9

Chapter 102 Shirtless

Jax reached into his pocket and pulled out his TM key ring.

"Sack," Jax said holding his key out to him, "unlock the office and get Gemma's sewing kit out of one of the desk drawers and bring it back."

Sack jumped to his feet, grabbed the key ring and practically sprinted out of the room. Prospects were expected to move at top speed when carrying out a member's order.

"We're going to need to use someone in county to kill Clay," Jax said. "Juice pull up the names of the guys in county and see who we might be able to use."

Sack returned handing the key ring and sewing kit to Jax.

"Give me Clay's cut," Jax said to Sack. Sack handed him the cut. "Close the doors behind you before you take a seat and this better be the last time I have to tell you to close the doors behind you," Jax said sternly.

Sack nodded. "Sorry." When Jax was stern, he scared the hell out of him. Now that he was president, he was even more frightening.

Jax began using the ripper in Gemma's sewing kit to carefully remove the president's patch from Clay's cut. When he finished, he tossed Clay's jacket back in the middle of the table. He took off his cut and began to remove the "V President" patch from his own cut.

The day he sewed on that patch was the second happiest day of his life—the happiest day was when he became a full patch member of the MC. Gemma had been so proud of him. He was on the path she'd planned for him since birth. Now that he was fulfilling his destiny by becoming president of SAMCRO, he wondered how she'd feel at the price she was going to pay for it to happen.

Jax finished removing his patch from his cut and handed the VP patch to Bobby.

"Pass the ripper down to Tig," Jax told Opie. Tig looked at Jax and his eyes looked distinctly watery. He'd loved being Clay's right hand and as long as Jax was president, he would never regain that seat. Tig took the ripper and began removing his SA patch. He knew that he'd lose it once Jax became president, but he had no idea it would happen this soon.

Jax threaded a needle using the needle threader in the kit and began to slowly and carefully sew the president's patch to his cut. When he was a kid before he could even read, he knew there was something special about the word sewn on his father's cut. Now, he was sewing that word on his own cut. Maybe one day his son would look at him the same way he'd looked at his father. He just hoped when his son became president it wasn't over his dead body.

"There are a couple of Mayans inside, a couple of Aryan Uniteds, three Grim Bastards, two Niners and assortment of other gang members we don't have any kind of relationship with," Juice said looking up from his laptop.

"The Niners owe us 30k for a weapons delivery," Chibs said. "Laroy got a bad batch of heroin mixed with too much fentanyl. Some users died. He can't sell it until he gets more H to cut it with. We forgive his debt and he kills Clay."

"I like it. Good thinking," Jax said.

"If Laroy needs more convincing, we could give them the location of our warehouse. Let them clean it out," Bobby suggested.

"How much we have in the warehouse?" Jax asked.

"Not much. A few Sigs and KG9s. A case or two of mixed ammo. The Irish haven't kept us stocked up," Bobby replied. "It's probably worth maybe 5 grand with a street value of almost 15k."

"If we have to throw in some cash, I'm thinking no more than 10k," Jax suggested.

Jax quickly took a vote and it was approved that he would negotiate a hit on Clay with Laroy.

"Juice set up a meeting today, make sure he knows there's a big financial incentive waiting for him to meet with us today."

While Juice made contact with Laroy, Jax sent a text to Ava telling her there was an emergency with the MC and he wouldn't be back until early evening or later. He promised to let her know when he had a better time estimate and he would explain everything.

To his surprise, she sent him a text asking if he had eaten lunch. He hadn't even thought about food, but now that she'd mentioned food, he was hungry. She asked if he wanted her to order lunch for him and the guys and get it delivered. Jax found himself smiling. He'd halfway expected Ava to be angry that they weren't spending the day together instead she was worried about him not eating lunch. They texted back and forth for a couple of minutes.

"Ava is ordering food and having it delivered," Jax said.

"I think Ava's going to be a great old lady," Kozik said.

"Ironically, Lowen introduced us," Jax said.

"Good luck with Gemma and Ava, bro," Bobby said.

All the guys laughed at the idea of Gemma and Ava fighting over who was going to be head old lady except Sack who wasn't sure if he should laugh or not. He decided silence was the safest option.

"Gemma will have to learn her new place," Jax said with a shrug after the laughter died down. "I'm only telling Gemma what Hale told me—that Clay was arrested for killing Lowen and that's all I know. I don't trust her not to accidentally tip off Clay. We have a small window to get Clay before he rats."

"I still don't think Clay would rat," Tig said sullenly.

"He'll do anything to save his ass," Jax said.

"OK, I've got a meet with Laroy at that park on the edge of O town in two hours," Juice said.

"Good work," Jax said.

The food was delivered. The delivery guy left happy because the MC always tipped big. Ava ordered a fried chicken feast with both plain and spicy chicken, potato salad, Coleslaw, baked beans, macaroni and cheese and yeast rolls with a savory butter. There were plenty of beverages and paper plates left over from Friday's party. The MC ate around their table while Dark Tower ate at the picnic tables.

The mood inside lifted as the men ate and talked. Clay had clearly stepped over the line as far as the MC was concerned and he left them with no choice but to strip his patch and kill him.

Just as they finished eating, another employee from Dark Tower walked into the clubhouse.

"I have something Ava wanted me to give to Jax."

Jax took the envelope and left. On the front of the envelope Ava had written his name. Inside was some cotton and three tablets. Her note said that she was sure he was hurting by now. She sent him the pain killers but not the muscle relaxers since the combination made him too sleepy. There was so much adrenaline surging through his body, he hadn't felt pain, but now that things were calming down, his body ached like hell. He was grateful for Ava sending them. He downed a pill and a half with some beer.

After they finished eating, it was time to talk about the next step. Bobby and Opie sewed on their new patches. Tig continued to sulk. He couldn't believe that Clay had plotted against Jax without telling him. He finally found the bright side—the club wasn't stripping his patch and killing him. It was good that Clay hadn't brought him into his plot against Jax after all.

"We need to decide what information we're going to give to the other clubs," Jax said. "Until Clay's dead, we stick to the story that Clay was arrested for Lowen's murder. Later, we'll tell them Clay lost his patch for paying my attorney to throw my case and then arranging attempts on my life. They'll figure out that we had Clay killed, but we never admit it."

"That rat bastard," Happy said. He would happily beat Clay to death with his bare hands if he were in the room.

Everyone chuckled at Happy's passion. Killing was about the only time Happy ever expressed much emotion.

"After Laroy takes care of Clay in the next few days, we need to decide what we are going to do about TM. I want to remove the Morrow name from everything. TM will stand for Teller Motorworks-Auto and Bike Repair. New signs and everything. I want to move the business as far away from Clay as possible," Jax said.

"Won't Gemma have a say in that?" Tig asked.

"No. On Clay's death, his half of TM comes to me. Gemma gets the proceeds of several life insurance policies that will keep her whole. While I am meeting with Laroy, I want the rest of you to put together a list of everything that needs changed. I want to erase Clay."

"Smart move," Bobby said and everyone nodded their agreement.

"Now we have to figure out how to get me to the meeting," Jax said. "I don't want Dark Tower following, but I don't want to lose them."

"We could hide you in something and carry you out," Juice suggested.

"Take off your cut, prospect," Jax ordered.

Sack's lower lip trembled. He didn't know what he did wrong to get kicked out of the MC. Surely being told to close the doors a couple of times wasn't a big enough mistake to kick him out? They had just included him in the discussion about Clay. He must have done something wrong. He hadn't said anything. Maybe he should have said something, but they always tell him to shut up. Maybe he should have laughed when everyone was laughing about Gemma and Ava. He took off his cut slowly.

"Now take off your shirt."

Sack knew this was a really bad sign. They were going to beat him maybe with their belts. His fingers trembled as he pulled his long-sleeved army green shirt off.

"Bring them to me," Jax said.

Sack brought them over to Jax. Jax took off his cut and shirt and put on Sack's shirt and cut. The guys laughed at the look of relief on Sack's face. Jax reached into the pocket of his cut and pulled the dark blue beanie over his hair.

"With my sunglasses and I keep my face angled away from Dark Tower, I'll be fine. Opie and Chibs with me. Bobby can supervise the rest of you."

"Guns?" Opie asked.

"Friendly visit but you never know," Jax said.

Opie went into the clubhouse's armory, a small closet in the hall, unlocked the door and took three Glocks. He checked they were loaded before locking the closet, returning to the chapel and handing out guns to Jax and Chibs.

Jax opened the safe and took out ten thousand dollars and stuffed the money into Sack's cut. He put on his sunglasses and carefully folded his cut. He wasn't about to meet Laroy in a prospect's cut.

"The rest of us will go out and talk to the Dark Tower guys while you leave," Bobby said.

"Good idea, VP," Jax said slapping Bobby on the arm.

While the guys distracted Dark Tower, Jax, Opie and Chibs got in the van and left.

Sack remained in the chapel shirtless and shivering a little in the cold. It was the best day with the MC ever!

Author's Note: Early in this story, a reader wrote that Ava was going to make a great old lady. Sorry I don't remember the name, but I remember thinking the reviewer was a little crazy because Ava would be a terrible old lady. Not sure what happened or when the story took a turn, but the reviewer was right—Ava is going to make a great old lady unless Gemma kills her.