8

Chapter 597 Truth to Tell

"

Scarlett looked at her father's latest food experiment Korean BBQ chicken pizza topped with caramelized onions, smoked provolone and topped with a scattering of scallions and chopped cilantro.

"What do you think?" Decker asked.

"It looks like a masterpiece. Hope it tastes as good as it looks," Scarlett said before taking a bite of the slice on her plate.

The smoky hot sweet BBQ sauce topped the crisp thin crust and married perfectly with the gochujang marinated chicken. The caramelized onions added a burst of sweetness to balance the spicy heat followed by the mild smoky provolone with the cilantro and scallions providing the perfect burst of freshness.

"I think this is my favorite pizza of all time," Scarlett said. "Going to be hard to go back to Italian style."

"Maybe next time, I swap out the chicken for Italian sausage."

"It's perfection the way it is," Scarlett insisted, "and the chicken is amazing. I definitely need the recipe so I can make it for Jax."

"I have a present for you. I made a couple of extra crusts and everything for the pizza. I'm giving you one with all the toppings you need. All you need to do is assemble the pizza and bake it."

"Just one of the many reasons I love you," Scarlett said with a grin. She never took her father's generosity for granted and she was always grateful that he chose to be her father. She knew that without his guiding influence, her life would have taken a dark and possibly deadly turn much like Violet's.

As they ate their pizza, Scarlett filled her father in on Tara and her conversation with Jax urging him to get leverage over David before Unser was pushed out as police chief.

"Jax is going to take it to the table about getting leverage over David tonight," Scarlett said in conclusion.

"I think you're right that Unser may get pushed out if David Hale pulls off a successful investigation of St. Thomas. Or maybe the success will lead him to think of bigger goals than police chief of a small town."

"He's smart enough, but at his heart, he's a small town guy. I hope I'm right because it would really screw things up for the MC if David leaves and gets replaced by someone . . . " Scarlett's voice trailed off.

"Who believes in law and order and can't be bought," Decker supplied.

"Everyone can be bought," Scarlett said with a shrug, "you just have to find the right currency."

"I have taught you well," Decker said with a laugh.

They discussed the renovations on Jax's house and the house flip.

"The crew is working on the house flip now, so you have about three weeks. Get him to pick the house exterior and interior paint colors and the bathroom vanities."

"I'll drag him to Builder's Outlet World tomorrow. We'll get paint samples and I'll get him to make choices."

"He's going to end up following your recommendations."

"I don't think I can sell him on the black countertops," she said with a sigh. "I guess maybe white with a bit of black veining would look nice."

"What about kitchen flooring?"

"I'm thinking a faux wood tile a bit darker than the cabinets or vinyl or vinyl in black and white faux granite tile. The problem is the faux granite could look too busy with the quartz countertops unless I did a solid color countertop. We could also do large white tiles with black grout."

"The tile will wear better and you can always change the grout color."

"It's just bad if you drop things or spend a lot of time in the kitchen because it's so hard plus it's more expensive."

"Pick what you will like because once Jax's house is done, he's going to ask you to move in with him."

"I'm not moving in with him," Scarlett said firmly. "I don't mind having him around because I know it's temporary, but I'm not sure I want someone around all the time. And I'm definitely not going to live with him unless we're married. I don't like the idea of being in some strange legal limbo. I don't think I want to get married anyway. It's a great way to destroy romance."

"Marriage can be an amazing experience. If I'd never married your mother, I wouldn't be your father."

"OK, marriage isn't all bad. I do love Jax and he loves me, but sometimes it isn't enough."

"Scarlett, that's fear talking. There are different kinds of bravery. You are going to have to find the courage to make a long term commitment at some point in your life."

"Jax hasn't said anything to you, has he?"

"Not yet."

"That's a relief. I'm still getting used to the whole being in love thing."

Decker wisely moved the conversation back to Jax's house and flooring options while they finished dinner and cleaned up. Decker handed Scarlett one of her favorite desserts a cherry cheesecake parfait before settling into his recliner. Scarlett curled up on the sofa and looked at her father suspiciously.

"OK, what is it you need to tell me that I'm not going to like?" she demanded.

"Am I that obvious?" he asked innocently.

"I know you too well."

"We need to figure out a strategy to deal with Mickey Smith."

"What you really mean is I need to tell Jax his true identity."

"Something like that."

"It's going to be very tricky. How am I going to tell him I know that Mickey is really Bucky Jeffers from the Laredo chapter?"

"Tell him about your mother."

Scarlett shook her head emphatically.

"He won't try to kill you," her father reassured her. "The contract may still be active, but there's no money and, even if there was, Jax isn't going to hurt you."

"I'm not afraid of that. It's telling him about my mother and how I watched Clay kill her. I'd rather it not look like I have an ax to grind when it comes to Clay at least not until it feels like the time is right. It doesn't feel like the right time now."

"You know him, so I'll go along with that, but you have to tell him about Jeffers."

"It's going to be tricky because Clay vouched for him. That means Clay lied to the MC to get Jeffers into the clubhouse. When they find out he's from the Laredo chapter, there will be hell to pay. I just don't want that blowback to land on Jax." Scarlett placed her barely touched parfait on the coffee table; the conversation had tied her stomach in knots. Whenever she thought of Clay, she felt that same rush of fear she'd felt when he chased after her and Violet to kill her.

"I don't see how Clay stays in the MC. The betrayal is too great. The Laredo chapter has been scrubbed from all the online stuff about Sons of Anarchy. They may have a private non-public facing site they mention it on, but publicly, it's like it never existed."

"That's why it's dangerous. Clay gets kicked out of the MC because Jax exposes him. That's dangerous. Clay could decide to kill Jax in revenge and make it look like an accident or kill him and beat Gemma into submission."

"Worst case for Clay is they kill him and best case is he is no longer president. There's no way he survives this level of betrayal and stays president."

"That's the problem. If Clay doesn't get kicked out, he's going to be a danger to Jax because he's vengeful. It will kill Clay having to see Jax with the gavel."

Decker thought about that for a few moments.

"I don't think he's going to stay in the MC. That's a big betrayal. If the chapter that Jeffers was from was a reputable chapter, it's one thing, but if anyone discovers Jeffers is from the Laredo chapter it's going to bring up all the sex trafficking of children scandal again and the MC wants that in the rear view. Clay's going to get his patch stripped. When that happens, we'll be halfway to our goal."

"We'll just have to get him sent to prison."

"I don't think that will be a problem. With Clay's temper, he'll go after Jeffers. He's no longer president. Jax may fire him from Teller-Morrow and suddenly Clay doesn't have anything. He'll blame Jeffers and kill him or try and Clay's not a smart man. He'll get caught and it won't be long before he's killed in prison."

"There's no reason for him to go after Jeffers. I'm sure whether it's SAMCRO or another chapter, Jeffers will die at the hands of a Son; Clay just needs a little patience."

"If Clay doesn't kill Jeffers, maybe they make it look like he did it," Decker suggested.

"No, I don't see that happening. If a Son kills Jeffers, they'll kill him, bury the body and that will be the end of it. They don't want Jeffers identity revealed because it will bring up the whole Laredo thing again. No, he'll just disappear. Maybe get someone from another charter to do it. Keep their hands clean."

"Maybe Clay kills Jeffers and dumps the body where it gets found knowing they'll ID him based on his fingerprints and it will stir up the whole Laredo thing again to screw over the club."

Scarlett rubbed her temples feeling a headache coming on. All this move and counter move stuff was hard. She reached for her parfait. She needed the hit of sugar to help her brain and soothe her headache.

"I'm worried about Jax. We can't predict what Clay will do with certainty and that could get Jax killed. I don't want to lose Jax to Clay."

"Jax is smart. He'll make it clear to Clay that if anything happens to him or any member of SAMCRO, they'll kill him. He could also warn off Clay from revealing Lucky Bucky's true identity to embarrass the club."

"That could counter Clay, but we both know that things don't always work out like we plan and we could be missing something. I'm just nervous. Maybe it's better not to say anything. There's no reason to tell him right away."

"Jeffers has had a long time in prison. He must be bitter. Maybe he wants to lock up some of the Sons and he's got history with Clay. He wants to be part of the MC. Suppose he's working with law enforcement."

"He hasn't been at any of the meetings yet," Scarlett said. "I doubt he will be there tonight and next week there won't be a meeting because they have the run the next morning."

"He could be gathering information to either blackmail the club or for the cops."

"He's enough of a slimeball to do something like that. OK. I'll tell Jax after the run and before the next Church. Maybe I can find a picture of the Maine chapter online and a picture of the real Mickey Smith that will resemble Jeffers in no way at all and be able to show it to him. The only question is why I would do something like that."

"Better yet, let Jax do the research. Suggest there's something wrong with Mickey Smith and ask Jax if there are any pictures of him back in the Maine chapter. A quick internet search should pull up the information."

"That's genius. Get Jax to discover the truth with a few careful hints. There's another problem. Tig is SA and vets members. He should have discovered the truth about Jeffers which means he's either incompetent or Clay told him to let it go."

"Looks like SAMCRO may be down two members when this all shakes out."

Scarlett nodded. Her stomach was in knots again as she worried about this shaking out in a way they hadn't been able to foresee and Jax would be in danger.