Blood and Water

Chapter 73: Roadhouse Blues

Roadhouse Blues - The Doors

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Mina sat on the couch, twiddling her thumbs. Gemma, Wendy, and Unser were talking quietly at the bar. All of a sudden, Brooke came running out and said, "Hey, it's Abel."

"Abel? What?" Gemma asked, walking over to her.

Mina stood up and followed them into the back room. Abel was standing, holding a hammer. He was blocking Thomas, protecting him.

"Hey, what's going on, buddy?" Gemma asked. 

"I'm not gonna let anybody hurt him," Abel said. "I take care of him."

Gemma shook her head. "Oh, no...oh, no, baby. Nobody's gonna hurt anyone."

Wendy whispered to Mina, "Call Jax." 

She nodded and stepped away, pulling out her phone. Then, she heard Abel screaming and Thomas crying. Gemma walked out carrying Abel, with a petrified look on her face. Wendy told Mina to hang up and they had it under control.

The club went to talk to one of Barosky's guys. He was the one who was supposed to be watching the guns when West was killed. They walked into a pawn shop that he ran where he sold everything the cops took during their shift.

"Hey, Des, how you doing?" Barosky asked. 

Desmond said, "Hey, Charlie, good to see you."

"How's business?"

"Up and down, you know that," he sighed, watching the club walk in. 

Barosky said, "This is a business associate of mine, Jax Teller. We're keeping an eye on some of his merchandise down at the warehouse."

"Okay, is there a problem?" he asked. 

"Yeah, I'm afraid so," Jax sighed. "Warehouse that you were supposed to be watching got jacked a few weeks back. I lost all my shit. One of my crew got killed."

Desmond said, "Oh, sh*t, hey, it didn't happen on my patrol."

"The point is that it did happen," Barosky said.

"I'm on the beat, Charlie. I can't stay there all night. You know that," Desmond scowled. 

Happy looked over at Tig who had sat down on the counter. They could tell he was lying. 

"Well, did you see anything? Anybody out of place? A car, a van, a bike, what?" Barosky asked.

Chibs said, "Our guy Quinn said the back door was kicked in. Did ya see that?"

"Uh, I don't think so, no."

"When'd you make your last drive by the warehouse?" Barosky asked. 

Desmond said, "I'm not sure! At 5:00, 5:30 maybe." Jax picked up a ukelele and hit him in the face with it. "Jesus Christ! What the hell'd you do that for?"

"Oh, I don't know, I'm not sure, maybe," Jax repeated. "Just trying to jog your memory a little bit."

Happy walked behind the counter and Tig followed grabbing a flute out of the box. Tig looked it over as Happy walked behind Desmond so he was on the other side.

He yelled, "Charlie, what the hell is this?"

"I'm with the kid on this one, Des. I pay you a lot of God d*mn money. My reputation's on the line here."

Tig rested his chin on the flute and said, "Pull his pants down."

Happy said, "What?" Desmond turned and looked at Tig, not sure what he meant by that.