The trip back also went without any particular incidents, and they hadn't even been stopped at the border crossing, just waved through.
Everything had gone well and Roxanne could actually make a checkmark at it all, however, it continued to bother her. She was even temporarily tempted to ask Chief Unser about how long someone might have to be in jail for contraband across the border, even if they didn't know anything about the cargo they were hauling, but decided to let it go. She didn't even begin to investigate on the Internet.
But still ...

"Tell me ..." she mentioned this about a week later, in an emphatic aside, as she and Tig lay in bed together, once again both exhausted and satisfied. "That trip down to Mexicali the other day, I wasn't really hauling car and garage parts, was I?"
"How do you figure that now?" Tig was honestly perplexed. Not because she thought the whole thing was a little odd, after all, she wasn't stupid, and the mystery about it ... but precisely because she hadn't brought it up earlier.
" To me it all somehow seemed a bit ... how do I put it? ... staged. You don't have to say nothin'," she added hastily, now as Tig was starting to respond. "It all went well, it's over, I don't even want to know exactly. I dont know why I brought it up again now anyway but it had to get out somehow."
"We actually didn't want to get you involved in this in the first place," he assured. "You were our last option!"
"Under other circumstances I would possibly be taking that as an offense by now," Roxanne smiled and snuggled closer to him. "But if y'all still want or need to bring me in on this again, I don't wanna know about it then either. The less I know, the less I can spill. Wherever and to whomever."
"True! I'm glad to hear that! After all, most women become horrible nags at some point, wanting to know your every move," he explained as she lifted her head and looked at him questioningly.
"I'm not 'most women'," she smiled before he pulled her close and they kissed passionately.
"I know," he finally replied, stroking a strand of hair from her face with affection. "It's a damn good thing!"
More than that. Judging by all accounts, Roxanne was the perfect lady for him - he just didn't know it yet.

"So, what's up?" Donna asked when they sat on Roxanne's porch together over coffee. Those 'chit-chat' sessions had become a more or less regular habit by now. Sometimes they were joined by Gemma and, more rarely, Tara. Contrary to expectations, Roxanne didn't really warm up to the latter and she had stopped trying to find out the reason. There were people with whom you just couldn't get along. Tara wasn't even really unlikeable to her, she simply couldn't get it, however, that's the way it was. They were friendly and distant with each other and everybody was happy.
"Not much," Roxanne replied, stubbing out her butt of a cigarette into the ashtray. "I've started running again, so this smoking thing is what I should be getting out of the habit now."
"You're running? Like, really competition-wise?" Donna had figured it already, Roxanne was more or less athletic out and about, or had been, at least. A top body like that in her early forties, you definitely had to workout for it, unless you had the genes for it.
"No, not like that. On the other hand, I don't just stroll around, I'm all about speed and endurance. Preferably trail running. It is slowly getting better anyway, I really needed to do something again. For the fitness," added Roxanne. "And in general."
"For the fitness and in general?" Donna echoed questioningly, grinning. "'Cause what?"
"Nothing!" But it was obvious what was coming up right now.
"So Tig had nothing to do with it?"
"No, he didn't. Somehow it seems to me that you'd much rather talk about him and me than I would," Roxanne said with a smile. "Why is that?"
"Why don't you want to talk about you guys?" Donna countered with a question. "You do care about him, you have some feelings for him, there must be something?!"
"Believe me, I think about it a lot by now but ... I haven't been in love for a long time and I'm starting to think it won't happen again!"
"Oh, come on! You're in your prime! Not that it has anything to do with it, but you ..."
"It's not that." Now was probably the time, after all, to reveal at least a little more about herself, Roxanne thought. After all, with the possible exception of Gemma, Donna was the closest thing to at least a good friend she had.
"My latest relationship was so emotionally draining and destructive to me, and I don't think Tig, of all men, is going to be the one to make it right. He's definitely not the guy to do that. Maybe I should get to know him better but as it is between us, it is perfect. We don't have any pressure, no strings attached, the sex with him is awesome ... what else could I ask for?"

"Well, in that way, it's probably good you're the way you are," Donna said thoughtfully. "Anyway, a

romantically inclined chick wouldn't suit him and he wouldn't be able to cope with that either but is he thinking of the whole thing in the same way you are?"
Roxanne shrugged. "We haven't talked about it right now, but he doesn't seem like he's unhappy, so I'm going to assume he is."

'He doesn't doesn't seem like he's unhappy' was an understatement.
"Dude, let's get real!" Chibs sat down with him at one of the tables in front of the clubhouse the next evening along with two bottles of beer. Everyone else had already left, and they were able to talk privately. "Roxy and you."
"Yeah, it's fine, thanks for asking," Tig tried to brush him off but not with the Irishman.
"Wouldn't you like it to go better? You're a different man anyway!"
"Really?" Tig wondered sincerely. "In what way?"
"You surely have noticed it yourself," Chibs countered dryly. "No more club pussies, no more hookers and slash or any of your other sexual kinkiness ... It seems there is only Roxy now. That doesn't give you second thoughts?"
"Well, she's great! Even more, heck, much more than that! Maybe that's exactly why I don't enjoy everything else anymore," Tig said, shrugging. "That's good enough, ain't it? For me."
Chibs shook his head with a grin, but said nothing in response.
If his club brother was going to continue to deny the obvious ...

Several weeks later, Roxanne laced up her running shoes once again after work, making sure the hydration belt fit properly before she headed out after a short warm-up.
The running gear had been part of the few personal items she had taken with her on her escape.
After the first couple of hundred meters, which had always been somehow rather slow and awkward, she felt the blood circulating and the strength in her legs, as she did every time, as she left the city behind and headed into the open terrain. Each run was easier and by now she had regained her fitness from 'before all this disaster'. Even the 40 degree heat didn't bother her, the air was dry and as long as she had something to hydrate with ...

Somewhere in the Indian reservation that bordered the town - she always forgot the name of the tribe that lived there - she passed a barn and the fact that both a truck and some Harleys were parked in front of it raised her curiosity. Deciding on the fly, she took a turn and headed toward it. She was still some distance away when she heard voices, she couldn't understand them exactly but it seemed to be a tangible dispute.
She sneaked the last few steps and peered through the narrow space between two wooden boards of the barn wall and what she saw in there made her blood run cold.

Three Mexicans, probably members of the Mayans Club, although Roxanne thought she had seen at least one of them before, and one of the Sons of Anarchy aiming a gun at them.

It was none other than Tig.
Whilst Roxanne was still hoping everything would calm down again, he abruptly squeezed the trigger as fast as lightning. Once, twice, three times, and before the three Mayans had even hit the ground, Roxanne backed away, eyes wide, feeling all the blood drain from her face. She gasped in horror and thought for a short moment that she would either pass out on the ground or vomit by now, but got herself together and ran, returning back in the direction she had come from.
Run! Just run!
Judging by the expression she had just noticed in Tig's usually so fascinating steel-blue eyes, if he saw her now, he probably wouldn't hesitate and shoot her, as well.

She ran faster than ever before and didn't realize how exhausted she was until she got back to the trailer park.
She collapsed in front of her house and lay on the ground for a while, sobbing and heavily breathing.
Fortunately, none of the neighbors, who weren't living nearby anyway, noticed anything; Roxanne would be absolutely incapable of telling or explaining anything right now.
She finally got to her feet, dragged herself into the house and into the shower, where, once again shaken with crying fits, she collapsed and spent quite a while sitting huddled and shivering under the warm water stream.
So Tig - her Tig, who could be so tender and loving despite his sinister-martial appearance - was a cold-blooded murderer. If anyone had told her, she would have laughed it off, but she had seen it. In all clarity!
What should she do now? The other guys were also capable of anything. She hadn't seen anyone else, but Tig definitely hadn't been there alone.
Was it really possible that she had been so wrong about them?
But no, neither had she been mistaken in them nor had she been deceived, they had simply presented the good and friendly side of themselves to her.
She seriously considered calling in sick for at least the next day, she couldn't possibly work this messed up, let alone face them all.
She wrote Gemma a quick note saying she had a migraine and after crying through most of the night, it wasn't even a lie by the next morning.