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Chapter 630 Delay

"

As Scarlett pulled into the parking lot at TM, she was glad the guys had settled down as they sobered up a little.

"Are you guys going to be OK on your own?" Scarlett asked. "Anyone need a ride home?"

"Naw, we've been bunking at the clubhouse," Bobby said. "Thanks Scarlett for the ride and putting up with us especially me."

"You're just lucky you didn't puke in my van," Scarlett said. The guys thanked Scarlett as they climbed out of the van.

"Now you guys take your pain meds and get some sleep. No more liquor," she told them.

"Damn, Scars, you can really handle the guys. Expert level," Jax said admiringly.

"It's easy because you're with me and they know they better behave."

"No, that's not entirely it. They respect you and that's something you've earned. You saw how no one wanted to ride back with Gemma? That says a lot."

"They are easy to get along with," Scarlett replied. "They are lucky no one vomited in my van because there would have been hell to pay. Oh, and thanks for threatening them with Sack and me beating them up."

"It worked except I don't think Happy was afraid. It's typical that he wanted to go get in a bar fight or get locked up and get in a fight there."

"And a broken arm didn't stop him," Scarlett said shaking her head.

"You should have seen him in the ambulance. I warned the paramedics, but they didn't take me seriously until he started fighting them."

After Scarlett tossed her small cross body back on the staircase, Jax rested his hands on her hips.

"You had something you wanted to tell me before Gemma called," he reminded her.

"It can wait. You need your pain meds and sleep."

"What would I do without you?" Jax asked.

"Probably bunk in the clubhouse with the guys and mix pain meds with alcohol."

Jax laughed wincing slightly from the increased pain in his ribs.

"Look Jax, if you want to go down and bunk with the guys for a few days, I'm fine with it. It's bonding time and it isn't often that everyone is together like this."

"You wouldn't mind?"

"I wouldn't have suggested it if I did."

"Maybe just for tonight."

"I'll drive you. And don't mix alcohol and pain meds and make sure the guys don't either."

Jax kissed Scarlett.

"You are wonderful even if you do sabotage my clothes."

"Let's go. And you are still taking me to Hawaii. I've never been. Give me a date so I can start planning and arranging coverage at the store."

"I'm not sure about what's going on with the MC."

"Oh no, you don't. You'll always have that for an excuse. Pick a date and make it work."

"OK," he said with a sigh. "I promise to pick a date and the MC will just have to survive for a week without me. Once we pick a date, I'll even get the tickets to make sure it is set in stone."

Jax stuffed his duffle with his toothbrush, toothpaste and a change of clothes.

"Just give me a call when you want to come back."

"That's OK. I'll have Sack bring me back tomorrow."

Scarlett dropped Jax off at the clubhouse and then called her father on her cell phone.

"Are you alone or with Annie or maybe someone else?" she asked.

"Alone. Can I come by? I need to talk to you."

Decker told his daughter to come over and she was as his home in less than five minutes.

He already poured her a tall glass of iced tea and added a mint garnish and set it on an end table next to the sofa.

"So what's wrong?" he asked as she entered the house and took her seat on the sofa.

"I'm not sure that anything is wrong. It's more of a discussion."

"Where's Jax?"

"I dropped him off to spend the night at the clubhouse," Scarlett quickly told him about Clay's surgery and driving the MC to the hospital.

"Was that his idea?"

"No, the guys said they were bunking together at the clubhouse and I thought Jax would enjoy spending time with them. I know he needs that male bonding brotherhood time. That's part of the MC experience."

"Good for you," her father commented. "It shows how secure you are."

"I don't want to be one of those clingy types who demands that he spend every waking minute with me."

"OK, not hearing a problem there," he said from his recliner.

"No, that isn't the problem. Jax and I are in a good place. He discovered that Clay and Gemma were having an affair and JT was going to bring it to the table to get Clay kicked out of the MC. Clay was a truck driver in the military, Unser claimed to have a truck from his business stolen before JT was killed and JT was run over by a truck. There are problems with the police report that corrupt Unser prepared. There was a partial license plate number omitted from the report that matched Unser's truck."

"It may not be enough to get Clay kicked out."

"No, but the Buck Jeffers info I have is."

"It's possible that they will kill Clay for lying about Jeffers. At a minimum he's out of the club."

"I want justice for mom, but would it be terrible if it didn't go as we planned? I know the goal was always to get Clay put in prison for something and stripped of his patch and protection. Sooner or later, he'd get killed, but hopefully, he'd be made to suffer a lot before that happened."

"Clay will be humiliated. He'll be dead to the guys. The humiliation won't stop there. It will be throughout the town. He'll no longer have any status in town or anywhere else and he's made enemies. His world outside prison will be almost as dangerous as prison only with more humiliation."

"That won't be enough for Jax. Clay's a dead man, but Jax will do it smart because he doesn't want anyone getting locked up. I'm just not sure about the prison part being possible."

"Jax will get revenge for Clay's his killing his father and I'm with Jax. I don't want him or anyone else to go to prison for killing him."

"OK. For sure I'm going to tell Jax about Buck Jeffers tomorrow. I think the timing is finally perfect and at the least Clay will get kicked out."

"You know when Jax takes the gavel, he'll have more power. He'll be able to help us get some answers about Violet and Louise."

"I forgot to mention that in exchange for David giving Jax the police file on his father's death, he gave Jax some info on leads to follow up on Louise's murder. He wants the MC's help."

"Great. We solve her murder and we'll have Violet's killer," Decker said.

"I keep thinking about the link between Violet and Louise. It has to be the MC, but all the guys except maybe Happy seem fairly normal. I can't see any of them killing either Violet or Louise."

"We need to rule out the MC first because that's the easiest course of action."

"I know," Scarlett said.

While she drank her iced tea, her father talked to her about his maybe girlfriend. It was nice to see him happy and dating again. She'd like him to find someone especially since she was with Jax.

Scarlett returned to her condo and got ready for bed and decided to stream a nice cozy Hallmark murder mystery. As she watched the opening credits of her movie Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans, she wondered if she'd had a serial killer in her van.