The Rising Tide - ON HIATUS

Chapter 8

Kyle entered the interrogation room with a smile. He had left Juice in there for three hours, no phone call, no water or coffee, nothing and Juice looked just as frazzled as Kyle had hoped he would be. It was less the criminal aspect of it all and more the fact that the club was probably on high alert, had called Amelia looking for him and in turn sent her into a panic. It was just the mess they planned for it to be, Juice just couldn't figure out how they had known exactly when to nab him.

"Mr. Ortiz," Kyle handed Juice a bottle of water. "You love your wife?"

"Nah," he shook his head, "I don't give a shit about her. What do you think?"

"Oh I know you love her," he sat across the table, "You'd do anything for her. That's what we're hoping for."

Turning the lid on the bottle, Juice heard the little cap snap but he didn't remove it. "You don't have shit on Meels. Whatever you're trying to scare us with won't hold up."

"That's what you think," Kyle giggled. "We have more than the coke."

"The planted coke," Juice corrected. "That shit, the drugs and the guns, you put that shit there not us."

Kyle shook his head. "It's sad that you would really believe law enforcement officers would do such a thing."

"You're fucking crazy." Juice was in awe of Kyle's brash boldness and confidence.

Flicking open the file and ignoring Juice's comment, Kyle lined up three pages in front of him. "Three incident reports from county, your innocent little wife was named in all of them. I think she has a pattern of behavior that may not support your narrative."

Just because her supervisor didn't reprimand Amelia, didn't mean he wasn't keeping a record of her incidents. Juice realized that sobering thought as he skimmed the reports. "She's not some criminal."

"Criminals are convicted, so technically no, not yet, but soon, unless you want to help with that."

"I'll help her, I'll hire her fucking defense lawyer and then, when the charges are cleared, we'll sue you assholes." Confident, Juice glared at Kyle as he spoke with conviction.

Kyle pursed his lips and stood, gathering his paperwork, but left one thin file on the table as he exited the room. Watching as the man left, Juice gave it a few minutes before crawling his fingers across the table and peeking.

He flipped it open all the way to reveal a photo of his father. "Goddamn it."

--

Meanwhile, while Juice was waiting...

"Send the rest of em," Clay huffed. "I want Chibs and Jax with me on this Juice shit."

Opie nodded and headed back toward the clubhouse to gather anyone he could to do the run while the others searched for their missing brother. Their first stop in the search would of course be Juice and Amelia's home.

They arrived, just after one in the morning, to find the house locked up tight just as it should have been. Using his key, Chibs opened the front door and the three of them stepped stealthily over the threshold and into the house to find Amelia at the kitchen table in a pair of Juice's boxer briefs and a faded blue SAMCRO shirt.

"Uhh, hey." The chair squealed as she pushed away from the table in shock. "What's wrong?"

"Ginger, love," Chibs hurried to her side. "Where's Juice?"

"With you." Speaking slowly, a blunt in her hand, Amelia looked at her father with marijuana-induced confusion. "Isn't he?" Panic grew in her chest. "He's supposed to be with you guys."