Deal With It.

Chapter Ten "The Santiagos and the Hastings Family"

Lara's POV

Walking in an alley by yourself is never a good idea, but luckily it wasn't as rainy as earlier.

I found an abandoned lease space which would be useful for the night but it was three stories up and the only way up there would be the fire escape.

I figured that my bag would just bring me down so I took out Aqua; my cat before throwing it on the first floor then I climbed on top of the garbage can.

The ladder was a few feet away from where I was and to prevent from a slip, I wore the gloves that Trevor gave to me.

I did a little run before grabbing on to the second rail of the ladder. I used my right foot to push myself up from the first rail and made the climb to the fire escape.

As I reached to the top, Aqua was already there on top of the bag.

I made my way up the staircase to the third floor and made sure that no one was inside.

Unfortunately it was really dark and the rain started to get heavier. I used the army knife that I took from Ray to unscrew the window to budge it open.

That last thing I want is for someone to know I'm here. Quietly and quickly I opened the window large enough for me to sneak through.

I got out my phone and turned on the flashlight for me to be able to see the empty room with wooden floorboards.

The best place for me to sleep was the tub which luckily had a window big enough for me to sneak out of.

I opened the curtain and got comfortable as I drifted off into sleep before setting my alarm for morning.

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It was only 4 am and I heard a sound from outside the bathroom, I saw that Aqua was laying cozy on my chest but it wasn't so long till she was curious about the sound too.

I slowly got up and checked to see who it was. As I looked underneath the door where a little crack allowed me to see the floor boards I saw about three guys.

From their physical feature I knew I couldn't take them so I carefully took down the shower pole that held the curtains and quietly placed it between the door handle and against the wall.

The curtains slid down the pole made a loud noise causing me to panic. "Over there!" Shouts a silent whisper from one of the men.

It would only last for a second but I got my stuff with Aqua safely inside and used my window as an exit.

I heard the door break down as I made the jump from the window to the other building's fire escape. "Damn it!" One of them says and starts to shoot at me but luckily they missed. "Don't! We need her alive." I heard one of them shove another and ran back inside.

Luckily I made it to one of the buses which was about to leave. As I got inside, women in maid outfits and men in button ups coats took up most of the front seats so I sat in the back.

I took deep breath from all the running and decided to stop by another diner for their wifi and the warmth of some coffee.

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Once I got to a new diner on the east side of the city, I got off the bus and suddenly was pulled into the alley that I was passing by.

The person's hand was covering my mouth as he pushed me behind the trash can next to the wall.

Liam's POV

We've been trying to search her for weeks, nothing came up from Trevor or Ray's connection between the south and east cities of San Marco.

I've should of known better to keep a closer eye on her, but how was she even able to manage to leave the hospital in her physical state. Especially her mental.

"Liam, it seems that we have some news from a the men up in the north San Marco. A female, with the same physical state.." his voice started to hesitate, "but the connection to the Vertex seems to be strong in that area so we-"

"I'll go alone. Just make sure that Trevor gets the news..." I head towards my closet to pack some supplies, "Oh, and keep an eye on the Santiagos.'

After packing, I opened my car door and placed the double bag in the backseat as from that I started my drive to the North Vertex. Also known as the gang's war zone.

Ever since the Santiagos and the Hastings family came to San Marcos, it's been a war between the two after one of the family members were having an affair.

Santiagos' youngest daughter, Beatrice was having a relationship with the Hastings' oldest son, Manny; one night Beatrice found out that Manny had been cheating on her. So as revenge she ran to her older brothers that actually sent him to the hospital for breaking her heart.

The girl that Manny fell in love with was Clairese Monet, who used to date one of Beatrice's older brothers, Zack.

Long story short, from that start it had been a family war in San Marco. Manny's family had large connections in places like Brooklyn and Atlanta as the Santiagos took more resources on the southern border.

It wasn't always like this, a war zone between a pile of bodies from each family.

Since the families connection expanded, it brought influence of other gangs to come in relations to the Hastings and to the Santiagos; they mostly compromise on certain protection or weapons ever since they were highly known in that area and legendary.

I drove for hours past several buildings and gas stations. I've only stopped by one of them and then hitted the road for the next 45 minutes. By then I was there, the North Vertex.

The building was similar to the Bronx but more bigger, the Santiagos' and the Hastings both shared the profit of people coming in from different parts of the country just to party.

The Hastings took care of the admissions and the Santiagos' took care of the food and drinks.

Three other different families joined in the profit helping with other monthly payments but most of the dealing happened on the fourth floor.

Upstairs was the main office as the second and third floors was held as the VIP section.

As I got inside from the back, I made my way downstairs where they hold the cargo and supplies. "I'm here to pick up a client." I told the body guard, he doubled checked me and let me through.

The lights were flickering because of how much power the music and lights were used upstairs. I was surrounded by cages full of alcohol and unknown boxes. However as I went deeper down the hall, the man opened the freezer door for me.

Deeper inside of it was another door to the cells. From there I was surprised of who to see.

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Dum dum daaahhhh!!!

Okay I know that sounds looks like a weird word but it sounds better in my head when I wrote it..

So just wanted to make an update to those who read Deal with it:

Unfortunately I will be ending the story soon and will be working on my other story, "Currently in Hell" which I really want to work on so I can.. whale that's a surprise. *evil laugh*

I was wondering if any of my fellow readers would so kindly create a book cover for this story?

If you could just email it to me or send me the picture though my inbox if possible.

Yup so that's all folks, stay tuned for the next chapter of "Deal with It."