She gives a chuckle, surprising both Alonzo and I, I can tell from Alonzo’s tilted head, like his examining something unexpected.
“Sorry,” she chuckles again, “that was just a little too Darth Vader for me.”
She takes a deep breath, trying to get herself together.
“Sorry, again, but at this point it’s find something amusing or shoot something, and since the latter isn’t really an option now that I know you aren’t some other crew with a death wish, I gotta burn the adrenaline off somehow.”
“Other Crew?” Alonzo asks.
Shit, I hadn’t told him about her crew status. I’m not worried about his reaction, exactly, but I wanted time to explain it so he didn’t take out his potential irritation at her being in even the slightest danger out on Cobra until he could see that Cobra had actually done him a favor. Having searched for her for twenty years I knew full well just how overactive his imagination can be when it comes to his own mental picture for how he imagined her to be fairing, and anything resulting with potential harm was always blown out of proportion at first glance.
“Boss,” I try to cut in but she’s got his full attention so he disregards my voice.
“Yeah, this is Phoenix Crews founding members right here,” she gestures to Cobra and Bones, and of course Bones grins, because I’m sure he thinks this whole thing is amusing. Cobras face is blank, probably trying to anticipate whatever Alonzo was going to do, but at this point even I couldn’t quite gage where Alonzo was sitting on the meter of rational decisions and irrational ones.
So I was surprised when his gaze swings to Cobra, and before can blink, he’s drawn the gun from the small of his back and has it pointed in Cobra’s face. Alonzo’s face is a mask of partially concealed rage and betrayal. I’d heard the stories of how close they were in their childhoods and teen years, and no one but the two of them knew what had caused the immeasurable rift that lives between them, and now this was just fuel for their fire.
“Not only do you conceal what is mine from me, for years, you have dragged her into a mother fucking gang, Cobra, my daughter. Coretti, you are a dead man walking.” Alonzo’s voice is unlike his daughter’s rage, that dry ice tone, no he’s is like the heat of a fire bomb being throw in the face.
I can’t move to stop him, it doesn’t look like any of my brothers are able to as well with his use of that tone. Not even Bones has moved yet, reaction time too slow to stop Alonzo from curling around the trigger.
The loud pop that goes off in the room leaves us all with hearing difficulties, but that is neither here nor there, I am waiting for Cobra’s body to hit the faded gray carpet, but it never comes.
Elda is in front of Cobra, her right hand slightly behind her like she’s trying to push him back, and her left is around Alonzo’s wrist, which she is holding raised over her head, only six to eight inches over Cobra’s head, but that’s all it takes to save a life.
“You may be my blood, according to those men, but this man is my blood by deed far before we ever formed the crew. Try to kill him again and I will not be so generous.”
Alonzo looks at his daughter and this time it’s like he’s seeing the woman that she is rather than the baby he didn’t get to raise. He wasn’t afraid of her exactly, but there was something passing behind his eyes that seemed to say he realizes that her life was nothing like the life he’d wanted to give to her, and there were consequences for not finding her sooner.
Her face was set in stone, the tone again that dry ice, but behind her eyes was a wild fire, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was mentally burning him alive with the fire that seemed to flow from the dark depts of her eyes.
Bones is the first to move near the three of them, placing a hand on Priest’s right shoulder, effectively making Alonzo aware that he’d have to go through more than just Priest to get to Cobra.
The tension starts rising again, and just as it seems to snap Priest opens her mouth.
“I hear that you’ve been looking for me, but you need to understand that I am not a child for you to raise, who has made a family with those I have chosen. I do not take kindly to those who wish to do harm to my family, and if you want the chance to get the same title of family from me, you are going to start by cutting whatever misguided vengeance you want on Cobra and instead thank him for keeping me safe when mom passed, instead of me ending up with the state. You get me?”
Alonzo stares at her, for a long moment before pulling his arm lose and handing her his gun, and if I didn’t know that he was more likely to have more weapons on him than just that singular gun I would have been surprised, but even just that concession was more than what most get.
He then looks at Cobra between Bones and Priest’s shoulders and takes a deep breath.
“As much as I hate it…and I’ll deny it to anyone outside of this apartment…thank you for keeping her safe…even if you couldn’t keep my Lene safe…”
Priest is about to start back in on him, that’s evident by her open mouth, but Cobra’s hand on her back stops her.
“He’s not wrong Priest,” his voice is rough, “I didn’t keep her safe.”
Bones
I hate hearing Cobra admit to failing at anything, mostly because only Priest and I knew just how much he feels responsible for Lene’s murder. Only Priest and I knew just how much our fearless leaders wasn’t so fearless when it had come to her.
He’d loved her, even when she loved someone else.
It was one of many things he and I had in common.
Looking at the man these four assholes claim is Priest father, it was hard not to see a little of the similarities, but she is more than her genetics, which is evident in the way she is holding her mouth, much like Cobra holds his mouth when he’s trying not to bite someone’s head off. Nurture plays a big role in who we become, more so than genetics, as far as I am concerned.
But then again, if genetics determined a person I was beyond screwed, mama a crack addict and dad in person for life for finally killing one of his woman.
Yeah, fuck genetics.
“While the family reunion is sweet and all, we do have business to attend to and bodies to bury.” I say.
My voice makes Rosary perk up, having long hidden under the small end table Priest had at the end of her couch. Her little whip of a tail making that thump-thump sound on the ground. Slowly my hearing is getting better after that assholes potshot in this dinky ass apartment, and sure, he might be Priest’s dad, but only an asshole shoots a gun in such a small space.
“Bones, I told you, I haven’t decided if were leaving bodies this time.” Priest says, staring me in the face, her dark eyes flashing at my macabre humor.
“What do you mean, business to attend to,” her father asks, and I flash my eyes to the four shadows, wondering what they have been letting their boss know.
The one that seems to enjoy playing leader steps up, his shoulder brushing against mine and I have to fight the urge not to punch the dude in the face.
“I was getting ready to call you to whatever location Cobra had decided on to let you know that somehow it seems the Russo family knows about Elda,” he starts but Priest interrupts him.
“Okay, it’s fucking Priest. No one calls me Elda, and I don’t answer to it either so stop calling me a dead girls name,” she says, voice full of the unreleased furry. She’s the only person I’ve known to use her emotions for fuel, she’s even better at it than Cobra when she wants to.