Dax Marshall is a formidable man. He took over one of the biggest MCs in the state when his father died. They were in the midst of a bloody street war, they were making and selling amphetamines and there was a special task force formed almost specifically to put the Skulls out of commission. A few years later, he had not only turned all that around, but he'd managed to create a million-dollar enterprise in the process. Jigsaw knew all of this second hand of course, from his months on the ranch. But a lot of it felt familiar to him. He was sure that the Skulls weren't the first club he'd ever spent time with. Whether he was affiliated or not...who knew? None of his tats were MC related. He wondered about the Daphne one. He knew who she was, and he knew Apollo, and he knew the story...but, he couldn't remember how it related to his. It was fucking frustrating to say the least. But despite the fact that Dax had managed to become one of the most powerful men in Suffolk County, he was still also in the business of taking in stragglers, such as himself, and a lot of kids that had no place to go...and the girls that live in the house he stumbled up on the night of his accident. That might make a person who was not in the know, think that Dax Marshall was a softie, or easily manipulated. Jigsaw had been on the ranch long enough to know that would be a dangerous assumption. He looked at the young man sitting in the chair next to him with a broken nose and one tooth missing in front and he could see on the kid's face that he had figured that out...too late. Jigsaw, Jimmie and Cody had been just on the outskirts of Dorchester doing a pickup for Dax from one of their businesses when they'd found the young man exchanging a baggie of white pills for cash. As soon as he saw them, he'd taken off running...but it turned out that Jimmie was a track star. Jigsaw had the pleasure of the kid riding bitch on his bike back to the ranch. At first he was worried he would jump off, but as soon as Jigsaw loosened up on the throttle, little “Bondo” as he called himself, latched onto his kutte so tightly that Jigsaw thought he might rip it right off.

“He's ready!” Cody stood in the doorway of the office, arms folded and looking as intimidating as hell as he eyed the kid. Jigsaw almost felt sorry for him. He tapped the kid on the arm and said,

“Let's go.” He stood up and Jigsaw walked him to the door. Since he still wore the prospect patch, for a few more hours anyways, he stopped there.

“Jigsaw!” Dax called just as Cody was about to close the door.

“Yeah?” He stuck his head inside. Dax's office is where all the executive decisions for the club are made. Because it sits at the back of the clubhouse, it looks deceptively small from the outside. But the reality is that it's bigger than the bar in the clubhouse. It has a huge, hand-carved table with a skull in the center of it. The wall behind Dax's chair is covered in pictures, photos of the guys over the years, some mug shots, some candids. At least twenty chairs surrounded the table, but currently Dax, Handsome and Jimmie were the only ones who occupied it. Cody had sat the kid down in the center of it all and the look on his face said he was probably going to need a change of underpants before the meeting was over, especially because Cody was still standing over him, with his hard, intimidating glare focused on the kid's broken face. That was only a taste of what Cody could have done to him and Jigsaw got the impression that the kid wasn't quite smart enough to get that...yet. He could see the vein throbbing in his temple, and if he were hooked up to a monitor, his pulse would probably register off the charts.

“Stay,” he said. Jigsaw went inside and closed the door. Whatever the reason Dax wanted him there, he wasn't going to question him. Dax turned his intense blue eyes on the guest of honor and said, Bobby Duke.”

“Bondo,” the kid said, too smugly for a guy with a broken face. Dax smirked and said,

“How's the old man, Bobby?”

“He's still a piece of shit,” Bobby said.

“He still locked up?” Dax asked.

“Yeah. He won't be out anytime soon.”

“You know why you're here, right?” Dax asked him.

“I was selling.” Dax didn't say anything. He cocked an eyebrow and waited for the kid to elaborate. At last, and reluctantly he said, “In Skulls territory.”

“From what my guys took off you, I'd say that you have a pretty lucrative little business going.”

“I don't know if I'd call it lucrative...” Cody slapped him upside the head and he let out a sharp gasp.

“I took five grand off you, and another five-grand worth of product at least.”

“That wasn't all profit,” the kid said, ducking this time. Before Cody smacked him again, Dax shook his head slightly and said,

“So, what was it?”

“At least half that cash was to buy more product, and another quarter of it goes to my supplier for what he's already fronted me.”

“And the other $1250?” Dax asked.

“Well, I guess that's profit.”

“Tell me how much ‘profit’ you make in say...a month.”

The kid kept one eye on Cody and the other on Dax as he said, “It depends, but in a good month maybe two grand.”

“What are you selling?”

“Pills, that's it, just pills.”

“Just pills, huh?” Dax said. The kid nodded. “What about meth?”

“No, huh uh, I don't mess with that shit. That was my...I don't mess with it.” Jigsaw wondered where, “that was my” was going before he caught himself. He seemed to be trying to change tracks when he said, “Hey, I know you guys grow weed out here...” Cody raised his hand and the kid started to duck. Cody was too quick for him though. He used his other hand to grab the kid by the front of his shirt and hold him still before he smacked him in the head again.

“Damn! He's going to kill me!” Handsome rolled his eyes and Jimmie sighed, loudly. Dax still didn't change his expression.

“If he wanted to kill you, he would have already done it,” Handsome said. “But make no mistake, that can still be arranged. You don't talk about what you think you know about what we may or may not do. We're talking about you, you'll answer the questions as they're asked and keep anything else to yourself, got it?” The kid nodded and Handsome said, “You chose to push your drugs in our territory and now, you get to pay the piper.”

“You want...money?” Dax had cleaned up the club, and he'd begun to take it in a more legitimate direction. But, anyone who assumed The Southside Skulls was 100% legit, would be dead wrong. They were still an outlaw club. They were still part of the 1%, the clubs that operated outside the law. The community had slowly begun to accept them, as long as they kept most of their business out in the county and there weren't any bodies floating around. The Boston PD tried to ignore them, if at all possible, especially after Dax hooked up with one of the cops on the task force and made her his old lady. And the sheriff looked the other way at least 80% of the time. Sometimes he was forced to do his job, but Dax and the rest of the crew respected that. The guys that were part of the Skulls liked living outside the boundaries that every day society found themselves trapped in, but there were still rules that had to be followed and their own code of morals. Respect was number one. Selling in someone else's territory...very disrespectful.

“You think you should be able to sell drugs in my territory and I should look the other way?” Dax asked him.

The kid swallowed, hard. “Um...I guess...” Cody shoved him in the arm and his chair nearly fell over sideways. “No, I don't expect you to look the other way.”

“Well then, we need to come to some kind of agreement. Since we're both businessmen, I'm going to lay out a few options and you can tell me which one works for you, okay...Bobby?”

“Okay...”

“Option A, I let Cody decide what to do with you.” The kid looked sideways at Cody with terror in his eyes. Cody smiled at him.

“Option B?” the kid said.

“Hmm,” Dax said, pretending to ponder it. Jigsaw was sure Dax already knew what all three “options” were, and which way the kid was going to go, whether he liked it or not. “I think B would be that I let you sell the drugs in my territory...and I take all the profits.” The kid opened his mouth but glanced at Cody out of corner of his eye and thought better of it. Jigsaw knew that for the past year, Dax had been doing battle with the IRS, ATF and FBI. None of them had put together anything concrete enough to arrest Dax, but old Hawk, Dax's former arch enemy had been sitting in county jail for almost a year on weapons charges. The FBI hadn't taken him to trial yet because they were trying to make the RICO laws work in their favor and take Dax and the rest of the crew down with him. They were probably also trying to get Hawk to turn on the club and talk, but no one seemed to believe that would ever happen. Dax had spent a ton of money in legal fees and Jigsaw wondered if that was why he was even considering going into business with the half-ass drug dealer sitting in front of him now. According to the guys, Dax had taken the club out of everything drug related except for the pot they grow and harvest on the ranch. But desperate times...desperate measures, maybe...?

“Can we talk about Option C?” the kid asked at last, adding, “Sir?”

Dax's lips twitched. It was the closest thing to a smile that he would let the kid see, Jigsaw was sure. “We can. Option C involves telling me where to find Carson.” The kid swallowed, hard. Jigsaw had no idea who Carson was, but the mention of his name seemed to send a chill down the kid's spine.

“I don't know Carson...” A loud smack of Cody's hand and a spray of blood out of the kid's nose across the shiny wooden floor stalled the “negotiations.” After another slew of curses, the kid said, “He'll fucking kill me, man.”

“The perils of the occupation,” Dax said. “Don't tell me and I'll let Cody fucking kill you. So, see, by telling us, you're choosing the lesser of two evils. You get to live a little longer.”

Tears rolled down his cheeks as he said, “I just needed money to pay for my education. You know what a piece of shit my dad is.”

“Admirable.” Dax didn't sound like he thought it was admirable, or that he believed the kid was pursuing any kind of education. His expression didn't change, and his blue eyes didn't leave the kid's face until he finally said,

“He's working at a pharmacy in Back Bay, Hanson's. I leave a drop for him once a week in the dumpster and he does the same for me. That's it. That's all the contact I have with him.”

“And all he leaves you are pills?”

“Yes, that's it.”

“No crystal?”

“I swear man, I don't mess with that shit. I told you...”

“Tone,” Cody said. Bobby took a breath and said,

“Look, I'll stop, okay? I'll pay Carson what I owe him and I won't buy from him any longer. I won't sell drugs in your territory....”

“True on both counts,” Dax said. “Now, back to your options.”

“That wasn't it?”

Dax smiled. “No. I don't want to know where Carson is working. We know he works whatever pharmacy he can get to hire him, and he changes jobs when things get hot and they start noticing their products going missing. What I want to know is where he's cooking.”

“I don't know!” The kid's voice was shaking, “I told you...”

“Yeah, you told me you only sell pills, you don't know anything about any meth...yadi, yadi, yadi...But see...here's the thing about Carson. He doesn't just dabble in pills. The pills are his side business. What Carson does best, is cook his meth, and then he takes that homemade poison and he sells it to little kids, and you know this because your daddy used to be one of his lead salesmen.”

“And that's exactly why I don't mess with that shit,” the kid said, quickly. “You know my old man. You know what a piece of shit he is. I only sell what I have to in order to pay my bills and take some online classes so I'm not a piece of shit myself forever. I'm not messing with meth and going crazy or to prison or both.”

“Admirable,” Dax said, sarcastically. “So, a guy with such principles shouldn't care to tell me where I can find this piece of shit dealer's kitchen.”

“Last I knew, he was using that house out in the projects in Mattapan, the one that caught fire.”

“Nice try,” Dax said. “The unfortunate part of that event is that Carson made it out of that fire...alive. If he's alive, he's cooking meth. It's what he does best. So now, one more time Bobby. Where is he cooking?” Dax's eyes had gone cold and hard. They were the eyes that Jigsaw assumed more than one man had looked into right before he left this world. Bobby at least seemed smart enough to understand that as he quickly said,

“His girl's family has a couple of double-wides out on Seaver Street in Roxbury. I'm not saying I know for sure that's where he's cooking, but it would probably be a good place to check out if you were looking.”

“Good boy,” Dax said. “Okay Bobby, you're free to go.”

“Excuse me?”

“We're finished here.”

“Um...” He looked at Cody out of the corner of his eye. “They have my...um...”

“Your cash?” Handsome said.

“And the pills?” Dax asked.

“Yeah.”

“Since you were in our territory, Bobby, I'm gonna say they were my pills and any cash you had on you, I'm going to assume was made from sales of that product in my territory, and therefore, it's mine as well. Jigsaw here will be happy to give you a ride home.”

“But...I owe Carson...”

“You won't have to worry about that,” Dax said. “That will be my gift to you. You won't have to worry about Carson at all, very soon.” The kid looked like he was weighing his options. It finally seemed to sink in that his life was the only thing of value he was leaving there with. He stood up and said, “Okay...” He started toward the door that Jigsaw was standing in front of. The biker didn't move and when Bobby realized he wasn't going to he sighed and turned back toward Dax and said, “Thanks.” Jigsaw still didn't move. “Was there something else?”

“Just a reminder that I don't want to see you on the Southside with anything resembling drugs for sale again...okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat. “Okay.” Jigsaw stepped out of the way of the door and then followed the kid out.