I don't usually like posting on Friday/Saturday night but I know you're all waiting for the update and I couldn't resist when I realized that today is Tiggy's made up birthday :') Hbd to our fave Sag king!

aravenamongcrows on Tumblr! (ask and submissions are open!)

General trigger warnings for this story: Language, smut, mentions of rape, abuse, drug use/overdose, violence/death.

CHAPTER 86: MALEVOLENT MR. MAYHEM

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Gemma scowled as she watched from the kitchen window as Unser drove away without coming in to say hello after a brief conversation with Clay that had sent Sydney bolting from the house - watching as her husband paced back and forth while holding his phone to his ear, trying the same number over and over again.

"Come on…" She heard him mumble down the line as he made his way back into the house, trying the mystery number yet again.

"You alright, baby?" She questioned with a crease in her forehead - recognizing the panic on his face as he stood by the door with a bewildered look on his face. "What is it?" She pressed him as she approached, hearing his breathing getting heavier by the second.

Clay didn't answer. He knew that he couldn't let onto what he was thinking - especially if they were about to get the call that he knew was coming. He shook his head, making his way back to the living room to rejoin the party that was about to be rocked by the news.

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Tig pulled the black ski mask down over his face as he rolled up behind Opie's truck at a red light. This was perfect, he thought as he retrieved the MAC-10 from under the seat and held it out the window - lining it up with the back of Opie's head; if he couldn't see his face, then he couldn't possibly be reminded of why he hadn't been able to do it in the first place.

But as he sat with his gloved finger on the trigger - he felt that same hesitance. He growled, shaking his head in frustration as sweat began to bead on his forehead, soaking into the cotton that laid over it - knowing that he only had a few more seconds to make himself do it before the light would turn green and his second chance at a perfect opportunity would escape forever.

He took a deep breath as he clenched his jaw, desperately trying to make himself squeeze the trigger but he couldn't - not until he was startled by the sound of a revving engine behind him where he made the split-second decision before he could be caught, blinking rapidly as the barrage of bullets ripped through back window of the truck and hit their target.

"No!" Sydney screamed as she watched the gun go off, screeching to a halt next to the truck as the body slumped over the steering wheel - the horn sounding immediately. She was too late.

But Sydney's horror only grew as her eyes landed on those of the victim - and they weren't the hollow brown colour that she was expecting. They were blue. A pure, hopeless shade of blue. She flipped up her visor to be sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her - gasping when the sight of Donna's lifeless body before her didn't change.

Tig's heart sank when he saw Sydney pull up to the scene, witnessing firsthand what monstrosity he was capable of. It was a fear within him that he thought she had abolished, but now as he faced his own horror with himself, he realized that it had only been buried.

"Alex…" Juliet's voice broke as she stood in the doorway of the apartment that she'd followed him to, her hand shaking against the brass doorknob.

Tig whipped his head around when he heard the small voice, almost thinking that he had imagined it in his paranoia as he wrapped the body in plastic just as he had been instructed to do. But as he laid his eyes on the one person that he never would've hoped to see there, he realized that this was very real - and it was about to destroy him.

"Baby…" He got to his feet quickly, wiping his hands on his jeans as he moved to stand in front of the awful sight.

"D-did… Did you do this?" She squeaked as her throat locked up, unable to take her eyes away from the horrific scene that laid before her.

"You don't understand-" He shook his head, taking a step towards her.

"No!" She jumped back. "D-don't touch me." Tears began streaming down her face as violent sobs pounded against her chest as she looked at the monster of a man before her; the monster of a man who used to be the only thing on this planet that could make her feel safe - the exact opposite of what she'd been feeling with him since he'd decided to put on that kutte.

Tig's heart shattered behind his chest as she stumbled back, those aqua-coloured eyes filled to the brim with fear when just days ago they had been filled with love. "Please… Let me explain." He begged, his own eyes filling with tears. He couldn't lose her - the one good thing that he'd managed to find in his life - not over this.

"There's nothing that you can say." She shook her head, her eyes fixed on the leather eyesore that covered his body. "They've taken you."

Tig was pulled from the memory, the blaring sound of the truck horn becoming clearer as his hearing returned - realizing that he had to get out of there. He pulled the SUV around to the other side of the truck when he saw it - what had Sydney frozen in shock on the other side.

"Shit!" He cursed as he stared at the back of the head of the man that he had been too chicken-shit to look in the eye before he ended his life, only he wasn't looking at the back of a man's head, he was looking at the back of a woman's head - Opie's woman's head. He looked around frantically as his hearing faded again. There was no way that this could be happening? That he, the Sergeant at Arms of the mother chapter, had managed to so badly fuck up a simple hit for a second time.

"What the!" A voice could be heard beside them, both turning to see a horrified man pulling out his phone to call the police as his dog started barking and thrashing against the leash.

"Shit!" Tig cursed again when now, not only had his cowardly act just ruined his own relationship on top of countless others, it had drawn a witness - the nail in his coffin.

Sydney flipped her visor back down and hightailed it out of there the second that she realized somebody had seen them - her tires spitting up gravel as her bike wobbled a few times due to the hasty take off. She tried to grip her handlebars as best she could to steady the machine below her as her body buzzed with a head-spinning panic as she realized that she had failed her job as both an old lady and a member.

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Hale rushed to the scene of the incident the second that he had heard the awful news - the awful news that he had thought he'd managed to prevent. But he hadn't prevented it at all - instead his hesitance had caused an outcome far worse than he ever could've imagined. He felt his already tightened face becoming even more strained as his emotion turned to anger while he watched the paramedics drag Donna's lifeless body to the ground where they confirmed that there was no chance for revival.

The deputy shook away his personal feelings over what he knew had taken place here - refocusing himself on the one thing that was going to get him through this: his job.

"You the witness?" He nodded to the bald man cautiously approaching his squad car along with his golden labrador-retriever.

"Yes, sir." The man nodded curtly.

Hale looked around as the scene began to attract more attention - knowing that the ones responsible for it were sure to turn up any minute with an oscar-worthy performance. "Come with me." He grumbled, leading the witness inside the vehicle where he recorded his account of the events - each word confirming exactly what he had thought; that this had been an inside job, and it was all his fault.

"There uh, there was one more thing… Don't know if it has anything to do with it, but..." The middle-aged man rubbed the side of his neck and squinted his eyes.

"Anything you saw could help." Hale nodded reassuringly.

"There was somebody else there… Right after it happened."

"Somebody else?" Hale's brow creased.

"A woman. On a bike. She uh, pulled up alongside the truck and saw the body - took off a few seconds later. Seemed spooked, but not by the guy… If that makes sense."

"You uh-" Hale cleared his throat. "You sure it was a woman?" He had known that this was Clay, but he never would have guessed that it was Sydney.

"Oh I'm sure, alright." The man scoffed, licking his dry lips. "Body like that… There aint no way."

"And you said that she fled the scene?" He probed for the answer that he wanted, coaxing him in a direction away from the young blonde in hopes that somehow the man had just misinterpreted what he'd seen.

"Yeah. She did. But like I said… Didn't seem like she was fleeing from the driver, seemed like she was fleeing from the crime."

"Are you insinuating that this woman was somehow involved?"

"Can't say for sure. All I know is that the Range followed after her and she sure didn't look like she was trying to escape a murderer."

Tig. Hale's eyes fell closed. Of course it had been Tig - who better to carry out the elimination of a threat than the Sergeant at Arms himself. "Okay, Mr. Richards. Thank you for your cooperation."

"Am uh- Am I gonna be in any kind of danger here, deputy?"

"No, sir." Hale shook his head in certainty. This was the last person who had to worry about being in danger tonight.

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Tig dumped the stolen vehicle and returned to his bike as quickly as possible, speeding back to Sydney's house to establish his alibi. But as soon as he was no longer focused on covering his ass, it all came crashing down. Sobs rippled through his chest under his kutte as the dread only got heavier with each mile that he traveled, finally pulling into Sydney's driveway where he went to remove his helmet - letting his head linger in his hands as they shook violently. He shook his head, not allowing himself to give into the outburst - not now, not where people could see him.

He dragged himself towards the front door, his lips quivering as he began to hyperventilate - knowing the horrible fate that was waiting for him inside; the horrible fate that he had always told himself he wouldn't be able to live through twice.

"What the hell was that?" Sydney yelled at the top of her lungs as she slammed the door the second that he passed through it - seeing the same guilt that had been on his face the day before as his mouth hung open and his eyes darted around as he tried to find the words. "What happened to transparency?" She pleaded with him through her own panicked confusion.

"I-I didn't know it was her." Was all that he could manage to get out as he shook his head sorrowfully and began to spiral - his fingers running through his hair where he pulled at the curls punishingly. "I thought it was Ope." His breathing became laboured as the sobs finally began escaping his lips.

"No." She growled as she grabbed his face harshly. "You look at me."

Tig couldn't have fought the recoil even if he'd had the strength of one thousand men as he looked into her eyes to see the disappointment that he'd seen far too many times in his life - the kind of disappointment that he would never be able to bring himself back from.

"You need to park that shit." She growled as he tried to pull away, yanking him back. "Okay? We are going to be called to the scene any minute. You do not show an ounce of remorse. You follow my lead - my every fucking move. You hear me? I am not going to let you ruin anything else tonight." She spit the instructions at him through her gritted teeth, throwing his face out of her grip as he blinked his understanding. She wasn't about to lose her man, her patch, and her sanity all in one night.

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Unser sighed heavily as he pulled up to the hectic scene where sirens were blaring and people from all different departments were scurrying in every direction - paramedics, officers, agents, investigators. He knew that something like this was going to happen as soon as Clay was put into the familiar position - but once again, he had known too late.

The chief's guilty conscience was interrupted by the sound of motorcycles approaching, followed by the screeching tires of the tiny green Ford that slid to a halt before Opie practically leapt out. "Donna? Donna!" He yelled over and over, his voice getting louder with each step that he took towards her body.

"Woah, woah! Sir!" A technician tried to hold Opie back.

"It's alright." Unser nodded. "Let him in."

Jax ripped his kutte off and threw it over his bike as he jogged after his best friend - not daring to enter a live crime scene wearing the mark of the club that he knew was responsible for her death. He felt his heart shattering behind his chest, feeling that deep dread that he'd only just been able to shake beginning to creep back in - forming a pit in his stomach as he watched Opie cradle her head and beg for her to come back.

Just when Clay thought that things couldn't possibly get any worse - he saw that the victim of their coup had been even more innocent than the intended one had been. He squeezed his eyes shut, throwing his hands over his face as he shook his head and looked away from the horrible scene that he had caused.

It was then that Tig and Sydney pulled up - the pair cautiously getting out of the car where they did their best to look shocked by the saddening news. Sydney had been sure to change out of her previous outfit - opting for a large sweatshirt that hopefully hid any familiar parts of her body that may have been identifiable by the witness.

"What do we know?" Clay approached Unser as the visibly uncomfortable man watched the heartbreaking scene of Jax and Juice pulling Opie off of the ground.

Unser hung his head, turning to meet Clay's deceptive gaze very slowly. "A guy walking his dog saw a black SUV roll up on the truck - shot her through the back window."

"Did they see the guy? Was he black?" Clay did his best to plant the seeds in the knowing mind of the man who had been down this road with him once before.

"He couldn't say." Unser shrugged - not at all concerned with the untelling findings of the witness.

"Nothing else?" Clay pressed further - needing to know how much wiggle room he had, especially after Sydney had gone rogue.

"Nah, Hale said that's all that he saw."

"Jesus…" Clay turned away, pacing back and forth as he scanned the crowd for his Sergeant.

"Unless Donna's been living some kind of double life-" Unser called after him. "I'm thinking that this brutality was meant for Opie." He narrowed his eyes. "It looks like some scumbag made a tragic mistake."

Clay lowered his eyes as he searched his brain for the correct response - one that wouldn't get him in more shit than he already had to dig himself out of. "Yeah…" He nodded slowly, finally locking eyes with the curly-haired man that had guilt plastered all over his disheveled face. "I'd say that's a pretty fair guess."

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Mr. Deputy Chief w the tight lips👀

Song for this chapter

Blood On Me - Sampha