Reminder that if you have not taken the time to read the disclaimer from the last chapter, to please do so ❤️

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General trigger warnings for this story: Language, smut, mentions of rape, abuse, drug use/overdose, violence/death.

CHAPTER 90: EMPTY PROMISES

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Sydney sat back against her bike smoking a cigarette when Rosen pulled onto the lot in his silver Mercedes, Jax lingering not too far behind him. She took one final drag, inhaling as deep as she could before stamping out the butt and making her way over along with everybody else - she knew that no matter what the reason was behind his unexpected trip, it wasn't going to be good.

"What's going on?" Jax scowled as he approached the spontaneous gathering where heads were hung and jaws were clenched.

"I wanted to give you this news in person…" The suited man began, his eyes lingering on Sydney for a second too long - blinking rapidly as he tried to refocus himself.

"Well that don't sound good…" Clay sighed.

"It's not." He confirmed. "The US Attorney is releasing the details on the witness at 5:00 P.M. - 5:01, ATF is presenting their case against Opie Winston for Hefner's murder. They'll bring him in for a lineup, but from what the prosecution has shared, he's probably not going back home…"

"Jesus christ…" Jax sighed.

"So what do we know, Rosen?" Tig was desperate for more shit-stirring information that would keep the attention off of him - off of what he'd done.

"There's an eyewitness - probably a resident." Rosen nodded. "They offered wit-pro, which means he's in lockdown…"

"Opie buries his wife tomorrow…"

"I'll drag my feet the best that I can - see that they don't bring him in too early..." He nodded, feeling his own guilt over the legal advice that he had provided - the legal advice that he knew had at least something to do with the fact that they were having this conversation right now. "I'm sorry…" But he didn't get paid to be sorry, he got paid to do his job. "I'll have my office call you about my retainer?" He raised a brow.

Clay scoffed. Lawyers. "Sure. Thanks." He brushed past the greedy man.

Sydney perked up when the opportunity for something that she could help with finally arose, desperate to do some good for the club when they so badly needed it - and to reestablish her loyalty. She hung back as everybody dispersed - temporarily glad for the tension between her and Tig, as it gave her the chance to get the lawman alone. She smirked as she propped her elbow up against the hood of his car, dropping her hip and letting her eyes slide over him.

"So, what does it take for a guy like you to consider doing a little charity work?"

Rosen chuckled, looking down at his freshly polished shoes as a bashful smile came to his face. "Well, I've given out all the discounts that the firm allows per annum." He squinted as he looked back up at her.

"Eager man." She surmised with a lewd smile. "Looks like somebody's gunning for a promotion…" She nudged him with her boot.

"Eh, you could say that…" He shrugged.

"You know what looks even better come performance review time?" She leaned in as if she was telling him a secret.

"What?" His brow twitched with intrigue as he humored her with a smile of amusement.

"That big… Impressive…" She watched as the suspense built behind his eyes - unable to deny the familiar spark of excitement that always came with getting what she wanted from a man who had made it his life's mission not to let her have it. "Pro Bono case…" She finished with a smirk.

Rosen scoffed. Had anybody else tried this hard to trick him into a deal, he would've been offended - but her? He welcomed the persuasion with open arms - she was just so damn cute.

"Come on, Jason… I know you have it in you - something that big." She let her green orbs flick down to his crotch. "That ambitious? The partners would eat that little sob story right up - 'small town lawyer saves motherless children from a life in the system'." She mused, watching as he stared at her with a ghost of a smirk on his thin lips.

"Well…" She cocked her head, taking a step towards him where she pushed her tits out - brushing against him as she leant down into the window of his car and grabbed a legal pad from the passenger seat. A ghost of a smirk was all that she needed.

Rosen's stance finally faltered as a shiver ran through him when she just barely grazed that impressive rack against his arm, watching as she presented him that equally impressive ass - not giving a second thought to the fact that she was rooting around in his vehicle.

"If you feel like being a hero…" She cooed as she straightened back up, scrawling her name and phone number across the pad of paper before ripping it off and handing it back to him. "You can let me know." She winked as she folded the scrap piece of paper and slipped it into his pocket before heading towards the garage where the mechanics had been sent out for lunch early - which could only mean one thing.

But she felt her phone vibrating in her back pocket before she could cross the threshold, pulling it out to see a text from an unknown number.

(209) 863-6259 : If you need me, I'll be there. Just try not to need me.

She turned around to see Rosen in his vehicle, holding his phone with a nod. She nodded back, finally making her way into the garage where she was glad that she could share what she was sure would be the only good news that they would hear today.

"Rosen's good for Opie's defense." She announced as she made her way over to where everybody was huddled in the corner of the garage by a dismantled Harley.

"Yeah, well I'm not." Clay scoffed.

"You don't have to be. It seems that he still has a quota to meet on his pro bono hours this year…" She did her best to keep the proud smirk off of her face - now was not the time.

"Wow." Jax deadpanned. "You just got a solution for everything, don't you?" He glared hatefully at the conniving little tart.

"Seems like it's something that you could use right about now." She fired back with a scoff.

"That's great news." Clay glared at Jax, returning his gaze back to Sydney where he nodded gratefully - something that he didn't think she would be giving him the chance to do anytime soon. "But hopefully that's a card that we won't have to use just yet, because their whole case against Bobby and Opie is that witness… Without him? They got nothin."

"So we gotta get to him." Tig surmised with a nod, completely immersing himself in the idea of redemption - no matter how much it paled in comparison to the magnitude of his mistake.

Juice nodded with a hardened expression which quickly faltered once he realized what that meant… "Kill him?" He tried to say with conviction.

"He's a rat." Tig sneered. "Rats deserve to die. End of story."

"Wit-pro means safehouse… Twenty-four hour protection." Jax reminded everybody. Normally, his moral compass likely would've had him pushing the club to take the backseat on something this risky - but this was his best friend on the line.

"That's a dead end." Chibs concluded regretfully.

"That can't be." Clay shook his head. "Opie goes back to prison, what happens to his kids? The state's gonna give em to Piney or Mary?" He sneered. "They're gonna end up in the system!"

"Let's not forget Bobby…" Tig added, needing some kind of reassurance that this wasn't all his fault - that this wasn't all his mess. "He got ID'd cause he had to clean up after Ope's mistake."

Everybody tentatively looked over at Jax, waiting for the defense that never came. "We gotta do this before the funeral." He nodded, knowing that he needed to keep them on his side if he was going to get Opie out of this. "Ope's family can't take another hit."

"Agreed." Clay nodded to his stepson, listening to the chorus of affirmations that followed.

"Maybe Trammel can help…" Jax suggested. "If the safehouse is in San Joaquin, he's probably got sheriffs on him."

"Call Hap." Sydney sighed begrudgingly. "He's got a few smileys for dead witnesses…" She'd helped Happy with witnesses in the past, but she knew that she didn't possess enough knowledge to handle it on her own, and she had to follow her own rules - head over heart.

Juice looked to Clay for confirmation, getting the nod of approval. "I'm on it." He told them as he left the circle to carry out the time-sensitive task.

Jax nodded, feeling his body jolt as his phone started ringing - reaching into the pocket of his kutte as fast as possible. "Yeah." He barked down the line.

"Jax! Hey, man… I got like… A serious problem." Half-Sack's frantic voice came through the speaker. "I followed Piney into Oakland." He explained wearily as he watched the old man from across the street.

"The hell is he doing in Oakland?" Jax scowled, drawing the attention of Clay.

"It looks like he's going into a bar, but there are Niner tags everywhere…"

"Jesus christ…" He rolled his eyes as he pulled the phone away from his ear. "Piney went looking for Laroy…" He reported.

"Oh, god dammit!" Clay hollered - this was the last thing that he needed today; for them to find out the truth.

"Crazy old kook!" Tig growled.

But as everybody panicked, Sydney began to calm as yet another way that she could do some damage control landed right in her lap.

"Where are you?" Jax returned to his phone call.

"38th and Allendale." She answered for him, making a beeline out of the garage.

"No." Jax grabbed her elbow. "You've done enough." He sneered.

"You gonna beat me there?" She cocked a brow, allowing the smirk to grace her lips. If he wasn't going to make any effort to conceal his true feelings, she wouldn't either.

Jax looked to Clay and Tig who nodded a little too eagerly for two men who had supposedly just lost a woman to the very man that Sydney was running straight towards - only widening the pit in his stomach.

Sydney pulled her arm out of his grip, taking off out the garage before too many conclusions could be drawn about the exchange that she knew needed to go her way, but should've gone the other. She needed to get there and get this sorted out before Jax could show up and blow a hole in their cover - she needed to prove that their trust in her was not misplaced.

"Get him out of there!" Clay told Jax, sending him after Sydney who he prayed he could rely on to keep this truth hidden as his rogue members walked directly into it. "We'll deal with the Niners later…" He added, hoping that Jax would understand that this was not the time for negotiation - this was solely about extraction. Because he knew exactly what result negotiation with the innocent man would produce…

"Sydney!" She looked up from where she had mounted her bike and pulled her helmet down over her head - still feeling a slight tenderness from her wounds - to see Jax, flipping up her visor. "This isn't a good idea." He looked deep into her eyes - hoping that if he played into their lie, she would fall back for believability.

"And why is that?" She rasped smugly - still riding the high of redemption.

"You don't know what you're riding in to." He settled on the first answer that came to him - immediately regretting it. She knew exactly what she was riding in to, that was why she'd volunteered.

"Well, the way I see it is that Laroy can deal with me - who he's already expressed that he wants to deal with. Or you - who he tried to kill just days ago." She mused with a tilt of her head. "Your call, VP. This is about the safety of your members, after all." And with that, she took off - knowing what his answer would be.

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Clay and Tig stood with their boots in the dirt and their eyes squinted in the sun as Trammel pulled onto the bare plot of deserted land where they always met - Juice standing watch down the road.

"I got your message." He began the second that he stepped out of his squad car - time for secret meetings with criminals was hard to come by as a cop. "Yeah, the feds put us on safehouses from time to time - all depends on the case. What's this about?" He stopped with his hands on his hips, his eyes falling to a squint in the harsh sun as well.

"We need to locate someone… See how committed they are to what they saw."

Trammel stared blankly at the outlaw President for a few seconds. "Jesus christ, Clay…" He sighed when he finally realized that he was being serious - chuckling nervously. "You want me to hand over a federal witness?"

"No, no. We just wanna talk to him, Trammel." Tig corrected with a menacing tilt of his head.

"How goddamn stupid do I look?" The black man blinked incredulously. "Man, I don't care how thick the envelope is. That? No-"

"You don't understand." Clay cut him off. "I aint offering you money." He smiled sarcastically. "When this witness picks out Opie and Bobby? ATF comes after us with RICO."

"Ah shit…" Trammel sighed.

"Yeah, man." Tig nodded. "That means all of us, and everybody attached to us, goes down."

"You do savvy that, right? My 'not stupid' friend?" Clay grinned.

"Jesus christ." Trammel cursed again.

"We'll have the name of the witness this afternoon."

"They're not gonna use a name." Trammel shook his head. "I'm gonna need a case number."

"Case number?" Tig scowled. "Where the hell are we supposed to find that intel?"

"Top of Charming's food chain…" Clay realized with a nod, turning towards his bike.

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Sydney had gained miles on Jax as she weaved in and out of traffic on her way to Oakland - but it definitely wasn't for his lack of trying. She knew that she had about seven minutes from the time that she pulled up in front of the Niner's bar to get this shit sorted out before he showed up and destroyed everything that she was trying to protect.

She pulled her helmet off, looking over her shoulder as Laroy pulled up behind her in his Mercedes full of protection while two more guys made their way out to escort him inside - a sight that she was thankful to see because it meant that Piney hadn't yet gotten the chance to get the gang leader alone.

Laroy held his hand up, halting his men as he walked over to Sydney. "We got a problem." He narrowed his dark eyes.

"I know." She nodded. "And more are on their way…" She looked down the long stretch of road.

"This aint gonna end well." He told her threateningly.

"You let me handle this? I'll make sure that it does." She proposed, eyes wide with desperation as she tried to make herself forget that even though the Niner's weren't actually responsible for Donna's death - they had still gone after her club just days ago.

Laroy nodded slowly, wearily - leading her into the bar where they walked in to find Piney at a table with his gun to Teaj's bleeding head, and Half-Sack sitting next to him with his knee bouncing nervously.

Sydney sighed, turning to Laroy where they stood at the entrance. "He's a crazy old man… He doesn't know what he's saying - what he's doing. He's not even supposed to be riding." She tried to convince him before Piney could start talking - and before she would have to resort to the gun that he had forgotten to frisk her for.

"This doesn't involve you." Piney scoffed to the blonde woman. "One of these assholes killed Donna, and I'm gonna make that right." He made no effort to lower the gun.

"Cali Queen was right…" Laroy looked down at Sydney. "He really don't know what he's talking about." He warned.

Sydney looked over the scene before her, calculating the best way to get them out of this before she caught the slow blink that Half-Sack was giving her - nodding back subtly.

"If I get him to put down the revolver, can you promise me that we walk out of here alive?" She asked quietly.

Laroy chuckled. "Yeah… Sure." A sinister smile found its way onto his face. "You're real good at that…" His hand slid down her back, over the gun that he knew she had in her waistband and eventually landed on her ass where he squeezed harshly.

She fought the urge to recoil - but it never came, staring at him for a few seconds to be sure that he was being truthful before she made her way over to the table. So much for plan B.

"No, no, no, no, no-" Piney began, holding his gunless hand up in protest as she approached.

"Put the gun down, Piney." She sighed.

"I aint leaving until the nigger that killed Donna is dead! Alright?"

Sydney raised a brow, momentarily shifting her eyes to Half-Sack before looking back, waiting for the perfect moment to reach for the gun when the prospect struck him in the face - taking him off guard.

Piney grunted, lunging for the light haired man once he realized that he had been disarmed. "Shithead!" He exclaimed as he punched him in the arm.

"Get out of here!" She shook her head with a roll of her eyes, staring him down where he sat so relentlessly before her.

"Piney!" She whipped her head around to see Jax standing in the doorway - the sight of which was simultaneously her worst nightmare and her dream come true. She knew that he was the only one who would be able to get Piney out, but he was also the one person that she couldn't have finding out that the Niners weren't responsible for the reason that had brought the vengeful old man there in the first place.

"Last night, someone in a gangster SUV gunned down my daughter!" Piney argued. "Now that sounds just like nigger revenge to me." He glared at Laroy.

"Nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger…" Laroy tutted his tongue, swinging his head towards Sydney. "Old fat bastard here says nigger one more time? That deal 'walking out alive' deal that we talked about is off the goddamn table."

Sydney exhaled a shaky breath of relief - relief for the ignorant man's racial slurs that had managed to temporarily distract the entire group of Niners from the equally harsh accusation.

"Your trouble with us." Jax looked directly at Laroy this time. "You work that out of your system? Or does this beef keep growing?"

"You keep talking about beefs, this is not-" Piney interrupted.

"Piney!" Jax yelled at the top of his lungs. "Let me handle this, or I will kill you myself!"

Sydney couldn't believe how perfectly this was going. Some way, somehow, they were all focused on everything except the entire reason that they were in the same room to begin with - and that was exactly the kind of situation that she needed to bring back to Clay. Maybe their future was salvageable after all.

"Our business issues still need to be worked out." Laroy nodded. "Now I suggest that you boys find your way back home… Quickly." He looked between the three men pointedly.

Jax ground his teeth as he stood in the doorway, waiting for Piney who stared at him with the same anticipation before finally giving up, heaving himself up from the table with a sigh where he pushed past Half-Sack.

Sydney watched as the three men all filed out after handing off Piney's gun to Half-Sack where she knew it would be safe, hanging back to assure Laroy that there would be no funny business this time - something that she knew she had the time to do while Jax's focus was on getting Piney back to Charming before he could come barrelling back through the door.

"I gotta get me one of them oxygen tanks, man." Teaj groaned with a laugh as he clutched his brow that had been split open by the blow from the old man's lifeline.

Sydney chuckled - allowing herself to revel in the familiar lightness that had been overshadowed in the club as of late. "Might wanna start with a first aid kit." She brought her hand up to his chin where she tilted his head to the side so that she could get a better look at the wound.

"Yeah? You gonna let me borrow yours, blondie?" The tall man nodded to the bruises on her own face as he slid out of the booth with a flirty smile.

Sydney bit her lip as she looked to the ground bashfully - amping up her expression a little, of course, but she didn't have to do much as the first man in days looked over her without immediate concern.

"Tough gig." She shrugged with a smile.

"Nah." Teaj shook his head as he placed his hand on her arm. "Leave all that behind, shorty. I'll give you the life you deserve."

Nevermind. "Yeah?" She raised a brow. "And what life is that?" At least she found him amusing.

"Diamonds, cars…"

"Mmmm." She nodded skeptically. "And how you gonna give me that life away from all of this?" The dark-skinned man's brows furrowed as he realized that he'd caught himself in a pickle. "That's what I thought." She pinched his elbow with a wink, making her way back out to her bike.

"You gonna come back and check on me, girl?" He hollered after her.

"As long as you don't shoot up my crew!" She deadpanned, waving her arm in the air without turning back.

Teaj's big eyes squinted as a giant grin spread across his face. "I like that girl, man." He turned to Laroy who was seated at the bar - his eyes burning a hole into her back as he let her walk out after pulling a stunt like that for the second time.

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Tig swung his leg over the dying engine of his Dyna as he dug out his ringing phone - silently praying that he wouldn't get to it in time. "Yeah." He begrudgingly flipped it open, ignoring the skip in his heart that he'd felt when he saw that it was Sydney calling - reverting back to the only mindset that was getting him through this day; the mindset of an outlaw.

"Piney's out safe - Jax and Half-Sack are tailing him back." She reported.

"They find anything out?" He squinted behind his sunglasses.

"Nope." She told him flatly - knowing that she would've been much more prideful had she been talking to Clay whom she had unsuccessfully tried to call first. "Too focused on the gun that Piney was holding to really listen to anything that he said. By the time that Jax showed up, all that they were focused on was the shootout - which we still need to figure out." She reminded him.

"Yeah." Tig agreed with a nod. "We just pulled up at Oswald's to get the info on the witness."

Sydney felt her stomach flip. Oswald... "I'll meet you there." She nodded - glad to hear that at least Clay hadn't ignored her phone call on purpose.

"That wasn't an invite." Tig grimaced.

"I wasn't asking for one." She snapped her burner shut. She'd made too many broken promises to too many broken girls as of late, she needed to get some good karma back in the bank with one that she could follow through on.

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