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“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!” I took a few steps back from my daddy and tensed up as if he had struck me. Before I could even react, he grabbed my arm in a firm grip and dragged me inside of the door and sat me on the couch. He was wearing blue and white plaid pajama pants and a tank top, and his long brown hair was standing on edge in places as his shining violet jepei aura expanded around him from anger. I could see Joshua and Wally poke their head from behind a corner, both looking a bit worried for me.
“Okay, d-daddy let me.”
I jumped as a fierce roar escaped from Thanani's mouth, making me shut up immediately. “Don’t go anywhere, Aisu!” I saw out of the corner of my eye my own spirit animal was trying to creep through a wall to probably avoid this incoming scolding. “Do not test my patience today.”
“This is not on Aisu!” I defended. “It was my idea to do this, so don’t get mad at-” Another louder and longer roar made me tremble, and suddenly I remembered just how big and strong Thanani was. I held my arms out as Aisu jumped into my lap and rested her head against my chest.
My daddy was pacing back and forth in front of me. “What on earth were you thinking!”
“Trinity needed a hand in doing this.” I closed my eyes half expecting Thanani to roar at me again, yet nothing happened. When I opened them my daddy had stopped pacing and was motioning me to keep going. His eyes filled with anger but worst of all disappointment. That was what made my heart start to crack. I was fine with upsetting other people but my momma and daddy I couldn’t stand to do that to them. I hadn’t even noticed that a few tears had started to fall from my eyes until my vision started to blur.
My daddy noticed this, he always did, but when he took a few steps towards me. Thanani stepped in front of him, blocking his path with his large body, he had taken his true size standing nearly to my daddy 's shoulders. “Not yet, you comfort her when she finishes explaining.”
I took a moment to wipe my tears away before shakily explaining what had happened. How Tatiana had asked for my help in getting Trinity to not do this. How that quickly evolved into me helping her do it instead. By the time I finished I couldn’t even look my dad in his eyes. “T-That is why I asked if you ever h-had to do something bad to get what you n-needed. B-Because I didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t see another way to stop her.”
My daddy let out a large sigh before walking forward and kneeling down in front of me. He rested a hand on my shoulder and set one on my cheek, a touch so gentle but my guilt in doing this made it feel so hot. I tried to pull away as I didn’t think I earned such a gentle touch but he was stronger than I was gonna be right now and held me in place. “Verona, this is why I said that there are limits to what I do and you have to set lines you don’t cross, and you crossed a line. I also told you that you need to tell your allies what you were planning. If you would have just told me what was going on. We could have figured something out, we could have set something in place, to capture Trinity safely, we could have put in false information that could have gotten us closer to ending this. Something that might cause discourse between Hezekiah and Katherine. There is a reason why when we do this, communion and cooperation are the two most important things after safety.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
My daddy was gentle but his smile had not appeared, just disappointed so strong in those eyes that I couldn’t bear to look into them. “I am too.” He sighed a bit before standing back to his full size and in a firm voice he said. “You have 20 minutes to pack your bags, I’m sending you home right now.”
“What?!”
“I am sending you home, right now.” He said a bit more firmly. “I already have your plane ticket bought and signed, I have already told Ravana to meet you there in the morning. This is done, over, you are going home!” Each word from his mouth was stronger and deeper than I could have imagined.
“I can’t go home,” I pleaded. “I have to help Trinity, you were the one that told me that I could get things done that you and Joshua never could! I have helped this mission more than you want to admit, that is what you told me!”
“Yes I did, and I am grateful for your help, however you broke a serious rule and set this investigation back.”
“I sent you what I could before I deleted a few more things!” I desperately pointed out. “That has to count for something!”
My daddy looked back at me. “Yes it does count for something, but it should have never come to this in the first place. You choose not to tell me because you knew I would say no, and as I just explained we could have talked about this and set a new plan up. Now we lost a lot of things, and you told me Trinity has the warrants to search the club. For all we know, Hezekiah Wallace is reading them right now and has moved what might have gotten him in trouble out of there!”
“Daddy please,” I begged. “Don’t make me go.”
“My mind is made up, now you have 18 minutes to pack your bags. I should have sent you home when you kept getting closer and closer to Katherine. I should have sent you home after the shootout at Order and Chaos. Hell, I should have sent you home when you first showed up against my wishes!”
“You can’t send me home, we are almost done! We are about to win, that is what you-”
“This is not a game, Verona Aisu Whisperwind!” I flinched as he used my full name.
“I never said it was!” I cried back.
“Verona, get a bag packed and get ready, my mind is made up. This is over and done, you are going home!” I lowered my head as he practically roared like Thanani. “Do you understand me!”
“Trinity is gonna tell me everything about her daddy operation tomorrow!” That got the entire room to go quiet and my daddy’s eyes opened in surprise. “That is what we agreed to! Once I finished helping her she promised me on her word, that she would tell me everything about the empire she is supposed to take over when she is 18. Because she wants me to be her right hand woman! That is how much trust I have gotten from her in the two weeks. She likes me, we share the same pain but her wounds are new, because of your help my cover story makes more sense and that helped me gain more trust. Now we will know everything about his operation and we can use that to end this. If he did move something, then I will know where it is tomorrow.”
“If I may,” Joshua finally spoke and the boy walked into the room carefully putting himself between my daddy and me. He pushed my dad back until he was sitting in a nearby chair, and then he walked over and picked me up to sit me back on the couch. I didn’t even notice that I had shot up to my feet. “Now both of you are gonna sit there, no one's gonna move, okay.”
“Joshua for love.”
“No one's gonna move or speak,” he said firmly towards my daddy. “And Thanani can you please get off Aisu?” I looked over and I found Thanani had one large paw on Aisu’s chest holding her down on her back. If I had to guess, Aisu had gotten upset and probably attempted to step in but Thanani was quicker. She sent a sharp growl towards Thanani once she was let up, one that he countered with a sharp slap to her hindquarters with his tail. A pain that also flowed into my own backside making me cry out. “Now let's all take a moment to relax and remember that we are on the same side. That you two are still father and daughter, and as stupid as Verona was, we can make the best of this. I always say a phrase, let’s take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it to good. That also means version, let's take what we might call a mistake, and use it for good.”
“I’m not stupid,” I muttered as one hand went to rub my stinging hind end, Thanani’s could always swing that tail of his like a whip if he needed too.
“Now let's be honest here, Master Whisperwind. Verona did very much help us again in a few ways, yes we lost a few things and yes they will have a bit more time to prepare for what is gonna be a serious raid. However, for all we know they were already expecting that to happen and moved anything out of the place and out of the hands of his workers. She still risked her own mission to send us copies of the audio and visual files of the other night so we still have those. Plus now, granted Trinity keeps her word, she is gonna be told the entire operation that we have been here to stop. From my own experiences as being made a right hand man, you are shown a lot of things, locations on where things are held and what kind of money is brought in, where it goes, who the buyers are, what we have to sell. Plus it’s gonna be done probably by a barely teenager who is gonna let a few more things slip than she should.” Joshua held his hands up and smacked his legs with a chuckle. “This is better than we could have asked for in the first place!”
“How come?” My daddy asked in a deadly serious voice.
“Because even if we set a plan for Trinity and captured her. She would not tell us anything, she would play dumb and act as if she had nothing to do with this, because for the longest time they were speculations and assumptions that she was involved. However, now when she tells Verona everything she knows, when we do capture her she cannot play that card anymore. Plus information is better when given freely than it would be when forced out of someone. We can also use this to start quickly and systematically taking down places, forcing Hezekiah to get desperate and forcing Katherine to risk a bit more. No matter what warrants we have, no matter how many people we get, they and not even yourself or I, have been able to crack the very strong barricade around The Marsh Pride. What your daughter got us were the keys we needed to get inside of the empire and shut it down!”
“Thank you, Josh-” I was about to thank the boy for seeing my points but he quickly turned around on me.
His smile was replaced with a firm gaze that I didn’t think he was capable of. “Do not thank me yet, because your daddy was right, what you did was just dumb, and you just got lucky that this was not worse!” I held my head down again in shame. “I mean seriously, Verona, there is a reason why on missions like this we are given burner phones or places to meet so we can tell everyone what we find, and judging from this you had a full day to think on this. So that makes it worse. I’m not mad at you…”
“Please don’t say it.”
“I’m disappointed.”
A mix of a groan and whimper escaped my throat as I tried to sink deeper into the couch. Maybe it would swallow me whole and when I woke up this would all be just a really long dream. Maybe when I originally ran from my momma, she caught me and punished me so badly that I was put in a coma that I would finally wake up from.
There was a brief wave of silence. “You are, annoyingly, right,” I looked up as my daddy rested his palm on his forehead, he was leaning so far back on this chair I was waiting for it to finally lose its balance and send him crashing to the ground. “And I suppose because you are right, Joshua. I cannot within reason send my daughter home.” I opened my mouth to speak but he held a finger up to me. “However, do not think you are in the clear for all of this. I am gonna call Office Cooper whom you have probably left with a serious concussion, and you are gonna explain what happened tomorrow morning. We are gonna make a game plan together then, and get this done. Part of me wants to have her bring you to jail so you can spend a night in a holding cell.” I shuddered a bit at the idea. “However, instead, we are gonna make a date for you to clean her very large house, from top to bottom. Help her harvest her impressive garden, mow her lawn, clean her gutters, the whole nine yards. Orginazine the basement, the attack, everything!”
“I would rather face the wrath of momma when I get home than do that.” I said quietly.
“Oh trust me, the more I tell your momma what you have been up to, the more she seems to add on to your already lengthy punishment.” I finally found the strength to look at my daddy who finally had a small grin on his face. “If you are gonna do this with us Verona, there can be no secrets, no going off like a movie character, or someone in a book, and doing your own thing against other’s wishes. This isn’t a game, I need you to understand that. We are a team, and I need you to remember that.”
“Yes, sir. I’m sorry, I really am.”
“Your apology is accepted.” My daddy stood up and took out his phone. “I need to go make a few calls, one to your mother and the other to Office Cooper.”
“I will handle Office Cooper.” Joshua was already putting on some track shoes. “I can get these faster, and I am hoping that I can catch her before she wakes up.” He smirked at me. “Or she might come and arrest you for assault on an officer, breaking into the NYPD, and riding on the back of a motorcycle as a minor.”
“Wait, how do you know about that?” I asked.
“I had Wally wait outside when I noticed that you were gone.”
“Wait, you were on the back of a motorcycle?”
I bit the bottom of my lip as I spun around to face my dumbstruck daddy once more. A bit of nervous laughter escaped my mouth. “Can we maybe not tell momma that part either?”
“She also didn’t have a helmet on.”
“Shut up Joshua!”
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If I thought sitting across the table from my momma was scary. Sitting across from Office Cooper who had not been very happy since she walked through the doors of our large hotel suite was even worse. Her glare did not soften, her eyes looked ready to burst into flames at any moment. She had a very swollen black eye, which only managed to make her look even more scary looking. I apologized as soon as she stepped into the room but she didn’t really reply, just gave me a slight nod, but my daddy explained everything that had happened. It brought new worry to me when he told her that I would also be in more trouble when this was all over, and of course offered my services to completely clean her house, her garden, the roof and attic. She finally spoke with her hispanic accent filled with much more venom than I had heard from her before. “And you are sure that Trinity Wallace is gonna tell you everything about this operation.”
“Y-Yes ma’am… after we finished she told me that she was gonna tell me everything. She wants me to be her right hand girl, and I think she is starting to pick people to join her version of the marsh pride. I don’t know why but the entire empire is gonna be handed to her when she is 18. That is what she told me.” I looked up at her as she started to write things down in a notebook. “I am so-”
“And when is this meeting supposed to take place?” She interrupted rudely but I supposed I had earned her rudeness.
“Today, at around 1:00pm. She is gonna send someone to get me from the hotel I told her I stay at. I think she is gonna take me for lunch or maybe just to her house.” I then snapped my fingers and quickly wrote down the address of her house in Brooklyn. “This is the address of where she has been staying for a long time. If that helps.”
She took the paper from me. I don't know how she mastered this death stare of hers but it did wonders in making me squirm like I was sitting on hot coals. “We need to get you fitted for a wire and myself and your father will be following close by so we can keep the signal. Well do that trick you jepei users use to connect your thoughts so I can tell your father what I need you to say. Am I understood?”
“Yes, Office Cooper.”
“Once you get enough, you can turn it off and we will go over this information once you get home. Knowing Ms. Wallace she is probably gonna want to hang out with you after this conversation.” She finished writing in her notebook before snapping it shut and putting it into her bag. “Are you allergic to dust?”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“Are you allergic to dust?” I thought about her odd question before shaking my head. “Good because I have not cleaned my attic in nearly three years and it is getting very dusty up there.” She cracked a firm but kind glare that put me at ease a little more. “I am sure your father already scolded you enough, and while I enjoy looking at your squirm in your seat under my glare. I suppose I will stop for now.” She folded her hands and glared at me once more, but this one felt more motherly and kind rather than mean like before. “Understand this, Verona, you put this operation at risk with your actions because you decided to do this on your own. Things like this only work with trust on all sides, even when I send my men into the field to do similar work to yours, we keep a constant communication so they are not at risk when it is over. You are very lucky that I was able to convince my superiors that this was the plan, a bit of a reckless plan but one that might get us more than our warrants could have ever. However, the next time we work together. You will follow your father’s rules, you will follow our regulations, and we will communicate much better. Cause if you do something like this again. I promise, you will spend a few days in a juvenile corrections center for obstruction of American laws, am I understood?”
“Yes ma’am,” I did lift my head a bit more as I excitedly asked. “You mean there will be a next time that I get to work with you?”
“Personally I would love to have you come back if we need help with a case like this again.” Her gaze softened as she smiled at me, “however it might not be for a while, cause if your father is anything like me. I don’t think you will be on a case for a long while.”
Office Cooper left with promises to return in a few hours. She had a doctor's appointment for a very bad headache. (I wondered who caused that) I had finally allowed myself to relax and fall onto a pillow on the couch. “Why do you work with so many scary women?” I questioned as I felt the couch dip down a bit and smelled my daddy’s usually cologne. “First momma, now this woman.”
“Oh you would love Lieutenant Marybelle, now she would make you want to cry and than would have ordered you back to the island if she was leading this case.” I relaxed a bit more as his hand came to rest on my back and rubbed it softly. I rolled over onto my back and gazed up at his large violet eyes, that held a warmth in them that always chased away the pain that Katherine used to bring.
“Are you still mad at me?”
“I was never mad at you, I was-”
“Please don’t say it,” I begged, pulling myself up to rest my head on his lap. “Just say you are mad at me, cause at least anger goes away eventually.”
“So does disappointment,” I let out a groan that made him chuckle lightly. He ran his hand through my tightly braided hair. He ran a hand across my deep tanned skinned forehead and than carefully took out the brown contacts that I had been wearing. “I suppose part of me cannot be disappointed, the more steps you make the sooner this mission is over, and the sooner we can get you out of this disguise. It has served its purpose but I am ready to go home with my daughter Verona, not my partner Cindy Perez.”
I smiled up at him as well before holding my hand up and he rested his on it. “I am ready too, I am tired of lying and getting into bad things. I just want to end this, I want to get Trinity back to the island too, and do you think momma would let us have a visitor for a few weeks or maybe a few months?”
“Who is it?”
“I think it would be nice if we took Tatiana to the island for a bit, so she can learn in a safer place, and learn to control her newfound jepei. I think she would really like that, because from what she told me. She is gonna be forced into this empire and she really doesn’t want that.”
“As long as her parents say it is okay, I am sure your mother would love another young lady to stay with us?” He pushed my hand down until it was resting on my stomach, he locked his fingers around mine as then added. “As long as you never bring a boy over to stay, I am fine with whatever people you want to have stay with us.”
“You really like Cody.” I said with a giggle thinking back to my other close friend back home. His shaggy hair and always lightly tanned skin and freckles that painted his face like fresh snow.
“That is different.” He said with a roll of his eyes. We stayed like this for a few more moments just enjoying each other’s company.
I was ready to get this done, because I did want to go home to all the people that care about me, and I want to bring two girls back so they could have a much better life. A place to learn and have fun and learn how to use their gifts for good and not evil.
An evil that had a plan much bigger than I ever imagined.
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A few hours later I was fitted with a new wire and got dressed in dark leggings, a white skirt with a bit of a bronze trim. I wore a white and gold hoodie, and under that was a shirt of matching colors. My braids swung a bit in the wind as I waited outside the hotel that I always gave Trinity when she asked for it. “I am here,” I thought as I gripped my gemstone. I had connected my thoughts to my daddy about 15 minutes ago. It was a bit awkward since he could hear all of my thoughts so I had to force myself not to curse in my mind. I don’t think he would be mad if he knew I sometimes cursed in my mind, but I didn’t want to press my luck as much as I have been.
“I can hear you,” he thought back. “Once you start talking, I will give you a few things to speak on and we will be right behind you.” I looked over to my left at the unmarked dark blue suv that my Daddy and a much more calm Office Cooper would be riding in. “What words did we agree on if you felt unsafe?”
“I need to go home, my daddy is calling me.”
“And if you need help?”
“I say, I don’t want to talk anymore please leave me alone.”
As soon as I finished that, a large black suv that I knew as Trinity’s personal car pulled up. The door opened up and I saw Trinity poke her head out of the car. She had brand new braid extensions now, these ones much thicker than her original ones. From what I could tell she was wearing dark brown pants, and a black long sleeved shirt that exposed her strong looking core. She smiled up at me. “Come on already,” she said before moving back for me to step inside.
I nodded my head before climbing inside of the large suv and the door was closed by her driver. “How are you?” I asked, turning to look at the black girl with my own smile. She looked much better than she had in a while.
“I am okay, Aailyah woke up today.” She said cheerfully, and I could see that her eyes looked a bit more puffy than normal. I assumed she had cried both tears of relief and joy. “So if you want we can swing by there, I don’t know if you have been there yet.”
“I heard from my auntie that she had woken up, I was planning to go sometime today.” That was the truth as Mrs. Porsha had called us earlier to inform her of that. “How was dinner with Tatiana?” I asked with a playful smirk. “I hope you didn’t get into trouble because you two can’t get along.”
Trinity rolled her eyes a bit. “It went fine, one small hiccup but we managed to get through dinner without angering my daddy. He has been kinda stressed lately with everything that has happened.” She looked at me with a grateful expression filling her eyes now. “And you really helped us in our time of need. After what we did last night, we should be okay while he does what he does best.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Trinity turned her gaze out onto the street watching these tall skyscrapers pass by us. “He is good at hiding his mistakes, or hiding problems that might threaten our pride.” In these slightly tainted windows I was surprised that she didn’t look happy when she said that, she normally talked about her dad with such pride, however right now she looked tired and bored. “He is annoying sometimes with how much he is willing to hide to save face. Don’t tell anyone I said this but he is not as strong as he looks.”
“Can you hear us?” I thought in my head before saying out loud. “Why do you say that?”
“I can’t hear you, we are getting static. There is probably a bug in that car.” I hid my disappointment. “So save anything important till you are in public with her.”
Before I could respond to her, Trinity replied. “My daddy is a lot of things, a strong and great man. He started from the bottom and made an empire where he is at the top. He has so much of New York in his hands that it’s almost like he runs it. There is nothing he can’t get his hands on or do, but he has limits. He is not the smartest tool in the shed sometimes, he overreacts to sudden problems, he sometimes feels more like a small kitten than the lion he is. I like my dad, but sometimes I hate him.”
“Why would you hate him?”
“Part of me blames him for what happened to my momma, because when she was sick and couldn't afford to go to the hospital.” Trinity stopped talking and in those dark windows I could see tears starting to roll down her face. “Knowing that I had a rich daddy that could have helped… it makes you look at someone much different.”
I didn’t hesitate to pull her over and into my arms for a hug. She cried silent tears and all I could do was hold her as she did. Determined to help her feel better.
Not noticing that this was the only truth, she really did tell me.
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