"Pull in there and back in." I pointed to the empty parking lot that was pitch black. He nodded and turned the car's lights off as he coasted into a spot. We blended well, we could see the road but the motorcycles couldn't see us, unless they were looking closely.
"Ambush." Happy pulled the keys from the ignition and pocketed them. "Let's hop out." He opened his door, and slinked out, I did the same. Falling in closely behind as he pressed himself against a near by hedge. The sound of engines drew closer as we saw headlights pull in the lot. "What club is near hear?" He asked, more to himself than to me but I shrugged. Wracking my brain, trying to figure out if my dad had told me about any clubs in this area.
"Could be Mayans." I whispered in his ear. To me that was the only logical explanation for a club being here, in this city. "Wait, Bastards. They're closer, do you guys roll with them?" I watched the headlights get closer as we ducked behind the dumpsters and hid.
"Yeah we're cool with them." He peeked around the dumpster and shook his head.
"Hand me the keys." He dug in his pocket and tossed them to me. "You sneak up on them while I lure them to the car." I nodded towards the group who had parked and were waiting for something to happen.
"Can't leave you alone." He grabbed my hand and squeezed. "You'll get yourself hurt."
"I can hold my own. You trust me?" I tried searching his face but the darkness did nothing to help me see him.
"I trust you, not them." He pulled me in close. "I have to protect you."
"Let me protect us, they're probably wanting me." I handed him my gun and watched him slip it into the waistband of his jeans. "We walk out together, pretend we were back here fucking. We see what they want."
"That's a dumb plan." His voice was a low whisper.
"It's all we have, let's try it." I grabbed his hand and led him towards the car. He didn't resist me, he clutched the glock in his free hand. I hit the button on the key and the alarm on the car started blaring, the lights flashed and the horn sounded. It was too loud and we could see some of the guys looking around. We crouched down and moved back to the hedge, I stayed back while Happy moved and appeared behind them. I moved to stand behind him when he nodded.
"Can I help you?" Happy rasped. I could see him trying to make out faces and anything that could tell him who they were.
"Just looking for her." The guy stepped forward and pointed at me. "Need to talk business."
"Who are you?" I searched his face and nothing regestiered.
"Calaveras." He stretched his hand out. I didn't take it. I thought they were a defunct club, collapsed after the Mayans didn't follow through with patching them over.
"Alright, what do you want?" I stood up straighter. "Why'd you follow us?"
"Why'd you hide?" He was a cocky son of a bitch.
"We pulled over to fuck, I've always wanted to fuck in a deserted back alley of a parking lot." Happy spoke up. "So what do you need with her?"
"Guns." He spoke.
"I'm a doctor, I don't sell guns."
"So set up a meeting with your dad for us or I'll put a bullet in that pretty little head of yours."
Happy moved in front of me and lifted his gun to the guy's head. "You don't fuckin' threaten her."
"Who the fuck are you?" He dared to challenge Happy.
He smirked and pulled open his flannel, revealing his cut, the guy ran a flashlight over Happy's chest.
"Sons of Anarchy, Sargent at Arms." He read the patches on his chest. "A son? You're a long way from Charming."
"Yeah, had to handle shit." He rasped. He was looking for an out, a way to leave without leaving too many bodies.
"I'll tell you what, I'll set up a meeting with my dad, can't guarantee you'll get the guns you want but we'll make you a deal, let us go and I won't have you all killed." I spoke calmly and directly to this so called 'president'.
"Fine." He backed up.
I walked to the car and pulled open the door, and searched the center console for a business card. "Here. My info is on there, call me tomorrow and I'll have the information."
"That's all I wanted." He walked off and Happy moved to my side.
"If you ever pull a stunt like this again, you won't walk away from it." Happy snarled.
Happy got in the car. He was seething. He didn't even want to talk. He just started up the car and knocked down a couple of the bikes as he sped towards the highway.
"Fuckin' Calaveras." He said under his breath. "Fuckin' threatening you. I will end them all."
"How come you didn't shoot them?" I squeezed his arm.
"Because they would have killed us, without thought." He looked at me. "I told you about this goddamn window."
He turned around and shot out the window. I opened my mouth to speak up but thought again, closing it and looking straight ahead and not bothering to talk to him. We were headed to Charming. No doubt about that.
SOASOASOASOA
It was a little after midnight when Happy came bursting into the clubhouse. He looked downright pissed off. His hands were clenched in fists at his sides. I moved from my spot at the bar as he approached Jax. They exchanged a few hushed words before Jax called for emergency chapel.
I looked at the door and Brianna came waltzing in. Her face set in a frown as she searched the space, she nodded as her eyes met mine and I forced a smile. She was probably looking for Natalie, so I pointed towards the back as I walked to meet my brothers to find out what made Happy so pissed.
"The Calaveras." Happy began. "Followed us from my Ma's place, I stupidly wasn't packing but Bri seemed to have a mini arsenal in her car."
"What'd they want?" I asked him. "I thought they were disbanded."
"Guns, the president threatened to put a bullet in her head if she didn't set up a meeting. She said she would but I think she's about to fuckin' turn shit upside down." He slammed his fists against the table.
"Get her in here, we talk it out. She does nothing without us." Jax declared. "Juice go get her, if she fights you, drag her ass in here."
I nodded and stood up to get her. I walked to the back and found her in the bathroom on the floor with Natalie. She was holding her hair back and wiping the blonde's face with a towel. Her shirt was off and hanging from the sink.
"Jax needs you." I looked at them and frowned.
"I'll be right there. Can I get a shirt?" She stood up and looked back at her friend. "Natalie you stay here, I'll be right back."
"Here." I pulled off my hoody and handed it to her. "Don't need Happy pissed off anymore."
She smiled. "He shot out my back window."
"Poor Ironhide." I shook my head.
"Nah, sports car. No more H." She shoved her hands into the pocket and bumped against me. "Let's feed me to the lions." Her head fell forward and I wanted to pull her in for a hug but decided not to.
"Won't be that bad." I rubbed her lower back as she pulled open the doors and walked in. I took my seat and she stood awkwardly by the doors.
"What do you need Jax?" She was straightforward. Her voice was serious and her eyes seemed to turn black as she scanned the room.
"I need to know what you plan to do with the Calaveras." He took a drag of his cigarette and let the smoke swirl out of his mouth and looked at her.
"I'm going to sell them guns." She matched his gaze and crossed her arms over her chest, not budging as he stood and walked to her.
"Can't let you do that, they get guns and they come after this club. They have beef with us." He said through gritted teeth.
"Is that a threat Teller?" She uncrossed her arms and closed the small space between them. "I don't take threats well."
"Not a threat, I think you should set the meet and let us take them out."
"That's bad for business." She stepped back and looked him over then shifted her gaze to the table and then to Happy. "I can only do that if you pay me the price of the guns. I get their money AND your money."
"No fuckin' way darlin'." He stepped away from her and sat back down. "You were threatened by them and you won't let us kill them?"
"They're not your problem to deal with. They out man you easily." She fiddled with the strings on the hoody and let that information sink in.
"Happy said there were only six guys." Tig interrupted, earning a deadly glare from Brianna.
"That is true, only six that followed us. Calaveras have been busy recruiting. Their charter stands firm at thirty guys. I look around and only see eight of you here. They are my problem." She was getting upset, I could see it. I was preparing for her to snap at Jax.
"How will you take them out, you're one fuckin' person!"
"I have friends in high places."
"You have the Mayans, he gave them to you. They'll help but that's it." Bobby said smugly and she looked at him and smiled.
"Really?" She looked down at Bobby. "I live in Oakland, I know Mayans. I could have made a connection with Marcus with or without you. So, don't think you're so high and mighty. I am only here because Juice and Happy brought me to you as a favor to help you with a problem. "
"You know Mayans?" I asked and she nodded.
"I do. I know a lot of people." She backed away from Bobby and pulled my hoody over her head and tossed it on the table. "I don't need the Sons. My ties are to the Family and the Family only." She turned around revealing her tattoo. She was a daughter of the Russian Mafia. Her connections were out of our reach. "I don't need any MC on my side to take care of my problem."
"Holy shit." Jax finally said as we all watched Brianna storm out of the room. She was on a fucking mission, she found Natalie on the couch and yanked her up and they walked out of the clubhouse. We all scrambled to our feet but none of us went after her.
SOASOASOASOA
I don't think I have ever driven so fast in my life. I was dead set on getting out of Charming as fast as I could. I had Natalie next to me and that's all that really mattered at this point. Jackson Teller was a fucking spoiled brat. He wanted shit his way or not at all and the others just fed into his fucking ego. I wasn't going to let some pretty boy muscle his way into my problems, I knew as soon as he killed the Calaveras the blow back would land on me and not on the Sons.
"What the fuck happened?" Natalie finally broke the silence.
"Jackson Teller."
"What'd he do?" She rolled down her window even though there was plenty of air coming through from the missing rear window. Fuck Happy, for blowing my window out.
"He was being a brat." I said. "We're going on a trip."
"I can't! I have work." She whined and hit the control and her seat reclined.
"I'll drop you off at your place then." I turned on the radio and frowned when the mariachi music came flowing out, I hit a few buttons and Kendrick Lamar's voice filled the speakers. Much better.
"Sounds good to me." In no time we were in Oakland. "You're going to be ok?"
"Yeah I'll be fine." She gave me a kiss on the cheek while I pulled into her complex. I watched her get out and waited for the light in her apartment to come on before pulling away.
I calmed down with each mile I put between myself and Charming. The closer I got to the City the higher my anxiety raised. I was running from one evil to the arms of another evil. My dad and the Family. I never thought I'd need to ask for their help, my dad dragged me into this shit again, and it had collapsed in less than a month.
"No!" I was belligerent. The impending event was sending me over the edge. "Dad!" I screamed until I started to lose my voice and my throat felt like it was ripped open.
"Calm down Katarzyna. It won't hurt to bad." My dad ran a hand over my face, wiping the tears away. "I need you to do this for me Princess."
"I don't want to marry him!" I started to bawl. "I'm too young! I just turned nineteen dad!"
"Katarzyna, you have to do this for me, for us, for our family." He smiled at me. "Do this, and you'll never have to worry about money, safety, or working."
"I want to be a doctor and be independent." I turned away from him, disgusted that he wanted to marry me off to a man older than he was. "I can't do this."
He smacked me. "You have no choice, you will marry him and stay married to him until he dies."
I looked at him and cursed him in my head as I laid on my stomach on the papered table in front of my. The buzzing of the tattoo machine became deafening. He was having me marked for my soon to be husband. With this mark came a life I didn't ever see myself in but it was too late, I had to take one for our family.
"Bri." He answered the door in his suit, he was either just getting home or about to leave. "What are you doing here?"
"I need help." I brushed past him and stood in the massive entry way, taking in the sight of the absurd amount of flowers filling in every available space. "Jackson Teller is a brat."
"You're a brat too." He wrapped an arm around my waist and walked me into the kitchen. I sat on the counter and kicked my feet as he grabbed a bottle of water from his refrigerator.
"I know, but I don't become bratty at the expense of another person's life." I took a sip of water and spit it out into the sink, frowning at the bottle in my hand. Imported and disgusting.
"What exactly happened?" He took the bottle of water from me and tossed it into the trash can.
I summarized the night's events to him and he just smiled and nodded like I had told him a huge joke. "What's so funny?"
"He really shot out your back window?" He laughed and his whole body shook, it reminded me of Santa Claus.
"He did." I nodded slowly."I'm mad about it."
"I bet. So Jax wants to kill this MC because they have bad blood but you don't want to because it's bad for business and you don't want to kill anyone?"
"Basically. If I let him kill them, then it comes back on me, not him. I know he'd twist shit and make it look like the hit came from me if anyone came snooping around because a full charter went missing." I folded the hand towels sitting on the counter and draped them over their rightful hooks, and made quick work with clearing off the counters and wiping them down.
"Stop that." He crossed his arms as I tossed the rag into the sink. "You got that shit from Juan."
I didn't open my mouth to argue, I knew it was impossible to become obsessive compulsive by being around someone who was. I just cleaned when I needed to feel like I was absolutely in control of something.
"They're your men Princess, you hold the empire in your hands, I just run it for you." He removed his suit jacket and tossed it on the counter and I walked over to move it but he blocked me. "Calm down my love. You're in control. Once Teller realizes who you were married to he'll think twice about crossing you."
I didn't argue or speak up, I didn't want them to know who I was married to or how deep I was in with the Family, I just wanted Jax to know he couldn't force me to handle shit the way he does. I wasn't his club, I refused to boost his ego, he wasn't smart in the way he executed things, to much impulse not enough observation. He was too smart for his own good and his club refused to check him on that. They decided to all run into the burning building to save their king.
SOASOASOA
"She has ties to the Russian Mafia." I didn't see that coming at all I had to admit it. The last time I really talked to her in high school she had been disgusted at the thought of skipping college to get involved with the nonsense her dad hounded her for. "Shit, what do we do?" I looked at Happy then at Jax.
"We find her and I apologize and we keep her on our good side." Bobby declared. "We need her but she's right she doesn't need us."
"Pull out your computer and fill us in about her. I need to know everything." Jax said as he lit up another cigarette.
"I don't know Prez, you sure you want to open this can of worms?" Happy crossed his arms and tossed his toothpick into the ash tray in front of him.
"You know something we don't?" Jax tilted his head in curiosity.
"I know everything about her. She's open if you ask her shit." He shrugged.
I looked at the screen in front of me as I searched the main government databases for her. "Got it." I hooked the laptop to the projector screen so everyone could see what I was seeing.
"Wow, gorgeous mug shot." Tig licked his lips and Happy smacked the table.
"That was her passport picture from when she was fifteen." I said as I clicked through to the next set of pictures. "That's her mug shot."
"Still gorgeous."
"Easy!" Happy glowered at Tig.
"Just shoplifting charges from when she was sixteen." I smiled at the memory of her being arrested in Victoria's Secret.
"Anything useful?" Jax sounded irritated.
"Fuck. She was married." I felt my heart break and I looked over at Happy, he wasn't phased so he obviously knew about it.
"Was?" Chibs asked.
"Husband was killed." I didn't tear my eyes away from the screen.
"How?"
"She killed him." Happy stated as he looked at the screen.
"Brutal." I swallowed hard at the picture of her husband laid out on the ground. His death made headlines in Eastern Europe and here in the states.
"No wonder you like her, she's a killer in her own right."
"She's basically in charge now, he left her EVERYTHING." I said, looking through more files and more pictures. I felt creepy and perverse for looking her up but I had been given an order.
"When was she marked?" Jax asked, he was staring intently at the photo of her tattoo on the screen.
"Um. Says shortly after her twentieth birthday she took the mark of her husband's family." I read and frowned.
"What're the rest of these pictures and videos?" Rat asked.
"Social media mostly, then a few press photos. Her family is well known on both coasts. She's known for her charity work."
"We need her back on the team. Get her back here and let's work it out. I'll apologize." Jax stood and looked at us."Work quickly before she disappears."
Happy nodded and I sat in shock. Jackson Teller was going to apologize. I hope it would be sincere but with him, you never know and I was pretty sure Brianna was on to the way he ran the club and his wild decision making.
"This should be fun." I mumbled under my breath as I looked at my brothers.
Thanks to all the reviewers, loving them all. Big thanks to my faithful readers. I wanna acknowledge happyfan3928, dennib68, arowley, and the guest for the continued reviews and feedback and the parts you love. Thank you so so much. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. I cannot wait to post 11 this weekend. (: