"Where the hell were you guys?!" Clay shouts down his phone. "And you just… No, you wait there! You've done enough damage today." He flips his prepay closed and shoves it into his pocket.

"What?" Jax asks him.

"Bounty hunters, just picked up Tig." Clay grunts back.

"The hell for?" I ask as I frown.

"Didn't stop to say. Half-sack is tailing them." He replies and moves back over to his bike.

"Jesus Christ. How does tha' happen?" Chibs asks. I knew Tig was a maniac, but I didn't think he had any bounties out on his head. I groan and hunch over as a pain shoots through my ribs again. The others keep arguing about whether we are saving Tig or not. I keep my head on my handles as I wait for the pain in my chest to stop.

I briefly glance up when there's a scraping of metal and concrete to see that Clay had dropped his bike. His arthritis is getting worse by the looks of things. He storms off with Opie close on his tail and Chibs and Jax pick up Clay's bike.

Jax looks back over to me and frowns when he looks at my hunched position.

"You alright?" He asks as he helps me sit up. I nod my head and he huffs a laugh at me.

"I'll be fine Jax." I tell him and groan again at another sharp pain coursing through my ribs.

"Lass, ya ain' fine." Chibs says as he crouches down besides me and puts a hand on my arm. I look over to him and I could feel Jax's eyes burning holes in the back of my head.

"We're already one man down." I grunt and sit back up, doing my best to ignore the dull ache. "I'm not giving up yet." I smile up at Jax and he rolls his eyes at me and ruffles my hair up.

"Let's go get Tig." Clay announces when he walks back over to us and we all set off.


When we pulled up on the side of the road, Chibs made sure to be very close to me. It felt nice having him be this protective over me, but I would have to make it clear that I could survive little bumps like this.

Piney and Sack pulled up and Sack came over to us from his bike.

"They got Tig maybe two miles down the road in a motel. There's four of 'em." He relays his information to Jax as the rest of us listen. I curse under my breath as I look up at Jax and he meets my eye line.

"We gotta do something." I tell him and he nods his agreement. Clay and Piney come over to join us and Jax informs Clay of the situation.

"Why did they stop at a motel?" Clay turns his attention to Sack.

"Don't know. They beat the shit out of Tig, and the motel was the next stop." Sack replies and Clay shakes his head.

"That crazy prick must have provoked them." Bobby cuts in and exhales smoke from his cigarette. "Can't bring him in beat up to a pulp."

"So, they're patching him up." I conclude and Bobby nods.

"All right, let's go handle this." Jax declares but Clay has other plans as he shakes his head again.

"If they hit a motel, they got a long ride ahead of 'em. They're going to be there for a while. Call up the run, tell the boys from Tacoma to get back down here." He orders Opie – his new obedient dog.

"That's going to take hours. We got to do this now." Jax cuts in and steps forward.

"He's right." I back up my brother and step forward. "We don't know how long-"

"This is the way we stay off the radar, right? We're going to be doing runs up here every two weeks with a blanket full of guns." Clay interrupts me. I bite the inside of my cheek at how he is being blind to the fact Tig could get hurt or thrown away from this.

"And bringing five more guys into the mix is going to make it low-profile?" Jax questions Clay and glares at him.

"We wait until dark. They go out for food-"

"We don't know if they're going to still be here!" It was my turn to interrupt Clay. Earning myself a glare as he steps forward and points his finger at me.

"You heard Bobby. They're armed to the teeth! We got not idea what kind of firepower they're sitting on. We got handguns." He exclaims. Jax moves to be slightly in front of me and Clay turns his attention to him.

"We got surprise." Jax presses but Clay ignores him and looks back at Opie.

"Call the guys."

"Call a vote!" Jax demands. Clay looks back at him and pushes him back.

"You don't call a vote!" He shouts at him.

"You don't lay your goddamn hands on me!" Jax yells. I'm quick to grab onto my brother's arms as Chibs grabs Clay. Bobby moves to stand between the two and holds his arms out. The others watch and get ready to jump in if needed.

"You two, come on! Everybody's fried, and it's my fault. I got Tig hurt. Stupid sh1t. But everybody has got to calm down. Have a smoke. Take a walk. Everybody, clear your head." Bobby tells everyone.

I let go of Jax and follow him as he walks away from Clay. He shakes his head and huffs in frustration before I notice Piney pulling the pick-up around to us.

"Where are you going?" I ask him. He reaches for something on the other side of him and holds out a shotgun towards Jax.

"You wanna get this done, jump on." He tells us. We share a look before jumping onto the back of the truck.

"Chibs, Sack, come on!" Jax yells as we pass the others. Chibs looks up and sees me on the truck and is instantly moving his way with Sack just behind him.

"What's up?" Happy calls as he walks over.

"Shit kicking!" I shout back and he grins before hopping on with the rest of us. I stand between Jax and Chibs as Piney drives us to the motel to rescue Tig.

"This your idea, gorgeous?" Chibs asks as he puts an hand on my back to keep me stable.

"This is all the old-man." I smile up at him. "I'm simply helping out a brother." He laughs at my response and then we focus on the road ahead of us.

Pulling up to the motel, I look to Jax and he looks back down at me.

"We got a plan here?" I ask as I pull my handgun out from the back of my trousers.

"Ask the old man." He laughs back at me. I roll my eyes and then Piney pulls up in front of the motel room.

"Hang on ladies!" He shouts and we all turn around and sit on the flat bed.

"Shit! Arm up ladies!" Chibs yells. I pass Sack the handgun from Jax's kutte.

I take a deep breath as the truck is then reversed full force into the wall of the motel. We come crashing through and I'm quick to my feet. The adrenaline pulsing through my body, keeping the ache in my ribs at bay as we all jump up and point our guns at the four men in the room.

"Don't move!" Jax yells and I jump down with Happy to free Tig from his binds.

"Or we'll blow your balls off!" Chibs yells as I pull the tape off from Tig's mouth.

I back up and keep my gun trained on one of the men as I help Tig up onto the flat bed. Once he was up, I jump onto it myself and the others follow suit before Piney floors it out of there.

The adrenaline begins to wear off a bit and I collapse next to Tig.

"You alright there, doll?" He asks me. This catches the attention of Jax and Chibs again as my hand comes up to my ribs.

"Yeah, Bobby owes me a few new ribs though." I laugh and Tig chuckles at me.


After getting back to the others and getting Tig into the truck with Piney, I walk back over to my bike. Jax is quick behind me and I smile up at him as we clasp hands.

"You did good, sis." He smiles at me and I huff a laugh at him.

"I'm a natural, what can I say?" I ask him. We share a small laugh together before Opie comes over to us. All the tension that had been building between us had came back with full force, causing my smile to fall. Jax seemed to feel this way too as he leads Opie away from me to talk.

Bobby comes up to me with a concerned look in his eyes.

"You alright, sweetheart?" He asks me. "I know you flew off your bike 'cause of me."

"I'm fine. Just banged my ribs up." I reply and he frowns at me. "Honestly Bobby, I'll be alright." I assure him and he puts a hand on my shoulder.

"You're a tough little woman." He laughs and I push him slightly and smile. "Glad to see that you've got a level head on your shoulders too." He sighs and looks over to Jax and then Clay. I follow his eye line before looking back at him.

"Where are you with this?" I ask him. I needed to know that the club would be supporting Jax in this time. Clay needed to see sense and listen to Jax more.

"I just think they need to sort out whatever it is between them." He replies and looks back at me. "And fast." He leaves me to return back to his own bike then. I frown and look down.

I knew that I needed to have Jax's back through this all. It was the whole reason I was in the club in the first place. After reading through the book that my dad had written, I began to see through the cracks that were splitting this club apart. A main factor was Clay and his leadership. He was leading this club right into the ground.

But there was something else. Something even Jax hadn't told me yet and it felt like it was the main bridge that separated him and Clay. I had to figure out what that was before anyone else got hurt.


We pull up to the Tacoma boys and cut our engines before Clay talks to the leader of them. It was a quick exchange before we handed off the blankets to the others. I got a few glances come my way and I knew it was because clubs don't usually patch women.

The post-ride party was in full swing. Jax introduced me to some of the Tacoma boys and they were shocked at first to see me with a prospect kutte on. I was soon welcomed in as the little sister and handed a bottle of Jack.

I sat at one of the tables alone for a moment. I had chugged some of the whiskey to act as a numbing agent against the ache in my ribs. But I wouldn't be drinking all night because I needed to be in one piece to pick up Tommy tomorrow.

"Riley!" I turn my head to see Chibs calling me over to join him at a table with Sack, Bobby and Opie. I roll my eyes playfully at him before walking over and crashing down onto the seat next to him.

"Miss me that much, Scotsman?" I tease him and he rolls his eyes at me.

"Aye, lass." He throws his arm around my shoulders and gives me a gentle squeeze. Bobby was preoccupied with rolling up a joint for himself and Opie had resumed his glares at me – to which I ignored.

"Easy there, darling." Chibs says as he turns his attention to the croweater sat on Sack's lap. "Tha' one's got a glass ball."

"Allows me to see the future of my penis." Sack says with a cocky grin on his face.

"How's that working out for you?" I ask him with a raised eyebrow. The croweater on his lap then proceeds to put her hand down his trousers.

"It's looking pretty good." Sack smiles. Chibs and I laugh at his reaction before turning to Bobby.

"You roll a shitty joint." Opie states as Bobby finishes up rolling his joint. He holds it up as though it were an art piece and smiles.

"A masterpiece." He smirks and I laugh at him. Taking a mouthful from the bottle of jack in my hands before passing it over to Chibs to swig.

"We get back, going to lock Jax and Clay in a room. Got to work this shit out." Bobby says as he watches Jax and Clay. I look over to my brother and he gives me a slight nod before walking off.

"It's more than that." Opie grunts. "Jax just needs to get over his dead daddy shit."

At his words I turn to look at him. My eyes narrowed at him and my lips pressed into a thin line. Bobby looked towards Chibs and I knew why when I felt his hand on the back of my arm. I pull out of his grasp and stand up, my chair shooting out from under me.

"The fuck is your problem?" I snap at Opie as he takes a sip from his beer. I grab the bottle from his hands and throw it to the floor. He glares up at me as my heart pounds in my ears.

"You need to get your head out of your ass, Ope." I tell him. He stands up and moves to be right in front of me. The others stand up but don't move towards us yet.

"You're just as bad as your brother." He grunts. "You both have some twig up your ass's, and you need to realise that this is about the club." He then looks past me to Chibs. "Hell, you need to stop sleeping around with them."

At this point I see red. My palm meets with his cheek and his head snaps to the side. My body was shaking with rage as he turned his head back towards me.

"Donna would be sick to see you like this." I growl at him. Before he gets the chance to say anything else, Bobby grabs his arms and I walk past Chibs to get away from him before I hit him again.