Disclaimer-You know the drill, I only own my storylines and original characters, and never the Sons of Anarchy.
The ride across country had been some of the most fun Happy had had on a motorcycle in years. He always enjoyed riding, but in recent years he had spent a lot of time riding toward a destination and not just for the joy of catching the wind. He and Tig had decided to let Ace be the navigator, and she had kept them on their toes and guessing with the insane, circuitous route that she planned out.
They'd spent two days at the Grand Canyon, something that he'd never really bothered to stop and see. Tig had mostly grumbled about how fucking stupid it had been, but Happy had found himself fascinated by the sheer grandiosity of it, and by Ace's almost childlike enthusiasm for riding the rim at all different hours to see it in different lights. He was certain they'd broken half a dozen federal laws the night they'd hiked down one of the trails and found a hidden crevasse, but the thrill of fucking her there had been more than worth the risk.
Dallas had turned into a gigantic party, hosted by the charter there. It was a big charter, nearly as large as Tacoma, but every single member there had a huge personality to match their big state. They had only intended to overnight there, but Tig and Ace had gone shot for shot with tequila, so they ended up staying an additional night because neither one of them could stand the next morning.
Ace had been so captivated by New Orleans that they'd stay an entire week. She found the strangest little jazz bars, and had taken to wearing suspenders and a fedora every time they went out. She defended it by telling him that she couldn't drink scotch or smoke cigars without them. He followed her through the city, always intrigued with the things that caught her interest. She'd spent over an hour in a disturbing little voodoo book store, talking to the ancient old man who ran it. He didn't have a goddamn clue what they'd been talking about, but he thought Ace might have given him a heart attack, leaning over the counter, the old geezer had gotten a great view of her tits. He'd considered saying something to her, but figured the poor guy didn't have many thrills left to him before he kicked it. As enamored with the city as she had been, Happy thought they might end up staying another week, but Ace surprised him as always, and one morning he'd woken up to her packing their things with an intense look on her face. When he'd questioned her about it, she'd been direct, telling him that she was ready to see the end of Rivera, and so that had been that.
Their arrival in Miami had been unanticipated and therefore without fanfare. Ace had forbade him to call ahead, telling him that she didn't want all the fuss and stares that would come with any advanced notice. No one here knew her; all they knew of her was what had been done to her and why they had come. She had been right, of course, even Happy had been tired of the looks by the end of their first evening. His original plan had been to stay the night at the clubhouse and find something more suitable the next day, but he'd pulled aside the club's intelligence officer and gotten directions to a decent hotel instead. After Church that week, when the clubhouse and its deck were packed with members and hangarounds, he'd set her to work on the Road to Redemption piece, giving Miami something new to talk about.
It had taken nearly two weeks to draw Rivera out. Tig had started taking Ace out to any club that Viva thought Rivera might be frequenting, in the hope that in his youthful arrogance he wouldn't be able to resist trying to get at her. It hadn't exactly worked, but when Happy had finally run him down at the house he was staying at, Rivera had been completely terrified. He'd gotten glimpses of Ace out in Miami several times, and so he'd known that Happy couldn't be far behind. Rivera had been right and Happy had literally dragged him out of the house kicking and screaming, just before dawn.
One of the Miami charter's members owned a handful of nightclubs, and it was in the basement storeroom of one of these that Happy had been given room to work his will on Rivera. The only constraint was that Viva was sending a clean up crew at 6, so he needed to wrap things up. He was impressed that he'd been able to keep the shithead alive for nearly twelve hours, using a salt and baking soda solution to keep him from going into shock, and making very certain to avoid any large veins or arteries. Rivera was conscious, but he'd screamed himself hoarse, so all that came from his mouth were dry clicking noises and hisses. He wasn't even recognizably human any more, Happy had flayed the skin off of his face after he'd carefully removed his eyes. He'd pulled his fingernails and broken the bones in his feet and hands individually, giving the asshole plenty of time to come back to himself in between. Glancing at the clock, Happy decided that he'd had enough. He was sweat soaked and covered in blood and God only knew what other bodily fluids. He'd sacrificed his shirt hours before when he'd nicked a vein that bled far more than it should have, and he knew that he'd have to lose everything else, right down to his fucking boots to destroy any evidence.
Happy checked Rivera's pulse, still apparent, but getting a little thready. He left him hanging by his bound wrists and trudged up the stairs, trying to wipe the blood from his face with an equally disgusting forearm. He still wasn't comfortable with Ace being present for this, but Tig had threatened to go after Rivera himself if he didn't allow it, so he'd given in. The stairs let out into a dim hallway by the bathrooms, and he could hear Ace laughing from across the club. True to his word, Tig was between her and any access to Rivera. The pair of them were sitting cross legged on top of the white and chrome bar with playing cards stuck to their foreheads, both laughing like idiots, but Ace went silent the second she spotted him. To her credit, she didn't flinch at his appearance or look away. She swallowed hard once and pulled the card off of her forehead, snatching Tig's away, too.
"You ready?" Happy asked her, wishing she'd tell him to just finish it without her, but knew it was futile.
"As I'll ever be." She said, and held out a hand to him. He hesitated, not wanting to get blood on her clean hands, but she waited patiently until he finally reached up and lifted her down from the bar. On her feet, Ace pulled his face down to hers and kissed him. His hand had gone automatically to cradle her face, and when he pulled away he was momentarily horrified by the reddish brown smudge his hand had left on her cheek, but she just absentmindedly wiped it away with the back of her hand.
"You want me with you?" Tig asked, dividing the question evenly between both of them. Ace shook her head when Happy looked at her questioningly, and slid her hand into his.
"Nah." Happy answered for both of them. "Call Viva and tell him we're done here."
Happy stopped her several stairs from the bottom, before she could see Rivera. He could see her pulse hammering at the side of her neck, and he caught her wrist in between his thumb and forefinger to read her.
"Just stay here." He told her. "You don't have to come down, I'll be done in seconds and we can get out of here."
"Stop it, Hap." Ace warned, pulling her wrist out of his grasp. She retreated up a step so that her eyes were level on his. "We had a deal, big man. I swear to you, I'm fine, but I need this, and you're going to give it to me."
Happy knew he was, he hadn't gotten any better at telling her no. It was his saving grace that she didn't have a fucking clue how much sway she actually held over him. He drew her down the rest of the stairs, walking backward so that he could watch her face. He thought he might be more anxious about this than she was. She'd told him more than a few times that nothing he could do would change the way she felt about him, but this was a whole different thing, her seeing it right in front of her. He'd prepared himself for all kinds of reactions, from fear to revulsion to outright horror, but he should have known that he could never predict what Ace would do under any circumstance. Her eyes were huge as she took in the scene in the basement, but her face only held curiosity and a hint of lingering anger. She started to push past him to get a closer look, but he couldn't let her go near him, incapacitated or not.
"Don't." He said, stopping her with a hand on her hip. She tore her eyes away from Rivera and looked up at him. She knew exactly what he needed, and took the stop back that put Happy between her and Rivera.
"Is that really him?" She asked, her voice sounding loud in the room.
"Yeah, that's really him." Happy told her, and forced himself to walk her up to Rivera so she could get a real good look at his handiwork. "You hanging in there?" He asked, looking down past his shoulder at her. He'd been afraid she would be pale or sick, but she had an expression of complete loathing on her face, and it rocked him a little.
"I hate him." She growled and turned the full force of her gaze on him. He turned his back on Rivera so that he was facing her, and pulled her against him, no longer caring about contaminating her, he just needed badly to feel her. He kissed the top of her head, hating Tig for being right about how she would react.
"I know you do, baby, but it's almost over now." He murmured, making up his mind. He pulled his knife and pressed it into her hand. Moving so that he was behind her, he wrapped his own hand over top of hers and pushed them both within easy striking distance of the shell that used to be Carlos Rivera. Ace leaned heavily back against him and he paused to kiss the top of her shoulder. Happy wasted no more time, gripping the back of Rivera's head with his free hand, and sliding the knife into his empty left eye socket, penetrating through to the brain. Ace turned her face away at the sickening squelch when Happy pulled the blade free. He released her hand from under his and let her turn herself into him. Holding her with one arm, he pressed two fingers to Rivera's neck, confirming that he was indeed, very dead.
"It's done." Happy told her, pulling her chin up so he could see her face. Her eyes were clear and she looked completely at peace, and he was instantly hard. He drew her away from the gruesome scene, pressing her back against some metal shelving and slamming his mouth down on hers. In the back of his mind he knew that this was completely fucked up, but he couldn't seem to make himself stop. His hands were under her shirt when he heard several pairs of boots coming down the stairs. He stepped away and smoothed down her shirt quickly. His reputation as a psychopath didn't really bother him, but being caught fucking his old lady at a crime scene wasn't going to do anything good for hers, and he did care about that.
"Thank you." Ace told him seriously, she must have known what this had cost him. He cleared his throat and nodded, drawing his thumb across her cheekbone.
"Holy fuck." Viva's voice boomed in a cross between admiration and disgust. Happy towed Ace behind him by the hand.
"Knife needs to go, too." He told Viva, dropping it at Rivera's feet. He didn't acknowledge the stares from his Miami brothers, it just meant that he'd successfully managed to deflect the attention from what had been done to Ace back to what he was capable of. "Tig will get the rest of this stuff to you in an hour, and we'll be gone by nightfall." He indicated his clothes, and Ace's, too.
"We'll handle it." Viva answered, surveying the room.
"Thanks, brother." Happy clapped hands with him, took one more look back at his handiwork, and went up the stairs. Ace followed him into the bathroom, where he washed up as best he could.
"Ready, big man?" She asked and he nodded. He wanted to get her in a shower fucking immediately and drill her so hard that she'd be walking funny tomorrow. Tig tossed him his cut, and fell into step with them as they vacated the building. He felt more than saw the look Tig shot to Ace questioning what had transpired, and since Ace didn't answer out loud, he knew that Tig had probably known all along how it would go and just wanted confirmation from Ace.
Heading out onto the streets of Miami with the scent of the ocean on the wind and his old lady's arms wrapped underneath his cut, her skin hot on his, Happy couldn't help but think that this is what true freedom felt like.