I couldn’t even begin to form words as I stared at what looked like an endless amount of herbs. Thanks to the light I could see that this place had an ending point but even then it was so far away. I could only imagine how much work had gone into this place, rows upon rows on soil. As we walked through I could see that these plants were all growing from extremely long troughs and when I placed my hand in one to test the soil. I recognized it immediately. I had helped my momma grow her garden when she first moved in, it was the best way for us to talk while I got used to her. “T-This is from Tarun Island…” It was not unheard of to get soil from our island, after all with the amount of jepei that was inside of our soil, our plants could grow much faster, and we even had some fruit and veggies that could only be grown using that soil. “H-How did he get so much of it?”
“That is a secret he is still saving me.” Trinity walked alongside me, the pathways here big enough to fit one large man comfortable but two girls of our size could walk nicely. “This took the most time and it is still his greatest form of revenue. It was his idea when he was just a rookie to make this place, he still comes here some time to water all of these rows by himself, with just a small watering can.” I shook as the sprinkler system over head went off and cool water began to mist around us. Some spots created a small rainbow from the dim but warm light that was coming from the lamps up above us. “Only you, myself, my daddy, and Tatiana truly know what is here. And maybe a few of his top men, and the workers but that is not important. This is what he has left me to watch when everything is ready to go.”
We walked to another part of this collection, and some of these plants had started to change colors in their leaves. Some dark brown, other vibrant shades of blue, pink and yellow. Some a lighter shade of green, and the scents coming off them were nearly overpowering my great sense of smell. I was grateful when Trinity handed me a mask to put on over my face. “T-This is incredible and I am really the only one you have shown? How does all of this work.”
“I could explain that but first, come with me really quick.” Trinity lead me through a door in the back where another area was. I could see a lot of workers, mostly women, going through and collecting some of the more vibrant leaves and starting to separate them. A few stopped to bow at Trinity, paying homage to their soon to be queen. She took me into a room that had the first signs of actually color, pale white walls and even a soft carpet over the stone floor. There was a desk with two chairs, a series of papers resting on the large desk. As soon as the door closed. Trinity turned around and put her hands behind her back. “Cindy, I need you to pull up your shirt and spin around please, and thank you”
I was suddenly really, (really!)glad I decided to not wear a wire today like my daddy had asked me. However, I still had to play it up and forced myself to blush a bit. “Why are you asking me that?”
“Because I need to know if I can really trust you, now please do it.” I faked as much hesitation as I could as I tenderly pulled up my shirt just up to my upper chest. I did what she asked and spun around and once I finished, I was surprised as she was now in front of me and hugged me. “You aren’t a spy or anything, you really are not one.”
“Yes I am” I thought to myself as I hugged her back. It hurt not being able to tell her who I was, like I had done with her cousin, but I had no choice. “Next time can you ask me to do that when we are in a car or something? It is too cold for that here and embarrassing.”
“I just had to make sure.” Trinity sat down at the chair behind the desk, and I sat at the one in front of her. They were a bit too big as my feet were dangling a bit in the air. “So it has been a while, have you thought about my offer?”
“It has been two days, and I still need more time.” Trinity let out a groan and laid her head on the table. “Well I am sorry that joining a drug empire isn’t the easiest choice in the entire freaking world!”
“What is there to think about,” Trinity whined as she lifted her head back up. “What else do I have to offer you? We would have endless money, we could do whatever we want, we would rule as queens, you could fund your way through college, we could pay for your cousin’s schooling. We could run this entire city and no one could stop us.”
“Trinity!” I said in a serious voice. “It is not an easy choice.” I folded my hands together. “One I am 13 years old, two I have family, and friends back home, three this is very, very much illegal and we could get into a lot of trouble for this. Trouble that could affect both of our futures.” I then pouted a bit at her. “I also don’t appreciate you bringing me here without telling me.”
She puffed out her cheeks a bit. “It was supposed to be a surprise.” Honestly how she could go from so snobby and rude, to prime and proper, to a little kid was pretty impressive. Almost like she was good at faking different faces for different things.
“Trinity,” I began. “Don’t get me wrong, your offer is amazing, I really do like you. I would love an excuse to stay in America with you and my cousin. I would love that more than anything. However, this is a lot. It really truly is a lot to take in. I am scared to death of Katherine Blackthorn, and knowing that she is gonna be a part of all of this makes me even more afraid. You know what she has done to me and her daughter, I have told you what she tried to do to the island of Tarun.” I slapped my hands on my knees in a frustrated way. “It’s not a choice you can just make knowing all of that.”
Trinity unpuffed her lips letting out a long sigh as she did. “I understand,” Trinity answered, and much to my surprise. She took out a small piece of paper and began to roll a bit of these herbs into it. “I just really like you and I really don’t want to lose you.”
“What are you doing…” I questioned.
Trinity didn’t answer as she just made what I knew was a blunt in a few moments. She lit the tip of it using her own jepei aura and then a familiar strong smell started to fill the area as she took a deep breath. I had no idea that Trinity actually smoked this stuff, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by that but it still caught me off guard. She let out a puff of smoke and leaned back in her chair. “You shouldn’t be smoking that,” I said weakly.
“I do it when I am stressed, most of the time I’m at my club I am nearly high.” It suddenly started to make more sense why her eyes sometimes looked much redder than before. She offered it to me and I immediately shook her head cause I am pretty sure if I did smoke it my daddy would send me home with no ifs, ands or, buts. “Crazy how I rarely have to smoke when I am with you.”
“Stop doing that,” I said firmly. “Stop trying to guilt me into staying, yes!” I closed my eyes as this strong smell was starting to get the best of me. “And can you please put that out for just a moment, it is very very hard to focus right now. I have a really good sense of smell and it is really powerful.”
I heard Trinity sigh and a moment later I heard what sounded like it being put out. “I am sorry if I am rushing you into this, it’s just been the first time I meet someone I can talk to about all of this.” Trinity answered softly. “I wanted to tell Aailyah but she is not really a violent person and is a goody toe shoes sometimes. It’s not a bad thing but I just want someone I can trust. I don’t have a lot of people like that, Tatiana and I don’t get along, the others are kinda fake and hate me. You share my pain and I trust you for that.”
I closed my eyes once more and I knew what I had to do but the risk of saying no might ruin everything when I do pull the carpet from under her. “You told me when this all started and you explained what this was, that you want a chance to take down Katherine, to maybe even kill her and get her out of our way. How long would that take?”
“Well considering that my animal spirit has also turned my own spit into a very tonic poison I can use to weaken her, and considering that she is teaching me more on combat and with what you know. A year, maybe two, we could learn from her and use that to our advantage.”
“I don’t have a year or two,” I thought to myself before speaking out loud. “What happens if I say no? You have shown me so much, are you gonna kill me if I say no?”
“I will not kill you if you say no.”
“Will you send someone to kill me or hurt my cousin or my family here?”
“I give you my word I will not.”
“And what happens if I say yes?”
“Everything I said and then some.”
I knew what I had to do, I knew what I was risking but maybe I could get much more done if I was much closer than I have been before. “Okay… my answer is yes.” I yelped as Trinity launched herself across the table and tackled me in a tight hug. My chair went tembing backwards as I felt her shaking with laughter and maybe even some tears.
“Thank you,” Trinity whispered. “Thank you so much, you stupid little brat.” She whimpered though I am sure she was probably smiling.
As she kept me wrapped in that embrace I thought over to Aisu. “Aisu, please tell me you have a good idea of where we are?”
“I have the entire way tracked,” I heard her answer back.
“Good girl.”
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When I got back to my real hotel room I was absolutely exhausted. “Don’t start please,” I whispered as my daddy looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I smelled like weed and I didn’t like it at all. “I need to throw these clothes away, they stink.”
“Where did you go?” My daddy questioned.
“Would you believe me if I told you Trinity took me to where Mr. Wallace keeps his weed house? His massive football field sized, weed house about 30 minutes from the city of New York.”
Joshua looked up at me with true surprise spreading on his face. “Hang on, you went to the actual facility?!”
“Yes,” I said, tossing my jacket into a garbage bag. “Also I am very glad I didn’t wear a wire because Trinity checked me for one. She trusts me much more now because of it….” I answered. “I also agreed to her offer.”
“To be her right hand?” Joshua asked.
“Yes, it is the only way to get more information I think. Also she has a wild plan to try and kill Katherine in like two years or something.” I let out a sigh as I wrapped my arms around myself. “I really need to take a shower, can I maybe do that before you start questioning me. Please.”
Once I had finished a nearly hour long shower to scrub this smell out of my skin and change into some comfy pajamas. I found my daddy and Joshua sitting in the living room with a few cups of whisky between them. “And Trinity smokes weed.” I announced as I plotted down on the couch between them. My head resting on my daddy's side.
“I kinda figured that.” Joshua answered. “It only makes sense that after being surrounded by the stuff she would do that.” Together they spent the next twenty minutes asking me questions about what I saw and I told them everything I knew including how Aisu had seen the way even when they blindfolded me and then they questioned her. I was expecting Joshua to be happy but he was kinda worried. “This is a fucking trap.”
“What are you talking about?!” I said, growing discouraged about his words. “Did I do something wrong?”
“It’s not that you did anything wrong, it's just that we can’t act on this yet.” Joshua explained in a grim voice. “Listen to me, knowing where that facility is one of the biggest discoveries ever made to be honest. Since this dude showed up his kush has the best in the city, knowing that it is grown with truck loads of tarun soil, suddenly explains why some farmers have not been getting it in the state. Thanks to the amount of nature energy in that soil, it grows underground without any problems or worry of sunlight or having to water them each and every day. This is an important discovery but she has not placed the ball in your court per say.”
“How so?”
“Well what do you think might happen if this famed groove of weed suddenly gets the attention of the police?”
“Wasn’t that the plan when I originally was gonna go.”
“We had no idea what she was gonna show you.” Joshua answered. “I honestly assumed it was gonna be something else, like where he is shiping things or how they clean their money or some other trick of the trade that Hezekiah might have shown his daughter. This is on a new level, he might be stretching out into new revenue sources, but this is his pride and joy, rumors on the streets say that he started building this when he was just a rookie. He convinced his OG to let him build and even put his life on the line for it. Everyone is trying to find that place, and no one has. If you know where it is and suddenly the police go marching in guns blazing towards it. Who is Trinity gonna blame for that?”
I opened my mouth but then slowly closed it, biting down on the bottom of my lip in frustration. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, letting a few of my braids swing down to cover my face. “I didn’t think she would show me that place and it was a waste of time.”
“Not a waste of time per say.” Joshua said in a much more soothing voice. “Yes we can’t jump on it however, when this is all over we know where it is and we can make sure that no one who tries and takes up the mantle can use it. We also have to make sure that it doesn’t fall into the dark order’s hands because if Hezekiah is taken out. I can only imagine that they would want to get their hands on it, probably rebrand and find how he grows the best weed on the east coast, and honestly probably in the United States.”
I was glad that at least this was not a total failure on my part. “What is gonna happen to Hezekiah Wallace anyway?” I never did know what was gonna happen to the man when this was all over and we got him.
My daddy was the one to explain. “He will be taken to Tarun Island and spend his time in our prison instead of an American prison. It will be safer that way since most times as we have discovered in the past. If they are without a proper place to limit their strength. They can escape pretty easily, much like animals we also share a need to not be caged.” His large hand came to rest on my head, “You did good Verona, be proud of it.”
“What is the next step?”
Joshua was the one to answer. “I have found that three of the places Tatiana has given us are the real deal. I was able to get inside of one of them last night and get some nice evidence of millions of unclean money that they are still working on, and found one more that holds a good chunk of it. From Tatiana’s testimony she seems to be the one being trained in cleaning that money. The only thing that is worrisome is two locations seemed to be false.”
“So she lied.”
Joshua shook his head. “No not a lie per say, just that information was wrong. Maybe they either moved them or even maybe she is not as trusted as she may think. After all these two girls we have to remember are your age Verona, you don’t show a toddler how to run before you teach them to crawl. He hasn’t shown them everything just yet, just the beginning.”
I nodded my head as I moved over to lay down using my daddy’s lap as my pillow. His long finger rubbed against my scalp as I finally started to let my body relax. “Do you think that maybe you can convince momma not to skin me alive for at least two days when we get back. This is tiring and draining and I wouldn’t mind sleeping for a few days at the least.”
His light chuckle never failed to get a smile to creep up on my lips. “I can make no promises but I will promise to at least speak to her when we get home. Perhaps your show of good deeds will be enough to convince her otherwise to just ground you for six months.”
“I would rather be skinned alive.”
As we were blessed with a new day. I was annoyingly woken up by my phone's terrible annoying alarm. I lifted it off the bed while mostly hanging off it and held it against my ear. “Hello?” I answered with a loud yawn.
“Morning, partner.” I held back an urge to groan as Trinity was speaking to me. “Hey, I need a favor, can you maybe meet me at turtle pond today? I need to do some training today, I have a soft afternoon session with Katherine today. She is not in a very good mood after what happened last night.”
“What happened?”
“Didn’t you see the news yet?” She questioned. “My daddy’s nightclub was shut down a year not only because of the shooting but because somehow the information we deleted that night ended up on the desk of a few more annoying people. So our mission the other day was a failure!” She was not a very happy girl right now. “So of course she is gonna take her frustrations out on me… I just really need some help, and can you maybe help Tatiana this morning too. Katherine says she has to come as well. That it is time we speed our training up just a bit.”
“I’m on my way.”
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After Joshua had dropped me off. I walked down the familiar pathway to turtle park to find Trinity and Tatiana waiting for me. Trinity was nervously pacing back and forth, her thumb held in her mouth as she bit it over and over. Tatiana on the other hand was sitting by the lake reading a book. She looked up from it just a bit and gave me a slight nod. “Morning Cindy.”
“Morning,” I say, dropping my exercise bag on the ground. “What are you reading?”
“Getting a head start on some of my english homework, cause unlike you two apparently I am in school.” I had honestly forgotten that in America school started in September, I was also starting to realize that when I got home our summer break would be nearly over and we would start the fall semester. Our school was all year round, and we had four, four week breaks in between each of them. “I also have practice today, so can we get this over with? I had to use one of my sick days to come here.”
“Your school gives you sick days?”
“No, I give myself five days per semester to take for myself.”
“Well, you are not gonna have time to go to practice when Katherine beats us black in blue in training today!” Trinity snapped angrily. “I don’t get what happened, we got that stuff at nypd deleted, we did good, but why is this happening?”
“Maybe the attack against the club the other night got them wondering what might have been the cause.” I answered as I sat down on the ground and waved them both over. “However let’s not worry about that right now, we need to-” I stopped speaking and I started shaking not from the slight chill that came from this early morning breeze but of true fear.
“What is wrong?” Tatiana asked.
“Cindy what is wrong?” Trinity asked.
“Yes Cindy,” they both turned around to see Katherine walking towards us. She clad in tight leggings, a tank top that showed off her scared but strong looking arms, her hair was tied back in a bun with a few locks of her hair spilling over face. She was taking off a seat of headphones and pressed a button on her phone that was strapped to her arm. “What has you looking like you have seen a ghost?”
“W-Why are you here?” I asked, trying to stand strong, but I could feel the color draining from my face.
“I was in the area jogging, this is the best place to get a good dose of jepei in the morning.” She looked over the three of us and I could see the wheel starting to spin in her head. “I suppose this perfect timing, all three girls here in one place. I hear that you are official joining Trinity’s little pride, Cindy welcome to the family.”
“T-Thank you.” I whispered.
“Well, then since you are all here. I don’t have to worry about excuses that are gonna come from Tatiana or the whining of Trinity so late in the evening.” Katherine clapped her hands together and I could just feel her amusement from her. Her dark violet eyes lighting up a bit in what I could only imagine was her dark version of glee. “Let’s begin your training, right here, right now.”
I haven’t been trained by Katherine in nearly five years.
I was not emotionally ready to even begin to train with her again, because if there was one thing that could give me away that I never even thought about. It was that I had only two styles of fighting, my own way of my fathers and my own way of my momma’s, both that Katherine would recognize.
And if that wasn’t enough. The best way she could remember me, was by my jepei aura.
I could change my face,
I could change my hair,
I could tan my skin blue if I needed to,
By the feeling of one’s jepei aura never changed.
And I would need every ounce of training I had to survive her wrath.
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