by K. A. Ware
"I like things done right."
"And you can't trust anyone else to do that?"
"Can you?" I fired back, already knowing the answer.
She snorted, "Touché. And we're here."
I glanced out the window to see we were in an unimpressive suburban neighborhood. The houses were old, but the lawns were manicured. It looked like the kind of community someone's grandma would live in. The house we'd pulled up in front of was painted a pale yellow with white shutters, and rosebushes were lining the driveway.
I followed Vic up the paved path and waited as she rang the doorbell. As if to confirm my earlier suspicions, an elderly woman answered the door with a bright smile.
"Mija! I didn't know you were coming today," she exclaimed and waved us into the house. "And who is this you brought with you?" Her tone was light and her smile didn't waver, but there was suspicion in her eyes.
"Juanita, this is my friend Antonio. We're just stopping by to check on things."
"Oh, is that so? Where's Luis?"
Vic waved her free hand in the air. "Probably sleeping it off back home."
Juanita's sharp eyes didn't waver. "Have you seen the weather forecast?"
Victoria laid a hand on the old woman shoulder and smiled. "Yes, clear skies from now until next week."
Upon hearing this, her shoulders relaxed, and the shadow that had been covering her eyes vanished. "Well, come on, come on. Would you like me to make you something to eat?"
"I think we're okay, thank you, though."
"Fine, but I'll send you home with something," the woman said, taking the casserole dish from Vic and heading off out of the room.
My confusion must've been written on my face because Vic just shook her head.
"The casserole dish had four kilos of coke in it; she'll take the drugs and then give it back with enough food to feed me for a week."
It took a lot to surprise me, but for whatever reason, this woman kept managing to leave me off balance. I was impressed with her ingenuity; she was more than intelligent, she was clever.
"I see, what was that about the weather?"
"It's code if I were to say that thunderstorms were coming she would know that something was up and call in reinforcements. We don't usually bring people around that she's never met. Come on, let's go downstairs and I'll show you around."
We followed the path Juanita had taken which led to a large but dated, kitchen where she was pulling ingredients out of the fridge. Victoria motioned me through to a door that revealed a set of stairs. It was evident by the pungent chemical smell what they were doing in the basement.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Victoria asked as we pulled into her driveway.
There was a young boy, probably not much older than sixteen, sitting on her front steps with head in his hands. He looked like an average kid dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, not at all who I'd imagine darkening the doorstep of a drug Queenpin. Which is what I was beginning to realize was exactly who Victoria was. Her intelligence and organization were far beyond what I'd initially given her credit for.
She called out to him as we approached. "Ricky, you're supposed to be in school what are you doing?"
"I know, but I had to come talk to you," he said, his eyes darting to me hesitantly. Apparently, nobody in Victoria circle was used to seeing new faces.
"Okay then, come on in," she said and motioned for him to follow us into the house.
Once inside, Victoria waited expectantly for Ricky to explain why was there, but he didn't say anything just eyed me wearily.
"It's fine," Victoria said waving a hand in frustration. "He's with me, what's going on?"
I didn't want to admit to myself how much I liked the sound of that. I was in Portland to do a job, a fact that I was starting to forget the more time I spent with Vic.
"I heard some shit, some bad shit, Vic. Javi has been spoutin' off about you."
The fierceness that had been absent most of the day was back in full force. Vic's shoulders straightened, and her defiant expression reappeared. "Spouting off how?"
The kid shrugged and looked at his feet, clearly uncomfortable on the receiving end of her wrath. "You know, talking trash about you and about what you're running."
"What is he saying, Ricky? I don't have all day."
Ricky took a deep breath as if it pained him to have to repeat whatever this Javi guy had said. "He's been telling everyone that a bitch shouldn't be running things around here like you've been. He said that there was a new crew in town that was going to take your turf."
"People have been talking trash for years, and Javi is just a little punk. You're telling me that you skipped school to come all the way down here and tell me that?"
"No, not just that," he admitted, rubbing a hand over his buzzed hair. "He said something else, Vic. He said this new crew is going to steal your business from right under your nose. That they already started and pretty soon nobody's going to want to buy anything from you. He wants to make you pay for what happened to his dad."
Vic looked stricken. "For what happened to Hector? That wasn't me."
"I know, but he said the only reason that party got shot up was because your brother was giving you more control than you deserved."
I watched as Vic's spine visibly straightened. "Is that it?" she asked. She looked like she was done listening and ready to spill blood.
He nodded, still looking uncomfortable. "Yeah, that's all I heard."
"Where can I find him?"
"I'm not sure; he hasn't been living with his mom for a while now. I think he's been shacking up with Lil' T's ex, Jade."
"The junkie?"
"Yeah, I saw him with her at a party a couple of weekends ago."
"Fucking awesome," Vic groaned. "She is a damn wreck."
"Do you know anything about this new crew he's running around with?" I asked, breaking my silence.
The kid startled at my voice as if he'd forgotten I was there. "He didn't say, but if he's into some shit, Nico's going to be right there with him."
Vic clapped him on the shoulder. "Thanks for giving me a heads-up, kid."
"You saved my life once; I've always got your back."
Vic scoffed. "I don't know about all that, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Now get your ass back to school. If your mother finds out that you skipped school to come here, I'll never hear the end of it."
"No problem, Vic." He nodded and hitched his backpack up on his shoulder before turning for the door.
"You want to explain what that was all about?" I asked once the kid had left.
She pulled at the ends of her hair and collapsed on the couch. "Javi's father was a man named Hector. He was killed in the same drive by as my brother. He's always been a punk ass, but I never considered him a threat."
"Is he a kid?"
"No, he's about twenty, maybe twenty-one, but he acts like he's fucking twelve."
She dug her phone out of her pocket and began typing out a message. "I think Jade lives in Rockwood, I'm not sure where exactly, but Ricardo should know."
"Who's Ricardo?" I was beginning to realize that despite keeping her business tight, Vic was well connected in her community.
"An old friend, he only deals when he's strapped for cash, but he's pretty well connected."
"Can you trust him?"
"As much as I trust anyone who's not family. He's a good guy, if he knows where to find her, he'll tell me." She tucked her phone back into her pocket, the movement causing her back to arch and my thoughts to temporarily wander.
I wonder if she tastes as sweet as she looks?
"Antonio?"
I blinked, coming back to reality. "What?"
"I asked what you thought of the distribution house. Did you see anything that could be a potential problem?"
Focus, damn it.
I searched for anything that would hide the fact that I had just been fantasizing about bending her over the couch. "I didn't see any holes in your p
rocess. From what I can tell you run fairly seamlessly. I know you don't want to hear it, but we need to consider the possibility of the threat coming from within your ranks."
She groaned, collapsing onto the couch. "I know. I just don't want to believe it."
I took a seat on one of the wingback chairs and chose my next words carefully. I wasn't good at comforting people; I'd never actually tried to before. "The idea that someone you trusted betrayed you isn't an easy thing to wrap your head around, but in this case, it looks like the most probable answer."
Vic's knee started to bounce as she considered what I'd said. Shoving her fingers through her thick, black hair, she sighed and flicked her eyes to me. Instead of the despair or even denial I expected to see, I was met with fire. "Where do we start?"
There was only one place to start in a situation like Vic's. "Who wants you dead?"
After an entire afternoon of picking apart everyone who had any connection to Victoria's business, we were no closer to finding the person or people responsible than we were to begin with. Despite the fact that her reach had expanded from a small block to the entire city in just ten years, she had a surprisingly limited number of known enemies.
"You mentioned that your brother was killed in a drive-by, is the rival gang still in play?"
Her eyes sharpened, and I noticed her nails digging into the exposed skin of here knee where her pants were ripped. "I'm not in a gang, Mr. Chairman."
I'd noticed she only called me that when I'd said something she deemed to be ignorant or stereotypical. "Pardon me, but typically, drive by shootings are gang related. Are you going to be a smart ass for the rest of the day or have you had enough and decided to be helpful?"
She didn't answer my question. Instead, she leaned forward and scooped up a wooden box from the coffee table. Opening it, she produced a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. "I've been trying to quit, but this isn't a conversation I can have without a nicotine fix."
A smile played at the corners of my lips; I knew the feeling. I'd quit half a dozen times, but it never stuck for long. I watched enraptured, as she wrapped those full, blood red lips around the cigarette and lit the end, inhaling deeply. My dick stirred to life, and I had to look away. I needed a distraction before I embarrassed myself by sporting a raging erection while we talked about her dead brother.
"Do you mind?" I asked gesturing to the pack she'd set on the table.
"Go ahead."
We sat in silence for a long while, letting the smoke from our shared bad habit curl around the room until she was read to continue.
"My brother was impulsive, he had an ego the size of this house and didn't think ahead. He was trying to gain more territory by force, it worked for a while until it didn't."
"What happened?"
"He had been trying to move deeper into the Gresham territory, which I told him was a bad idea. A local gang, The 12th Street Boys, had run the area for years, and they were vicious. About a week before the shooting, he had gotten into a fight with Demarcus, the leader of the gang at the time. Santi thought that if he humiliated him at the party by beating his ass, his crew would lose respect for him and it would weaken them as a whole, giving us the opportunity to slide in and take over the territory."
I nodded my head, understanding where she was going and wishing for here sake, there was a different end to the story. "I'm guessing it had the opposite effect?"
"You could say that. Demarcus was a proud man; he wasn't about to be embarrassed by a punk kid from the barrio. So, he found out where we lived, gathered up some guys, and shot up the house."
"You said this Javi kid's father, Hector, was killed at the same time?"
A shadow passed over her eyes, and she nodded. "We were having a cookout; the entire front lawn was filled with friends and family. There were wives, grandparents, even kids running around. Demarcus didn't care, he just shot up the whole place, not giving a fuck who was caught in the crossfire."
All earlier desire vanished and rage burned through my blood. "Kids?" I didn't consider myself a noble man, there was too much bloodlust in me for that, but there were lines I'd never cross, and killing children was one of them.
"Yeah, he was a piece of shit. Thankfully, the kids were playing around the side of the house and didn't get hurt. At least not physically."
"How many did you lose?"
"Nine dead, six more injured. Some of them, like my brother, died instantly, a few on the way to the hospital." Vic's tone had turned flat and cold. The earlier emotion replaced by a detachment that unsettled me. She'd fallen so deep into her memories that her cigarette had burned out without her noticing.
I gently reached forward and pulled it from her fingers. The move caused our fingers to brush against one another, the contact drawing her from her thoughts. I could still feel the warmth of her soft skin on my fingers as I set the butt in the ashtray.
"What happened after that?" I prompted, not ready to let the story end there. I wanted to know more about the beautifully fierce woman sitting in front of me. I couldn't help the feeling that I'd just scratched the surface of what she was capable of.
Her eyes flicked to mine, and the fire was back. "I killed them."
It was the answer I expected, but it didn't tell me if the gang was still a threat or not. "What happened to the gang after you guys killed the shooters?"
She leaned forward, her eyes never wavering. "You don't understand. I killed them all. One by one, I picked them off and slaughtered every last man who wore the 12th Street colors. There was no one left when I was finished."
My body turned to stone, and my heart started to race. I'd come to realize she was a formidable businesswoman, but I hadn't pegged her for a killer. At least not in the calculated fashion she'd just explained. "By yourself? How did you manage that?"
"I had to send a message, and it was received. I had help rounding them up, but the kills were mine and mine alone, except Demarcus."
"You didn't kill him?"
"I didn't get the opportunity, Luis got to him first and lost his mind with rage. When I told you he was a lunatic, I wasn't exaggerating. Even though it wasn't by my hand, he got worse than what I'd planned for him."
"And what was that?" I tried to tamp down my growing excitement, I knew it was fucked up to be getting off on her savage vengeance, but I couldn't help it. I wanted more.
If Vic picked up on my eagerness, she didn't let on. "I had every intention of letting my dogs rip him apart. After they had been taken care of, I expanded."
We hadn't broken eye contact through the entire exchange, and I had to work hard to control my breathing. I wanted nothing more than to rip her clothes off and bury myself deep inside her. I wanted to feel her heat and her rage; I wanted to relish in her pain.
The chime of her phone broke through our cocoon of smoke and confession.
Checking the message, she typed out a reply and looked back up at me. "We've got an address. I've got to grab a few things then we can head out." Vic climbed from the couch and bounded up the stairs, to what I imagined was her room.
It wasn't long before she came padding back down the stairs. She still wore the jeans she'd had on before, but she'd changed out of the flannel and was wearing a snug fitting black tank. Her hair had been pulled back, and she'd removed her hoop earrings.
"What was wrong with what you were wearing?"
She grinned and walked past me to the coffee table. "I need a full range of motion in case the bitch doesn't want to give up her little fuck boy." Clearing off the table she lifted the top off to reveal an impressive arsenal.
The way she ran her fingers across a set of knives reminded me of Mia and her penchant for blades. Vic snagged a small dagger and a switchblade, slipping them into her boot. She grabbed a Glock from the hollow table and checked the magazine before tucking it into her waistband.
I waited, staring at the gorgeous woman that had shattered all of my preconceptions, like an idiot as she replaced the top to the
table. Vic stood up and walked past me to the front door without giving me a second look.
"Come on; you're driving," she called from over her shoulder.
For what felt like the hundredth time that day, I found myself trailing behind her like a lost puppy. Despite it being unusual for me, I was surprised to realize it didn't bother me.
"I thought you said my car was too conspicuous."
The smile that broke out on her face looked almost crazed. "It is, but this time, we want people to know we're there."
Chapter Nine
Antonio
On the drive across town to Jade's apartment, Vic explained how she and her brother had taken over their small block after her uncle had gotten arrested. She told me how after Santiago's death and the subsequent aftermath she'd brokered deals to become the main supplier in several areas around the city.
"You guys helped me out."
"Us?" I asked, glancing away from the road long enough to see her nodding.
"Yeah, when you ran off the Russians a few years back it created a gap in the supply chain in the area. Since I already had the relationship with the DeLuca's, it was easy to up my product intake and step in. It wasn't as if it was a hard sell, I had the product, and without the threat of Ivan looming, people felt safe to switch. The crews from California didn't even get word that the Russians were out of the game until after I'd already started distributing."
My grip on the steering wheel tightened as I remembered all the Kashnikov's had done. "Were the Russians trouble for you before?"
"Not really, we were pretty small time before they took off the first time. When they came back about a year ago, they started rattling cages though. If you guys hadn't stepped in, I was going to have to."
"Seems to have worked out for everyone."
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her settle back into the leather seat. "Everyone but the Kashnikov's. What did you end up doing with Ivan and Boris anyways? They were there one minute and then gone, the only word on the street was that they were dead and the DeLuca's were the ones to do it."