Fitting in

Chapter Eight

Frankie was relieved. She believed her Father. He was not going to send her off with Jaycee again. Carlos spoke up again and told Jaxson to check under the name Jaycee Adams using her middle name. A minute later Jaxson found her and stated she was serving a 15 year sentence. Her Father looked at Carlos and firmly stated, "Rodriguez take your men and leave now. You will be well paid for assisting my daughter. If I ever discover you have contacted my daughter or allowed her to contact you tho I will destroy you and your company Rodriguez. Do I make myself understood?" Carlos calmly replied, "Do not threaten me Blackstone. It is perfectly fine if you choose not to use my company for your future party's. Understand tho if your daughter ever needs protection from you I will provide it. I do not blame your sons for her being out on the street but I do blame you. If you ever hurt her again you will have me to deal with." Her Father's face turned angry and he picked up his phone stating, "I will destroy you Rodriguez."

Frankie did not remember getting to her feet but the next thing she knew she was on her Father's desk trying to strangle him. She heard freeze and felt the cold barrel of a gun against her temple. She froze listening intently for the sound of the gun cocking. Instead she heard the cold furious voice of Anton demanding, "Get that gun off my sisters head before I kill you old man!" As the gun left her head Frankie heard her Father demand, "Then you had better control your sister Antonio." Before she could react suddenly Frankie was in Anton's arms. She went to fight but before she could she was sat down on the desk edge with her back to her Father. Anton took her chin in his hand and she felt her blue eyes meet his dark brown eyes. She stared at him as he replied, "You are OK Frankie. He never had the gun cocked. You just startled him." Frankie nodded and said, "Yes I know but I can't let him destroy Carlos. I have to protect him just like he protects me." Carlos came into her view and said, "Frankie, do you really believe I require your protection?"  Frankie suddenly felt stupid and shook her head no. Anton replied, "Frankie I will not allow him to even try to destroy Carlos. I owe Carlos for protecting you and I will not forget that debt. Now I am going to protect you instead tho. Instead of calling Carlos I need you to call me."

With that he removed her phone from her pocket and handed it over to Jaxson. It took him less than a minute to bypass her password and get into her phone. Frankie laughed to herself thinking how useless that would be for him. Frankie had already removed Carlos number and cleaned off her phones memory. There was nothing useful on that phone. Biggest loss was she had put the spare phone card, that she always kept, on it. That was $30 bucks wasted if she did not get the phone back. Once he found nothing on it he would most likely just throw it back at her tho. Carlos now looked her in the eye and replied, "Frankie I am leaving. If you really need me call but only if you really need me. Understand?" Frankie reluctantly nodded and Carlos continued, "Antonio I am trusting her with you. Not with him!" As he spoke he pointed his thumb at her Father and Anton nodded. Carlos continued, "She has a horrible temper and her brain turns off when she gets mad. She is really smart though. She has a photographic memory but has not gone to school since at least 11. Even before that it was a crappy inner city school. She just needs a chance to grow up. Your Mother never gave her that chance. If you ever give her back to Jaycee I will spirit her away and you will never see her again. She can be a pain in the neck but I would risk my life to save her. Most likely my men as well." He glanced over at Manny and Tony who verbally agreed. They left with both Manny and Tony making comments to her about how this was a mansion and she should try not to be too stubborn to take advantage of the situation.

Frankie knew they were correct and resolved to keep her temper in check and just get along here. If she could survive on the street this would be easy. So long as she stayed calm and used her brain. Carlos was right about her brain turning off when she got mad. She knew how to fight. She knew how to control the situation, bets and make it a show that even those that lost their bets enjoyed. So long as she stayed calm. She could live in a safe mansion with good food and go to School. Anton was watching them leave when Frankie jumped down and returned to her seat calmly folding her hands in front of herself and calmly asking her Father, "So how this living in a mansion shit work?" Everyone stared at her which Frankie was use to. That always occurred when she went from nut-so crazy to deathly calm. Only her second oldest brother Grayson responded immediately. He stood in front of her and said, "Knock off the ghetto talk Francesca. I heard you talk normal so quit playing games."

Frankie knew what that meant. She was good at being a chameleon. When she was little she went to outdoor malls in white areas and stole wallets. Blending in and looking and sounding like the rich White kids was easy for her. Sounding like the Street was just as easy. Hard part was what to sound like when there were mixtures. Like today when she had her rich snooty Father alongside street Black Manny. Or White trash sounding Tony. Then she had to pay more attention. She had lost track when she sat down and was concentrating on staying calm. She was not sure what her own syntax even was . Her Mother talked way differently from her boyfriends but she had not seen her Mother in years. Carlos talked completely different from when he use to be a gang member. Frankie had paid attention and was generally good at blending in with her environment. At Juvie it had not mattered. Frankie had see no advantage to talking one way or the other so she lost track and mixed it up. Now it mattered again.

Frankie felt the excitement build up in her. This was the ultimate scam. Convince these people she was one of them and when she turned 18 take a bunch of money and run. Jasper was not the only one good at hacking phones. Well he probably was better but just because he got to practice more. She would set up an account and fill it with at least $10,000. A twinge hit her as Frankie realized she wanted to keep these brothers in her life. She decided she could do both. Have her own life somewhere else and if they wanted to her brothers could visit her. First things first. Frankie carefully answered, "I am so sorry Grayson. You are absolutely correct. I know how to speak properly." Grayson nodded and let it go.

Her Father demanded, "What did that man mean by he would help you if you really needed help Francesca? Is he going to show up every time I punish you?" Staying calm Frankie explained, "No not unless you do something like beat me until I need to go to the hospital or start selling my body. Or if you kill me. He will not interfere if you just punch me or something. If you lock me up and he never sees me he will probably assume the worst tho. It would have to be pretty bad for him to interfere after he has already checked things out." Her Father just stared at her and asked, "Did I scare you with the gun?" Frankie shook her head and answered, "No sir. I lost my temper and attacked you. It will not happen again. Now exactly what am I suppose to do to make this arrangement work for all of us?" Her Father looked puzzled but finally asked, "Do you have some decent clothes? I require family to dress up and attend dinner everyday at 6PM. It is usually the only time we see each other everyday. Even Grayson and Matteo, along with their wives attend."

Frankie contemplated that since she had no clothes but the ones she was wearing and they fit in better out on the street. Plus they were too small. She had forgotten about not wearing a bra and felt embarrassed about how close she had gotten to Alexander and Antonio. Still she had gotten back the money. Frankie carefully said, "OK I have no other clothes but I have time to buy some before 6PM. Perhaps someone would be willing to give me a ride to the store. I saw no busses out this way." Her Father started to say something about how she would get kidnapped but Anton held up a hand and he stopped talking. Anton replied, "We adults need to discuss some things anyway so Jasper first show Frankie her room and then you drive her and get her at least 3 days of clothes. Jeans and sweats for the day and dresses and shoes for dinner. Makeup, toiletries and hair products as well. We will take her shopping again this weekend so just enough to tide her over in the meantime. I will have two security guards in their own cars and Jasper if you ditch them I will beat the crap out of you. Do you understand?" Jasper instantly got irate and insisted, "She is my little Sister too Antonio. I would never do anything to endanger her. I will not lose the guards and I will get her whatever she needs and be back for dinner at 6."

After he pulled her out the door Jasper said, "He was just taking Frankie. He would not really beat me like you are thinking. He might give me a head lock or something but he would not leave marks." Frankie nodded feeling amazed. It was like Jasper had read her mind. Upstairs he passed some closed doors and then pointed to one and said it was his. Her room was across from his. He opened it so she could enter first. It was a toddlers room with a small bed that she would never fit in. There were closed toy chests and a childproof lamp. Still the carpet was thick and Frankie had slept on worse.

She nodded and started to leave when Jasper stated the obvious. "They never fixed your room Frankie. It is still for a baby." Frankie shrugged and mentioned how thick the carpet was for sleeping on. Jasper looked shocked and told her they would get it redesigned however she wanted. She nodded unsure what to do about his clear agitation. Jasper took her hand and announced she could stay in a guest room until her room was done. Frankie was happy that she was going to get a bed.