Chapter 13

"Where were you last night?"

"I was, uh, with Gemma. We made early mass at St Philips. Was with her all last night.." Nero tilted his head as he looked at Roosevelt who was sat across from him.

When they had come into Diosa and informed him about Erin's murder Nero felt shocked. He treated his girls like family so to hear one had been murdered it was a hard thing but as he sat in the chair across from the sheriff, and remembering that they were currently searching his truck, he realised that they were treating him as suspect and that thought disgusted him. He could never, would never hurt one of his girls.

"I didn't have anything to do with her murder." Nero stated.

"Do you have any idea who might? A jealous boyfriend, a violent client?"

"Violent client?" He shook his head. "No...not at Diosa. And Erin was a good kid, quiet."

"There were no clients on her books before she was killed so..."

"These girls are free to take outside work."

"Look, im trying to give you a chance here man. You come clean to me now that goes a long way. We find something in your truck..."

"Sheriff I was a junkie thug pimp for a lot of years, eh? I served my time. What I do now it's about giving these girls a better, safer place to do the thing that they're gonna do anyhow." Roosevelt smirked.

"Don't kid yourself, there's no dignity in what you do." Roosevelt got to his feet. "You make money off the low self-esteem of broken women." He walked over to the door and opened it. Nero got to his feet.

"I guess we all kid ourselves thinking we know what is right."

"Why don't you hang around." Roosevelt spoke as Nero walked by him. It was Nero's turn to smirk. This man was so off.

"Say, uh, you working with a marshal?" Nero watched his eyes narrow on him. "Day before yesterday some marshal came into Diosa started talking with my girls Erin too. Left a card.. his name was something like Tor something..."

"Toric?"

"Toric, yeah."

"And why was he in Diosa."

"I don't know but maybe that is a question you should be asking.

Nicole sat at the bar. She had changed her blood stained clothes and was currently wearing one of Happy's black T-shirt lack with Sons written across the front.

She had a cup of tea in front of her. She was shaken. Seeing Unser with his stomach carved up, what it signified. If she hadn't been running late because she was being with Happy, would she have been here? Would they have hurt her? Hurt her unborn child?

And with the last thought Nicole pushed away the tea suddenly unable to stomach it. But as her eyes roamed the top shelf she knew what itch needed scratching.

She was the one who had started the war. She went after Michael, remembered it all to well. He had been two years year older than her, Nicole was still reeling from her Mother and Fathers deaths, she was hurt damaged even from her late fathers change in behaviour following her mothers death. She had moved in with Gemma, Clay and Jax. Left her family home. Everything had changed. She was barely 15 she didn't know how to deal with it, all she wanted to do was scream out constantly and that was when she noticed Michael, she knew who he was, knew his family was but she didn't care and it seemed neither did he. Both of them needed to be needed but what they had was toxic and it caused nothing but bad blood between the Nords and the Sons.

Everyone was furious about the relationship but neither of them listened and Nicole almost lost it all and to Darby he did and she had been paying for that night ever since.

This was her fault?

Nicole jumped when the clubhouse door opened, she only relaxed when she saw Gemma.

"You ok?" Gemma asked as she closed the gap between them. Nicole could only nod. "I saw Wayne." Which to Nicole meant she saw all the Nazi symbols. "This isn't to do with you sweetheart."

"Is he ok?" Nicole had run out the office so quickly once Chibs arrived she never checked on him.

"He's fine baby, old man's tough. Tara's patched him up." Gemma reassured her as he took a seat next to Nicole. "You know Jax will sort this."

"I know." Jax had pretty much said the same thing to her.

Nicole was about to speak when Gemma's cell chimed. Nicole watched her aunt as she answered the call and stepped away.

"Shit when...Ok come to my house...Can you do now?"

Nicole couldn't hear the words on the other side but she heard Gemma's words loud and clear. As Gemma hung up and came back to her Nicole could only think of one person who she was speaking to but she need to know.

"Who was that?" Nicole asked as Gemma hung up her cell, even though she had a good idea who it was.

"No one."

"Gemma?"

"Wendy." Gemma confessed as she sat back down by her niece.

"Did you mention her attack to Jay?" Gemma shook her head.

"Wasn't the right time. I gave her one of my guns to protect herself."

"So is everything ok, Has the guy come back?"

"No worse." Nicole frowned. "Tara's lawyer reached out again about guardianship. I'm going to meet her at my house, you should come. Help me with this."

"I don't know Gem, with everything that's been going on. Im not sure me getting involved in this is the best move."

"I know you and Jax haven't been as close recently but this is family, Tara could be planning on taking those kids away from us."

Nicole could hear the anger in her voice. She knew what family meant to Gemma, what those boys meant to her. For Tara's sake she hoped that she wasn't up to something.

"Shes pre..."

Before Gemma could spill Tara's secret Nicole jumped in her seat again, Gemma placed her hand on top of Nicole's as they both watched the Chapel doors open. Seeing her niece like this again sparked those concerns and worry for her. She knew that this morning must have been hard for niece given everything. Maybe she wasn't ready to fight Tara on this.

Nicole 's eyes locked with Happy's as they all started to leave the Chapel, Nicole didn't miss that fact that Chibs and Jax stayed behind which from her experience was never a good thing. Happy came to stand in front of her.

"Everything ok in there?" Happy smirked at her, his girl never missed a thing. Happy shook his head before he kissed her cheek taking her by the elbow moving her away from everyone. As he entered the kitchen he pressed her against the wall his lips roughly finding hers.

"It's about guns." He spoke as he broke their kiss. "Nothing for you to worry about." He confirmed as his lips found her jawline.

"What happens now?" Happy stopped kissing her and looked her dead in the eyes knowing her question was not related to guns.

"Darby." He watched colour drain from her face.

"He did this?" Happy shook his head.

"He's out but he'll know who did."

"If he's out how are you going to find him?"

Everyone had been surprised when Jax admitted that he knew where Darby was. They all thought that he had disappeared when he got out of the game but now it was clear that Jax had been keeping a bit of a secret and Happy he didn't like that. When he laid claim on Nicole Jax should have told him.

It was a conversation that he needed to have with Jax but Chibs beat him to it. He had kept Jax back and Happy knew that it wasn't just about guns.

"We know his location." He watched her frown. "After what he did to you, you really thought the club wasn't gonna keep tabs?" Happy spoke in all seriousness although he didn't think it was best to tell her that Jax was keeping that secret.

"Where is he?"

"Bout 20 minutes past the border." Happy confessed.

Nicole backed away from Happy. 20 minutes. He was that close. And they knew they all knew and no one thought to tell her.

"Nic." Nicole stepped back even further, her hands raised.

"Don't." She shook her head. "Why did no one tell me where he was?"

"It was Clu..."

"No." Nicole snapped. "Don't feed me that line that this is club business what he did, he did to me not the club."

Happy understood her anger and he was starting to get used that her moods were slightly more erratic lately but he understood this. Darby had hurt her, in ways that no one else had. He closed the gap between them.

"No one is gonna hurt you. You need to trust me on that." Happy tried to reason.

Nicole looked up at Happy. She was angry, but also scared. She hadn't thought about Darby for a long time, but that didn't mean that she had forgotten what had happened. He drugged her and sold her like she was nothing.

"I trust you, but he already hurt me." Nicole admitted. "Im going to lie down." She placed a kiss on his cheek.

Happy watched as she disappeared into his room. She was right Darby had hurt her and she was his responsibility now.

"You want to tell me what's goin on ere brutha?" Chibs asked

"About?"

"The guns?"

"Irish were never going to let us go unless we give the cause another pipeline."

"You're making big decision without bringing them here. That's not how this works." Jax scoffed.

"How this works? Look at this godamn charter Chibs. We have become the whipping boys for the IRA and the Cartel. We are down to 6 men. I need to lock this place down, try and keep my cousin safe from Clay's blowback and I can't even spare a guy to do that." Jax spat. "Brother nothing here is working. Im trying to change that, give us all a future and yes if that means stepping outside the lines, or making a couple of calls on the fly, then I will do that."

"And Darby?" Jax shook his head, a smile on his face but it not a humorous one.

"Darby has nothing to do with this." Chibs shook his head. "What he did, it was to my cousin my family." Jax yelled. "Nothing to do with this club."

"You know who you sound like? The guy who used to sit in that seat."

Jax was hurt by the words. Jax was not Clay he was trying so hard not to be Clay.

"Im not Clay, and I never will be." Jax defended himself. And with that Jax got up and left.

Toric looked at his reflection in the mirror. Everything was starting to run away with him but he needed to stay on track. He was doing this for his sister.

Shooting the girl had been a mistake but it had now become an opportunity.

He wanted Samcro to pay and right now he didn't care how that happened or who got caught in the cross fire. Including Tara Knowles and now Nero. Getting Nero sent away for murder would see Diosa fall, what woman would want to work in a place where a girl was murdered by the pimp, and with the fall would come the demise of Jax Tellers legitimate income.

But it wasn't enough he still needed Clay. He needed the affidavit signed by the end of the day. Which meant he needed to play hard ball.

Existing the bathroom one of his old friends guided him to where Clay was being held in solitary. Clay had been attacked following a stabbing, which Clay had done for protection.

As the door buzzed open the two men stared at one another.

"You have no idea how much i've missed you." Clay managed to mumble causing Toric to laugh.

"Let me guess this was part of the deal, part of the protection that your stepson arranged. But now you have a target on your throat. Who slits it first. Black, white? I know this is the last thing that you want to hear but i'm the only friend you have left Clay."

"Why don't you just kill me now."

Clay knew that his time was short but he wasn't going to bend for this asshole. He had made mistakes, he had hurt his family, betrayed them. He had thought he had been doing the right thing but his selfish needs had clouded his judgement, he could see that now and he wanted to make it right. He knew now from speaking to Jax and Gemma that this wasn't going to be easy and he probably wouldn't survive his time in prison but he would make sure that he did right by his club, his family.

"Everyday..." Toric moved closer to Clay, his foot coming to rest on top of his hand. "You refuse to sign that affidavit. You were going to wish you were dead." Toric applied pressure on his hand causing Clay to bite back the pain.

"I've known guys like you my whole life." Clay managed to bite out. "You don't hate me because im bad. You hate me because im familiar."

The words hit Toric. He had murdered an innocent woman and was now setting up an innocent man. He had done a lot of bad things recently but it was all for the good of his murdered sister. He was nothing like Clay, nothing like the members of Samcro. He removed his foot from his hand.

"There's someone I want you to see, I'll make an appointment."

And with that Toric left.

Jax stalked out of the Chapel. He was pissed. Being called Clay was the hit that cut deeper than anything, everything that he was doing was trying to right those wrongs.

He looked around the clubhouse. He couldn't see his cousin but he saw his mother and she was approaching him, he let out a breath.

"You ok sweetheart?" They both looked over his shoulder when the door to the chapel opened . Jax turned away from Chibs.

"Yeah im fine Mom. You should head to the station though."

"Why?"

"Nero's there."

"What?" Jax could sense his mothers growing anger.

"One of our girls was murdered. They've taken Nero in."

"He wouldn't..."

"I know." Jax knew that his mother was going to defend Nero and Jax would have to agree.

"He didn't do this."

"I'll handle this." Gemma kissed Jax on his cheek before stalking over to the bar and snagging her back. "Just be careful ok, I haven't got anyone to go with you."

"Ok baby. I'm carryin'"

Jax nodded his head before looking around the bar again, this time he made his way to Happy who was perched at the end of the bar, coffee in hand.

"Hey." Jax rested a hand on his shoulder as he took a seat next to him. "Where is she?"

Happy didn't need any further explanation as to who he was on about.. "She's lying down." Jax nodded. "We need to end this now." Happy spoke firmly. "She's terrified."

Jax nodded understanding the unspoken words of his brother. He should have ended Darby years ago.