9

Chapter 122 Regime Change

"

Gemma thought being Mrs. TB Becker would give her a greater sense of power. She had married the richest man in town—he was even wealthier than Elliot Oswald, but it wasn't enough. She missed the power she had when she was the old lady of SAMCRO's president.

Fate presented her with an opportunity when Mayor Anderson's house blew up. Molly Anderson and her boyfriend Ernest Darby Jr. son of Ernie Darby decided to make a triple batch of meth for some quick cash. Ernest had seen his father do it dozens of times. Unfortunately, chemistry was not one of Ernest's best subjects and he blew up the house, himself, Molly and the mayor killing them all. Charming was in need of a new mayor.

This presented a real opportunity for Gemma. She could use TB's money to get elected and she would have the power and recognition she craved. It wasn't the same as having Jax back in her life, but maybe when she became mayor, he would see how useful she could be to the MC and rescind her ban.

While Gemma used TB's money to hire a campaign staff and running for mayor, Ava was adjusting to living with Jax in their own home. They did go through and list the household tasks assigning each one tasks. The tasks they didn't mind doing they would do but the ones neither wanted to do would be rotated weekly. Ava agreed to do more of the cooking since she wasn't working as many hours as Jax and she was developing a love for it.

Jax mounted an 18" flat screen TV in the kitchen so Ava could watch cooking shows, cooking YouTube videos and Hallmark movies while she worked in the kitchen. He had surprised her with the home improvement. It was a little thing, but it had made her so happy.

He was discovering that doing little thoughtful things for Ava caused her to do little thoughtful things for him. He liked being nice to Ava. It made him feel good and she always appreciated it. Marriage was turning out to be enjoyable.

Since Ava had discovered her love of cooking, she was now doing more of it than they had agreed. Jax was happy to let her do it. Some of her efforts were terrible, some OK and some were successful. She was learning and as he told her when one of her efforts failed, she would improve next time. At least she hadn't set the new toaster on fire.

Jax and Ava spent their mornings working on their legal assignments and their afternoons reviewing inmate requests for help. Ava spent only an hour or two a day doing this and then she went off to cook.

The house had the most amazing scent of onions. Jax loved spaghetti and meat balls and Ava was trying a recipe she'd gotten from a website that was from a fire fighter only he called the sauce gravy.

He wandered into the kitchen just as Ava cut herself while she was chopping garlic. There were already four band-aids on her fingers from cutting the onions.

"Here, let me do that," he said as she reached for a band-aid.

"The knives are really sharp," Ava explained as he gently bandaged her cut.

"Your poor fingers. How about next time I help you with the chopping? When I had Home Ec in school, I was pretty good with a knife."

"That would be great."

He kissed each of her bandaged fingers.

"I'm all better now," Ava said with a smile. "I really love cooking especially since you put the small TV in here."

"Anything for you, my queen," Jax said grinning.

"Would you mind opening the cans for me? Your hands are so much bigger and stronger than mine."

"I didn't think you liked my muscles."

"I've discovered they can be useful and I'm injured," she said holding up her bandaged fingers.

"I'd suggest you strengthen your little doll hands with some can opening exercise, but you are injured."

Jax grabbed the can opener and went to work on the array of cans on the counter while she began sautéing garlic with the onions.

"Looks like you're feeding an army," Jax said as he opened a sixth can of tomatoes.

"I'm going to freeze the sauce and meatballs for a couple of meals and use some of the extra sauce to make chicken parm."

"My little chef," Jax said giving Ava a quick kiss.

Ava's gravy turned out to be her most successful effort. The sauce was perfectly balanced with spicy and sweet notes, the meatballs flavorful and juicy and the spaghetti perfectly cooked. Her face flushed with pleasure as he complimented her work.

"Best I've ever eaten," Jax declared.

"Really?" Ava asked skeptically.

"Yeah, Gemma always used the bottled sauce. You definitely need to keep that recipe and make it again."

"If we got a freezer, I could freeze more stuff so I could do big cooks and not have to cook as often. I love cooking but sometimes I might be busy and not want to cook and doing big cooks is more efficient."

"OK. We'll get a freezer if that's what you want."

A few days later, Ava had gone to borrow a casserole dish from her father's kitchen when she bumped into Gemma just as she was leaving a note for Miriam telling her that she'd borrowed the red casserole dish and lid.

"Aren't you domestic?" Gemma said in that bright fake nice voice that set Ava's teeth on edge.

Ava ignored Gemma and finished her note.

"You know he'll never stay with you. You aren't Jax's type. He's probably already cheating on you."

Ava was growing more and more attached to Jax. She was the happiest she'd ever been in her whole life. Now Gemma's words hurt, but she was damned if she would let Gemma know that.

"You really are the expert on cheating," Ava said coolly. "You cheated on Jax's father and you're probably cheating on mine."

Gemma flinched ever so slightly at Ava's words.

"Jax will never be faithful to you. He's not the type and you're just not woman enough for him."

Ava's face flushed with anger

"Well, it's too bad for you that he'll never forgive you and let you into his life. How does it feel to give birth to a son, raise him and now have him completely disown you because you're a horrible person? Must sting a little."

"You bitch," Gemma said getting into Ava's face.

Miriam walked into the kitchen at that moment preventing Gemma from putting a beat down on Ava.

"I was just leaving you a note about borrowing the casserole dish," Ava said to the chef, turning her back on Gemma.

"What are you making?" Miriam asked.

"Chicken parm. I saw it on a streaming channel of cooking shows. The parm is going to be breaded with Panko and parmesan cheese and sautéed. Then a little sauce and cheese and a quick bake."

"Sounds good. You serving it with spaghetti?"

"I'm going to do mashed potatoes because Jax likes the tomato gravy with potatoes."

"I'll have to give that a try," Miriam said.

Gemma had gone by the time Ava left the kitchen, but Ava kept a wary eye out for her in case she was waiting somewhere to jump her.

Ava told Jax about her encounter with Gemma. Jax reassured Ava that Gemma was just trying to get under her skin and cause problems between them. He told her that he would never cheat on her and Gemma was the cheater in the family. Jax had never attempted to be faithful to a girl before Ava. So far, it wasn't that hard. He liked being with Ava and their growing closeness just made sex better.

He was more disturbed when Ava shared that she thought Gemma was going to physically hurt her if Miriam hadn't come into the kitchen. Ava wasn't the kind of girl that got into cat fights. She probably had no clue how to defend herself and Gemma was an experienced fighter. She kept order among the crow-eaters with slaps and shoves, but then again a crow-eater couldn't fight back or she'd be banned permanently from the clubhouse. He didn't like the idea of Ava in a fight with Gemma. At the least, she'd come back with handfuls of hair missing.

He also recognized that Gemma would take every opportunity to undermine his marriage to Ava. They were happy. His life was good. He enjoyed studying law and reviewing cases. The MC was pleased with the money coming in from the rental property and they were making plans to buy a four-plex next. They weren't earning gun money, but it was a steady income stream and in the long run they would out earn more especially when they added another property.

They were planning a run in two weeks. He would be strong enough for a two day run up to Nevada with a swing through Arizona visiting some charters. Ava hadn't been thrilled at the idea, but he convinced her that it would be OK. He wasn't about to blow up his life by cheating on her. He'd promised her and her father and a little pleasure wouldn't be worth it in the long run. He was growing up and part of that was thinking through things before he acted.

The mayor's contest ended up being between Jacob Hale and Gemma Becker. Hale was running on a pro-growth, pro-development platform. He claimed that housing would bring jobs to the town. Gemma's campaign staff came up with a counter slogan of "short-term jobs/long-term problems". Thanks to her campaign managers, Gemma pointed out that growth would increase crime, demand on police services, traffic and destroy the town's small town feel. She also mentioned that Jacob Hale had a financial interest in seeing the city grow.

The thought of growth and selling the town out to a developer like Hale frightened enough of the voters that Gemma swept to victory. TB's money also helped sway the citizens because Gemma had his money to back up her promises of an expanded Charming gardens, a daycare center and a new park. TB was willing to fund his new wife's plans especially if they were done in such a way that he could write them off as charitable contributions. He liked the town and he wanted to make it better. He learned that having money was nice, but it was even better to do good works with it.

Gemma was sure that her position of mayor and her ability to help the MC and her weekly family dinners with Jax would soften her son's heart. He would come to accept the truth he needed that Clay had tricked her into setting up JT and then threatened to say she was part of the plot if she said anything. It didn't matter that it wasn't the actual truth. It was the truth he would need to believe for him to let her back into his life.

Gemma had only been in her mayor's office a few hours when new police chief David Hale walked into her office.

"Congratulations," he said greeting her.

"How did your brother take the news?" Gemma asked. To David's credit, he had carefully avoided taking sides in the election.

"Disappointed he isn't going to be able to turn Charming into a suburb of Oakland. Frankly, I like small town Charming."

Gemma wasn't worried that David would help his brother. There was a little sibling rivalry between them. She believed him when he said he liked small town Charming.

"It's nice to have the support of the chief of police."

"I didn't just come by to congratulate you. There's a new business in town and I think it's going to be a problem. A cigar shop just opened on Main Street."

"Why is that a problem?"

"It's owned by Ethan Zobelle. He has ties to a white nationalist group, but that's really a front for his drug dealing. He has them convinced by flooding the streets with heroin and meth, it will take out the non-white folks. It's really just a money grab."

"Arrest him."

"It isn't that easy. He's a smart guy. No record. Clean upstanding citizen. If he takes root in Charming, it will destroy the city."

Gemma thought of a way that might help everyone. She and Jax could work together to get rid of Zobelle.

"Talk to Jax. This is the kind of stuff the MC can help with."

"I'll do that."

David wanted to follow the law, but Zobelle was a huge threat to the city. This was the kind of thing the MC might be willing and able to help with. Still, he worried.

It might be harder to drive out Zobelle than having a simple conversation with Jax.

"

The Zobelle story arc will have a very dark twist. You have been

warned!