When I closed the front door I look around at which car I want to drive today. My choices are between the matte black Camaro or the midnight purple Charger, of course, I chose the Camaro. Who do you think I am? Uncultured swine? How rude. I pull out of the driveway, as I start to leave I get a text from Alex saying to meet him at The Typewriter. It’s a popular new cafe downtown that has old fashioned typewriters that customers can use to write notes and put them on the walls. Good thing we’re meeting there because it gives me a reason to finally visit there. As I’m driving I notice the leaves are slowly changing from green to red and I realize that I brought the wrong jacket with me. I can withstand the cold I mean I grew up in the midwest I can survive the polar tundra.  

When I arrived at the cafe I saw Alex sitting at a table in the back corner next to the window. He seemed like there was something on his mind. “ Hey what’s up?’ Alex is deep in thought staring out the window, “Hello? Alex are you there?” I asked while waving my hand in front of his face.

He snaps back to reality and quickly turns his head to me, “Oh hey what’s up?”

“What’s up? What do you mean ‘What’s up?’ I’ve been standing here calling your name.” I said while glaring at him.

“Sorry I was deep in thought.” I stared at him curious about why he was deep in thought staring out the window. 

“Whatcha thinking about?”

“Nothing special, just some work stuff”, Alex said while turning his head towards the window. He seemed to still be in deep thought even after I asked him the question. 

“So what have you been up to lately without all of your work stuff?” I asked to try and get his mind off of whatever he was thinking about. 

“Nothing much really. I've just been sitting at home,” Alex said.

“Wow boring. You literally told me that you have been traveling the world, why not talk about those places?” I asked to try and make conversation. 

“I went all over Asia, Europe, Africa, Brazil, ” He said 

“Boy, did you only bring me here to answer my questions with short sentences or are we going to have a conversation?” 

“Yeah sorry I was still kind of in deep thought”, he said snapping back into reality.

“Good now get your head out of your ass and have a conversation with me”, as I said that I noticed that there was a table next to us with a pack of Uno cards sitting on top of it. “Hey I know a way to get your mind off of whatever you’re thinking ‘bout”, I reach over to the table next to me and grab the pack of Uno cards, “How ‘bout I kick your ass in a game of Uno?”

“Oh, you think you’re going to win? So you got jokes now?” Alex said while giving me a smirk. 

As I started to shuffle out the cards between the two of us, our waitress came with our drinks, I ordered a Chai Latte and Alex ordered a Mocha Frappuccino. “I don’t know how you can drink those things, they taste like straight-up sugar to me”, I tell Alex while staring at the drink in disgust.

“I think they taste perfectly fine”, he glares at me while he loudly sips his mocha frappuccino.

 We played a few rounds and it went just as expected...I lost every single round but it seemed to take Alex’s mind off of whatever he was thinking about, “So why did you ask me to come here with you?” I asked while I was setting up the cards.

“What, I can’t spend time with my long time friend?”, he said while smirking at his cards.

“Well for a normal person but the last time I remembered you were an introvert who doesn’t leave the house unless he has to”, I said as I set down a red 2.

“Well it has been a while since we have seen each other I could have changed in all that time”, I look up from my cards and slowly squint my eyes at him hoping to get an answer out of him, “Okay fine, I still don’t leave the house unless I have too”, he said as he lets out a huge sigh. 

“HAHAHA gotcha”, I say while letting out a taunting laugh.

“But I really did want to see you, it's been forever since I saw you”, he said while playing a Draw 4. 

“Oh so you’re going to do me like that?  I see how it is”, I shuffle through my cards to see what I can do to play him. I look up at him with a snarky smile “HAHA”, I play him a draw 4 and wait to see what he puts down. 

“Wow, looks like I’m the one who got played”, he said as he takes 8 cards from the deck. “So are you going with your brother to New Orleans in November?” he asked.

I stop and stare at my cards for a minute, “Wait he’s going to New Orleans?” I said while I slowly looked up at Alex, “I didn’t know that he’s going to New Orleans at all.”

“Oh, I thought he would tell you since you're his right-hand man, I mean woman,” Alex said nervously.

“Looks like I’ll have to talk to him when I get back home,” I said in annoyance. Alex looks like he just said Voldermolt in front of Harry Potter. “Are you going to New Orleans with Darian?” I asked sheepishly out of curiosity. 

He looked a little worried to answer the question “Yeah. I think so”, he said, “Darian asked me to go with him but I’m not sure if I want to.” 

“Have you ever been to New Orleans?” I asked quisingly.

“No, I haven’t been there yet”, Alex said bluntly.

“Then what the hell are you doing thinking about it? Your brother is paying for the entire thing so take it as a free vacation!” I said to sway his decision, “and you better eat a whole lot of cajun food otherwise we gonna have problems.”

“Well damn looks like I’m going”, he said while laughing at me, “oh damn I lost track of time. I have to leave. I have a meeting with the Knights in an hour and I still have ta prep”, Alex said while putting on his coat. 

“Yeah I’ll see you later then”, I wave to him while he walks out the front door. 

I immediately grab my stuff and headed for the door, as I started walking towards the door a barista comes up to me holding a manilla envelope saying  “Perdon Senora, por favor pregunte a su hermano sobre esto por favor. (Ask your brother about this please.)” I look up at the barista, and from the look on her face she is terrified of me, I grab the envelope and quickly walk back to my car. When I get into my car I quickly lock the doors and roll up the windows, I frantically turn on the car and drive home as quickly as I can. Once I arrive at home I go directly to my room, open the envelope and pull out a picture of Jacob and me leaving the ‘12’ meeting. I stand there in shock. The ‘12’ meetings are specifically @ undisclosed locations which very few know about, I quickly run to Jacob’s room to ask him what this is about.

“Jacob!” I yell as I barge into his room, “what the hell is this about?” Jacob stares at the picture for a while and he doesn’t say anything for a while. It seems like he isn’t telling me something. “What are you not telling me?” I shout.

“I knew there was someone following us that day but I thought it was just me being paranoid”, Jacob said to me while I looked back at him in anger.

“Why the hell didn’t you say anything to me!” I screamed at him, “We could have been in danger. They could have given our location away. We could have been killed! ¿Por qué eres tan pendejo? (Why are you so damn stupid?)” I said to him. I stood there staring at him unrealistically waiting for a clear response. 

“It’s ‘cause I didn’t want you to worry about anything, ‘cause you would’ve been extra cautious during the meeting”, Jacob said while slowly getting up from his bed. All I could do is stare at him in disgust. Before he get’s the opportunity to finish what he’s going to say, I stormed out of his room and went to the office. I open my desk drawer and check the lists of allies we know on the police force. The more I search the more I realize that we really need to find some people who haven’t already retired for the force. After searching and not coming up with anything I rummage through the many files we have, to find something that can help me figure out who is behind these pictures when I come across a thick folder labeled “Private Investigators”. I quickly open it and see that there is an entire stack of private investigators that we either have on payroll, been dealt with or we have scared enough to keep quiet. There are profiles for each investigator and with each profile, there are pictures of Alex, me, and even mom, dating all the way back to 10 years ago. After skimming through I grab the folder and head to my car. “Violet where are you going?” Alex asked

I decided to go to the one person I can truly trust with this, “Abuela’s” I shout over my shoulder as I storm out the door. 

As I’m driving I give Abuela a call, “Hola Abuelita, voy a llegar en dies minutos, Si mija estoy aqui, ten minutes, drive safely” 

“Mi corazón, ¿Qué pasó? You look so upset.” Gramma says with a tired, scratchy voice, “¿Por qué llamas tan tarde? The streets must have been so dark.”

“Abuelita I have something really important that I have to talk to you about, I think Jacob and I might be in danger”, I said with a slight panic in my tone.

“Oh no, por que? Se puenden quedar acqi con migo, you two can share a room like you did when you were babies”, she adds smiling.

“ I will be there in 10 minutes”, I hurriedly hung up the phone and focused on my driving. After about 5 minutes into my drive, I noticed that the car behind me has been following me the entire way here. Maybe I’m being too paranoid but just to be safe I choose to take a different route to get to Abuelita’s just to make sure that this car isn’t actually following me. Dammit. The car turns with me. I make another turn, the car trurs again. Shit! This continued for another 3 blocks then the car turned into a driveway and stopped. The woman in the car gets out and goes into the house where she is parked. I sigh in relief thinking that hopefully the car behind me wasn’t someone actually following me. As I’m driving out of the neighborhood, I get a call from Abuela “Hello?”

“¿Dónde estás Violeta, estás bien? It has been over 10 minutes since to me llamarse” she said in a panic.

“Abuela no se preocupe, estoy bien, to be safe I took the long way.”, I tell her to comfort her, “llego allí en 10 minutos”, I tell her.

“Okay” she says as I hang up. 

Confidently I turned up La Chona now blaring out of the Bose speakers-remembering the last time Jacob and I saw Mario Quintero y Los Tucanes de Tijuana the last time we went South of the border. I quickly speed to Gramma’s house to find out what has been happening in this family. I turn into Abuela’s long winding driveway leading to her traditional Mexican style hacienda with a handmade terracotta roof, ornate black wrought iron grates over each window which can be locked from the inside, beautiful handmade tiles laid on the floor of  front veranda where she sits at the end of the night to sipping Agavero tequila in a fun jewel toned botella azul made in my cousins ranch en Jalisco just south of Zacatecas brought in on a trailer of unstamped cigarettes back in the day. 

I park and step out onto the multi-colored brick driveway and head towards the front gate surrounded by intricate stonework where I’m greeted by Abuela’s butler José. 

“Buena noches señorita Violeta, Doña Blanca esta en el patio, y el señor Eric esta en su oficina” Jose states.

“Gracias José.” I walk past the terracotta pots filled with blooming poinsettias imported from the Copper Canyon in Mexico lining the wall making sure not to knock any down cause Abuela will kill me if I touch any of her terracotta. Intrinsically I smile as I walk through the living room to the patio where I hear my Abuelo quietly playing  los Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan music while reading a book. That is a cultural thing, with musica always in the background, not so much as white noise, but setting tone to the internal dialog we are having in our heads.

“Hola Abuelo,” I said as I walk right into his outstretched arms wrapping me in his warmth to give him a full hug. Abuelo walks with me through the house, smiling down at me, in his a rugged, confident voice Grampa says to me, “Tu abuela está en su oficina esperándote” hugging me one more time, and with a kiss on the top of my head he closes the door behind me. 

I walk to her office and see Gramma searching through her files in her desk. “Abuela what are you doing?” I ask and I see the top of her head peeking out from behind the desk.

"Estoy buscando algo que pueda ayudarte, I remember seeing something in my files but did not think anything or it '' She says while her head is still underneath the desk. I slowly walk closer to her confused on what she is grabbing. She pulls out 3 heavy binders in various stages of wear-and-tear labeled Alabasta’s information in black Sharpie.

“Abuela what is all of this?”, I ask.

"Esta es toda la información sobre Las Alabastas por los últimos 30 años,” WOW I think, ‘thirty years is a long time’ I say quietly.

I look at her confused “Why do you think I’ll need this right now?”

She looks me directly in the eyes and says in English “This is everything about the Alabastas from all of the jobs we’ve had to whom has put a hit out on us.” I breathe deeply.  Abuela rarely speaks in English but when she does it’s always when there is something important that she needs us to fully understand. I forget she is bilingual like myself. Her English is elegant, cultured English providing not a hint of her rural agrarian Mexican roots.

I look at her and then look down at the large binders filled with a generation of secretos. I open the oldest binder secured with grey duct tape and begin to pan through the pages when I see a section labeled Private Investigators. I begin to search through the information to see if there are any names that match up to the names I have listed in the folder I brought with me from our house. After an hour of searching, I can’t find anything that matches. I opened up the next binder and again began comparing the people in each folder. Tired and disappointed, I come towards the end of the binder and  notice a name that has been repeated multiple times “Victor Henerson” but this name doesn’t match up to what I have in my folder except the last name. “Henderson” I have come across that name a couple of times so I decided to open up to the file on both of these people and I see that “Henderson” has a child named Valerie Henderson and that Victor was taken out by The Alabastas 10 years ago and according to our information Valerie has become a private investigator and a hitman as a side gig. To myself I think, she is seeking revenge on our family because we killed her dad. “Abuela did you know about the Hendersons?” still looking at the information in front of me, I ask over my shoulder.

"Si mi amor, we have " she says.

“Why didn’t you say anything to me? I think I have the right to know about this?”

I say out of frustration. “How am I supposed to run a co-empire if I do not know all the information?

“Es porque no es mi lugar a decir nada ya que no soy encargada de Las Alabastas,” she says as she hands me my phone. "Creo que deberías hablar con tu hermano sobre esto" angrily I take the phone to speak with Jacob.

“Jacob, what the hell is happening? Do you know that we have someone seeking revenge on us ‘cause mom killed her dad?” I asked.

“Violet where they hell have you been? I have been calling you nonstop, one of our warehouses is on fire and I need you here right away.” Jacob said in a panic.

“Holy shit! I’ll be there in 15 minutes”, I quickly grab my keys. “Abuela algo paso at one of the warehouses, I need to go.” Rushing through the door and with concern in her eyes, “Si Violetita, con cuidado.”

Turning out of the driveway onto the main road in my rearview mirror I see a black car start to follow me on my way to the warehouse as I quickly rush to the warehouse to see if anything can be recovered from there. I arrive at the warehouse to see it burned to the ground. There is nothing left except the frame of the building and written in yellow spray paint on the ground saying “See what happens when you don’t listen”.