Aubrey (Axis Rising)

031:

         

*****031

She lay in my arms, kids now replaced in their own beds, still sleeping the exhausted sleep of childhood. I smoothed her hair, thinking back over the day. So much had gone on.

"Rafe, are you worried about that guy, Jack? Was that even his real name?"

"Yeah, I don't want to get involved with the Mexican Mafia, if that's what it wants to be called. We've had enough going on with Mexico."

"I know, right? I never would have projected these connections in a million years. How did Hannah say she met him?"

"In a club, but that's a lie, unless the club she went to was a clip joint in East. I doubt she'd find her own way there. Somebody might have taken her there. I thought she quit school, and has her own place in Thousand Oaks. Didn't she get an apartment?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too." Aubrey was circling her fingers over my tattoos idly, in the dim light from the TV which was now simply showing us a night sky-scape with stars and the moon. The sound of wind and waves came from the TV.

"She did okay with the job this week. She started with help at Walrus on Monday, did okay till lunch, then came over to Dark Avenue and mentored slash trained with one of the gals there. We do need a secretary, I don't mind hiring her. I talked to Zack, he wants her to come up to MSLM this week and train with one of his gals for a week."

I had one arm up and over my head, twisting the pillow like I normally did, and one hand softly tickling lazily over the baby bump. We were so busy sometimes, it hardly seemed real that there were live babies inside here, my babies, growing away. I felt a rolling poke, and smiled. They didn't forget.

"I still have the feeling she's not over Jeremy, and isn't content to sit back and watch her younger sister get on with life and love and all that jazz." Aubrey's anxious voice intoned. "I think this gang member date is her way of showing defiance."

"I agree, but what are we going to do about it? She's twenty-one, and fully capable of finding him again if she chooses, or else he might find her, if he still needs her. Not like I can take her phone and her car keys."

"What did you say to her downstairs?"

"I told her about the gangs this guy obviously affiliated with, the human trafficking and illegal immigration he was undoubtedly involved in. I showed her the gang signs on the internet and what they stood for, the prison tats, and his experiences there. I brought up several articles, including his very public, public record."

"And she?"

"She listened respectfully, she's not stupid, but she is angry. She didn't like being told what to do, or stopped in her tracks like a child. That really stuck in her craw to the tune of yelling and screaming and cussing. You'd have had a heart attack for sure."

"Hannah was cussing?"
"Happens to the best of us, Aubrey."

"I'm so naive."

"Yeah, but I like you anyway."

"Again, what are we going to do with her?"

"I told you, Parker is bringing her up there for a week. I'll think of something else by the end of the week. Maybe she can do the gig with us. Come see what Axis is really all about."

"That'll be putting her in Jeremy's vision."

"It's not my job to keep Jeremy on the straight and narrow, Au-ber-ey."

She changed the subject. "Did you see the way he was holding Lissie? He gravitated right to her. Why not one of the other ones? Why her? Do you think he knew she was the birthday girl before? Did Hannah point her out? I didn't even see Hannah go to the patio. I feel like he knew her already, or was looking for her. Do you think he could be one of Roberto Jimenez or Maximiliano Gutierez's guys? Oh, Rafe, that really freaks me out."