Spark in the Dark

Chapter 78

The next morning Jax walked into the studio with a large German Shepard on a leash. Shawn saw and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Guard dog," Jax explained. "I thought it would make you girls feel a little better."

"That was thoughtful," Shawn said and rose from her seat to kneel next to the dog. She noticed the dog was a girl and began to rub her ears and baby talk her. "Does she have a name?"

"I don't know and don't do that," Jax said, disapprovingly. "You're going to turn it into a pussy."

Shawn rolled her eyes and Jax went to find Luanne. Shawn went to get the dog a bowl of water and made a mental note to buy dog food and a bed for her. She told the maintenance guy to make sure the dog was let out throughout the day as well. Once the dog was settled, Shawn went back to work. Or at least she tried to go back to work.

Luanne ended up sending Shawn out for a long lunch break. Shawn knew she was lucky Luanne wasn't just sending her home for the rest of the day. She had been completely useless at the studio. Luanne hoped a break would help her clear her head enough so she could return and do her job right. Shawn hoped so, too. Being at work beat sitting at home worrying.

After Shawn had gone home the night before, she had too much time on her hands to worry. Juice showed up hours later and finally filled her in on why someone tried to kill Chibs. It turned out the group of men she had seen at Bobby's coming home party several weeks before were a white separatist gang who were doing everything they could to hurt the club. Juice had tried to spare her the details, but at least now she wasn't totally in the dark.

Shawn drove her car into the center of Charming and stopped in front of a deli. She had been planning on getting a sandwich, but picked up her phone instead. She had to call Juice to see if he heard anything about Chibs.

"Hey," he answered after only two rings.

"Hey. Have you heard anything, yet?"

"Tara said he's stable, but critical."

"Shit."

"He'll be alright," he said, but he sounded distracted.

"Everything ok?"

"Sort of. Everyone else is okay. The guys aren't here. I'm at TM. I was supposed to clean up the crime scene, but this forensics team showed up before I could."

"What are you going to do?"

"Well, Unser gave me a cup of his piss. His cancer drugs make it, like, radioactive or some shit. If I can dump this on the evidence they're collecting, it should screw up their results."

"You're holding a cup of Unser's piss?" Shawn asked him. "That's... gross."

"Tell me about it. I have no idea how I'm going to do this."

"Actually, I have an idea. I'm right around the corner. Give me a minute and I'll be there."

"Okay. I'll try anything at this point."

They hung up and Shawn drove to TM. Juice watched from the garage as she parked the car and got out. His first thought was how hot she looked in her Cara Cara clothing. Today, she had on a silky looking purple dress that was tight fitting and black heels. Then he realized she was walking over to the forensic guys and not him. And she was walking different than she usually did, but it was a walk he recognized from hanging around Cara Cara. Ima walked like that.

As Shawn got closer to them, one of the guys noticed her coming. It looked like he was about to tell her to stay back, but Shawn smiled at him and stopped him before he could.

"Hi," she said to him. "I'm so sorry to bother you, but I'm not from around here and I am horribly lost. I have a map in my car. Would you two mind taking a look with me?"

Juice watched in awe. She even sort of sounded like Ima and he had seen other Cara Cara girls twirl their hair in their fingers as they flirted with guys just like Shawn was doing now. The two then followed Shawn to her car and Juice smiled and shook his head. He would have followed her, too, if he was in their shoes, but it almost seemed like two cops should have known better.

"What's Shawn doing?" Unser asked, suddenly appearing next to Juice.

"Saving our asses. Here. Take your nuclear piss and do something with it," Juice told him.

"Me? Oh, hell no. You do it."

"You're a cop," Juice argued. "It's less suspicious looking if you're over there."

"Jesus Christ," Unser said and took the cup.

Juice looked over to Shawn's car. She was facing him, so the cops had their back to the van. She suddenly leaned over the car in such a way that they had a good view done the front of her dress.

"Hurry. I think we're running out of time," Juice told Unser. He didn't think Shawn would willing let two men she didn't know look at her cleavage unless she was desperate.

Unser walked over to the van and pour the contents of the cup over the samples they had collected. He hurried back into the garage and out of sight. Juice flashed Shawn a thumbs up. She quickly picked up her map and folded it as she said her good byes to the men. They stood back as she got into her car and left. Juice's jaw clenched as they walked back to the van. They were talking about Shawn and it took everything in Juice to not knock their heads together. His phone rang a second later, distracting him from their conversation.

"Hey, babe," he answered after he saw Shawn's number on the screen.

"How'd I do?" She asked in an excited tone.

"Great. I wouldn't mind you flirting with me like that, ya know."

"Really? I wasn't aware you were into the dumb pornstar act."

"A little. I just prefer the smart producer better."

"That's because that's not an act, but if you're lucky, maybe a little of that will be waiting for you at my place tonight."

"Sounds like a plan," he said. "It's probably going to be late like last night. We got some stuff to take care of tonight."

"Retaliation for Chibs?"

"Right."

"Please be careful, Juice," she pleaded.

"I will," he promised. "It helps now that I now what's waiting for me when we're done."