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Chapter 100 It Ain't Easy Being King

Jax always imagined the day he became president of SAMCRO would be the happiest day of his life. This was about as far away as possible from that. That was part of the MC way of life; the future was unpredictable.

He spoke briefly to Opie. He and Opie used to talk about when they were in charge of the MC with Jax as president and Opie as VP. Jax knew Opie wasn't ready to be VP. He might not ever be ready for a leadership role in the MC and he couldn't risk making Opie VP when he didn't think he was ready.

He told Opie he wanted the SA patch to go to him. Opie had the toughness required. He told him that he needed Bobby for VP because he needed his wisdom and maturity to give him balance. Opie hugged Jax and told him he understood.

Jax knew that Opie might not ever develop the leadership skills necessary to be VP or President. Over time, he would start working with Opie to give him the chance to develop his leadership skills, but for now, he needed someone who could handle the VP job immediately.

Jax walked into the chapel for a few minutes alone before the rest of the guys showed up. He carefully arranged Clay's cut face up with the president's patch showing. His fingers brushed across the word president and he thought of his father who wore that patch so proudly and how much he'd loved him. And then there was Clay. He had periods when he was fond of Clay and periods when he'd hated him. No matter the depth of his hatred, he'd never wanted him dead until now.

Jax took his place at the head of the table and took the gavel in his hand. When he'd been little, he would sneak into the chapel, sit at the table, hold the gavel and play like he was president. He had no idea what it meant to be president. Gemma would watch him from the doorway and tell him that one day he would be president for real because it was his destiny. She'd had his life planned out since birth. Well, today he was fulfilling his destiny at the expense of her husband.

The only thing he hadn't felt as a child playing president was the weight of responsibility that rested on his shoulders. These men were depending on him to steer them and the club out of this mess.

The guys filed into the chapel. Tig automatically went to his right hand seat.

"That's not your seat, Tig. It's Opie's now," Jax said quietly.

There was a flash of anger in Tig's blue eyes, his lips tightened but he took another seat without saying a word.

Before Bobby could take his usual seat, Jax stopped him.

"I need you to be my VP."

Bobby met Jax's eyes and he nodded.

"You got it brother."

"Bobby will bring balance to my leadership," Jax explained to the club.

"You're just saying that because I'm old," Bobby said and everyone except Tig laughed.

Once the guys were seated, Sack hesitated at the double doors. Sometimes he was allowed to attend meetings, but each time he had to be invited.

"Get your ass in here," Jax growled, "and shut the damned door."

The guys laughed. Mistreating the prospect never got old even under the grimmest of circumstances. Sack shut the doors behind him and took a seat next to Piney.

Jax took the gavel and banged it bringing the meeting to order. It was his first official act as president. There was a moment of silence as the guys waited for their new leader to speak.

Jax looked at the guys. They had all figured out by now that something was up with Clay since his cut was covering the carved reaper in the middle of their table. There was no doubt that the guys would support him, but it wouldn't be easy for them to find out the truth about Clay.

"Hale called me a few minutes ago. Clay was arrested for the murder of Allie Lowen."

The guys sat quietly. They knew there was more information to come by the grim look on Jax's face.

"When I was arrested and tried on the gun charge, Clay went to Lowen and paid her to screw up my case. Clay was working on a deal with the Galindo cartel that would involve us selling more advanced weapons to them and muling coke from Tucson. He tried to get me on board, but I didn't want any part of it. If I was out of the way, he thought he could get the deal done. And then the Galindo cartel got busted by the DEA. It was too late for me. I was already convicted.

"Before I married Ava, her father promised me that if I was innocent of the gun charge, he would get me out of prison. Lowen knew that when TB started digging into my case, she would be exposed. She'd lose her law license and maybe get locked up. She got Clay to arrange a hit on me in prison. She tried again when I was in the hospital and just a few days ago. When TB hired security, it made it close to impossible to kill me, but she still insisted Clay kill me or she'd rat him out to me and the club.

"If she'd done that, he knew he would get kicked out of the club and probably killed. The night before she was going to expose him, he went to her home and killed her. She told him she had contingencies if he killed her. He didn't believe her. Thought he was smarter and she was bluffing. She actually had contingencies. Over a series of meetings, she'd gotten Clay to confess everything he'd done and recorded it all including him killing her.

"The last recording ends with Clay choking her to death and then trying to clean up the scene to get rid of his prints. She set it up in case he killed her to go out to me and I'm assuming Charming PD. I don't understand the tech and how she actually managedit," Jax said.

Juice spoke up and explained how Lowen must have arranged for the video of her death and the rest of the video clips to go out in an email. None of the guys really understood what Juice was saying, but Jax let him talk. It helped build Juice's confidence and showed his value to the club.

"Thanks for explaining that," Jax said. "Not sure we understood, but we're glad that you understand it."

There was a stunned silence as the men thought of everything Jax had told him. It was a lot to take in.

"How do we know this is true?" Tig demanded. He wasn't happy about this development. Clay doing things behind the club's back wasn't anything new. It was not telling him that he found hard to take.

"I'm going to show you the proof," Jax said. "Juice turn your laptop on and I'll send you Lowen's email. Everyone can see for themselves."

Jax sent the email to Juice's laptop. The men crowded around the laptop as Juice opened and played the files that Lowen had sent to Jax. Jax remained sitting at the head of the table. He'd seen the video clips several times; he didn't need to see them again.

Once Juice showed the last of the clips, the guys returned to their seats. There was silence as they thought of the enormity of what Clay had done.

"She also sent me some video of her and Clay having sex. God, I wish I could unsee that," Jax said shaking his head in disgust. The guys laughed.

"I wouldn't mind seeing that," Happy said his dark eyes gleaming.

"I'll send it to your phone," Jax said. He opened his phone and sent the video clips to Happy.

"I wouldn't mind seeing that too," Tig said.

"Anyone else?" Jax asked. "Sack?"

"No!" Sack said with such vehemence that the guys laughed.

"OK, just the usual freaks," Jax said. He sent the clips to Tig.

Both Happy and Tig were comfortable with their sexual perversions. The guys gave them shit for it, but neither minded.

"Clay and I have had our ups and downs over the years," Jax said bringing the mood down, "but I never thought he would pay Lowen to tank my case and then try to have me killed. It shows how greed corrupts."

"I move that Clay Morrow be stripped of his patch," Bobby said.

"Second," the men chorused without hesitation except Sack. Prospects can't vote until they are full patches.

"We have seen the reasons to strip his patch. Is there anyone who wants to speak for him?" Jax asked looking at Tig. Tig shook his head.

Jax went around the table so that each man could cast his vote. There were no surprise "no" votes. The vote to strip Clay of his patch was done.

"Give me a minute," Bobby said. "Sack with me," Bobby said leaving the chapel. He returned a few minutes later carrying a bottle of the club's finiest Irish whiskey—a gift from the SAMBEL charter. Sack was carefully balancing a tray filled with shot glasses.

"We need to toast to the new president," Bobby said.

Bobby filled the shot glasses, everyone touched glasses and they all downed whiskey to honor Jax as the club's new president.

"One more for luck," Bobby said pouring another round of shots.

Everyone drank to that before resuming their seats.

"Thanks, Bobby, guys," Jax said.

"For Clay's actions, there is really no other way around it; he has to die for what he did," Jax said. "Do we need to go through the reasons he needs to die?" Everyone shook their heads. "Anyone want to speak on his behalf? Tig?"

"I do have something I want to say," Tig said. "After we voted out guns, Clay came to me, asked me to come up with a plan to maim Jax so he wouldn't be able to ride and lose his vote. He hoped to convince Kozik and Juice to back selling guns again and with Jax not having a vote, he would get SAMCRO back into selling guns. I refused of course," Tig said virtuously. "I had no idea that he had anything to do with rigging your trial or trying to get you killed. He lost his way and I didn't see it until he wanted me to hurt you."

Jax and Tig had a kind of sibling rivalry going on. He resented the fact that one day Jax would lead the MC. Jax was smarter, but Tig was more ruthless. Clay played them off each other. Now, Clay was gone and Tig needed to make sure he stayed on the right side of Jax.

By now, nothing could shock the men of SAMCRO when it came to Clay and his underhanded dealings. Jax just shook his head in disgust. He was grateful that Lowen had the good sense to give him the proof he needed to deal with Clay.

"Thanks for that, Tig," Jax said. "Anyone want to speak up for Clay?"

The mayhem vote was quickly taken and it was passed. This was what made Jax so angry with himself. If he had opened that damned email from Lowen yesterday, he would have had this meeting yesterday with Clay present. Clay would be dead right now and Hale would never have had the chance to arrest him. Now he had to clean up the mess he'd made by not opening that damned email sooner.

He wondered when Hale opened the email. Was it sent to Hale or to the police department? Stupid. It didn't matter. The only way it could have been worse would be if Hale had stormed the clubhouse to arrest Clay. God only knows what would have happened then. If he had opened the email one hour sooner, it could have made a hell of a difference. Once more, Jax pushed aside the "what ifs". It didn't matter. These were the circumstances he had to deal with and the guys would never know that he hadn't opened the email right away.

"We have some work to do to dig our way out of this," Jax said. "Clay and Hale don't know that Lowen sent us the videos. I told Hale at the end of our call to tell Clay we would put money in his commissary account at county. I want him to think that all is good with us."

"Why?" Kozik asked.

"Clay's going to rat the club," Bobby said. "It's his only play."

"Exactly," Jax said. "It will take him a little time to figure that out, but he'll figure it out. The ATF is looking to settle the score over my getting out of prison and Clay could give it to them. They knock his killing of Lowen down to manslaughter, he does a few years and he rats the club. We all go down and he does his time in a nice Federal prison—the kind they send the white collar criminals to."

"Clay wouldn't rat," Tig protested.

"I fucking hate rats," Happy said scowling fiercely. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Happy would kill Clay. Happy's loyalties would always be with the club.

"We've got to kill Clay as soon as we can without it blowing back on the club. Any ideas?" Jax asked throwing the question out to the guys.

If there was any doubt about Jax losing his outlaw edge, there was none now as he planned the murder of his stepfather.

Author's Note: To the guest reviewer. I know you had questions because I wanted readers to wonder what exactly was going on with Jax and the video until I revealed it in this chapter. If there's still any confusion or questions, either PM me or write a review and I'll clear things up for you. Thanks!