This is part 2 of a two part update. Enjoy.
It's Monday afternoon at Teller Morrow Automotive and River is perched on top of an old red standing toolbox. When Chibs had explained his favor the night before she'd seen no reason to refuse. He'd done a lot for her in the last week and if he felt like he needed a better read on his brothers to get things sorted it doesn't bother her to watch and share. Honestly, the situation is so much like home it almost feels normal.
She'd been about seven when her father realized his deaf daughter could be more of an asset than he'd expected. He'd brought her with him to discuss business with an uncle and afterward over pizza River signed to her father the other man looked nervous. The comment had been made in childlike ignorance but Piero Santorini didn't get to his position in life by ignoring good intel. He'd questioned her carefully about why she felt zio Angelo was nervous. She'd explained with clumsy signs, still young, the way her zio kept glancing towards his file cabinet and her father took the info to the bank.
It had only taken Piero a moment to make the call that led to a search and the discovery of paperwork proving Angelo was skimming money. River had never seen that Uncle Angelo again but another Angelo had shown up not long after and she'd never asked what happened to the first. It was the beginning of her side work for her father. She was about 15 before she realized what was really happening and why her father brought her to so many of his meetings. Probably too old, but then she'd always thought better of her dad than she should considering.
She despises the term mafia princess but she knows it's not far from the truth. Born to Piero late in life, River's mother died when she was two in a Chicago street shootout during a territory war. Her father and his boss Nic DiForno had emerged from that conflict victorious and taken over the rest of the city and then the entire outfit. Left with a busy life and a very small deaf daughter, Piero had done his best. Hiring skilled nannies, tutors, and sending River to the most prestigious schools available. She'd been lucky in her life and schooling, not many of her deaf peers had a supportive immediate family and private tutors to set them up for successful communication in a hearing world.
Naturally able to read a room, learning poker had been a logical step and River had studied at her father's knee during long, cigar smoke filled sessions in the back rooms of restaurants and night clubs. Being a girl, there was no expectation that River would take over any part of the family business, that was an absolute but she was a pretty child and her lack of hearing often meant the men forgot she existed. By the time her father realized what she was picking up when she tagged along it was too late to take any of it back. Her father had never remarried and with no forthcoming sons to take up his skills he'd passed on as much as he could to his little girl. It was unconventional but it worked for them.
Now, using the skills she's honed over years in the high-power games of Italian organized crime River feels like watching the bikers of SAMCRO is like going back to kindergarten. These men are not used to hiding their tells or navigating complicated political undercurrents. It's not that their problems are uncomplicated, it's that they are often problems which can be addressed head on and River feels like a honed scalpel in a room full of hammers.
She'd arrived at the garage on the back of Chibs' bike that morning and she'd watched the rest of the brothers filter in over the next hour. She'd brought a book as an easy cover and Chibs set her up with a pack of cigs in a corner of the garage where her back was against a wall and she could see the entire lot and every bay. It also made it simple for them to watch her, she was still technically a prisoner. For the most part though the men were easy.
Bobby was nervous and every time someone mentioned Clay he glanced to his bike. Bobby is a runner but at the same time River can see his easy affection for the other men shining through. He's a man torn but not someone on the verge of creating new conflict. If anything, she could see him fading away to avoid the brewing storm Chibs spoke about the night before.
Tig is lost. She'd already pegged him for it but it's more obvious now. When Clay pulled into the lot around noon and headed towards the clubhouse without so much as a glance for the garage Tig had gone tense. He'd spent the next hour or so constantly on edge, torn between defeat and anger, always throwing glances towards the building across the way. She feels like if Tig stirs up trouble it will be unintentional. The risk of being a hammer in a world where not everything is a nail.
Opie had shown up shortly after Clay looking harassed but River has a feeling it is related to something away from the club. He spends less time fixing cars and more checking his phone repeatedly as though expecting a call. She catches the name Lyla on his lips and assumes he has lady troubles.
Jax is the same as the first night she'd encountered him, determined. She can see it in his eyes and the set of his shoulders. She's not sure what he's determined to do but she knows he is a man with a plan. River wishes she could figure out what plan he's so stuck on but she reads body language not minds so she lets it go, for now. She'd picked up some indications of home problems from him too but they were certainly further away than Opie's and she vaguely remembers someone mentioning his fiance, Tara, at the Friday night party.
For the most part the brothers are as expected. She'll share these details with Chibs but she doesn't know that they'll help. There are two though that she's worried about. as she turns the page in her book without reading it she lets her eyes drift to the first.
Chibs had introduced the man that morning as Happy and River has no idea what to make of the massive and very quiet hispanic man. He's got a stone face to rival her own and so far she's seen almost nothing that would give away his thoughts in his body language. She knows with enough time she could figure him out but it's not going to happen in a day. She would love to play a few hands of poker against him though. He's got a million-dollar poker face and she'd enjoy figuring him out at the table.
She catches movement out of the corner of her eye and it's the second problem brother picking up a dropped wrench. Juice was nervous. Not the kind of nerves that came from doing an unfamiliar job but the kind of nervous River had recognized in the first Uncle Angelo. She'd noticed Juice early in the day and kept a tight eye on him to confirm her suspicions. Part of her hoped she'd find something to alleviate her worries but the more she watches him the more she is certain the young man is hiding something, something big.
She puts the book down, lighting a cigarette as she watches Chibs approach the guilty brother. She blows out a line of smoke narrowing her eyes as Juice laughs at something from the Scot. The laugh never reaches Juice's eyes and his hand slides up rubbing along his mowhawk in discomfort. He's hiding something large. There's fear in his posture and a tightness around his mouth that River knows indicates the desire to confess but the inability to get the words out.
A betrayal from Juice would hit Chibs hard. She's gotten the impression the Scot is particularly fond of the younger man and she hates the idea that she now has to share information that will hurt her — what was Chibs to her — jailer, keeper, lover. The night before had been intense, needed, unintentional. River's really not sure.
First, she'd cried all over the man, shared her dangerous family connections, and then basically used him to get off. She can still conjure the feeling of his rough hands on her body if she tries. They seemed to be on the same page though about leaving it in the bedroom where it belongs. When she'd woken up this morning he'd already been in the shower and rather than wait her turn she'd used the second shower down the hall. There'd been no discussion and that was fine with her. She's still 15% sure it's all Stockholm Syndrome.
She's pulled out her memory when a large tan hand snatches the cigarette straight from her mouth. Looking up she finds the cold eyes of Happy staring down at her, the smoke now tucked into the corner of his lips.
"I hear you took half the club to the bank Friday night." He's considerate enough to remove the cigarette and look into her face as he talks. She shrugs pulling out another cig from the pack at her side. She's not going to risk trying to get the original back. "Humble too?" Happy lets a slow smile slide into place as he speaks.
Her eyes slide the room and she manages to catch the end of something from Bobby at the far side of the garage "be… grand on the table…" The men's heads all turn and she follows their gaze. She knows Tig is talking but his back is to her so she gets none of it and when they all start laughing she just smiles along. She hates being deaf just a little bit at times like this. When she can't keep up with the conversation. There's nothing to do but ride the wave and hope someone explains.
When she'd been little her father had looked into the, then experimental, cochlear implant. She remembers the doctor who brought it up and watching her father nod along with the idea while the doctor explained that the device could give her a "normal" life.
Her father had taken her for gelato afterward and asked her if she wanted to be able to hear. She'd shrugged, she was eight and at the time she was constantly surrounded by a nanny, tutors, and family who signed. Hearing didn't seem like a big deal. Piero had told her that being deaf was hard but it made her unique and strong. "I'll love you no matter what bambolina," he'd said, "if you want this we can do it but I think deaf will teach you to be strong. Strong may be better than normal one day." Now she knows that her father's motives might have been a little selfish but he was still right. Strong had ended up being better than normal.
She's again pulled from her thoughts, this time by Chibs' hand waved near her face. She looks up to find him looking at her, shifting from foot to foot, an expectant looking Jax standing a few feet away waiting. The moment of truth she realizes. Time to tell the VP her story.
Reviews are always very welcome. More soon!