Bad Boys Ride or Die: How to Get Away With Fraud

Chapter Two

    After what seemed like days of waiting and internally panicking, Marcus stopped coding in the hospital and started talking. "¿Tío?" Lucius called out, walking into Marcus' room. "Aye, little Mando! C'mere man, C'mere." Lucius approached his uncle's hospital bed. "Ey, como estás?" Marcus didn't understand much of what Lucius said most of the time, but his facial expressions told him everything he needed to know. "Hambre man. But then again, I'm always hambre." Marcus laughed. Lucius rolled his eyes with a smile. Marcus was back to his normal self. Suddenly, Marcus grabbed Lucius by his lapels and pulled him closer. "Look, man. I saw some weird crazy shit in my dream, okay?" Lucius nodded nervously. "I can't die, Luci." out of all the people who knew Lucius, Marcus was the only one who called him Luci. Lucius couldn't help but laugh every time he did considering it was way more feminine than any other nickname he had. When he did laugh, Marcus assumed it was about him being 'immortal'. "I'm serious man, watch." just then, Marcus hopped out of bed and ran down the hallway. "Tío Marcus!?" Lucius called out running after him. Marcus was already hysterical due to his anesthesia, so him running to God knows where while claiming he was immortal was very concerning. Marcus and Lucius ran past Mike at the front desk, sighing Marcus out. "Lucius!?" Mike called out. "¡Tengo todo bajo control!" Lucius yelled back. Lucius chased Marcus upstairs and to the roof. When he got there, Lucius found Marcus on the very edge with his arms out. "See man!? God is letting me embrace the world as it is!" before Lucius could react, Mike met them on the roof. "What the hell?" Lucius turned to Mike and shrugged. "Hey, Mike. What's goin' on, man?" he said approaching the edge. "Nothing matters, but at the same time, everything matters. We gotta stop taking things for granted."

    "Yeah, okay, I got you, but how about you stop taking things for granted from off the edge, okay?" Marcus chuckled at Mike's nervousness. "Nah, Mike. I could jump off right now and I'd be okay. I can never die!" suddenly, Marcus lifted his foot outwards which was signal enough for Mike to lunge forward, grab him by the waist, and pull him back from the edge. "Alright, let's get you home, man." Lucius' family was weird and dysfunctional to him, but it was moments like this that made him chuckle to himself.

~~~

    When they dropped Marcus off at his house, he was not happy to see all of his snacks missing from every single stash he had, even the secret ones. "Reggie," Marcus approached his son-in-law, Reggie, a US Marine. "You eat my snacks?"

    "No, sir," he said, still focused on the TV. His video game obsession came right from Marcus, no matter how much he denied it. "I will fuck you up if you stole my Skittles, Reggie." his emotions had gone from crazily happy, to crazily upset. "You need a job, Reggie."
   
    "I'm a US Marine, sir."

    "Well, you need to deploy."

    "We just got back from Yemen-" Theresa stepped forward. "I got rid of them, Marcus," she said referring to the snacks. "Wha- baby!"

    "The doctor said all that sugar and fat's bad for you, Marcus." Lucius and Mike looked at each other and laughed as quietly as they could. This mindless banter was the reason they were such a good couple. "Mike," Marcus walked up to him. "I'll give you 1,000 dollars for a bag of Skittles. Mike tsked. "I am not gonna go get you some candy, Marcus. Go rest and heal, man." Marcus lowered his shoulders before turning to Lucius. "Luci-"

    "No te daré mierda, hombre," he replied laughing through his words before leaving.

    On the ride home, Mike turned to his left to see Lucius smiling and giggling at his phone. "Uh-uh, who got you smilin' like that?" Lucius rolled his eyes, the smile still plastered on his face. "It's that girl, isn't it? What's her name?"

    "Elená." Lucius quickly replied. "Yeah okay, well, someone needs to let you and Elena know that you have to have the talk before you can date. You're teenagers now, this shit is dangerous." Mike and Marcus were complete polar opposites when it came to Lucius and Elená. Marcus was the old man who was way too invasive and tried to act cool, and Mike was the daddy with a shotgun. "The talk?" Mike did a double-take when he heard what had come out of Lucius' mouth. "You speak English now?" Lucius nodded. "Yeah, man." Mike shook the thought out of his head. "Anyway, I don't want any fuckin' in my house, understand?" Lucius rolled his eyes and tsked. "She lives 2 thousand miles away,"

    "Phone fuckin' included, mijo, I don't want none of that shit." Lucius cringed. "Abuelo, ew!" Mike nodded. "Exactly, that's nasty, right? Keep it that way,"

~~~

Little Haiti, Miami, 10:25 PM

    In the middle of the night, a former DEA, J. McGrath, met with a Cartel banker. McGrath had blood on his hands and trauma on his name, and the banker knew that. "What do you want?" he asked. Suddenly, McGrath pulled out his gun and held it to the banker's head. "Open your computer," he ordered. The banker followed through. "Look up Captain Conrad Howard and transfer as much as you have into his account." he said, making himself comfortable and sitting down in a cushioned chair next to him. When the process was done, McGrath had one of his goons shoot the banker's bodyguard. The banker's girlfriend screamed at the carnage. "C'mere," McGrath said, his hand gesturing the same thing. McGrath set the girl down on his lap and put the gun in her hand. "Today has been such a tragedy, hasn't it?" he asked as she cried. "I mean, listen," McGrath grabbed her hand and pointed it toward the banker. "Cartel banker gets caught in an affair, in a rage, his girlfriend shoots him in the chest, killing him instantly." McGrath forced her finger on the trigger and shot, killing the banker. "And then being horrified by her own actions," McGrath held the gun below her chin. "She kills herself."

    "No, no!"