Page 66 of Benga's Rise
He’s repeating what I said. “You have feeds. Load the choppers with Security and launchers and level the Clubs.”
He listens. “If you don’t, they’ll level you. They hacked your feeds once today.”
“Roger.” He makes another call. “I need the Six-Gun Club out of commission. Cut the utilities in a way they won’t come back on. Thanks, Brother.” He keeps dialing and I realize he’s calling in favors. Good idea.
I turn back to the boards and see where the one-percenter Clubs are. Web’s words come back to me so I move to the station on the side of him. “Can you shut computers down at their Clubs?”
“Yeah. I have some As working on who’s trying to get in our feeds now.”
“But can you just shut their shit off? Like, cut them off from talking to their Brothers and tracking and shit? We need the Mexican Clubs down.”
He looks at me, but his fingers don’t stop. He smiles with some new geeky thought I bet. “I’ll get with Jordan.”
Cool. I go back to the information that IT is collecting.
~*~
Lorelei
Juanita leaves and I sit thinking about my parents. I never left Daniel with them because I couldn’t trust them. I never once thought about it like that. As soon as she said it, I knew she was right. We’d get home from school and couldn’t go in the house. Sometimes my mother would come for us or one of her sisters would. I never thought of them as aunts. Juanita thinks I thought Daniel was better off alone than being passed around like I was. How screwed up is that? Maybe that’s not what’s screwed up, but the fact that I never once thought it was wrong for him to be alone with Peter or in the bigger town. He’s a smart kid, but what the hell was I thinking?
“Daydreaming?” Freedom asks.
“Sort of. I was such an idiot. I’m lucky no one came to take Daniel away from me for being that idiot. I tried to keep him safe by putting him in danger. People should be disgusted by me, I can’t believe you’re even talking to me.” I’m disgusted with me.
She shakes her head with a sad smile. “I didn’t live your life, have your reasons or know what you were thinking. I know you’re a good person and you loved Daniel more than yourself. I also know that he was relatively safe here in town, even with Peter. He didn’t talk to him, but Daniel said he was always home. In the bigger town, thank fuck you weren’t there long. Six months of bad doesn’t make you a monster. It makes you human with a screwed-up sense of safety for your son. It’s fixed. It’s done. It’s over. You see it different and that’s what’s important.”
I shake my head. “He’s been alone.”
“Stop. Just stop. You can keep dragging it out or you can look at it, learn from it and move on. Knowing why you thought the way you did is important, but the point isn’t to beat yourself up over it, it’s to learn from it. Knowing you’d never make those decisions again is what’s important.”
Cort kept telling his Officers about the lesson. “Yeah. I’ll keep looking and learn the lessons. Oh, my God. That’s the Badass rule. Learning from everyone willing to teach me.”
She smiles. “I’ll channel Victory for this...learn to love yourself, because when you do, the whole universe loves you.”
I laugh. “What crystal should I use for that?”
She shrugs. “Beats the fuck out of me. You ready for lunch?”
I nod. “I took work home the last two nights so my day is pretty much empty. Everyone texts me if they have questions.”
“Let’s go.”
When we get to the cafeteria, Seren is waiting. “What happened?”
“Tough lessons. I’ll be fine now that I’m learning them. Did you come to see Cort?” Caelan isn’t with her.
She rolls her eyes. “They’re in Ops. I was hoping to at least tease him a little.”
I sit wondering why. Freedom asks right out. “Why, he carries knee pads everywhere?”
I laugh. I’ve heard the stories from Victory, but seeing Seren smile about it is funny. She loves that she has him on his knees. That sparks a heat to run through me. The edge of the bed with my foot hanging off the chair could be interesting. Raid will be on his knees again, but in a new way.
“He’s afraid he’ll lose control and hurt me. He’s infuriating, but I’m cleared and I’m not letting him wait another damn minute.”
Her words bring me back, but the heat doesn’t let up. I could use some office sex. Just the thought has my face heating. “Cort doesn’t strike me as someone that loses control.”
Freedom laughs. “They almost ignite the air when she teases him. The man still falls to his knees, luckily he really does carry knee pads.”
