All we had were two months of wedded bliss before our world fell apart. We had a wonderful and amazing honeymoon in San Diego. Juice had rented a house off right off of the ocean. I loved the ocean, the smell of salt water and feeling the cool spray off it on my face. We spent the week we were there lying about in the sun and basking in the glory of each other. We even tried to surf, I have to say I was much better at it than Juice was. Probably all my years of boxing and knowing how to keep my center. Sadly our week in San Diego ended and we spent the next week slowly making our way back to Charming, stopping at cities along the way to do sightseeing. I liked having Juice to myself, away from the club. He was carefree, it was something I didn't see very often and something I wanted to see more of. I knew when we got back to Charming it would be back to normal business.
We rode into the lot at Teller-Morrow just as the sun was setting on a Friday night. The clubhouse was already littered with croweaters and friends of the club. I was happy to be home but wished we would have went to our house first. But Juice needed to check in and let them know he was back home.
He got off the bike and held his hand out for me. "Come on, we won't stay long. I want to get you home and wash all that road dirt off of you." He smirked seductively at me.
"Promise?" I grinned at the thought of sudsing up with Juice.
"Oh yeah." He kissed my neck as we started to walk into the club house.
"Get a room!" a voice called out, it was Chibs. "You'd think you would have had enough of each other already." He smiled from the picnic table.
"Hey Chibs." I smiled at him as we walked by.
"Good to have you home sweetheart." He called.
"It's good to be home."
I hadn't forgotten the smell of the club house, cigarette smoke, alcohol and pussy. Not an aroma that hits you nicely when you hadn't been around it for a while. I gagged slightly and gently pulled Juice to the bar. If I had to be there I would have a drink. Rat was working behind the bar, he pushed a darker colored beer towards me.
"Thanks, Rat." I took the beer. "You're a mind reader." I took a long drink of the cool brown liquid. It tasted just like home. I turned and looked at Juice who also had a beer in his hand. "I will let you go about your business so we can go home." I smiled at him as I walked over to the table with the girls.
Come to think about it, that night was the beginning of the troubles. I never got my sudsy rubdown from Juice, he got too involved in club business. I resented it but I knew what I married into. I should have been paying attention to signs, the guys were gone more and more, they seemed to be more on edge when they were home. Happy especially, he was distant and angry. I tried to get him to talk to me but he refused, he shut down. I hated see him that way. I knew something major was up and I knew Gemma knew what it was but she was tight lipped about it. I couldn't get even a hint. Donna and Tara knew something was going on as well but they weren't sure what was up.
Then that day came, my world was about to crash down on me…I was in the kitchen doing dishes when my cell phone rang.
"Ky, you need to come to the club house right away!" It was Tara, she sounded worried.
I didn't question her, I just got in my car and sped down to Teller-Morrow. By the time I got there the place was surrounded by Charming and County police. I parked on the street and ran into the lot. I was in a panic, this was the first time anything like this had happened while I had lived in Charming.
"Juice?!" I yelled as I saw him with most of the sons lying on their stomachs on the ground next to their bikes. I started to run towards them.
"Stop!" One of the cops turned and pointed his gun at me.
I stopped in my tracks staring at Juice who had looked at me when I screamed out his name. I could see the cop's hands shaking, I took that as my opportunity. "You know you aren't going to shoot me." I took a step further from the cop and towards the group of me lying on the ground.
"I said, Stop!" He repeated. His hands were shaking ever harder now but his gun remained aimed in my direction.
I stared at him for a second and then looked over at Juice who was staring down the cop who had his gun pointed at me. He looked like he was close to trying to get up and go after the cop. I turned back to the cop, "Look at your hands shake, do you really think you are ready to shoot an unarmed, defenseless woman?" I held my hands up slightly to show him how "defenseless" I was. His gun remained pointed at me.
"What the fuck are you doing Keith?" A voice came out of the distance and seemed to be closing in. It was David Hale. Thank God saved by the sheriff. "Lower your gun!" He yelled at him as he walked up to us.
"She just stormed in here. She could be armed for all we know."
"She isn't armed, now lower your gun!" He walked up to me and grabbed me by my arm. "What do you think you are doing?" He whispered sternly.
"I was told to get up here so that is what I did. What is going on?" I asked as we walked closer to the club members who I now noticed were all handcuffed with their arms behind their backs. I apart of me shuttered inside seeing Juice laying there on the ground along with the other members. I knew what he was capable but I guess part of me thought he was impervious. Obviously he was not.
David turned to me, "They're going to jail."
"What?" How could they allow this to happen? I could feel my anger, pain and betrayal burning inside of me.
"I can't tell you why. But I can let you say goodbye to Juice if you want." I nodded. "Officer Johnson, please get Mr. Ortiz and bring him here." The police officer nodded and walked over and jerked Juice up from the ground. He looked at him with such anger in his eyes. I am sure he was still reeling from the gun that was just pointed at his wife. Officer Johnson walked him over roughly. I gave him a dirty look when he pushed him towards us. He looked back at me like it was nothing.
Oh just wait asshole! I thought to myself. I looked at Juice, "What is going on?" I touched his face, "Are you okay?"
"Trouble with the club? Some bullshit about running guns." He said nonchalantly, as if he wasn't worried about jail time. I think he was trying to be strong for me but it wasn't working. I could feel the tears building in my eyes. "Please don't cry. I'll be fine." Juice pleaded.
"I…I can't help it." I was feeling overwhelmed. I didn't want my husband to be put in jail. I wrapped my arms around him and put my face in his neck. I just wanted him to put his arms around me and tell me it would be okay. I looked up at him and kissed him, not knowing if this would be our last kiss for a while or not. "I love you." I said quietly as we parted tears still pouring down my face.
"I love you too. And I will see you soon." He said with a normal Juice smile but it didn't reach his eyes. He knew more than he was letting on.
"Alright we have to go." Sheriff Hale said as he took Juice lightly be the arm. I kissed him one last time.
"Be safe. I love you so much! Come back to me soon." I said tearfully. Juice just nodded at me as he walked away and got into the back of the truck that would be transporting them to the unknown. I knew where ever they would be going would not be the Charming PD. I looked at the rest of the men that the police were escorting to the truck. Jax, Opie, Chibs, Bobby, and Clay were all joining, Juice. That left Piney, Happy and Tig left to run the club with the prospects, I wondered where they were. I hadn't even realized that I had been joined by Tara and Donna who were also in tears.
Was this what being married to a Son was all about? I thought to myself as the truck and the police cars drove away. I stood there for a little while before walking into the club house. Where Rat and Phil were cleaning up the mess that the police had caused when they rampaged the clubhouse. I walked behind the bar and pulled out a bottle of some sort of liquor, I didn't even care which one it was, I needed to get shit face drunk. I didn't have anyone to go home to like Donna and Tara did. I would go home to the emptiness of my house. While I was on my third glass of the liquor which I found out was scotch, not my typical drink by far, Gemma walked in.
She sat down across from me and took the bottle and poured herself a drink, "How you doin' sweetheart?"
"I don't know…." I looked at my empty glass. Tara and Donna had left about 10 minutes prior to Gemma's arrival. I was happy just sitting in the club house at least there were people around. Tig and Happy still hadn't arrived back from where ever they were. "I think it will really kick in when I get home. I don't want to be alone, I want Juice."
"Sweetheart, we have the best lawyer out there, she will get them out of these bogus charges. If not, you'll become stronger, the first time is always the hardest."
The first time? There will be more? I thought as I nodded. The door to the club house opened and Happy and Tig walked in. Before I knew it was out of my chair and threw myself into Happy. He took me into his arms. "You really pretend to be tough don't you?" He held me out in front of him.
"Do you think he will be okay?" I inquired of him.
"I am sure Juice will be fine, he has all his brothers with him. Plus do you really think any of them would let anything happen to him?"
I shook my head, knowing Chibs would watch over Juice for me. I think they felt differently about him because he had a wife. They watched out for each other a bit better.
"Go sit down with Gemma, I will make you a drink and then make sure you get home." Happy shoved me towards the table I got up from and walked towards the bar. He started mixing a drink for me, I watched and was grateful for his friendship. He put at least 10 different types of liquor into the mixer and finally gave it a good shake and brought it over to the table with a martini glass. "Drink this and you'll forget all your worries and troubles."
I poured the drink it was a bluish color, I held it and said, "Here's to going down the rabbit hole." Happy looked at me like I was speaking a different language. "Alice in Wonderland?" Still the same look, "okay I get it you don't read literary classics." I took a drink and the liquid burned strongly in my stomach and that is pretty much all I remembered until I woke up the next morning with a nasty headache, a need to vomit and an emptiness inside of me.
The guys had been denied bail at their bail hearing, they considered them a flight risk. After dealing with the lawyer, Gemma said was the best in the business and she couldn't even get them out on bail; I started to look for a new lawyer. That got me into trouble with Gemma. I had brought up brining in another lawyer to assist hers to see if there were any loopholes or laws she might have missed. She would hear nothing of it and god forbid I went against the queen. I dropped the issue after I spoke with the lawyer I wanted to bring on the case. He told me that there was too much evidence against the club and that he really didn't think there was anything he could do. My heart broke. That was just a week before the trial.
The day of the trial came, there was no way in hell I was not going. It sounded like they were going to try the guys as a whole but allow them to also be tried individually as well whatever that mean. I wore a billowing gray tank top with flowers made out of the same material of the top, with a gray and white bandage pencil skirt and a black blazer. I pulled my hair up in a messy bun and headed out to meet Donna and Tara. We decided that our men needed our support no matter how hard it would be for us to be there. Gemma told us we didn't need to go which basically meant you should not be at that trial. We knew betraying the "queen" would be hell to pay for us but we didn't care, we owed it to our husbands to be there to support them. As we entered the courthouse I felt sick to my stomach, I ached to see Juice, to touch him, to feel his lips on mine. The club's lawyer and Gemma were standing outside of the courtroom when we got there. Gemma gave us all a stern look.
"I thought I told you that you didn't need to be here." She barked at us
"Yeah well you say a lot of things that we don't think are right. We are here to support our husbands just like you." Tara gave it to her right back. I was pretty sure Gemma's head was going to explode. Things had been tense between Gemma and Tara for a few weeks prior to the guys getting arrested, now they had gotten worse. I looked at Tara who was standing her ground, we all knew that one day she would be queen because Jax would be the one holding the gavel sooner rather than later.
"Ladies, I hate to break up this love fest but the guys should be here any moment and I need to be in there before they arrive." The lady lawyer said as she walked into the courtroom. We followed suit and I unfortunately got stuck next to Gemma but I had Donna on the other side of me. Just as we sat down the guys came in, in shackles and chains. They were a chain gang of brothers in orange jumpsuits. Juice's face was the only one I saw, his eyes burned a hole in my soul. I wanted to jump over the benches and into his arms. He gave me a half smile. Donna let out a gasp when she saw Opie and grasped my hand. I am pretty sure that we held hands the whole trial that day.
The trial went on for three days before the judge came back with a verdict. It was three long days of no sleep and lots of stress but I got to see Juice every one of those days. On the second day of the trial, Donna, Tara and I sat right behind the guys. I just wanted to lean in and smell Juice to enjoy his scent one more time. I refrained from doing it. Day three rolled around and the judge went to adjourn to her chamber and make a decision. The guys couldn't leave the courtroom so we actually got a chance to talk to them. The first thing Juice did was pulled me into his arms and kissed me. It felt so good to be back in his arms again.
"Hello beautiful," he whispered in my ear as he kissed my head.
"I've missed you." I said into his chest. He smelt familiar and like home.
"I've missed you too. I am so glad that you are here." He looked down at me and smiled.
"Gemma didn't want us to come but nothing could keep me away." I felt like I was going to cry but I needed to be strong for Juice.
"Good, you know what I wish we were right now?" He asked me.
"Anywhere but here?" I smiled up at him I didn't want to let go.
"Well yes but at the beach house in San Diego…you in your bikini basking in the sun. The smell of the ocean in your hair." He reminisced with a sly smile on his face as if he knew something about our honeymoon that I didn't know.
It seemed like the judge came back in just as quickly as she left, so I had to let Juice go back to his spot next to Chibs and Jax. She entered with a stern look on her face. I knew after doing some research that the guys could each face up to 15 years in prison. The prosecutor made a decent case but there were holes in it and even I could see that. Time lines didn't match up completely and then some of the guys were not even members when some of the things they were accusing the club of happened.
The judge delivered news that I didn't want to hear, she gave the guys two years in jail with parole at a year if they had good behavior. It didn't set in that I wouldn't have Juice with me for at least a year until I walked out of the courthouse. I collapsed on the ground in sobbed heavily. I would be spending my first year of marriage away from my husband. My heart broke in the deepest way possible.