The night started off at Bourbon House, we didn’t know what to get so we decided to get an array of sides, red beans and rice, jambalaya, shrimp, and banana pudding for dessert. During dinner, we decided to order a bourbon flight. I’m only twenty and she is twenty-one but luckily we didn’t get carded. 

When 9 pm hits in New Orleans the clubs light up, there is jazz around every corner, it’s just like in the movies. I just really don’t want to be here. Honestly, this is stupid I don’t even know why I’m here...oh wait I know why my stupid family forced me to come here. Ugh, she is completely hammered and I’m carrying her drunk ass everywhere.

“Let’s go to another bar,” she says draping her body over me holding a footlong drink cup shaped like a rooster.

“No, I’m not taking you to another bar”, I say.

“Come on'', she whines, “I am completely sober I swear”, she says slurring her words.

“No we're not going anywhere else, I need to get you home,” I say pulling her towards her apartment.

She throws herself out of my arms and yells “No! let’s get some beignets!”

“That is the best idea you have had all day”, no matter how much I wanted to go home, I couldn’t stop my stomach from growling. I open my Apple maps to find the nearest beignet shop. I found Cafe Beignet it is one street over from where we are right now. I pull her sloppy body wrapping her arm around my shoulder making sure she doesn't trail off in the wrong direction. 

After the fifteen minutes of her stumbling, tripping, and almost vomiting we finally make it to our destination, keep in mind the walk was only supposed to be a five-minute walk. Thank goodness the restaurant is open till 3 AM because I don’t think I could handle a drunk woman who doesn't get her beignets. I place her into a cold metal chair, “Sit here and don’t move, I will go get us some beignets”

“This seat is cold, I don’t like it, take me to another one” she fusses.

“All the chairs here are just as cold as this one, now I’m going to go get us some beignets.”

“You better hurry back,” she yells while aggressively while waving her drunken finger.

“Hi, can I get two orders of beignets and two glasses of water?” I ask 

“Coming right up, you and your girlfriend are table number 45,” as I walk back to our table and something is missing. It’s my girlfriend. She disappeared! I frantically look around until I find her head in the bushes throwing up tonight’s mistakes. I quickly walk up to her to pull her hair back but she pops up quickly and says “I’m good, I swear.”

“Are you sure? You just threw up everything you drank tonight.”

“Yeah, I’m...URP...great,” she says with her hands on her knees ready to throw up again “Hey look our beignets are here, let’s eat”, she stands up and slowly walks to the table. She stumbles into her seat and dropped into her seat.

“Are you sure you're really okay?” I ask her one more time to reassure her and myself.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m sure I’ll sober up after some beignets”, I see our waitress place our plates of beignets on the table. She stuffs her face into the beignets and gets powdered sugar all over her face, she doesn't realize that it’s all over her face, which really bugs me. I guess I will be a good boyfriend and wipe everything off of her face. After we finish, we decide to sit and watch some of the jazz acts that are playing. I check my phone and it’s already 2:30 AM.

“Hey, do you want to get out of here?” I ask cause I just want to get this over with.

She lit up like a Christmas tree “Damn, I have been waiting for you to ask.”

It’s currently 48 degrees in New Orleans. She was bundled up on my arm, resting her head on my shoulder while we walked down Bourbon street, I tried not to fall because her head was throwing me off balance. I could feel her smooth leather coat on the exposed area on my wrist, she has a goofy grin on her face. She was excited to see where I was taking her to see where we were going. She soon realized that we were walking on a dark quiet street “Hey...uh, where are we going?” 

“Just wait I got a surprise for you”, I say “I got something to show you”, I started picking up my pace, to an abandoned building far from anyone else. She starts to slow her pace getting ready to run if she needs to. We enter the building and I pull her towards the lit room with the door cracked open. I opened the door and I hear her give out a loud gasp.

 I check my phone to make the confirmation. I did not want to believe that it was her. Violet Alabasta age 21, works in accounting, graduated from UCLA with a major in accounting, and minor in finance, currently employed at Wells Fargo bank, sister of a major entrepreneur, Jacob Alabasta. 

Violet looks at me with confusion, “Why is there a tarp on the ground?” 

I ignore what she says and look past her and see a dark figure behind her “You ready?” I ask the figure

Violet waves her hand in front of me, then turns around and sees the dark figure behind her “Don’t tell me your one of them?”, I look at her and nod my head she crosses her hands and looks at me in disgust “You son of a bitch!”

“I’m sorry”, I said as the dark figure is approaching her,

The man behind her raises his arm and knocks her out “So this is her?” 

“Yep, it’s her”

“You know Alex, did you have to choose such a creepy place for us to capture her?” The voice says.

“You know Darian, I didn’t listen to your opinion when we were kids I don’t think I’m going to start now” I pull her over my shoulder and start walking her to the car. Darian decides to get into the passenger seat 

“What are you looking at? I’m sure as hell not driving”

“Whatever” I get into the front seat and start driving. A minute after we start driving we get stopped by a police officer. 

The officer walks into the street and waves a hand for us to stop, he has a basic cop mustache, blunt and perfectly rounded, and a rounded gut from donuts and coffee. He slowly walks up to the car and knocks on the window. I roll the window down, “Hello officer, is something wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, we got an alert that there was some suspicious activity happening in this area.”

“Oh no'', the police officer looks at my brother and I, then looks in the back seat and sees Violet passed out in the back seat, “If you don’t mind me asking sir, why is there a woman passed out in the back of your car?”

“My cousin went to one too many bars tonight and ended up passing out in my car”, I give him a fake but very convincing smile. 

“Alright, but what are you folks doing in this area this late at night?”

“My brother and I are visiting our cousin here in New Orleans and we got a little turned around on our way back to our hotel.”

“Okay, well the way back to the city is that way.” he points to the right to a street filled with bright colors, “Make sure she gets to bed safe.”

“Will do sir, thank you” I roll up my window and get rid of the fake smile on my face, “God I’m happy that’s over with.”

“Yeah that was a painful experience,” Darian said laughing, he turns to the backseat and stares at Violet, “welp time to take her to the boss. What a shame she’s really pretty.”

“Don’t forget we have orders not to harm her.”

“I know, I know don’t worry”

When we arrived at the hotel a stocky woman greets us at the front door with her arms crossed and a raised eyebrow scolding us like she’s our mother, “Where have you two been? You guys are an hour late”

“We’re here, aren't we, Des? Don’t worry about how long it took”, says Darian.

Des makes eye contact with me then looks down at Violet. She examines her with her eyes and looks back up at me. “So this is what she looks like? Interesting I expected someone different.”

I walk into the back room with Violet in my arms. There is a table of men all sitting down playing a game of Uno, don’t ask me why they were playing Uno but they were. As soon as I step into the room the table of men stop their game of Uno and stare me down. I look around to find an open chair. There is one in the back of the room, I carefully place Violet in the chair. After about twenty minutes I see a teenage girl, no older than 16 and an adult woman who must be in her mid-twenties walk in. The table of men stand up and greet them. 

“Hello, Mrs. Mo-” one of the men stops  

“Stop,” the adult woman raises a hand to cut the men off from speaking, “Don't use names we haven’t closed the deal yet”, the adult woman walks up to Violet and examines her. She reaches into Violet’s purse and pulls out her wallet to make sure we got the right woman. After she confirms that it is Violet she walks back to the teenage girl and they start whispering for a while.

“Darian, how long will she be knocked out?” the teenager girl asks

“She should be waking up any minute now.”

“Okay we will wait for her to wake up”, the teenage girl and adult woman walk to the chairs in the front of the room and sit on their phones until Violet wakes. They’re just sitting on their phones showing each other memes. Five minutes pass by and Violet finally wakes up, and at the same moment her brother walks in screaming,

“Where is she? And what did you do to her?” 

“Nothing, she's fine, look we didn’t even tie her up”, the adult woman asks

Jacob looks at Violet and runs over to her to make sure she is safe, he then turns to the woman “Who are you people and why did you kidnap my sister?”

“Of course! Oh my gosh, my manners sorry, I am known as Chesire and my lovely companion here is known as Cash Flow. We kidnapped your sister to get you to come here”, the woman says.

Jacob and Violet both look at each other confused “Wait, you two are in ruthless Cash Flow? The group that takes over gangs? You two girls?”

“Yep, just us, two women, doing underground trade. I mean every woman needs a hobby nowadays, am I right?”, Chesire says.

“Why did you kidnap my sister to get me here?”

The teenage girl stands up and starts walking towards Jacob and Violet, “We brought you here to make a proposal.”

“Sorry kid but the big kids are talking here”, Jacob says while pushing Cash Flow to the side.

“Ooo, Jacob sweetie, I don’t think that was a good idea”, Chesire shakes her head and points at Cash Flow. Cash Flow has clenched fists and is giving off a dangerous aura. Everyone in the room gets goosebumps from this aura. Just the feeling of her aura can put fear into the strongest men. I don’t want to know what she could do when she actually fights. She walks past Darian and me, and with every step, I can feel her murderous intent. 

“I got goosebumps just from looking at her. How about your brother? Do you have goosebumps?” Dairan asked me, I chose not to answer him back.

“Now come on Cash there is no need for you to get angry he just misunderstood who is in charge here.” Chesire walks up to Cash Flow and places a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

“I’m calm, I’m calm”, Cash Flow snaps out of it and takes a deep breath, “Now before I was so rudely interrupted, I would like to make a proposal that we combine forces”, Jacob gives Cash Flow a confused look, “Now I know it sounds crazy but we both secretly combine forces in the diamond trade and we split the cost 50/50.”

“Why would I join you guys? And how would I benefit from it?”

“Well first off we know your not an average entrepreneur, we know your trade-in drug and arms, and we also have a whole lot of proof that this is your little side hustle. And you will also be getting extra profit from this diamond trade which will help you expand your business more, maybe even international. Of course, my colleague and I will be handling the logistics, like who will be doing the jobs we just need you to handle the finances and make the diamonds untraceable. Sound like a deal?”

“I think I will need to converse with my team and get back to you.”

“Well bring them all here, we have an open bar in the next room”,

“I think I will just meet them at HQ” 

Cash Flows aura is now filling the room again, “I’m sorry, but that was not a suggestion.” she says while staring down Jacob

Jacob calls his team and they get there as quickly as possible, they go into a separate room take for two hours. As soon as they came back out they were hesitant on their decision “We decided to join forces with you and make the diamonds untraceable but under one condition. You will never leak the information that you have on me otherwise I will have to go to the police about what you are doing here.”

“Done, I wasn’t planning on leaking anything anyways”, Chesire says, “So are we good?”

“Yeah, we’re good.”

“Perfect welcome to the team”, Chesire shakes, “Also make sure to keep this little partnership of ours a secret”, don’t want anyone to come after your family again. Especially not us. Goodbye, we’ll contact you when we need you.” Chesire gives a long creepy Cheshire Cat smile.

“By the way, this little project of ours is called the ‘California Gold Rush’ or ‘Rush’ for short. Chesire and Cash flow wave goodbye to Jacob, Violet, and his men while they hurry through the door.

“Knights”, Darian and I rush to Chesire's side, “Do you guys still have that cousin in California that always gets in trouble with the police? You know, Jane, Jessica, June-”

“You mean Jazsmine?” Darian butts into our conversation.

“Yes, Jazsmine is she still there?”

“Yeah she's still there”

“Perfect give me her contact information”, Chesire sits back into her chair “It’s time for the California Gold Rush.”

Don't forget to visit the GUA Shop: