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Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run
Chapter 197 Welcome
By the time Hale walked out of the woods, all of the town's citizens were gone, the carnival booths had been packed up, torn down or stolen and the rides were being removed. He heard that SAMCRO walked out of the woods to a hero's welcome. That was how things worked in Charming.
He hadn't decided to go into law enforcement because he wanted to be a hero. If he'd wanted to be a hero, he would have become a fire fighter.
People overestimated their bravery and most didn't know that fire fighters got paid to sleep. He also heard from dispatch that fire fighters would rather answer a fire call than a medical call. These delays cost a couple of lives. Some smarter citizens were suing the county who provided fire services to Charming over the delay.
He and Jax had been friends until Jax became a prospect for SAMCRO and he decided he wanted a career in law enforcement and ultimately to become the chief of police of Charming. They were still friendly enough and able to cooperate when their goals aligned. Today was the perfect example. He might not have made it out of the woods alive without the MC.
He didn't think Tara had much chance at getting Jax back even if Scarlett weren't in the picture. Tara was more like him, uptight, morally superior and a little humorless. That wasn't going to work with Jax long term. It was one of the reasons their relationship fell apart. New Tara wasn't much different than old Tara.
Scarlett was different. She brought out a fun loving, lighter side to him that was new. In the short term, he knew Jax would sleep with her, but slow and steady would win the race and Scarlett's heart. He wasn't just after sex. He wanted an emotional connection with her.
He knew that Jax was better looking. He wasn't blind or stupid. He'd seen the way girls looked at him. Scarlett was smart. She might be attracted at first, but he hoped that she would figure out a life with Jax would be hard.
If he couldn't get Scarlett to fall in love with him, he hoped she would move on to another man that didn't belong to an outlaw motorcycle gang. It might seem romantic to naïve young women, but the outlaw part meant there was a good chance SAMCRO's members would end up killed or doing long stretches in prison. He didn't want that for Scarlett or Tara.
Old ladies had a hard life filled with domestic violence and men who didn't believe in women's equality. He wondered how Scarlett would like it if one of the guys in the MC explained to her that females are considered property. That might not be Jax's personal view, but it was the MC's and Clay's.
He was impatiently waiting for Unser to step down as police chief and retire. The cancer battle had taken a lot out of him and he'd never been a very energetic police chief even when he was newly appointed.
He knew about the summit held in Floyd's barber shop when Unser gave up his role in law enforcement and agreed to expedite SAMCRO's criminal needs in exchange for the MC keeping crime and gangs out of Charming.
His desire to restore law and order to Charming had nothing to do with Jax and everything to do with the insanity of letting an outlaw MC run the town. It wouldn't be an easy job. Elliot Oswald was in SAMCRO's corner and after the events today, that was unlikely to change. He had a lot of influence.
He didn't have any passion for locking up Jax and the MC. He wanted them to leave the city or abide by the law. He was willing to give them an adjustment period. If they did that, there would be no need to lock them up.
Hale answered his cell phone. Since he'd become acting police chief, there was no such thing as time off. As he listened, a smile spread across his face. It turned out that the men that were going to rape Oswald's daughter weren't average low life scum; all the men had priors, as he suspected. What he didn't know, and was just learning, the men had kiddie porn on their phones including video of them raping kids. This had the potential to shut down a major kiddie porn operation and put these men behind bars for life.
Soon the town would be flooded with feds from across the spectrum of federal agencies. This break could not only provide leads to shut down a kiddie porn ring, it could help identify child victims who might be in need of social services to help them cope with what happened to them.
It would provide some consolation when he thought of Scarlett spending the night in Jax's arms. He'd long since made peace with the fact that most girls in Charming ended up spending a night with Jax. He just didn't like it.