Take Me to Church

“Then why the hell am I only looking at twenty-nine keys?” Alverez growled out, stepping towards Clay. Leaning forward, I recounted the bricks that were sitting on the table in front of me. How was one of them missing? We had all thirty when we left Arizona, and no one had opened the crates since we loaded them all up!

From the corner of my eye, I saw Jax step forward angrily. “Why don’t you ask your boy here.” Jax growled, pointing to the Mayan member who had been standing watch at the barn.

Jax shoved the Mayan out of anger. The Mayan, Rafi, was quick to try and get the attention away from himself. “Ask yours, asshole!” Rafi shouted, pointing in the direction of Miles.

It’s true, Miles had been left here while the rest of us went home to get some sleep. It had been an exhausting trip to Arizona and back. “We didn’t take that blow!” Miles was rather calm as he spoke. Guy was accused of stealing coke from the cartel, and he hasn’t even broken a sweat. I doubt he did it. “Well, somebody did.” Alvarez snapped.

It was then that Juice stepped forward, looking almost nervous. “It was all there before ten. I came by after I hit up the weed shop and did a walk through- ask him.” Juice spoke, pointing in Rafi’s direction. “Yeah, he was here around nine thirty.” Rafi nodded his head in confirmation. “So you were the last one here?” Alvarez was now eyeing Juice rather suspiciously. I couldn’t help but do the same- Clay hadn’t called for anything like that.

"Yeah, I stuck a key of blow down my pants and just walked out with it, douche bag." Juice scoffed ever so slightly. Not happy, Alvarez stepped towards Juice as if going to attack. Chibs stepped forward to stop him, and when Rafi moved so did Jax.

"Now, killing one another won't solve anything." Clay tried to calm the situation down. "Get out." Alvarez growled out. He obviously wasn't going to be calmed down, at least not easily.

Chibs helped me down off of the table before putting his arm around my shoulders and we walked out of the room together. Jax came walking out of the room as well, his phone pressed to his ear as he called Happy. Chibs picked up a piece of discarded rope and was playing around with it for a few moments before finally making it into a noose.

"What's going to happen now?" I questioned as Chibs sat down next to me. "Now we get a confession from one of them, and whoever it is they're out." Chibs spoke in a soft voice.

The time came when Happy arrived at the warehouse. Nothing like spending a little quality time with Happy to get you talking. So, we all made our way back into the room with Phil, Rat boy, and Miles. I made myself comfortable leaning back against my husband's chest, where he was leaning back against one of the work tables.

"It's about commitment, love for the club. You get through this, and we'll know you had nothing to do with the missing brick." Jax explained.

"If you don't, you pussy out. Means you ain't straight with why you're here. Also means you probably ripped us off." Opie added with a sigh. There was a gun in the middle of the table. The task at hand- Russian Roulette.

"Is there really a bullet in there?" Phil gasped out, pointing to the gun. His entire body was shaking out of fear. "One round, five empty chambers. You only have to pull the trigger once." Jax nodded, confirming the bigger mans fear. "It's the best odds you're gonna get." Chibs added with a shrug.

I suddenly felt his hand resting on my hip, his fingers dancing across the exposed skin of my lower stomach.

Reaching out, Jax pushed the gun towards Phil. He hesitated briefly before picking the gun up and pulling the trigger. The gun clicked, its chamber was empty- so Phil was safe.

Jax readied the gun once more before setting it down in front of Rat. "No way there's a real bullet in there, it if went off, it'd be like murder." Rat muttered, very obviously not wanting to do this. "And your point is?" My voice made it obvious how little of us actually care.

Picking up the gun, Rat screamed loudly before pulling the trigger. Upon hearing the empty chamber click, Rat turned around and puked in the floor. Upon seeing it, so did Phil. The smell alone made my stomach start churning. Oh good God, I have to get out of here. "Clean that up." Happy ordered, turning around to walk out of the room. "I'd listen to him, he has a thing about cleanliness." I suggested to the men. Jax and Opie left the room as well.

Stepping around me, Chibs grabbed the gun off of the table and began loading the bullets back into the gun. "We know one of you is telling us the truth, and one of you is not. Up to you two to decide which is which." My husband remained very calm as he spoke.

"Neither of you is leaving this room until we know the truth- so you better get comfortable boys." I hummed as Happy stepped back into the room. "We just need the truth." Juice seemed to be taking a more compassionate route than the rest of us. "Burdon's on the two of you to figure it out, or you're both dead." Chibs concluded, slamming the gun down onto the table before we all walked out of the room.

Happy, Juice, Chibs and I were the only ones still there. Everyone else had gone back to the club. We were left to wait, to weed out the truth and to settle things. Juice and Chibs began to argue about the club rules, so I made my way outside to get away from their bickering.

I was leaning against my bike when Happy came walking outside. He had his gun in his hands, and was guarding two of the bikes. The two that belonged to Phil and Rat. "What's going on?" I questioned, looking over to the man. "Romeo is on his way. Juice is giving those two fifteen minutes to put the brick back and they're off the hook. I'm making sure they don't run." Happy explained.

Chibs came walking out of the warehouse and came to stand with us as well. He and Happy both lit up cigarettes as we stood in silence together. It seemed to be going alright, that is until we heard gun shots.

We all took off running, heading towards the sound- only to find Juice and Miles together. Miles was completely done for, dead. Juice was down on the ground, he had been shot in the leg. Chibs was the one to pick Juice up off of the ground. We got Juice back to the warehouse just as Clay, Jax, and Opie all returned. Upon hearing what had happened, they all seemed a little shocked, and were skeptical to believe it. According to Juice, Miles had stolen the brick and when Juice caught him trying to sneak it back in, Miles tried to kill and frame him.

The Prospects took Juice from Chibs, and loaded him into the back of the all too familiar black van. However, it was Chibs and I were the ones to escort the van back to the club house so Tara could take care of Juice.

I did everything I could to try to help; but without a lick of medical experience, I was really of no use to them.

Leaning back against the bar, something crossed my mind. Something about this whole situation felt forced, and just a bit unnatural. Looking over to Chibs, I saw the scowl that was etched onto his face as he watched Tara's attempt to patch up Juice's leg. Pushing myself away from the bar, I made my way over to my husband. Running my hands up his arms and over his shoulders, I pushed myself up and kissed his cheek softly. "Come outside and talk with me." I whispered. From behind me, I could hear my husband's heavy footsteps following along behind me. Once outside, Chibs sat down on the picnic table while I stood in front of him.

"Can I ask you something?" I hummed, looking down at him softly. "Of course you can, love. What is it?" He asked, lighting a cigarette. "Has Juice been acting odd to you recently?" I gasped out.

That was the real question wasn't it? If anyone else would have noticed, they wouldn't have hesitated to take it to Clay. Chibs would at least try to help fixing things before giving up and running to Clay.

"I actually wanted to ask you the same there. He's been acting pretty strange, I don't knowwhat's going on, but it doesn't feel right to me." He shook his head ever so slightly. We sat in silence for a few moments, both of us trying to figure out what to do or say next. A few moments had gone by before Tara came walking out to where we were.

"How is he, Doc?" Chibs asked, moving to sit up straight. "He'll be just fine. As long as he's careful. Keep an eye on him- he'll probably need some help getting around at first." Was all she said before walking away.