Another Lifetime

Chapter Twenty:

Monse's POV:
Jasmine sneaks me into RollerWorld from the back door. Chivo let us come in after hours but I know people are still looking for me. "Monse." I hear my dad's voice and my eyes start watering. "What are you doing here?!" I run and give him a hug. "Some girl named Jasmine called, said you'd be here. I can't be here too long but I just wanted to know you were ok. I brought you clothes and some other stuff." He wipes my eyes and hands me two bags. "How's CJ and the baby?" I ask. "They're good. CJ came home the second she heard what happened, she's fighting for you to come back too." My dad says and I shake my head. "Dad don't. We both know it's not gonna work." I tell him. "Monse, I gotta try. You're my kid and I don't care what you did-" I cut him off. "Dad I was protecting someone. I didn't do anything wrong." I defend myself and he nods. "I know. We do what we have to. They forgave me for being with your mom, we'll figure it out." There's no point in fighting with him. The front door shakes and I flinch. "Did anyone follow you here?" I ask. "Nah, I took CJ's car and everything. I should still go though, I'm not gonna be the reason you get hurt. Call me tonight." He says and I hug him. "I love you." I say while we hug. "I love you too." He rubs my back and he goes. "Thank you." I walk back to Jasmine. "No problem girl." She shrugs. "How'd you even get his number?" I ask. "Girl, you're gonna have to learn that I know everything, and if I don't? I'll learn it. Just give me an hour and I'll know." She shrugs. "Cesar better get smart and start letting you run with the guys." I tell her. "You know how it is, these guys don't respect us." Jasmine says while we look through every book on the bookshelf. "Yeah, I swear Latrelle's the reason they didn't let me do shit. They barely even wanted me around." I admit. "Seriously? The Santos love the girls but they act like we're soft if we haven't killed someone. Prophets sound like bitches." Jasmine tells me and I'm starting to realize that maybe they were the problem. "You don't wanna be a Santo, right?" She asks. "I don't know." I shrug. "Well, I heard there's these girls starting their own crew... maybe they're better for you." She says. "In Freeridge?" I ask and she nods. "We're here." Jamal says when he walks in from the back door. "Man why the hell do you have a duffle bag?" Jasmine laughs. "You never know what we're gonna need!" He rolls his eyes. "You guys find anything yet?" Ruby sits next to Jasmine. "Where's Cesar?" I look up at Jamal from the floor. "Don't know, probably with his brother." He shrugs. "Has he texted any of y'all today?" I look around and they all shake their heads. "If he doesn't get here by the time we leave, I'll call a few Santos and we'll go looking for him." Jasmine says and I nod.
An hour goes by and nothing. I'm starting to lose my patience. I hear the back door swing open and my first instinct is to grab my gun, Jasmine does the same thing. "Hey." Cesar looks down at our guns and then back at my eyes. "We really gotta stop meeting like this." He laughs and I hug him. "Where were you?" I ask.

Cesar's POV:
I drive to my house and when I pull up, everyone looks relieved. "We heard what happened." Spooky stays sitting and I walk toward him. "So you heard that Monse saved my ass?" I ask and he nods. "I heard she was gonna kill Latrelle. If you find her, get her to the Prophets." I can tell this isn't what Spooky wants. "Why? She was just helping me." I ask. "If we give her to them we don't get hurt." He's being hella dry. "If we give her to them she'd be killed!" I remind him. He grabs the back of my neck and drags me inside. "You know the Prophets want you dead. You're lucky this is even an option!" He screams. "How the fuck am I lucky? If she saved your life you wouldn't let them kill her." I slam my hands on the table and he just grabs a beer from the fridge. "You're right, I wouldn't, but only 'cause I would handle shit myself." He's never gonna let me forget I didn't kill Latrelle. "There's another option." I tell him. "Ok." He laughs. "Money... a lot of it. We just need time." I say. "How much time?" Spooky asks. "A couple months. Until we can get it I was thinking maybe the Santo can keep her safe." I suggest. "What do I get?" He asks. "A brother that isn't dead." I say and he slams his beer bottle on the table. "Protection isn't free. I help shit ton of people in Freeridge, keeping 'em safe from Prophets, right?" He asks and I nod. "Right?!" He screams. "Yeah." I say quickly. "And you know, I'm nice but I'm not that nice. Everything comes with a price, even staying alive. So how do they make sure I stay nice?" He asks. "They pay you." I sigh. "Nah, they pay us and you know that 'cause when I was gone, you got the money. I know you're not stupid 'cause you handled the Santos for a while but being the one with all the power doesn't mean you can screw everyone else over. There's a lotta guys out here waiting for their turn to take your place." He says. "That's what this about? You want your power back?" I laugh. I know what I gotta say but it could ruin us for the rest of our lives. "I'm done pretending like you have any say in this. The only one who decides anything in this place is me. You're on parole, I can take away the little power I let you have in a second. Hell, I can make sure you're in prison so long you never see your kids again. If I say we're protecting her, that's it." I say and he nods. "Good to know." He walks out and I follow. I catch everyone up and I can see how pissed off some of them are. I know it'd be easier to just turn her in but that's not how we work.