Coca.

Twenty Three

Twenty Three
A New Era

"Tyler Knows.."

It's been 3 weeks since Brittany has been missing. The cops have been looking for her day and night. We haven't left Atlanta since it had happened.  I can't lie the death had been taking a toll on us all.  I was more depressed and withdrawn than usual. It was draining to pretend to look for her. We've even made several camera appearances begging for her to brought home safely. The media was under the impression that we would not leave Atlanta without knowing what happened to her.  I also used the opportunity to criticize the news outlets for their negative portrayals of us, and blaming them for Brittany's death.  In a way that wasn't a lie. Had the media not put so much pressure on the District Attorney's office, Brittany probably wouldn't have folded. It was still sickening.  I felt like one of those husbands that we see on the news crying for their wives and children to come home, when they know they're buried in the backyard.

I even took it as far as promising Mark that we would find her.

We told the cops that she left the Ranch with Terrance and never came back. Alina is the only one who knows where the body is. We decided that it was best if nobody else knew. Honestly, it was also just getting hard for us to determine who could be trusted. 

"Anybody find Terrance's location yet?" Mark asked. We were at a warehouse we had just purchased in Atlanta having a meeting. Everyone was here.

The majority of us stayed quiet. Guilt consumed us because we knew that we weren't looking for him.

"I'm working on it. He's not in Atlanta anymore. Charlie got me access to Jonah's phone. I've hacked into it, but there's not too much traffic on it. I don't think it's his primary phone." Tahj reassured him.  He technically didn't lie.

"She's dead. We're not going to find her." I said, tired of pretending.  Tyler snapped his head toward me. I could feel everyone's glares as they tried to figure out just what the hell I was doing.  We were still in agreement that Mark could not find out what really happened to his sister. 

"What the fuck do you mean she's dead? How do you know?"

"Mark be for real. We know who we're fucking with.  She's dead. We're looking for a body. If Brittany was alive, they wouldn't be. We want her home just as much as you, but we need you to be prepared for what we are going to find."

You could hear every breath that Mark took. I could only imagine how he's feeling.  He was enraged and I know it felt like we were all taking it lightly. We were all mourning her, but we knew what her betrayal meant. I wish I could just tell him that his sister was trying to get us all fucked off and had to be killed. 

Mark got up and walked out. It was only a matter of time before he figured it out.  We had to make sure that didn't happen.  He had to believe that she was missing and the Smiths were responsible. Once we watched Mark drive off on the camera Tyler finally spoke up

"Alina we're going to need her body. We're going to have to plant her on a Smith property. Mark won't stop until he has answers. We need to give him some.

"This is crazy. You guys know how I feel about Mark. I hate that we're doing this." She responded.

The tension was high in the room.  None of us were heartless monsters.  Brittany's betrayal had us shook.

"We can get someone else to do it." I suggested.

"No we can't! Everyone is folding and cooperating by the fucking minute.  We can't bring anymore witnesses in this shit, because we can't kill everyone who turns on us.  It's starting to become obvious. Alina, I love you and hate that we're asking you do this, but it has to be done. You're the only who will do it right that we can trust!" Mariah stressed.

She was right.  There were too many people involved. Many we didn't have to worry about, but we couldn't risk hiring anyone and implicating ourselves even more.

"The reality is we have to lay low.  It seems like the answer is to knock everyone off, but its getting bad. That's three key witnesses gone in a month.  We're ruining our brands that we did all of this for. We did the illegal shit to pay for the businesses we have now. We'll be out of jail after killing all of the witnesses, but who is going to want to do business with us? Everyone will be convinced we're everything they said we were. Nobody else can die." Mariah continued.

"She's right.  OJ Simpson got away with it, but everyone knows he did it.  Him, nor his brand ever recovered." Tahj added.  He always had his children's mother's back. It was annoying but they had points this time.

"Who else knows anything? We need to know who to watch." Tyler asked.

"Just the people we did business with.  None of them have anything to gain by sending us away. The cops don't even know who they are. I think we just need to get to the Smiths." Travis replied.

"What about whoever you were in Bali with pretending to be me? He met John Kei, and John Kei only knows you by Coca. What does he know?"

"Nothing. We only briefly seen John Kei.  He didn't even talk to him. I told John Kei that we weren't in Bali for business and that was the end of it." I lied.

Tyler looked at me with a hint of skepticism in his eyes.

"I didn't let him get close to anything. He served his purpose. He's nobody to worry about." I attempted to reassure him.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

We were all lying like it was going out of style.  I was sure that Israel wasn't someone to worry about, but he knew more than what he should. I knew that this was truly the end of an era. We couldn't trust each other anymore.

—-

"I need you to go to Italy for that loose end." Tyler approached me after everyone headed out.

"When?" "Tomorrow. I need you to stay for at least a week.  I have something to do here, but they need to think we are in Italy. You might as well handle her while you're there. You can't come back early"

"So you're saying..?" I wasn't following him. His eyes were dark and emotionless. His voice was harsh and cold. He was pissed and I didn't know why.

"I'm saying get your boyfriend and fly out tomorrow using the same passport as last time."

"I don't know if he'll be able to go. I haven't talked to him."

"You're going to lie to my face Coca? I'm not going to argue with you. Get him on the plane by tomorrow, or I will kill him"

He left me standing there while he drove off.

Fuck.

Me: Tyler knows. We have to go to Italy tomorrow. Find a way to get away.  It's not an option