5

Chapter 544 After Church

"

Scarlett, Donna and Tara were sitting at a table at the clubhouse waiting for the guys to finish their meeting.

"Does Jax tell you much about MC business?" Donna asked Scarlett.

Scarlett shook her head. It wasn't true. Jax told her a lot about SAMCRO, but she knew from Jax that Opie preferred Donna to know as little as possible. It was better for Donna to think Jax kept her in the dark too because she didn't want Donna asking her about club business. Ignorance was the best course.

"Jax never told me anything either," Tara said.

"Is Steve meeting you here tonight?" Donna asked.

"Yeah. We're not going to stay long. We're going to get ice cream," Tara said.

"We're getting pizza," Scarlett said. "You could come with us and get ice cream after."

"I'll ask Steve," Tara said. She saw Steve as he walked into the clubhouse and her face lit up.

"Go on," Donna said. "Dump us."

Tara hesitated a moment

"She's kidding," Scarlett said. "We'll be fine just two old ladies waiting on our men folk."

"Have fun with that," Tara said with a smile.

"That sounds kind of sad. Two old ladies," Donna said.

"I hate that whole old lady thing," Scarlett confessed.

"Me too. I still flinch when Opie calls me his old lady instead of his wife."

"At least it gives me a place with Jax when he calls me his old lady so everyone knows I'm not some casual fling."

"If you had been a casual fling, he would have been on to the next by now. I heard about the Gemma incident. I am so proud of Jax for standing up to Gemma like that. It's about time he told her to stop interfering in his life. She made Tara's life hell. Tara would knock herself out trying to please Gemma and then Gemma would stab her in the back and the cycle would repeat. Tara was so eager to please that woman."

"I don't know why she hates me so much, but I'm not a little high school girl that she can intimidate."

"Gemma wants complete control over Jax. She's a horrible controlling woman. Is Jax speaking to her yet?"

"No. He talks to her if he needs to for work, but that's it. Jax and the guys just happened to overhear her telling me to leave Jax alone, that he was hers. Incredible that she even thinks that way. I know it's best for Jax to have a relationship with his mother, but I just can't encourage him to mend fences with her if that means accepting her bad treatment.

If he does, she'll try it again."

"What does he want her to do?"

"Apologize to me. I think even if she does that, there will always be a wariness on Jax's part when it comes to Gemma. He saw a side to her that he hadn't seen before."

"Jax knew of Gemma's controlling nature. He could ignore it because it was convenient. Wendy was such a drugged out mess, she didn't pose a threat to Gemma. You're smarter than Gemma so you're a threat."

"I'm glad Jax stood up to her. I couldn't have much respect for a man that was controlled by his mother."

"It was inevitable. Outlaw bikers can't be tied to mommy's apron strings," Donna said.

Scarlett laughed.

"Jax is going to be staying with me for a month or so while he gets his house renovated. My dad's a contractor so he's helping Jax fix it up. New flooring, paint and he's going to add on to a bedroom with another bathroom."

"What about the kitchen?"

"The cabinets will get painted and he'll get new appliances. The bathrooms will get new fixtures and cabinets. It's a nice house. It's just a little neglected."

"It's a guy thing," Donna said.

"We're on for pizza," Tara said returning to the table.

"Good," Scarlett and Donna said in unison. Tara smiled and returned to Steve.

"How well do you know Steve?" Donna asked.

"I don't know him. When Kohn was stalking Tara, Jax asked Steve to watch over Tara, so I assume that means he's a decent guy."

"With the MC guys, it's kind of hit or miss. Some are nice, but there are a few like Happy that are a little scary."

Scarlett made small talk with Donna and listened to her tales of motherhood, but part of her was looking around the clubhouse wondering if one of the men in that room could have killed her sister.

Before her father left Jax and Scarlett alone at the lake house, they discussed the possibility of using SAMCRO to help with the investigation into Louise and Violet's death. Jax made the case that if they needed to begin investigating at the clubhouse and move outward from there. Her father agreed. Scarlett went along with them, but if the killer was in SAMCRO's clubhouse, she didn't want him to know they were suspicious.

It was frightening enough imagining a killer out there hunting women, but it made it a lot more real when that hunter could be in the same room. As Jax left the chapel, Scarlett looked at the members of the MC and wondered if one of them could have killed Violet. The only one she could rule out besides Jax was Piney. He just didn't have the physical ability to be a serial killer unless the killer used a gun. She wasn't even willing to rule out Opie until he had an alibi for either Violet's murder or Louise's.

She knew that Jax didn't think that any of his MC brothers could be a serial killer, but Scarlett wasn't so sure. She suspected most of them had killed. Maybe one of them had gotten to like killing and wanted to keep doing it. Jax was willing to believe that one of the hang around or friends of the MC might be behind the killings.

Scarlett shivered at the thought of being this close to a serial killer. She wasn't naïve enough to believe that serial killers looked like monsters. They were successful because they blended in and looked normal.

Jax saw her and his lips curved into a smile and his eyes got a certain light in them. Scarlett knew she was smiling at him too, but she didn't know if her eyes changed like his. Her heart beat faster seeing him.

"Oh, you two really have it bad," Donna said with a laugh as Jax and Opie made their way to their table.

"Just a quick game of pool and then we'll go," Jax said.

"Tara and Steve are joining us," Scarlett said.

"OK," Jax said. He and Opie and went over to the pool tables. Two friends of the club immediately gave up the table to them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Scarlett caught a glimpse of a man from her past. A lot of time had gone by, but she would know his face anywhere. This was Buck Jeffers and he was wearing a cut for a SOA chapter in Bangor Maine.

What the hell was going on?

Author's Note: There are two big plot arcs left—Buck Jeffers and the serial killer hunt.