Living with the Club

Straw pt.2

"You know who I am?" Barosky asks, eyeing Nero.

"Yeah, we know," Nero nods at the man.

"Still you bounce into my neighborhood, turn shit upside down, not even a call," Barosky says, clearly annoyed by their ignorance.

"Those Persian scumbags--" Jax starts to explain but Barosky cuts him off.

"Persia hasn't been a country since 637 AD! They're called Iranians," Barosky corrects Jax, passionately.

"Okay. Those Iranian scumbags are doing torture porn and rape films. Not being real clear with talent. They hurt one of our girls," Jax explains himself.

"This the girl?" Barosky says, "she doesn't look hurt."

"No, this isn't the girl," Jax says, there was an edge to his voice. A tone that wished she wasn't present at all.

"Didn't know biker clubs included chicks now," Barosky comments.

"They don't."

"We run Diosa," Nero cuts in, wanting to get beyond the fact that Veronica was present.

"Nero, right?"

Nero nods, "yeah. Sorry." He approaches his hand out, "Nero Padilla." They shake hands.

"And I'm Jax Teller," Jax says imitating Nero's actions.

"I thought you guys left Stockton," Baroksy says.

"Things got a little complicated on the east side, so we set up down in Morada," Nero explains.

"Outside Charming. That's where my MC's based."

"You still an escort service?" Barosky asks, looking over at Veronica.

"Yeah, why?" Nero asks him.

"I work with someone, runs girls out of the port. Looking to go legit," Barosky explains to them the situation vaguely.

"We could help," Jax says before Nero could say anything, "we've been looking to move back to Stockton."

"Is that right?" Barosky looks at Nero uncertain.

"Yeah," Nero shrugs, "we can talk about it."

"Good," Barosky says, "How about this Iranian problem?"

"Sorry that we stepped on your toes. We didn't know what we were walking into," Jax apologizes.

"Sounds like some real sick shit," Barosky says, "come on in, get something to eat. I'll make a few calls, see how we can clean it up." Barosky turns and walks inside followed by his guy.

Nero hangs back and comments to Jax, "I was thinking that maybe you should bounce expansion talks of of me, partner."

"I saw an opening," Jax says, "you don't like it. We don't do it." Jax walks by and goes inside. Veronica shrugs at Nero and they follow inside.

The place that they pulled up to ended up being a donut shop and Tigs went at it when Barosky offered up some donuts. "A crooked cop opens a crooked donut shop. No one else sees the irony in that?" Tigs asks and not too quietly.

"The shortbread is bloody marvelous," Chibs says to Tigs.

Barosky walks up after making his phone calls, "guy who rented Ghanezi the space had no idea what they were doing. Got no problem making them go away. How much damage did you do?"

"Muscle took a flesh wound, she hit the older brother and we left one of the other brother locked up. No damage to the space," Jax tells him.

"Okay, I keep the cash and we call it even. Next time you do business here, I'm your first stop," Barosky says, pointing his finger at each of the faces in front of him.

"Yeah, we know," Nero nods in agreement.

"You go cut the Persian loose. I'll set the meet with Colette," Barosky says, "Dino."

"Come on, I'll give you a ride to the docks," Dino, Barosky's muscle says, walking toward the back. The guys follow him out, but Veronica hangs back. She did what she needed to do. She walked out the front and Barosky stopped her.

"Aren't you going with your guys?" He says, his hand on her arm. She shook her head, "and why's that?"

"I did what I needed to do," she muttered.

"Hit the guy that fucked up your lover?" He asks, genuinely curious.

"Lyla isn't my lover. Just a friend," she replied, probably sounding like she was ready to get out of there.

"What's your deal anyway, then? Huh, sweetheart?"

"My deal is that I'm not your sweetheart and I'm not fresh meat. You got that?" She paused, "no disrespect, sir. You do your business with Jax and Nero, but you can count me out."

"Alright, then. You're out," he paused,  "are you sure you don't want a ride home?"

"I'll manage," She said and he let her go. She walked down the street and turned the corner as soon as she could. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed her old man.

"Hey, baby. Where are you?" He answers.

"Stockton, mind getting me?" She says.

"Why are you in Stockton?" She didn't answer instead, she gave him a second to figure it out on her own, "shit, V. We're you with the guys?" He didn't quite sound angry, so that was good for at least.

"Yeah,  I ditched them once I got what I wanted. More or less at least," she says.

"Which was what exactly?" He asked.

"I'll tell you when you get me," She said and then told him where she was.

***

Juice had picked her up and dropped her off at the house, going back to the club for a few hours. Veronica has flipped on the news and found that a kid with an automatic gun shot up the Catholic school not far from Charming. She wondered if violence would follow them where ever they decided to go when they left Charming. She knew violence was a part of life, but she worried it was always haunt them because of what this life had given them and taught them about how to handle life. It had always been more about violence than communication. She wondered if it would always be that. Juice and Rick walked it around nine drawing her from her thoughts of violence. Ricky's face was red, bandaged, and bruised. She was quickly on her feet and by her side, "what happened, Rick?" He shoved her off and went to the guest room. She turned to Juice who seemed elsewhere, "what happened to him?"

"Chibs," he said, "Chibs wanted justice for Rick turning rat, but Jax wants to pardon him. So Rick let him beat him until he practically couldn't stand. Although he was nice enough to clean him off afterward," Juice sounded bitter.  "Chibs pulled me aside, too. He insists that I had to of known that Rick was a rat. He didn't say this, but I could see it in his face that he thinks I betrayed the club, too." He punched the wall nearby, leaving a hole the size of his hand.

"So...where does this leave us? All of us I mean," she asks, sort of already knowing the answer.

"We can wait out how it goes with Rick or we can go. Maybe convince Rick to come with us before he gets himself killed. I'm not sure he'd come though," he said, finding his calm in her presence. "We're screwed."

"So much for a wedding, I guess. Huh?" She comments disappointedly.

"Maybe not, maybe it'll cool everybody's  jets. It'll have to be soon though," he comments.