Page 45 of Single Teddy
“Puh-huh. Concern myself? You know I’ve been here longer than you and know more, right?” she shouted.
“But you don’t know how to protect yourself.”
“You want to try me, big guy? Come on. Show us what you’ve got?” Then after a moment. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Autumn walked back in with a big smile on her face and stood behind Wyatt.
“Sorry about that. Some people need to learn the pecking order around here,” she sang as if she hadn’t just been shouting at my teammate.
Maddox and Ash laughed quietly, and Donovan re-entered the room looking pissed as hell, but he didn’t say anything. Just sat down next to Joey, who patted his hand in consolation.
“Wesley! How nice to see you again so soon. What can we help you with?” Autumn asked, and Wyatt huffed.
“Shut up, Autumn,” he said.
Before Autumn could bite back at Goodman, Wesley stood and addressed the room with more authority than my old commander. I didn’t know why it was such a surprise, since he commandeered far more rowdy people every day, but it was.
“You need to stop dragging your feet and do something about the house on Aster Lane. There are two kids mixed in this, and frankly, I’m frustrated as hell that you haven’t done more yet. So, what’s the plan? How are we going to get them out of that situation?”
Wyatt glanced at me with a questioning look, and I shrugged. If he thought he could intimidate me like he used to, he was mistaken.
“I’m sorry for being so blunt, Wesley, but you have no idea what the fuck you’re talking about,” he said after a moment, and Wesley pouted.
“I have no idea? What I do know is that there are two boys who have a shit waste of space for a dad, and they need to be rescued.The only reason I haven’t gone to child services is because you told me you were taking care of it and it’s too dangerous, but I’ll counter that it’s even more dangerous for those kids to continue to live under that roof. I mean, the house has no front door for fuck’s sake and winter is coming.”
“I agree,” Joey said. “We need to act now.”
“It’s not that simple,” Slade said. “The chatter has gone quiet, at least as far as the stash house is concerned. We don’t know if they’re still operating from there or if they’ve gone underground.”
“Then let’s find out,” Wesley said.
“It’s not that easy,” Donovan added, only to get a glare down from Autumn.
“Then we’ll make it easy. I’m not going to sit around twiddling my thumbs for another six months waiting to figure this out. What do you need? Let’s get the ball rolling.”
Slade exchanged a glance with Wyatt before he spoke up.
“Ideally, I need to get inside. I need a way to replicate their phones, tablets, or whatever so we can figure out if they’re involved with the syndicate or not.”
“Then let’s get inside,” Wesley suggested, getting more and more riled up and bouncy as a result.
“We can’t. They know all of us, and we can’t just sneak in. What if that puts the kids in danger?” Slade said.
Wesley pursed his lips and nodded, tapping a finger on his chin in contemplation.
“Then I can go in. What would I need to do?”
“Wesley, you can’t!” I spoke for the first time, and how could I not when the moment the words spilled out of his mouth it felt like my insides were at risk of being ripped open.
“Watch me,” he said and turned back to Slade. “So?”
“Not much. It’d be an easy job, but how can you gain access without raising suspicion?” Slade asked.
Wesley took a deep breath, bit his bottom lip, and looked up at the ceiling before he said, “I’ll think of something. You get everything in place, and I’ll find a way to get close.”
“I can’t let you do that,” Wyatt said, and for once, I agreed.
“Too bad you’re not in charge here. I am. As long as those kids live there,Iwill remain in charge. So get. To. Work.” He clapped his hands at every word for emphasis, and Autumn high-fived him before Wyatt grumbled an okay and the whole room agreed.
