Page 4 of Innocence

“I think everyone knows something we don’t know.”

CHAPTER THREE

“Alright, let’s get this meeting started. We’re actually a little slow right now, which I think is fine. The last one took it out of us, and we were pulled in a lot of different directions,” said Ghost.

“Ella is manning our front desk today,” said Nine. “Ella, honey, what do we have?”

“A few requests for conversations with some slum lords, and I use the word conversation in the literal sense. No beating anyone up until you’ve tried talking to them like adults.”

“That’s no fun,” said Tailor, scrunching his nose at her. Her flame-red hair was piled high on her head, and she gave a side glance that said she wasn’t kidding. “Okay. I’ll try.”

“Good. Before you meet our next clients, I need for you guys to have an open mind,” said Ella. Ella, Antoine’s wife, usually worked with the finance team, but today was covering the Gray Wolf front desk. All the wives took turns doing it, sometimes two or three at a time if it got busy. It helped them to stay involved and to flush out requests that weren’t in their area of expertise.

“Babe, we always have an open mind,” smiled her husband. She gave him a glare that said something to the contrary. “Okay. Open mind.”

“What’s this about, Ella?” asked Ian. She opened the door, and three of the cutest damn kids ever walked in. They couldn’t be more than seven or eight years old.

“Everyone, meet Warren, Harry, and Edith.” The children just stood at the entrance to the room, not moving. They looked up at Ella, who gave them a big smile. “Go ahead, children. Take a seat, and the very, very nice men will speak with you.”

Ella glared at the room, and the men all softened their features.

“Hello, my name is Rafe. Why did you come and see us? Did someone steal your bicycle?” he asked.

“No,” said Harry. “See, they’re grown-ups. They won’t believe us.” He looked at his friends, and the others all sobered again, feeling like shit for making fun of the kids.

“I’m sorry,” said Vince, kneeling in front of the kids. “We’re not making fun of you at all. You haven’t told us anything yet, so we’re not sure what to believe.”

“We want to hire you,” said Edith. “She stepped forward and tried to set a huge bag on the table. It was obviously heavy, so Nine helped her to get it up on the tabletop. “We have all the money from our savings. It’s fifty-seven dollars and thirteen cents. Is that enough?”

“It’s probably enough,” said Gaspar with a serious expression, “but we need to know why you want to hire us.”

“We want to free Sterling.”

“Sterling? Is Sterling an animal?” asked Nine.

“No,” said Harry, shaking his head. “He’s a man.”

“You want to free a man?”

“You’re not ‘splaining it right,” said Warren. “Sterling was our baseball coach. He was the best in the whole world. He knows how to throw a curve ball and hit a fastball, and he can steal bases!”

“He sounds amazing,” said Ian, smiling at the boy.

“He’s the best,” nodded Edith. “He even let the girls play on the boys’ team.”

“Okay, so where is he that you want us to free him?” asked Gaspar. The kids looked at one another and, in perfect harmony, turned to the room.

“Jail.”

There were some whistles and heavy sighs as the men sat back in their seats. Nine leaned forward on his elbows, trying to remember they were just kids.

“He’s in jail. Why is this man in jail?” he asked.

“The grown-ups said he killed a lady, but he didn’t. We know he didn’t,” said Edith.

“Honey, how can you be sure of that? Sometimes, nice people do terrible things,” said Gaspar.

“We saw.”

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