4
Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run
Chapter 168 Tabled
Jax looked around the table. All the guys were there Clay, Tig, Chibs, Juice, Bobby, Piney and Happy who was a member of the nomad chapter. He was spending more and more time in Charming lately. Opie was still in prison serving time for possession of stolen property.
"When Alvarez torched our warehouse, we were focused on getting our guns back," Jax began. "Now we need to figure out how he found our warehouse. Any ideas?"
All the guys at the table shook their heads.
"If we rebuild our warehouse somewhere else, how safe is it going to be? I think we have been lax with security. We went to the warehouse on our bikes in our cuts. Someone could have seen us and followed. Outside Charming, we always get scrutiny from law enforcement. We were lucky it was Alvarez and not ATF."
"What do you think we should do?" Clay demanded impatiently.
"We need to rethink the whole idea of having a gun warehouse. It ties up a lot of money. I think we should look into renting a place and then moving every six months to help keep the location secret," Jax replied.
"That would help our cash situation. To find land and rebuild will take every penny from the land sale and more," Bobby said.
"I also think we need to lose the idea of a warehouse. We need a place to assemble and store our guns. That's all. We could use a house. That would keep us further off the grid. We also never go to the place in our cuts on our bikes. We always go to the place in cars without cuts. That will cut down our visibility."
"And who is going to rent this place?" Clay asked.
"We send in our new watchman. He either rents it in his name or makes up a common name like Jose Garcia."
"Or Marcus Alvarez," Clay suggested and everyone laughed.
"He can pay with a money order," Jax continued when the laughter subsided. "He's just an illegal trying to make a home for his family—our gun assembly crew. For further security, we use a remote to open the garage, drive inside and then close the door. That way there are no pictures of any of us and we're never seen at the house."
"I like it," Bobby said. "We don't tie up a lot of money and moving our gun factory around will make it harder for someone to find it especially with new security measures."
"We can also continue to make guns. We could be down for a couple of months if we have to find land and build a warehouse. The Irish aren't going to like it. They depend on us to sell a certain volume," Chibs said in his thick Scots brogue. "This could help us avoid a problem with them."
"If we're down a couple of months, what will our customers do?" Juice asked.
"They'll find another supplier," Jax said. "What do you think Clay?"
"We can give it a try. See how it works. It's going to be inconvenient as hell having to use a car and removing our cuts, but it might be the answer to flying under the radar," Clay replied. "It will also keep our gun money coming in. Are we ready to vote this?"
The club voted unanimously to move ahead with Jax's idea. Tig was in charge of finding a watchman and assembly crew and Bobby was going to find houses to rent.
"Just one more thing," Jax said. "I'm going to be away from work a couple of days a week over the next month or so. I have a new business opportunity, but it's only temporary."
No one asked Jax any specifics about what he was going to be doing. It was an outlaw MC and they all assumed he was doing something illegal.
After the meeting, Jax spent about an hour with his brothers before slipping away to see Scarlett. He was just going to drop in on her and maybe go for a walk. Just as he was turning into the hotel parking lot, he saw Scarlett walking to her motel room with Hale.
She tripped and he grabbed her arm and steadied her. He left his hand on her, guiding her with his hand holding her elbow. That was what he did when they were walking. Jax left the parking lot while their backs were turned and before they could see him.
He didn't like Hale being with Scarlett. He didn't like that Hale had his hands on Scarlett. Most of all he didn't like that they were going into her motel room. He wondered if she would invite him to sleep with her.
If this had happened eight or nine years ago, he might have gone to her room and tossed Hale out. He was just that angry. Now he had more self-control.
With all the time he and Scarlett had spent together, he thought of her as his territory. No man was supposed to be around her. She belonged with him or to him. He wasn't sure which one.
What the hell was going on? When had Scarlett become so important to him he wanted to beat the shit out of Hale for touching her arm? How could she even want to be with Hale?
He thought about driving back to the motel's parking lot and checking to see if Hale's car were still parked there. He had never been jealous when he and Tara or he and Wendy were together.
He didn't know why he was seething with jealousy over Hale spending time with Scarlett. It wasn't as though they were going to have sex or anything. Scarlett's back injury made that impossible.
He felt that she had betrayed him by being with Hale. More crazy thinking. They had never discussed anything about their relationship. He had just assumed that he was the only man in her life.
If he went to his house, he would just get angrier and angrier as he thought about her and Hale. He returned to the clubhouse to drown himself in alcohol and crow-eater pussy.