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I'm updating again fairly quickly because I don't know when I'll be able to post another chapter. I have some stuff going on that I need to deal with first.

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Fallon: End of an Era

Chapter Five

They had let everyone else go in front of them. There were certain things that Jax planned on keeping from certain members of the club. He didn't want them involved. If there was blowback, Jax wanted to be sure that he was the one to receive it. The club would survive even if he wasn't a part of it any longer.

"Did you get it?" Jax asked Chibs.

Chibs raised his shirt to show proof of him holding the block of heroin. "Oh, yeah."

"That'll help," Jax said.

"You think Lin knows yet?" Bobby queried.

"He will before we hit Modesto," Dru sarcastically remarked.

Dru received word from Nero that Lin had stopped him in the middle of the road to hand out threats. Lin immediately put the attack on the Sons. Lin was smart, Dru had to give him that. But she had a job to do. Lin couldn't believe that SAMCRO was the one who attacked that meet. It would ruin everything that Jax had planned.

Dru assured Nero that they had nothing to do with it. But he dropped another bombshell on her. Lin wanted a meet to confront them himself. Nothing could be taken at face value anymore. However, Dru could see why. After all, the Chinese had taken more than a few hits from the Sons lately.

"Jax, we have to meet Nero on the corner of Lakewood Street," Dru told him.

"Why?"

"Because we're also meeting Lin," she added.

"Why?"

Dru rolled her eyes because he rolled out the why that time. "Because Lin suspects us."

"You're kidding."

"Do I look like I'm fucking kidding?" she snapped. "I would suspect you too if I was in Lin's place. You've set up the Chinese how many times? And you've killed how many of their men?"

"You've killed them too," he retorted.

"Yes, I have. For you and only you. And for the club," Dru said. "I told Nero we'd be there in thirty minutes. We have to go. Show good faith and all that."

"Whatever."

"Fuck off."

"Hey, thanks for coming. Listen, things have gotten a little unraveled," Nero told them.

"Yeah, we heard about the Chinese guns," Jax told him.

"From who?" O.C.B. questioned.

"Fox News," Bobby countered. "They're blaming Obama."

"We got a pipeline just you, amigo," Jax responded.

"I hope that pipeline has some answers cause Lin's gonna be here any minute," Nero told him.

About that time, a Mercedes pulled up. 'Yep, any minute,' Dru thought. She watched as Lin came stomping up.

"It wasn't us, Henry. We met with August this morning and we've been at the porn warehouse since then," Jax assured him.

"Then it must've been the goddamn Irish. Maybe Marks has them on a string too," Lin said.

"No," Dru cut in. "IRA doesn't give a shit about local buys. And they hate the fact that they're working with black, so it wasn't Connor."

"Look, I put my Indian Hills charter on it. They know Salma and they're going to dig in. I'll find out who did it," Jax told him.

"Alright, you have until noon tomorrow. If I don't have something by then I swear to God—"

"I get it," Jax interrupted.

"No, you don't!" Lin yelled. "I am done playing by nigger rules. I want my men, my guns, and my heroin. Let me be very clear, Jackson, if that does not happen, the violence will not stop at the Stockton/Oakland borders. It will come to Charming. I will turn Mayberry into a goddamn killing field!"

Lin turned around to go back to his Mercedes. Dru whistled. "Well, that was comforting," she sarcastically retorted.

Dru pulled Jax aside once Nero and O.C.B. left them. Jax waved Bobby and Chibs away. He knew this was supposed to be a private conversation. He was more than a little proud of his Dru. She handled everything that he threw at her. Granted, he knew what she was capable of, but he hadn't believed for a second that she would go along with the revenge plot that he had cooked up.

Since she had returned, Dru had went on about how much redemption mattered; how much keeping your soul intact mattered. Well, he still had his soul. It was standing next to him. He couldn't lose her. No matter what, Dru would still be alive at the end of this crazy ride. He would make sure of it.

"I know who you're going to put the attack on," Dru said.

Jax smirked. She was so fucking intelligent. He didn't have to tell her shit and she had his moves figured out before he did them. Then again, they knew each other inside and out. Nevertheless, Dru still found a way to surprise him every now and then.

"I know why you asked those guys for their address earlier."

Jax shrugged. "I had to find someone to put it on. I couldn't just leave everyone to their assumptions. Of course, they're gonna look at SAMCRO. I couldn't let that happen."

"I know that," Dru told him. "But are you sure you wanna do this?"

"I've been sure ever since I found out the truth about the Chinese," Jax reassured her.

He watched her jaw clench and then she slowly nodded. The only thing keeping him together was her, and he had to let her know.

"Listen, I know right now is not the best time to start up anything between us. But it's been years in the making. I don't think there's a right time for this because it's always been right. I was just too stupid to see it. But I'm not being stupid now. You are the only thing keeping me grounded right now and I need you by my side. However, if there ever comes a time when you don't think you can handle what I'm trying to accomplish, please tell me and I won't ask you to get your hands dirty. But you will always know what's going on. I won't keep that come from you," Jax explained.

"I can handle anything you throw at me. I'm in this with you till the end, and no matter how it ends," Dru conveyed to him.

Jax nodded and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. He could kiss her all day.

It wasn't the cleanest house. You could definitely tell it was a bachelor pad as you walked in.

"How are you doing?" Jax asked the one sitting on the couch.

Dru observed him for a moment. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Then she spotted the bong. 'He's high as a fucking kite,' she thought to herself.

"You guys want a hit?" the guy asked.

"Nah, we're good," Jax told him as he pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and laid it down on the table. "For the truck."

"Thanks for that," the other one said.

"You guys partying all alone?" Dru questioned them in a flirtatious way. She had noticed how the two of them had been checking her out. She figured it'd be better if she distracted them a little. After all, they were about to die. For a cause not of their own.

"Yeah, yeah, it's just us tonight."

"Well, that's good," Dru smiled as she let the sawed off shotgun drop from the sleeve in her leather jacket. She quickly pulled the trigger and hit the guy on the couch in the chest. He was instantly dead. At the same time, Bobby pulled the trigger on the other one.

"Let's set it," Jax told them.

"You need to go see your boys, Jackson," Dru announced as Jax drove them down the road back to Charming.

Jax sighed. "I just haven't had time, Dru. I've been trying to adapt to what's going on now."

"Well, you can't say you've been trying to get your head on straight because you're definitely not doing that," she retorted.

"Dru, I've got a lot of shit going on," Jax snapped. She just refused to understand. "This is what needs to be done."

"No, this is what you need. There's a difference. But your boys need you. Thomas and Abel just lost their mother. Don't make them lose you too," Dru told him.

Jax exhaled in frustration. "I just got to make sure that this all goes the way it needs to go first."

Dru could only manage to nod.

Juice just couldn't abandon everything just yet. He had nothing else in this world except for the club, and then Jax took that away from him. He knew what he had done. He had betrayed the club repeatedly and now he was paying the price.

Gemma had given him money to get out of town. But in the grand scheme of things, he couldn't just take her money. He didn't quite understand why she was choosing to help him, but he appreciated it all the same. He had nowhere to go and no one in this world cared about his well-being. He was lost in the abyss and didn't know what else to do. He was stuck.

"If you can come down here to the porn warehouse, Dru, that would be great," Jax told her over the phone.

"And why do I need to come down to the skanky porn warehouse, Jackson?" she asked him.

"I have a meeting with one of Lin's top guys. I need you here."

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"A little bit of both," Jax chuckled.

Dru sighed. "I told you that no matter how this plays out, I was riding with you until the end. I gave you my word."

"I know that, Dru. You've always been there by my side."

"Yes, I have. And that will never change." She paused thinking about the repercussions that could occur, and more than likely would occur. "I'll be there."

"Hey, just to let you know, Lyla did the first take for Red Woody Productions."

"Ew!" she exclaimed. "Please tell me they're done."

Jax laughed. "You won't see anything when you get here. But during the shot, I kept on thinking how hot it would've been if you had been the one getting frisky with Jenna Jameson."

"In your dreams, Teller." Then she hung up the phone.

Dru had taken a seat on the corner of Jax's desk. It was a power move on her part. She had the pleasure of looking down on Lin's man sitting before her. She had always loved fucking with people's minds.

"We went to Salma and found the house," he told them.

"Was the crew there?" Jax asked.

"One of them. Dead. Shotgun hole in the chest."

"Huh," Jax muttered.

"Shit. Triads get there first?" Bobby asked.

"I don't know yet. There was a lot of blood and footprints. But whoever did it left a kilo right on the table. It was ours," the Chinese man explained.

"Did you find the rest?" Jax questioned him.

"No. Who were these guys? How did you get intel on them?"

"One of our other charters, Indian Hills, bumped into them a couple times hauling guns back to Nevada. Ex-peckerwoods move meth and anything else they can steal. They put the word out right after your buy got hit that they had smack to sell," Jax clarified.

"Not very bright."

"That's my point. I figured it had to be them."

"We're gonna dig into this, but for now, Henry will keep it all in place."

"Fair enough," Jax shrugged. "Let us know if you need help."

Lin's right hand man walked out. Dru was confused by one piece of information he let out on the table. "You think he was lying about the one body?" she asked.

"I don't know," Jax answered lighting a cigarette. "Why would he?"

"They were both very dead. Family and friends could have found them," Bobby said.

"And left the heroin?" Dru remarked. Bobby only shrugged.

"Dig into the guy that's MIA. See if you can find out who he is, and where the hell he went," Jax ordered.

"I'll call Jury," Bobby told them.

"Come on. I've got to visit Tully and see if he can move these extra keys."

When they walked out of the porn warehouse, a Rolls Royce pulled up into the parking lot. 'Oh, this is not good,' Dru thought.

"The Ebony Prince," Tig announced.

"Were you expecting him?" Happy asked.

"No," Jax replied. He walked up to the window as August was rolling it down. "You're a little early. '12 Inches a Slave' doesn't shoot till this afternoon."

August obviously didn't find that funny. "Get in," he demanded and then rolled the window back up.

"So much for playful banter," Jax retorted.

"I think they're still a little sensitive about the whole slave thing," Dru remarked.

"My bad."

"He drives, we follow," Tig told him before Jax climbed into the luxurious car.

"August knows something," Dru mumbled to Chibs.

"You don't know that," he said.

"But I can find out."

Dru kept a close eye on the Rolls Royce. She didn't like Jax being in an enclosed space with August Marks. Unlike everyone around her, she knew what August was capable of. She had seen it firsthand a few years back when he was still just a soldier for Pope.

"Change of plan," Jax declared once he was free of the car. "Tully will have to wait. It's black day."

"Jackson, you can't keep doing this," Dru seethed beneath her breath.

"I'll do what has to be done," Jax snapped.

"Yeah, and kill yourself and the club in the process. August knows something or he wouldn't have a made a trip down here. There's a reason for everything he does. He doesn't do anything by half measures," Dru tried to enlighten him.

"What do you know about Marks, Dru?" Chibs asked her.

"He's ruthless," Dru answered. "I knew him when he was Pope's right hand man. There's no repentance in that man. He will do what needs to be done and he doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. Don't cross him, Jackson. I'm warning you. Please listen to me."

"It's already too late. I already crossed that bridge, Dru."

"Goddamn it, Jackson, this isn't a game!" she shouted. "You're fucking with the wrong person. Fucking with the Chinese is easy. Lin is too stupid to know what's going on. But August is different. He's got the right networks to find out anything he wants. If he even has the slightest belief that you started a street war after he told you not to, he will destroy everything."

"So be it," Jax shrugged.

Dru shook her head. "I refuse to be a part of your insanity. I can't do it today."

"Then go. Take a day off." Jax was hurt that she was abandoning him.

"I'm not taking the day off, you fucking moron!" Dru snapped. "I'm simply going to gather some information. I'll find out just how much August knows. I'll call you later." She went up to hug him. "Please be careful." Jax only nodded. When she pulled away she looked at Happy. "Watch his back, Hap."