*Jax*
-Three Days Later-
All was quiet in Charming, which was unusual given the threat we were under. According to the ATF, Ethan and Polly Zobelle, A.J. Weston, and the rest of their henchmen were in the wind. However, the Club and a handful of Charming P.D.'s finest refused to believe it and went on their own investigation. Clay had excluded me from several club activities, including searching for our enemies, as a punishment for insulting him. He even went out of his way to schedule me for solo double-shifts in the garage so that I couldn't join them. So, while the club had gone off to handle their shit without me, and the shop was dead, I said fuck it and worked with Hale in the hopes of taking down Zobelle's ass legally rather than bloodily. Clay had been acting like a fucking dick, and he needed to be knocked off his high horse.
While Clay and a few others went to raid Zobelle's cigar shop, Hale and I went to Weston's home. I expected to find Weston there, laying in wait like a dumb-ass, but instead I found his crazy ass son. Hale wasn't for breaking into his house, so I did, and that almost got my head blown off by a ten-year-old boy with a shotgun. If it wasn't for Andy secretly asking Opie to watch my back, I would have been dead. Because as soon as the first shot rang out, Opie jumped from his cover of bushes and helped distract the crazy ass boy long enough for me to yank the gun from his hands and shove him on the bed next to his scared-shitless little brother.
When Hale finally came in and witnessed the shit-show, he called it in as child neglect and endangerment. Because it was exactly that considering Weston had royally fucked up his kids with racist shit and left them alone, with weapons at that, for days on end, because he didn't want to risk going home for the cops to arrest him. That was just shitty parenting all around. Opie and I left before back up came, so no one would question Hale why we were there.
That was two days ago. And while I didn't find anything at Westons, Clay didn't find anything at Zobelle's either - other than target practice. It was radio silent, which left us to sit idle and wait for them to make an appearance.
Come to think of it, it has been radio silent from all our enemies. We haven't had an issue with the Niners, Mayans, or Darby for a while. And I was actually shocked Darby hadn't come at us for blowing up his meth-lab a while back. Just to be safe, I'd have Juice run a check on them all, entirely to make sure they weren't planning something.
Jimmy O was still stateside and was currently sitting inside the clubhouse, sharing a drink with Clay at the bar, while the rest of us actually did some work around here. I had a feeling Jimmy had other reasons for being at the clubhouse, besides just to have a "chat" with Clay. And the other reason just so happened to storm out of the clubhouse, shouting in another language entirely.
"Pìos de shit Èireannach. Chan urrainn dhomh feitheamh gus an latha losgadh air a bheil bastards brains a-mach." Chibs was livid as hell, and just from what I could gather from the familiar words bastards, and brains, it wasn't hard to guess he was basically saying he wanted to blow Jimmy's brains out.
This was the most entertaining thing to happen today. I had only started my shift in the garage an hour ago. Since there weren't any customers today, I decided to work on sanding the hood of Andy's car to prepare it for paint.
"Hey, Chibs," I chuckled as I turned off the automatic sander and straightened up. "I don't understand Scottish stuff, so could you maybe translate what you said about Jimmy for me?"
Chibs exhaled an irritated sigh. "Scottish stuff?" He scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "It's Scottish Gaelic ta ye, Jackie-boy,"
"Okay, Jesus," I lifted my hands in defense with a playful smirk on my lips. "But seriously, what did you say?"
Chibs stepped up to me, looked around to make sure no one was within earshot, and leaned in. "I called Jimmy a piece o' Irish shite. 'N' that I cannae wait fur th' day tae shoot that bastard's brains oot."
My shoulders shook with laughter as I leaned against the car. "Ah shit," I said as Opie soon joined us in the garage.
Opie crossed his arms and leaned against the car, crossing a leg over the other. "What's so funny?"
"Ol' Chibs here is entertaining when he's royally pissed off is all." I answered just as Chibs' phone rang, forcing him to leave the garage, so he could hear whoever was on the other end.
We stood in silence for a moment before Opie glanced over at me with wonder. "Have you seen Juice?"
I gave him a nod. "He's with Andy grocery shopping, she wanted to make sure everything of Abel's was stocked up before Neeta got to the house."
"Oh," Opie nods, then arches a curious brow. "She in a good mood this mornin'?"
That was different, Opie never asked what kinda mood she was in before. "Yeah..." My eyes narrowed in curiosity, "Why?"
"Oh, no reason," he shrugged, uncrossing his arms to shove his hands in his pockets. "It's her first day back on shift. Noon, right?"
There was something he wasn't tellin' me, and it was fuckin' with me. "Why are you so interested in Andy's day all of a sudden, Ope?" I inquired, stepping closer. "You up to somethin'?" It's like he was up to somethin', and he didn't want to let me in on it.
Opie tipped his head back with light-hearted laughter. "No," he shook his head, "just wanted to know. She wanted me to update her on the status of her car," he jutted a finger towards the Camaro that I was in the process of sanding down. "Wanting to know if you were almost done priming it, so she can paint it when she comes in... But, I'm scared to ruin her good mood by tellin' her you ain't even done sandin' it."
Chuckling, I tipped my chin to Opie. "She'll find out the status when she gets here."
"Jax, do you want to be in the doghouse?"
Moving around to the hood, I picked up the sander before meeting Opies gaze. "I should be done before she gets here. If not," I shrug nonchalantly as I replaced the old sandpaper with new, "she'll get over it. I'm not worried."
Amusement flashed in Opies eyes as he shook his head. "You say that now, until she's kicking your ass. You really want to piss her off?" He chuckled, grabbed a can of primer once he pushed himself off the car, and began shaking the spray can, mixing the primer.
I tipped my chin and flashed him a shit eatin' grin, "l know how to calm her down." I waggled my eyebrows suggestively. Opie's jaw dropped and his movements stilled, momentarily stunned. Then he shivered as if the mental image of me givin' it to his cousin flashed through his head.
"Bro," he scoffed with his face scrunched up in disgust. "I didn't need that image in my head, nor do I want to think about you screwin' my cousin." His brows furrowed.
I just laughed and lifted a shoulder. "I'm just sayin', I know how to calm my ol' lady down." Speaking of which, she and I seriously needed to have a conversation about bringing out my dom side more frequently in the bedroom - I know she liked it. That was obvious while I was fucking her brains out and breaking our bed, and spanking her three days ago - but it was something that we needed to discuss before doing it again. And with working these long ass shifts at the garage, by the time I get home and sit on the couch, I end up passing out, never considering bringing up our sexual desires.
Opie took the lid off the spray can, hit the spray nozzle a few times to get any air pockets out, then kneeled next to the driver's side door. He raised the can to start spraying the car, but brought his arm down to rest on his knee. "It's just," he shook his head before peering up at me with a serious expression on his face. "seein' her with someone - my best friend at that - is just... weird." That piqued my interest.
It was clear in his tone that Opie was obviously shocked, and confused about her being with me. I wasn't sure if I should be offended or pleased with that? So, I just sat the sander back on the hood and gave him my full attention.
"What do you mean by that exactly?" I inquired, pressing my palms down firmly on the hood in front of me, aiming a questioning glance down at him. "Why's it so weird seein' her with me?"
Opie adjusted his beanie with his free hand while contemplating what to say. After a moment, he met my gaze with a tight smile. "I don't know how much she's told you about her past - or if she's even told you yet..." he trailed off for me to speak.
"All I really know is her dad is an asshole and her mom overdosed," I answered with a shrug. "Hasn't really brought it up too much, and I don't want to force anything out of her. I'd rather her willingly talk about everything and not feel pressured."
"Well, my uncle is an asshole, and all I'm saying is she has some trust issues with men because of him. She's always avoided relationships due to her trust issues - never truly been with a man, other than... well... a hookup. Anyway," he cleared his throat before getting back on track. "So it just surprises me at how quick she took a liking to you. She doesn't normally let a man in as quickly as she did with you." And once he said that, he just averted his gaze to the car and began spraying the door with primer. Leaving me dumbstruck.
Wow, that was a lot to take in, and I didn't know what to say after that. So before Andy came in for her shift, I started sanding the hood of her car.
About thirty minutes pass by when mom rushes out of the office with a worried scowl planted firmly on her face with the door slamming behind her with her heels clicking on the concrete while marching to her Escalade.
Opie and I shared the same curious glance as I shut the sander off and stood straight, calling out to her: "Where ya runnin' off to, Ma?"
Mom doesn't even stop for a second, only yells back, "Got an errand to run, be back in twenty."
"You're not taking someone with you?" I question as I walk to the edge of the garage as she swings her car door open.
"I don't need a damn babysitter when I'm only going a mile down the road... in broad daylight." Although she had sunglasses on, I could almost bet she rolled her eyes at me the moment she climbed in her car and shut the door.
As she pulled out of T.M., my truck pulled in simultaneously. "Why is Andy here so... Wait, why is Juice's bike in the bed of your truck?" Opie asked what I was thinking as soon as my truck came to a stop right in front of us. "Where is Andy?"
"Yeah, excellent fuckin' question." I agreed, noting Juice was driving and the passenger seat was empty. "Where's Andy?" I asked Juice once he climbed out the truck and moved to open the back door.
Instead of answering, Juice raised his index finger, telling us to hold on as he opened the door and out jumped Ope's kids on the verge of tears. It's Tuesday, why aren't they in school?
"Did school let out early or something, guys?" Opie voiced my thoughts as he came to a standing position. As soon as the question left his lips, both Kenny and Ellie shook their heads, started crying and ran into the clubhouse.
Once the door shut behind them, I snapped my head to Juice, baring my teeth. "Start talkin' now."
Juice's body tensed and he swallowed hard. "Okay, you're not gonna like this... when Andy and me were unloading groceries and shit, with Neeta's help - Abel's with her right now by the way - Andy got a call from Kenny and Ellie's princi -"
Not really in the mood for his nervous rambling, and only worried about where Andy was, I flipped. "Juice, just fuckin' tell me where Andy is." I bellowed, causing him to jump back like I'd punched him.
"Yeah, short story first." Opie added, equally irritated.
Juice raked a hand over his mohawk before releasing a defeated breath. "Andy picked the kids up from school, when she brought them out to the truck, she was pissed, then told me she'd be back. She wasn't even in the school for five minutes - before Unser showed up - I don't know what exactly happened, but he brought her out in cuffs... Andy told me to call Gemma to bail her out... She doesn't want either of you comin' down there."
My hand went to the back of my head. "Jesus fucking Christ, Andy." I growled out before looking at Opie.
"What the hell happened, Juice?" Opie demanded, stomping over to stand in front of him.
Juice laughed nervously as he looked up at him. "Uh, I can't tell... Andy wants to have a talk... with you when she gets here."
[A/N: As y'all can tell, this is just a filler chapter. I felt like you all deserved something for the long wait... It's still going to be a long wait, work is draining me and all I do is sleep and take care of my child on my days off so I haven't really had much time to plan anything out... Just to let y'all know, there may be some errors in this because it's not edited. Sorry.
Love y'all lots.]