reapergirl20141Thank you so so so so so so much for being my first reviewer. I hope that you continue to enjoy this fic bc the first one to review is always really special. Let me know what you think, good or bad

Guest – Thanks for your review! I really appreciate you taking the time to read the first chap and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you like this one too

A/N: So this is the direction that story is headed in. Sorry for the spelling and grammar issues I know are in here - - - Beta reader anyone? I wanted to get this out soon because of all you great people putting it on your alerts and favs. I hope you enjoy this

Bare My Skin

Chapter 2: Because You Asked

A week had gone by since the embarrassing incident at Tara's funeral. Thankfully Charles had stayed true to his word though and had something lined up for me afterwards. A detective he used to know when he was still on the force was coming back into town for the week. My job was to "keep him busy", direct quote.

Using my body to get what I wanted had begun with puberty and I didn't see it ending anytime soon. This was a normal request from my uncle. Most of my time was spent keeping his old buddies entertained while he robbed them blind, OR being the gentle caress to smooth over a harsh situation. Technically I wasn't obligated to sleep with anyone to accomplish it, but it happened more then I'd care to admit.

Somehow every bad thing I had done in recent years I could make some justification for. If getting on my knees, or holding a gun to someone head meant providing for my son, there was no downside to me. He deserved the world and I was going to work my ass off to get him as much of it as I could.

Cayden was nine going on 29, and had distanced himself from me recently. It started to happen as I pulled in more jobs, working late, and a couple of times I hadn't seen him for days. Even though his father and I separated four years ago, I couldn't shake the feelings that maybe he'd be happier with his dad.

We'd broken up when our relationship became an unsalvageable mess of lies and cheating, on both parts. One night he came home piss ass drunk after promising to cut back. We'd talked about working on things earlier that day and I, the ever-fucking-idiot, had truly believed he meant it. After spending the day chastising myself for being such a shitty wife, to see him show up like that…I snapped. Basically all I remember is jumping from our brown leather couch so fast my head was spinning, and the rest was an awful, bloody night that I wasn't proud of.

With my new black eye, the $5,000 I'd manage to put away, and my adorable son still sleeping like a baby, we were out of there. I'd never felt more relived crossing the Texas line, knowing in my heart I wouldn't ever have to be back.

My alarm started playing some new pop song I hadn't heard yet. I tuned the setting to off and decided I'd rather not be alone in my thoughts any longer. Pulling on a pair of shorts to go with my oversized shirt, I began my way to the kitchen.

The apartment wasn't too big, but it fit our lives well enough. It had three bedrooms, with a small kitchen and dining area off the side, as well as a decent sized living room. The building itself was nice, with good security and no bugs. Cayden was sitting on the couch, already playing some video game.

"Hey my handsome man," I said kissing his head, "how'd you sleep?" Wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug he was forced to pause the game.

"Good, I didn't hear you come in last night," he gave me what I can only classify as a stern look. I hated to admit that a lot of the time my nine year old made me feel like the child.

"Well that's because I was working late last night Cay. I texted you around eight that I wasn't sure when I'd be home, Graciela said you were ok." He had begged me for a cell phone for months before I'd given in. At his age I was less worried what he would see with it, and more concerned with the situations he may need it to get out of.

"Yeah but you said you'd be home sometime after supper. You've been home a lot later this week and we haven't gotten to spend any time together," he was making me feel like shit.

"What do you want to do baby? I'll make some time for you." Cayden was looking down, and I couldn't figure out if he was actually upset. This could easily become one of his "I want something and I'm not afraid to guilt you into it" speeches.

"Mom, you have to promise to listen to me." I nodded my head. "Ryan has GTA 5 already and it's not fair that" I gave him a look that said I was already done with this conversation.

"Video games have rating for a reason Cayden, you're nine. You want to play a game where you shoot cops…your uncle was a cop, you need to respect them," bullshit my brain sang. Honestly I just didn't want my baby any closer to lives that those games portrayed than I'd already brought us.

"Every one of my friends has it! I can play it anywhere I want. Why won't you just let me"

"Cayden Samuel Sanchez stop back talking your mother and go get ready for school," he looked angry but stood up went to his room without another world. Too bad the order didn't come from me.

"Good morning Graciela," I smiled, turning to her, "didn't hear you come in." Gracie was my off and on live in nanny. Years back, one of Collette's girls had mentioned to Charlie that her mom was going through a bad divorce. She couldn't keep loaning her money, so the woman needed some kind of job. Charlie suggested that she come work for me, and the rest was history.

"You keep allowing that boy to speak to you that way and he's going to grow up thinking that is how he's supposed to treat all girls," she said shaking her finger at me. "You don't have to take that just because you're his mother. He needs to learn"

"He's nine and he wants to fit in here. I can't blame him for that Gracie..." Moving past her I popped a French vanilla K-Cup into my Keurig, needing caffeine to handle the day already.

"If you let every man use you as his doormat, one day you're going to wake up Mina, peel yourself of the floor, and realize there's nothing pretty about you left," and then she walked into the laundry room, no doubt leaving me to mull over her words of wisdom.

"Nothing pretty left," I mumbled childishly at her retreating frame. Her tidbits of wisdom were not needed, however true they may be.

Grabbing the finished cup of coffee I added a little more milk and sugar before retreating to my room. I'd showered the night before, after getting home from my "hot date" with Detective Shane. He seemed happy enough to just have my company, which was a win for me. Putting on the sugar sweet, naive, younger girl role, usually worked for me, although it was pretty much the opposite of my bitchy, angry brunette self.

My closet was basically separated into two sections. One held my normal clothes: hoodies, yoga pants, leather jackets, band t's, and my favorite pair of black broken in riding boots. They'd been a present from Keith a few weeks before I'd left. I made sure to wear them almost every time I'd ridden bitch on some other guy's bike in the years since.

The other half was all pretty much dresses and skirts, arranged from sluttiest to the more business oriented section. When I had jobs on the books I tried to my best to look the part, even though I could never hold honest work that long. The two years spent earing my accounting degree at Peralta Community College in Oakland wasn't really opening many doors.

After taking a stroll down memory lane, via my closet, I'd chosen a red wrap dress that clung tight to my body. Although I was only 5'4, it still went just above my knee. I grabbed a pair of black stilettos from the edge of my shoe rack that completed the look. My hair was curly from my shower last night, so all I had to do was makeup and I was ready to leave.

"Mom," there was a pounding on my door, "Gracie is taking me to school now." I made sure to open it with a smile.

"You know I want to give the world, but I just want you to be a good person too okay? That's important," he just nodded and I pulled some money from my wallet. "Why don't you see if you can get her to let you stop at the mall after school? No Grand Theft Auto, but I'm sure you can find something cool." I smiled at him hopefully.

He grabbed the money in a second and threw his arms around me. "Thanks mom, I love you."

"Love you too baby, I'm going to be home late again tonight but it should slow down soon. Be good," I ruffled his hair before he nodded and walked away.

"Goodbye Wilhelmina, be careful today," my nanny warned using my full first name. Why did I feel like she knew something I didn't?

[[[x|J|&|M|x]]]

"It's about time you got your lazy ass down here Mina. I been calling you for hours," Charles yelled, coming outside the door of his shop.

"What's up," I asked, tentatively pulling my sunglasses off to get a better look at him. Knowing him for most of my life I could tell there was something going on. He usually never came outside to greet me, which meant he must have been watching through the window.

"Do you listen to your goddamn voicemails kid? What do have a fucking phone for?" I scanned around him as he spoke, uninterested in being scolded like a child. Everything seemed normal until I spotted the cause of his uneasiness.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Jax's bike was easily set apart from others with all the money he'd put into it. "I don't have shit else to say to him. Why the fuck wouldn't you tell me he was here?" Charlie gave me a look that said, "are you serious right now", and I remembered he had called.

"Calm down kiddo, guy just wants to talk."

"You heard what he said at the funeral! I was okay with letting it slide there but you must be getting really fucking old if you think I'm putting up with any of his shit out here." I could see Charlie thinking over if this had been a good idea or not. Stockton was my turf, no matter how much shit illegal shit the Sons of Anarchy were trying to pull here.

"He just needs someone he can trust for a job. Talk to him, see if you want it."

"So you suggested me? You think he's gunna trust me with whatever shit he has going on?"

"Just calm the fuck down Mina," my eyes snapped up to him angrily, "I see that look you're giving me, and it isn't gunna get you nowhere with him. One night working for him is gunna give you a hell of a lot more than playing around Shane's nuts. You wanna walk away from that just because you can't get pretty boy's nuts anymore, that's on you."

"You're a dick," I relented, because he knew my answer.

"After you," he held the door open to his store. Some pretty bad, and weird ass shit had gone down in here, but nothing compared complacent looking Jax Teller. He was sitting casually at one of the few tables, coffee in one hand and the other browsing a through a newspaper.

He looked up when we came in, and walked over to him, putting on my best business face

-\\Jax's Pov/-

Sitting at one of the tables in Barosky's store, drinking my third coffee of the day, trying to look interested in the newspaper the guy before me had left behind, I realized how old I was getting. The sleepless nights since Tara's murder were taking their tole on me. No amount of croweaters or Jack Daniels was making me feel any better.

I was hoping that once I tortured the man that had taken the most beautiful, wonderful woman from my life that I would be able to feel like myself again. My boys needed me, now more than ever. Gemma had stepped up, taking over in mine and their mother's absence, but she couldn't do it forever.

I didn't want to admit that I was anxious to see Mina again, that I had been since the day I met her. There was something about the way she carries herself, like she doesn't give a fuck about anyone else's bullshit, and the way she spoke, funny, but serious, she said shit to me that made me feel like a man, not an outlaw. Then there was the way he body trembled under mine, and how she bit her lip when she rode me, making her look innocent in a way she clearly wasn't.

Pulled from my thoughts from the jingle of the front door bell I laid my eyes on her for the first time in over a week. She looked fucking amazing in a red dress and heels, her curly hair left freely around her shoulders, and her red lips calling my name.

This is part that I was having trouble dealing with. I could be the president of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, I could be a dad, but I was a shitty ass widower. I needed someone, anyone to make me forget how much I loved my wife. Memories of Tara were unrelenting, reeling through my head, day in and day out, assaulting me with the choices I should have made, the…

"Jax…Charles said you wanted to talk to me," I nodded trying to shake myself from my own thoughts.

"Yeah umm, sit down…I guess just shit Mina," I couldn't form a complete sentence with her this close to me. Was I turning in to a fucking teenager again? Maybe it's a midlife crisis…I should ask Bobby about this shit.

"Listen, first off, I wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said to you at the funeral. I got out of the hole earlier that day, had an unwelcomed visitor, and somehow made it to the end of my wife's funeral…I just wasn't thinking clearly," she looked truly surprised by my words which made me uncomfortable. Did I want her to think I was always that much of an asshole? Maybe I was. Look what I'd done to Ima…could I ever be that way with her?

"You just got shit on for being there," she wasn't saying anything, "Barosky backed up your story."

"Jax I get it. I shouldn't have been there in the first place. I hope your son is ok and that he's not more confused or anyting?" She seemed genuinely concerned, but nervous to bring him up. I could blame her after the way I'd acted.

"He's doing a little better," I was debating telling her that we had written a letter together to his mom on a balloon. We let it go up into sky because my son claimed "Gramma was rude before she told me how to get it to heaven."

"That's good to hear…" She trailed off, probably not knowing what to say anymore. I cleared my throat.

"So what I need you to do for me is pretty simple. Tonight we are having a party at Red Woody. You know where it is?" She just nodded. "There are going to be a lot of different crews there but I'll signal to you when the guy you need gets there."

"What am I supposed to do with him?" I could tell she was getting nervous, probably wondering if I was going to ask her to have sex with some horn dog old biker.

"You don't have to fuck him. My mom's going to talk to him first. You glance at her every once in a while and see how it's going. She'll talk to you and give you some tips about what to say, and what he said to her. All you have to do is to get him out of the studio, and down into the back alley. I'll have some boys waiting to take care of him from there." I stopped talking, unable to read the now blank look on her face.

I was beginning to realize maybe Mina wasn't as simple as I'd first thought. She had a hell of a poker face on right now. From what Barowski told me this job was right up her alley. She was beautiful, young, and she could be trusted to keep her mouth shut and NEVER go to the cops.

"How much does it pay?" He could see she was putting a wall up. This was a business transaction, and she wanted it treated that way.

"I'll give you one grand. $500 before, $500 after," she raised her eyebrows at me.

"Jackson you just told me that this guy's whole crew is going to be around tonight, and other crews. There's a good chance some is going to see me leave with him and if he ends up dead, I'll be one of the first people they look for."

"Darlin we just need to talk to him. No one's gunna die," I lied smoothly. "Everyone there is going to be drinking and enjoying the company at the party. We'll make sure no one's see's you two leaving. I've got enough guys to make sure shit stays straight." She had a funny look on, her eyes brows raised with a tight smile.

"Tell you what, I'll do $2500 for the whole thing. That covers my ass a little if I have to lay low afterwards, while you get the best in the business" she turned from me to inspecting her nails. I hadn't expected this side of her, the haggler, the woman who knew what her unusual service was worth…it was kind of turning me on.

"I'll do two grand, final offer. Your ass is fine," she snorted a little at the comment but nodded her head in agreement. I hadn't meant for it to come out like that but I liked to see the smile now on her face. "I'll text you the details, ok? You got a burner?"

"Yea, give me yours. I'll put it in." I smirked at her choice of words as I reached into my pocket and pulled mine out, sliding it across the table.

"So how's that newspaper treating you old man?"