author's note: thanks to anon, too lazy log in, shl and lazysmurf247 for the first ever reviews! cheers and appreciation! i hope everyone enjoys this next installment

They approached her, Bobby and Juice joining them. The newcomer stood her ground. She didn't look particularly concerned, even as they surrounded her and Tig poked at Happy with the toe of his boot. Their brother didn't move a muscle.

"He your friend?" She didn't look particularly apologetic either.

Bobby eyed her. "How'd you know?"

"Wild guess."

"That be one hell of a right hook, lassie," Chibs commented.

"Left."

He nodded. "I be a southpaw meself."

"You should tell your friend it isn't a good idea to sneak up on people." The girl's voice was so mild she could have been talking about the weather. She put her hands in her pockets.

Jax approached her, stopping so close she had to look up at him. Her stance remained relaxed, she didn't move, not even when he bent his head close and deliberately gave her his most insolent stare. His eyes narrowed a bit. She was just a kid, or seemed to be, her upturned face completely devoid of makeup, the wealth of dark hair surrounding it having the benefit of no product other than a good shampoo. Mint-scented shampoo, he could smell it.

"Why are you staring at my house?," he asked, so pleasantly it was menacing.

She didn't seem impressed. "I'm looking for someone."

Her eyes were the amber color of a great spiced rum Bobby had once made him try, the lashes long and curly like a kid's doll. Chocolate-mint hair, strawberry lips, skin the color of honeyed cream - damned if the girl didn't remind him of all the good things he liked to eat. When she got a little older guys would be wanting to unwrap her like a piece of candy.

"And who might you be looking for?"

"I'm looking for Tara Knowles. I was told she might be here."

Fearless, tasty, and direct.

Jax took a half step closer so the girl had to crane her neck even further backwards. "Who told you that?"

"I have my sources."

Mysterious, too. Better and better.

"What do you want with Tara? Why are you interested in her?"

"I'm not, really, I just want to ask her about the person I'm really looking for."

"And who would that be?"

"Joshua Kohn."

Sons of Anarchy. The motorcycle gang Tara Knowles' ex-boyfriend ran around with. In fact, she was sure she was looking up at the ex right now. He was right in her face, probably trying to scare her, though he'd pulled back just the slightest bit when she'd said Kohn's name. His eyes had sparked, and the sudden tension in his frame did not escape her. Oh he knew Kohn all right, and not in the BFF kind of way. Now to see how much info she could squeeze out of him.

Jax gathered his wits, having been thrown off for a moment by the girl's declaration. She was still looking up at him and he thought crazily that she had the steadiest, most direct gaze of anyone he had ever met in his life. Eyes were a dead giveaway, which was why just about everyone he knew either hid theirs behind sunglasses or never held anyone's gaze very long. Not so this girl. The steadiness of her gaze was discomfitting, he almost got the feeling like she could see right through him.

He had to get it together and fast.

"Who are you, and what do you want with Tara and Kohn?"

"My name's Sara Taylor and that's my business."

"You coming around my house kind of makes it my business, too."

The girl was not fazed. "If you look down you'll see we're standing on the sidewalk. Public property."

Unable to argue with that, Jax took a last drag from his dying cigarette and blew the smoke gently across her upturned face. Her only reaction was to blink to keep the smoke from getting in her eyes. He smiled a bit. "You're not fluttering your eyelashes at me, are you?"

"Would it scare you if I was?"

The rest of the group watched the banter with interest. It was no secret that Jax got his dukes up whenever there was a threat to Tara, real or imagined. They knew Kohn to be the ATF agent who had been sniffing around, but what could possibly connect him to both Tara and this slip of a girl was a question that could have very interesting or very disturbing answers, no matter that Kohn had been sent away. Their VP did not look happy. It was understandable. Usually, people who posed a threat to the Sons were candidates for a beating or a retaliatory shooting. Threats did not often come in the form of small girls with big eyes. Also, Jax didn't often interact with females in this way, mostly he was used to the type who hung around waiting for a chance to jump his bones. Right now he was obviously racking his brains for something to say to this one.

Bobby and Juice exchanged glances and then Bobby called out "You Kohn's daughter?"

She glanced over, her expression droll. "Seriously, dude?"

"Well, you do look about twelve."

"Maybe thirteen," Chibs added.

"I'm twenty-three, not that it's any of your business. And no, I'm not his daughter."

"What then?" Jax asked. For some reason the possibility that Kohn was banging this girl turned his stomach.

"That's between Kohn and me." Her voice was quiet but firm, she even shrugged a bit. "So is anybody going to tell me anything? Or am I just going to have to go comb this town for Tara and get his whereabouts out of her?"

He had reacted. Out of the corner of her eye she had seen Jax Teller react and the bad feeling she had gotten when Kohn's trail had come to an abrupt stop suddenly grew tenfold. Something had happened to Kohn - and Tara Knowles was involved. Oh boy. Oh boy.

Nobody was answering her question. How telling was that? Strange how people had never figured out that one could deduct just as much from what they were not saying as from anything they blurted out loud.

Time to go.

Sara took a couple of steps back, and when it was obvious that noone was going to say anything, she turned on her heel and began to walk away.

"Kohn is gone."

Sara stopped like she was shot. She turned back to Jax Teller. "Gone? Gone where?"

"Back to Chicago. He was AWOL and his bosses wanted him back."

Sara felt herself beginning to frown, caught herself, and carefully schooled her expression. "Why was he AWOL?," she asked and saw Jax actually shift his feet uncomfortably. This was feeling worse and worse.

"He was working a case here or something."

Or something.

All the swear words she knew wanted to come to the surface but Sara kept them down. She had always found it good policy to be direct and honest to the point where it didn't affect what she needed to do, because it kept the lies to a minimum (and consequently the need to keep them all straight) and had the added bonus of making one seem trustworthy and unthreatening. But she was past that point now. Jax Teller already saw her as a threat, ever since she mentioned Tara's name. And forget the trust, MCs never trusted anyone not their own. She wondered if telling them about the guy in the parked car who had been watching them for the past half hour would gain her a few brownie points, enough to make them tell her more of what they knew about Kohn. She decided against it. The dude in the car was yet an unknown and she needed to look into that first. It might have nothing to do with Kohn at all but she needed to make sure. If she told them about him these leather-jacketed biker types would almost certainly take the direct, relatively unimaginative approach of trashing the guy's car or beating him up. Or at least scaring him away. She had to find out who and what the observer was about first. And if he was tied up with Kohn and his mysterious return to Chicago. Which she knew probably never happened because his trail never started up again.

Making up her mind that she had gotten about as much info from the Sons of Anarchy as she was going to get, Sara nodded and began to walk away. Jax called after her again.

"Where you going?"

It was best to answer. "Police station to ask about Kohn."

"Yeah, well, leave Tara out of this."

Sara did not respond.

Jax watched the girl walk away, a feeling of dread settling over him like a cloud. When they'd first come face to face he'd felt something prickle at the back of his neck. A warning? A premonition? He wasn't superstitious but it had been an almost sixth sense kind of thing – something telling him this girl was going to be in his face quite a lot from that moment on. He felt around in his clothes for another cigarette. Damn but he needed a smoke. Bad.