Chapter Ten

Wire

T he door barely shuts behind the last police officer before it's slammed open and the clacking of high heels on the wood floor clip clops in my direction.

"Hey Momma,"

"Hey baby."

My mom kisses me on the cheek and then turns slowly, stopping when she sees Marx. "OK, Pres, hit me with it."

Marx lets her know everything he knows, which at this point is fuck all other than the police are looking for evidence related to a body that was dumped on club-owned property. Momma takes notes in the notepad that she always carries with her, then barks questions at everyone else in the room. Did any of the officers touch us? Did they damage any property? That sorta shit.

"Your mom is beautiful. And awesome," is breathed out next to me. I don't need to turn to see who it is. My body felt Remy's presence when she moved into my orbit.

"Yeah. She's a force to be reckoned with." I smile down at her before darting my eyes back to my momma.

She is exactly that. After Dad took off, she single-handedly raised me and my sisters. Made sure we all got the best she could give us, all while working hard to become one of the top defense lawyers in the area. When I was a kid, it was just some boring grown-up job that meant nothing to me. Now I'm an adult, I can see the determination and drive she had to have had to be a black, single mother working through all the paperwork, exams, sexism and bigotry.

"So, just so I have this straight, the only people arrested tonight were both senior citizens. And one of them is currently on holiday from New Zealand. Is that correct?" Momma frowns up at the Tombs family, who all have smiles on their faces.

"Yes, our Pops and his girlfriend." August offers.

"And they were arrested because Deborah Taylor - that's your mother, right Ana?" Ana nods. "She had marijuana on her person?"

"She may have. Or she may just have had a brownie in her pocket." Ana shrugs and my momma stares at her for a moment before looking back at her notepad.

"Riiiiight. Whatever it was, was on her person, and when restrained, Sidney Tombs then intervened. Whilst he was being restrained by another officer, Debs then called him a-" She flicks her eyes down to her notepad. "‘ To teke ' and proceeded to attack said officer. Do I have all that correct?"

Everyone looks at each other before nodding.

"One question, what's a ‘ To Teke '?" Rider asks what we are all thinking. Well, OK, it may not be the only thing we're thinking. It's been a wild night. We have a new prospect, a pregnant lady and the two oldest people at the compound have been arrested because someone tipped off the police to a body on our property.

"Oh, ‘ To Teke ' is Maori for cunt," Ana enlightens us all. Snickering can be heard from all corners of the common room. Even Marx cracks a grin.

Momma's lips twitch before she clears her throat. "So, is there a possibility their actions could be seen as self defense?"

The Tombs family shuffle around, avoiding Momma's eye contact. Tav has his palm facing toward the ground wiggling his hand as if to say it was 50/50.

"We have footage for this area. Do you want me to link it to the big screen?" Remy murmurs. A smile slowly works its way across my face.

"Yeah go on Rem." She scuttles off down the hall as I address the room. "Remy's linking the footage to the big screen."

Whoops go around the common room as we all jostle to get a good view and in a matter of moments, the chaos of the last hour plays on the projector.

"He has a hell of a punch on him. I can kinda see now how he escaped that kidnapping," Tank says. I nod in agreement as Momma's eyebrows slowly creep up her forehead.

"Well, I've seen enough. That is most definitely assault BUT I'm pretty sure I can plead mental confusion given the age of them and the stressful nature of the situation. I'll have them out by morning. In the meantime, with the police investigating this poor girl and her case, you lot are going to have to lie very, very low. They will use any excuse to bring you in. No matter how friendly you are with the Sergeant, Marx." Momma looks around the room, making sure we are all paying attention. "Lie low, do not get in trouble. I know you all want answers and by all means look, but give the information to the police. Trust me. One foot outta line and they'll come down hard."

She gives us one last hairy eyeball before coming to stand before me, placing her warm hand on my cheek and giving me a kiss. "Find the information, pass it on. OK baby?" She holds my gaze and I hold hers.

"OK, Momma."

She pats my cheek then clip clops toward the door. "Be good, lie low, and nobody get killed or arrested!" With that, the door slams behind her.

"She was BADASS! I'm going to make her a bracelet," Chewy chirps out.

Rider spins in his seat to glare at her. She waves back, oblivious.

"Maybe do that later, Chewy. We have a fucking murder to solve on top of the rest of the shit we have on our plates. Wire, I need you combing footage. How the fuck did we miss this? We also need the identity of the woman found. See if she has any connection to us at all."

Tav steps forward, his new prospect cut shining under the lights. "Pres, if you don't mind, I could ride out to the yard and have a look around. I know we beefed up cameras in that area, so I can't figure out how the tech team missed this -"

"Tech team? Our tech team? We need a name! What about the nerd herd? Ohhh, the Hackeroos? Oh, Oh what about The Com-puta's? Like puta? Cos we're whores for technology." Chewy waggles her eyebrows and I watch as Gus pinches the bridge of his nose, extending his hand out to Marx. He's taken to offering Marx antacids in times of Chewy Induced Stress.

"Tank, take our new prospect to the garage and see what you can find. Maybe coordinate with Wire's team - no Chewy! Do not say a word!" Marx eyeballs her, and she slowly closes her mouth, miming zipping her lips. "Watch them case the place in real time, Wire. Might throw up a blind spot."

I nod at my Pres. "On it. Remy also had an idea. With no sign of Hammer, maybe we should focus our efforts on his right-hand man. Guy named Snake."

"I can send you all pictures of him so you know who to look for," Remy tells the MC and Tombs family. She used her firm voice and I can see everyone shooting each other looks and soft smiles at her.

"Well, the night is young and we all have shit to do. No debauchery and fucking for your patch in party, Tav; but your grandfather got arrested, so it wasn't all boring." Marx slaps Tav hard on the back and tips his head to Gus and Ana. Before they can head toward his office, most likely to plan, Ana's phone goes off. We all freeze as she frowns at it before answering.

"Roman? Wait what?……..Oh that's interesting, very interesting. Same thing has just happened to us."

At that statement Marx's brows pull down. My eyes shoot to Remy's wide blue ones.

"I'll arrange it. Watch your back Ro." Ana hangs up and looks at us. "Well, it looks like Roman got a visit from the police as well. The body of a woman was found dumped near his warehouse. Had been raped and she had a belly full of drugs." Curses go around the room. "He wants to meet tomorrow, Marx. He'll come to you." Marx rubs the back of his neck and nods. No one really like's doing shit with Roman, but it looks like yet again we're all in this together.

"Like I said, you all have your orders. We need to put this fucker down." Marx nods and then leaves, Gus and Ana following behind. Everyone starts filing out, ready to do whatever it takes to finish this.

"Com-puta's! Follow me!" Chewy yells as she storms past Remy and me, leading the way down the hall to the control center.

I have to admit, I'm glad I have Chewy and Remy by my side. It helps take the edge off. Before they crashed into my life, when shit went down I would hole up in my room, barely leaving. Sure, my brothers would stop by the check in, and I'd have human contact in the form of my daily messages with Retta; but having a team to rely on seems to keep my PTSD at bay. A little.

Taking our seats, Chewy starts putting all the tow yard footage up on the big screen, and it's a lot.

Rose Grove is a large town, with a Main Street that runs right through the middle. At one end of Main, right on the outskirts is our compound. We sit almost smack bang where the Main Street turns into highway. Around 5 minutes drive from the compound sits Devils Big Tow, our towing yard and impound lot. Tank and Sniper run the business with help from all the brothers on and off. Devils Big Tow sits between us and the older stores heading into town before you hit the main flashy shopping district with all the big name chain stores and cutesy cafes with the main businesses and shopping districts coming off that.

"Can I ask something?" Remy looks at me before turning her gaze to Chewy. "I know these cameras are always running in the background. We were raided an hour ago, so the police would have been on camera well before then securing the site. Why wasn't this picked up earlier? Surely they would have come up on the feed?"

Both Remy and Chewy look at me and I can feel the dread rising. Scrubbing my hand over my face, I mumble, "I fell asleep." Before grimacing. Fuck. Yet another thing I've missed. What the fuck is going on with me? This isn't like me to be tripping up on fucking rookie mistakes.

Remy gives me a little smile and pats my thigh, causing tingles to run through me heading toward my cock.

"Wire, you need rest. You can't keep working the way you are. You need to share the load. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but Com-Puta's work together." She grins at Chewy, who fist pumps the air.

"Also, dude. Using my superior brain and fast processing skills, -" I roll my eyes at Remy before tuning back into Chewy. "- watching this in rewind, I see no sign of cops anywhere."

Wait, what? "That can't be right. He said they found her at the yard. Go back a few hours and replay the footage."

Chewy does as I ask and we watch at 2x speed. Not so fast that we miss anything, but a hell of a lot quicker than if we were sitting here in real time. From the corner of one of the cameras, you can see movement, but checking all other angles, Chewy is right. There is no footage of police until near the very end where two officers, that douche Martin being one, and some other guy, walk past the front of Tank's office in uniform.

"That camera that picked something up on the edges. Which one is it?" Remy asks.

"That one is right on the edge of our boundary. The other side of that is the abandoned storefront next door. Been empty for years."

She nods for a moment, frowning at the cameras. Chewy pulls out her phone, punches in numbers and then places it on her part of the desk, the ring tone blaring through the speaker.

"Yo little sis. What's up?" Tav answers. He's on the move as we can hear crunching and wind blowing down the speaker.

"Are you at the yard?"

"Yup. Just arrived. Tank and I are going to check out the crime scene. The police have left their tape up everywhere."

I lean forward, slightly in Remy's space, so I can talk to Tav without yelling over her. "Where is the scene exactly, Tav? We aren't picking up anything on any of our cameras."

There's mumbling where he must be talking to Tank, some more crunching of boots on gravel. "By the looks of it, the body was between the office and the place next door."

"In that weird alley?"

"Yeah."

I remember Rhodie saying that they tried to get the building next door to expand the impound lot but the owner wouldn't sell up. Not that it's been a bother. The whole time the MC has run the yard, there's been no one occupying that building. Not that we'd know as we'd built a big fuck off fence between us and the place next door. The whole towing business, yard and impound lot is fenced in. It offers our customers peace of mind that when we tow them for whatever reason, their vehicles will be secure.

Dumping a body in that alleyway, then calling the cops, is a brave move. First, that alley and the business next door are on the other side of the fence. No one other than the building inspector, city manager and us know we legally share land rights with our neighbors. Second, the person who tipped off the police would have had to know that. Which means they've been doing their research on us.

"Tav, Tank, did you hear that noise?" Remy calls over the phone in her husky voice.

"Oh hey Remy, um, what noise?"

"There! There it was again." She looks at me with a small smile and winks. "I think it's coming from next door. Maybe someone is in danger?"

Looking past Remy, I catch Chewys' eye and we both grin. Seems DRMC may be rubbing off on her.

"Huh? Oh! Oh, that noise. Yeah, you're right, as concerned citizens it's our duty to offer someone assistance."

Rustling can be heard along with some banging and what sounds like glass breaking. All the sounds that I'm sure Momma warned us against.

"I really hope your mom doesn't find out about this," Remy murmurs, pulling a chuckle out of me.

"Nothing to worry about. Of all my brothers, Tav is the sneakiest."

"That's interesting. I would have thought Jules would be the sneakiest," Remy comments.

Chewy waves a dismissive hand at her. "No, Jules is quieter but in these situations he's a bull in a china shop. Useless for covert."

We sit quietly mulling that over while grunts, curses and general racket can be heard over Chewys' phone.

"You still there guys? Looks like someone was here recently. Place is a total dump, dusty as hell. Doesn't look like a place where someone has been kept, its kinda open so you wouldn't bring a kidnap victim or anyone here. But there are footprints and the usual stuff you see when homeless people bunk down. I'll get Jules onto his street people. "

"Yeah, good thinking. Hopefully, they know something." Remy's heat warms my side as I stay still slightly in her space while I'm talking to Tav.

"OK, we're on our way back now. Nothing else to see here."

He hangs up, and we all look at each other. Chewy starts up with her imaginary beard.

"So, we have a body dumped outside of our camera angles in an alley shared with the neighbors. An alley that fuck all people know we own half of. A tip is placed to the police. We get raided and now we're in a situation where our hands are tied. Same thing happens to Roman. I think we can all agree this is some master plan of Hammer's to legally get us out of his way."

Remy lets out a sigh. "This is typical Hammer. He couldn't get one over by brute force, so now he's tying us up in red tape."

There's something about Remy saying "us" instead of DRMC. I know she came here to learn before she takes her newfound skills back to the Death Riders, but I don't think I want her to go.

I blow out a breath and try to get my head on straight. Pulling my phone from my cut pocket, I look down to see I got a reply message from Retta. A thumbs up. I open up our message thread when a knock sounds from the door, and we all spin to see Rhodie leaning against the jamb.

"Come on baby, call it a night." Chewy beams at Rhodie before turning her body to me and Remy.

"I'm with my man. We've found nothing on the footage. We're waiting on info for next door. I can hack the police files tomorrow to see who the victim is. And I'm with Remy about looking into Snake, too. He's the one most likely to be doing Hammer's bidding while he's hiding."

Chewy then stands, puts her hand in between me and Remy, palm facing down, and then looks at us expectantly.

I side eye Remy because I have no clue what the fuck is happening. Remy must figure it out because she puts her hand on top of Chewy's, garnering her a massive grin. I place my large, dark hand on Remy's pale, delicate hand. Chewy pumps our hands yelling "Coooooooooooom-Putas!" before raising her hand up and jazz handing it around. Remy lets out a giggle while me and Rhodie share a smirk.

"See ya tomorrow, team. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Peace." and with that, Chewy jumps on Rhodie, wraps her legs around his waist and they head off up the hallway.

I turn to Remy, taking in her pretty face. "You may as well head off to bed too, Rem. I got this."

Even before I finish my sentence she's shaking her head at me. "No way. You won't get rid of me that easy Wire whatever-your-last-name-is. I'm here for the long haul, just like you. Let's see if we can't get a hit on Snake and start running a background on that Officer Martin guy."

I stare at her for a moment, touched that she wants to stay to help. "Harvey."

"Huh?"

"My last name. It's Harvey."

She beams at me and it makes everything feel a little less shitty. We sit like that, me soaking in her smile while her eyes roam my face, for just a moment before we both turn to our screens and get to work.

Remy

"Miss Remy, are you tired?" I tip my head at the sound, taking in Jovie's cute little face. Her brows furrowed with concern. "You have been yawning lots." She says to me, this time raising her brows and nodding emphatically.

"I was up too late last night, Jovie."

Wire and I sat up until well past my bedtime trying to look for any lead. Other than spotting Snake at a few places around town, we couldn't find anything concrete leading us to where he and Hammer and whoever else has joined their gang are hiding.

However, at around midnight last night we struck gold. It seems the auctions are back up and running. This time it's not the Russians, whose wings were clipped by Roman and his Bratva. Which is good news. The bad news is that we don't know who is pulling Hammer's strings. Typical.

"Well, you better go to bed nice and early tonight Miss Remy." Jovie says, patting my hand and then heading off into the colorful bookshelves, no doubt looking for a new dinosaur book.

I take a quick look around and do a headcount of the children in my care, making sure I have them all. They have another 5 minutes of browsing before its dance party time, allowing me to drift back into my thoughts.

This morning, before I left for work Chewy set up a group call for the Com-Puta's. She had somehow gotten her hands on the ME and forensics report for the woman that was found at Devil's Big Tow. Not only had she been raped and beaten before being murdered; she had also been held captive for quite some time. She was malnourished and had scarring around her wrists from being restrained. My heart broke for her even more when the report stated that she had, at some stage in her life, given birth. Somewhere out there she has a baby that no longer has their mother.

I vowed then and there that I will find out who did this and I will make them pay. I know Chewy and Wire, heck, DRMC and the Death Riders will have my back on this. Hammer has lit a fire, a spark of something that I didn't know I had in me, but now I can't put out. I need someone to pay for all the awful things that have been happening. Shooting my dad, killing that poor woman, forcing others to smuggle drugs inside themselves on their way to their new owners. There is too much evil in this world and I want to fix that. What did Jovie say that day? Big things protect small things. Well, I'm going to be a big thing and I'm going to protect those who need it.

"Is it dance time yet, Miss?" Marcus, one of the boys, asks me, snapping me out of my thoughts of revenge. Shaking my head, I try not to snicker at myself. Me, Remy, the shy, invisible girl plotting destruction.

"Let me check the time, hmm?" Flicking my eyes up to the big colorful clock on the wall in the kids' area.

"You're right! It is definitely dance time. Let's round up our friends."

Between me and Marcus, we let everyone know to put all the books back on shelves, all their crafts in their backpacks, and everyone into the dance space. A smile blooms as I watch them organize themselves, using their ‘airplane arms' to make sure they aren't too close. With a nod from Jovie, I start the music. One boy asked for a Backstreet Boys song his dad likes, so all the kids are now grooving to music that is at least two decades older than them.

By the time the music fades out parents have started to arrive. The kids all give me clammy high fives and a few even give me a hug around the legs. I smile and wave as they say goodbye, holding hands with their parents excitedly telling them what we did today. They all trickle out until, as has become our norm, it's just me and Jovie left behind.

"Did you eat today, Jovie?"

She pins me with her big brown eyes before looking down at her hands and shaking her head.

"Well, come on then, it's picnic time for us," I offer her my hand and then feel 10 feet tall when she beams up at me, putting her soft, little hand in mine.

I wink at Beth on the way past her front desk as she smiles at Jovie and nods my way. "I'll call you when I see his car," she mouths at me.

She's been doing that since the night Jovie's dad got aggressive. I give her a grateful smile and lead my little charge into the kitchen to gather our food before taking it outside to a little table set up for the librarian's to enjoy on sunny days. It may be fall in Rose Grove, but the weather is still warm enough to enjoy the burnished gold and rich maroon leaves.

"Wow, I haven't had a picnic since my momma was home," Jovie's face that was alight at the memory turns sad.

"Where is your momma, honey?"

She shrugs her little shoulders. "Dad said that she didn't love me anymore, so she runned away but my momma wouldn't runned away."

The thought Jovie's father saying such a thing to such a sweet little girl makes my blood boil.

"Your momma loves you. And I bet wherever she is, she is thinking about you every day." I say gently.

She smiles up at me and then takes a big bite of the brownie that Debs made. The brownie that I triple checked was OK for children.

"Rem, he's here." Beth's voice drifts through the open door and I know that she's standing just inside the hall, not wanting to leave her desk unwomanned.

"Is that my daddy?"

I nod, letting her know that he's arrived. Jovie helps me pack up the mess we made, slings the backpack that is almost bigger than her on her back and runs back inside, through the hall to the main doors, her little voice thanking me drifting out behind her.

Wire

"Brother."

Turning toward the door, I'm greeted by Rhodie frowning at me. Fuck, what happened now?

"What's wrong?"

"You. How long have you been sitting there, Wire? Seven, eight hours? And how long before that? Are you sleeping?"

Rubbing my hands down my face, I think through his questions before looking at the clock icon on my screen. Shit! It's nearing three in the afternoon and I'm meant to meet Retta in an hour.

"If you're not answering, it's because you know you've been sitting too fucking long and not sleeping. I need you to get out of here, brother."

"Well, you're in luck. I have a… thing in an hour. Chewy said she'd cover for me."

"Thank fuck for that. I thought I'd have to threaten to shoot you to get you out of here. Counselor?"

"No, just a, a friend."

Rhodie's brows climb up toward his brows but he doesn't say anything on the matter other than give me a chin lift.

"Hey hey baby!" Chewy's voice rings out down the hall and within a matter of seconds she's in Rhodie's space, slapping his ass.

"How's my man today?"

Not even waiting for an answer, she stands on her tiptoes, puckering her lips. She used to need guidance on her interactions with Rhodie. She'd hesitate with PDA, or she would go the other way and it'd be too much. Now she's much more settled and even though she's still unpredictable, she's much more comfortable in her relationship. She is Rhodie's and Rhodie is hers.

Watching the two of them together has my mind drifting to Retta. What will she be like? Will we be awkward and decide never to see each other again? Or will we be instantly comfortable with each other and fall into an easy pattern like these two in front of me?

"OK Wire, I'm here. You can leave now. You too, Rhodie." Chewy smirks at both of us and waves to Rhodie as he knocks twice on the doorjamb before throwing her a wink.

"You sure you've got this?" Chewy rolls her eyes at me before giving me a bored look. "Fine. I've been running facial recognition on Snake, and no new hits."

"Give it time, dude. And leave! Retta will be waiting."

As per usual, when she says Retta's name she says it all high pitched and super girly. She has a huge grin on her face and is waggling her brows up and down.

"What's wrong with you?" I squint at her. She seems weirder than usual.

"Nothing. Can't I be excited for my friends?" She tries to give me an innocent look, instead her eyes are huge, and she's blinking like an owl.

"Friends?" I ask, raising my brow.

"Well, yeah, um suuuuure. You're already my friend and it turns out people seem to like me, so I'm sure I'll be friends with Retta too. Because I'm a good friend. Ask Ana." She nods once before swinging her eyes to her screen and tapping away like her life depended on it.

If I was in a better head space and not sleep deprived, I would want to figure out what she's up to. But then again, it's probably just some weird Chewy thing where she's already practiced an interaction with Retta in her mind. Or with Rhodie.

"Message me as soon as something comes through -"

"What about Retta?"

"- She'll understand. Promise me Chewy,"

Chewy gives me a weird look before shrugging. She beams 90s pop onto the big screen and slowly cranks the volume over the instructions I'm trying to give her.

"I can't hear you anymore." She yells over the music, making a shoo motion with her hands. Shaking my head, I move around to the private side of my suite and check my reflection before grimacing. I strip off my tee, put on some deodorant and a clean shirt, throw my cut over my shoulders and head out, not before mussing Chewy's hair on the way out.

Mounting my girl, I hit the road.