The clubhouse was quiet later that morning. The only murmurings were about the body that had been brought back in the middle of the night. It hadn't taken very long for them to realize that it had been Tara Knowles. Speculation had run wild as to what happened to her. The only people that really knew what happened to her were patched members of the club and Lily and Scarlett.

Happy and Lily had a slow start to their morning. Neither of them wanted to leave the comforts of their bed. Lily knew she was going to get questioned by everyone about what happened the last few days. To be honest, she wasn't really sure what happened.

They had taken her and Juice, and the Horsemen and beaten the shit out of them. However, they hadn't questioned them once about what SAMCRO's plans were. Their capture had served no purpose other than being witnesses to Tara's murder.

Lily was thankful Happy hadn't questioned her any further about anything. He had just been his usual quiet self as he helped her get dressed, but she could see the wheels turning as he thought about everything. She watched his face overcome with concern when she flinched as she tweaked her shoulder the wrong way.

"I'm fine, Happy," she muttered as she pulled away from him.

"And I'm the queen of England," he said, rolling his eyes.

She was about to give him the bird when there was a knock at the door. Happy waited until Lily was decent before opening the door.

Jax stood there with his hands shoved in his pockets. The dark circles under his eyes showed that he hadn't slept at all, and by the smell of him, he had spent the night with a bottle of whiskey.

"Can I talk to Ophelia?" Jax asked.

She knew he was serious when he used her full name. So when Happy looked to her in question, she gave a short nod.

Happy reluctantly started to leave. Lily wasn't in the best shape to protect herself if Jax decided that it was her fault that Tara was dead. He grabbed his cut off the back of the chair and kissed Lily on the cheek. "Yell if you need anything," he told her.

He started to slip past Jax but got stopped.

"I'm sorry I forced you to chose the club or Ophelia last night," Jax apologized. "I've been there before, and I promised myself that I would never make one of my brothers do that."

Happy nodded. "She's a lot prettier than you are, Prez," he said grinning.

Jax forced a smile. "Yeah, she is." He patted Hap on the shoulder as he passed. Once he was gone, Jax shut the door. "So you and Happy, huh?"

There wasn't any hostility in the question like she would have expected. "Everyone seems to think so, but I think I missed the memo," she said.

"He was gonna get you back; even if that meant he was gonna have to kill every Horsemen himself," Jax said as he walked over to Lily. He sat down on the bed next to her. "I'm sorry, Leela, for getting in your face last night."

"It's understandable, Jax," she said, taking his hand in hers. "I'm sorry about Tara."

"She was leaving me when they took her, wasn't she?" He asked. She nodded. "I knew she was trying to leave me. It was only a matter of time," he said. "Just didn't think it would end this way." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm just glad she didn't take the boys with her when she tried to leave town. I can't imagine what the Horsemen would've done to them."

Lily chewed on her lip. "She didn't take them because I told her not to," she admitted.

"What are you talking about?"

"She was asking me how I got away from the club, and I may have told her that if she did try to leave, she better not take the boys because you would probably kill her."

Jax was silent. Tara had been the love of his life since he was a teenager. He thought he was so lucky when she came back to Charming. She had given him a brand new look on life. She was an amazing mom to Able and gave him Thomas, but his love for his boys and surpassed his love for her. Leela was right when she said that he would kill Tara if she tried to take his boys from him.

"Thank you, Leela," he whispered. "I'm not sure if we would all be here still if you hadn't come when you did." He put his arm around her and pulled her to his side. "Tell me what happened with the Horsemen."

She launched into telling everything that had happened since she left to meet the Horsemen. He was quiet. He didn't ask any questions. He just sat there and listened to what she had to say.

"After he shot Tara, he wanted me to tell you that he was gonna burn Charming to the ground if you don't give him everything," she said, her story coming to an end.

Jax stayed quiet. He rubbed his hands together in thought. "I just don't understand how a MC that just runs drugs and guns for the cartel can be this powerful. We do the same kind of thing and we're no where near as powerful."

It hit her. It hit her harder than a freight train. She couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of this before. She stood up and kissed Jax. "You are a genius."

Jax sat there stunned. "What are you talking about?"

"The cartel," she said simply. She couldn't take the smile off her face. "I need to talk with Alvarez."

Most of SAMCRO sat in an empty parking lot outside of Stockton waiting for the Mayans. Jax had left Tacoma in charge at the clubhouse. They hadn't tried to conceal where they were going, knowing the Horsemen where gonna follow them no matter what.

"Why does she want to meet with Alvarez so bad?" Tig asked Jax as they waited on their bikes.

"Not sure," Jax shrugged as he smoked his cigarette. He watched Lily as she sat on the hood of her black BMW with Scarlett. She had already smoked a whole pack of cigarettes.

"You sure this a good idea?" Chibs asked. "When Alvarez saw her, he didn't seem to happy that we were working with her."

"That's because he knew what she was capable of," Happy spoke up.

They heard the Mayans' motorcycles before they saw them. When they came into sight, Lily stood in front of the Sons along side Jax.

"You gonna tell me what's going on in that head of yours?" Jax whispered to her as they waited for the Mayans to park their bikes.

Lily smiled at him. "You said it yourself, Jax. Take away the cartel from the Devil's Horsemen and they're nothing."

It dawned on Jax that she was right. "But how are the Mayans gonna help with that? They deal with Galindo, not the Castillo cartel."

"For now," she said before Alvarez began walking towards them with his men.

Alvarez took off his sunglasses as he in front of them. "Jax," he greeted. "You sounded urgent on the phone."

"Shit's bad, man," Jax said.

"Why is she here?" Alvarez nodded towards Lily.

"She's here because she has an idea of how to get out of this mess," Jax explained. Alvarez shook his head. "Look, they killed the mother of my sons. I am gonna do whatever I can to put every single Devil's Horsemen in the ground."

"Including working with a Death Dealer."

Lily stepped forward. "I know you don't trust me. I'm the mercenary that has done jobs for your bosses as well as other cartels," she said. "These guys are ruthless. Once they're done with the Son's, they'll come after every Mayan." She looked at Jax and then the rest of the club. "These guys are my family. I may not have been around the last 15 years, but I will not let them be wiped out by some other fucking club." She looked back to Alvarez.

Alvarez was quiet. Ophelia was pretty sure she had scared him off, but then he stepped closer to her and Jax. "What's the plan?" he asked. Alvarez looked to Jax and then Jax looked to Ophelia in question.

"It's not gonna be easy," she said breathing a sigh of relief. "We're gonna need Galindo on our side as well."

"He doesn't get involved with club business," Alvarez said quickly.

She smiled. "What if it involves the Castillo cartel pushing in on Galindo's territory?"

He hesitated. "I haven't heard anything about that..."

"That's because the Sons are the only thing standing of the way of everything you know disappearing," Lily said. "If we can get Galindo to help us, we can guarantee to knock out the thorns in all of our sides."

Alvarez looked to Jax in question. Jax shifted his weight. "We need your help, Marcus," he pleaded. "I don't know how much more my men can take. We need to finish this fast before there's none of us left."

"I'll have to make a call," Alvarez said, pulling out his phone. Jax stepped away to give some space, but Lily stayed put.

"If he needs some convincing," she whispered. "Let him know that Lilith will owe him a great debt." She didn't want Jax or anyone else in the club to know that she was offering herself as part of the deal.

Alvarez gave a short nod before walking back to his men to make the call to Galindo. Lily went back to where the Sons all stood.

"So is anyone gonna tell us what's going on?" Tig asked.

"We're trying to get the Mayans and Galindo to help us take out the Horsemen," Lily simplified. There was a whole lot more to it than that, but until she knew more, that's all they needed to know.

"So we're getting in bed with the cartel again, even after it went so well the first time," Opie said.

"We're not getting in bed with anyone," Jax said firmly. "We're just getting help taking out the Devil's Horsemen."

Nobody was really convinced by that. They all knew what happens you get help from a Mexican cartel. What they didn't know was that Lily was gonna do everything she could to make sure that the Sons of Anarchy owed nothing to anyone.

Alvarez walked back to Jax. "Galindo wants a sit down," he said. "He needs to know what your plan is." He looked at Lily. "He will be calling you in a day to set a meet."

She nodded. "Got it." She held out her hand to Alvarez to shake. Alvarez looked at it and then reluctantly shook it.

He nodded towards Jax and walked back towards his bike and his men. Jax came to stand next to Lily. Both of them stood together as they watched the Mayans ride away.

"What do we do now?" Jax asked.

"Now we gather as much information as we can about the Horsemen and the Castillo cartel and come up with some sort of a plan before Galindo calls tomorrow."

He gently takes her arm. "What if they don't help us?"

"Then we will find another way," she said. "Come on. We need to get back to the clubhouse. We have a lot of shit to work on."

A/N Note: Yay, two updates in one month! I'm on a roll. Would love to hear what you guys think!