Other Side of the Tracks

Chapter 13

"Look what I have for you."

Julia handed Nero a few sheets of paper along with the petition filed just under two weeks before. Her face was still healing but she was starting to smile again. Four days had gone by since the fight with Wendy, she'd kept her distance from Jax, and slowly she was feeling herself again. They had been talking, even meeting up for a drink, but she felt she had too much to decide on and the sex confused her too much.

"What's this?" He asked suspiciously. Flipping through the papers a toothy grin spread across Nero's face. "Are these real?"

"Actually they are," she laughed. "Took me less than a day to get his dirty little secrets on film."

The photos were bad, the original petition author and Diosa's biggest neighborhood opposition were involved, that wasn't a well kept secret though. A mere sex scandal wasn't much but the bondage would be sure to send those two scrambling for silence.

"I'm heading over to his office today to uhh, lay it out, for him."

"You know," Nero handed her work back to her. "Secret romances are dangerous," he paced around to the back of his desk and sat.

"No shit," she slipped her work back in her messenger back. "So, they're going to lose any ammo they have and our grand opening is still right on schedule."

"I'm not talking about them." Pouring himself a drink, Nero offered Julia a glass but she promptly turned it down. "I'm talking about you and Jax Teller."

Her back went up, the smile disappearing from her face, and Julia quietly waited for him to elaborate. She didn't want to say anything until she knew what he knew.

"Pleading the fifth?" He chuckled. "I don't care and I'm not telling Charlie but things get out. Look how easy it was for me to find out."

"Gemma told you," Julia sneered. "I think you banging her, a married woman, is much worse than two single people hanging out."

"Gemma and Clay aren't together," he said clearly.

"But does he know?" Julia crossed her arms. "Cause that look when I caught you two said a lot more than you two just not wanting to be public. She looked scared."

"It's complicated," he tried to ignore her suggestions. "I know that you situation is much more dangerous than mine or Gemma's."

"Why does she care?" Julia gave a flash of concern away. "I know this was her idea, she definitely put you up to it."

"She's worried about her son and the club." He opened his arms, stretched across the table, and gave her an apologetic look. "What do you want me to say? You know what you're doing is wrong."

"It's not wrong," she snapped. "It's just complicated."

"And those complications could hurt you and Jax not to mention our business."

Julia rolled her eyes petulantly. "I've known you a long time, Nero."

"Since you were knee high," he smiled sadly. "Your old man arrested me more than once."

"Exactly," she said with a sorrowful chuckle. "You know I wouldn't risk the business. I worked way too hard for this. I really like spending time with Jax." Her jaw jutted out and she looked away from Nero. "I really like him."

"So you want what exactly?" He leaned forward. "This involves Diosa, you know that."

"I promise you, no matter what goes down with Jax, neither one of us are going to fuck with business." She pleaded with him. "And I can tell you, give you my personal assurance, I won't fuck him over so he'll have no reason to come at us."