Heart of a Gun (Book one)

Ordinary Routine

The next day...

  The darkness of night starts to clear. The stars in the sky grow dim, the sun starts to bloom on the horizon, golden petals stretching ever outwards into the rich blue. The sun poured through my window with an orange hue, I rubbed my blurry eyes and walked to the window where the blue sky was dotted with fluffy white clouds that drifted lazily in the gentle breeze. As I'm looking out the window I hear a knock on my door, I open it and he's standing right there in front of me. I slowly look up at him knowing exactly why he's here, it's time for me to work for him.

"I know just let me get dressed."

"Ok, meet us downstairs."

"Ok." as she closes the door.

  I go to the closet and find that the closet is full of clothes that don't belong to me, I look through them and I see a note drop to the floor. It says that everything in this closet is mine.

So I decide to put on a black bodysuit with black combat boots, and head downstairs to meet the boys.

"Now that we're all here, let's get started."

  He sends a few of his men on other missions. The only people left are the two bodyguards, me and my brother. He says that he has a special mission for Jj and I.

"Natalie, you and Jacob are going to follow me around and see what I do, so you guys can understand that this is a dangerous game."

"Boringgggg. I wanna do something better than following you around."

"Tallie, don't start your bullshit now we are not on our own this time, so shut up and listen to him would ya."

"Alright I'm sorry, I'll behave myself."

"Let's go."

  We head to the car, get in it and go places for meetings with his underbosses, asking all these questions. Who's showing promise, who's slacking off also.

"Is anyone snitching on you right now?"

"No sir, I haven't heard anything, but I will tell you as soon as I hear anything suspicious during my rounds."

"Alright then, see you in a couple of weeks and ask the same thing and if you're lying to me just know that I know what you do, when you do it, and how long it takes you."

  These question keep him up at night. Feeling pretty well-informed and assured of his men's loyalty for another day. He signals Julian to get the car and take Natalie and Jacob back to the house. He has a lunch meeting today at Cafe Gratitude in LA, CA with one of his more trusted guys, Christian who completely excuses his typical late arrival at 12:15pm. Christian proved his loyalty to him when he worked over the Polish energy companies for his dad, that was before leaving the Soulless Ones in New York and joining his family. So they go way back.

"What's so important that you couldn't just talk about it over the phone?"

"Apparently something's going on with the six laundry and dry cleaning stores owned by Sebastian Sanchez."

  A man who's reputation is as frightening as his prices. He has been dealing with Sebastian for four years now, and before that his father dealt with Sebastian's father. In an organized crime world, that's an incredibly long partnership. It's always been the same agreement; his family protects Sebastian from the thugs In the neighborhoods where he has the dry cleaning services, and in return Sebastian offers some small green pieces of appreciation in little brown envelops.

"Last week Mateo went to collect and Sebastian gave him some attitude and almost didn't hand him this weeks envelope."

  If he's known for one thing it's that he's very, very good at keeping his family, his associate's, and the people who owe him money, in line.

"...sigh..."

  He never enjoys it when the business responsibilities take the president over his personal relationships, but if he let's one person off, more will think they can get away with it.

"Christian, take a couple guys and make sure Sebastian realizes how quickly four years of friendship can go up in smoke."

  Problem solved, at 2:00pm he heads back to the house to work on some paperwork for the business.