"MIA! PHONE!" One of the guys hollered as he exited Gemma's office into the garage.

I slid out from under the car I was working n and stared up at where Gemma was now standing as she grumbled, "I could have done that." She didn't notice me until she heard me laugh at her comment. "Oh! Sweetheart, I didn't see you there."

"It's fine. Do you know who's calling?"

"He said his name was Leonardo. Something about being free to answer your questions. Does that ring a bell?" She asked looking beyond suspicious.

I quickly stood up and started cleaning the grease off my hands saying, "A huge one. He's the guy I told you and Jax about in Oakland. He said that when he got back from vacation he would sit down to answer questions about setting up a proper paint studio here. If we can start doing our own painting for the restorations, our profit margin will look a lot healthier."

"I definitely like the sound of that."

"Plus, we could also get into doing custom paint jobs. From what I hear, sky's the limit for what you can charge for those."

Her eyes narrowed as she asked, "Are you thinking about turning us into one of those 'Pimp my ride' shops?"

I laughed loudly at the disgusted look on her face then answered, "Sort of. Trust me; it isn't just Mexican gangbangers who do it. Preppy white boys do too and they know a hell of a lot less about cars, so if it looks pretty they pay more."

"Huh… Well… that's all sounding interesting. But we'll have to sit down and go over some details."

"And we will," I replied with a bright smile. "But first I need to meet with Leo to pick his brain and figure out if all of this is even feasible for us."

"Right. Of course. Feel free to use my office because I'm heading to the clubhouse to check on a couple of things."

"Okay. Thanks Momma Bear."

My conversation with Leo was fairly short. He had everything put together already for me to read over for the expansion of services offered at TM Automotive. Part of the reason I had called him over some of min and Uncle Terry's other contacts was that Uncle Terry had mentioned that Leo was looking at the possibility of retiring soon. The information pack I would be reading was the one he had put together for potential buyers for his business.

Now if he couldn't find a buyer, I was hoping TM could swoop in and possibly buy some of his equipment. And possibly offer his clients a replacement shop to bring their business to as well.

"You look happy," Wade commented as I stepped back into the garage.

I shared a smile with him then said, "More relieved than anything else. Have you seen Jax or Gemma?"

"Jax is in the clubhouse. Chibs is stitching up a dog that the club rescued from some dogfights. Gemma… was around somewhere. Sorry, not sure where."

"Dogfights. What…?" I shook my head and stopped myself there. Forget about that. Not my problem. So… That was Leo on the phone."

"Really? Wait! Does the smile mean he'll help?"

"Sure does. In fact, he's free this afternoon so I was hoping to head down there and meet with him in a couple of hours."

"That's awesome. Oh! And… Joey finished those mods on your bike. It could use a proper test run on the highway. You know what they say, two birds…"

"One stone," I finished when he trailed off. "And, it isn't MY bike, Wade."

"I know, I know. But it is your pet project."

"Alright, touché. If I head down there today, will…?"

Wade wrapped his arm around my shoulders to give me a side hug. "We'll be fine. You taking the bike out means everyone else can stay here and work. We'll manage."

"Okay, good to hear."

I then hurried towards the clubhouse to fine Jax or Gemma. At first, the only people I saw were Bobby, Chibs and Tig. In front of them was a scared looking white pit bull who didn't even flinch as Chibs stitched a wound on her right hindquarters.

"I heard a rumor you guys are dabbling in dog rescues now," I joked as I moved closer to inspect Chibs' handiwork.

Bobby didn't look overly impressed, but thankfully, he didn't sound as severe as he looked when he replied, "I don't think we'll be doing anymore past this one. Right, Tig?"

Tiggy flashed a bright baby blues with a wicked grin at us and said, "Oh come on, Bobby. You'd have to be heartless to turn your back on this girl."

I offered the dog my hand to sniff. When she didn't react negatively, I gently patted her head and scratched her behind an ear.

"She's beautiful. Do you know what you'll call her?"

Tig shook his head. "Never planned on owning a dog again, so I have no name in mind. Do you have a suggestion, Beautiful?"

"Athena." They all looked at me as if I had grown a second head, which made me laugh loudly and prompted me to explain my choice. "She's the goddess of heroic endeavors." I walked over to Tig's side and kissed his cheek. "If saving a helpless, abused dog simply because it's the right thing to do isn't heroic, then I don't know what is."

Tig looked absolutely stunned at my comment. I gave him another quick hug and peck on the lips before I added, "But that's just my humble opinion." Before he could reply, I saw Jax off in the distance, so I hurriedly said, "Sorry, I've got to run. See you guys later!"

I easily caught up with Jax, but I couldn't help calling out to him to slow him down. Once I got closer to him, I could see that he was laughing at me. Oh well, I guess that was better than him being pissed off at me.

"What can I help you with Mia?"

"Leo finally got back to me." Jax stared at me blankly, so I nearly stuttered as I quickly added, "Le-Leonardo the guru…"

"Right. The paint specialist. Sorry, his name slipped my mind."

"That's alright. You have a lot on your mind right now. I get it. Anyway… If it's alright with you, I was going to head down to Oakland to meet with him. Wade also reminded me we have a bike that needs a highway run, so I would be doing that too."

He looked over towards the group of men I had just left and sounded distracted when he answered, "Yeah, of course. The sooner we can get that all set up the better." His eyes found my face again to add, "Have a safe ride, Mia."

"Thanks Jax. Depending on how it goes, I'll try to put something together to show you tomorrow."

"How things go? Are you thinking there's a chance he won't help us?"

"Oh shit! No, I didn't mean it like it was a bad thing. He's been talking about retiring, so I'm hoping to also plant some seed to help us to maybe get a good deal on equipment."

That caught his attention and piqued his interest. "A deal on equipment? That would mean…"

"We'll turn a profit sooner."

Jax wrapped his right arm around my neck to pull me into a side hug. "THAT is music to my ears, Mia. Seriously, good luck."

"Thanks Jax!"

When I first started working at TM, none of the guys wanted to believe I drove a big pickup truck, let alone the fact that I had done all of the after-market upgrades on it myself. The first time I offered to take a bike out for a test run, a couple of them had actually laughed at me. I'm not sure what part of "trained mechanic" none of them understood. Hell, I had even taken some specialty courses to make me a 'Harley certified' mechanic. You couldn't truly complete any of that without fully understanding the ins and outs of a bike. To me that meant riding one, so I had studied for my motorcycle license before I finished high school.

My uncle had always praised me for my initiative and he had at one time gone out of his way to encourage it. He had been the first person to take me to the range to make sure I was comfortable using a gun. He had also bought me defensive and tactical driving courses for more than one birthday and Christmas present, so I was comfortable behind the wheel of any vehicle at any speed in pretty much any situation. Once Wade had warmed up to me, I told him about all of that and once she saw my certificates, he started trusting me with our clients' vehicles more than anyone else at the garage.

That's why I was now cruising down the highway on a bike that was soon going to belong to one of the members of SAMCRO. Alright, that was a bit of a lie. It was going to be JC's bike. After Galen had destroyed all of their bikes, they had been replacing them slowly, but surly. Yeah, they all had a generic backup that they were riding, but a custom bike to call their own took time to perfect.

I was comfortable on a motorcycle, as either a driver or passenger, but I still preferred my pickup truck. I trusted the way I drove, but I didn't trust other people's driving. When I was in my truck, I had the peace of mind that it would take a pretty horrific car wreck for me to get hurt. When I was on a bike, well I was just happy I had invested in a good leather jacket to help cut down the amount of road rash I would incur if I went down. Again, not because of my driving abilities, but because of those, or rather lack thereof, my fellow motorists.

Like this stupid asshole behind me, I thought as I pulled up to a light on the off ramp. I tried not to be too obvious as I checked my mirrors to see how close he was to me. You should buy me dinner before you try to take me from behind, I joked to myself.

I was truly amazed how many people bought big fancy vehicles, but they never actually learned how to drive them. I swear the guy behind me almost clipped my back wheel by getting to close to me on a couple of straightaways. If I was on my own bike, I would have been more than happy to break a couple of traffic laws to lose him, but I wasn't looking to get a ticket on one of the shop's bikes. Instead, I maintained a respectable speed to keep up with the flow of traffic while I planned my next move. Most of the roads looked like they had a lot of foot traffic, so I waited to cut down the first street I saw that looked deserted. Just as I had anticipated, Mr. Tailgater followed me. This time I knew he almost clipped me on purpose. However, I used that to my advantage. I purposefully slowed down until he got within an inch of my back tire. I swear he was gearing up to ram my bike, but I didn't give him a chance. Instead, I hit the throttle and sped down a side street to my right. He hadn't anticipated that move, so he drove past the street and had to do a U-turn to try to catch up with me. I barely caught a glimpse of him before I cut down another side street. I'm sure he saw me, but I was fairly certain I could put enough space between us so that I would be in the clear soon.

Now, I don't know Oakland all that well, but I wasn't too worried about getting lost. I had a general idea of where the highway was, so all I had to do was get back there to find my way to Leo's shop. However, I first had to make sure that I had lost my new best friend.

I slowed down a bit in the hopes that I wouldn't draw attention to myself as I cut down random streets in an erratic pattern. I was almost starting to feel dizzy from all of my maneuvering, which made me even more confident that they wouldn't find me. Plus, I was pretty sure I was lost, so right now even I couldn't find me.

My new mission was to find a gas station so that I could bat my eyes at the attendant and get directions without feeling too stupid. So, I started to slow down even more and searched for a gas station. That's when a black Suburban and a dark colored four door Lexus rounded from opposite corners at the intersection ahead of me and drove straight towards me. This was a two-lane street, so I soon found myself playing chicken with the driver of the Suburban.

"What the fuck?" I questioned out loud before I slammed on my breaks and skidded into a controlled U-turn.

Once I right my bike up, I hammered down on the throttle to speed down the road. Unlike the other car I had worked to lose, I had no qualms shoulder checking to see if my new friends were still behind me. They had actually slowed down and the SUV had slipped back into the lane behind the other car.

I heaved out a sigh of relief and had to laugh at myself. I really had been spending too much time with the MC because I was starting to get paranoid. I slowed down a bit and turned back to watch where I was going… Just in time to see that I was about to get into a head on collision with a car that had crossed over the centerline.

I cut my bike to the right and thankfully, there was an alley there. I sped down it in the hopes of cutting over to the next street, but I didn't see any lane openings along the way. I unconsciously started to slow down when I realized that I had been led to a dead end street and all of the vehicles I was trying to loser were now filing in a single line behind me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I skidded to a stop at the dead end and turned my bike so that I was facing them. I'm not sure what I was planning to do because the alley was so narrow that there was no way that I could get around any of the other vehicles to make my escape. If I was Evel Knievel or Super Dave Osborne, I might have tried to drive over the three vehicles, but that's wasn't even close to being an option.

Then again, since I was now looking down the barrel of at least half a dozen guns, I wasn't moving a muscle. Hell, I was barely even breathing.