Up In Flames

Chapter 7

“Maybe I should see if Happy would do something like this.” She mused as they made their way out of the massive iron gates and toward the parking lot.

Johnny laughed and shook his head as he draped an arm over her shoulder. “I’m sorry but I cannot see him on one of these happy family excursions.”

“I know you’re not meaning to be an asshole but you are.” Raising her eyebrows, Rory peeked into the coach to see Emma sleeping soundly. “Thank God, I really thought she was going to be up and miserable the rest of the day.”

“You’re good, right?” He asked as they got to her car. “You’re happy with Happy in California?”

“I’m very good and we are both very happy with Happy.”

“Good. That’s all that matters.” Watching closely as Rory safely buckled in Emma, Johnny felt more confident than ever in his decision to leave her be. “Have you heard from Brad?”

“He called me.” The door slammed as she moved to the driver’s seat. “I told him off and it’s been months.”

“Yeah, he never called me and I kind of just stepped away. It was one thing when Happy wasn’t in the picture but he was causing too much shit.”

“Thank you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tight. “This is what Emmett meant when he told you to look out for me.”

“Yeah, I get it now. Wait,” he looked at Emma sleeping soundly in the back seat. “Emma, Emmett, I’m such an idiot.”

“Yeah, you are, Johnny but we love you anyway.”

--

“What happened to your original connection?” Clay asked with one hand in his pocket as he and Putlova tried to pull as much information out of the other as they could.

With a casual shrug of the shoulders, Putlova answered vaguely. “We had a falling out.”

“Seems like you had a lot of that since your kid and you haven’t been able to build shit back up that high yet. If that’s the issue, tell me, we weren’t jumping at the chance to get in bed with you, but with our extra stock we are looking for buyers.”

“And I know we aren’t the only ones to have reached out.” Putlova was annoyed but Clay’s insinuation no matter how true it was. Junior had burned many bridges with his schemes that spread from Vivica all the way up the coast. A lot men lost faith in the Russians and Putlova when he couldn’t control his own son.

“You’re not.” Clay said matter-of-factly. He wasn’t hiding anything. “The Chinese are very aggressive and the Italians made it known what they want. I don’t want anything to do with Lin, I don’t trust him, he’s too sneaky. I want this to work with you but you gotta be straight with me.”

Every man turned when the sound of rustling gravel and high-powered engines hit their ears. Most but not all pulled their weapons as two blacked out Hummers came from the narrow entrance road with their windows down. As soon as the first shot was fired, Tig had Clay on the ground and Putlova was hurried behind his car. The other men fired back as they searched for somewhere to take cover from the high caliber bullets being sprayed around them.

“Who is it?” Jax called over to Juice who was closest to the offending vehicles. He looked back, shaking his head, but before he could holler any response or guess Juice took a bullet to the stomach and hit the ground.

“I got him.” Happy was already halfway across the open space when most of the Sons realized Juice had even been hit. Dragging him back further from the gunfight and to a much safer, better-covered area Happy felt two molten hot bullets wing past him close enough to rip open a good-sized gash into his side and one right below his ear.

“Jesus,” Tig watched as the Sons and Russians emptied the last of their ammo. “Fucking sitting ducks, we’re gonna die out here.” He said to himself right before the automatic weapons were silenced and the Hummers sped away in reverse.

“We whole?” Clay shouted as he jumped to his feet.

“Juice took one,” Jax said as he met Clay halfway across the open area. “Happy got a few grazes. I’m gonna call Tara; we gotta get him out of here.”

“Take him and Hap in the van.” Clay was already pointing off to the others. “I don’t want anyone dead.” He said with a warning look.

“Looks like it might not be us you gotta worry about.” Jax said as he looked past Clay to see the Russians mourning two of their own. “This is only going to get worse.” He said, catching up with Happy as they helped Juice into the van.

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DUN DUN DUN! Haha Thanks for all the feedback and support. Please keep it coming, I love hearing your opinions and guesses! xoxo