Venomous (Jax Teller)

twenty three

Julia hated feeling like people were watching her. She always felt paranoid about eyes even glancing in her direction. It was even worse after you had just killed someone. She cursed the fact that she had to go to the grocery store so often these days since she was always finding new things that she needed for home.

Julia paused from grabbing a bag off the shelf and looked over her shoulder. Someone wearing a suit was lingering in the aisle with her. He seemed to be trying his best not to make it known he was purposefully lurking close to her, but he was pretty bad at being subtle. Especially since he had been following her around the store and hadn't once picked something up. He didn't even have a shopping cart. She could've passed it off as him only browsing or that he only needed one or two things, but it didn't seem like that. Not to mention he stuck out like a sore thumb.

Julia tossed the bag of chips in her cart and walked on, pretending like she hadn't noticed him. But he kept following her.

Julia pulled her phone out of her pocket when she felt it buzzing and picked it up, "Hey there, sweetheart."

"Sweetheart? Uh...trouble?" Eli sounded incredibly confused.

Julia was never one to be calling anyone by such sweet pet names or to even be that nice in general. Her tone of voice tended to linger somewhere between constant annoyance and monotone. So when she started speaking like a loving person, people knew she was in a tight spot or she was just incredibly pissed off.

"Yeah. I'm just at the grocery store. You need anything?" Julia turned, pretending to look at something so she could see if the man was still there.

The man hastily turned towards the aisle, pretending to look up and down at the different coffees.

"That ATF lady, Stahl? She's back in town. Just kicked Unser out of his own office because he's too close to SAMCRO. She hasn't said anything to me, but fuck, I feel like she's watching me like a hawk."

"Alright, well, that's too bad. How about you just step back for now? I'm sure she'll come around on her own. Hey, did you ever look at that prepay plan I sent you for the TV set?"

"Yeah, prepay only from now on. Got it. Before I jump ship, is something going on with Tara? It's just, she's been acting a little odd lately."

"Not that I know of. I think she's just stressed about work. You know how crazy it can be. Just talk to her about it if you're worried."

"Yeah, you're right. Thanks. I'll let you go."

"Mmhm. No problem. Talk to you later, sweetie," Julia hung up the phone.

Julia grabbed a few last things before checking out. She quickly walked over to Tara's dad's car that she had borrowed for the trip and placed the groceries in the back. She used to just borrow Vince's car because he hardly used it for much, but since she still wasn't on good terms with him, she wanted to limit any time she had around him. So Tara was kind enough to let her borrow her dad's old car when she needed it.

Julia got in the front seat and locked the doors. When she looked back at the storefront, she could see that suited man walking around to the side of the store with his phone up to his ear.

"This fucker must be new," Julia rolled her eyes before dialing Jax's number.

"Yeah?"

"Hello, Jackie. ATFs back in Charming. Before you ask, I don't know anything else other than the fact she kicked Unser to the curb for the time being. He'll probably give Clay the details, but you should know that one of her stupid mutts just followed me around the grocery store for about half an hour. So I'm guessing it has something to do with SAMCRO."