Let It Be Me

The row of motorcycles lining the parking lot told her this had to be the place she was looking for. The town was anything but charming, despite its name, but if she got to stay, she might learn to love it.

She let out a deep breath as she parked the black Dodge Charger in an open space near a few other cars and turned off the engine. The door took a couple tries to open, but once it gave way, she set foot on the Teller-Morrow Automotive parking lot for the first time.

A pretty, older woman sat behind the desk in the front office, so she made her way there. The woman didn't even bother to look up when she entered, asking unenthusiastically if there was anything she could do to help the younger woman.

“I hope so,” she answered. “I'm looking for my brother, Kip Epps.”

The woman finally lifted her eyes. She gave the other woman a disbelieving glare. “You mean to tell me with that tan skin and brown hair, you're Half-Sack's sister?”

She choked back laughter at her brother's nickname. “Half-sister. Same dad, way different moms. Is he around?”

She squinted her eyes. “Let me find out. What's your name?”

“Austin.”

The other woman picked up the desk phone and punched a few keys. “Yeah, send Sack up here, would you? Tell him Austin's waiting.”

Austin gave her a polite smile, then shoved her hands in the back pockets of her dark-washed jeans.

“You know if you're not really his sister, you just stepped into the devil's lair, right?”

Austin turned her head towards the woman behind the desk, ready to dish out a sarcastic rebuttal. Instead, she was swept off the ground and spun around.

“Aus! Why didn't you tell me you were coming? God, I haven't seen you in ages.”

Austin hugged her brother fiercely. It was true; it had been more than a year since they had seen each other. Half-Sack set her down and turned to the desk.

“Sorry, Gemma. This is my sister. Austin, this is Gemma. She runs things around here.”

Gemma scoffed and sat back down. “Don't let Clay hear you say that. Austin, what brings you to Charming?”

Austin glanced at her brother. “Well, I just hadn't seen Kip in a while, so I wanted to surprise him.”

Gemma didn't seem quite convinced, but let the sibling pair walk outside without any more questions. Heading from the office to the garage, they were able to continue the conversation in private.

“All right, Aus. Out with it.”

Austin sighed. She'd never been able to hide anything from him. “I'm sorry to just show up like this. Mom kind of gave up on me and put me out of the house. You know I can't go to Dad. You're the only place left.”

Sack sighed. “I don't know how much I can really help you. I'm staying in the clubhouse right now; I work here and do stuff for the MC. It's slow right now, but if things picked back up for any reason ...”

“I get it. Don't worry, okay? I shouldn't have sprung this on you so spur of the moment.”

“Hey, Prospect!” an older, burly looking man bellowed from the garage. “You gonna introduce us to that sweet butt?”

Austin lips formed a thin line on her face, and she made to approach the man, giving him a good piece of her mind. Sack stopped her though, begging her to keep it quiet.

“The Clay that Gemma mentioned? That's him.”

“That wasn't really a question,” Tig added from next to Clay.

Sack groaned and grabbed for his sister's hand. He dragged her into the garage, standing her right in front of Clay.

“This is my half-sister, Austin. She didn't really get my set-up here and needed a place to land for a while. She'll figure it out though.”

“Unless you need another mechanic,” Austin piped up.

“Austin,” Sack admonished under his breath.

Clay held up a hand. “Wait, this could be interesting. Mechanic?”

Austin nodded. “I know more than Kip does. My stepdad owned a garage for a long time.”

“Interesting. What's the firing order for that Charger you're driving?”

She shot back the numbers at him without hesitation and almost before he finished the question. Clay raised his brow, impressed at the ease with which she had relayed the correct answer. “Listen, darlin', why don't you go back to the office for a couple minutes, while I confer with my guys?”

Austin nodded, slipping the aviator sunglasses back over her eyes. She pulled down the white wife-beater tank top she was wearing and tried not to stomp too hard across the cement with her brown boots. She hid her excitement perfectly well, hoping it would gain her some extra points.



Jax was working on a simple tune-up when Clay called for everyone to gather. He had seen the girl they had all been talking to, but was too lost in his work to listen to the conversation. He watched her walk away as he wiped his greasy hands on a rag and joined Clay and the others. Something sparked up in him, and he immediately took it for dislike. Something about that girl rubbed him the wrong way already.

“She's not lying. She's an excellent mechanic. She would free up a lot of time for us to take care of other business,” Sack was explaining. “But she has a temper. Not like Gemma who will put you in your place – Austin is more likely to haul off and slug you one and do the talking later.”

Clay thought that over. “She would be around MC business a lot. You'd have to explain to her the way things work.”

“I think if we bring in a girl, we're bringing in drama,” Jax spoke up. “None of them come baggage-free.”

“Nah, my sister's a good girl,” Sack answered. “Well, I mean she isn't about the dramatic type.”

“So she's not a good girl?” Tig joked, every single implication he was trying to make sent over in the wink he gave Sack.

Sack rolled his eyes. “She's just not like typical girls, all right?”

“I vote no,” Jax said sternly. “It's going to cause trouble.”

Clay looked at his stepson. “I didn't bring you all over here to vote on it – it’s not official club business. We could use the extra hands around here. She can stay in the clubhouse as long as she stays out of the MC's way.”

Jax picked up the wrench he had set down and stormed back to his task. Why did Clay bother to ask for input if he had already made a decision anyway? He couldn't think of one time a girl hadn't caused problems for the Club at one point or another.

“Look, she's working here, she's Sack's sister. She's family and has protection,” Clay said, breaking into Jax's thoughts.

“He's not even patched in and we're taking in his family?” Jax argued.

Clay held up a hand. “She's a woman and until she shows us she's anything but a good woman, we aren't going to leave her on the streets. Sack's in deep enough for us to help out his family. I don't want any shit on this.”

“Dude, whatever,” Jax replied.



Austin dropped her bag on the bed in the dorm room and let out a deep breath. It certainly wasn’t the Four Seasons, but it was better than being on the street.

“You need anything?” Sack asked, knocking on the doorframe.

She shook her head. “I think I’m okay, for now.”

“All right. Clay said you can start tomorrow morning. Gemma’s going to have a TM shirt for you in the morning.” He rubbed his chin and took a seat on the bed. “Listen, Austin, there’s some things I need to tell you. I need to explain to you how things work around here.”

“What do you mean? Tune ups, break jobs, alignments, occasional transmission work. It’s a garage, I got it.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. The MC has strong roots in Charming, and it’s deeper than you may think. Some things that happen around here are on a need to know basis, and you can’t ask questions.”

Austin rolled her eyes, pulling clothes out of her duffel to start putting away in the dresser. “You’ve gotten downright dramatic since you came out here, Kip.”

He put a hand on her arm to stop her and gain her full attention. “You don’t understand, Aus. I’m not being dramatic. You don’t ask questions, and you do what you’re told. Or you’re out.”

Just the same way he had known Austin wasn’t just here because she hadn’t seen her brother in a while, Austin knew that Sack was serious.

“Fine,” she shrugged. “No questions, I get it. I can’t promise not to, you know, be myself though.”

“Don’t worry,” Sack chuckled, lifting himself off the bed. “I already warned them about that.”

She got herself a fast food dinner after everything was put away and a few pictures made the place feel a little bit like home. A few of the guys were lingering around the clubhouse, so she made herself scarce. When she had been formally introduced to all of them, they all were polite enough, except for maybe Jax Teller. She wasn’t sure what to make of him or what she’d done already to earn his glares, but Chibs had leaned over and told her not to worry about “moody ole Jackie-boy.” This earned Chibs a smile; Austin liked him immediately.

After she ate, she decided maybe she would take a shower. She grabbed the couple of towels she’d brought with her and headed for the bathroom Sack had pointed out earlier. The confidence she usually felt was slightly diminished, a fact she attributed to recent events back home in Carolina and her strange new surroundings. Just before Austin reached the bathroom, the door of one of the other dorm rooms swung open, causing her to jump back against the wall.

“Relax,” Jax said, frowning. “I was just trying to figure out who was out here. For how confident Sack said you are, I wouldn’t have expected you to be so jumpy.”

Austin glared. “Maybe you shouldn’t sneak up on people, then they wouldn’t jump.”

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you; I just opened the damn door. Watch out, I’m going to shut it now. Don’t get too scared.”

Austin made to charge at him, but the door shut in her face before she could say or do anything in retaliation. Taking a deep breath and chiding herself for being so paranoid, she continued on to the shower.

The warm water was soothing as it streamed over her sore muscles. She had already been uncomfortable when she left home, but two days in the car hadn’t helped. She didn’t stop to enjoy the steam rising around her for very long before she soaped up and washed her hair. She turned off the faucet and went to step out of the stall when something stopped her. Closing her eyes and stepping back in, she started the water again, repeating the soaping up and hair washing three more times before turning the water off for good.



Jax’s mood hadn’t improved by the next morning. If anything else it had gotten worse. The walls in the clubhouse were much too thin. He’d heard the two showers she took back to back, heard her getting ready for bed, and heard her cry herself to sleep.

It occurred to him to either ask her to tone it down or to ask her what was wrong, but he couldn’t make himself do either. All he wanted to do was pretend like Austin Epps didn’t exist and if he had to see her, he’d make sure it was far, far out of his way.

“She do okay last night?” Sack asked when Jax came out to the garage.

Jax shrugged. “How am I supposed to know?”

“You were here, too, last night. You didn’t talk to her?”

“Listen, Prospect. I think you’re all right, but there’s something about your sister that my gut tells me isn’t good. Maybe it’s just a weird vibe thing, but she’s not going to be my best friend or anything. Something happens to her and the club moves to take care of it, I’m there, no questions asked. In the meantime though, I’m not your sister’s keeper.”

Sack nodded. “Yeah, all right. My fault for asking.”

Austin came out of the clubhouse then, followed by Gemma who had just delivered the girl’s work shirt. Otherwise she was in the same get up she’d been in the day before – dark jeans, brown boots, and a white wife-beater. Jax rolled his eyes and walked up to approach her while everyone else was busy.

“Look, I don’t know what brought you here, or what your deal was last night, but maybe next time you could leave some hot water for the rest of us. Oh, and keep it down when I’m trying to sleep. Those walls are thinner than you think,” Jax snarled.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t know what the hell I did to piss you off, but I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be more conscious about living in the same place as you, but keep whatever shit you have with me to yourself. I’m not going to walk on eggshells just because you don’t like it that I’m here.”

With that, she stalked past him into the garage to get an assignment from Clay. Sack sauntered over to Jax and shook his head.

“I’m surprised all you got was that,” Sack said. “I mean, I get your standing, but she doesn’t. And Austin, she had it rough growing up. Her mom was my dad’s mistress, a stripper from the other side of the tracks. I didn’t even find out about her until we were in high school. She had to learn to take care of herself, so she doesn’t take shit from anyone. She’ll find her footing here, but you have to give her time to do that.”

Jax nodded. “Fine. I’ll stay out of her way and she can stay out of mine.”

“Fair enough,” Sack replied, holding his hands up in surrender. He started to walk away, but Jax sighed and called him back.

“She cried herself to sleep tonight. I didn’t ask her about it, and I’m not going to mention it to anyone else.”

Sack nodded. “I’ll look into it. Thanks.”

Jax rolled his eyes, not even sure why he had bothered to share that small bit of information. Maybe if Sack could figure out what was wrong, he wouldn’t have to worry about losing sleep for another night. In the meantime, he’d do just as he’d said he would. Jax would steer clear of Austin so long as she steered clear of him.