“If I tell you a bit about her, you have to promise that you won’t be like Alexander and rush into anything or deceive her.” She warns me, with her own experience. But through multiple bullets and both their stubborn will, they were on a better path and a ring on her finger and a tattoo on her skin later.
“I promise. I just want to know what I am up against. Who I’m working alongside with,” I have been through shoot outs, I have been through my police years, and yet this woman could bring me to my knees.Would that be a bad thing?
“Charlotte Ashers is a powerhouse. She is one of the strongest advocates I have in my agency and she is a blessing. The children love her, community partners want her for their team. Her department is running amazingly, I have no problems with it.” She starts, my legs keep bouncing. I am getting impatient waiting for the right information to come along. “Did that answer your question?” She is truly a devil woman.
“No. Tessa you know what I am talking about.” I say in defense. This woman is giving me a headache already.
“I know buddy. Just making you work for it. Look, Charlotte is a great friend and a great aunt. She puts her heart and soul into what she loves. She is a strong person, she had to be with her childhood. That is why I am very protective of her. She is a friend, a very good friend of mine.” Her voice grows serious. This is the same woman that when The Falcons messed with one of her people, she rounded her crew of women and was ready to take down the bar and the men inside. Joaquin had been there and mentioned the fight in her eyes.
“I’m not trying to scare her off. I’m trying to understand the woman that I will be somewhat working for and possibly want to get to know.”
“Then why are you still talking with me? Shouldn’t you be talking with her? For someone that calls me stupid, looks like you are the dunce.” She says, the smirk in her voice.
“How do you know I call you stupid?” I question her.
“You really think that I don’t hear everything, I'm not stupid. I’m just impulsive yet protective. I have scars to prove it.” She laughs. “Just please don’t do anything stupid for me. I don’t need Alexander to hold me back when I need to kick your ass.” She threatens and then ends the call.
Shouldn’t you be talking to her?Her question rings through my mind like a broken record. Time to stop being the scared one, I have never been through this much nerves in my life and it all has to do with her.
Chapter 5
Lottie
Mymindhasbeenin overdrive with the fear that something happened to Marcus. I couldn’t bear to lose someone, especially someone that has come a long way from where he was in the world. Marcus is a promising young mind, especially in art and music. Some of the artwork that hangs in our hallways is done by him. But here we are Friday, a week since anyone has heard from him or seen him.
His mother finally got back with us. She works double shifts to make sure the rent is paid and received our message Tuesday. She has been in constant communication with me, worrying as much as we are. I had brought her into my office the day after she had gotten off of work. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose Finn, I can only imagine how she was feeling.
“I don’t understand Ms. Charlotte. He was doing fine. I don’t know how he got mixed up with all this unless..” she paused for a moment, deep in thought, as if she was tracing her steps.
“Ma’am? Unless what?”
“His cousin years ago started to work under the table for a local group that I thought had stopped. But the trouble is that, his cousin, he moved out of the city, there wouldn’t be a reason for him to come back.”
My mind is just as confused as to the same reasoning. It seems like that both his mother and myself couldn’t imagine him being with drug trafficking and mixing himself with that.
“We’ll find him. We will continue to be here for him.”
Her shoulders had softened up, releasing the tension. “At least you all will still be here. I don’t know how much my heart could take if he wasn’t being truthful. We got out of trouble a long time ago, and now it feels like we are going backwards.” She tenses back up with her thoughts spiraling. I put a hand on her shoulder.
“We don’t know everything. We can’t be too quick to jump to conclusions. We are hearing one side of the story and we don’t have the answers. Remain a united front.” That is all we can do at this point. If he were to return and we all berate him or accuse him of something that he is innocent of, then we won’t get any results. Marcus would just bolt and leave us all behind.
I get more and more anxious as the hours of the day go by. There’s been no sign of him, and the school has not seen him. We tried to talk with his classmates in his school and even through the after school program and no one has heard from him. Part of me is losing hope. It has been over a week, and we are ending the week.
A soft knock pulls me from my train of thought. “Boss, kids are coming in. Thought I’d give you a heads up,” Elaine warns me. I give a nod. I prepare myself for the kids coming in to direct everyone and give myself preparation time for Finn. At the end of the day, everything I do is for that little boy.
As I exit my office, the first face I see is Finn’s, his bright green eyed, freckled face. He guns for me into my arms.
“What’s up kiddo? Good day, bad day? Tell me.” I squeeze him a little more.
“I mean nothing new. History project and reading assignments due. But nothing too exciting.” He moves back, grabbing his backpack to unzip and pull something out to show me. He pulls out his notebook, flipping recklessly through the pages.
“I got bored during history lesson today and started creating a list.” His boyish mischievous smile.
“A list of what?” I raise an eyebrow.
“To test Grumpy over there. You said you’d give me free range.” Throwing back my words to him.
I didn’t anticipate him being this quick to plot something, usually it takes him weeks. He finds his page with the list of ideas. He hands his notebook to look over it, waiting for my approval. I’m raising a clever, yet mad genius. Pop rock volcano, sugar water chair and fire ants, saran wrap the motorcycle, and one that I would pay money to see, painted chicken surprise.
