Troy groaned upon seeing Audrey leaning over, checking the map of the city that was pinned up on his wall with gang territory lines highlighted on it. He had hoped the last couple of days had been a very vivid, messed up dream. Apparently higher powers had it out for him. "You're not planning on running off and doing something that'll make me change those lines, are ya?"
She spared a glance at him. "Nope. You're about two weeks off, anyway."
"What? I just changed that up-"
"Johnny, Vic and I took the rest of the Barrio last week and we worked on getting up to that block the days after that," she explained, pointing to the places on the map as she went.
"Shit…" he sighed. He took a pencil and starred the designated areas, then paused. He took down the map after a minute with a cautious glance at her.
"Oh, come on, Troy."
"I want to trust you, Kid. I really do. Maybe I can. But I'm workin' on it, so until then, this shit's for my eyes only."
"I lived it until a week ago. I don't need to see it on a map. You're the one who's behind and apparently missing out. How many people do you think you're fooling? Do they really think your attention's evenly divided between all the gangs and other crimes going on around here?"
"Well, when you have your people settin' off bombs left and right and then a few assassinations here and there, drug runners and a giant bashing people's faces in and then driving off in a monster truck, you still have to consider body count. And the Saints have three times the Ronin. And it's probably way more than I thought because I'm not counting all of the poor saps you run over with a car on a daily basis. There may be a survival quota with them."
"Not very likely," she admitted. "Remember the first time I did it on purpose with those Rollerz and you didn't talk to me for a week?"
"Well, at least now you know why," he shrugged.
They sat in comfortable silence for a while until Audrey glanced at the floor. "I missed you…" she said after a while. "You're a backstabbing dick whether you wanted to be in the end or not, and I'm still not exactly sure if I'm done hating you, but I missed you."
"I'll take that. And I missed you too…" he admitted.
She smiled weakly, then bumped her shoulder with his. "Tell anyone and I'll kill you."
"Not funny…" he deadpanned, then sighed. "Let's see what those friends of yours are up to. I haven't gotten a single call and that's worrisome…." He got off of the couch and got the tv remote, turned on the news and dropped right back down.
"-Jane Valderamma here. There's new footage about of the latest inter-Saints conflict has been released-"
"Released?" Troy demanded, but a second later Audrey clamped a hand over his mouth to hear and see the rest. He settled a bit when he realized that it was just a cell phone video. The channel's definition of released.
" In this new footage, we see it wasn't just an average case of Saints-style greed that prompted the lastest crime spree. A case of sibling jealousy, or are the Saints getting selective of who makes their cut? Recently our sources caught video of the two leaders of the Saints, usually seen side by side, were seen at odds, and it ended with one of them getting a ninja sword to the gut. Could this mean that The Butcher is connected to the Ronin-"
"The Butcher?" Troy repeated. "She's going by the Butcher?"
Audrey groaned when the footage caught up with the story and her face was front and center in the footage. "Fuck… FUCK!" She smacked the arm of the table, then glanced Troy's way since he had been relatively silent.
Troy seemed to be zeroed in on the footage for a while before he finally looked at her with an expression she couldn't read. He settled back down after a minute, then buried his face in his hands.
. "… How many of your neighbors watch this news?" she asked.
"Only all of them. Shit," Troy groaned.
"Sounds like it's consultant time. There's my excuse to come to you."
"Then you're gonna have a target on your back because there's no way that'll stay under wraps."
"I'm- I was the… third in command of the Saints. I have a target on my back the whole time." She looked back at the TV, and Jane was still going on about the situation in front of the building they had been at. "I'm gonna kill her!" she hissed.
"I might let you," Troy countered. When she looked hopefully at him, he sighed. "Not now."
"You sure you don't wanna hire me for something so no one gets suspicious?"
"I… I don't know."
"Then how are we working this? Because the more I think about it the less this… arrangement is making sense. Not that I don't appreciate the help, but it's gonna get old and dangerous either way-"
"Yeah, and then if they see you on camera it's your death sentence."
"So was that!" she motioned at the screen.
Troy shook his head. "You know what I mean."
"Troy…"
"I told you before. We'll… figure it out. I'd be a fuckin' idiot to expect you to be some perfect little angel who obeys the law when you're… stuck here."
"What's this? Police Chief is good with certain people running around, breaking the law?"
"I didn't said that. I said I don't expect you to play nice. There's a difference. Point is I need something that's gonna cause less trouble where we all win and minimal people end up in body bags. I just haven't figured that out yet."
"There's not gonna be one single solution," she replied.
"Yeah. That's part of the problem…" Troy admitted. "I'm never the brains."
"Is that you trying to throw me a bone to throw you a bone? Because I'm not sure yet, either."
"Well then start brainstorming, cause I'm-" Troy cut himself off when his cell phone rang and he checked it. "Because your sister knocked off an entire five blocks worth of stores in two hours and apparently I'm supposed to give a shit. I have to go in and sort shit out. I'll be back soon."
"Alright!"
Two hours later Troy was hunched over his desk, very much not dealing with his duties. Like he had been with everything in the last week, he wasn't sure what to think about the latest development with the Saints. Quinn had looked beyond pissed when she stabbed Audrey in that footage. That gave her victim status and story a little more weight, but the uneasiness of not knowing whether or not he could trust her was still too damn prominent for his liking. And then there was the actual slaughter that the Saints were causing with their latest fight with the Brotherhood.
"Chief, a girl's in here for a job interview."
Troy glanced up at the receptionist who had poked her head in. "What?"
The woman blinked at him. "Job interview? For the other receptionist job?"
He shook his head. He must've forgotten about it in the latest fiasco. "Right. Bring her in, Angela. Thanks."
Angela stepped out, and Troy rummaged through his desk to try and find any record of the newcomer. When he glanced through the full window, he realized why.
Audrey was looking at him with an unbearably fake nervous look from under a red wig and thick framed glasses. He clenched his jaw, then got up and opened the door. Angela was directly behind her, but he couldn't find it in him to care. They reached the threshold. "N-"
"Chief Bradshaw. Hello, I'm Andrea-"
It took him great effort to unclench his jaw. "Nice meeting you, Andrea. Why don't you have a seat. Thanks, Ang. You can get back to work. Now, Andrea, I remember that you said we what the fuck do you think you're doing?!" he forced the last bit out when he heard the door click closed behind them and all but shoved her into the seat next to him.
"Solved most of our problems the easiest way I could," she shrugged.
"How?" was his first question, and he motioned at the wig and the glasses. After a beat, he put his hands up. "Forget it. I don't wanna know."
"Like it? Johnny said I'd look good as a redhead-"
"I don't give a shit! What is this supposed to accomplish?!"
"Gets me in and out of here with no questions asked. I can help you bring down Quinn and her people-"
"And have full access to all the records and cases on anybody-"
"It gets your ass off the line."
"Not if you go stealing shit or looking at things you shouldn't be and they look to you and then the one who apparently did a personal interview with instead of going level by level."
"I only care about the Saints. I won't check out anything else unless it's needed. You end up wanting my help with the others, you've got it if we do it this way."
Troy blanched for a while, then narrowed his eyes. "Andrea?"
"Well, let's be real. You're not exactly the most put-together one when emotional so you're bound to call me Dree. I picked the closest one where that nickname wouldn't be a stretch."
He stared at her for a while.
She frowned. "If you want to trust me you're gonna have to give me some rope, here."
"I don't wanna see you hang yourself or us with it."
"Even if I could, even if I wanted to, even if I know this wasn't gonna bite me in the ass, what about you? You think that once this gets out, and it will get out, at least to the Saints, they're gonna be happy that you'd be the new me? The new me… after me? They're gonna kill you. Don't do that to me again."
She frowned, having remembered his reaction to the explosion on the tapes. It had been the first timt so far he hadn't sounded like he was trying to convince himself he cared. "Troy, ball's in your court. You wanna get rid of Andrea, get rid of her. It's a safe method is all."
Troy huffed and leaned back. "Alright, Andrea Lewis. You're hired as the new file clerk-"
"Secretary,"
"File Clerk. You don't have the experience for secretary. As a newbie what you get to handle goes through me first."
"Oh? What's the pay?" she grinned.
"Room and board," he countered.
She grinned, then shrugged. "Sounds like a plan, Boss."
"I-" he stopped short and gave her a disapproving look.
"That's not a bad idea, actually…" she mused and sat on the edge of his desk. "Start up a rival gang to get our shit together. The exiled one and the former one. We could keep the blue, but what would we call ourselves?"
"Idiots, for starters. And off the desk. I don't need a sexual harassment suit on top of this if one of the girls sees you."
"But wouldn't one of those just add the scandal your job needs?"
"All of you are gonna give me some health issue that ends with my untimely death…" he mused.
"Yeah, but you kinda deserve it from us."
Troy shoved her upper body forward. She scrambled off the desk to avoid falling. "Dick..." she muttered.
He smirked at her, then motioned at the door and walked her over to it. He opened it. "Thank you… Andrea. You can come by next week- Tuesday, maybe, and we'll get you all started."
"Thank you, Chief. I'll see you then."
They did a stiff handshake and she all but bolted for the stairs to ensure no one would catch a closer look at the face under the half-assed disguise.
Troy watched her until he lost sight of her. When he did, he sighed heavily and collapsed back into his chair. "I am so fucked."