Chapter 5 – Favourites
S'up bitches, just a note from me to say that when the speech is in italics that is the conversation taking place in a different language. I am not multi-lingual nor do I trust google translate to get it exactly right. I hope it's not too confusing. That's all for now, I'll see you after!}
Badass biker chick is fun and everything but business bitch is who I feel more comfortable being. I was wearing a white chiffon blouse tucked into a high waisted skirt that would perhaps be too tight and short for an actual office job but perfectly acceptable for the TM motors yard. I had spent most of the morning getting ready for the day ahead; shaving my all my limbs and under my arms, plucking my eyebrows and carefully applying makeup. I hadn't even realised how much I had let myself go over the week that I had been away from university. As soon as my hair was put up into a neat French twist I knew I looked like myself again. I looked like an actual adult. I needed to do my roots though, I noticed when my hair was pulled back, it looked like a thin white stripe around my hairline and down my parting.
"Are you nearly ready Vee?" Gemma asked from the doorway, "we need to get going."
"Boots or heels?"
She raised a single eyebrow at me and I bent down to slip on my heels. I felt complete again; fully myself… whoever that was now. Gemma complimented me and handed me my new handbag with all the notes and papers and junk in it that I would need to make these phone calls.
"They're really not gonna know what hit them," Gemma said with a smile, "come on."
I held my head high and smiled back at her.
I was feeling better after my talk with Clay, lighter almost, like the air had been cleared slightly. I could now concentrate on my job for the day which happened to be contacting a series of 12 different criminal organisations and talk about guns; a subject I wasn't all that familiar with. I trotted down the stairs and into her car where I looked over my notes and tried not to fret about how it was going to go. It was going to be fine, I kept telling myself, I'm going to be fine. I just need to be friendly and charismatic, try and be as persuasive as possible, you know?
"Ready?" Gemma asked and directed me towards the small office, "they're all in there."
"All?" I asked nervously.
"You'll be fine! I've got to go into town and get some groceries but I'll be back in a couple of hours."
I gulped but nodded and hopped out of the car. I tottered over the concrete, my shoes making a comforting click-clack. As soon as I went into the office my confidence faltered as everyone was silent. As I looked around I saw Clay sat in the office chair with his feet up on the desk; Juice and Tig sat on a sofa down the other end, Chibs smoking a cigarette as he leant against the wall beside the door and Bobby and Jax leaning against the desk. The room felt about 10 times smaller as I closed the door behind me.
"Um," I said unsurely, "good morning everyone."
They were just staring at me but were jolted out of their stupor by Chibs moving away from the wall to sit with his legs crossed on the sofa between Juice and Tig.
"Morning ma'am," Juice chimed cheerfully, his greeting followed by a chorus of good mornings from the rest of them.
"You look great, Pumpkin," Clay said with a smile, "very grown up."
"Well," I reached up to smooth my hair back, "I am 25 Clay. If I don't look like an adult now I never will. May I sit down?"
He stood up and gestured for me to sit down. I shooed Jax and Bobby off the desk with my bag and sat down. I spread out the different papers, deciding on who I should call first, and brought the phone over to me. Taking a deep breath, I picked up the phone and punched in the numbers for a Russian peaceful protest organisation. I don't think I need to point out the irony of a peaceful protest group buying guns.
"Speaker phone," Jax hissed.
I pressed the button and clicked the handset down as the person on the other end answered in Russian. The sound of the familiar language made me feel at ease. I switched straight into the language and into my sales person voice.
"Good morning sir," I greeted, also in Russian, "my name in Vivania Teller-Morrow, speaking on behalf of Clay Morrow. May I speak to Nikolai Semenov?"
I wanted to laugh at the gawping faces of the guys that had been watching me but remained professional. The man on the phone told me that he was Nikolai and I made a delighted sound, making my voice more cheerful.
"Hello Mr. Semenov, I am wondering if you would perhaps be open to a meeting with Jax Teller of the Sons of Anarchy to discuss a possible new business venture that would be of benefit to both you and your cause."
"Who are you?" Nikolai asked and I felt mildly annoyed, this wasn't the way I had planned this going.
"I am Vivania Teller-Morrow, daughter of Clay Morrow. Are you interested in listening to our offer?"
He made a noise of agreement.
"We have information telling us that you are paying $250,000 per shipment and we believe it would be beneficial for your organisation and ours if you were to cut out the middleman and get the same shipment for cheaper by leaving the Warren family client list and come to join us."
"How much?"
"We will need to meet in person to negotiate prices but I can assure you that it will be cheaper than what the Warrens are offering you."
"Our compound-"
"I'm afraid we are only willing to meet at a mutual place. There is a diner on the road out towards the city, Hope's."
"I know the place. Hope's, tomorrow at 10:35 am."
The phone was then put down and I blinked in surprise. I looked back up from where I had been writing out what was said and the meeting time and place. There were a lot of open mouths and surprised faces. Clay was looking at me with pride in his eyes. I relayed the conversation with them, translating everything that had been said and where the meeting was taking place.
"That was so cool," Juice said with a huge smile, "you're fluent?"
I nodded with a smile as I passed my paper over to Jax to look over.
The rest of the morning was filled with me making the phone calls and trying to persuade them to at least meet with us to negotiate new prices. I managed to get almost all of them on board except for 3 of the organisations, a group of Nazis, another gang in New York and an extreme survivalist group. I thought that 9/12 wasn't bad going and I was pretty proud of myself. Some of the guys had been sent away by Clay to 'actually do some work' but Jax and Chibs stayed; ignoring what Clay had said. When I had finally finished all the phone calls I sat back in an extremely unladylike fashion and sighed, stretching my arms above my head and hearing my back crack.
"Oh my god," I sighed.
"You did good, Kid." Clay said and came around to pat me on the shoulder.
I felt like rubbing my eyes but I couldn't because of my makeup. I just settled for closing them for a minute or two.
Most of these meets were happening at Hope's diner but there was a couple I couldn't convince of that either and we were going to have to go to them. I was nervous about that but I was told that there would be more guys going to those with us. That eased my concerns slightly but not enough that I felt 100% safe. I decided that I needed a drink and stood up slowly. I felt stiff and achy from being sat in a hard office chair for so long.
"Wine?" Jax asked with a laugh.
"Am I that predictable already? Its lunch time, don't judge me. Are you coming?" I said back with a smile.
"Yeah. Clay? Chibs?"
They both nodded.
Walking into the sun felt glorious. I just wanted to lie down and get a tan; not something I could do too much in England. I turned my face up to it and sighed. Chibs was walking beside me silently while Jax and Clay walked up front; their conversation now turning to the first negotiation tomorrow. As we walked I felt his arm brushing against my shoulder and him knocking into my side slightly. I bit my lip to stop the smile that was threatening to creep onto my face.
"You photosynthesising?"
I looked around and saw Gemma walking up to me with a glass of lemonade in her hand. She explained that Clay had told her all about the stuff that had happened that I did really well and impressed everybody. I hadn't set out to impress anyone but it felt nice to know that they were proud of me.
"Yeah," I replied and held my hands up to the sun, "I love this weather. Do you even know how much it rains in England?"
"Don't sit out in it too much; you'll get old."
She sat beside me on the picnic bench and closed her eyes. We sat in a comfortable silence for a while until Jax and Clay came and sat in front of us. Clay replaced my empty glass of wine with a glass of water with a raised eyebrow.
"I think you got me the wrong drink Clay," I said but sipped the cool water anyway.
It felt nice to sit with all of them, like we were a normal family sat out somewhere just enjoying the weather. I felt a wave of calmness wash over me and sighed. I looked around and took in my surroundings; there were mechanics working on different things and the sound of power tool whirring into the calm air but it was all part of TM, it was all coming back to me in bits and pieces. After a while, I was getting too warm, almost sweaty even in my light clothing. I guess it would take some getting used too. I wasn't sure how the guys and Gemma wore leather jackets in this weather. I mentioned to them that I was going to go in and get some more water.
Happily in the cool shade of the bar I felt a bit better. Tig and Chibs were stood by the bar talking to the man named Chucky. I quietly walked towards the bar and caught Chibs' eye. He was looking at me in amusement but didn't greet me. I realised why when I got closer and heard what Tig was saying.
"… happy I was sat down. Man, when she walked in in that skirt I was just... fucking rock solid. You think clay noticed? The things I would do to her. I heard she liked older guys, you know?"
I looked between Chibs, Chucky and the back of Tig's head with wide, surprised eyes before settling my face into a smug expression and tapping Tig on the shoulder. He jumped and whirled around to face me. Chibs roared with laughter, slapping the bar as he laughed with Chucky. Tig looked shocked but not embarrassed about what he said, more about being caught.
"Where did you hear that from?" I asked and fixed him with a coy smile, "I mean, you're not wrong, but how did you know?"
He spluttered, obviously stunned that I heard. I had found it funny, I wasn't even insulted. I was starting to get to know their personalities by now and knew that this was just how he was; he wouldn't try anything. From what I gathered from the conversation, he was slightly afraid of Clay and what would happen to him if he did try anything. I laughed at his still shocked expression and ordered another glass of water with ice before walking back outside to my family, throwing a teasing look over my shoulder at him and still laughing when his mouth gawped open.
When Clay gathered the gang together he invited me along, in the bar though; they weren't taking it to church like they usually would so I got a chance to interject with anything useful. He was running through the plan with meeting with the Russian guys tomorrow. We were going to use the first as a kind of practise run, although it was being taken with utmost seriousness. The Russians are peaceful protesters but that doesn't mean that it was still going to be completely safe. Jax was running the meetings, Clay would stay back and wait for the call on whether they had taken the negotiation or shot us all. That didn't fill me with much confidence but I managed to hide my anticipation. He had chosen a few guys to take with him, and me, and some on standby.
"So," Jax said as he shoved his hand in his pockets, "I'm taking Chibs, Happy, Tig, Opie and Juice. I want you to look out for Vee."
I started to protest against having babysitters but he cut me off and Clay threw me a mildly annoyed look and I stayed quiet.
"Vee is coming to take notes and to tell me what I'm doing wrong," he laughed and I smiled at him, "and translating those Russian guys."
"I want suits," I said when he had stopped talking and all the guys that were coming along groaned and complained, "complain all you want. It's a business deal, not a standoff at high noon. If I see a single trainer, a pair of jeans or leather… thing, I am going to send you home to change. Understood?"
"They're called kuttes." Jax said, clearly unhappy about my rule, "how are they gonna know who we are if we don't wear them."
"You are the Sons of Anarchy," I said as if it explained everything, "If you are as infamous as you make yourselves out to be, they should know who you are without your little matching outfits."
"I'll wear a suit ma'am, even if these guys won't." Juice said with an easy smile.
"I'm starting to think you're my favourite, Juice."
I smiled at his cheerful expression and twinkly eyes. He seemed so happy and light hearted all the time. He was a sweet guy.
"But," I said and fixed each of them with a stern look, "they will all wear suits."
"Yes boss," Chibs said with a salute in my direction and the others seemed to follow his lead and agreed.
"Don't forget combed hair," I pointed to Jax, Tig and Opie, "neat beards and clean fingernails. You don't need to worry about all that though Happy, just get a suit yeah?"
"I've got one for funerals," he said.
I don't know what it was that made me laugh when he said it. Was it the monotone voice and steady expression? Or perhaps it was the fact that he looked my dead in the eyes when he spoke. I covered my mouth to try and stifle my laughter but it leaked out slightly. I walked over to him and patted his shoulder.
"Well done," I said with another giggle, "I'm proud of you."
He sat up straighter and puffed out his chest proudly and it made me smile.
As the meeting came to an end, everyone double checking their roles and I drilled into them about looking smart, Tig gestured for me to go over to him. I frowned sceptically but walked over anyway, I guess I was curious. He hadn't spoken to me since I caught his conversation with Chibs and Chucky.
"I thought I said you shouldn't have favourites," he pouted, "what has Juice done to be your favourite?"
I raised my eyebrow, amused that he had apparently been thinking about a small comment I had made almost an hour ago. I looked at him sympathetically and touched his cheek.
"He calls me ma'am and does what he's told," I said, running my thumb over his skin; teasing him so that he sat up straight, "I like that about him."
"Where am I on your list?"
He had placed his hands on my waist now and pulled me between his legs. I smirked and tilted my head to the side; enjoying the effect I was having on him. I hadn't been like this with anyone for a while. Teasing men was kind of my hobby when I was going through school. I leaned down close to him like I was going to kiss him but stopped about 2 inches away from his face.
"You're not even in my top 5," I whispered to him with a small pout before slipping out of his grasp and walking away.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Chibs pat his friend on the back with a laugh as Tig looked after me with a pained look on his face.
"Who's your second favourite?!" he shouted after me.
"Chibs!" I called back and laughed when I heard the Scottish man cheer loudly.
When the time finally came for the first meeting, I felt a sense of nervousness as I got dressed. A similar outfit to yesterday, seeing as the guys were so receptive to it, but with a deep red blouse instead of white. I twirled my hair up into a neat bun, not bothering with all the pins for a French twist. Gemma was giving me a lift to the clubhouse and from there we would travel as a group to Hope's. When we arrived I saw Jax walking into the clubhouse; he was wearing a suit so I could only hope that the rest of them were too. I stepped through the door and gasped audibly when I saw them all stood around in their suits. They turned to face me with wide eyes.
"All of these handsome men, just for me?" I exclaimed and put my hand over my heart dramatically.
They greeted me cheerfully and I inspected them all individually, like the teacher used to do in my school. They were all nearly perfect except for Tig's hair but it didn't matter what I did it just sprang back up again. I decided to let it slide; I was wasting time.
I gave them another quick run through of the plan. Jax and Chibs were going to be facing the other gang, Opie and Happy were going to be stood by the entrance to the diner acting as a sort of bouncers, and Tig and Juice were going to be sat nearby just in case something goes wrong; having Clay on speed dial. We had a prospect driving the van which is how I was going to be getting to the diner since I refused to travel by motorbike, especially in this skirt.
I lead them out to where the prospect was already waiting by the van, smoking a cigarette.
"You want me to go with you ma'am?" Juice asked but I shook my head telling him it might be good for the Russians to see how many of them were actually there with the van.
"I'll see you all there," I said before climbing into the van, "be careful of your hair under those helmets."
"No problem," Happy nodded to me.
I wasn't sure whether he was joking or not but I took it as him agreeing with me.
The journey wasn't a particularly long one but the prospect seemed mildly antisocial and wasn't speaking so it felt like it was about 3 hours long. I tried not to worry too much about how it was going to go; I had faith in Jax and that he could get them onto the SOA side of things. This meeting was only the first of 9 so even of this one went bad there is still more to go.
I couldn't help but wonder how I even got into this situation. I wasn't a criminal but here I was, helping my estranged family to run the family of my evil stepdad out of town and steal their business.
I knew it was dangerous; I knew that there was every possibility that any one of these groups letting the Warrens in on what was going on and there was every possibility that they could come and kill us all. I was, however, hopeful and optimistic that we could get these people on our side that may even be able to help with the Warren problem.
Watching the guys on their motorbikes was an interesting sight. The way that they swooped over the road looked freeing and exciting. I watched them interacting with each other and they were like a family and I felt jealous. We pulled into the parking lot of the diner. It was mostly deserted with one car by the entrance. I suspected that belonged to Mr Hope. I checked my watch and saw that we had about 15 minutes to go before our arranged time.
"Thanks," I said to the prospect but he nodded and didn't look at me.
I rolled my eyes as I hopped out of the van. Walking across the sandy floor in my high heels posed a bit of a challenge but I managed to get over to the door in a relatively elegant fashion.
"Right," I turned to the Sons, "kuttes off, suit jackets on. You can change when we are finished."
I had had a slight heated discussion with Jax on whether they could wear their kuttes on the bikes and change into their jackets when we arrived. I initially refused but when I realised I was wasting time arguing I gave in. Juice was the only man that trotted dutifully to the back of the van where I had stored the jackets while the others dragged their feet.
I entered the diner and greeted the waitress behind the counter. She was an older lady with a kind expression. I walked over to her as she eyed the guys suspiciously.
"Hello," I said with an easy smile.
"Hello Darlin', how can I help you today?"
"We have set up a couple of business meeting based in your diner over the day. We would appreciate your digression on the business being done here."
I slipped her a few notes and she nodded, casting a glance back into the kitchen before slipping the money into her apron pocket.
The guys all had coffee mugs in their hands. Chibs and Jax had situated themselves near a window where they could see the parking lot. I sat in the booth behind them with Juice and Tig. Tig was staring at me. I raised my eyebrow at him.
"Why is Chibs your second favourite?" he asked, sitting forwards.
"Are you still on this?" I huffed.
"I just-"
He was cut off by the doors opening and in walked 2 men and a woman. The main guy introduced himself with a thick Russian accent as Nikolai. I stood beside Jax and nudged him and hissed at him to introduce himself and shake the man's hand.
"You are the phone lady?" he asked me.
I smiled at him and nodded.
"You are pretty."
I smiled even wider, straightening out my hair and making sure that my clothes were straight. He spoke to me in Russian and I told him to please sit down and I will get him and his friends some coffee. I waved over to the waitress, Karen, and she came over with three more cups and cream. Nikolai was a mildly good looking man with a trimmed beard and shiny black hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail. His eyes were a stunning emerald green that held just the right amount of mischief. I had a crush on him for sure.
"You can speak English." I stated to him, "Do you want to speak to them in their language or through me to translate?"
"I want to talk to you."
The woman who was sat on his right rolled her eyes and folded her arms, fixing him with a majorly pissed off look. I told Jax that Nikolai wanted me to translate for him during the meeting to which Jax shrugged and said that was fine; making me a space on the bench beside him.
I found the deal went down quite well. Between the flirty remarks from Nikolai and my equally flirtatious replies we managed to get him on our side. He was to pay the sons £150,000 per shipment which was just over half of what they had been paying the Warrens. They seemed happy with the agreement and even the woman was beginning to open up even going as far to give Jax the eye. Nikolai didn't even look towards Jax for the entire time, just at me. It made me feel good.
I pulled out the contract that I had typed up for them and pushed it towards him with a pen on top so that he could sign it and make it all official. When I got it back off him I saw that he had written a number on the bottom of the page; I looked up at him and smirked.
"Call me when you have enough of being the princess," he said in English and cast his first glance over to the other guys sat on the table, "I will see you soon."
I nodded and stood by as Jax shook his hand again in a farewell. Nikolai cast another glance back at me as he left the diner before they got in their hippie van and drove away.
I looked down at the number with a smug smile and felt eyes on me.
"What the fuck was that?" Jax asked in horror, "were you flirting with him?"
"You've got eyes Jax," I shrugged, "why wouldn't I flirt with him? You didn't think he was cute?"
He said nothing so I took that as a yes. Chibs laughed slightly but it sounded almost bitter and sipped his coffee. I was taken aback by his reaction and looked at him with a slight frown. Tig knelt backwards on his booth so that he was facing me and I looked at him warningly. If he asked about who my favourites are one more time I'm going to throw hot coffee in his face, I thought to myself. I waited for him to speak.
"That's your type then, huh?" he asked, surprising me.
I shook my head, "no, I like dark eyes. He was still cute though and I'm definitely going to give him a call."
"Dark eyes… is that why Chibs and Juice are your favourites?"
I looked between Chibs and Juice and tilted my head to the side, noticing that they did indeed both have dark eyes but shook my head again with a smile back at Tig. Jax told him to leave it now, it was getting annoying and I shot him a grateful look for voicing my thoughts.
S'up bitches 2.0- this is over 4000 words! You're doing great sweetie!
Also, who is up for jealous Chibs? I'm all for it, let's see him get all hot and bothered about her maybe getting with another guy shall we?
Thanks for reading and I wanted to give a bit of a shout out to user: Khyharah for your continuing support on this story, your comments are so funny and just make my day whenever there is a new one. All of the people who have commented though are so encouraging and make me want to write more and more and more!
Thanks everyone for the faves and follows too, there really has been more support than I ever thought I would get. I appreciate all of you so much.
Also I proof read this chapter, are you proud of me?
Love, Doe xx