Once Trinity had stopped crying, and felt better again. She took me across town to an honestly very cozy cafe. Its colors on the inside and outside were softer shades that made me want to just relax. This place had an indoor bookstore that had a great collection of some titles that I kinda wanted to add to my own collection back home. Even had an entire section for manga. We went and sat at a cozy booth that was just a few tables inside of the room. This place had a total of six booths and about 8 tables from what I could count. After our young waiter took our orders and returned with our drinks, Trinity began to speak to me. Her voice was a bit lower and she had her hands folded like she was gonna make me a business offer.
I suppose technically this was a business offer, as she had told me the night before. “I will tell you everything you want to know, and then make you an offer you cannot refuse.”
“Cindy,” she began with a sigh. “What I am going to tell you, is something that no one truly knows. Not Aaliyah cause I never wanted to drag her into bad things, none of my friends at Serenity.” She rolled her eyes at the word friends. “Know about this. The only one that truly knows is those that I trust, and Tatiana knows but that doesn’t count because she is family.” Trinity then lowered her voice to barely above a whisper, I think she understood that I have pretty good hearing. “Do you know how my dad has so much money?”
“He is a really good businessman,” I said as I silently thought to my father. “Can you hear her?”
“Barely but we can fix that upon studying the audio.”
“Well he is but do you wanna know why he has so many businesses?”
“Because he is a really, really, good businessman?”
Trinity looked at me as if I was a fool but then laughed a bit to herself. “My dad is a drug dealer.” She said that as if it was the easiest thing in the entire world, like she had just told me that her favorite color was blue or something. “He is the biggest drug dealer in not only this state, but soon to be across the entire United States. That is the point of all of his restaurants, his two clubs, all the businesses he owns, it is to clean that money so we can use it.”
My daddy told me in my head to laugh as if she had just told me a joke, but that would be far too obvious. So instead, I choose to just look at her in fake shock in awe. “He is a drug dealer?” I asked again so she could say it one more time so we would have it on audio. The wire around me suddenly felt much heavier with each passing word that escaped her mouth. “Like the ones in the movies, or Breaking Bad?”
“Kinda, but those movies and shows get a lot of things wrong.” Trinity reached out and took my hand. “Before I tell you anything else, I need you to tell me one thing, well actually three things.”
“What is it?”
“Are you my friend?”
“Yes, I am.” My stomach began to fill with guilt as I was a friend but not in the ways she wanted.
“Do you really like me? You’re not just using me for money?”
I smiled at her and patted her hand with my other one. “Meeting you has been the best part of this trip, you have been really interesting and I just want to help you.”
Her smile disappeared as she looked at me with those dark red embers for eyes. “Are you Katherine's daughter?” It took everything in me to not make a face, not tense up, I demanded my body not to sweat. Cause if I did any of those things, I had a feeling this conversation would end one of two ways. She would either run or she would try and kill me. Either way that would end with her being arrested.
“I am not her daughter, Verona Whisperwind.” It felt odd saying my name as if I was a different person. “Why do you ask?”
“You might not have seen me but I was keeping an eye on you during that invasion of my daddy’s club. I watched as you picked those men apart, I watched you fight beside Katherine and it was almost like looking in a mirror sometime. I have seen some other jepei users find that balance between their styles and move as one when they fight together. However, when I saw you two it didn’t look like a past student that ran away, and a master, you looked like a mother and daughter. You fought on instinct, it was like watching a younger Katherine go to work. The only difference was you fought to knock them down, Katherine fought to keep them down forever.”
I took a deep breath. “I am not that good of a fighter, my adrenalina was going through the roof. I thought I was gonna die and you know that in life or death scenarios, our instincts kick in. I have fought with and sparred with her daughter before, so in that moment I just saw her and I fought with Katherine like I would fight with her daughter.” I felt my eyes grow a bit sadder. “I miss Verona and I would love to see her again one day.” If anything, I missed being myself and I just wanted to be me again. My skin itched from the tans I had to get, my hair was starting to annoy me from these braids I had, and I really hated lying now.
That seemed to be good enough for Trinity as she sat back up. “Okay then, I don’t know if you are gonna be able to see her again after I make you this offer.” Trinity thanked our waiter as he returned with our appetizers. “Let me explain.”
And that is what she did for nearly 30 minutes as she told me everything about her father’s operations and everything that she knew about it. From what Hezekiah Wallace truly was doing, as he was the king of weed, but now he dove into other forms of drugs like cocaine from across the board, something called crystal meth, needles. He was now the king of all drugs on the east coast, he was starting to make a name for himself in the south, in the midwest. He was slowly but surely expanding the Marsh Pride into a true empire that could run the United states from the shadows. She spoke as if she didn’t know some details and even admitted that a few things she was just learning. She also explained that his talents caught the eye of Katherine, and she was here to help speed some processes up. She had gotten him connections in cocaine, weapons and even in with prostation. She rolled her eyes as she explained how Katherine had fallen in love with her dad and he shared her feelings. How Katherine convinced him to let her train Trinity and take her skills to the next level. She was worried that Katherine might end up as her step mom. Each thing she said I had her repeat for my own clarification, I faked dumb in some issues, I had to do my best to make it sound like I had no idea what she was saying and needed to be thought like a child.
She then explained to me how she all fits into this. “With an empire so big, my daddy is gonna be busy traveling The United States, a king has to travel to his different prides to remind them who is in charge. However he knows that New York of all places could turn on him at any point, a lot of other leaders really, really, dislike him for what he is doing. That is why the club was attacked, they want to get it shut down so it ruins his best source of cleaning his money. He can’t leave this city, this state to his other trusted allies as they are going to other places to run other operations. So he is gonna leave it to me, I am gonna be well. The Uncrowned Queen of The Marsh Pride. Because as his daughter, people will respect me, and as his daughter he won't have to worry about betraying him.”
“T-That is why Katherine has been taking you to meetings isn’t it.” Trinity nodded her head. “She wants you to know how to hold yourself as a young lady so that you can attend them by yourself one day.”
“Well technically you are not wrong, but I wouldn’t be attending them by myself.” Trinity took a bite out of the sandwich she had ordered and once she swallowed. “I want to attend them with you by my side, this is where I make you an offer you cannot refuse.” Trinity gave me a serious look. “I want you to join my pride, I want you to join as my right hand girl. You could come here and leave Spain, there is a really good private school here that I know you will love. You could attend it with me, well technically I’m homeschooled but I could go anywhere I want. My daddy would pay your tuition with mine, and Tatiana. We could find other girls, or boys, that could join us. We could have an entire crew made by the time we are 16 years old!”
Trinity went on her voice more excited than I heard since meeting her. “Think about it, we would have millions of dollars to spend, we would have to give a small cut to my daddy but that is nothing in comparison to what we are gonna bring in. We wouldn’t even have to do anything really bad, just make sure things keep running. We would owe the biggest empire in the entire state of New York, we could start businesses, if you wanted to go to college you could do that of course. I keep trying to tell Tatiana that but she doesn’t wanna listen. With you by my side as another jepei user no one could challenge us, you have seen how I fight, remember when I kicked you butt in that sparring match.” She said with a teasing smile.
I pouted a bit and looked away. “I let you win that.”
“That is what everyone says when they lose.” She smirked at me but then that morphed into the warmest smile I had seen on her face. “Come on, Cindy, think about it. You would have more freedom, more options, more money than you could spend, plus our friendship would be forever. We wouldn’t have to deal with Katherine except to give her a chunk of cash every month, but we could get stronger and take her out when we are ready to. She can’t beat both of us and then we would be free.”
“Trinity I don’t know,” I said honestly. “It is a good offer but I am not an American citizen and if we got caught as both a spanish girl and a jepei user it could cause issues.”
“We won’t get caught and even if that happened, we would have enough money to get new identities and go somewhere else to live out the rest of our days.” I had to admit, she had a point. It was why we were trying to do so much in secret because we know that Hezekiah Wallace could afford to do that. “We could help Aailyah go to college cause I don’t want my friend paying so much student loans. She could run whatever business we end up opening, this is the best thing in the world. Why would you say no?”
I took the words of my momma and used them on her. “I didn’t say no, I said I don’t know.” I looked down at her for a moment. “It’s an amazing offer, and I like a lot of it, but I don’t know if I could do something like that. There are still a lot of things that we don’t know about each other, we have only known each other for like what two weeks?”
“I have told you more in two weeks than I have told people I've known for years.”
“Why me?”
“Because I like you, you have helped me and had my back since you came with Aaliyah that day. I am a spoiled rotten brat sometimes, I can be a bitch too, but you put up with me, put me in my place, remind me of my manners. Everyone needs someone to hold them accountable and I know with you, you will stop me from crossing lines I can’t come back from.” Trinity reached out and grabbed my hand before putting on her best pair of puppy dog eyes. “Please, just think about it before you leave the city. I can get everything set up for you here, you could live with me! My dad could adopt you if you need american citizenship, we can find a way to make this work.”
“I will think about it, and I will let you know in a few days. It’s a lot to think about.” I admitted as I squeezed her hand. “I need to know one thing, what happens if I say no?”
“Just say yes and we won’t have to worry about that.” The way she said that sent fear running down my spine, cause the way it came out told me one thing. If I said no.
She would kill me for knowing too much.
Or worse.
She might send Katherine to kill me.
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After spending a good portion of the afternoon with her. I let out a sigh as I finally reentered my hotel room. It was very nice to spend time at fancy places and at her house playing video games, but she is very much determined to make me her right hand. Often letting out statements such as, “we could come here after meetings.” or “If you want I have the guest room turned into your own bedroom by tomorrow evening. Just in case you wanna spend the night and see what it is like here.”
I kicked off my shoes before dragging myself into the living room and flopping down on the couch beside my daddy who was looking through all of our audio files from my conversation with Trinity. Office Cooper was sitting nearby and judging from the look in her eyes, my daddy had activated her eyes so she could see our animal spirits and jepei auras. Her eyes locked onto Aisu as she mumbled. “She is just a little kitten my ass.” She then straightened up and looked at me. “You did really well today, Verona, see what happens when we work together as a team rather than individuals, no one gets hurt.”
My cheeks flushed a bit. I doubt she would ever let me forget what happened the other night in her office. “Did she ask you anything else when we left?” My daddy questioned as bringing a hand down onto my head to sooth my nerves a bit more. “And you did really good, sweetheart.”
“Good enough to not be in trouble when we get back to the island?” I proposed hopefully.
“Absolutely not.”
I mumbled into the cushions of this couch before answering his first question. “She didn’t say anything else important, she just really, and I mean really, is trying to convince me to stay here as Cindy and start to learn how to be a queen pin as she calls it.” I turned onto my side to look at Office Cooper. “Is what she is saying true?”
“We knew that Hezekiah was trying to expand his empire, but we had no idea he was expanding it to nearly all corners of the United States.” Office Cooper stated. “However, we now have a better idea of what moves we can make going forward. We have enough to get the warrants we need to close down what Trinity has called his most expensive way of moving money. Order and Chaos is gonna be shut down within the day, and we have enough to even make a move to arrest Hezekiah Wallace and question him. However, the only problem we have is he will be able to make bail as we don’t have enough to truly keep him behind bars. We also have done some digging on your birthmother”
“She is not my birth mother!”
Office Cooper looked over at my dad in confusion. “It’s complicated," he explained. “After what that woman did to us, Verona has banned anyone from ever calling her her birth mom. Katherine is just fine when speaking about her.”
“Well what I can confirm about Katherine, is that it now makes sense what her involvement in all of this was. Up until now we have no idea how this new girlfriend fits into the puzzle of Hezekiah Wallace. I am assuming that he gives her a good chunk of money for all the new business that she has brought him. It also makes sense now how he has been conducting so much business while never going in himself, he has been having her handle these meetings. That or ever worse to think about if she has been letting Trinity lead these meetings and only speaks up when she cannot handle it. To think that he is building his daughter to run the entire drug trade of New York is just.” Office Cooper fists tightened a bit more just at saying that. “What else can you tell me about Katherine Blackthorn that you didn’t tell us in the meeting earlier today, Master Whisperwind, because something tells me you have a lot more to say and more history than you were willing to share.”
A rare glimmer of hatred appeared in my daddy’s eyes. Even his usually soft and bright jepei aura turned a bit darker and more violent. “Katherine Blackthorn was once my wife, she had been with me for nearly 10 years, then Verona was born.” My daddy looked up and looked towards Office Cooper. “How much do you know about Tarun’s darkest day?”
“I know a lot about it.” Officer Cooper said. “That day Tarun island was attacked by members of a different faction of jepei users. They also attacked the United Nations meeting, two of your lords stayed back and fought bravely while the others went back to help your island. The city of New York was a bloodbath that day. That day new sanctions were placed on Tarun Island and a large riff has formed between your home and a lot of nations. No one trusted your island for what those other jepei users did.”
My daddy nodded his head. “Well there is another part of this story, I am responsible for these events.” My hung his head down and his shoulders sank. “I had informed Katherine of the council’s plans, she then informed those darker jepei users who then invaded. She attempted to take my daughter away from me as well, but we were saved by my current wife Ravana Whisperwind.”
“So that is why you seem more interested in Katherine, than you do Hezekiah.”
“Yes, Officer Cooper, taking down Hezekiah was just a part of our operation here. Our main operation since coming here has been to take down Katherine and finally have her stand trial for crimes against the island. As well as counts of abuse to my daughter.” I sat up and wrapped my arms around my daddy, bringing my head to rest against his stomach. He took most of the fall for what happened that day, he was once a trusted advisor to Lord Edward Clearwater, he was a step away from being a grandmaster if he fought for it. However, on that day everything was taken from him. He was forced to stay in our home’s prison for five days, he nearly lost his job and he nearly lost a lot of trust in him. He is not allowed to step foot near the council building anymore, he is not allowed to go near our home's secret archive of information.
It was all because that one woman tricked us, she had a plan in place for years and no one saw it coming.
“I’m okay,” my daddy whispered as he patted my shoulder. He straightened up a bit and wiped at his moist eyes. “That is why I am truly here and why I offered my services to the police in the first place. Because bringing down Hezekiah Wallace is our best bet to take down one of the most dangerous criminals walking on the earth.”
“Well thanks to you and your daughter, we can start taking steps in killing two birds with one stone.” Office Cooper offered us both a smile before standing up. “I will see you tomorrow, Master Whisperwind, and Verona.” SHe gave me a slightly stern look that made me cuddle up closer to my daddy. “If anything else comes up or if Trinity wants to meet with you, call us first and we will make a plan, Cause if you go off on your own again and end up getting one of my agents attacked. I will not be very nice anymore.”
“Yes ma’am.” She stepped out of the room and once the door was closed I sighed deeply into my daddy’s chest. “Why is she so scary?”
“I think it was because you kicked her in the face.” He said. “Now how about we order room service or get something to eat. I am absolutely starving.”
“That would be.” I started to say before my phone began to ring. I took it out of my pocket and saw that Trinity was calling me. “Hello?”
“Hey Cindy…. Wanna see something cool?” I looked up at my daddy, who quickly stood up and went to the door probably to get Officer Cooper before she got too far away.
“Depends on what you are talking about.”
“Do you wanna see what we will be the queens of, something that will help you make your choice a bit faster.”
“What are we talking about seeing?”
“Well have you ever wondered where we grow weed?”
That was how I found myself waiting outside of my fake hotel, with another wire my thought reconnected to my daddy’s. As a familiar looking black suv was starting to pull up. When the door opened up, I was not expecting to see Tatiana and when I climbed inside. Nor was I expecting to see Katherine sitting beside a beaming Trinity. “I hear you are joining our little group.”
Damn it!
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