Ashe found herself back at the apartments after school on Monday and had to admit that she was impressed. Not with the progress, but the raw amount of chaos swarming the building. Crystal had been busy, contacting contractors for evaluations while she helped get the girls settled. Calling out of school was so damn tempting, but she didn’t want to have to lie to her parents about where she was again.
Setting up a bunch of girls living illegally in an apartment bought with crime money wasn’t their idea of a good use of her time. She’d even told them that was what she planned to do after school, getting a laugh out of Mom and a subtle shaking of Mother’s head. Those jokes were probably going to come back to bite her, and hell, they might even suspect it wasn’t as much of a joke after she asked about her girls at the picnic.
At least the furniture delivery was going well, with each of the girls getting their apartments set up. Brie was helping to coordinate with the others, getting everything where it was supposed to go. Ashe was actually surprised that there was a language barrier between the girls and the delivery teams, so Brie stepping in to coordinate was already proving to be a great help in that regard.
Ashe had claimed one of the less furnished rooms on the top floor as her own, but she wasn’t moving anything valuable into it just yet. They were reaching out to a construction crew that might be able to get in there and ensure the building was structurally sound. There were a bunch of renovations she wanted to make to the thing, if it was going to serve as their base of operations for the near future.
The top two floors would get completely rebuilt into proper suites, save for the lookout room. She wanted something fitting for the top people in whatever comes from her budding organization. She had further reaching plans for the entirety of Sutton, but that would take funds that she didn’t currently have, and manpower she was hesitant to gather under her banner.
Forming her own gang wasn’t a route she wanted to go down, but it was looking increasingly likely that’s what she would end up doing. Robbie had picked the worst time to retire, and Keiko was still keeping her distance from them at the moment. She hadn’t agreed with the decision to take the girls under her protection. She knew that Keiko was nervous because of her suspicions with the Viuda, not that Ashe was going to do anything to invite their wrath anytime soon. Caralina hadn’t mentioned more since her early grumblings, but sooner or later she was going to have to follow up on the notion that the Viuda might have some dirty members.
She could only hope that it didn’t put her on the other side of Keiko’s gun.
That was a line of thought she didn’t even dare entertain. Robbie and Keiko were friends, and she didn’t want there to be bad blood between them just because they had decided to take different paths in life. Sure, she would have appreciated having the money from their shares of the job to help get everything off the ground, but that wasn’t something she would ask of them. She wasn’t even touching Crystal’s share, just her own.
The drugs were another matter, she’d lumped Crystal’s share of that in with her own for the girls to start selling. Of those that she had rescued that weren’t talking to her parents, three were underage, and she refused to let them work the street corner. Ashe would have preferred that they work nothing at all, but she didn’t have the luxury of manpower to manage that. So, they would serve as runners once she had a few dealers to work with.
Caralina had some feelers out for that very reason, and Brie was using their growing clientele to fish for possible options. It wasn’t foolproof, but she was lacking in options at the moment and really needed to get an income rolling before she burned completely through her remaining funds. She still had a little over a million left, but that would disappear in a blink if she didn’t have funds coming in to replace them.
It was a logistical nightmare, and one that she would need to solve sooner than later.
Ashe sighed, flopping back into the beanbag that she had brought up just to have something to sit on while the others worked. The lookout room at present was serving as storage for any replaced furniture that was still usable, though one of the girls was currently watching from a window, even if nobody was out working at the moment. That was another detail that Ashe was insisting on, if they were going to continue that line of work, then they were going to be as safe about it as possible.
Now, she just needed to convince them of that need.
Caralina was proving stubborn, insisting that such things weren’t necessary, which was just pissing Ashe off when trying to convince her. Maybe that had been the mistake, perhaps she should be addressing Brie instead, to see if she and the other girls were more receptive to the idea. It felt too much like going behind their backs, but Ashe was quickly running out of fucks to give on that front.
Sighing, she decided to do just that and hopped up. She made sure her cloth mask was in place and bandana was still tied up before leaving the otherwise empty apartment. The Elevator was down, and would remain so until a specialty repair company could come in to service it, and they were backed up for another week, which meant she was taking the stairs.
She passed one of the girls on her way down, getting a respectful, yet excited, nod from the ever cheerful Lily. She had a box of something, and Ashe recalled her picking a room on the fourth floor. Another girl came around the corner, but Ashe couldn’t recall her name for the life of her. She really did need to sit down and learn all her girl’s names before long. At the very least learn those she rescued from the pawn shop front given they were probably still picking up new strays and offering them a place to live.
Reaching the ground floor, she came across an almost chaotic scene of people being directed by a rather determined girl with dark hair and a determined expression who was shifting between Spanish and English at the drop of a hat. Beside Brie, Jessica was working just as hard to ensure things were being taken where they were meant to go.
Ashe had to smile at seeing the pair working together like that, and it only served to reinforce her thoughts that Brie might be worth bringing on board sooner than later. Maybe once things slowed down and Ashe had a moment to breathe she could see about letting the girl in a bit closer. Hopefully trust extended would prove to be trust returned.
A few of the moving people gave her funny looks, but she wasn’t wearing her jacket, and the bandana in her hair was just a plaid number rather than the one sporting flame decals that she favored when out doing things as Inferno. The plain black mask was just smart when around that many people, and she played it off by coughing a bit and moving on.
“It’s like watching ants swarm,” Ashe said as she joined the two girls coordinating things. “Anything worth passing along?”
“Nothing exciting,” Jessica said.
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Brie snorted. “Unless you count Lily’s little box of curiosities. Girl wouldn’t let anyone look in that damn thing and ran for the stairs the moment I tried.”
“She’s allowed to have things you don’t know about,” Ashe said with a sigh. Jessica coughed, the sound suspiciously like dildo but Ashe wasn’t going to humor that line of conversation. “Give her some room to get used to the new situation.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Brie said, waving in dismissal while also flipping off a chuckling Jessica. “Doesn’t the great Inferno have something better to do than to pester her minions?”
Ashe couldn’t help but smirk under her mask. “What’s the point of having minions if not to pester them for my own amusement?”
Brie laughed sharply. “You got me there, boss lady.”
Rolling her eyes, Ashe continued on, heading for the basement stairs where the team Inspecting on the foundation should be located. The way down was suffocating and the air stale with a tinge of mildew even through her mask. She just hoped all the money she was planning to sink into the building wouldn’t hit a dead end in the form of a problem that forced them to condemn the damn thing.
Then again, she probably had the money needed to pay them off to look the other way, the real question was, did she have the money to fix the place in spite of that? That was a problem for the future, and if she planned to revitalize the area, she’d likely continue to run into that same problem over and over. Better to learn to deal with it early and have the experience for later.
Several crews were putting up drywall, finishing the long forgotten space for the first time since the building was constructed in the late fifties. She walked past those crews and found Crystal standing alongside two others. The men were wearing hard hats and high-vis vests as they looked over one of the support columns.
“This one will need replaced within the next year,” he said, gesturing to the cracks in the concrete. “I’d suggest getting to that sooner than later.”
“I’ll add it to the list,” Crystal said, scribbling something in a notepad. “What about asbestos? Any worries there?”
She was wearing bluejeans and a tank top as she usually did, and a construction grade filtered mask to keep the dust at bay. Her aqua blue hair stood out as always, and Ashe had to resist a sudden urge to run her fingers through it and scratch her scalp.
“None that we could find, that was one good thing they did in the early days of this city,” the inspector said.
“Oh?” Ashe couldn’t help but chime in.
The inspector eyed her for a moment, then turned back to his clipboard. “When asbestos was hitting it big as the be-all end-all of insulation, the city of Jericho banned it for construction use. Someone important must have seen the concerns about cancer and put a stop to any company attempting to use it. Sure, some still did even in violation of the ordinance, but this building doesn’t seem to have been one of them. Lucky you.”
“Well, if I lucked out there, let’s get it out of the way and tell me where I didn’t,” Ashe grumbled.
The inspector chuckled, flipping through his notes. “It could be far worse, I assure you, but there are several areas that need improvements. Two of the main supports are giving out, those will need to be repaired as soon as you are able to do so. There was a troublesome case of black mold as well, but that is already being addressed.” He turned another page and ran a finger down it. “Let’s see, ah yes, there was a passage into the sewers that was partially collapsed inwards. You’ll need to get that sealed off, as any unlawful entry into the sewers is punishable by a heavy fine.”
“Understandable,” Ashe said, already planning to make use of that passage. “How long do we have to fill it in before we’re liable?”
“Two weeks from discovery,” he answered. “As long as you have a crew contacted and scheduled, you’ll be fine if you end up going a bit over, just keep our office up to date of any delays just to cover your own ass.”
“All reasonable,” Ashe agreed.
She would definitely need to find a way to hide a proper entrance down there, one that wasn’t visible from the other side of the tunnel in the event someone went looking for a secret entrance to the sewers from there. Maybe they could seal it off with a secondary door that was also hidden, make it a proper smuggling route for everything much like the pawn shop ended up being for the Patriots.
“I think that covers everything,” he finished. “We’ll be back in two weeks to check on the progress.”
Ashe nodded. “We’ll hopefully have a lot to show you.”
“I hope you do,” he said, smiling behind the clear mask. “It’s been a damn shame to watch some areas of our city wither away. I’m happy to see someone taking an effort to preserve something of our history here.”
“That’s the idea,” Ashe said, now quite uncomfortable with the man. “I just wish it was that easy to preserve my bank account.”
He laughed. “Too true. We’ll be in touch.”
As they departed, Ashe leaned against the wall and took a steadying breath. “Just because they made a comment about history, doesn’t make them sympathizers.”
Crystal stepped up beside her, a comforting hand gently scratching at her back and sending chills all down her spine. She couldn’t help but lean into the contact, which only spurred Crystal to up the intensity of the scratches.
“You can keep that up for the next hour,” Ashe almost purred.
The scratches shifted, then the warmth of Crystal’s breath washed over her ear from far too close. “I take it you approve?”
“Fuck yes,” she hissed. “Do you have any idea how tense I have been?”
“School, right?” Crystal asked, shifting from pure scratched to some gentle massaging.
Ashe really didn’t want to go back, she had too much going on and so little time to make sure it was all done satisfactorily. She wasn’t used to having so much in motion, or having to trust in others to see it done properly. Delegating things just wasn’t something she had to do before, and now she was having to do it on a large scale.
“Among other things,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about bringing Brie on board with things given how she’s stepped into a leadership role.”
“She has certainly stepped up,” Crystal said in agreement. “How far in do you want to bring her?”
Ashe hummed, then almost groaned as Crystal worked on a particularly stubborn knot in her back. “Trust goes both ways, if I want her to trust me completely, I need to extend trust in turn.”
“That’s always a risk, what if she talks?”
“Jessica, Caralina, Rachel, Keiko, Robbie, Sandra,” Ashe paused for a moment, letting that linger. “So many already know about me, and I’m not even sure if my parents are among them yet. It’s less of a risk than it seems.”
“Okay,” Crystal whispered, stepping back. Ashe turned back, offering a smile she hoped that Crystal could see despite the mask. Her girlfriend’s mask hid her face well, but she could see the sparkle in her eyes. “Oh, to get your mind off that stuff, want to see a project idea I had?”
Laughing, Ashe followed along, happy to focus on something lighter in subject matter. Crystal led her into a back room that was lacking in any major construction so far but had clearly been gone over for mold once. There was no door in place, but unless Ashe was grossly mistaken, she knew exactly what Crystal’s intentions were for the room.
“This,” Crystal said, sweeping her arms wide, “is going to be the new vault.”
Ashe looked around the absolutely massive room and couldn’t help but grin. A joint project between the two of them would be a great way to pass the time together, not to mention how it would certainly help keep her mind off of school stuff.
“When do we start?”