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Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale

Chapter 12 When TB Met Jax

"

Ava was very nervous. Her father not only wanted to meet Jax, he wanted to meet him alone. That couldn't possibly be good, but she couldn't do anything about it. She was worried that her father would figure out she was just marrying Jax to fulfill the terms of his will. He could add a clause that she couldn't marry an inmate in a correctional institution.

Her father could offer to buy off Jax. She wondered how much money it would take to get Jax to forget marrying her and take her father's deal. Her father was cheap, but when he really wanted something, money was no object. Was buying Jax off worth more than the $500,000 she was paying him? Surely her father wouldn't offer him that much money. She didn't think she was worth that much to him.

As an attorney, her father was quickly approved for a private legal visit with Jax. That would allow them to talk more openly.

Ava shut her eyes. This was going to be bad. Really bad. She began to pace nervously wondering what was going on in this meeting. She wouldn't be able to find out what happened from Jax over the phone. Those conversations were recorded. She wouldn't find out for almost three days when she had her weekly visit with him at the prison.

TB had met a few clients in prison when he'd done a little criminal law early in his career before going into the much better paying class action suit business. The procedures hadn't changed much in the more than twenty years since he'd last visited a client in prison.

He waited in the small private room for Jax. He didn't have any preconceived ideas about Jax Teller. Ava told him that he was in prison for some kind of sale of a gun that was a set up. She was pretty vague about the reason. That was typical Ava. She wasn't interested in anything except herself.

While Jax was being unchained, TB studied his future son in law. He wasn't Ava's type. She liked her guys average height, thin and a little on the effeminate side. Jax Teller was none of these things. Tall, blonde, muscular and definitely not effeminate. He was good looking and had a toughness about him. He'd been right when he thought that Ava was trying to play him by marrying an inmate. This guy wasn't her type.

He waited until the guard finished unchaining Jax and left them alone before extending his hand.

"I'm Tom Becker, Ava's father. Call me TB."

Jax shook his hand.

"I'm Jax Teller, Ava's future husband."

"Good to meet you," TB said.

They sat down on opposite sides of the table.

"It's nice meeting you," Jax said.

He looked at TB and could see the resemblance to Ava. He had the same russet hair color and blue-green eyes. He was wearing a navy suit with a white shirt with narrow blue stripes and a blue tie—typical lawyer attire. He also carried a small black briefcase.

"So, my daughter really wants to marry you," he said.

"I'm surprised too," Jax said. "I have a twenty year sentence. I can't see making a woman like Ava—any woman—wait twenty years for her husband to get out of prison. She insists that she knows I'm innocent and am going to get out."

TB nodded his head. The guy was good. He was saying all the right things and he appeared sincere. He wondered how much Ava was paying him to marry her. It was definitely more than commissary money.

"So are you innocent?"

"I am. I got into a car with an undercover ATF agent. The next thing I know she said I tried to sell her an illegal firearm. I didn't even have a gun on me."

TB thought that over.

"That would make you innocent and the agent guilty of entrapment and some other crimes. I haven't practiced criminal law in a couple of decades. I will have one of my attorneys look over your case. If he thinks you're innocent, we'll get you out of prison."

"Just like that?" Jax asked skeptically. It sounded too good to be true. There had to be some kind of catch.

"It isn't instantaneous. With my connections, I could get it done in a couple of months."

"A couple of months?" Jax stared at TB. This was either the best news he'd gotten since his conviction or this guy was playing a very twisted game with him.

"A lot of people owe me favors. I can get through the normal court delays pretty fast. I've also got a pretty high media profile that I can use to help."

Jax never expected the meeting with Ava's father to go like this. He expected him to offer him money to not marry Ava or, at the very least, try to talk him out of marrying her.

"Are you OK with your daughter marrying me?"

"If you are the man she wants to marry, I'm not going to stand in her way."

That was the moment when Jax knew that Ava's father realized that she was only marrying him to fulfill the terms of his will. Ava's father was no one's fool. He was very smart.

"Are you serious about helping me?"

"If you're innocent, I will get you out. I hated criminal law. People with money walk and people without get locked up. Justice may be blind, but she can smell money."

TB was a fair man. He didn't blame Jax if he were marrying Ava for money in order to use it to pay for an appeal and his legal expenses. Only in criminal law can you be found not guilty and still lose when your legal fees cost you your house and every penny you've spent your entire life saving.

"I wasn't just set up. I think my attorney didn't do her job. I wanted her to investigate the two ATF agents that set me up. She didn't do that. She didn't even ask them any questions at the trial."

"I would suggest using your attorney's lack of competence as a last resort. Give me a couple of weeks to have your case reviewed. We'll come up with a strategy that will work."

"I want to hire an investigator to dig into the two ATF agents."

"If you were set up, my team of investigators will tear into the ATF agents. I only hire the best and these investigators are excellent. I will also get the best criminal and appellate attorneys in the country on your case."

No one had ever helped Jax much in his life. TB was promising to give him a huge amount of support and he claimed to have the connections to help him and quickly. Could this be real? Could he trust him to come through for him?

"Are you Santa Claus?"

TB laughed.

"I know it sounds too good to be true, but if you're innocent I want to get you out for my daughter's sake and for yours. You shouldn't have to pay for a crime you didn't commit because you had a terrible attorney and were set up by the ATF. I'm guessing that the ATF was offering to drop the charges if you would rollover on someone."

Jax nodded.

"That was their real goal. They didn't count on my refusal to help them. I'm still getting visits from them offering legal help if I give them some information."

"You belong to some motorcycle club."

"Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Originals. My father was a founding member."

"Outlaw?"

"Yeah. Is that a problem for you?"

"No. People think that the law is about right and wrong and fairness. It's not. It's about rules. I use the rules and bend them as much as I can to get the results I want. I see the appeal of living a life free from rules. I'm not going to ask if you've ever done anything outside the law that you might or should have gone to jail for. All I care about is whether or not you are innocent of the charges you got convicted on."

"And you're going to give me all this help because I'm going to marry your daughter?"

"I'm going to give you this help if you're innocent after you marry my daughter."

This was not at all what Jax was expecting. He expected TB to offer him money to not marry Ava or to offer him all this help if he didn't marry his daughter. He never imagined that he was offering his legal help after he married Ava. For some reason, TB wanted him to marry his daughter. It was a very strange set of circumstances but he wasn't complaining. TB's help just might get him out of prison.

TB opened his briefcase and pulled out a paper. He put it down in front of Jax.

"This makes me one of your attorneys. I want to get all your files from your attorney. I'll send someone to her office unannounced to pick up all the files. I've found that sometimes pieces of paper get misplaced if you depend on the attorney for the copy."

Jax quickly read the document before signing it.

"One last thing," TB said. "Don't tell Ava about how I'm going to give you all this legal help to get you out of prison. I wouldn't want to get her hopes up and then have it fall through. I want her to be surprised when I get you out of prison."

"Deal."

TB thought Jax would make Ava an excellent husband at least for three years or so. He had the toughness to straighten her out. All he had to do was get him out of prison.

"

Caution: Plot twist in the next chapter.