Roots Run Deep

Chapter 11

It wasn't long after Katie's emotional outburst that Jax was called away by Juice. He'd been tasked with digging even further into Kris and apparently he'd found a goldmine during his deep dive.

While Katie sat idly on the sofa, Clay, Jacob, Jax and Juice sat in the chapel. They each had a few pegs of printouts on Kris, whose birth name was actually Isak Svensson.

"You didn't see any of this the last time you looked into him?" Clay asked, annoyed and embarrassed by what Jacob could see as incompetence on the club's part.

Juice shook his head, clearly as angry with himself as Clay looked to be. "No. Whoever helped him knew what they were doing and how to cover their tracks."

"Tell me about Isak Svensson," The Warden said authoritatively despite having the info in front of him.

Juice nodded and cleared his throat. "Born in '85 in Stockholm, parents are alive, still in Sweden and it doesn't look they've had contact with him since he left for the States in 2007. He left as Isak but when he got here he was suddenly Kristoff Erickson, who actually died in 1999."

"That's why he didn't change his shit until he left," Jax grumbled.

"How much does she know?" Clay asked accusingly.

Jax shook his head. "I don't think she knows shit."

"Keep it that way," Jacob ordered them. "A new identity would be nice for all of us if our lives got messy enough. I wanna be sure before we kill him and break her heart."

Clay internally rolled his eyes but nodded in agreement. It was his daughter so for now he'd let Jacob call the shots.

"I appreciate this," Jacob said to them. "You're doing me a favor, I can't thank you but I can owe you a few favors."

Extending his hand to Jacob, Clay smiled and nodded. "We like to help our friends."

"Where's he now?" Jax asked Juice while the two older men spoke in lower tones.

"Hotel by the airport," Juice showed him the address and reservation information he'd found.

"Let me and Ope go talk to him," Jax said loudly. "He knows us, so he's not gonna be as jumpy or on guard. If Clay shows up there kid's gonna freak."

"I like that idea," Jacob said to Clay. "You agree?"

"I do," Clay nodded. "Go."

Jax grabbed the paper from the table and hurried out of chapel with Juice behind him. "Ope, we gotta job."

"Alright," Opie said, lumbering slowly from his spot by the pool table and toward the exit.

"Everything okay?" Katie asked, reaching out to grab Jax's shirt as he walked by her.

"Yeah," he smiled sweetly as her. "Everything's fine darin'," his hand grazed her neck as he gave her shoulder a squeeze. "We just gotta go look into something."

"Okay," she sighed. "Uh, can I leave?"

"You're not our prisoner," he shrugged. "If you go before I get back though why don't you bring someone? Juice or Half Sack?"

She shrugged. "Maybe I'll just wait for you. After yesterday I'm still kind of freaked."

Jax kissed her forehead, an action he didn't think about before doing. It just happened naturally but Katie didn't seem to mind so he didn't overthink it.

"You're gonna be for a little bit," he said softly. He took her hand and led her back toward the apartment. "Hang out, or smoke and take a nap," he suggested. "No one'll bother you okay? You need anything you ask one of the guys."