It seemed that not only SAMCRO had problems today. While Jax with others tried to beat out the truth from prospects, Tig was deftly manipulated by his own daughter.
"Faun's gonna do a serious damage to herself if we won't do something, daddy," And with every next word she sounded more upset because of her baby sister, starting to cry in the end just to finish her well-planned performance. Bobby, who was sitting behind all this time, shook his head, perfectly understanding that every single word was a lie, but Tig was too overwhelmed with his love and concern about his kids to understand that this show was just about the money. At least, that was what Bobby thought, but Trager wasn't stupid, he understood that as well, it's just sometimes we're ready to do almost everything if kids will ask us in a proper way.
The same time Opie, Jax, Clay, and Miles finally arrived at the clubhouse. And while Gemma was talking Op off with some morality shit, Piney decided to do it his way by using a fist.
"Your dick almost got people killed," Nobody saw that coming, and after a moment of silence Piney added before leaving, "I don't even know who are you anymore." And the truth was that Op didn't know either.
"Put an ice on it," Said Ellie as she finished to treat his wound. It wasn't the first time for her when she had to deal with injuries, so she volunteered ti help. Opie thanked her and went to the kitchen, where Jax followed him, sharing a smoke as he came in. He saw his friend was a hell tired of this shit and had no idea how to figure everything out. Teller smirked to himself, remembering that he and Tara went through the same, but it wasn't a good kind of fixing anything that he would ever recommend to his pal.
"I guess I just wanted her to change her way of living," said Op, giving the rolled cigarette back to Jax.
"Maybe she doesn't want to change it," And here again Winston thought that it was all about his wishes, not hers. But yet how can anyone accept this kind of way to earn money? Opie was sure that it's better to stay poor than to choose this path. The thing was that it was exactly what Donna thought about him and the club. He shook his head, chasing away the memories about a deceased wife, knowing that now the question was about the present one.
Lyla waited for him outside, on the roof. She was crying, being absolutely mentally broken. Op couldn't look at her, so he just sat by her side, looking somewhere away.
"Why?" She finally asked.
"I found birth-control pills in your dress-room," He pursed his lips, making a pause. "Look, I know you don't want another kid…"
"I had an abortion," Lyla suddenly interrupted him. Opie turned and looked furiously at her.
"Mine?" She nodded, sobbing and didn't look at him. He clenched his fists so his knuckles turned white. Despite the anger that covered him. it seemed like he couldn't completely understand everything. He stood up, uttering through the lump in the throat, "I'll tell Mary to take the kids and stay at the clubhouse. And then you tell me what you wanna do."
And as Opie tried to realize what his wife just confessed him about, Miles just finished his task and came to Pres.
"Hey, Clay! I've got a footage on a warehouse. I checked the cameras, no one but our guys came in or out, it's all quiet," He said to Morrow with a USB in his hand.
"Alright then, you ride there and give it back to Oswald's guy."
Meanwhile, at the warehouse, no one was quite satisfied with the results. No one, but Juice. He wasn't excited not just about results, but about all the shit that was going on, feeling as the responsibility for other's sufferings weighs on him. He literally couldn't stay in one place, watching innocent prospects paying for what he did, and when the extreme measure was taken, he understood that he must fix everything, no matter what. Tense was growing stronger with every minute of silence behind the door, where Fil and Rat were supposed to figure out by themselves who must die for betrayal no one of them made, so when Chibs was about to come in, to either hurry them or shoot both, Ortiz frantically protested.
"Look, Romeo will be here in an hour, one of them must be felled," Said Telford.
"You're serious? We already scared the shit out of them with this roulette!"
"This is the only way to calm down the Cartel, we need a body of that rat who's responsible for it, or there will be blood anyway. I have no options, Juice."
"Wait, wait!" He blocked his way to the room. "What if Alvarez is playing with us? How are we sure it wasn't his guy?"
"Juicy, it's not for you to decide," Seemed like it all started to irritate Chibs. He made one more step but met Ortiz's resistance again.
"Hey! We have to give them last chance," And before his older friend could protest, he rushed to the room. Rat and Fil stood up immediately, looking at him almost with a hope. Making one deep breath, Juice decided to push a speech that would sound persuasively, "Look, here goes a man. He expects to see the whole coke in its place. This briquette is not just about you, but about the whole club. And I'm giving you the last chance," And the last chance for him, he thought. "We'll step outside, have a smoke. And whoever took the briquette, we know it's somewhere near, so just bring it back. No questions. No consequences," He looked back at Chibs and Happy, and the last one was obviously not delighted with this, but Telford stopped him from assault and battery.
"Fifteen minutes," Said Chibs before leaving. Outside the room he turned to Juice, looking pretty displeased, "Even if briquette appears, these two are out."
"At least they will be alive, and we will get back coke," He shrugged.
Chibs shook his head, telling Happy to go and watch their bikes to not let them to run off. Juice said that he need to pee and advised him to go and have a smoke, to give them their promised fifteen minutes. When he finally was left alone, he hurried to the grove where he hid that fucking briquette that caused too many troubles. Finding the place where he hid it was the easiest part, much more difficult was to get back to the storage and not attracting the attention.
"Hey!" He recognized Miles's voice even before he turned around and saw him climb over the wire fence.
"Hey," He threw in embarrassment, not able to check if his hoody is covering the coke. "What are you doing here?"
"Taking a short cut. You?.." And before he said anything, Juice understood, that he noticed. He slowly looked down, seeing as briquette behind his belt is showing up. His heart skipped a beat. Miles frowned, "Jesus, Juice. It was you?"
"Look," He reached for the briquette, but Miles reacted fast and took out his gun. "Wow! Easy, I'm unarmed, okay?" He slowly pulled out the coke.
"Shit, Juice."
"Let me explain…"
"Yeah. Back at the warehouse," He didn't take Ortiz from sight. "Let's go."
"Okay," Juice nodded as if he had no other choice, but couple of seconds gave him the realization that he has another option, though it was something he didn't think he would ever be capable to do. In the blink of an eye, he threw the briquette to Miles, making him recoil and go off, bringing Juice a wave of burning pain in the leg when a piece of lead dug into it. They both fell on the ground and it was just a matter of speed, except Miles decided to use Juice's wound and hit it couple of times, making him yelling from pain that seemed to overshadow all other feelings, including fear, so when he reached the gun that was lying nearly on the ground, he just hurried to make a couple of shots at once, shouting and feeling the splashes of fresh hot blood on his face. When Miles fell down, few moments he was just staring into the distance, breathing heavily and being unable to understand everything. He woke up from this delusion only when he heard distant voices that made him overcome the terrible pain and crawl away, looking for briquette to put it in Miles's pocket. It was too fucking wrong, too hellishly to try to think about it now, so he was acting mostly instinctively.
When Chibs and Happy, who heard the gunshots, ran closer, he looked at them in total confusion, and it was not just a game to the public.
"What the hell?!" Lowman goggled.
"Oh, shit," Chibs approached Juice and helped him to get up. Ortiz tried to explain that he saw Miles rummaging in the bushes.
"Then he saw me and twitched, tried to kill me," He shook his head while Chibs put out the briquette from under Miles's cut. "Still, one bullet I caught."
"Holly shit," Telford shuddered when Happy decided that their rat didn't had enough and put a few bullets more in his chest.
"Lying bitch," He croaked.
They were dragging Juice back to the warehouse when Jax, Clay, and Opie just parked their bikes.
"Shit, the hell happened?" Teller quickly approached them to help.
They sat Ortiz and Chibs explained what was going on, handing him the briquette. No one could quite believe that it was Miles.
"You should be shot for taking him in," Said Clay and then tapped lightly Juice's shoulder. "Well done."
"Yeah," Hissed Juice through gritted teeth in pain.
It was exactly what Jax was afraid of. Brother against brother because of some fucking briquette of mexican coke. He looked at Clay furiously, wondering if all of what just happened really worth that money and risk, but yet he said nothing, knowing perfectly that it won't change anything, only make things worse. This time, they were lucky, but what about the next day, or week. or month? Will they be lucky enough to prevent another death of somebody who's actually one of them or there's gonna be only more and more dead bodies? Jax didn't want to find out. Because, yes, Miles's betrayal was a big miss, but he was a novice and so Jax didn't feel very sorry for this lost. But what if one day there's gonna be someone else in his place? Op, Chibs, Bobby? What if he found them dead one day because of that bloody Cartel? "Fuck," he thought while putting the last briquette back in its place.
"Bury the rat deep and leave no mark," said Clay and Happy nodded with some kind of maniacal anticipation. Then he went to the warehouse as well as Romeo was about to show up any minute now.
"Get him in the van," commanded Chibs to prospects and they quickly and very carefully took Juice and helped him to get inside. "Keep an eye on him until I'll get back."
At the warehouse, where Alvarez and Romero just came to check up on his goods, Telford recounted all the briquettes and Parada was happy to hear that all thirty kilos were intact. When he and Clay walked out to discuss some details about next shipment, Alvarez came to Jax and asked him with uncovered pleasure in his voice:
"Looks like your ranks have thinned?" but Jax answered with metal cold, looking mayan straight in the eyes.
"No, we're good. Won't happen again," Alvarez nodded and continued to control his people while they were shipping the boxes. With those last words, the incident was over and everyone could finally get out of this place and ride home to have some rest. Almost everyone. As Chibs came to the truck, he gave the address and ordered them to bring Juice there.
"Hey, man, just take me to the club, there's no need to go there," Juice didn't want to come to Thea in this condition so he tried to refuse immediately. But Chibs just put on his helmet and said:
"Gladly, Juicy-boy, but since we have no doctor anymore, I'm gonna need a pair of skilled hands to help me to take this bullet out of your leg. 'Cause, you know, if I ask Tig to help me there's a huge possibility that this is the last day you actually have one," He smirked and told prospects to ride. "And don't forget to come here after we finish and take his bike," They nodded and started the engine.
At the same time Thea and Ellie, who came back from clubhouse not so long ago, were sitting in the living room, drinking beer and sharing stories. Both surprisingly turned to the door when they heard a demanding knock. Thea shrugged her shoulders and got up to open it.
"Chibs, what are you…" And then she saw Fil and Rat, holding Juice, whose face was covered in blood. "Jesus Christ," she mumbled, turning pale immediately.
"Sorry to interrupt you, lass, but we need to stitch him up," Thea could only look at Juice and recovered only when Chibs put his arm on her shoulder.
"Yeah… yeah, come in," she said, letting them inside by stepping back, feeling how her knees were trembling. "What can I do?.."
"Not you… aye, Ellie!" He noticed Lynn, who just walked out of the room to the sound of voices and froze when she saw them. "You told you had an experience of stitching up? I need your help."
"God, I've…" She broke, breathing out after a second, "Sure. C'mon, drag him to the kitchen."
"Thanks," Telford waved to the prospects and they passed to the room. Thea still stood without any movement, just her eyes were following Ortiz. Before going after the guys, Ellie dropped:
"Breath out, everything will be okay."
And she wanted to believe it so badly because only such promise could calm a little tremor of hands that gripped them when Chibs ripped the bloody trouser-leg. By the corner of her eye, Ellie noticed that Martinez finally appeared at the doorway, but she definitely wasn't able to do anything, so when Telford said that they need to wash the wound, El had to bring a first aid kit by herself.
"What happened?" She dared to ask while helping Chibs to wash away the blood.
"You really wanna know, lass?" He gave her to understand that the question was rhetorical and explanations won't follow. Anyway, the conversation didn't work out because of Juice's quiet moans that he tried his best to restrain, but couldn't help himself when Ellie got too close to the wound.
"Sorry," She whispered as Chibs were looking for forceps to remove bullet residues. "Have patience, I'm afraid we don't have a sufficiently strong painkiller."
Ortiz just nodded, closing his eyes either because of pain, or because he didn't want to meet Thea's eyes. She was quietly cursing everything, feeling as the shiver begins to penetrate to the bone. She couldn't stand the fact that she couldn't help him, not realizing that in her condition even if there was something she needed to do, she probably would fail. Watching him laying right on the table, painted everywhere with the color of pain, red, was too hard, but she wasn't able to look away.
"Jesus," Slipped from her lips again. "Fuck," And then again and again, until Ellie had enough.
"Stop it, Thea, you're not helping!" Lynn looked back at her for a moment, just to sound more convincingly. "Calm down or go out."
Obviously, she didn't go anywhere. She just clenched her fists, trying to overstep the rising panic inside while Chibs was quietly instructing Ellie how to sew up the maim as well as his eyesight could let him down.
"I've stitched up only cut eyebrow," Saying that she was nervous was like saying nothing. Chibs was right, she faced with the need to proceed and heal the wounds, 'cause her precious daddy was a magnet for problems, and his face - for fists. But he had never caught a bullet.
"Principle is not much different. C'mon, lass."
And while Ellie was getting more and more involved in club's mess, listening to Juice's hardened breath and being scared as hell to do something wrong, Jax was fixing some problem too. After a pretty rough conversation with Gemma, he saw only one way outta that shit that happened in the morning and only one way to prevent a recurrence. The funniest thing was that he didn't even has to explain anything, Ima fantasized lie of the land by herself.
"Are you jealous?" She stretched her lips into a satisfied smile. "I am only yours bad girl, huh?"
"Yeah," Jax grinned, approaching her a bit. "That's right."
Ima naively leaned closer to him, giving an impatient kiss before leading him to her dressing room to continue. Her smile promised a lot, moreover in a complex with removed blouse. And there was one step between Jax and undeniable pleasure, and one step between Ima and her meeting with the dressing table. When she fell down with a bloody face cause of nose broken once again, Jax hurried to bend over her and squeeze her neck.
"You come close to my club again, or to my family, and I will fucking kill you," He almost hissed. "You got me?" Feeling as he batters from pent anger, he decided that it'd be better to do a mickey now. But before he did, he couldn't resist a desire and split, "Whore."
When he was leaving, he heard as she started to whine. It didn't cause him either to pity, nor remorse, 'cause that was exactly what she deserved. Not because of her way of life, not even because she didn't think to whom she spreads her legs, but because thinking that you can aim the gun on someone inside the club and leave without consequences was the top of idiocy. This little performance calmed him a bit, so on his way home he decided to ride a bit longer and don't go back too soon. He needed to clear his head and what can help better than a roaring wind and a sound of Harley's engine? Jax didn't watch where he was riding, though he didn't care much, the night covered all signs and he gave himself to the road without a doubt. The road has never ever failed him before and never will.
He was driving long enough to convince himself that what happened today was his fault. Not entirely, of course, but he was involved just as much as Juice and Miles were. If only he didn't listen to Clay and said 'nay' to all of this drug-shit. He was wondering if there's a chance, a little possibility to make a deal with Cartel, find someone else who will be ready to take their place and so SAMCRO will just forget about this nightmare like it never happened. Maybe. Somehow he was sure that they can make it the right way if only Clay let them. When he came home and opened the door to Abel's room, he stood silently without a movement for a couple of minutes. Yes, he needed to convince Clay, he needed to make him understand how wrong this cooperation might be, or, better to say, already was. He needed to do that for his son and for his club. Jax carefully laid down behind Abel and moved closer, wrapping his hand around his tiny little body.
And as he was listening to his son's calm breath, he got back to what Gemma said him today before he went to Ima. She said about Ellie, about how protective she immediately bacame when she smelled a threat. It was hard, like, fucking hard to receive a gratitude from his mom and today Ellie did that without even trying. "Tara would probably do the same for him", Jax thought and then cut himself instantly. Here he back again to his point of no return. This wasn't the first time when he compared Ellie and Tara and no matter how hard he tried to believe that he was over Tara, acting like this is probably not the best way to move on. He hated to miss her, hated to not be able to pass this period of his life, but yet it wasn't that easy as he thought before.
At the same time, when Jax fell asleep to his thoughts and Abel's breath, Tig called a taxi for his daughter and waved her goodbye until the car disappeared. When he came back to Gemma and Bobby, who stood not far away from him, they were shaking their heads disapprovingly.
"You gave her the money?" Asked Bobby, despite he already knew the answer.
"Oh, yeah. Of course," said Tig, continuing to look at the place where she was a moment ago.
"She will be back for more," smirked Gemma. Tig nodded, smiling, and went back to the clubhouse. Who could blame him for being a father, after all?
And while Gemma and Bobby went after him, both laughing a bit, Chibs and Ellie already have finished with their saving mission. Ellie bandaged Juice's leg and now prospects could carry him to the bedroom, as well as Thea didn't even want to hear about driving him to the club or his own home. Chibs wasn't about to argue at all, 'cause he worried about Ortiz and thought it'd be good if someone will keep an eye on him.
"I'll come in the morning," He promised, nodding to Thea and squeezing Ellie's shoulder, "Good job, honey." She just smiled back, trowing away bloody gloves and not being able to answer something meaningful enough. When he left, she stood in the kitchen a little bit more, eyes closed, thinking if what just happened was a usual thing to this club. The question was rhetorical; she already knew what the answer was, and it was not that scary, but hard. She couldn't imagine herself on Thea's place, couldn't understand completely how was it: to see someone you care about so much in pain, not being able to do anything about it. She felt a heavy load on her chest, which prevented breath. For the first time, she seriously wondered what she was getting in to. What she was getting used to. She was pulled out of her thought by Thea, who popped into the kitchen after making sure that Juice is conveniently in the bedroom.
"Is he okay?" Ellie asked, slightly leaning forward.
"Yeah, mostly," Thea, who calmed down noticeably, sighed. "Just not talking much."
"You try to be talkative after a caught bullet," Lynn smirked grimly and wearily. "Give him time," She ran her hand over Thea's shoulder before going into the living room, but Martinez stopped her.
"Ellie," A short pause was full of attempts to find the words, but in the end, she simply said, "Thank you."
"It was the least I could do, being useful," She smiled lightly. "Good night, sweetheart."
"Night," Thea breathed out when she already left. After a couple of seconds spent in some kind of stupor, she hurried back to the bedroom, where Juice was lying on her bed, taking up almost all the space. However, it didn't bother her at all, 'cause she had strong doubts that she would sleep this night even if she had a place for it. She just sat on the edge of the bed, looking directly at Ortiz and feeling awful because he still didn't look back. "As I understand, you're not about to tell me anything, aren't you?"
It took a whole minute for him to finally turn to her. He couldn't explain it, but with her presence, he felt even worse. He felt as guilt is strangling him under her gaze, so he spoke with difficulty, "There's nothing much to tell."
"You're brought here, covered in blood, patched right on the kitchen table by amateur and you have nothing to tell, really?" After jitters, Thea definitely was easy to put out of temper, so it cost her a lot to restrain self somehow. "Ortiz…" She rubbed her tired eyes with hands. "To hell with you. Keep your silence. But we have to clean the rest of the blood from your face."
While she was in the bathroom, filling a bowl with clean water and looking for a towel, he laid motionless, looking up at the ceiling. Weird, heavy vacuum reigned inside his brainpan and even the fact that Thea, his Thea was near didn't scatter the lifeless void.
"Here we go," She appeared in front of him, kneeling and wetting the towel in the water. Carefully, she started to wash away the dried blood from his cheeks and forehead, all that remained from Ellie's quick attempt to clean it.
"Thanks," He said quietly, understanding that his behavior only makes things worse. It's not like he didn't want to see her or her concern left him careless, just everything felt alien to him. Like it was just an echo of something, maybe not even his own feelings while he stuck somewhere in the moment when he pulled the trigger. How is it called? Yeah, crucial moment.
"Don't mention it."
Despite Thea didn't think she would fall asleep, in the morning it turned out that she did, actually. In an uncomfortable position, so now everything numbed, but she doze off and woke up when sun's rays were already making their way through the curtains. She stood up carefully, not willing to awake him. Ortiz was lying on her bed in the same position with the same painfull look on his face. His dreams were a mess and more like nightmares where he had to go back to that moment over and over again, hearing the victorious laugh of Roosevelt and a faceless man who brought him to this point. Thea put her hand on his forehead and for a moment, the wrinkle between his eyebrows smoothed and breathing became less heavy. But when she left it all hunted him down again. As she came out of her bedroom, Ellie was already preparing to go to the clubhouse. A simple look was more that enough to understand that this was not the best night for both of them.
"I can stay if you need me, T," she said, hugging her. Ellie wished she won't ever be in her place. Carrying all these fellings inside for so long and now have no opportunity to help somehow, to ease the pain of someone who you love that deeply - it's something that not everyone can bare. Ellie wasn't sure how would she act if it was someone who she cared about the same way Thea did about Juice. Probably she would lose her mind too, but she didn't want to figure that out.
"No-no, it's fine, El. Chibs will come soon, so…" Lynn nodded and then hurried to leave, saying that she will come back immediately if she'll need her. Thea was left alone, waiting for Telford, sitting in the living room and smoking around the third cigarette, eyes fixed like a statue, absolutely motionless. A few times she checked up on Juice but he was still sleeping, or maybe pretending so. When Chibs finally showed up, Thea opened the door without looking at him.
"You're okay, lass?" Martinez extinguished the cigarette and sat on the couch, crossing her arms.
"Do I look so?" Chibs closed his eyes, nodding sadly. She pointed at her bedroom, saying that Juice's still there, probably sleeping, but she's not sure. "Chibs," she stopped him before he disappeared in the corridor. He turned back and came a little closer, but Thea continued to look directly in nowhere. "What happened? I'm a part of this bloody club, I have my right to know…"
"It's not my story to tell, T. Give him some time, the boy needs to recover," Thea smirked with bitterness, finally turning back and looking Telford directly in the eyes.
"I don't want to you to bring me his dead body next time, Chibs. Promise me, you won't," And with this words she left to the kitchen, waiting until Telford will pick Juice up and leave her alone.
Meanwhile, Jax waited for Gemma to take Abel and then he finally got to the club. He was about to talk to Clay about this Cartel-shit again, to tell him that he want the club out of it and that they need to have another vote. He noticed that Clay didn't come yet, so he decided to spend a little time with Ellie, who was standing behind the bar counter with a tired and worried expression on her face.
"Hey, El. Is everything alright?" He asked, approaching her. Ellie waited for a few seconds and then she just let all that words to slip from her lips.
"Last night I was stitching Juice on Thea's kitchen. We were sitting in the living room, talking about some pointless stuff I don't even remember now, and then they just knocked on our door. When I first saw him with all that blood and pain on his face, I thought I won't be able to do anything, just like Thea. All the time she was standing behind us, trying to take control over herself. And then I ended up taking a bullet out of his leg and stitching up the wound, 'cause I knew I had to do that, for him, for her. But the thing that really scared me was not the gunshot wound, but my calmness in this situation. Wasn't I supposed to be shocked and terrified?" She sighed as she didn't need and answer to that. Jax watched as she continued to clean up everything around her despite that it wasn't necessary. It was her way to calm herself, just like Tara's was to treat him with all this shit, saying, that this isn't the right way to live. He could swear that he heard the words coming out of her mouth, could swear that he heard the sound of her voice with notes of anger and fear. And judgement. But Ellie was silent and obviously had no plans to hit him with morality lesson. She accepted all things that happened to her and, meeting such a reaction for the first time, Jax wasn't sure how he need to act about it.
"Sometimes people around us get hurt, and sometimes…" He didn't end though it was clear what he was about to say. He put his hand on Ellie's, making her look at him. "Most of the people here don't like us for a reason, Ellie, and we can't blame them. And we won't blame you if you decide that this, I mean, all of this is something you are not ready to deal with. 'Cause what happened to Juice is not the worst thing that happens here," Teller said quietly. Ellie shook her head and put her other hand on his. Her voice was soft but yet very confident.
"It may be hard to believe, but this kind of life is something I got used to. Well, not exactly this kind, but..." She broke, looking somewhere down. "Just know that I'm here, if you… if all of you will ever need my help," It seemed like they stayed like this for eternity, but the moment was broken by the sudden appearance of Clay. Jax excused and left Ellie, asking Clay for a minute. The impression was that Morrow already understood what conversation will be about.
"I want you to organize the council. This shit has already come to far, Clay, and it will go further."
"Do not forget that you were the one who vote 'yay' for fucking coke," hissed Morrow. The other members of SAMCRO showed up just about at time to see this little scene.
"I changed my mind. And I bet the others too. Organize the council, Clay. Now," And with this words Jax left him and walked directly to the room with the reaper. Morrow looked after him with undisguised displeasure. He didn't like how uncontrolled his step-son have become and how he started to resemble his father. He knew well what this kind of behavior will lead to, he remembered how he found once the only way to keep everything under his control. And he really didn't want a repeat, just as much as he didn't want to follow Jax's lead so easily. But seemed like he didn't have a choice and just hoped that no matter what Teller conceived, he won't succeed. Made a knock on a door to the chapel to capture attention, he rumbled:
"Get-together. Call the rest," And he entered the room after Jax, obviously overstepping himself. Sitting at the head table, he looked at him fixedly. "What you want to achieve, Jax?"
"I want to protect our club from that kind of shit that happened these days. Coke, man…" He shook his head. "That's too much. I thought that maybe we can handle it, but everything says the otherwise. Brother against brother, really?"
"If Miles was a rat he would shit on club's business no matter what it would be. Don't blame drugs for people's rot," Clay grinned wickedly. "Just admit that we fucked up with that boy and forget."
"Forget for how long? Until another betrayal will hit us, or unless someone will die for nothing by mistake? I doubt that you want that blood on coke to be our blood."
"And what you wanna do, just walk out? It doesn't work like that, son," He leaned a bit forward. "Either you have a fucking magical plan, or you leave this idea."
"We'll see," Jax put out his cigarettes, decided that as well as the others started to gather, the conversation can be considered as completed. He didn't want to admit out loud that he understood that Clay was right. They couldn't just walk away from this partnership without any consequences, so they needed a plan that will please everybody, including the Cartel.
"What's the emergency, man?" Tig sat to the left of Clay, looking pretty confused, just as everybody else. When Happy, who was the last one, came in and closed the door, Morrow straightened his back.
"We should ask our VP," Seemed like he wanted to put Jax in an uncomfortable position, but Teller wasn't embarrassed at all. He just extinguished his cigarette, making a small meaningful pause.
"The emergency is that our deal with Romeo was a mistake. I know that it sounds inconsistently, 'cause I was one of those who voted up for it, but in the light of recent events..." He involuntary looked at the empty chair where Juice was usually sitting. "I thought it would be safer to accept Cartel's offer than to go against it, but I'm not so sure anymore. What it already brought to us and what may come in future is completely unpredictable, so the best way for the club is to step back till we're not too deep in this shit."
"You needed awhile to get to that, huh?" said Piney from the other side of the table.
"And how will we step back, Jackie-boy?" It went without saying, that Chibs will support him, but he really didn't see a clear way out.
"I'm not sure yet," Teller admitted. "But first goes the question if we're really gonna do this because no doubts that it's risky. No guarantees that we'll succeed, but in my opinion..." And he didn't have a chance to finish, 'cause his speech was interrupted by the sound of gunshots and breaking window panes that made everyone reflexively throw themselves on the floor. Whistle of bullets above their heads lasted about ten seconds more and then everything turned quiet. In the clouds of dust and gunsmoke sounded a couple of curses.
"Is everybody okay?" Shouted Jax, trying to raise up on his feet. He heard affirmative answers. When he finally stood up, he rushed to the shattered window to see who attacked them, but black truck already disappeared behind the corner. "Fuck."
If he needed some sign from someone above... Well, he got it.