Page 24 of Wire
St_Margarita: He’s a pussy anyway.
St_Margarita: I just feel like I’m failing people. I don’t want to see anyone I love get hurt.
Beretta_Penn: I know. But you can only do so much. When it gets too big you need to lean on others to help you. I’ll always be here if you need me. Call and I’m there. Always.
St_Margarita: Only if you promise the same.
Beretta_Penn: Promise. We have each other’s back.
St_Margarita: For always.
Beretta_Penn: Always.
Wire
Fuck fuck fuck! I was trying to be extra vigilant with our security after that shit with the Death Riders and Flack being shot, but obviously it’s not enough. How the fuck did I miss an active shooter coming onto our property? What fucking use am I if I can’t even do my job?
“Get out of your head Wire, we’ve got baddies to fuck up,” Chewy says as she strides to her chair, kicks her shoes off and plops down. She has an earpiece in already and is barking instructions.
I shake myself off. She’s right. I have to get a fucking grip on myself. My eyes close and I pull a breath deep into my lungs before letting it out.
“That’s it, dude, in the zone,” Chewy whispers under her breath, side eyeing me for a moment.
The thud of running feet breaks through and Remy comes flying around the corner, straight to her station.
“The men have their ear pieces in. I need you to be badass, Rem, like we practiced.” Remy nods her head once at Chewy, before turning to me, holding out her small pale fist. My lips twitch and I bump mine against her.
“OK ladies, let’s fucking do this.”
My fingers fly over the keys and I broadcast all our cameras onto the large screen in front of us.
“Remy, you all good to monitor the front gate, parking lot and treeline?” She doesn’t reply and my eyes are glued tothe screen, so I need her to talk to me. “Need your words, sweetheart.”
“Yes, yup. I can do that.”
“You’ll need to warn brothers through comms too, so make sure you use your firm voice, OK?” I finally turn to look at her, her eyes are wide but I watch her steel herself, her shoulders back and stubborn tilt to her chin.
“I’ve got your back.”
“Good girl. Chewy, you all good to monitor out the back and all the roads that run behind the compound?”
“Yeah, homie.”
I ignore Remy’s soft snort and check my own cameras. It takes no time at all for us three to fall into an easy rhythm. The nomad riders have us almost surrounded. By the looks of it, the shooter at the back of the compound was taken out fairly early on. Luckily for us, there is dense wood behind us with heavy duty fencing beyond that. There are some country roads that run behind us, but you’d have to be local to even know they’re back there, and these guys are most definitely not local. If they were, they’d know not to fuck with us.
Scanning the screens, there have to be about 15 of the fuckers. Hammer has recruited a large crew without us or Death Riders knowing about it, which is fucking concerning. Although he obviously hadn’t factored in that his men were going to be walking into a bloodbath. Yeah, they may have numbers, but they have absolutely no fucking skills, making it easy for our little IT team to bark out orders. Brothers are taking out targets as soon as we call them out. With our eyes and new comms tech we are running tighter than the units I worked with when I was deployed. Between the Tombs, DRMC and Death Riders, we have already cut a swathe through the men that thought they could attack us. Fucking idiots. I’m feeling rather confident that we’ll have this buttoned up quickly, and that is when I hear Anacalling for backup. Spinning to look at Remy, she looks pale and Chewy has taken over calling the shots for her.
“Oh no! I didn’t see him and now Gus has been shot!” Remy gasps. She turns her wide eyes toward me, tears pooling. Turning back to the screen, I watch as Gus seems to be moving around, even if he isn’t looking too flash. The way Ana is leaning over him and gripping his arm, I can see it’s not a life threatening wound.
“Hey, hey, look at me. He’s fine. It’s in his arm. There was no way for you to see that sneaky fuck from where he was firing from. It’s OK.” I make sure I make eye contact with her, so she can see the sincerity in my face. She lets out a breath and nods, before turning back to her screen.
I watch her for a moment and feel a weird tightening in my chest. I don’t like it when she’s upset. It screws my guts up. I don’t know how it happened, but the way I feel about her is like the way I feel about Retta. Is that weird? Maybe I’m projecting my feelings for Retta onto Remy? Or the other way round? Fuck. I have no clue. I need to get both of them off my mind and concentrate on my fucking job. Two minutes ago, I was berating myself for not doing good enough.
“Aaaaand that’s a wrap, folks. All nomads have been maimed or killed. I’m gonna get out there and see if I can get any information outta the injured ones.” Chewy states, although before getting up from her chair she clocks something on the screens, tilts her head with a frown and then rushes out of the room.
Following where she was looking, I see Tank bringing in Gus, who looks unconscious. Remy hasn’t noticed yet and I don’t want her to either.
“Hey Rem, do you want to go down and see how your dad is? We’ll probably debrief in the common room if you want to get ready to bring him down. I’m sure Marx will want us all there.”