Bullets to Bottles chapter 2
It was a long ride from Northern California to New Orleans for Juice, Coyote and Lino. More so for Juice since he was riding away from the very charter that would have sooner introduced him to Mr. Mayhem than help him back up.
Before leaving Vegas, Coyote performed an intervention of sorts. It involved him cutting down Juice's motorcycle in a hailstorm of bullets from his Thompson 1928A1 submachine gun. When Juice asked why he did it, Coyote said, "That bike was what you rode in California and that road is behind you along with all your old ways."
Lino then gave Juice the keys to a Vivid Black Harley Davidson Dyna Super Glide with blacked out highway bars and custom fairing with the SoA Reaper on the sides of it. Before Juice could thank him for it, the SAMCAGO Sergeant at Arms pulled him close and whispered, "This is a new start for you, Juice. Do not make Coyote regret sticking his neck out for you."
For the trip, Coyote left his Seventy Two Sportster at home and took his Street Bob with custom 14" ape hangers and saddle seat for long distance comfort. Lino preferred his Dyna Street Bob with Z bars. With that, they rode out to meet the future head on together.
SAMNOLA, the New Orleans charter of the Sons of Anarchy MC, welcomed them with open arms. They insisted on sharing some of their famous Southern Hospitality, which was accepted graciously by the visiting Sons.
Juice opted to set up camp at the bar where he silently nursed a beer. Since Tara...went away, he had not been getting much in the way of sleep. There were also moments where he found himself standing in the lot of Teller Morrow Auto Repair, holding guns he never held before. Guns that had just been fired.
A large hand landing right on his shoulder both shook him out of his mental funk and made him jump half a foot up from his seat. Turning to his left, Juice saw the face of Hank 'Swamp Man' McCoy looking right at him as he sat next to him.
"Ain't nobody here who isn't a friend or brother to ya, Juice."
"Sure, Swamp Man." Juice said as he went back to his beer.
"What got you so spooked?"
"I've been through a lot on the West Coast." Juice said, hoping he wouldn't dig any deeper.
For as long as Hank could remember, SAMNOLA threw some of the finest MC parties seen in New Orleans. No one, if any, had a frown or felt pensive at a SAMNOLA party. To see a brother, even one he never really knew personally, feeling down at the party sent up a big red flag for the Bayou born Son.
Without asking anything, Hank took the bottle from Juice. "Young man, if you're planning to knock out whatever it is that's taking up space in that place between your ears, it's gonna take something a lot stronger than beer." Waving over one of the bartenders, Hank said, "Darlin, go in the back. Fetch me a jar of my best."
She smiled and went into the back room of SAMNOLA's bar. A few moments later, she returned with a quart jar full of Hank's infamous shine and a rocks glass. Opening the jar, Hank poured a two finger shot of shine and put it right in front of Juice. "This will put steel in your spine, hair on your nuts, fire in your gut and light in your eyes."
Juice looked at the drink in the glass for a minute, drank it and instantly regretted downing the whole thing in one gulp. In a split second, he spat out what did not go down his throat, which was now on fire. Once he got a handle on himself, Juice sat down while trying to catch his breath. Hank slapped Juice on the back. "How d' ya feel, brotha?"
"Like I just ate a super nova that fell from the sky."
"Yeah. Good stuff, ain't it?" Hank said rhetorically before quickly changing topics. "Heard from Quinn that Coyote wanted you to transfer up north. How does it feel to be going back home?"
"I thought I had a home. I don't know what I think is home anymore." Juice said, knowing that Coyote did just that and much more.
Hank shook his head. That was the kind of talk that he would have normally heard from a Son who wanted to go Nomad. "I don't know why he did it but Coyote did not pull you out of Charming to have you bellied up at a bar, drowning your liver in hooch." Getting up from his seat, Hank went behind the bar, popped the caps off two Coronas, handed them to Juice. "You see those two girls playing pool over there?" Juice looked over at the billiards table in the corner and saw two sexy women playing pool. One was a brunette and the other was a blonde. Both looked like they frequently went to a gym and a tattoo parlor. "Yeah."Juice said.
"You need to remember what it means to live." Swamp Man said. "Take those Coronas to them and then take them to the nearest empty room."
When Juice finally got his throat burn under control, he took the Coronas from Hank and walked over to them.
It was a surprise to him when Ally Lowen paid him a visit. She feared him now as much as she did when he had her cornered in Unser's trailer. The security cameras and the guards outside did nothing to assuage her fear of the SAMCRO President who was now an imprisoned widower.
He did not speak to her. Not so much out of anger as it was a matter of having nothing else to say that could or would change anything.
"I tried to tell her that what she was doing, what she planned, was a felony. Nothing went through to her. I did not want to hurt you or your children, Jackson. After we last spoke together, I called her. Told her that you were not in the dark anymore about what was going on. She fired me."
"If this is some sort of conscience clearing confession, save it. I've lost more than you can imagine and nothing you are going to tell me is going to change anything."
"You do not get any attorney-client privilege on what I say next, Jackson. Even if you scared me before, you can not do anything to me without ruining the one chance you may have at going home to what's left of your family. Tara did terrible things to you. She lied to you about her pregnancy, set you against your mother and took off with your boys. I do not have any condolences for you, Tara or Gemma. The only ones I send my condolences to are Abel and Thomas. They are the only innocents involved in this."
With that, Lowen knocked on the door and was escorted out, leaving Jax all alone again with his thoughts and inner demons.
The sun had long since set when they were close to the border between Texas and Louisiana. It was around midnight when Coyote, Juice and Lino pulled over one of the first and few times that Juice ever had to camp out under the stars while on a run. For Coyote, it was nothing he had not done before.
After Coyote had started a fire, Lino started prepping a tin of beans while Juice looked through the rations. "Rye bread, rum, cheese, tins of black beans, trail mix, pears, peaches and granola bars."
"Yeah, kid. We're roughing it out in the wild. Don't like it, you can always go back to California. I bet they got a hole dug for ya."
"Lino, go easy on him. It's the first time, I imagine, that he's been out here like this." Coyote said, taking a quick swig of the rum before offering a shot to Juice.
"Yeah, Coyote. It is." Juice said as he gratefully accepted the drink. "Why did you want me to transfer up to New York, Coyote? What am I going to do for you?"
"I do not know what you did back in California but I know the sound of a man tortured by his own guilt and secrets." Putting an arm around Juice's shoulders, Coyote said, "It's time that you found your way back home."
"How is that? Going back up to New York after all this time?" Juice said.
"Flynn knows about your father. He wouldn't be a very good Intelligence Officer if he didn't." Coyote said directly. "That means everyone in SAMYORK knows too. That does not mean you're going to get the cut ripped off your back when we get there."
Juice looked at Coyote and asked, "How did you do it?"
"Do what?" Coyote asked.
"How did you succeed where I failed?"
"One foot in front of the other. It helps that I had a good sponsor to teach me along the way."
Once they finished their meal, Coyote quickly put out the fire. "Mount up. We got to get to Chicago tonight."
"What's up, Coyote?" Lino asked. "We're out in the woods. No one knows we're out here."
"Except for anyone who knows how to follow us. The longer we stay out in the open or away from a clubhouse, the more open we are to an attack. For Juice's sake as well as ours, it's Chicago or bust."
Coyote, Juice and Lino rode off into the night as though they were being pursued by some unseen threat.
Claire was on her prepaid cell phone while Marilyn was showering. "Yeah. We got here. Yes, we did. Juice never suspected anything. So I guess you'll be going after him once they get on the road." Claire paused for a moment, listening to what was being said to her.
Claire hung up the phone just in time for Marilyn to walk out of the shower, drying herself off with a towel without even bothering to cover up.
"They're on their way to Chicago." Claire said almost out of resignation.
"How do you think it's going to pan out?" Marilyn asked.
"It won't end well for someone. I can tell you that for sure." Claire said as she and Marilyn walked off to bed together. The tracking device on Juice's cut more than marked the mohawked Son for Mayhem.
A/n: Sorry for the delay. I kept being led in different directions about the second chapter. It took a long while before I could get something nailed down. In contrast to most stories that cover Tara's murder, Gemma's culpability and Jax's grief, Gemma is dead and Juice has the chance to be saved or put out of his misery. Only time will tell. Leave a review if you can but please be constructive in your criticism. Do not burn me on the reviews, anonymous or otherwise. Thank you.