A bright spot in my life was Romero though. After I shot Flag and Anderson, Romero helped me get out of any criminal actions against me, in the name of self-defense. The fact he was able to exonerate me when he gave up the information on Flag and Anderson’s theft of the confiscated drugs from the Mexican Mafia also helped our relationship. In time, he and I slowly made up.
Romero opened up and explained he was part of a task force operation sent to find corruption within the force, and although he was checking me out for crime to see if I’d been dirty when I was a cop, he found out I was straight. Because I was still tied to Okamoto’s death, unbeknownst to me, I had been under investigation as well to see if I’d set him up. If the task force had found any wrongdoing on my part, they would have pressed criminal charges against me as a civilian.
“You know, I figured you were innocent all along,” Romero said. “And since you were, I always knew the guilty parties would eventually come back after you this was one of the hardest things I ever had to do,” he admitted. He apologized profusely for having to lie to me like that, but it was all in the line of duty.
Since we’d grown closer, Romero admitted he knew that Mayhem was my brother and that he knew about his criminal background. But similarly, he was kin to a large Mexican cartel drug family as well. He understood the family code ran deep on both sides. Maybe we had more in common than we thought. We were both the first in our families to try to live on the right side of the law.
The down side of my life was I still hadn’t found my younger siblings, but I hadn’t given up trying. I signed up on the adoption registry if they wanted to make contact, but so far, I hadn’t heard anything from them. My mother, Venita, and I still had a shaky relationship, but, as they say, “It is what it is.”
By the way, my Soldano Investigations Agency was growing and I’d recently gone from being a home-based business to getting a little office in Santa Monica. I had to hire an assistant too—Chica. She was really good at tracking down people. To that end, she was planning on becoming a bounty hunter.
“Hey, Chica. Hey, Z.” I looked up to see who was calling our names. Fashionably late as usual, looking Hollywood as ever in her designer shades, Haviland, with Trevor at her side, made a dramatic entrance. She blew fake kisses and handed out autographs to anyone who recognized her.
Chica and I gave each other a look. We broke out laughing. “Hey, Haviland,” Chica called out. “You know you’re rocking that outfit.”
Even Chica had learned to accept Haviland for who she was.
In between small acting gigs and community plays, Haviland had become a wedding planner for some of the rich and famous. Her business was growing due to her clientele’s frequent serial marriages. Unfortunately, she still had to pay off her blackmailer every month, but that’s Haviland. What could I say?
I looked back on my life and now I didn’t just see the darkness I used to see. I saw light. In a crazy way, Romero had changed my life. Now, I saw love as a possibility and not something that was just a fairy tale.
We all have scars and I guess this was a time for healing. As part of reconnecting with my father’s people, I was planning a trip—my first one—to Belize next summer.
One day, when I was at the ocean with Romero, I had an epiphany. Although I was no longer physically trapped in the ghetto, I was mentally trapped because I was a product of it. When I became a cop, I drank to drown out the memories of the sights I saw on the streets, as well as the memories from my own past. But until I confronted my past, I could not face my future. I learned another thing. We could not choose our family, but we could choose the way we wanted to live. Yes, we do have a choice about that.
At the end of the “Mothers of Murdered Children” ceremony, we all released a white balloon in the memory of our loved ones—generally a child. As I released my balloon, I felt like I was releasing all the pain from the past.
I was smiling, feeling content, when suddenly my cell phone rang. I reached in my purse to retrieve it. At first I didn’t recognize the voice since there was so much racket from the crowd.
I covered my ear and leaned down, trying to block out the noises from the rally.
“What? Who is this?”
Finally, I recognized the voice. It was Venita and she sounded distraught. Each word she uttered, dropped a bomb on my otherwise peaceful day.
“Mayhem’s been kidnapped. They’re holding him for ransom.”
Book Club Questions
1. What did you think of the chance meeting between Romero and Z during the L.A. riots? Do you believe it was fate? Do you think their interracial relationship stands a chance—given they come from warring crime families?
2. Do you think becoming a police officer was a good choice for Z?
3. Do you think the warring factions between the Los Angeles black and Latino gangs were drug-related or turf-related?
4. When Z became an alcoholic, given her childhood background and the trauma of getting shot, did this make her weak?
5. Did you think Shirley was a good foster mother? Why or why not?
6. Do you think Chica and her fiancé, Riley, both being former substance abusers, have a chance at a happy life?
7. Were you surprised by Chica’s actions the night before her wedding?
8. Did you think Haviland was telling the truth about the home invasion robbery she supposedly experienced?
9. Do you think childhood traumas, such as the one Z went through on the night her father was murdered, can be blocked out your mind?
10. What did you think of the shared secret between Z and her Kingpin brother, Mayhem?
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L.A. Blues Copyright © 2011 Maxine Thompson
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ISBN: 978-1-5998-3198-5
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