Ghosts That We Knew

Chapter Thirteen

Juice stood staring at the closed door, his mind racing. Behind that door were their two prospects, Ratboy and Phil, who were suspected of taking a brick of the Cartel's cocaine. Other than one of Alvarez's guys, they were the only two that seemed plausible.

Pulling out his cigarettes, he tried to keep his hand steady while lighting one. Chibs was a few steps away, talking softly on his phone. Juice didn't want Chibs to think that he looked suspicious of anything because then he would have to admit his guilt, the guilt that he was carrying which could have prevented this mess that was happening.

Roosevelt had been using the information he knew about Juice's family to try to get Juice to bring him a sample of the cocaine. Juice knew the Feds were trying to build a case against the Sons and that the coke would tie the Sons to the Cartel, which in turn would tie all of this to the IRA's gun selling. Juice thought it was strange that it had been two weeks since he'd called Roosevelt's bluff by telling him he wouldn't steal the coke, not caring if Roosevelt let out his secret.

He should have known after a few days of not being thrown out of the Sons that Roosevelt had found a new angle. He should have gone straight to Clay and Jax to tell them what the Feds were trying to do, but he kept his mouth shut. He was banking on Roosevelt blowing smoke up his ass with the threat of information on his father. The club was everything to him so he wanted to protect his secret, so he chose to keep his mouth shut, hoping that the Roosevelt stuff would come to a halt.

If one of the prospects did this for Roosevelt, they couldn't possibly know that Juice had been approached first. He felt relatively safe that his shit wouldn't come out, but the fact that he knew this and now the life of one of his brothers was at stake made him want to throw up.

Juice looked over as he heard Chibs groan and sit down on some scaffolding. Taking a breath, in hopes it would keep his hands steady, he put out his cigarette and walked over to where Chibs was.

Plopping down on the wooden skids, Juice glanced over at Chibs. "What do you think about all of this?"

With a snort, Chibs spoke, "I think someone stole the coke, and we better find out who or we're going to have bigger problems on our hands with the Cartel."

Nodding, Juice glanced down at his feet, hearing his heart pounding in his ears. "Do you really think it was one of ours?"

"I think whoever it was is a complete asshole who will get what's coming to him."

The words echoed in Juice's ears as his mind wondered what Chibs would be saying if he knew what Juice knew. He didn't want to disappoint any of his brothers, but Chibs's opinion of him was the most important of them all. Disappointing Chibs was something that he never wanted to do.

Juice rubbed at his mohawk and then started to fiddle with the zipper on his cutte. "Do you ever question some of the rules of the club?"

"Nah, they were made for a reason."

Shaking his head, watching as his knee started to bob up and down, Juice continued, "Don't you think the rule about no blacks is a little...outdated?"

Chibs turned his head to face Juice. Juice watched as the Scot's eyes scanned over him. "Most of the rules are outdated, but they are what they are."

"I get that, but what with Fiona and all, doesn't that one bother you?"

Shaking his head, Chibs leaned back against the steps. "The Sons don't care about the old ladies; the rules don't apply to them." Raising an eyebrow, Chibs asked, "What's with the questions, Juicy?"

Juice felt a trickle of sweat run down his back as his heart began racing again. He was so stupid for asking these questions thinking that it wouldn't raise some sort of suspicion. As he started to open his mouth in hopes that he'd be able to form some sort of reasonable response to the question, Happy walked in from outside. He knew that Happy was back because time was almost up for the two prospects behind those closed doors. Someone was going to have to fess up or the worst was going to happen to them. He couldn't let that happen.