Yet again, she found herself wishing that they could use somewhere other than her living room for their meetings. This was the first time that Shaundi would be properly meeting her old lieutenants, but all she could think about was business. They needed to start making moves, even if Pierce was still missing. It was a Sunday morning, and no one appeared to have anything better to do than lounge around her living room, drinking all of her coffee. Standing, she stood in front of the TV to get their attention. Johnny and Shaundi immediately stopped what they were doing to look at her, and the others took their cue and silenced.
"Lin, I need you racing. I want you to take as much of their money, and as many of their cars as possible. Shaundi, go with her. Rile them up and get them angry about it." The two women nodded and Am turned to Troy and Johnny.
"I want information. I need to know what the police department knows and who's paying who off. Once you've done that, you're free to leave your jobs." Johnny pumped his fist, making a noise of victory. Troy looked less happy about it, but Am figured that was something she could deal with later.
"Kinzie, Matt. I want you guys on airports and docks. I want to know what's coming in. Weapons, drugs, cars- anything they want, I want." The two nodded and turned to their laptops to start work immediately.
"One more thing, I need money. This isn't going to come cheap." They looked between themselves and Am could see an unspoken challenge in their eyes. She didn't doubt that by the end of the day she'd have several kinds of incomes from various dark-web sources.
"Dex, you're on recruitment. Anyone who isn't working on anything can come with you to cover your back."
"Why do I gotta-" Am raised an eyebrow at him and he trailed off quickly. If he kept questioning her, she doubted her patience would hold out.
"Now can you all fuck off out of my house?" There was a grumble from the group, but all but Johnny stood, and began making their way out. She heard Dex make some kind of complaint about Johnny being allowed to stay, but Shaundi shooed him before Am could react.
"We're gonna have some fuckin' fun." Johnny said once they had all left, putting his feet up on the coffee table. Am rolled her eyes at him and put his feet back on the floor, before taking a seat where they had been.
"I want the church." She said, looking at him for his reaction. He cocked his head to the side, furrowing his brow.
"Not the club?" She shook her head. No. She wanted the church. It was where the Saints had begun, and the chance to own it like this was taken from her by Ultor. In this world, she knew that Ultor had just drawn up the plans for the Row. Doing this was risky, but it would not only send a message to the gangs, it would piss off Ultor too. The Saints begun in the Row, and that's where she wanted their rule to begin again.
"I'm gonna get Lin and Shaundi to meet us there. Text Troy and Dex and get them on recruitment." She stood again, pulling out her phone.
"As long as I get to murder someone, I'm in." He smiled at her, and she couldn't help but smile back. This was going to work. They weren't going to lose anyone this time.
As they pulled up outside the church, she couldn't help but notice that work had already begun, but it looked like it had been abandoned. She'd been keeping her eye on the people walking around in red, not surprised that this area was Carnales territory again. Lin and Shaundi were hovering around the side, trying to keep out of sight of the area's patrols. Johnny checked his gun was loaded before getting out of the car. He had his instructions already, so he headed in the opposite direction. Am knew he was eager to get his kill count back up to where it had been before they had been reset, and she wasn't going to stop him from having a little fun. Shaundi walked down the steps as Am approached, already looking pissed off.
"Where the fuck's he going?" She demanded, and Am smirked.
"He's going to have a little fun." She said, and gunshots rang out, echoing off of the buildings. She rolled her eyes "I did tell him to wait ten minutes to give us chance to get ready, but you know how he is."
"You just left him by himself?" Shaundi was angry, but that was nothing new. This reset had upset her, and Am didn't blame her. This whole thing was on the one hand, a godsend. But on the other hand, it was very annoying to have no one know who the Saints were.
"Johnny can take care of himself." Lin said as she approached the two, lighting a cigarette. Shaundi scoffed, and Am smiled.
"This isn't a plane, Shaundi. This is taking down a few guys in red."
It was easier than she'd expected to claim the Row for themselves. Dex and Troy had come through, and there was a group in the churchyard that Lin and Johnny had decided to canonize. Johnny had come back beaming, which was only a good thing. The guy was like a one-man army, and had taken out most of the guys in the area without their help.
Walking into the church, she made her way to the backrooms. They looked almost exactly the way they had when she had joined up, just with less personal affects strewn across the walls. Taking a seat on the desk where she had once sat with Julius, she closed her eyes. Even the smell of the church was the same. That damp aging stone smell that someone long ago had assured her all churches smelled like. It was strange being back here after so long, but she remained confident in her decision to start here. As she relaxed, the door opened and she heard someone enter.
Opening her eyes, she watched Johnny approach her, grinning like a madman. His knuckles were bloody, but other than that, he didn't look like he'd just beaten the shit out of a group of people.
"I hope you didn't leave them too injured." She said as he took a seat next to her.
"None of those fuckers had to go to the ER." He grinned down at her, and she sighed in exasperation.
"I don't know why I allow you to canonize, it just all ends in tears." She tried to get up from the desk, but his arms pulled her back into him. She tensed as she pressed up against him. He'd clearly forgotten what had happened a few nights ago, otherwise he wouldn't be doing this. One of his hands ghosted across her waist, and the other snaked it's way into her hair. She wanted to pull back, to say that they needed to stop. But the way he was looking at her stopped her in her tracks. She liked to think that she had good self-control, but if he kissed her now, she wouldn't protest. She knew how this would end, so she was the one who moved away first.
They drove home in silence. Neither of them wanting to address what had happened back there.
It wasn't until Johnny slammed the door behind them as they stepped back into her house that she turned to him, the pent up rage that had built as they had driven home bubbling up and spilling over.
"What the fuck was that?" She crossed her arms, frowning at him.
"Don't fuckin' start." He warned, but she ignored him, stepping closer.
"So what the fuck are we doing then? You said stop, and we stopped!"
"I don't fuckin' know, Am!" He turned away from her, his arms thrown up in defeat as he walked towards the living room. She followed him, not willing to give up this conversation.
"For fuck's sake Johnny, I can't do this hot and cold! I know you love her, but I'm trying to keep her safe!"
"I love you too! Jesus Christ, Am. This is all so fucked up!" He slammed his fist down on the coffee table, and she flinched as the mugs that had been left from earlier clattered to the floor.
"Don't you think I know that?"
"I just… She's alive." He sighed, and sat down putting his head in his hands. "She's alive."
There was silence for a few moments as they both tried to compose them selves. What else was there to say? They both wanted the same things, but things were just so fucking complicated.
"…I can't go through that again. I can't put you through that again." She whispered, hitting his shoulder with her fist, trying to put what she was feeling into that action. Tears were welling up in her eyes. She loved them both, and she didn't want to drag Aisha back into this, just for her to die again. That's when he broke and stood, wrapping his arms around her.
She cried until she had nothing left to give. Sniffling in his arms, she closed her eyes as he just held her, saying nothing. She slumped against him, completely exhausted. She felt him adjust and scoop her up, sweeping her feet off of the floor. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her upstairs.
Am was dead to the world when he woke up. She was curled up like a child who had stolen all of the blankets and Johnny knew her well enough to know she'd be out of action for the quite a while yet. Quietly getting out of the bed, he made sure not to disturb her. He smiled as he watched her breathing peacefully for a moment. Looking at her like this, you'd never think she'd be capable of any of the things they'd done together. She was fucking beautiful, and he was stupidly lucky that she loved him as much as she did. He tried not to think about the argument they'd had the night before.
Dex was in the kitchen when he went looking for coffee.
"Can you give me a ride? Lin's already left- something about chasing a lead on a race."
"Don't you have your own fuckin' car?" He asked, picking the biggest cup he could find out of the cupboard. He had a feeling that he'd need it this morning if he was still going to pretend that he wanted to be a cop. He was definitely going to miss the police-issue weapons when he threw in the towel. Though, with Kinzie and Matt on the lookout for weapon shipments, he didn't doubt if he asked that they would find him a truck to steal.
"Not all of us got that lucky in this life." Dex said with an edge in his voice.
"Too fuckin' bad." Johnny emptied the coffee pot into his mug, and had to remind himself that Dex didn't remember what he'd done in the last life. Am was adamant on giving him a second chance, and she had promised that he could kill him again if he remembered and dropped his flags again. He sighed and put the mug back down.
"Okay I'll give you a fuckin' ride. I just gotta do somethin' first." He said, turning back to the stairs, heading back to Am's bedroom.
Opening the door, he wasn't surprised to see that she hadn't moved since he'd gone downstairs. Leaning over the bed, he shook Am lightly. She stirred slightly, turning her head towards him, but not opening her eyes.
"Me and Dex are heading out." She reached out and put her hand on his cheek, mumbling something into the pillow that he couldn't quite catch.
He kissed her softly, and she was awake enough to kiss back. She tried to deepen the kiss, but he pulled away. She let out an annoyed huff of air and pulled the sheets over her head. He took that as his cue to leave.
Turning back to the door, Dex was stood on the landing, staring at them both. Johnny chose to glare at him for watching their moment, and was glad Am wasn't fully awake to know that he was stood there. He didn't really want to have to clean up Dex's brains off the walls.
Heading outside, he stayed one step ahead of Dex the entire way to avoid any questions he might have. Unfortunately for him, he'd already promised him a ride, and he was actually in a pretty good mood this morning.
"How the fuck did you manage that?" Dex asked, climbing into the passenger seat. Johnny just shrugged as he got behind the wheel.
"No seriously, how the fuck did you manage to get not only Aisha, but the Boss as well?" Dex demanded of him as he pulled out of the drive.
"Dex, I've told you a million fuckin' times. Eight. Inch. Cock." Dex looked disgusted, and Johnny couldn't help but laugh at his old friend. He'd forgotten how easy it was to wind him up. He sighed and turned to Dex, who just looked so confused. He was struggling to put into words how they'd happened. How had it happened? They were just friends itching an itch, and then suddenly they were living together. He'd fallen so hard for her, that it had taken him by complete surprise.
"She's like fuckin' heroin." He was finally able to come out with, startling Dex.
"What?"
"I fucked her once and I couldn't fuckin' stop." Dex furrowed his brow as Johnny spoke, and he couldn't help but smirk. He thought back to the first time they'd both seen her as a woman. Not that they'd known it was her back then, and Johnny had gotten in a lot of trouble with Aisha for checking her out, but he remembered how Dex's jaw had been pretty much on the floor when she'd walked in the room. Not that Am would've ever gone for a guy like Dex. Johnny knew her type.
"How did that even happen?" Dex finally asked, and Johnny turned his head to him as he made the turning off the highway.
"We were drunk." He shrugged, and Dex just looked at him in disbelief.
"You got everything?" He asked Troy, wheeling his chair across to his desk. Troy was trying to track down the last file, and then they'd be out of there. Johnny couldn't wait to finally get back to his favourite activity. Policing had been fun, but it was nothing compared to murdering. Troy just gave him a dirty look and put a file down.
"This ain't exactly easy, Johnny." He said, and Johnny could see that he very close to swatting him away like a fly.
"Speak for your fuckin' self." Johnny leaned back in his chair. It had been almost too easy to make copies of everything they might need. No one bothered to stop him, though that could have something to do with the death glares he'd given anyone who had approached him that day. The police force weren't exactly the smartest people in the world, and it showed in their records. Keeping records of who was paying off who was, quite frankly, fucking dumb.
His phone rang out, and after checking the caller ID, he couldn't answer it fast enough.
"I thought we'd celebrate your return." Am opened with, and he laughed down the phone.
"Who we murderin'?"
"I was thinking on more of the destructive side. Remember when Dex had us smashing up stores back in the early days?"
"Fuck. Yes."
"Let's show people that there's a new gang in town. I'll meet you at the church."
"This is a bad idea." Dex was pacing by the pews as Johnny pulled on his new purple shirt. He could see Am out of the corner of his eyes lacing up her boots while rolling her eyes at him. He was excited to be wearing purple again. It'd been far too long since he'd properly represented the Saints in public. He didn't count any of that shit on the spaceship as properly representing the Saints. Aliens don't respect colours the way people do.
"Dex, who's the boss?" He asked, crossing his arms. Dex was grumbling, but he pointed over at Am. She straightened up and smiled sweetly at him, waggling her fingers.
"Honey, you act like I don't know what I'm doing." She gathered up her hair and tied it up out of her face. Dex sighed and held his hands up in defeat.
"Whatever." He walked to the back of the church, and Am was smirking.
The jewellery shop was their last target. Kinzie had got them a good twenty minutes before the alarm system reset and they needed to be out of there, but twenty minutes was more than enough time.
Am was on the other side of the room and he could hear cases smashing, but something had caught his eye. Right in the middle of one of the cases was a ring that was screaming out for him to take. It was rose gold, with a large, raw amethyst set in the middle of it. There were two smaller diamond type stones on either side of it, with the metal reaching up almost across the stones. Smashing the case, he reached in and took it, inspecting it.
"Johnny, the clock's ticking!" Am shouted from where she was behind the counter, and Johnny remembered why they were here.
Pocketing the ring, he began stuffing as much as he could into the bag, smashing more cases as he went.