One Rule

Chapter 40

A couple days later, Jax dropped by my house unannounced. The look on his face told me that this wasn't a trip to bring me good news.

"What happened?" I asked, leaning against my kitchen counter.

Jax leaned against the door frame. He almost looked guilty. "You're not gonna like this, but we can't kill Clay yet," he replied slowly.

"Why the fuck not?" I snapped.

He sighed, "What I'm about to tell you, stays here. You don't talk about it with anyone but me, got it?" He didn't continue until I indicated my understanding. "There's a RICO case hanging over heads. The guys that we've been dealing with from the cartel are working for the feds. We need the Irish to approve the gun deal we made with the cartel, and the Irish won't deal with me. Only Clay."

"Holy shit," I mumbled sitting down at the table.

"Yeah. So I can't kill him yet. But I stripped him of his President's patch. He gets to sit at the table and vote, but that's it," Jax explained. "I also told him to give you some space." It didn't escape my notice that Jax had a President's patch on his kutte now.

"He can't ride right now. That means no vote, right?" I asked, a vague idea forming in my head.

"He rode the limit, so it doesn't matter," Jax said. "Why?"

"Just thinking," I replied.

"About what?" Jax pressed. "Don't do anything stupid, Diana."

"That's a matter of opinion," I shrugged.

"Also, want to tell me why Marcus Alvarez is calling me to ask if you're okay?" He asked.

"Oh, we ran into each other the other day," I explained. "He stopped because he thought I was stranded in the desert and needed help."

"Did you?" Jax asked. "You should have called."

"I didn't need help. I was out there because I wanted to be there. I just needed some space to breathe and think. That's hard to come by in the city limits sometimes."

Jax relaxed and nodded. "I get that." He moved to stand in front of me, and knelt down to my level. "I told him you were okay. Are you okay?"

I shrugged. "I'm as okay as I'm going to be for a while. Have you talked to Opie?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Yeah. He's taking a break away from the club for a while. I can't say I blame him," Jax replied, getting back up to his feet.

"Have I missed anything else?" I asked.

"Tig being stupid and reckless," he groaned.

"So basically he did what I warned him not to do. What exactly did he do?" I pressed for clarification.

"We told the guys that we thought it was the Niners that shot Clay. Tig retaliated on his own, and killed their leader's girlfriend. Except the girlfriend was Veronica Pope," he groaned.

"Any relation to Damon Pope?" I asked.

"Daughter."

"Shit."

"So we're dealing with that on top of the Irish and cartel," Jax said, shaking his head.

"If there's anything I do, just let me know," I offered.

"Just don't kill Clay," he replied in all seriousness.

"I promise not to kill Clay," I deadpanned.

...

The next few weeks were a mess. The shit with the cartel never seemed to end, and therefore. it was never a good time to have Kozik's wake. That just left me increasingly irritated with everyone - the added pregnancy hormones weren't helping either.