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Chapter 478 No Security for You

"

SAMCRO had returned from another wild goose chase looking for information on Esai's whereabouts. The guy they found had great information. The problem was it wasn't Esai. If a guy's a little smart, pays cash and uses prepaid phones, he can hide maybe forever. Clay knew they needed Alvarez to help them find his son. He hoped one of Esai's exes would reach him and convince him to meet up and they could finally kill the little bastard who had tried to end SAMCRO.

He dreaded walking into TM and seeing Gemma. She had been a real bitch since Jax kicked her out of the clubhouse. He'd had just about enough of it. She was either going to change her attitude or he would change it for her.

"Just got back from an MC errand," Clay said. When he was angry with Gemma, he told her less about what was going on with the MC.

"Successful?" Gemma asked.

"Depends on your definition. We're whole. I guess that could be considered successful. Chuckie is heating up the leftovers from last night and we're going to eat them while we have our meeting. I'm doing Church over lunch because all the guys want to eat the leftovers from Scarlett's dinner so I figured we might as well have a meeting at the same time."

"I've never seen you so enthusiastic about leftovers," Gemma said sullenly.

"These are worth eating," Clay said, putting Gemma in her place.

"And that's the thanks I get after all the meals I've cooked for you," Gemma stood up, her eyes bright with anger.

"Many of them from the frozen food section of the market or cooked on your orders by a crow-eater," Clay said raising his voice.

Gemma's face flushed with anger.

"You ungrateful bastard," Gemma spit the words out. "I usually work all day and then I go and cook you dinner."

"I've had e-fucking-nough of your attitude," Clay said pointing his finger at her. "Change it or there's going to be hell to pay."

"This is all that little blonde wh . . ."

"No, this is your fault," Clay interrupted. "You should have gotten off your ass and been a better old lady. Scarlett showed you how you're supposed to behave when there are guests doing SAMCRO a favor. Maybe she can teach you how to be an old lady."

"You lousy son of a bitch," Gemma hissed.

"I don't want to smack the shit out of you, but I will tonight if I don't see an improvement in your attitude."

"I've got a headache," Gemma said. "I'm going to leave now. It's a pretty light day. Chuckie can handle the paperwork."

"Great. Tig will escort you home. Lock the doors and windows and stay the fuck inside."

"You're not leaving anyone with me?" Gemma demanded.

"No, you'll be fine."

"And what if Esai decides to kidnap me?" Gemma asked angrily.

"Don't let him," Clay said coldly. "That's what Scarlett did. You have a gun and you know how to use it. You were worthless as an old lady this week."

Clay didn't bother to see what effect his words had on Gemma. He turned on his heel and left her staring after him, shock on her face.

He walked into the clubhouse where he caught the delicious aroma of twice baked cheese potatoes and meatloaf. Some of the stress left his body. He was really looking forward to meatloaf sandwiches for lunch.

"Tig, give Gemma an escort home and then come back."

"You don't want me to stay?" Tig asked confused.

"No or I would have said stay," Clay snapped. "I want you at lunch where we're having Church. Gemma will be fine."

The guys exchanged glances. It looked like there might be trouble in paradise.

"

Author's Note: Comments from the last chapter about Tara. She really didn't have a choice in killing Kohn. And Grace mentioned that women who have a law enforcement partner are more likely to kill that person. It doesn't surprise me.

I knew a woman whose husband was a police captain for a major city in Southern California (the organization structure is typically a police chief, a deputy police chief and a police captain, police lieutenant, police sergeant and a couple of levels of police officers so he was high up in the command). Her husband beat her so badly that she wasn't at work for a while meaning many weeks. It was a great mystery. I found out from her boss a couple of years later that her police captain husband beat her so badly that he put her in the hospital. She "almost" left him that time according to her boss.

Now, there's a trap when it comes to pressing charges. If she had pressed assault charges, they would have launched an internal affairs investigation and he likely would have lost his job and his big fat police pension. That means in Cali where women are entitled to half the marital assets, she would have lost half his retirement pay. Women married to law enforcement officers can't really file domestic violence charges for financial reasons. She could have left him but didn't.

I also read in some police magazine that there is a higher level of domestic violence in marriages where one or more are in law enforcement. The writer theorized it's because they are used to solving problems in a physical way on their jobs. I'm not trying to say bad things about all cops. It's a tough, high stress job and most do their best, but there are always a bad few.

And Gemma is frothing at the mouth blaming her misfortunes on Scarlett because Gemma has no self-awareness or ability to see fault in herself. At least Clay can see Gemma's faults because her actions in not really doing a great job with the guests reflects on him—a fact Scarlett figured out and stepped up and made Jax look good.