Rachel was wiping down the top of the bar with her oiled rag to make the wood gleam. She wiped the bar top every time she had a moment, the motion therapeutic and calming. She had just opened the bar and was still waiting for her first customer. This was always the hardest part of the night, the time between when she flipped on the open sign and the first customer arrived. It’s when the memories spoke to her the loudest.

 

The bar had been repaired so that no evidence remained to indicate it had been all shot to hell by the Andres Cartel -- the same shooting spree that had taken Will’s life. But what the master woodworkers couldn’t repair was the empty place in her soul. It had been almost six weeks since Will had been killed, and she was healing, but she wasn’t healed yet. If it hadn’t been for Jules she—

 

Rachel looked up as her first customer of the night stepped in. It was Olivia Hawkins, Liv to her friends, and one of the biker chicks that ran with Forsaken 99. Rachel reached under the bar and pulled out her trusty shotgun. Other than pumping three shots into Will’s killer, she had never fired the gun in her bar. But she might be willing to do so tonight.

 

“What do you want, Liv? You know Forsaken 99 is no longer welcome here,” Rachel demanded, holding the shotgun so that Liv could clearly see it, though she kept it pointed away from the woman.

 

Liv stopped just inside the door and held up her hands in surrender. “I know. But I need to speak to Jules. Please, Rachel, it’s important.” Liv was an exceptionally sexy woman, well built with a beautiful face and long hair, and she normally carried herself with pride. But tonight she looked almost shrunken, as if all the life had gone out of her.

 

“Get out.”

 

“Rachel, please. Just let me talk to Jules. I need to talk to him. I’m… afraid.”

 

“Yeah, well, considering who you are hanging out with, you should be.”

 

“What do you want, Liv?” Jules demanded as he stepped into the bar proper from the back.

 

“Jules. I need to talk to you. It’s about Marsh and Forsaken 99. I just need five minutes of your time. Please!”

 

“To be honest, Liv, I don’t give a rat’s ass about Forsaken 99 anymore.”

 

“I know. But they were wrong to strip you of your colors. Since you have been gone, the club has started to come apart. There is no one left to act as a check on Todd. Marsh is off the board. Spence too—”

 

“And I should give a shit, why?” he interrupted.

 

“Because they were your friends! Once. The entire club looked up to you!”

 

“Yeah. That’s why they tried to have me killed. Twice. That’s why they stripped me of my colors and have been hovering about, making sure I don’t forget that I’m a marked man. You know what they say about friends like these.”

 

“They were wrong, Jules. I think they know it now. Marsh, he’s made me his old lady. He’s bitter and unhappy. He tells me things. How the club is going down the wrong path. He and Spence have talked to Todd, but he won’t listen. He won’t listen to anybody! They were charter members, two of the first fifteen, and they see the town returning to the way it was when Forsaken 99 first formed. This is Coper’s home now, our home now, and he doesn’t want to go back to the way it was.”

 

“He should have thought of that before Forsaken 99 started running drugs.”

 

“I know!” Liv wailed. “The club should have kicked Todd out back then, when you were pushing so hard against him. Maybe he could have done more, but he backed you every step of the way!”

 

“Really? I don’t recall him backing me when I took on Todd over shooting the kids.”

 

“That was different! You pulled a gun on the President of the club. That’s all that was about. He agreed with you, that the kids shouldn’t be killed, but he couldn’t condone you pulling your gun on another member. Jules, Marsh is your friend. Always has been. Always will be. He was there for you the night Fish and Bell were killed.”

 

“Yeah, I know he was. But that’s too little, too late, now. What do you want from me, Liv? I’m dead to the club. It is only a matter of time before they take a shot at me.”

 

“I want you to help! I want you to finish what you started! I want you to take the club back and make it what it once was!”

 

“What are you talking about, Liv?”

 

“Marsh told me what you told him after the club had banished you. How you and the others were planning a coup.”

 

“Funny. He didn’t seem to care when I told him.”

 

“I know. But he has been thinking about it. We’ve been talking about it. He was hurt, Jules, that you didn’t come to him. He was the Sergeant at Arms, and you were doing an end-around on him.”

 

“Because I didn’t know where he stood. I approached him about it, and he seemed to be okay with the club running drugs.”

 

“But that is when Todd said that they were just allowing the drugs to pass through Forsaken 99 territory. It is like you pulling the gun on Todd. He couldn’t condone what you were doing. But now he knows you were right. Todd is too far gone to save and that Forsaken 99 is actually transporting the drugs. He’s sorry Jules. He’s so sorry he didn’t help you when you needed it most, and it’s eating him alive.”

 

“Why hasn’t he come to tell me himself, then?”

 

“Because of his pride! And he’s afraid. Afraid of what may happen. The club is just hanging together. One more shock and it may break apart, and he doesn’t want that.”

 

Jules glanced at Rachel. She had put the shotgun away, but she was still hard as nails. “How, Liv? How do you expect me to help? What do you expect me to do?”

 

“I don’t fucking know!” Liv shouted then took several deep breaths. “I don’t know. But it is getting bad, Jules. The club is tearing itself apart. The Cuervo Cartel is trying to push the Andres Cartel out and Forsaken 99 is being caught in the middle.”

 

“That’s what happens when you get in bed with the devil. You get burned.”

 

“You won’t help me? You won’t help Marsh, or Spence? Hugh? Do you not care anymore?”

 

“Liv, if Marsh wants to take the club back, I will support him in any way that I can. But I can’t do this for you. I’m not a brother anymore. I can’t just waltz in there and start making demands.”

 

“How do we know this isn’t just an attempt to get Jules out in the open where the club can take him down?” Rachel wanted to know. They had been very careful since he left the club to not be caught in a bad position.

 

Liv looked like she was going to cry. “I guess you don’t have any reason to trust me. Jules, I’m sorry for what went down. A lot of the club is. I can understand you being suspicious, but I just want your help. Marsh told me what you said about the cleaning crew, how it was all Todd’s doing. But this isn’t that, okay? I’m begging you, please help me save Marsh before he is hurt, or killed.”

 

“I’m sorry, Liv. I can’t. Marsh has to be the one to make the first move.”

 

Liv wrung her hands as she stared at the floor. “If he comes and asks for your help to take the club back, will you give it?”

 

“Yes. What little help I can provide, I will.”

 

“Jules, are you sure that’s a good idea? It could all be a setup,” Rachel pointed out.

 

He looked at Rachel. “It could be. But I promised you that I would take the club back, or destroy it. This may be the first step to doing that.”

 

He turned his attention back to Liv. “Have Marsh come here and talk to me, alone. Just him. We’ll see where this goes after that. But I’m not promising you anything except to talk to him, understand?”

 

“Yes,” Liv replied before she stepped forward and hugged Jules briefly before letting him go and looking at Rachel self-consciously. “Thank you, Jules. Thank you for anything you might be able to do.” She nodded once at Rachel then hurried out of the door.

 

“Do you think you can trust her?” Rachel asked.

 

“Don’t know. She seemed sincere, don’t you think?”

 

“Yes. But that doesn’t mean you can trust her. She may be everything she seems, but if you start pulling strings in the club again, who knows what may happen.” Rachel looked at the bar and began to polish one spot. “What if the cartel comes after you? I couldn’t stand to lose you too.”

 

Jules stilled her hand with his own. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ve had someone try to kill me three times now, and I’m still here. I’m hard to kill.”

 

Rachel looked up with tears in her eyes. “I’m afraid your luck may have run out. I don’t want to take that chance.”

 

Jules smiled as he released her hand. “I guess you better keep that shotgun handy then, in case you need to shove it up someone’s ass and pull the trigger.”

 

Rachel snickered and wiped at her unshed tears. “It’s not funny, Jules.”

 

“I know babe. But going around looking over our shoulders all the time isn’t funny either. And if you won’t leave—”

 

“I can’t leave my home or He’s Not Here!”

 

“And I can’t leave without you. This is the first chink in their armor. Let’s see if we can pry them open a little. If Marsh is serious about wanting to take the club back, I’m willing to help. Like Liv said, he’s one of the founding fifteen. People will listen to him.”

 

“Then he should have come forward when you were trying to take the club back before.”

 

“It’s a hard thing to turn on a brother,” Jules said as he nodded in agreement. “Especially with as much history as Marsh has.”

 

Rachel sighed. “I just hope you know what you are doing.”

 

He smiled. “Yeah. Me too.”

 

Jules turned and Rachel instinctively reached for her shotgun as the door opened again, then they relaxed as a man and woman came in, laughing at some joke as they settled into a booth. “We’ll talk more about it later, okay?”

 

“Okay. But this is our best chance so far to fix this. We may not get another opportunity.”

 

“I know,” she said as she kept an eye on Angie, waiting for her to finish taking the couple’s order. “But I’m not ready to trust anybody from Forsaken 99. Not after what happened the last time.”

 

Jules pursed his lips as he nodded in agreement. No more deaths. There has been enough killing.