Page 10 of Wire
“You’re not in trouble, Remy,” Marx softly says, earning a lot of raised eyebrows. Our Pres is gruff and growly. He’s not this teddy bear in front of us. “I was hoping to send you ona stakeout. You’d partner with Wire. There will be camping involved.”
She scrunches her eyebrows together before nodding. “Yes, I can do that. Thank you, Pres, for trusting me with this. I won’t let you down.” She nods emphatically, and we all watch as she pulls her shoulders back and stands tall.
I’m sure all the brothers are feeling the same thing I am. She may be small and shy, but without a single question, she accepted Marx’s orders. She trusts and respects him, and by extension, she trusts and respects us. That sort of thing goes a long way in our eyes.
“Thank you, Remy, I know you’d never let us down. You can go back to what you were doing.” Remy smiles at Marx and gives us all a little wave before leaving and closing the door gently behind her.
“I have no idea how the hell that girl grew up with the Death Riders and came out that fucking sweet.” Switch shakes his shaggy ginger head back and forth, voicing what we’re all thinking. Flack obviously did a fucking great job at shielding her.
“To my last point of order. With this shit going down with Gus, we need to be vigilant. We’ve been waiting for the fallout from shutting down Kraykowski’s operation, and nothing has happened. This puts me on fucking edge. Keep your eyes and ears open, have each other’s backs and report back anything you hear on the streets. They’ll be the ones to know if shit is going to hit the fan.”
We all nod. I know for a fact there haven’t been any murmurs on the dark web, and that is suspicious in itself.
“OK, that’s it. Wire already sent out his report, so you all know how well our businesses are doing. We may even have to look into buying another one, keep the tax man off our backs. Bring me any ideas you have. Right, get out of here, fuckers.”Marx bangs the gavel and I head back to the control center, eager to brief Remy on our mission.
Remy
I was shocked to my core when Marx asked if I would be open to doing a stakeout. I’d only been here a week and by anyone’s standards that’s not nearly enough time to garner anyone’s trust, but trust me, they did. After the initial shock wore off, pure blind panic kicked in. What if I fluffed it? What if I got us found out or put everyone in danger? I didn’t want to freak out and look weak in front of the DRMC. These men were counting on me. So instead, I panic messaged Mags with a story about my boss wanting me to keep an eye on a dodgy coworker. He then spent the next hour talking me down. I have no idea what I would do without him in my life, and I never want to find out. As a kid, I only had Sunny to talk to about things that worried me. Once I met Mags, the number of people I could go to for advice doubled. I never went to my dad. He had other things to worry about, like not getting shot and leaving me and Sunny as orphans. Sunny never knew her mother and I haven’t heard from mine since my dad took me. Heck, with Hammer in charge, he would have sold me and Sunny to the traveling circus or something. Thank god Savage got rid of him and turned things around.
I’m snapped out of my thoughts by a small voice. “Miss Remy, I’ve finished.” Jovie smiles up at me with her gap-toothed smile and crooked pigtails and I grin back at her. Even thoughI’ve only been here at the Rose Grove Library for a week, I know Jovie is going to be my favorite kid. She’s been here every day. I’ve never seen her parents, but she spends a lot of time just hanging out. She’s quiet and polite, no trouble at all, and if I’m being honest, she reminds me a little of myself when I was a kid. I had Miss Shawna, and I guess Jovie has me.
“Great job Jovie! Tell me what you liked best about the story.”
Looking at the cover, there’s a large dinosaur on the front. I smile at that. It’s one thing that stood out to me when I first met the little girl. Where all the other girls her age, of which I’m guessing she must be around 6 or 7, were busy in the fairytale section, Jovie seemed to delight in the dinosaur story books.
“I liked how the big dinosaur protected the little ones. Big things should always look after little things.” She nods up at me as if that is an absolute fact.
“I agree. Animals, people, dinosaurs. We should do our best to look after them all.” She beams up at me with her slightly grubby face and clutches her book to her chest before wandering off to the beanbags and the rest of the kids in my after school programme.
I take a peek at the clock on the wall and realize it’s time to tidy up before the dance party and then pick up time. And by dance party I mean the quietest dance party ever given we’re in the library and all. I like to end by doing something physical because the kids have spent an hour sitting down, and it’s good for their little bodies to move.
“Macaroni Cheese,”
“Everybody freeze!” They not so quietly answer in reply.
Once all eyes are on me, I quietly let them know that it’s time to tidy up so we can have our afternoon dance party. They jump up and bustle around, haphazardly putting their books back on the shelves and very unhelpfully kicking the beanbags out of theway. I introduced library dance party on Monday, and since then it’s been a hit with my kids.
They gather in the empty space in the children’s section with “Airplane arms” to space themselves out. I pull up “Firework” by Katy Perry, the message telling the kids to let themselves shine, the opening notes gently playing. We jump and twirl and boogy until we’re all breathless. By the end of the song we’re all a little sweaty, puffed and red faced.
I catch sight of Jovie’s face, her eyes wide, staring at someone over my shoulder. Spinning, I notice it’s Wire, looking larger than life surrounded by kid sized furniture. I also notice that some parents have arrived to collect their kids. At least four moms are staring at Wire like they want to snack on the man, and I really can’t blame them. Wearing his cut over a dark blue henley, worn jeans and his boots, hair tucked into a beanie, he looks less like a snack and more like a buffet.
“OK friends, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I will see you next week!”
I offer high fives to the kids, their sticky moist hands slapping mine. Turning to high five Jovie, I notice she hasn’t moved, still in the same spot staring at Wire.
“Jovie, sweetie, are you OK?” She turns her large brown eyes up to me and she looks terrified. Squatting down in front of her, I gentle my voice. “Hey, it’s OK. That’s my friend Wire. He is here to pick me up. We’re going camping.” I offer her a smile and she wrings her hands for a moment.
“So he’s not a bad man?”
“No sweetie, Wire is a nice man. He’s my friend.” I turn to look at him, his gaze bouncing around my face and he must see something written there because he shifts his gaze to Jovie and softens his stance a little. He smiles softly at Jovie and comes closer, squatting down when he’s within arm’s length. “Wire, this is my friend Jovie, Jovie, this is Wire.”
“Hi Jovie, it’s nice to meet you. I like your shirt. Brontosaurus, right?” He offers her a smile and holds his huge fist out. She eyes him for a moment before gently tapping his fist and offering a small smile.
“Yeah, they’re my favorite.” She smiles wider before she high fives me and races off into the shelves. My eyes follow her as she leaves. Something about the way Wire looks unsettled her.
“You ready to hit the road, Remy?”
I shake off my thoughts and nod at Wire.