Page 38 of Marx

“Fuck’s sake,” Niko mumbles under his breath. “Niko is a loser who wet the bed until he was eight.”

“Password accepted!”

An awful metal on metal scraping sounds out and the door pushes outward toward us, Cove and Jovie standing inside, arms crossed and frowns on their faces.

“You can’t bring guests!” Jovie says, jabbing a finger at Niko.

“He’s not a guest, he’s the Pres, and if you want to join DRMC one day, like you’re planning, you have to listen to him.”

“Chewy doesn’t listen to him,” Cove argues.

Niko moves to open his mouth but I cut him off. “Cove, Jovie, what’s going on here?”

Cove rolls her eyes but gestures that we follow her deeper into the most impressive kids clubhouse I’ve ever seen. Firstly, it’s about the size of the DRMC common room. Secondly, it has electricity. There’s a TV playing cartoons on one wall, the kids have their tablets charging on a table in the corner and there even looks to be a small bathroom and kitchenette. All hidden from the outside by hedging and trees.

“What the actual fuck?” explodes out of me in a splutter.

Turning wide eyes at Niko he smiles apologetically, because there, in the middle of the room, tied to a chair with a minions pillowcase over his head, looks to be Sheriff Kelson.

“Is that-?”

“Yup.” Niko walks over, snatching the case from Kelson’s head. The older man is wide-eyed and gagged.

Elio walks toward him, a beaker of some blue shit in his hand. The seven year old comes to a stop standing toe to toe with the old sheriff. A grin slowly spreads across Elio’s face, showing his two missing front teeth. It’s fucking unnerving, and I’m not the only one who thinks so as Kelson flinches in his chair.

“What the fuck?” I murmur under my breath. I don’t know whether to yell or laugh my ass off.

The reason we hadn’t taken care of our guests was because we were missing Kelson and Chewy wanted the whole set. She’s not wrong, having all five of them and interrogating them where they can see the pain and suffering of each other makes our job easier. The only problem being that after getting word on Wednesday Kelson had been stood down, he fell off the radar. Remy had no sightings of the man and she and the Computas have been scouring the internet to find traces of him. Somehow the MC kids found him first.

I turn to stare at Niko and he’s as lost as I am. I know I’m the Pres, but fuck if I know how to deal with this. I’m gonna need a moment. Then it hits me.

“Got a plan, Pres?” Niko asks as he places the pillowcase back over Kelson’s head.

“Yeah. I’m gonna call their moms.”

Chapter 13

Lovely

Iroll my lips between my teeth and bite down a little. I can’t laugh. If I laugh I know it’ll set off everyone else.

“What were you kids thinking?” Remy says, her voice steady but I can tell she’s a bundle of nerves.

So far Blanche hasn’t said anything, preferring to give Elio and Cove perhaps the angriest eyes I’ve ever seen. None of the kids seem to be worried. In fact, Cove has already argued their case. Twice.

“Sheriff Kelson is a bad man. If you saw him around the farm you needed to tell a grown up.”

“We did! We told Niko and he snitched.” Cove turns to glare at her big brother. “And we told Sage.”

All eyes dart to Sage who up to this point has remained quiet, seated next to Chef.

“Youknew?” Blanche growls at her older daughter.

“Yeah. We needed her help when we thought Elio accidentally killed him with his potion,” Cove blabs even more.

“Jesus. H. Christ.” Marx mumbles under his breath and I’m certain I hear a snort escape him.

“Wait, what kind of potion were you working with, kiddo?” Pops asks, squatting down in front of Elio, Chewy beside him.

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