"Where are Chibs and Juice?!" Jax asked as he stormed through the ruins of the clubhouse.
His tone was so loud and forceful that Ratboy almost jumped. "They left about an hour ago." the prospect answered tentatively.
"They're supposed to be here...they knew about the meeting." Jax seemed disgusted by his fellow club members ignorance and disregard for those around them.
"Chibs got spooked..." Ratboy started to say then stopped himself not wanting to be accused of insubordination.
"I don't care how spooked he is, he failed to kill Jimmy, he needs to feel some guilt, but if he wants to stay in the club he also needs to learn that he can't take off whenever he feels spooked."
By know the rest of the men in the ruins were eyeing Jax curiously. Although his club was usually behind him, none of the other members believed that Chibs had purposely failed to kill Jimmy O'Phelan.
Tig stepped in between the two men "Hey, boss there's no reason to kick anybody out of the club. I'll take Rat with me and go find Juice and Chibs."
After a pause Jax nodded "Okay, but make sure Chibs understands that this can't happen again."
When he thought they were out of earshot of Jax, Ratboy turned to Tig. " Why is Jax so sure that Chibs did something against the club?"
"Because, I should be able to dig up O'Phelan's corpse and rape his dead asshole, but because he's alive I'm going to have to do a raincheck on that."
" Sometimes you're really weird. " Ratboy mumbled turning away from Tig.
" You're just going to have to get used to it kid " Tig responded. " What did Chibs see in the rubble that spooked him? "
" There was a photo of him and his wife on their wedding day. It was all burnt up and I think he assumed that O'Phelan guy placed it there as a warning that he'd already gotten to her and had her killed. "
" Jesus " Tig mumbled. " Juice probably took him back to his place. He's not going to be happy about having to be called back to the clubhouse. "
" Jax seems to be on a rampage lately. "
After the last comment from Ratboy the two men rode their motorcycles in silence for several minutes. When they pulled up outside of the Scotsman's house, Tig could see the tow truck with Teller-Morrow logo written on the side of it. Chibs had likely been too distraught to ride his bike, and Juice had wanted to make sure his friend was okay.
Tig knocked on the door, " Hey lazy bones, Jax wants both of you back at the clubhouse. "
Juice answered the door" I'm really sorry we took off like that. Chibs just had some shit come up and I wanted to make sure he was okay with everything that has happened lately. "
Tig nodded " Get out of here and now. "
As soon as Juice was out the door, Chibs came up behind him, stuffing his cell phone into his pants pocket as he walked. Even though he no longer seemed to be crying, from his red eyes it was obvious that it hadn't been long since he stopped.
Tig stopped him halfway out the door " hey, what happened? "
" Jimmy was just trying to keep me from staying on my game and I fell for it. I thought he'd already gotten to Fi and Kerri and I couldn't think straight, I just kept picturing their bodies lying in a puddle of blood in the flat. When Fiona actually returned my call I was so nervous and so sure that it was going to be one of his henchmen that Juice actually had to answer the phone for me. I can't keep letting him get in my head like that anymore. " Chibs seemed to be almost shaking as he spoke.
Tig patted him on the back " It's okay, you don't have to explain everything to me, but Jax really does want you back at the clubhouse. He practically wanted me to bring him your head on a platter. "
" He doesn't really trust me anymore since my old friend came back."
Tig nodded. "Let's get you both back to TM so Jax can't tear us all apart."
Jax was standing outside waiting for the other club members when the truck followed by the motorcycles pulled into the lot.
"The longer we stand here, the more time Jimmy O'Phelan has to gain the upper hand on us."
Trying to hide how shaken he'd been only hours earlier, Chibs grimly added "saddle up brothers."
The ride north to where Bobby was staying was silent. None of the men wanted to talk about the obvious tension, and each was caught on their silent reflection and the road.
As soon as the men stepped off their bikes Bobby walked over to greet them. "I heard about the Irish blowing up the clubhouse."
"Is that all you heard?" Jax asked.
"Is there more to the story brother?"
"Oh yeah, way more." Jax turned to glance at Chibs as he spoke as if his mere presence had attracted an evil spirit that the club needed to be cleansed of.
Bobby followed Jax's gaze curiously unsure of what to think of the sudden friction between his fellow club members. "You can tell us around the table." he responded deciding to usher the men inside.
Minutes later all of the Redwood charter along with Bobby and a few other nomads were gathered around the large table with Jax at the head of it. Taking a deep breath the young president spoke.
"When I lost my best friend a month ago I thought I had reason to form a new vision, I had plans to take this club out of violence and into a more legal industry." he paused glancing around the table for added effect before speaking again "but then, two days ago when we met with Galen O'Shay to try and end the violence and the guns, a man I thought died long before Opie did, at the hands of one of our brothers, was waiting with him. That man was Jimmy O'Phelan."
Bobby cut him off "you're shitting me."
"He's not lying brother." Chibs responded "I saw him with my own two eyes, back from the dead. Face slashed open and healed over like I'd left him." He made a sweeping motion across his own scars as he spoke.
Jax glared at Chibs for a moment before he continued speaking. "So far he's had the element of surprise on his side and he's been two steps ahead of us. He was on the lot himself planting the bomb that blew up our clubhouse and Unser and a croweater were the only people who saw him there. He's already killed Phil and V-Lin and there's no reason to think he's going to stop there. We need to thicken our numbers, we need you back."
Bobby seemed to consider things for a moment before he looked around the table at the other nomads. Without speaking he got up from the table.
Jax sighed, he was sure that Bobby had barely believed a word any of them were saying and was trying to think of a polite way to kick them all out of the clubhouse. Instead, the short biker returned with a large stack of papers and set them down in front of Jax on the table.
"What are these?"
"Transfer papers."
Jax felt a lump begin to form in his throat "Look, I know you probably still hate me and think going full nomad is the right solution, but the truth is Jimmy's going to wipe us out if we don't strengthen our numbers and we need your help to do that."
"I know," Bobby pushed the stack closer to Jax "the papers aren't for me, they're for Quinn, West and Montez" he pointed at three of the nomads sitting at the table with them.
"You were recruiting?" Jax asked incredulously.
"You didn't think I actually wanted to leave the club did you?"
