It was about half past midnight and I was at TM with Chibs. Chibs was working on his bike and I was helping him a much as I could, but most of the time I was sitting in the sidelines keeping him company.
The prospects left for an early morning pickup and Gemma pulled in. She opened the car door and climbed out. She strolled over to us.
"Where're the prospects goin'?" She wondered. Chibs wiped the grease off his hands.
"Early morning pickup. What're you doing here?" Gemma shifted her weight from one leg to the other and sighed.
"I ain't sleeping much. Figured I'd catch up on work here."
I nodded. "Good, because we're sick of working on this pain-in-the-ass exhaust." Chibs smirked.
I stood up. "Actually, I think I'm gonna head home. Call it a night." I stretched my arms and hugged Chibs. He kissed my head then I switched to Gemma. "Goodnight." I smiled.
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The sounds of banging filled my ears and I opened my eyes. Someone was at the door and Jax was dead asleep. I rolled my eyes and pulled on a wrinkled t shirt over my head. The banging continued as I came closer to the door. I looked in the peephole and saw Juice standing there. He had a distressed look on his face, his eyes had dark purple bags underneath and the whites that surrounded his irises were blood shot.
I unlocked the door and his head sharply turned to look at me. "Hey, Alex." He nervously laughed. I smiled back.
"Come in Juice." I opened the door more and he entered.
"Is Jax home?" He breathlessly inquired. I nodded.
I walked back into the bedroom and saw Jax still there, sleeping happily. I leaned down and kissed him softly. His eyes groggily opened and he smiled. "Hey."
"There is a mohawked tatted man lookin' for you." I whispered. Jax's face contorted. "Juice." I specified. Jax sighed and got out of bed, I on the other hand, walked down the hallway to take a shower.
I never really wanted to know why Juice was here, nor did I really give a shit. With everything that's happened within the past few months, my hand being smashed, losing my baby, father, brother, Tara coming back, and Gemma changing, I'm prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. I'll take it as it comes.
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"They trailed Hightower to a club outside of Oakland." Tig filled in from what the prospects called about.
We hopped on our bikes and left the lot to begin the journey to Oakland to catch the son of a bitch that beat my big brother's head in with rusty, metal pipe.
"Bikes in the back." Jax announced when we met up with the prospects. We walked around back and I swore under my breath. The Grim Bastards bikes were parked.
"Shit." Bobby muttered. "Those bikes look familiar."
We walked inside to hear rap music playing. T.O. noticed us walking in. "Teller. What the hell are you doing here?" He greeted.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing." Jax replied.
"This is the Bastard hang, man." T.O. smirked. "What's up?"
"We're looking for someone. A guy named Randall Hightower."
"Large black fella." Chibs described.
"Looks like the word 'Obey' should be pasted under his head." Tig muttered.
"Why're you looking for him?"
"Because he killed Opie when we were in county." I venomously seethed. T.O. looked to the floor and sighed.
"Shit." We all looked at each other suspiciously.
"I don't like where this is going, T.O." Jax scolded
"He hired us to protect him, not knowing it was from you."
"Well," Bobby started. "We'll be buying out your contract."
"Ain't that simple. He's my cousin, man. We came up together." T.O. shrugged. I pinched the bridge of my nose.
"You sold me out!" A deep voice yelled from behind us.
"Randall no!" T.O. ran towards the entrance and we turned around to see. Gunshots rang out and we all dropped to the floor for protection. More gunshots ended up hitting a few Bastard members. Randall ran out.
"Get to the front!" I yelled as I ran for the son of a bitch. He hopped in a blue truck and pulled out of the lot. I circled the building to get in front of him.
I pulled out my handgun and shot at the windshield, hoping to hit him. Randall didn't stop and he was going to hit me if it wasn't for Jax and Chibs to pull me back. Randall took a sharp turn and purposely hit our bikes, them falling to the ground in a domino action.
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"Look, we didn't know Randall was involved in Ope's death man." T.O. reasoned.
"Well!" I yelled. "Now you know!"
"Where do we find him." Jax spat. T.O. hesitated.
"He's blood man. I can't just turn him over. There's gotta be something we can work out."
"Like what?!" I screamed. "Opie was my brother. The last family I had! Ope was blood, and that didn't stop Randall bashing a hole into his skull. How do we make this right?!"
"Alex." Bobby whispered. I looked at him and his face said 'Stop. Calm down.' Jax lightly grabbed my arm and we walked a few feet away to have a quick meeting.
"Well, isn't this just a bunch on bullshit." Tig sighed. "Let's just find Fat Albert and cave his skull in."
"Second that!" Happy agreed.
"For 20 years, we've had a relationship with these people. The Grim Bastards have always backed us, always. Maybe we need to look for a compromise." Bobby reasoned.
My face got heated and I felt Jax's hand tighten around my arm, trying to calm me down.
Jax sighed and went back over to T.O. "There was a couple other guys with your cousin when they took out Opie. Why don't you let us talk to them. We'll get their names, throw him a beating, but we'll let him live."
T.O. nodded. "All right. I'll track him down. I'll let you know." With that, the Grim Bastards left.
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I felt my prepay starting to vibrate. I took it out of my pocket and saw it was Jax. "Hey. What's up?"
"They found Hightower. Boatyard, Canal and Hayward." I felt the hatred boil in my stomach and my jaw began to clench.
"Okay." I hung up. I stood up from the bar to alert everyone. "We found the bastard." I announced.
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We saw the blue truck from earlier and we parked right next to it. T.O. and two of his guys walked quickly to meet us. "How'd you know we were here?"
"A friend." Jax announced.
I smirked devilishly. "You remember what those are, right?"
T.O. sighed. "We're trying, man. I can't convince Randy you guys ain't gonna kill him."
"Bullshit. Where is he." I pressed.
T.O. shifted his weight. "Listen. I talked to him about Opie. The order came down from Pope to take you guys out in County. GN recruited Randy 'cause of his size. It was the guards who set up that kill. Cuz had no choice man. He was in too deep."
"So who're the other guys?" Tig asked.
"He hardly knew them."
I chuckled. "Let us hear that from him."
T.O. hesitated. "I need your word."
"Yeah." Jax nodded. "Okay."
We walked down a dock. I saw a large red hoodie peeking out from behind a boat. It was Randall. He saw we were coming and ran. "Cuz! They just wanna talk!" T.O. yelled. That didn't stop Randall from running with two other unknown men.
I ran after him, blinded by hatred. Jax and Chibs followed me, while Bobby and Tig went the other way.
We chased him into a warehouse, and Randall found a dead end. My gun was already pulled. "BACK OFF!" Randall yelled.
"Put the gun down!" I screamed.
"You're gonna kill me!"
Jax came up next to me. "No! Man we just want to talk!" Randall had a look of conflict. "Your call, T.O."
"Randall, they gave me their word. Put the gun down, man." T.O. firmly spoke.
Randall slowly put the gun down and came back up with his hands in the air. Jax and I walked closer to Randall.
"Who else killed my brother." I seethed.
Randall didn't look at us in the eye. "One guy. His name was Aldo Smith I think." I didn't believe it. I walked around slowly for a minute, intimidating him. "Other guys, I just knew they're first names. Vox and Mace. That's all I know."
I looked at Jax, who walked behind Randall. "I got this." and shot a hole in the back of Randall's head.