked up at him. "Are you a bad man Chibs?"
"Aye love, sometimes."
She nodded and moved out of his embrace. "I'm sure you are, I bet your old lady spends her time crying about you, about the club and about all the shit you've done to her. You're all bad men," she said, looking at the men standing on her patio. "Bobby fucking Luanne, Jax letting Clay get away with murder. Hap... I can't even begin to list your sins, not to mention Tig being Clay's lap dog." Angrily brushing a tear away, she walked past them and went back inside. Jax followed her inside and found Maddie pulling a piece of paper out of the drawer. She wrote something on the paper and turning around, handed it to Jax. "The deed to Pop's cabin, it's all I have left to give you. Please Jax, please just leave me alone." Turning and walking away, the slam of the bedroom door and the sound of Maddie sobbing could be heard by the men outside.
They left her house sombre and silent. As they walked to their bikes, Jax sighed and said a silent apology to Opie for having to go to his sister. He hadn't seen away out of it without her he rationalised. Maddie waited until she couldn't hear their bikes any more before she came out of her room. The silence in her house was deafening to the point of oppressive as she walked to the liquor cabinet. Reaching for the bottle of Patron, she took a seat at her table and placed a shot glass in front of her. Taking her first shot, and slamming the glass down she toasted Otto. Even though she was the last adult Winston standing, she would continue the tradition and drink for the man she had lost today. He wasn't gone yet but she knew she would never see or hear from him again. The years she had spent going to see him in Stockton rose up in her mind as she took another shot.
Thank you all again for all the support with this story. I love reading your reviews and comments seeing where you think this might go.
