7

Chapter 588 Future Hale

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Jax and Scarlett went to a local park for a walk after they left the hospital. The park had a sidewalk around the perimeter. In the middle there were picnic tables, swings, slides and a small climbing wall leading to a spiral slide. The grass was losing its vibrant green and would soon turn brown as fall drew closer. A few parents watched over their kids as they played. Other tables were occupied by teens and young adults either hanging together or looking to score. Parks were still a favorite place for drug dealing. Off to one side were some homeless people sitting on park benches, shopping carts parked nearby. Before they entered the park, Jax grabbed his handgun and tucked it into the waist band of his jeans before pulling on his hoodie.

"Reminds me when you used to go walking with me when we first started seeing each other," Scarlett said.

This time, Jax didn't hold out a steadying hand to her. She knew he was doing that to keep his hands free in case he needed his weapon. He wasn't wearing his cut, but parks were dangerous enough without wearing his cut to add to the risk factor. Scarlett wondered how long Charming would be able to stay the safe small town before the crime overflow from San Francisco and Oakland crept in.

"The good old days."

Scarlett aimed an elbow into Jax's ribs. He groaned playfully.

"Maybe I won't have sex with you and you can console yourself with the good old days," she said tartly.

Jax chuckled.

"How much longer do you think you are going to hang around the hospital?"

"Tara can make her own medical decisions now. She's on the mend. I don't see any point in sticking around. I was thinking of going back to Charming with you tomorrow and then coming back next week some time to visit her. I can still talk to her on the phone so it isn't like I'm abandoning her."

"I agree. She's going to need to sleep a lot, so there's not much for you to do other than sit at her bedside. She isn't in critical condition, so she's out of danger."

"As long as she doesn't get transferred to St. Thomas," Scarlett added. "I don't think she would make it out of that hospital alive."

"I don't think so either. Did you set up a meeting with Hale?"

"I texted him and he will be by tomorrow around 11. It would be good for us to be there too. Maybe we could leave for Charming a couple of hours later so you can make church tomorrow."

"Good plan. I was thinking for dinner tonight, we could try this Korean BBQ place since there aren't any in Charming."

"I like Charming, but its restaurant options are limited. Maybe we should learn Korean cooking."

"How about I be your sous chef?"

"Jax," Scarlett cooed softly, "I really like it so much better when you lead."

Jax burst into laughter.

"Love the words, just not in the context of cooking."

After a delicious Korean BBQ dinner, they returned to their motel room. Jax tried to pull Scarlett into his arms.

"We need to talk," she said dodging his embrace. She knew once Jax started kissing her, it would be difficult to have a conversation with him.

"How about we talk a little later?" he suggested trying again to pull Scarlett into his arms.

"No," she said firmly once again avoiding his arms, "we need to talk because I need your full attention."

"Why don't we talk tomorrow?" Jax tried to slide his arms around Scarlett, but she was too quick for him.

"Now. Relax. It isn't a relationship conversation."

"Good, then I won't have to run out the door."

"Screaming like a little girl," Scarlett added.

"Outlaw bikers do not scream like little girls," Jax said sternly.

Scarlett grinned.

"I can't imagine you screaming like a little girl, but it's a funny picture." Scarlett walked over to the bed and sat down a pillow propped up behind her back.

Jax sat down facing her. She could tell by the look on his face that he was relieved they weren't having a relationship talk.

"When I talked to David, I played him a little."

"Played him a little, huh?" Jax raised an eyebrow.

"He is going to be useful when we finally start hunting for Violet and Louise's killer. I need to keep that contact."

"So how did that work out?" Jax was frowning, clearly not pleased.

"I think he has feelings for me. He told me that outlaw bikers either end up dead or in prison. It's a dangerous life and he doesn't want anything to happen to me."

"What did you say?"

"That I knew I could always count on him," Scarlett put her hand over her heart dramatically. "I wasn't serious, but it's just something I needed to say to get to my objective."

"I get it," Jax admitted grudgingly. "I'm not happy about it, but if you can get him to share info on Louise or Violet, I'm going to have to be OK with it as long as it doesn't go beyond words."

"It won't. I would never cheat on you," Scarlett assured him. "If Tara and David bring down her boss and some others at the hospital, it's going to give him visibility. It might help push Unser out since David will show himself as being capable and sort of heroic. Even if people hate what happens to St. Thomas, they can't blame him for going after the law breakers. If Unser goes, that's going to change things for the MC."

"I don't think Clay's planned for that day, but I agree Hale may be the new police chief sooner than anyone has expected."

"You need to get leverage over him or he is going to go after the MC. Part of it may be related to me. He may figure if he can lock you up, I'll be his. That isn't going to happen, but he doesn't know that. He also will want to set the tone for his time as police chief and there's no better way of doing that then going after the MC. It will be his first priority."

Jax nodded his head thoughtfully. He hadn't wanted to think about what life in Charming was going to be like after Unser left, but Scarlett was right; the MC needed to start looking to that day and planning accordingly.

"That's going to be tough. We won't be able to bribe him."

"It's been my experience that even the most morally upright person has some skeletons in the closet. It doesn't have to be recent. It just needs to be something that he won't want to get out."

"Back in high school, Hale used to be the biggest pot dealer in the school. I'm not sure that would hurt him much now. How far are you willing to go to help?"

"I won't help kill him or set him up to be killed and I won't sleep with him," Scarlett paused thinking through her answer some more, "but I'm OK with everything else."

"We aren't going to kill Hale," Jax said slowly. "It would only be a temporary solution and we might end up with a worse solution if the town gets scared and decides to bring in the sheriffs. They would love to set up shop in Charming. Hale's a problem, but the sheriffs would be a bigger problem. We're going to need to figure something out."

"If he sold pot in high school, there might be some other things he did that could be a problem for him now. His father's a judge. He must have taken some bribes."

Jax laughed at Scarlett assuming that because Hale's father was a judge, he must have done something illegal. The truth was, he suspected she was right.

"We need to start digging into Hale's past and his father and find something to get some leverage on him. I'll bring it up at church. I won't mention anything about Tara just that we need to start preparing for Hale while we can still use Unser to feed us helpful information."

"I think that's a good idea. I'll try to see if he'll open up to me a little and give me some useful info, but I have to be careful. I don't want him to suspect I'm going to feed the information to you or that I'm interested in him."

"Yeah," Jax said running a hand over his beard, "we need to get some leverage on Hale to neutralize him and he will go after us. Clay gets sloppy and makes rash decisions. I'm not getting locked up for his stupidity."

"The leverage doesn't have to even be true," Scarlett suggested. "It just has to look true."

Jax grinned and grabbed Scarlett by the legs and pulled her down to the bed.

"The way you think like an outlaw is hot as hell. Now are we done with the conversation?"

Scarlett wrapped her arms around Jax's neck and pulled him down to kiss her.

"We can continue it on the drive back to Charming," she said.

When Scarlett came to Charming, she intended to bring down the Sons of Anarchy and its sexy VP and now here she was helping him protect the club. It was a surprising turn of events.

She just needed to figure out a way to use David without getting too close to him. And then she remembered that was her same plan with Jax and that hadn't worked out like she'd planned. This time, there would be nothing between her and David.

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