The bright Texas sun poured into the high-key garage, illuminating the polished concrete floor and casting long shadows against the white walls where a framed American flag hung proudly. The grey-bearded biker knelt down on the cold floor beside a young, fair-skinned girl who sat quietly on a wooden crate. Jax gently adjusted his leather vest, reaching out with tender care to inspect the nasty scrape forming above her ankle.
Jax: Take a breath, sweetheart. You are safe here in this garage.
Lily: They... they took my allowance envelope, Jax.
Jax: Your allowance? How much money was in that envelope, Lily?
Lily: It was forty dollars. My mom gave it to me to buy groceries for tonight.
Rocco: Forty bucks meant for groceries? Who does something like that?
Jax: Tell me who those boys were, Lily. Were they local kids from the high school?
Lily: No... they were not kids. They were older guys wearing black jackets with a red snake on the back.
Rocco froze mid-step, his dark eyes narrowing as he exchanged a sharp glance with Sarah, the crew's lead mechanic who was holding a clean cloth.
Sarah: The Red Vipers? Jax, those are not local teenagers. That is Miller's extortion crew.
Jax: Miller's boys are shaking down little girls on the street now?
Rocco: They have been leaning on the local shops all week, Jax. Word is Miller is broke after losing his main warehouse lease.
Lily: When I tried to hold onto my bag, the big guy pushed me hard. My knee hit the curb.
Jax gently reached out, dabbing a clean cloth against the bleeding scrape on her knee while listening closely to her trembling voice in the quiet room.
Jax: You were very brave, Lily. Where is your mom right now?
Lily: She is at work... at the diner across from the bank. She works two jobs, Jax.
Sarah: Her mom is Hannah. She has been struggling ever since the bank threatened to foreclose on her apartment building down the road.
Jax: Foreclose? Hannah's rent is always paid on time, isn't it?
Sarah: Not according to the new property company. They raised rent by fifty percent last month without giving any real warning to the tenants.
Lily: Mom was crying at the kitchen table this morning. She said if we lose the forty dollars, we cannot pay the utility bill.
Jax stood up slowly, his heavy leather boots making a dull thud on the floor as his tall frame cast a long shadow across the shop.
Jax: Rocco, get the bikes ready right now.
Rocco: We riding down to Miller's clubhouse?
Jax: We are riding to the diner first. We make sure Hannah is okay, then we go get that forty dollars back.
Sarah: Jax, Miller has ten guys at that scrap yard. It will not be a friendly conversation at all.
Jax: I do not care if he has fifty guys. Nobody steals from a hardworking mother and hurts her child in this town.
Lily: Can I come with you, Jax? I do not want to stay here alone.
Jax: You stay right here with Sarah, little one. Sarah is going to patch that knee up proper.
Sarah: Come here, sweetie. I have got soft bandages and a soda in the fridge for you.
Lily: Will you be careful, Mr. Jax?
Jax: I have been taking care of business in Texas for forty years, sweetheart. Don't you worry about a single thing.
Jax turned toward the open bay doors as six heavy engines roared to life inside the garage, shaking the old tools hanging on the pegboard walls. The rumble echoed across the quiet neighborhood street as the crew pulled out, determined to bring justice to a corrupt syndicate that operated in the dark.