Dead Men Tell No Tales: An AOD Story

Something Broke

Maria stood outside of the warehouse holding Xochitl as Ez spoke to Marcus and Río about what had happened. The man that attempted to rape Xochitl just sat on the ground with his hands bound together and a smug look on his face.

Maria could feel the sweat dripping down from her forehead as the unforgiving sun burned the top of her head.

The fact that Río had any piece of shit work for him told her that he was a real piece of shit.

All 3 men looked over in Maria's direction, physically she tensed up, getting a nauseating feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Río smiled at them as he began walking over in her direction. He had his hands clasped behind his back, hiding something. Maria took a cautious step back as she nudged Xochitl to stand behind her.

Río stopped right in front of Maria as he loomed over her, she could smell the expensive cologne he had on and the smell of the cigar he had earlier.

"The man says that the girl is lying."

"What?! Bullshit! Me and Ez both saw him pulling her pants down!" Maria yelled as she looked at the man disgustingly. He was actually laughing at her!

"Well I'll give the opportunity to set things right." Río pulled a wooden bat from behind his back as he handed it to Xochitl. Her eyes looked as if they would pop out of her head.

"If this man tried to rape a child, she had every right to wipe him from this earth."

"She's only 14...." Maria said cautiously, the response she got was Río shrugging his shoulders casually.

"If it is true what she says, then this isn't a burden she will carry but a blessing. Saving many more girls from a man like that," he was so casual about it, it was terrifying.

Xochitl shook her head violently as she began to hyperventilate. Río licked his lips as an annoyed look set heavily on his face.

"You go kill this man or I will let him walk!" Río yelled through clenched teeth. Xochitl began crying as she begged him no.

It felt as if everything stood still, Maria saw how desperate Xochitl looked, trying to just escape the situation. Her eyes then traveled over to Ez and Marvus, Marcus stood there unphased by what was going on. But Ez had a heavy frown, he knew this was wrong to ask a child to kill a grown man.

Without hesitating, Maria snatched the bat from Río as she stomped over to Ez and the man they had tied up.

She saw how the man smiled at her, but quickly realizing Maria wasn't going to let him get away with what he did.

The yells from Ez and Río were almost muted out as Maria lifted the bat and hit the man smack across the face.

You could hear his jaw break with the powerful force Maria packed into it. Blood came spurting out of his mouth as well as some teeth.

Maria had never been a violent person but something in her snapped. She lifted the bat again as she began hitting the man in the face, over and over again.

His cries were gurgled with the blood in his mouth as he begged for her to stop. But the way he was begging Maria was the same way Xochitl begged and cried for him to stop.

In a world so ugly, if they could wipe out the men that made it ugly, she would.

Finally Ez came up behind her as he grabbed the bat to stop her from hitting the man again.

"Maria stop! He's dead," Ez spoke carefully. Maria's face had splatters of blood on her face, her brown eyes looked empty. She couldn't look Ez in the eyes, she only snatched the bat from Ez and walked over to Río.

Río stood there with his eyebrow arched and a annoyed look on his face. Maria threw the bat at his feet and looked at it uninterested.

"Next time, do it yourself, instead of making a child do your dirty work," Maria hissed at him. She walked over to Xochitl who didn't look as frantic, instead she reached her hand out to Maria. Maria laced her fingers through Xochitl's as they walked off in the direction of the car and bikes.

Ez walked up to Río as he gave him a condescending smile.

"Looks like she's not the scared gringo lover you thought she was," Ez patted Río on the shoulder as he walked off, leaving Río to analyze what had just happened .

_________________________________________

Bradford walked down the busy street as he walked past food vendors and florists. All the Mexicans were up early setting up for the day, to make what little money they could.

The sun was beating down essentially hard today as Bradford stopped to buy an Horchata with alot of I've. He left the man the change as he took a sip of the delicious rice water with cinnamon.

He had to meet one of his informants, and this block was far away from Los Lobos territory.

He adjusted the sunglasses on his face as he sat down on the graffitied bench. Taking another generous sip, a man sat down wearing a ball cap and dark sunglasses.

"I trust everything went well," Bradford said to him as he stared off in the opposite direction.

"Yes, the C4 cannot be traced back to me or the supplier."

"Perfect."

"Can I ask? Why did you send the bomb to the AOD?" The man asked, not expecting Bradford to reach over and grab him by the collar.

"Don't ever say that out loud again! What I plan is none of your fucking business!" Bradford hissed out, he pushed him off the bench as his informant looked terrified and ran off.

Bradford crossed his legs as he took a large sip of his horchata. Once he was done he walked by a man who was sitting on the ground hiding his face with his hand up, Bradford scoffed as he threw his empty cup right next to him.

As Bradford walked off, the man sitting on the ground lifted his head. Angel Reyes stood up from the ground and shook off the dirt from his jeans and put his cut back on.

"Hijo de su puta Madre. Fucking hate cops."

Angel dug out his cell phone as he began to dial Marcus. It rang twice when Marcus answered.

"Hey boss, you're not going to believe this shit."

Oh snap! What's going to happen?! Please remember you guys to vote and comment and let me know what you want to see happen. ❤️❤️❤️