Jobe: Alvarez Security Series (5 page)

Mackenna sat down
on the sofa after dinner with her mom as they watched TV. She had her laptop on her legs so that she could work while watching TV at the same time.

Penny Dunn looked over at her daughter. “Ya wok too har,” she claimed.

Smiling up as she glanced over, Mackenna said, “I don’t work too hard, mom. I’m just surfing the web right now.” Seeing her mom’s curious expression, she explained that her friend was going to try to get a company to set up some security for the shelter.

Satisfied, Penny went back to watching TV and Mackenna pulled up Alvarez Security on her computer. Reading what all they did, she knew that there was no way the grant would cover any of what they offered. Sighing, she hoped that Jennifer was right and that they would agree to do some pro bono work.

Jennifer had shown her a picture of her husband and Mackenna had to admit that he was gorgeous. The Alvarez Security website had no pictures except for the owner, Tony Alvarez.
God, he’s handsome too. But, Jennifer mentioned that he was married to another one of her friends. Damn, all the good ones are gone.
Ruefully, she looked around at the small, one-level house that she and her mom had rented after Penny had the stroke. Her days were centered around New Beginnings and her evenings were with her mom.
Not exactly conducive for Mr. Gorgeous and Available to come walking through my door!

She saw her mom staring her way again and tried to school her expression. But she was caught with the wistful expression on her face.

“Ya shou go ou mo. Ha fun,” her mom said, turning off the TV and facing her daughter.

“Mom, I do have fun. I went out tonight, didn’t I?”

Making a face, her mother shook her head. “Whe wa the las time ya wen on date?”

“I have dated. Just not recently,” she admitted. “Mom, I’ll go out again sometime, just not right now.”

“Beca of me?”

“No! Because getting New Beginnings up and running has taken all my energy. Who has time to date with all of that?” They were quiet for a moment before she giggled. “And anyway, after Raymond, all other men pale in comparison.”

Her mother joined her laughter, remembering the last man Mackenna tried to date. A boring man with a boring job, who came to dinner and talked incessantly about his work.

“Remember how he kept speaking louder around you?” Mackenna added. “I told him you had had a stroke, but you weren’t deaf!”

The two women laughed until they had to wipe their tears, the memory of that disastrous date in their minds. As their mirth slowly dissipated, Penny looked at her daughter again.

“Wha abou—”

Shaking her head quickly, Mackenna interrupted, “No mom.”

Her mother sat quietly and Mackenna immediately felt contrite. “I’m sorry. It’s just…that ship sailed a long time ago and to be honest, it still stings a little.”

The silence echoed around the room, each woman with their own memories filling their minds. Sighing, Mackenna gave an unladylike snort, saying, “Not only did the ship sail, but it caught on fire as it was sailing away. And then it blew up. And then while it was burning, it got caught in a whirlpool and was tossed around. And then lightning hit it as it was going down. And the waves knocked it over. And then it finally sunk to the bottom of the ocean.” She sat for a second and then added, “And then when all the tiny pieces hit the bottom, they were obliterated and the dust got totally mixed in with the sand, never to be found again.”

Penny lifted her right eyebrow at her daughter’s description. “I thin I ga the pictu,” she said, her heart aching for her daughter as she watched her lost in memory. Mackenna’s expression was not one of anger, but had the look of resignation.

Mackenna shook her head, chasing out the morose thoughts and said, “Let’s go to bed, mom. It’s late and I know you’ve got to be tired.”

She assisted her mom in getting ready for bed and was excited to see how much stronger Penny’s left side was becoming. Her mother beamed as she showed Mackenna how she could get her nightgown on herself.

Smiling, Mackenna helped her mother to bed and then headed to her own bedroom after checking the house one more time. With her thoughts filled with the past, sleep did not come.
Oh, mom. Why did you have to bring him up?

After tossing and turning for almost an hour, she got out of bed and crossed over to her dresser. Squatting down, she pulled open the bottom drawer and felt toward the back underneath her out-of-season sweaters. Her fingers reached the packet of letters and she plopped down on the floor with the papers in her lap.

She smoothed her hands over the envelopes reverently, fingering the addresses in his handwriting. The familiar ache began in her chest. The ache of love. Long-ago love. Lost love. A single tear slid down her cheek and fell on the top envelope. It was not the first tear that had ever landed there.

She shuffled them around until the bottom one was on top. The one that ripped her world apart, never to be whole again. A surge of anger rushed through her as she thought of the words inside. Memorized from having read them over and over and over. A thousand times over.

And just as quickly as the anger came, it was replaced with a dull pain residing in her heart. Wiping her tears away, she put the letters back into the drawer and closed it. She sat on the floor for a long time, her hands as empty as her heart.

As much as she wanted to hate him, she could not. But when she had realized the door to that relationship had finally closed, she never looked for him again. The idea of seeing his smile on Facebook, probably with a new girl, or even wife would kill her.

Oh, to hell with him,
she thought as she pushed herself up off of the floor and padded over to the bed. Crawling underneath the covers, she began thinking of what needed to be done the next day.
Staff meeting at ten a.m. at DSS. Talk to the boss about more grant money. Go over to a few high schools to talk to the counselors about seeing if they can identify girls that might be at risk for joining gangs. Get back to New Beginnings to check on Gabby.

As she recited her day a restless sleep finally claimed her.

T
he next morning
at the Alvarez staff meeting, Tony talked about the contract with the Richland Police to add some security cameras in a few of the areas known to be gang havens.

Jobe admitted to thinking about the gangs when he visited his parent’s home the night before. “After talking to Shane and Matt yesterday, I found myself looking around for signs of gang graffiti. The neighborhood where I was raised is kind of run down now, but it still seems like the families there are working hard to keep it nice.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way,” Vinny added. “I went home last night and did some searching on the internet. I feel like a dumb shit not knowing this, but we’ve got the Bloods and the Crips right here in Richland, along with MS-13. I mean, what the fuck, man? And some of these kids are only about ten years old.”

Gabe looked over sharply, “Goddamn, that’s Ross’ age. I can’t even imagine a kid his age belonging to one of these gangs.”

Nodding to his twin, Vinny continued, “And what he’d have to do to get in. Many of these gangs have either beat-ins, where they get the shit kicked out of them by a bunch of others for three minutes or they have to commit a crime. Anything from stealing to murder.”

Tony said, “I’ve got BJ and Jobe working on figuring out which street cameras can be used and where we need to add some more. We’ll also look at using existing cameras for feed for the police department.”

“Guys, Jennifer talked to me last night and Tony, I was going to talk to you about it first, but it ties into what we’re discussing so I’d like to bring it up now if that’s okay,” Gabe said.

Gaining the nod of approval from Tony, Gabe continued, “Jennifer’s got a social worker friend that’s running a small center for reclaiming women and girls from gangs. It’s been open for about eight months and is run on grant money, so you know what that means. A shoestring budget and lots of hard work for the ones that are trying to make a difference.”

“What’s it do?” Jobe asked.

“It houses a few women who have voluntarily left or escaped the gang life and gives them basic job skills and helps them find work. It’s called New Beginnings and according to Jennifer, it’s doing just that. So far, she said that almost fifteen women have
graduated
from the program and have found jobs and apartments to live in.”

Gabe had captured the attention of the rest of the group. Tony asked, “Does Jennifer think they need our help?”

“Yeah. The center currently has seven women there, and they’re hoping to expand to more. The social worker, Mac, who’s running the place, is a real dynamo, according to Jennifer.” This statement brought chuckles from the men around the table, knowing that to a tiny powerhouse like Jennifer, this was high praise indeed.

“They’re in an old house, not a great area of town, but of course where they can afford it. Jennifer said that there’s a night watchman, who checks to make sure the doors are locked and,” he shook his head, “she said Mac claims there are deadbolts on the doors.”

“Hell, that’s about as safe as you can get,” Vinny stated sarcastically, knowing that the typical deadbolt is nothing to someone who really wants entrance.

“So, Jennifer wanted to know if there was anything we could do to make the place more secure. But if we do cameras, I know she would want them to be like at her Elder Center. Something that could be monitored from here and then have security systems in place that would alert the police department.”

Tony nodded thoughtfully. “Are these girls still in danger from the gangs?”

“Probably,” Jobe added. “From what we’ve heard, you don’t leave gangs…at least not without a cost.”

“There’s more,” Gabe said. “Jennifer told me that the director said there had been some drive-bys. Non-violent, but was pissed nonetheless. They’ve called the cops but according to Jennifer, Mac’s not afraid to run out of the door with a baseball bat.”

“Fuck,” said the group collectively.

“Jesus, that’ll get his head smashed in real quick,” Vinny growled.

“If not fucking shot,” added Jobe.

“Looks like we’ve got a job to do,” Tony stated.

“Boss, you need to know that there won’t be any money from the center. It’s run non-profit by a grant.”

“We’ve done pro-bono work before and this is no different,” Tony said. Looking around the table, he asked, “Everyone agree?”

With unanimous nods and “hell yeahs,” the group began organizing the new mission.

“BJ, I want you to take Terrance and Doug with you as you scope the placement of the camera systems for the city lights. Jobe, I’m moving you to this assignment until it’s up and running. Gabe, you call Jennifer and have her get in contact with Mac. We’ll meet ’em this afternoon if possible at the center and do our initial consultation. You, Vinny, Jobe and I will meet there when you have a specific time.”

*

Mackenna walked out
of the morning staff meeting, her head aching with all of the negatives.
No more grant money for this year. It’ll be tight, but if Jennifer can point me in the direction of some fundraising activities, then maybe we can make it and even have enough for another part-time teacher.

With these thoughts swirling in her mind, she headed down the hall.

“Mac,” came the shout from behind. Recognizing Jennifer’s voice, she turned smiling.

“I’ve talked to Gabe, who’s already talked to Tony, who’s already decided to help out your center.”

Before Mackenna could react to that news, Jennifer rushed on. “And, they want to meet this afternoon to see the center and assess the needs.”

“Wow, they move fast,” Mackenna said, stunned at the quick events.

With a wink, Jennifer agreed. “Oh yeah, all the Alvarez men move fast.”

Rolling her eyes, Mackenna gave Jennifer a shoulder nudge as they walked down the hall together. “You know what I mean. So when do they want to meet?”

“Yes, I do know what you mean and I just wish you’d let someone move fast on you! But as far as this afternoon, Gabe said to give them a time and they’ll be there.”

Mackenna pondered what all she needed to accomplish and replied, “Is three o’clock okay?” She waited as Jennifer pulled out her cell phone and confirmed with Gabe. Receiving her nod, Mackenna continued walking down the hall, grateful to Jennifer, but not wanting to intrude on what was becoming a lovey, personal phone call.
I’m glad for her, but I wish…
Shaking her head, she stepped into the elevators, knowing she needed to rush to get her list of things to complete so that she could be at the center by three o’clock.

*