The Nanny // Faye Yoko AU

Chapter 10 Pool day

The night before

The quiet of the night was pierced by the distant sound of a car, its engine breaking the stillness outside. Faye stood by the window, still dressed in her bloodstained shirt from the evening's events. She peered out into the darkness, her eyes sharp and calculating.

"Third time this week," she muttered, her voice low and unimpressed. "And they aren't even subtle."

Amateurs, Faye thought, watching as the car disappeared down the street. With a tsk of annoyance, she shut the curtains with a swift motion, cutting off her view of the outside world.

She turned and walked toward a large board that dominated one side of the room. The board resembled something out of a police department—a meticulous display of her current threats and enemies. It was covered in papers, photographs, and strings crisscrossing in a web of connections.

Faye picked up a red marker from the desk, her lips curving into a small, almost dangerous smile. "Seems my work is having an effect," she murmured as she approached the board.

At the top, under Croatians, two thick red slashes (//) stood bold against their name. Each slash marked a recent encounter—failed attempts, perhaps, to challenge her control. Their score was low, but they were persistent, circling like sharks waiting for a weakness to appear.

Next were the Bratva, the notorious Russian mafia. Two slashes (//) were drawn beneath their name, a symbol of their steady but careful movements. They hadn't made any bold plays yet, but their presence was unmistakable. They were calculating, and Faye knew they would strike when they believed the odds were in their favor.

Lastly, the Marseilles Mob sat at the bottom of the list with three slashes (///), their tally recently growing. They were becoming bolder, making aggressive moves, their influence in the city expanding faster than she had expected. Three marks on the board, but Faye knew it wouldn't stay that way for long.

It looked like a scorecard of her enemies, a brutal tally of each faction's attempts to get the upper hand. But with each mark, Faye felt her grip tightening. Each failure from them was a victory for her, and the growing marks only meant they were more desperate.

"Maybe too strong an effect," Faye muttered under her breath, her eyes narrowing as she added another red slash beneath the Croatians—now three bold marks (///).

The tension in the room seemed to thicken as she stared at the growing tally. Each mark represented another pushback, another confrontation sparked by her presence in Lyon. The Croatians were getting more aggressive, more desperate to reclaim ground, and Faye knew it wouldn't stop there.

Her daughter's voice seemed to echo in the quiet room. "Tomorrow, can we do the—?"

Faye paused, the weight of the question hanging in the air. She stood still, staring at the tally marks on the board, but her mind was elsewhere.

"Yes," she whispered softly, answering the question to no one in particular, her voice almost gentle. A rare softness flickered across her face as she thought of Mikey. Tomorrow is a good day to lay low.

For all the chaos and enemies lurking in the shadows, tomorrow was a promise she would keep. The work could wait.

Present: pool scene

Back at the pool, Yoko stood at the edge, watching the scene unfold with mild confusion. "Pool day? Why is there a day? The pool is always here," she muttered to herself, as if trying to wrap her mind around the concept.