CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

Website where all photos of all outfits mentioned is on my profile.

I'm surprised when we pull into the car park at the garage, but Jax casually waves at everyone tugging me towards the ladder that goes to the roof. Climbing vertically isn't easy when in heels, but I'm silently grateful that I did end up wearing trousers this morning and not a skirt, though Jax would have enjoyed the view, a single small gust of wind could easily have me flashing the whole lot.

Getting to the top of the ladder I climb over the edge of the roof and stand there waiting till Jax appears beside me, the bag slung over his arm. He stuns me even more when he opens a big metal container and pulls out a couple of cushions; dropping them onto the concrete he points "Sit."

I sit down, crossing my legs in front of me while Jax takes the cushion beside me "Do you know why I brought you up here?"

I shake my head "No, no clue." And it's true, when we were younger the four of us PT (Pre-Tara) had spent hours on the roof talking, drinking, smoking, laughing but from my email conversations with Donna and the evidence that I've seen since I got back it became Jax's place of solitude. The drawings that we'd all done are still on the concrete, but faded after so many years of exposure to the elements.

Jax takes a deep breath and starts talking, the words falling from his mouth don't help my confused state "I've made almost every major decision in my life up here, most of the things I couldn't cope with I hid up here to try and deal with them. I'm not sure why being on the roof is so relaxing for me; Ma told me that JT was the same. He'd vanish for hours on end and she'd always be able to find him up here. He told her once it was his bird's eye view over everything he'd created, and everything he loved. I haven't had a chance to come up here and just think for a while, in fact I think I've only been up here once since you came back and this morning I had a thought that I missed it. The silence, the view, the fresh air, the solitude. But that was where I realised something." Jax trails off and I shake my head.

"What?" My voice is soft, I'm wondering if he's going to ask me to leave him alone for a while so he can think, but not 30 minutes ago he was demanding that we spend the day together.

"It smacked me in the face watching you sleeping, my crow across your chest for everyone to see, Abel's name inked on your skin for the rest of your life. I don't want the solitude any more. I don't want to do anything on my own. I need you more than I've ever needed anything, ever, and the realisation made me question a lot of things. But the one question that kept coming to mind, that I knew without a shadow of a doubt the answer to is this: Am I willing to leave you for anything, the answer was no." Jax stops for a second and looks over the garage. "I'm going to talk to the guys and see if we can find some other income sources, stuff that's clean. So that we can get the fuck outta guns, or at least lessen the risk to us all. I can't risk going to jail, I won't risk your life, or Abel's if shit goes bad."

I lean against the side of the wall behind me, my mind charging a mile a minute through the possibilities "You'd have to have some big sources of money, there is no way that Uncle Clay is going to give up the huge cash cow that the Irish bring with them."

Jax blinks and nods "I know. But the truth is that Clay, Piney and Bobby are getting old."

I can't help but snort "Give them a chance. Talk about it with them and see what they say. But baby, please have some ideas before you go into battle with this."

Jax nods "I'm not stupid Sarah. I know it's going to be an uphill battle, I know it's going to take a lot of work, and I know it'll be hard. But I just think that it's time we thought long term for the Club. I don't want Abel coming into this and having to deal with the same shit as I do. We might be able to move distribution to someone else, which would only have us with the import and assembly."

I shrug and lean over, sliding my hands onto his thighs "Jax, I never said you were stupid. Float the idea to Piney first; see what he has to say. If he goes with it well that's the VP in your pocket. But don't push too hard."

My mind is swirling at a million miles an hour, for as long as I've known anything about the club and its actions I've known about the guns that they run for the IRA through California. "Can we stop talking about this now and enjoy our day out together?"

Jax nods and reaches into the bag, handing me a sandwich and a bottle of water "I got one of their cupcakes as well, but it looks like shit compared to yours. Seriously babe, you should open a bakery."

I smile over at him "I own, or will do soon, three businesses in town. What do you think I'm going to do with them all? Well not all, but one at least."

Jax laughs "What happened to bikers coming to the back door hiding addictions?"

I shrug, opening the plastic around the chicken club Jax got me "I'll make up a secret knock just for you guys, or I'll do a delivery run once a day here." My brain runs off on a tangent with that idea in mind the concept of doing a delivery service to some of the bigger businesses pops into my head, going to Elliot's businesses would be a certain, and if I could sort out frozen dinners as well it would be a bonus, not just for Sons who have no idea how to work an oven, but for families if they're busy but want to eat at home, single people and even the elderly in town would benefit from it.

Jax waves his hand in front of my face "Earth to Sarah?"

I shake my head and smile brightly "Sorry, just thinking."

"That much was obvious. You pretty much had a combination of a 'do not disturb' bubble and an idea light bulb above your head." Jax chuckles and opens his water bottle "Are you back with me now, want to share?"

I nod "I've decided what I want to do with the buildings. And what I'm going to call them both. And I may have had a random ideas for some legitimate income for the club. It'll take a bit of start-up cash though."

"Club shit first." Jax states "That way it's over and done with and we can forget it, just like you asked."

I poke my tongue out "Luann does the porn DVD's right. Well, what about setting up a webcam house for some of the girls? Charge a premium for the people to log in and watch. Different membership levels get access to different number of rooms, from a low level only having communal living areas to the highest one getting access to all cameras through the whole house."

Jax's eyes widen and he opens his mouth but I shake my head once "Not done. On a side note of that you could do merchandise, every movie Lu does has some sort of additional stimulation used in it. Sell them as well, make a package deal of the movie and a toy like what was used in the movie for x amount, and go from there with that. You could end up doing things up to entire movie set ups including the movie, toys, costume and shoes. And then that opens up doing merchandise in general. Vibrators, cock rings, butt plugs, handcuffs, whips, chains, spreader bars, ropes, sex swings."

Jax's expression fades completely from the shocked state to a look that I can't quite place till he opens his mouth and his voice comes out slightly rough "You were sitting there calm as anything thinking about sex toys?"

I giggle and nod "Of course. But if you were going to get into the toys side you could also do parties, then you get into lingerie as well. Hmm, maybe I should have kept this as an income idea for me, it could be pretty lucrative."

Jax laughs "You could have, but you wouldn't. I'll talk to the guys about it too, but don't be surprised if I drag you in to sell it as well. Now, your businesses, what were you going to call them?"

I look down at the sandwich in my lap, while I'd been thinking I'd managed to eat half of it but the excitement that's just bubbled up has my appetite disappearing "I'm going to rename Shermans to 'Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice' and set it up selling shoes, makeup, perfume and clothes. Scoops I'm going to name 'Sweet and Savoury' and do the baking side with ice creams as well from half of the store, the other half will be sandwiches, muffins and pre-packaged meals."

Jax blinks a few times "Sounds like it'll be a lot of work."

I nod "It will be, especially with two businesses getting off the ground at the same time, but I can pull D and Al and Cam if she comes back in to help decorate, stock and run. Plus it's not like I'm going to have issues getting it going. The patch attached to my Old Man will get things moving, and what that doesn't work on then my last name will work on them, I'm sure. But you didn't want to talk about this anymore, we can do plenty of debating and talking while the paperwork gets sorted and the buildings get stripped out. Which I will pay someone to do, it's commercial so it's a little different to residential I'm sure."

Jax nods and changes the subject, randomly deciding to talk about the car I've reminded him he has to buy.