The Ones For Him

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Not surprisingly, the rest of the first week of school went by slow. I dreaded each day having to go, but I had no choice. Well, I did since I wasn't going to college after high school anyway, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could get through all four years of high school and graduate.

Over the last few days, my puppies and I got closer to Mason, Tristan, and Kody. Even Milo became friends with Mason after I convinced him that Mason and I were just friends. Kai and Quincy were obviously friends with them before, so there wasn't much change.

I decided to invite our three friends to the house just to hangout since it was finally Friday. I stopped in front of the gates and smiled at the gatekeeper, seeing the older man wave me through as the gates opened. I gestured him over and he stopped in front of my window.

"The car behind is with me." I thumbed at the red car behind me and Toni looked back suspiciously.

"Who are they, Capo?"

"Just some friends from school, Toni, don't worry."

"Hi, Toni!" Enzo poked his head out once the back window opened up, "How are you doing?"

"Good, Don. How are you guys doing? Is everything good?" The older man asked us and we nodded.

"We're doing just fine, Toni. How about yourself?" I asked him with a small smile.

Toni was a man in his early sixties who was a part of Marco's gang. He was a tall, darker-skinned male that still had some buff to him. Since he was older and decided to "retire," Marco offered him the job of being gatekeeper in our small gated community. Toni of course accepted the offer and took the first twelve hour shift while a different man from Manuel's gang took the second shift.

We conversed with Toni a little before he returned back to his more serious tone. "Capo, you already know we're gonna have to do a car search and background check."

I sighed, but nodded. "Yes, Toni. Do what you gotta do."

He smiled and patted my shoulder, whistling to four guards standing at the sides of the gates. They walked closer and nodded at Enzo and I in acknowledgement. They went behind me and I watched them through the side mirror, watching Toni's mouth move as he asked whatever he needed to ask. He was probably asking for their full names or if they had any IDs. I knew that one of the guards asked them to step out to search the car since Mason, Tristan, and Kody seemed confused, but did as they said.

"I'll be back." I parked the car and got out, closing the door.

"Good afternoon, Capo." One of the guards, Sergio, greeted me with a nod.

I nodded back and explained to him that they were friends from school. He updated me a bit on how the warehouse was doing and told me that Amir was planning to have a meeting soon. That meant that Manuel, Gio, Marco, and Eddie were also gonna have meetings with their gang since our 'summer break' was over. The family was gonna get back into action and probably start up missions again.

The other three guards did a thorough search of the car and even checked under with the inspection mirrors to look under the car. Toni came back out from the guard booth and cleared them to go, returning Kody's ID. The other guards went back to their places and Toni opened the gates, waving as I drove away.