"Relax, Ope. I'm coming." Happy got off his bike, walking towards his old house just outside Charming, his dog barking loudly.
As soon as Happy unlocked the door, he felt cold metal on the back of his head, "I think he missed you."
"You know who we are?" Another man asked, slamming the front door shut, ordering Happy around, "Nothing?"
"I don't need to know who you are." Happy told them as they forced him to sit down, tying him up to a kitchen chair.
"And why's that?"
"Because when this is over, either I'm dead, or you're dead." Happy said, staring Felipe Reyes's children in the eyes, murder on his mind.
"Anything in the bedroom?"
"Not yet." Ope continued barking as they dug around his bedroom, slamming drawers shut, and dug around in his room for information, "Didn't find much, just some old probation shit. Yeah, just these. Let's see what he knows."
"Nine years ago," EZ started, more anger on his face than Angel's ever seen, "Someone kicked open the back door of my family's butcher shop. Shot our mother in the neck. Murdered her. I saw someone drive away in a car. I remembered the car. I remember shit. I followed you that night." EZ told him, almost as if he could hear the gunshot and sirens all over again.
"We know you were a triggerman before you were Samcro. You were Nomad, gun for hire. Who the fuck hired you? Simple question. We need a simple answer. Just a name."
"Fuck this."
"Was it the cartel? Galindo?"
"What? Why the fuck would Galindo want Mom dead?" Angel asked.
"Dad was a cop. I saw pictures of Pop with Jose Galindo. That's why I asked Happy about the cartel." EZ clarified, still confused about how this was going to go down. The man sitting in the chair was not responding. He was hardcore. Would take his secrets to the grave. They'd have to find a way to get it out of him. Angel pistol whipped him, ready to move things along, to get him talking.
"It wasn't my place to tell you. Dad knew I saw it. When I finally asked him about it- he said nothing."
"Yeah."
"Everything that's gone down between us, Angel even if I could have -"
"You should have told me. He should have told me."
"Pop?"
"Man, he never trusted me with anything. mom neither."
"Come on, man, that's not fair."
"Fair? You have no fucking idea. Fair. Every time I walked into a room man, for as long as I can remember, mom and pop- there'd be this this slight letdown. You know? Disappointment. Cause it was me instead of you. Oh, man, saying it saying it out loud, sounds fucking pathetic. But- but you live with that for 20 years or more-"
"I'm sorry."
"It ain't your fault."
"But sometimes, man, I fucking hated you. Just the sight of you. It would be a reminder that I'm some kind of fucking you know, some idiot. A fucking mistake."
"Angel, nobody ever thought that."
"Poor little Angel. Nobody loved him." Happy spoke up from the living room, still tied to a chair, blood running down his face.
"These are for his kills, right? The smiley faces?"
"Yeah."
"Which one you think was mom?"
"Your pick." They pulled out a knife and got to cutting.
~ MAYANS ~ ~ MAYANS ~
Izzy sat around home after work, texting her Uncle, hoping to hear back from him. She wanted to put all of this behind them. She wanted things to go back to normal between them. Whatever he was occupied with in Charming, she told him to be careful. The house was quiet without Ope. She sat down on the living room couch and turned on the tv. It was going to be another lonely night.
~ MAYANS ~ ~ MAYANS ~
"Shut the fuck up!" Angel yelled, Ope still whining and barking loudly, "So now what?"
"He's right. It's gonna have to be him or us. Jesus."
"Hey. We make it look like a break-in. Gotta be hundreds of people with a motive to kill this guy. Cops ain't gonna dig too deep. Hey. We get the guy who pulled the trigger. Without ever knowing why. Some shit, little brother, we're not supposed to know. Hey, we'll go at him one more time. Then we end it."
"We're gonna kill you. Make it look like a break-in. We don't want that. All we want to know is who paid you to kill our mother."
"It was over nine years ago. It doesn't make you a snitch."
"It's our fucking mother."
"Who was it?" EZ got tired of his silence and start to holler, "Give us a name! Who? Who the fuck paid you?"
"Fuck that dog." Angel said, his gun by his side.
"No!" Happy finally spoke, not wanting an innocent dog to be hurt, "He's just hungry."
"I'll blow off his legs one at a time. Slice off his nose, his fucking tail. Keep him alive as long as I can so you can watch him suffer. Just tell us."
Happy finally cooperated with them. He didn't want his dog to suffer. He knew it would kill Izzy if anything happened to him. It was her dog just as much as his. They both equally loved him. He told the Reyes brothers about extra copies of some old faxes in his bedroom. He was carrying it around while in town... looking up their family.
"I fucked up. I was supposed to kill both of them. The job came in through Packer."
"San Bernardino?"
"Yeah, closest charter to the border."
"It came from Mexico."
"Yeah, that's all I knew. Packer might have more details. He's anal about keeping records. But he won't have a name. Don't work that way."
"Tell us what happened. Tell us."
"I came in the back. Shop was closed. It was just your mom. Your old man must have left a few minutes before. Bank deposits. Your mom- she wasn't surprised."
"What do you mean?"
"I've killed a lot of people. Some of them, you can feel the inevitability. They know it's coming. Your mom knew. I heard cars pulling up. I shot her in the neck and ran. After that, I hung out near the border waiting to hear if I should finish the job. It was coming from Mexico. I figured it was one of the cartels."
"That night you chased me?"
"I thought that's who you were cleanup guy for the cartel. I got spooked. Didn't feel safe riding Nomad anymore. That's when I went to Charming, patched in to Samcro. If someone killed my mom, I'd put a bullet between his eyes."
EZ and Angel went into the kitchen to figure out what to do with him, "You trust this guy? If we cut him loose, you don't think he puts a bullet in our heads?"
"He's got just as much to lose."
"Like what?"
"His club knows he was gun for hire. They helped set up the hits. Then we tell Bishop he killed our mom."
"He won't give a shit. What Happy did was business. What we did was personal. We broke the rules."
"Oh, fuck. Guess I didn't think it through."
"You mean I didn't think it through."
A cell phone on the counter kept buzzing and vibrating. Angel sighed, pointing over to his Happy's phone, "His phone keeps blowing up."
"I know."
"Someone's gonna come looking for him."
"I know. Fuck."
Angel picked up the phone which was almost dead and turned on the lock screen. A list of notifications, missed calls, and mixed text messages popped up. Angel froze, his eyes glued to a familiar name on the screen and a familiar face in the contact icon, "Ezekiel."
"What?"
"Look at this." Angel handed him the phone.
EZ was confused, looking at the contact name "Izzy" with her picture. His adrenaline skyrocketed as he clicked on her texts. A thread of new and old messages popped up. He read the one that was sent just hours ago, "Happy, idk what's going on with you. I know, you won't tell me. Work's normal. I'm fine. Everything's fine here. Please, just stay safe. I love you. Give Ope a kiss for me. xx"
"No fucking way, bro." Angel whispered lowly, in disbelief.
EZ clicked on Happy's gallery and was even more stunned to find a whole photo album titled "Izzy" on his phone. He clicked on the album to reveal several childhood photos of Izzy with Happy and members of the Sons of Anarchy. He clicked on one of her with a blonde haired man. Zooming in on the Sons name patch, it revealed his identity, "Jax Teller. President."
"This is fucking creepy." Angel was creeped out, "This is, like, fucking karma. Karma for what we were just talking about. She's, like, his family or something."
EZ turned off the phone and set it back on the counter. He stared at the wall, "I know Samcro's her family-"
"He could be her dad." Angel was suprised, "And here we are, trying to get justice for our mom... by killing her fucking dad, EZ. This ain't right. This won't fix it."
"I'm gonna ask him." EZ said, turning to leave the kitchen when Angel grabbed his arm and forced him back in place.
"No! You're gonna fuck this up even more. You care about her, bro. Don't do it like this."
"I can't not know," EZ sighed, stressed, "I'm asking him."
"EZ! Stop!"
EZ shoved his older brother out of the way and stormed into the living room where Happy was waiting.
"Izzy?" EZ asked.
"What?"
"Izzy?" EZ repeated himself, "How do you know her?"
Happy's face hardened, "You touch her and I swear-"
"No." Angel stepped in, "We're not gonna hurt her. Saw her name on your phone. Who is she? She gonna come down here, looking for you?"
The brothers shared a look. The next words that Happy spoke would shatter EZ's world, "She's my niece. Don't live here."
Angel and EZ were thrusted back into fight or flight mode as their was a loud knocking at the front door. They instantly grabbed their weapons until Happy had a plan.
"What's up? What the fuck happened? Who the fuck did this?" It was Hollerann.
"Relax. These guys saved my ass. After I split off from you guys, I got clipped by a logging truck near Lonny's Shell. Fucker kept on going."
"Yeah, we were on our way up North. Hopped off the Five to fuel up. Found him laying in the fucking dirt."
"Jesus Christ. I was calling you."
"Been a little distracted."
"Yeah, no. Shit."
EZ and Angel left the house after these words from Happy, "I'll get whatever I can from Packer. After that, we're clean."
Angel and EZ walked down the block and headed to their bikes. As Angel was putting his helmet on, and putting his gun away, he looked at EZ who was silent, "Crazy shit in there."
"Yeah." EZ said, his brain thinking of one thing: Izzy's related to the man who killed our mom.
"EZ-"
"I'm fine." EZ said, getting onto his bike, "We got what we came here for. Let's go."
How the fuck can someone like her be related to someone like him? EZ thought, unable to completely process what went on tonight.