“SOPH!” She’s not moving. Why isn’t she moving?
Tovah pulls out a gun from under her dress and fires at the man, dropping him to the ground.
“For fuck’s sake, Tovah, we’re in public!” Her security guard Noah yells at her but opens fire as well. The others join and then the men in masks are retreating. Those not laying on the ground, anyway. I rush to Sophie’s side and drop down, ignoring the pain in my knees from the rough concrete.
“Soph? Sophie? Can you hear me? Please. Wake up.” I cry over her for several long minutes as everyone moves around us. Sophie’s mom Sarah joins me and we hold Sophie’s hands, Sarah whispering a fervent prayer.
Sophie’s eyes flutter, slowly opening and I take a full breath, dropping my head to her stomach and sobbing with relief.
Our names are yelled, guttural, desperate screams. Significant others, fathers, brothers, the men of the Kosher Nostra descend on us. Yak and Monty rush to me and lift me off the ground, sandwiching me between them. I cry. And I can’t stop. That was close. For a minute I believed we were going to lose.
“Royal Tenenbaums!” Moshe yells, spinning his finger in the air to get us moving.
Esther winds through our group, inspecting everyone for herself. Staring at her niece, she cups Sophie’s cheek affectionately, and sniffles. Turning she finds Ruthie and Seril, wrapping her arms around them both. “This is why I use personal shoppers.”
Yak 8.
I have been a part of the Kosher Nostra in some capacity for most of my life. I’m dedicated, focused, and alert. They count on me to maintain my composure while everyone else flips shit. And it has never been an issue…until Sophia.
We returned from the bridal store, and I carried Sophia in our suite and laid her in our bed. Curled around her for a few precious minutes, Monty at her back, he and I shared a thousand words without a single sound.
Leaving her in that bed was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I hated every step away from her…from them both. I know Monty will protect her with his life, but I can’t stand not having my hands on them, touching them to assure myself they are alive and with me.
My phone is propped up on the table in front of me, the live feeds into my bedroom on the screen. I watch Sophia sleep, Monty holding her as her body hiccups periodically with the remnants of her sobs. I force myself to look away and tune back into the heated conversations happening around me in the war room.
“Who are they? Who was their target? Why didn’t we know an attack was planned?” Moshe is pissed, and rightfully so. Seril was just as vulnerable as any of the other women. We joke that the growing group of females are BABs. Badass bitches. And they are. But you can’t fight physics. A 5 foot nothing 130-poundwoman can only fight so long against a man a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier.
“Tovah fucked up.”
“The fuck she did,” I spit out, contradicting my Avinu before I can stop myself.
“Alright. Alright. Fuckin’ hell, Tovahbub,” Tevye bitches, fiddles with his phone and then puts it on the table. “You’re on speaker.”
“Yak? Did you just stand up for me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why you’re my favorite WAB.”
“WAB? What the fuck is WAB?” Ezra asks what we’re all thinking. I feel Moshe’s glare aimed at the side of my head, but I choose to ignore him for the moment.
“Depends on the situation,” she responds. “Weak ass bastards. Whiny ass bitches.”
Zilv leans forward to speak near the phone. “I still don’t understand why we haven’t put you in charge of morale.”
“Tovah, you opened fire in a public area with civilians nearby.”
“I sure did,Avinu.” Several ooh’s and ahh’s and an oh, shit. “I understand the hesitation; our security detail did what they have been trained to do. But any one of you would have done the same when faced withourwomen being grabbed. The only difference between you and me is the limp dick between your legs. Give me five minutes and I can wrangle up a strap on that will make you cry with inferiority and we can move past this bullshit and figure out why it happened in the first place.”
There’s a long pregnant pause and I decide to voice something I’ve always kept to myself. “I believe this council would benefit from Tovah’s presence. This isn’t the old guard anymore; it’s nota men’s club. This is our lives and Tovah has proven herself quite capable, not to mention willing to do what others cannot. Her compartmentalization is exactly what we need in this room.” A weird sound comes from Tevye’s phone, and we all turn to stare at it in confusion. When we hear it again, I grin from ear to ear. “Are you crying, Tovah?”
“FUCK OFF! FUCK YOU! I’m not crying. I don’t cry. My power is so great it cannot be contained and sometimes it leaks out of my eyes!”
Moshe is still glaring at me, but the wheels are turning. He isn’t opposed to this idea. Bringing Tovah in as akapitanis a no-brainer, but there are those in the organization and plenty of our business associates who would balk at having a woman at the table, let alone having her in a position of power.
“We will discuss once this situation is resolved.”
“Whatever. While you come to terms with the fact my dick is bigger than yours, there were 23 of them in total. I’ve texted Tevye 3 license plates I memorized—”
