What I Love Most

Chapter 12

They had gathered at the table for Juice's report of nothing and for their cash, no one was expecting Clay to start a discussion. After spending a few hours reaching out to snitches and hacking everything he could think of, Juice felt confident that Stahl had gotten nowhere. Jax slid the money to each man with a smile.

"Brothers, I'm sure you're all wondering why those envelopes are thicker than you were expecting." Clay waved his in the air with a Cheshire cat grin. "There's a reason for that. Galindo's crew wanted to show us what else they have to offer."

"All they have to offer is trouble." Piney said gruffly, the other men's gazes all fell on Clay for his rebuttal. It was going to be a nasty fight they were almost sure of it. "It's a cartel, really what else could they have?"

With pursed lips, Jax looked at Opie who gave his father a warning look, but that did absolutely nothing. "Pop, let's hear him out."

"Anyway," Clay said with heavy annoyance. "They need six months of transportation for their product."

Loudly Piney laughed, his hands slapping on the table. "Drug runners, you're asking us to be goddamn drug runners?"

"No way," Chibs said quickly. "It's dangerous brother, it's dirty."

"And guns aren't?" When Opie opened his mouth, Piney looked about ready to explode.

"After seeing what Mae went through? I doubt she'd support you. You don't have a problem with this?" He asked incredulously before looking to Jax. "You either? Your son almost died because of this shit."

"I put my personal shit aside for the good of the club. This is good, ups our rep and lines our pockets."

"It's cocaine!" Astonished, Piney stared at Clay with hate-filled eyes.

"How do we know it'll only be six months? Are they really gonna let us just walk away?"

"Alright," Tig put his hands up and tried to keep things calm, as calm as possible at least. "Let's hear him out."

Clay went on his tangent listing the pros, the largest one being the money, and he picked on each of the members to highlight how they personally could benefit from this six-month deal. Tig, Jax and Opie were already a positive vote, which gave Clay a four to five vote right off the bat. All they needed was majority but Clay wanted them all to have his back in this, he needed it.

"I'm bringing this to you now but they gave us a few weeks to decide. Think it over," he looked at each member one by one. "I don't want this tearing any holes in us at home or as a club. We'll vote it next week."

---

"Mae Winston." She said in her business tone as she snatched up receiver in an instant, the swift reaction was force of habit now. It wasn't until Gemma's voice flowed into her ear that she realized she's even answered the phone. Mae grimaced, trouble was guaranteed when Gemma got involved. "Hi Gem, what's up?"

"I was hoping you could help me." She sounded edgy, maybe even slightly concerned. "I'm not sure what to do with Amelia."

"What to do with her? What do you mean?" Mae listened as Gemma described the terrible panic attack Amelia was riding through in detail, labored, rapid breathing, cold sweats, and chest pains among other typical symptoms. "Did she take her medication?"

"Two but it's not doing anything. She's freaking out; I figured you're the expert."

Pinching her nose Mae tried to take a calming breath but it did nothing. "I'm at work, Gem. I can't do anything for her until she calms down. Maybe you can try Tara? She'd be the one to call first, she needs some medication. If she's that sick, the chest pains and all, she might have to go to the ER. Did you call Tig?"