Judas Kiss

Chapter 40.

Jax

I looked over all of Clay's documents on the IRA as I did my best to prepare for this meeting. The more I dove into all this stuff, the more real it became. I felt way over my head with this stuff, but there was no going back now. This had to be done if I wanted any chance at normalcy.

My mom stepped inside the room, and I sighed exasperated. I had been trying to reach her for a while now, hoping to resolve this issue about Opie that had been bothering me. "I've been looking for you," I said as she sat down across from me. "What happened to Piney?"

"Clay killed him," she said bluntly.

"Look, I know Clay and Piney were beefing over this cartel deal–"

"It wasn't over the cartel deal," she interrupted. She shoved the binder that she brought in with her toward me. "It was over these." Curiously, I opened the binder only to find it filled with a bunch of papers. "Maureen Ashby put them in your bag before you left Belfast. They're letters from your father. Tara found them before you did."

"Tara had these?" I was visibly confused because I couldn't come up with a reason as to why Tara would keep anything about my father from me. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"She knew they would break your heart. Same way they did mine." My mother took a deep breath before continuing, "When Thomas got sick, your dad stopped going to Belfast. He started writing to Maureen."

"What does this have to do with Clay?"

"JT and Kellan decided to get the MC out of guns, and away from the IRA. Clay thought it was a mistake, and feared that John would destroy the Club. So, Clay decided to kill him. The first attempt was when he sent John into a Mayan ambush unprotected. Your dad made it out, but your dad was smart, he knew it was Clay who had set it up. And he knew that he would also try again. He anticipated it would be mechanical, and unfortunately, he was right."

My jaw hung open as my mother revealed this truth to me. My dad died when I was fourteen years old, and for years I blamed it on a random trucker, only to find out that it'd been Clay all this time.

"The only person JT ever let work on his bike was Lowell Sr. Clay must have paid him off or threatened him. He had to be the one who sabotaged the panhead."

"Lowell Sr. was killed by the Mayans a week later."

"Yes, he was," my mother agreed, "Clay buried the secret."

"How do you know all this?" I asked, still in disbelief at what I was hearing. Clay stepped in as a father to me when I was a kid. He even went as far as marrying my mom when my father died. Simultaneously being the man who killed my father would have been the ultimate betrayal.

My mom nodded her head toward the binder in my hands. "The letters. The speculation. The Mayan Ambush...John knew that Clay would be the one to murder him. And Clay knew those letters would prove it, so he killed Piney before he could bring them to the table. He knew he'd get voted out and all this stuff with the Cartel and the IRA would have been for nothing."

I swore under my breath as a sea of emotions swept over me, all begging to be felt. The most prominent were rage and revenge.

"That's not all," my mother continued, "I found the cover letter that Maureen left you and I told Clay about it." Guilt was written all over her face as she attempted to keep eye contact with me. "I knew Tara was the one who'd found them and I panicked."

"Clay knew that Tara had these?" The anger was clear in my voice as I fought the urge to yell.

"He tried to kill Tara, sent hit men after her with money that he pulled from our safe."

"How'd you get the letters now?"

"Tara gave them to me. Don't be upset with her for keeping them from you, she didn't want you to read them. She didn't know what you might do."

"Who else read them? Did Ari know?"

My mom shook her head, "No, she's never laid eyes on them. I doubt she knows they exist."

I felt a sense of relief in that. I don't know why, but it felt good to know that she hadn't kept something like this from me. "Why are you telling me this now, mom?"

"Because I know how dangerous secrets can be, and it's time we all knew the truth. Clay Morrow killed your father and stole that seat away from this family. Gunned down your father's best friend and tried to kill the love of your life. He's a murderous traitor and his tirade needs to end. There's only one way to bring peace to this now Jackson, for your father, your family, and your club. Clay Morrow has to die."

I fell silent as her words hung in the air. I felt the heat radiating off my body as the anger burned inside of me. I did not do well with betrayal and my mother knew that.

I knew that my mother wanted me at the head of this table. She knew what telling me something like this would do to me. It was in my blood as a Teller to seek revenge. It's what we do.

When she left the room I dived into each letter one by one. I recognized my father's handwriting immediately and a part of me broke at his brokenness. I'd make Clay pay for what he did to my old man, I'd finish the job that Opie couldn't complete.

When I was finally through reading everything, I went to confront my mother and Tara outside. They were sitting at the table, and Tara looked down when she saw me.

"You should have told me," I scolded her.

"I was going to. But when you got out you were so eager to leave, and I was afraid it would push you back in, I'm sorry."

I nodded my head as I rationalized her reasons in my mind. She was right. Those letters would have pushed me back in because I would have been so blinded by revenge that I'd see nothing beyond it.

"I have to kill him, Tara."

"I know," she reached into her bag and pulled out a little black pack. "And this is how you're going to do it." My eyebrows rose at Tara's eagerness to end Clay's life. She was the last person I would have thought to encourage something like this.

I unzipped the pack only to find a syringe and needle. "Tara, what is this?" I asked confused.

"It's a blood thinner. You inject it directly into his IV line and pull the tubes from his chest. He'll bleed into his lungs and drown. It'll happen quickly, it'll look like he just pulled it out in his sleep."

Tara seemed so nonchalant about the whole thing that I questioned her state of sanity. I knew she hated Clay, with more than enough reason, but she was never a fan of death. Seeing her in this state of compromising her moral compass made me question how far I dragged Ari down with this life.

Before I had a chance to ask any further questions, Chibs called out my name informing me that it was time for the meeting. I looked back at Tara, my anger fizzling out and being replaced by confusion.

Tara read the look on my face and offered me her hand as she pulled me close to her. " You kill him," she ordered, " And then you come back for me and our son and drive us out of this toxic town."

"I will, I promise." I let out a shaky breath before kissing her. When we broke apart, I ran over to my bike hoping to have success with this meeting and then go end the reign of Clay Morrow.