“Can you take it a little easier this time?” McKayla asked as she rolled on top of me.

I chuckled and put my hand on the back of her neck and pulled her to my lips.

“Whatever you want darlin’.” I said against her lips.

She straddled my hips and was slowly lowering herself down on me-----

“Hey, Jax-Oh Shit!”

Opie threw open the door right at that moment to see McKayla on top of me, with her bare back to him.

“Be out inna minute, bro.” I said to him, a grin cracking my face open.

Opie muttered something and closed the door behind him. I looked up at McKayla, whose face was cherry red. I tried to keep it together, but I started laughing. She hit my chest playfully and laughed with me. She rolled off of me and got out of the bed.

“I’m gonna get a shower.” She said.

I nodded and she closed the bathroom door. I picked up my clothes off the floor and pulled them on as I walked out of the room. Opie was sitting at the bar having a beer when I came out.

“Dude I’m sorry, I didn’t know she was back.” He said.

I laughed and patted his shoulder.

“No problem bro. What’s up?” I asked him.

He nodded towards church.

“Clay wants up to speed with the murders.” He said in a hushed voice.

I nodded and we went inside. Everyone gathered at the table and I lit up a smoke.

“Alright, Jax. What’s going on with this shit?” Clay asked me.

I nodded and flicked the ashes off my cigarette.

“Okay, thanks to Juice we found out that Luanne paid the torture porn creep to make the warehouse look like it was robbed. She offered him a sponsorship if he did. She called us because she had to, but didn’t expect us to rough the guy up for robbing the place. She thought we’d call the cops and then she’d collect the insurance money. The guy got pissed and told her he wanted paid for us beating up him so she wired him a half million dollars. The murders was personal, he wanted to show us who we messed with.” I told them.

Clay rubbed his temples and sighed.

“Great. Where’d the porn queen get the half mill?” He asked.

“She’s been cookin the books.” Chibs said.

“Christ. Okay, she’s Otto’s old lady so we’ll go easy on her.” Clay said.

No arguments here. Otto’s done some great things for the club, and he was paying for it in the Pen.

“Where is this prick now?”

“In a house by the docks, we were gonna pick up him now.” I said.

Clay nodded and told me to take Opie and Tig with me. We adjourned and got up to leave.

“Jax, a minute?” Clay called for me.

I closed the doors and faced him. He was lighting a cigar and had one hand on the gavel.

“I see your woman’s back.” He said.

I nodded and stubbed my cigarette out.

“Yeah, she got in last night.” I said.

He nodded and let out some smoke.

“I know. I was here. Did you set up a ride for her?” He asked me.

I raised my eyebrow and didn’t answer.

“Well she was cozied up to someone in a black Lexus. She said it was the airport car service.”

I shrugged and rolled my head from side to side to ease the tension I was getting in my neck.

“Then I’m sure that’s what it was.” I said.

Clay stood up and ashed the cigar.

“It better be. Why did she go home anyway?” He asked.

“She had some family shit to work out.” I said, growing annoyed.

“You sure it wasn’t to talk to some cop about us?” He said accusingly.

I about lost it. I took a step forward and gripped the back of a chair.

“What are you trying to say?” I dared him.

He shook his head and held up his hands.

“Nothing, son. You just might wanna make sure you’re old lady didn’t make any new friends back home.”

With that he walked out of the church, leaving the doors open and me with my swimming thoughts. From the doorway I could see McKayla sitting at the bar sipping a cup of coffee and talking to Half Sack. She was wearing one of my Reaper shirts and her hair was wet and up in a bun. I sighed and walked over to them.

“Hey, everything okay?” She asked.

I knew she could see the stress on my face. I smiled at her and kissed her temple.

“Yeah just some father son shit.” I said.

She nodded and held her cup up to me. I took it from her and sipped it. The bitterness was welcomed in my mouth. It helped wash down some of the questions in my throat.

“How come you didn’t call to tell me you were coming back early?” I asked her.

She tilted her head and took the cup from me.

“I did like five times.”

“The prepay? Your number never came up.” I said.

She shook her head and picked at her fingers.

“That’s because I used the payphone at the airport. I left my phone there.” She said.

I could see in her eyes that something happened out there. I was about to ask her more when Ope whistled for me.

“I gotta go darlin’, Gemma should be in the office if you wanna go home.” I told her.

She nodded and I kissed her lips. It was like I was home again. I had everything I ever wanted right here, and I was so glad to have it back.

Tig, Opie, and I climbed on our bikes and put our helmets on.

“Okay we do this clean, we don’t need anything else landing on us.” I told them.

They nodded in agreement and we fired up our Dyna’s and rode off towards the docks.

McKayla

I finished my coffee and Kip took the cup from me.

“So how was home?” He asked.

I shook my head.

“This is my home.” I said.

He smiled and took a rag and wiped down the bar. The doors opened and Gemma walked in.

“Welcome home baby.” She said as she threw her arms around me.

I smiled and hugged her back.

“Thank you.”

We pulled away and she sat down at the bar. Kip handed her a cup of coffee and she sipped it slowly.

“Everything go okay at home?” She asked me.

I cringed at the word ‘home’. That place is not my home. Not anymore.

“Not exactly.” I said with a small laugh.

Gemma set her cup down and faced me in the chair.

“What happened?”

I sighed and closed my eyes.

“My family wasn’t thrilled with how I’m living my life now. They wanted me to move back there and get into therapy.” I said.

Gemma narrowed her eyes and tapped her nails on the cup.

“They didn’t approve of Jax?” She asked.

I shook my head quickly and looked away from her. I definitely didn’t want to get on her bad side.

“It’s not that they didn’t approve of him, they think that I ran to him because of what happened with Derek as a distraction.” I explained.

She looked at me with a long, hard look before taking another sip of her coffee.

“So I left. I got on a plane as soon as I could and came back here.” I said.

A small smile spread across her face. She reached over and put her hand on top of mine.

“Because this is your home now, baby. They don’t understand. They’ve never been through hell. Us? We’ve all walked through hell.”

She was right. I’ve been in hell and saw the devil first hand. They will never understand what I went through and how if I wouldn’t have met Jax, I’d be dead.

“I know they’re your family, but they will never be there for you like we will. We’re your family now baby. And there’s a little boy that’s missed you and is dying to see you.” She said with a smile.

My heart sped up and I smiled hard. Abel. I’ve missed him so much.

“Come on baby, let’s go home.” She said.

Gemma took my hand and led me out of the bar, with just a Reaper shirt on.