She cocked a brow at him. “You’re immune to it, brother dearest.”
Kiko snorted. “You were always too crazy for my blood, but I can see how some of her sugar might sweeten a human social worker.”
Jarvis growled. “Less of that.”
She smirked. “Poor guy didn’t know what hit him.”
“I really don’t want to hear this,” Mundo commented. “My sister is not a sexual being.”
“Your nose should tell you otherwise,” she replied sweetly.
He closed his eyes. “This feels like a TMI moment. I’m sure I’ll wake up soon and enter a reality where my sister isn’t discussing her sex life in front of me and the Council.”
“You brought it up.
He gawked at her. “I did? When the fuck did I do that?”
She chuckled. “Calm down, Mundo. I know you have sex.”
“I’m a man. And I’m mated.”
She frowned at his logic. “You make no fucking sense. You never did. I got all the brains,” she informed the Council. “If anyone should be sitting here, it should be me, but you’re all chauvinists.” She huffed, and folded her arms across her chest.
Jarvis cleared his throat but she could tell he was hiding a smile. Before he could say anything, Ava pointed out, “She’s right. You are. But, though you say you had him eating out of your hand, Cinda, do you think that came across well? The last thing we need is for social services to think you’re man hungry.”
Cinda shot her a glare. “Dear Goddess, Ava. What do you think I did? Offered him a lick?” She ignored the puking sounds Mundo made. “I was just very kind to him. Very solicitous. He appreciated it.”
“You charmed him,” Jarvis corrected, but he was less fired up than he’d been earlier.
She genuinely hadn’t done all that much to Mr. Stokes. Was it her fault if he was in his fifties and looked like he hadn’t had sex or seen tits in a low cut top for about a year?
“You’d be amazed at what politeness will get you,” she retorted with a huff. “Goddesses, you all think so badly of me. This Clan sucks,” she said with a pout, rocking back in her chair with enough force to make the delicious piece of furniture bounce her like a baby.
Jarvis squeezed her shoulder in commiseration. Ava just cocked a brow at her. “It’s important to us that this plan works. That’s all. We need it to work. We owe her father a favor, but more than that, we owe the little girl a chance at a normal life.”
Cinda scowled at her. “Which part of my words indicated I didn’t understand that?” She huffed. “I was kind to him. Offered him some coffee, for fuck’s sake, and when he started talking about his divorce, I just listened and commiserated.”
“He started talking about his divorce?” Mars questioned.
Jarvis nodded. “Yeah. Almost started crying at least twice.”
“She always did get people to open up,” Mundo said, disgust in his tone.
She glowered at him. “She has a name, you know?”
“Unfortunately, I do know.”
“Come on, guys,” Mars chivvied along. “Less of the squabbling.”
Cinda just shrugged but Mundo shot her a pissed look. They’d never gotten along, and time certainly hadn’t changed that.
Mars started speaking again, “So, after the divorce, did he mention Savannah? Or was he mistaking you for his psychiatrist?”
Jarvis answered in her stead,” Like I told you, eating out of the palm of her hand. Said he’ll sign off on the foster care agreement and will bring her around within the next couple of days. He’ll confirm when. Once she’s been with us for a couple of months, if we still want to adopt, we can look into it then.”
“But we want her out of the system now,” Kiko pointed out.
Cinda shrugged. “There are safeguards in place all round. It’s standard practice.”
Ava nodded. “From what I’ve been reading, they’re right. It’s a good sign. We’re heading in the right direction.”
Cinda murmured, “What are we going to do when she does arrive?”
Mars shot Justiss a look. “Are you okay with her staying at yours for a while?”
“Of course. We’d have been willing to deal with everything from the beginning. You know that. Toni wants more kids as it is. This just gives her body a break from pregnancy.” When Cinda frowned, he saw it and murmured, “She nearly lost Mason and had a miscarriage after.”
“I’m so sorry,” she told him, meaning every word.
He smiled at her. “It’s okay. We’re getting through it.”
“I’m glad.” She shot Mars a look. “Jarvis and I will deal with the social worker. It helps that the community is gated. He can’t get in without approval, so he has to book appointments in advance and can’t just do random spot checks.”
Ava nodded. “That seems to be something they do often, and you’re right, with no access they can’t just hit a visit on us.”
“If there’s a problem down the line, Jarvis and I will care for the girl.”
“Savannah,” Ava mumbled. “She has a name.”
Cinda rolled her eyes. She could see what Jessie meant about the Prez’s daughter being half robot.
People as loud spoken as Jessie and Cinda were rarely appreciated by folk who thought before they said even a single word.
That wasn’t to say Cinda wasn’t careful with every word that left her mouth, but she was a different hybrid to Ava, and that was no mistake.
Cinda blew out a breath and tried to expel the irritation with it. “Jarvis and I have also been thinking about something, and we were hoping you could help us out, Ava.”
The girl cocked a brow at her and it didn’t escape Cinda’s attention that Jarvis was letting her handle this. Either because he had faith in her ability to discuss this, or because he preferred to leave Ava to Cinda.
The former pleased her, the latter not so much.
“I’m listening,” Ava prompted.
“Jarvis’s shelter is aimed at runaways. Kids on the street. But it’s for humans. Nowhere, not even on the underground—” Cinda spoke knowledgeably, because she’d been asking the regulars at the shelter when she’d popped around with Jarvis over the past week or so, “are they aware that the shelter is managed by Shifters. Now, don’t get me wrong. That’s great. Jarvis said himself that if the humans learned a Shifter was involved, the government might not like that so much, but we need to do something for the kids like Savannah. But we need to figure out a way to place them first.”
Ava blinked. “You mean like a database? Just for Shifter kids who have gone missing?”
Cinda nodded eagerly. “Exactly. But more than that Savannah wasn’t on a Shifter database, neither was her father. There has to be a way of helping kids like her. They might as well be ghosts.”
Ava pursed her lips and sank back in her chair. As it rocked, her mate leaned over her and started rubbing her shoulders. She immediately nuzzled her cheek against his hand.
Mars cleared his throat, dragging the Council’s attention away from his daughter. “Would you need to open a separate shelter if we managed to sort something out?” he asked.
Jarvis shook his head. “No. But I’d have to figure out a way to make provisions for any that cropped up. I’m hoping there aren’t too many. After all, if something happens to the parent, the collective should care for the child.”
Mars nodded. “Of course. It’s like if anything had happened to Annette and I when Ava was a kid, I knew one of my brothers would care for her.”
“Exactly. So, fingers crossed, that’s what’s happening all over the country.”
“But some always fall through the net,” Cinda pointed out, tone sad. “If we can get the news out that there’s a shelter for Shifter kids with a Clan backing, they might come to us for help.”
“It’d only be one shelter in the whole U.S.,” Major pointed out. “That’s not enough.”
“No, but if we can make a go of it, prove to the other Clans, Packs, and Prides that i
t’s needed, at least one per state, then that’s something. We have to start somewhere. And you can’t tell me that there aren’t more Savannahs roaming around out there in the cold.”
As one, the Council winced. Then, Ava murmured, “I might have a way of creating a database, but it would be totally illegal and would violate so many civil liberties it’s beyond a joke.”
“But it can be done?” Mars asked.
Ava snorted. “I like how we always just bypass the illegal stuff.”
“Hell, we’re legit now, Ava, but that doesn’t mean we don’t work on the wrong side of the tracks from time to time,” Mundo retorted.
She rolled her eyes.
“Explain, babe,” Chris urged.
“You know it’s illegal for hospitals and clinics to share any details on a patient’s blood work, right?”
Cinda nodded. “The humans passed that weird law, thinking they were helping us.”
Ava nodded. “Weird, considering they’re the ones who want to put us on a database in the first place. But,” she said with a shrug, “it’s to stop Shifters from not seeking medical help out of fear our heritage would be broadcasted to the authorities. We rarely use hospitals, but when it comes down to bloodwork, we have to.”
Mundo frowned. “But why would that help us?”
“Because it means a Shifter doesn’t have to fear being discovered or outed if he’s not on the database. He can go in, seek medical attention, and all without the cops being alerted if he doesn’t have any documentation,” Cinda explained to her brother—he’d always had his attention fixed firmly only bikes and never the news.
He nodded. “I see. But how does that help us, Ava?”
“Each hospital will maintain bloodwork records on all their patients. If I could create an algorithm that picked out bloodwork with Shifter traits, then collate that information along with personal details, we could probably pick up some names of Shifters who aren’t on any database. If I cross reference those details with a state’s missing people’s list, it’s a start.”
“But what if someone has never been to a hospital for treatment?” Kiko asked. “Hardly any of our women give birth in hospitals, so it’s not like the babies would be on record from the beginning.”
“Some will sweep under the net,” Ava said with a grimace. “But to be honest, what I just said is a hell of a lot of work. I don’t mind doing it, but that will take me long enough to figure out. We can explore other ideas at a later date.”
“Does that mean you’ll have to hack into every hospital in the country?” Chris asked, aghast at such a prospect.
She blew out a breath. “Eventually, yeah. Like I said, it’s a lot of work. A hell of a big project. Plus, you have to bear in mind that we’re going to be bagging and tagging people who have decided, implicitly, against being bagged and tagged.” She shrugged. “I guess it’s worth it, though.”
Mars rubbed his jaw. “That’s more of a moral dilemma than anything I’ve ever dealt with at this table. And we’ve dealt with the lowest of the low here.” He looked to the Council. “Thoughts?”
Justiss spoke up, “I dislike the idea of having a database of people who have no desire to be registered, but at the same time, it’s for a good cause.
“There will be kids out there who are lost to the system and who are too scared to reveal what they are for fear of the backlash. They’re a danger to themselves and to society because they’re having to hide something that’s as natural as breathing for them.
“I think it’s a worthy risk, even if it does present a moral dilemma as you say, Mars.” He pursed his lips. “We’re not going to use the information for ill gain. We could even use it to help people. If we cross referenced people in jail, like Joe for example, we could help them. Shifters need to be anywhere but a human prison, for everyone’s sake.”
“Some people don’t want to be helped,” Major pointed out. “They want to be off the record for a reason, and I can’t blame them. I’m not on a database.” He looked around the Council table. “Put your hand up if you’ve been bagged or tagged.” When nobody did, he flung out his hands. “There, you have my point. We’re all in the same boat. Do you like the idea of some hacker from a small Clan down in Houston having their paws on your personal information?”
Kiko retorted, “No, but to be fair, it has to happen at some point, and if anyone has the database, I’d prefer it to be another Shifter than a human organization. Fuck knows what they’d want to do with the information, but a Shifter Clan would have no desire to do any harm with it.”
Major snorted. “You can honestly tell me that when we had Jefferson for a Prez? Mars ain’t gonna be Prez forever. He’ll stand down one day. What if the next guy who sits in the big chair is a narcissistic psycho like Jefferson? What if he wants to use the database to fuck with the Shifter community? Just because we’re all brethren doesn’t mean we’re all good.”
Mars sighed. “He has a point.”
“It will be my database,” Ava murmured softly. “Nobody will have access to it but me.”
Cinda blinked at her. “That’s a huge responsibility and I already know you have a lot of tasks to fulfil for the MC. And by tasks, I mean slave labor,” she snapped, glowering at Mars. She didn’t have to like the girl to feel for her.
Mars rolled his eyes. “She gets a better wage than I do.”
“That’s because she does more than you do,” Mundo retorted, grinning widely when the Prez flipped him the bird.
“I need to get you to negotiate my next deal with my agent,” Cinda remarked, grinning at Ava.
The girl just looked at her blankly. “Chris handled that.”
Jeez. Robot alert. “Well, Chris, I know where to come next time.”
Jarvis growled. “And what am I? Dog meat? I manage a national brewery conglomerate.”
She grinned at him. “You’re so jealous, sweetheart. There’s no need.” She patted his thigh, then squeezed. He grumbled but simmered down.
Ava slotted in, “I think Cinda is right. There will be a let of children that have slipped through the net, and if I can do something to help that, then I want to. I’ll have a look in the social welfare’s database too. They’ll all have medical records on the kids in care. If I can get my hands on their bloodwork records too, then I can sift through and pull the wheat from the chaff.”
Chris murmured, “That’s probably the best place to start. Going through each hospital will take time. It’s inefficient.”
Ava nodded. “I should have thought of using the foster care system first, but my gut reaction was hospitals and urgent care clinics as being the first place to start.”
Chris’s lips twitched. “You got there eventually, baby.”
When her cheeks bloomed with heat, Cinda gawked. The robot could blush?
“You think it’s achievable?” Mars asked his daughter.
“Definitely. But let me have a nosey through their system interface first. I don’t want to say I can do it and then find I can’t.”
“You can do anything,” Mars stated, his tone proud as punch.
She grinned. “Thanks, Dad.”
He winked at her, then murmured, “Well, if that’s everything?”
The Council nodded and started to pull back from the table. When Jarvis made no move to leave, she stayed put too. The Council trudged out, talking and bitching as they went.
“You needed something?” Mars asked, leaning back and propping his feet on the table.
Kiko hadn’t left either and was shooting looks between her mate, Mars, and Cinda.
“We won’t be building anywhere on the estate for a while,” he told the Prez once the Council had departed, a few odd looks cast back at them as they stayed behind.
“No?” Mars frowned. “Is that wise?”
Cinda felt relief wash through her at her mate’s remark, and she answered for him, “We’re happy in the city for the moment.”
Mars shook his head. “And what about Jarvis
’s needs, Cinda? Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he’ll stay in the city with you for your benefit.”
“I can come to the clubhouse and shift.”
“That’s forty minutes out of your way,” Kiko argued,
“So? I used to make the journey every day anyway. It’s not like it matters to me.” Jarvis shrugged. “I’m only letting you know because I’ll be moving out of the clubhouse.”
Cinda reached for her mate’s hand. “Tonight.”
He grinned at her, then lifted her hand to his lips. “I’ll be moving out tonight, apparently.”
Mars shook his head. “You’re more love sick than Jessie and Spyder.”
His disgusted tone had Cinda snorting. “I’ve heard stories about you and Annette, Mars. Don’t make out like you’re not an old romantic.”
The Prez huffed. “Not in front of people.”
Jarvis hooted and even Kiko snorted out a laugh. “Since when?” her mate demanded. “Kiko, do you recall that time we thought Annette and Mars were going to start fucking out in the back yard?”
“What? You mean the first, second, or twentieth time over the last quarter century?” the VP retorted, grinning when Mars glared at him.
“Yeah, yeah, I get the picture.”
“Once we’re mated, you know we’re whipped. We just make it look good,” Kiko continued, making Cinda laugh and the men look on at him with disgust.
“I never said I was whipped,” Mars retorted.
“Me neither,” Jarvis grumbled.
“When you start doing stuff to make them happy, stuff that makes you unhappy—like having to travel miles out of your way to shift—you’re whipped.”
Jarvis just rolled his eyes, but he climbed to his feet shortly after. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow, okay?”
Mars nodded. “Sure. And Cinda?” he added as she stood too. “Great idea for the database. If there are more kids out there like Savannah then it’s our duty to help.”
She smiled at him. “I’m glad we’re on the same boat.”
“Goddess help me if that’s the truth,” he retorted.
When Jarvis chuckled, she whacked him on the belly. “No fair,” she retorted with a pout.
He just grinned, grabbed a tight hold of her hand and lugged her across the Council room. As they made it out into the hallway, they didn’t have to walk far before they reached his quarters.
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