***LOS ANGELES***“Listen, Amy, it's not what it seems, alright?”“Then, what is it, Dad? What is it? My birthday came, and you didn't text or call... I don't expect any gifts from you or anybody because I wasn't born and)or raised in a happy home to begin with, was I? All I ask for is some visibility... Treat me like I exist! You stashed me here with Aunt Sarah so you could run off and go on your never-ending 'Save A Life’ missions and I'm supposed to just cope, just like that?”It was a shouting match going on between Snyder and his daughter, Amy, and currently, based on points and facts, he was losing. Heavily.Sarah was in the room but she'd chosen to say nothing and allow father and daughter banter and sort their shit out the way they saw fit.“Amy.. It's my job and I have to do it..”“Yes, it is... And yes, you do, but have you thought of me, how I fare? How much do I long for someone who knows me to talk to? How many questions about the world do I have? Have you ever thought of
Juan, still terrified, drove down instantly to his boss’ house to inform him that a member of the Uomini Marrone was now in town and on their side of Tijuana, for that matter.He was perplexed and distressed as he drove, and when he got there, he just walked through the guards at the gate and went into the house.He walked towards Don Dani's workroom and opened the door only to see the man screwing a woman who was none other than his girlfriend.“Zelina, you bitch!” He yelled.When she saw him, she didn't even flinch.She was Stark naked, bent over Don Dani's worktable and the man was drilling her from behind while grabbing onto one of her big breasts with one hand and pulling her hair with the other.“Get the fuck out of here, Juan!” Don Dani barked in response.Painfully, Juan walked out, shut the door, and sat down on one of the chairs outside the room, in an area that served as a low-budget waiting room.He should have known that sooner or later, she would leave him, and who could
“Gabi, I swear, I don't know what to wear. Nothing feels right for the occasion..”“Come on, Ruby, that excuse is not even going to work..”As she held the phone and listened to his reply from the other end of the line, Ruby smiled to herself: Gabi had caught her.She was nervous about this whole family meeting thing, and she would actually have preferred just meeting Gabi at his place that evening and having a nice, quiet, and PRIVATE time, but now the man was taking her to meet his entire family as though they'd already fixed a wedding date. It was stressful for her, and although she'd said ‘yes’ at the time of his asking, she hadn't been able to relax since then.She checked her watch and saw that it was almost 7 p.m., with just twenty-five minutes removed, and this increased her heart rate. She was nervously nervous.“You don't have to look like The Queen of England, Ruby... It's just dinner, and besides, my folks are cool; nobody's going to berate you or look at you weirdly even
“I know this is the seventy-one time I'm going to be saying this, Ruby, but... I'm so happy to finally meet you. I only just heard about you today, but Gabi won't let my ears rest since... You're very welcome.”Hearing the woman of the house, Mercedes, say these words with a smile on her face and excited gestures made Ruby feel very good and much more comfortable.“Thank you, Mercedes... I'm happy to meet you, too... I was nervous before coming because I didn't know what to expect, but... Yeah, I'm happy..”“You were nervous? Of what? We don't bite... Gabi, what did you tell her?” Mercedes turned to her cousin with surprise on her face.Ruby admired the woman. She was heavily pregnant and looking like she would go into labor any minute but she was still very pretty and agile, too, unlike some women Ruby had seen who would look bloated and inflated and as though they weighted the world inside them. Seeing her made Ruby ache for a family; well, she had seemingly found one, now. And hope
The family dinner at Gio's house had now turned into a full-blown table for the revelation of secrets.“I was told that there'd been a kidnapping at Tequila, and I went there with my partner to handle questioning and stuff... As it turned out, I met and questioned Mindi..”“You met Mindi..?” Mercedes asked, interrupting Ruby's expose.“Yes, I did,” Ruby replied, “And my partner, Snyder, spoke to the manager at the place... Andrej.. At the end of the day, we couldn't deduce any useful information from either of them... Mindi was too shaken to give me any valuable answers, and Andrej, well, I didn't talk to him, but my partner said he was being dodgy and looked very nervous. As though he knew something or even everything about your disappearance.”“He did..” Mercedes said bitterly.“Hold on... Agent Snyder? I know him!” Bonita exclaimed.“You do? How?” Ruby asked, surprised.“He was at Tequila, trying to spy on a meeting, and I saved him from getting killed because my boss had gotten wi
“It's getting crazy over here, Sensi..”“I knew it would... The US is not too far away from Mexico, so I'm not surprised that it still feels like you didn't go too far, with all these people popping up who know everything about you and Mercedes.”Gio, having been distressed all through the weekend, after the dinner, and up until this moment, a Monday evening after the close of work, at about 8 pm, was putting a call across to Sensi as he balanced books for the day and prepared to leave for his house.“So, what would you suggest? Or, what would you do, if it were you in this mess?” Gio asked.Whenever he was in trouble, 'What would Sensi do’ was the question that would pop up in his mind.Sensi exhaled heavily over the phone before saying, “Honestly... If it were me, I'd be leaving Mexico, first thing tomorrow morning.”“What?” Gio asked, stunned.“What do you mean 'What’? If it was so easy for all these people to come into your life who knew and still know so much about the past you'r
Ever since she realized that she hadn't escaped her past by fleeing Mexico, Mercedes had lost her peace. She was now extra cautious and fearful of being attacked at any time. Who knew who else was in Tijuana and was waiting to pop a surprise just like Ruby and Bonita had done?She was seated with Grandma Angelina and although nothing was being said, it was clear that something had to be said.“Mercedes..” Grandma started, “What's the matter?”Mercedes looked at her grandma with a look of surprise; was that a real question? Everything was the matter!“Grandma, I think the question should be, 'What's not the matter’..”Grandma Angelina smiled and asked her:“Where's Daniella?”“In her room, she's sleeping... Bonita is also in her room, she might not be sleeping but I know she's in there.”Bonita had stayed over after the dinner since she'd been told that she was free to stay for as long as she wanted; the apartment, a seven-bedroom home, was big enough to house them all.After making s
“Woah.. What the fuck happened here?” The following morning, Detectives Paz and Selena, who'd been informed of an incident at the house in a certain residential area that looked to be more than it seemed, had shown up to the house with Omari and Snyder in accompaniment, who hadn't even known that it had any connection with Mercedes and had just simply wanted some investigative action. The house was a mess; windows had been smashed up, the door had been taken off its hinges, the expensive flat screen TV had been ripped out of the wall and smashed, the couches had been turned upside down, the walls had been battered by what looked like baseball bats, wardrobes and cupboards had been destroyed, portraits hanging on the walls had been thrown down and around. It looked as though someone had been paid to make the house uninhabitable forever. “And, the weird thing is, people living around here say that they didn't hear any gunshots or screams; just the breaking of glass and sounds of c