by Bella Knight
Ace stared at both of the women. “She… oh.”
“The light dawns,” said Callie. Both women laughed.
“I’ll talk to her,” said Ace.
“I had the same trouble, quitting to work at home,” said Lily.
“But you still do the books,” said Ace.
“Yes, and I hired the best damn partner ever. Jaci. Took her on as a part-timer, and now she’s a full partner,” said Lily. “Brings in business, handles bookings, and even covers our current clients. And, now I have even more time with the babies because Ivy is sharp, and I’m just checking her work over. It’s the same for most of the Nighthawks’ and Soldier Pack businesses. Wraith has got High Desert Security and Protection so in line that I barely have to glance at the books now. And, we have not one, but two receptionists, two women; job-sharing. They both have full medical and dental, too, and act as personal assistants, one for me, one for Jaci. Damn fine situation,” said Lily.
“And you couldn’t have done all that working for me and Ivy, coming in every night, running shifts yourself,” said Ace. “I get it now. I’ll can her ass if I have to.”
Callie laughed, and cut another piece. “Nope, you’ll come with us after we load the truck and talk to her, after I text Numa to get her some space there to do her work.”
“Do that now,” said Ace. “We’ll get her taken care of.”
Callie sent the text, and Numa replied, Of course. She can have the table in the stockroom. Can’t keep much stock in there, these days. Ship out things, as well as sell them here.
They worked in the morning air, the sun like a white-hot hammer, the dust a beautiful red at their feet. They stopped to drink every fifteen minutes. Carl Running Deer came up in the rental truck, his bike already lashed on it, on a special block deep inside. They finished all the labeling together, and then they made a line to stack up the beds in the truck.
Carl Running Deer joined them for lunch, along with Mimi, Ree, April, Robert, and Damia, who joined them as well. They had stacked, smoked, mesquite chicken. With that they enjoyed turkey, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, and thin slices of cheddar on wheat bread, which was toasted, with potato wedges. Vi also made cherry lemonade. They fell on the food like wolves, and talked about the project to send the pods to Montana for the kids there, and the foundation to pay for it all. They sent Carl off with a wave, and an envelope with his hotel, gas, and food money. He tipped his hat, and was on his way.
Cornering Bella involved trapping her in the corner of the living room where she dusted the furniture, with Tarak strapped to her middle. “What is it? Am I in trouble?” she asked.
“Of course not,” said Lily. “Let’s sit down with some more lemonade.”
“What is it?” asked Bella, as she sat. Ace went for another pitcher of the lemonade and glasses.
“Failure to launch,” said Callie. “Numa is giving you the stockroom for you to do your book covers.”
“And, you’ll make enough to cover everything,” said Lily. “And, you gave birth at home, so no huge hospital bills there.”
Ace came in with a tray. He deftly poured the lemonade and handed out the glasses. “And, we have a new bar back. You; love, are meant for better things. And, now you’re a mom, and working near here gives you more time with your little ones. And, no more crazy schedules.”
Bella turned pale, then red. “You guys are trying to manage me! I can make my own f—fr—freaking decisions!”
“Of course you can,” said Lily. “But, I wish I’d made the jump sooner to work at home,” she said. “My business is taking off, and without the overhead of an office. Everyone who works for me works from their homes, too.”
“What about you, Ace?” asked Bella, now with tears in her eyes. “You have kids at home, too. You want to quit your job?”
“I could,” he said. “But, I’m a partner in a business. You have a business you can grow, make flourish. Work a day or two a week, work our busiest nights, bring in cash. But, give yourself time to do what you love.”
“I love the bar,” said Bella, wiping her eyes.
“You’re not expendable,” said Callie, reading the situation correctly. “You’re just worth more. A lot more.”
“I was a cocktail server,” said Lily, gently. “I’d rather the young girls come in, shake their tails, use their tips to pay off their bills, get ahead. That’s for a younger crowd. I’d be taking their space.”
Bella drew in a breath. “Oh. I’m a mom and all, an adult.” She turned laser eyes on Ace. “And you?”
“I am cutting back to three days a week,” said Ace. “My wife shouldn’t do all of the heavy lifting.” He grinned at Lily, and she took his hand.
“And, he doesn’t close much anymore,” said Lily, grinning as Ace kissed her hand. “Neither does Ivy. She’s got kids coming out her ears, and the late nights aren’t good for her, either.”
“You guys are so fri—fricking logical,” said Bella. She sipped her lemonade, and dashed away tears. “But you’re asking me to give up my life.”
“No, baby,” said Inola, coming into the room, Ryder in her arms. She put down their daughter. “We’re offering you a new one, a better one.”
“Mommy!” yelled Ryder, and ran to Bella. Bella picked her up and put her on her lap. Ryder kissed her mother, and stroked Tarak’s head.
“Fu—frick you all,” said Bella, wiping away tears. “I accept.”
Ace and Lily went out, hand in hand, to their bikes. “You’re going to make me quit all the late nights, aren’t you?” asked Ace.
“Yes,” said Lily, taking his hands. “You’ve got an excellent crew.”
“We do,” said Ace. “Can we ditch our twenty-seven children?”
“Why, Mr. Dolan,” said Lily, “are you propositioning me?”
Ace grinned, and kissed her. “I have it on good authority that Robert moved into Triesta’s room. Want to crash it?”
Lily’s eyes grew wide. “Why, Mr. Dolan!” she said, grinning. “Robert will know.”
“I happen to know that there is a washer and dryer stacked up in the tack room. We can throw the sheets in there when we’re done.”
Robert came out, walked past them. “Gotta pick up a part,” he said, took out his helmet, and mounted his Harley. He took off in a cloud of dust.
Lily’s eyes sparkled with mischief.
“Let’s go,” she said, and dragged him toward the stairs. They ran up, giggling like children. Triesta’s room had jewelry all over the walls, and a Harley drawing on the wall. There was ingenious under-and over-bed storage. They shut that door, and turned to the one across the hall. They slipped in, and found the bed made with soft, blue, cotton sheets. Ace locked the door.
Ace twirled Lily around, and caught her up against the door. She squealed with surprise. “Now, madam,” he said, grinning lasciviously at her. “What shall we do with our time?”
“Who are you calling a madam?” she asked, then she found her head caught in-between his hands.
“I love you more than all the breaths I take,” said Ace. “I can’t breathe without you.” He kissed her, crushing his mouth to hers.
He licked her lips, tasting cherry and lemon. She opened her mouth for him, and drew him to her. She pulled off her blue T-shirt that said Accountants Rock, taking it off and over her head, interrupting the kiss. He resumed it, feeling for the front bra clasp. Her breasts fell out of her blue lace bra and into his hands. He kissed them and sucked them, as she pulled his T-shirt off. She rolled it up and threw it on the end of the bed. He resumed, sucking her.
She fumbled with his jeans, getting open the button and unzipping him, then pulling off her own jeans and tossing them onto the bed. She let herself scream and moan when Ace stroked and sucked her breasts. Luckily for them, Damia was long gone, to see her mothers at the other house. She heard horses and ponies stamp and chuff below her. She let out a long groan as he pulled off her panties, and then he breathed out, wanting her, as he kicked off his
own jeans and boxers.
Ace picked her up, and Lily clamped her legs around him. He slid into her, and cradled her head with his hand so she wouldn’t smash her head into the door as he thrust into her, again and again. She bit his neck, his ear, causing him to groan. He came in a great whoosh, groaning with need. She nibbled at his neck, then cried out as she came, clamping onto him like wildfire. He held her, waiting on her aftershocks, and was rewarded with a large one, clenching on him. He slid her up and off of him.
They found soap, shampoo, and towels in the little bathroom with a shower. They took a shower, and reveled in the water, now taking away their dust and sweat, one after the other, as the shower was barely large enough to stand up in. They dressed, and he towel-dried and braided her wet hair, putting it in place with a rubber band he had in his pocket. They dressed, put the towels in the washer, and went giggling out to their Harleys, as they had never mussed the sheets. Ace headed to the bar to discuss his fewer hours with Ivy, and Lily headed home to check the accounting.
Both of them grinned for hours as they relived their stolen moments. Ace planned more time with his family, and Lily plotted on how to shift more work to her partner. And, deep in the night, after the babies (Rose Ivy and Colin) were asleep and dreaming of toys and time with their parents, they found time for more stolen moments.
“You can do bad things for a certain length of time. Your victims may seem weak at first… but they eventually strike back.”
3
Songs of Victory
“When you think you’ve done enough, do more. Your survival depends on it.”
Lily brought the meeting to order. “Wolfpack!” she said, and whistled.
Everyone grew silent. The clutch of babies was upstairs with Bella; it was all Wolfpack on deck, including the ones that had gone on before. Honi, Micco, and Tocho were back. Nova stood tall; grinning, leaning against a wall, Jaci on a stool at her feet. Wyanet acted bored, but her brown eyes shone with flecks of gold. Fox and Ouray held hands, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Helaku took up the entire corner of the sectional, with muscles bulging from his carpentry and hydroponics work. Ruby sat next to him with Alo on the other end. Gwen and Mimi sat on either arm of the side chair, April in the seat as if it were a throne. Leafort sat at the young womens’ feet. The rest of the Wolfpack were everywhere, from the floor to the hearth.
Lily sat in a chair angled so the kitchen was behind her. “Okay, I call this meeting to order. Gwen, will you sing for us?”
Gwen sang, and her voice was high and light. They listened intently to her song, relaxing into it. She closed her eyes, finished, and then re-opened them.
“Thank you, Gwen,” said Lily. “Montana Project first. Construction report?”
Ruby grinned. “We went down after the inspection. We cleaned everything until it squeaked. Literally. Got a mouser; cat’s getting fat. Got a second one and it’s getting fat too! A black one and a calico. We got a local contractor to supervise. We got the floors and stairs in, then we showed them how to frame, do the electronics, and the mud walls. Installed the windows. Paint is damn cheap there, did you know that? Then, we showed them how to build their own pods, and we paired ourselves with them. Got the stuff done, complete with building their own ladders, too. They loved every damn minute, after the bellyaching went away.”
“Food report?” asked Lily.
Helaku took that one. “We only got the money for two hydroponics trays and all the spigots and tubing. We pooled our funds and bought a third. I installed it myself, checked everything, then sent a video to Nantan to triple-check. We planted maize, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, potatoes, wheat, and yams. Showed them everything.” He grinned. “I’m moving there. I came here to get a line on a four wheel drive vehicle that we can use for deliveries.
“Educational report?” Lily asked, working down her list.
Wyanet grinned wider. She pushed off the wall, and used her hands to talk. “Got the satellite working, but rain and snow will mess it up. Got them all memory cards installed to keep their schoolwork and download the lessons in case their internet access goes down. Got them started, and we got a brand-new secondary teacher named Tana Alvarez down there to moonlight, and to Skype when the snow gets too deep. She’s delighted. She’s Crow; happy to help. The tribe keeps sneaking people over to see how we run things.”
“Alpaca and rabbit report?” asked Lily.
“Transport went great,” said Winnie. “The alpacas love it there. Lots of green grass, and an altitude they like. Rabbit hutch went up just fine, and the rabbits bred already, and got one brushing out. Bagged the wool, and showed them how to clean, card, and spindle. Great work, all winter long, when they can’t get out so much.”
Damia took over to give her horse report next. “They have good ponies. Good horses, too.” She grinned at Inola, who nodded. “I showed them everything, from cleaning blankets and tack, to riding.” She giggled, and everyone smiled with her. “I told them right, like Inola and Henry told me. With stories.”
Lily kept the shock out of her voice. Her moms Ivy and Callie had been all for her going on the trip with Inola; Damia had been the one to ask. Lily had been terrified the long trip would cause her to regress into an autistic silence, but she seemed to be handling it fine.
“Excellent report, Damia. Anyone have anything to add?” No one spoke. “Alright, next steps. Can anyone think of anything they need over there, or what we can do to support the Montana Wolfpack?”
Leafort shrugged. “They’re Crow. They’re used to animals and building, and they’re good at hard work.”
“Winter work,” said Wyanet. “The winters there last forever, and it’s hard to get around. I’ve been working with David on Crow beadwork. Triesta or David can go up, get them started.”
“Crow are excellent beaders,” said Leafort. “Just get some of their elders down there. But, I agree on Triesta. Her work sells. They can work with her to find out what they can sell on the internet.”
“Talk to Triesta and their elders,” said Lily. “Will you do that, Leafort?” He nodded, and put a note on his cell phone.
“Bison,” said Wyanet.
“They’re huge. And they move around,” argued Leafort. “And eat a lot of food.”
“Shelve bison for later,” said Lily. “Anything else?”
Wyanet spoke up. “Buddies. The people doing their jobs here can talk to them there. Kind of updates, like helping out with problems, or even schoolwork. We all had some catching up to do. The learning curve is steep.”
“Excellent idea,” said Lily. “Who wants to be a buddy?” Nearly every hand went up. “Okay, Wyanet, make a spreadsheet. One for animal husbandry, wool, hydroponics, construction, and study buddies.”
“On it,” said Wyanet. “And we’ll rotate, unless someone builds a good relationship, then we’ll hold it there.” Everyone nodded.
“Anything else?” asked Lily. Everyone was silent. “Now, on to the current work. A bitcoin investment?”
Yanaba gave her report. “We made a profit of twenty-eight hundred dollars on the last sale. We bought more when the price went back down, and paid for the hydroponics for the Montana Pack.”
“Do you want to be reimbursed for the hydroponics?” asked Lily. Dead silence. “So, financial support as well?”
“You don’t get it,” said Wyanet, “the poverty on some of the parts of the res, on most of them; is severe. Even with casinos, many don’t even have running water. The lack of jobs on the res is horrible. The… absolute lack of hope. Not to mention the loss of our language, our culture.”
Lily held up her hand. “I do get it. I went to visit, remember? And, I was making it clear in your minds as to what you want to do by asking the question. Remember that you will have new people coming in. Our list never ends. What will we do? Add to the barns? You guys are already stuffed to the rafters who live here. Invest in more houses or apartment buildings where you all live when you get your GEDs and get certifica
tes, or your college classes? Henry decided that, since the list never ends, and gets longer, so we expand the program, to go where it’s needed most. Do we need to balance bringing people here and keeping them close to their homes?”
“Well, damn,” said Wyanet. “Sorry. I just… we need to do both. More here. Maybe three or four more?”
Leafort pointed at the ceiling. “We can hang them from hammocks in the rafters.” Everyone laughed.
Yanaba nodded. “I vote for four more here. We can add on to the barn, probably in the back. And, I get it that we need permits and the rest of it. But, it’s a great way for us to use our skills.”
Gwen said, “And the animals have babies, so we can expand our herd, and send more to the new places.”
Hu spoke up. “We need balance. Balance between here, and elsewhere. We are making enough with new investments that we can do both. But, we need to decide which projects for now, and which later, then we need an accounting spread, a schedule, and keeping track of who does what and when.”
“The word for that is project management,” said Alo. “And yeah, of course we can do that. Our games and eBooks are doing well. We can control what we do and how we do it. The thing is; we need to take control and do it right.”
“So, half here and half expansion?” asked Yanaba.
“More like forty-sixty,” said Hu. “We can expand indefinitely, and it will cost a lot of money.”
Lily narrowed her eyes. “Hu, you just earned an apprenticeship with me.” Hu’s jaw dropped, and she explained in Mandarin to Jie what just happened. They exchanged a high-five.
“I vote with Hu,” said Gwen. “We can’t expand indefinitely here, but we can out there. Theoretically, we have all the First Nations to choose from.”
“They have to ask first,” said April, clearly. “We won’t go where we’re not wanted.”
“Wait,” said Gwen. “What we have on the table is expanding here and expanding Wolfpacks.” Nods went around in agreement around the room.