City Culprits (Book 1)

by Brittany Nicole Allen

  Zamora wanted to spend time with her nephew. She decided to take Braydon and Annabeth to the Utica Zoo, since it was a beautiful September day. Nikkya, JT, and Axel joined them. It was nice for them to get their minds off things for a while. They were able to convince Carlos that they would all be fine on their own without any bodyguards around. Axel carried his little sister in his arms. He loved spending time with her. Braydon held Zamora’s hand.

  “Can we go see the Monkeys?!” Annabeth asked her brother in excitement.

  “If they have any.” He laughed.

  Axel set his sister down holding her hand. They took the children all around the zoo. They especially loved the reptile building.

  “That’s a big snake.” Braydon said pointing it out to JT who was holding him up to the glass.

  “Look at that one.” Zamora pointed out another big one to her nephew.

  “Wow!” He said amused.

  Axel and Annabeth were looking at something different with Nikkya.

  “Is that a lizard?” Annabeth asked her brother.

  “Something like that.” He told her.

  “Those are cool. I want one.” She said to Axel.

  “I don’t think mom would appreciate that.” He laughed.

  “Look Nikkya.” Annabeth pointed to a different animal showing Nikkya.

  They took the children to see the tigers. Braydon was a little skittish about them not getting to close but he especially loved looking at the giant turtles.

  “Damn I didn’t know they got that big.” Nikkya joked.

  They walked back up into the trail near the woods to see more animals.

  “Watch where you’re running!” Axel yelled to his sister who almost tripped over a log while running up to look at something with Braydon. He ran to catch up to them.

  “I think this is really good for us all. This was a good idea.” Nikkya said to Zamora.

  “Yeah I thought it would be good for Braydon. He really needs to get out of the house. I just wish I could do more with him.” She said.

  “You’re doing what you can Zamora. It’s the little things that count.” JT said trying to make her feel better.

  “Yeah I guess so. It’s just that his father is the one who should be with him.” She said.

  “Well he’s not. Someday he will be and he’ll have his own ways of making it up to his son.” Nikkya said glancing over at Braydon.

  They walked all around the zoo, finally finding what Annabeth wanted to see.

  “MONKEYS!” She shouted running up to them.

  Annabeth and Braydon mocked the monkeys. They tried getting the monkeys to mock them back. Zamora recorded a video with her cell phone of the children. She loved that they were having such a great time.

  After the monkeys, they decided to take a lunch break. Braydon preferred a hotdog and fries. Annabeth loved pizza. So did Zamora.

  “Thanks for inviting me along sis. This was really a good time.” JT said before biting into his food.

  “Well brother. We don’t spend as nearly enough time together.” Nikkya joked.

  Zamora laughed at them.

  JT laughed. “No really though. Thanks.”

  “Sure thing bro.” Nikkya smiled. She took a bite from her pizza.

  After lunch, they finished up at the zoo. Seeing the last few things they missed. They went into the gift shop before leaving. Zamora bought her nephew a toy snake. Axel bought his sister a stuffed monkey. Monkeys were her favorite animal.

  “You should come around more often.” Zamora told JT after giving him a hug.

  “Yeah maybe I will.” He smiled.

  JT gave his sister a hug before leaving in his car. The children took a short nap on the way home. They were tired from the long day. Axel drove them all back to the house.

  “Mommy look what I got at the zoo!” Annabeth said running up to her mother, showing her the stuffed monkey.

  “Wow baby. That’s cool. Did you have a good time?” Salena asked her daughter.

  “Yeah. It was fun. I got to see the monkeys.” She smiled.

  “You and your monkeys.” Salena laughed.

  “I got a snake.” Braydon interrupted showing Salena his toy.

  “Oh you like snakes?” She asked him.

  “Yeah. We saw a really big one!” He shouted.

  “Sounds like you all had a fun time.” Minnie overheard the children.

  “Yeah. It was nice.” Zamora said to her mother.

  “Well I’m glad to hear.” Minnie smiled to her daughter.

  “You two definitely need a bath before bed.” Salena told the kids.

  “Okay.” Annabeth agreed. She usually didn’t mind baths as she liked to play in the tub.

  “Come on Braydon. Let’s go upstairs and play. Monkey and snake can be friends.” Annabeth said to him.

  “Yeah!” He yelled.

  They both walked up the stairs while playing with their toy animals on the railing making animal noises.

  “Thanks for ah, taking them out. I think they really needed that.” Salena said to Zamora.

  “I think we all did.” She replied.

  “So where’s Carlos?” Axel changed the subject.

  “I’m not sure. He said he had to take care of something but that he should be home before dinner.” Minnie answered.

  “Well I think I’m going to go take a shower.” Nikkya told them.

  “Please Carlos. I don’t know who took the drugs. I told you some men stole them from me.” A young woman begged.

  She was chained up in Carlos’s warehouse. She was Spanish with long black hair. Carlos had been torturing her for information.

  “I trusted you, to transport the drugs, and get them past security. You have always been successful. What the hell happened Elena?”

  She tried to speak. “I told you. I don’t know how they knew I had drugs but they did. They followed me back to the hotel.” She paused trying to catch her breath. “One of them put a gun to my head while the others searched the room. They had bandanas over their faces. They found the drugs and hit me in the head with the gun knocking me out. When I woke up everything was gone.”

  “How many of them were there?” He calmly asked.

  “Four.” She said taking a breath.

  “You’re slacking Elena. Do you know how much money you just cost me? I have no way of ever knowing who took the drugs. You were supposed to make the delivery. It wasn’t that difficult.” Carlos said grabbing her face.

  “I know. I’m sorry. What was I supposed to do? They had a gun to me. They would’ve killed me.”

  “Did you really just ask me that?” He asked like she already knew the answer.

  Carlos punched Elena in the gut. She yelled out.

  Carlos whispered in her ear. “What you should’ve done was be more careful. That was very careless. They obviously knew somehow you were making a delivery. You were very careless Elena. I don’t take that lightly.” He told her.

  “Please Carlos.” She begged.

  “I can’t just let you get away with it.”

  “Please don’t kill me.” She sobbed.

  “Your services aren’t needed anymore.” Carlos said before slitting her throat.

  Tyson found a way to retaliate against Paco again. They were both very good at it. The Jamaican’s and MS-13 wanted to be the last one standing. Tyson and Paco were sick of losing their men. Dead bodies always on the news but never linking back to either side, but Zamora knew who they belonged to and who had done it. She was thrilled that her plan was working.

  “It seems that was proven to be a great distraction Zamora. I’m glad it worked in our favor.” Carlos told his daughter.

  “I’m shocked either one of them hasn’t figured out it was all a set up yet.”

  “They’re all too dumb to see what’s right in front of them.” Carlos said keeping his eyes on the news.

  “Eventually ya know someone is bound to get tired of this and put it together?” Zamora reminded hi
m.

  “We will cross that bridge when we get there my daughter. For now, it’s nice to just have to deal with our own business.”

  “That’s for damn sure.” Pito spoke.

  Nathan interrupted Carlos barging in like it was urgent.

  “Sir? It’s Javier. He said he really needs to speak with you.” Nathan told him.

  “Well where’s the phone?” Carlos wondered.

  “No he’s here sir. He says it’s something that you really want to hear.” Nathan said.

  “He’s here?” Carlos was surprised.

  “Yes sir.”

  “Show him to my office. I will be right there.” He told Nathan.

  “Yes boss.” Nathan said.

  “Were you expecting him?” Zamora asked her father.

  “No. It must be really important if he came to meet in person. It’s unlike him.” He replied confused.

  “Wait here.” Carlos told Zamora and Pito.

  Javier was waiting for Carlos in his office. Javier was looking around the office while Carlos entered. He locked the door.

  “Javier? What is the problem?” Carlos asked confused.

  “I thought you would like to know that someone has been trying to…find out where The Rivera’s relocated.” Javier answered.

  “Que quieres decir?” Carlos wondered.

  (What do you mean?)

  “I got word that someone has been snooping around. Asking around where to find you. One of your old enemies I assume?” Javier asked.

  Carlos thought to himself. Trying to piece it together.

  “I’m not sure who it could be. My enemies know that The Eye is gone. The only other one of my enemies who would want to know that…are the Russians.” Carlos figured.

  “The Russians? They aren’t over that mess yet?”

  “I guess not.”

  “We don’t have time for another war Carlos. If it is the Russians, they’re going to put a big kink in all of our businesses. We all know what type of man Vladimir can be and his little Russian assassin of a sister is very…annoying.”

  “Do you know this for sure?”

  “I am sure. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone. I thought it would be better if I told you in person. If another one of your enemies’ starts a war with you, don’t drag any of us into it. I don’t have time for these games.” Javier told him.

  “I will deal with my enemies the same way I always have. It is my business.”

  “You’re right Carlos. It is your business. The Rivera Cartel has to stay on top. You cannot fall again.”

  “That isn’t going to happen. I will take care of whatever comes my way.”

  “Good. Don’t let personal and business mix. It’s not good for business.” Javier said.

  “I never do. Thank you for the warning. I will take care of it the best way I can.”

  Nikkya and Zamora spent some alone time together. Girl time out for dinner at one of their favorite restaurants reminiscing about past things.

  “Oh my gosh.” Nikkya laughed with food in her mouth. “Do you remember that time when we were in the tree house with Angel, and your brother kept throwing those big rocks up at us-”

  Zamora finished the sentence. “So we took that pale of dirty water from the rain and dumped it all over him.” Zamora laughed.

  They laughed.

  “Man my mom was so pissed. She literally just bought him those new pants and we got them all dirty from the water.” Zamora said taking a drink.

  “And Angel covered for us, saying he slipped in that puddle of water.” Nikkya said smiling.

  “Yeah, I remember that. Angel always had an excuse to keep us out of trouble.” Zamora said thinking of her sister.

  “Yeah she did. We were like the three amigos.” Nikkya said thinking of her as well.

  “And Dice always found a way to include himself. He hated when we did our own thing without him.”

  “So did my brother.” Nikkya chuckled.

  “Yeah, I wonder why Dice and JT never spent more time together.” Zamora wondered.

  “Girl they were way too different. Dice was a crazy ass dude and JT liked to keep to himself.” Nikkya said.

  “We had good memories though. Those were the simple times.” Zamora reminded her.

  “Who would a thought that Carlos Rivera was your birth father though? I still can’t wrap my head around that sometimes.” Nikkya said putting food in her mouth.

  “Who you telling?” She paused. “Things turned out the way they were meant to turn out. All we can do is move forward. Whatever is gonna happen is going to happen.” Zamora said knowing that was the truth.

  There was a large room filled with a lot of tech things. Computers, speakers, cameras, alarms. The room was closed off. The windows were highly protected so no one could get inside. It was very private like it was very important.

  Someone was sleeping in a bed near one of the computers. Something loud beeped on a computer monitor. Going off like an alarm. Someone got up from his bed urgently running over to the computer. A light on top of the computer screen blinked red. The computer was searching for something. A GPS signal. A clock was counting down two minutes. He only had two minutes to find where the signal was coming from. He typed something in his computer to make it search faster. The computer found the signal. He typed in something else and clicked on something to do what he wanted. The computer screen said “Terminated.” The red light stopped flashing and the alarm stopped sounding. Someone had tried searching for Ghost. Atlas fried their system.

  In Washington DC, people were outside the court house protesting the overturned conviction of a serial rapist who was being released. Someone was watching the courthouse through a sniper’s rifle scope. The media was following the story waiting for the man to exit the building. A man was talking to the media. A very rich well known man. His young daughter was the latest victim.

  “This isn’t right. This isn’t justice. We all know he’s guilty!” He yelled. “To let a rapist go free because of…lack of evidence…is ridiculous. There is no justice system. My own daughter has to go on living knowing that her rapist won’t have to pay for his crime.” The man said.

  Commotion rumbled as the accused rapist starting making his way outside. The protesters shouted louder. The father of the daughter backed away from the media. The press went crazy trying to speak to the accused rapist. His lawyer stood beside him as he stood in front of the cameras ready to make a speech about himself. The press began asking him questions about his thoughts. Suddenly, the man was shot in his head. Everyone screamed.

  The father of the daughter looked up for a split second as if he knew something about the murder.

  “Justice is served. Thanks Ghost.” He said under his breath.

  Paco was getting one of his tattoos finished by his favorite tattooist. A young blonde female with big earrings who always wore a gray bandana over around her forehead. She was his favorite and their personal tattooist meaning she went to them instead of them to her.

  “Almost done Paco. I don’t think you can fit anymore here though. You’re about full.” She said finishing up.

  “I got a lota skin chicka.” He smirked.

  “That you do Paco. You know I love tattooing your body.”

  “I wouldn’t trust anyone else but you.”

  “I hope not. All finished though.” She smiled.

  Paco admired her work.

  “It’s beautiful chicka.” He kissed her cheek. “You always do an amazing job.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled.

  The girl wrapped up Paco’s tattoo and Lupe entered the room holding a cell phone.

  “Make sure you see Lucky for your pay.”

  “Oh I will.” She chuckled.

  “Someone wants to speak to you cousin. He said it’s urgent.” Lupe said.

  “Who is it?” Paco asked.

  “I don’t know but they said it’s about the Rivera’s.”

  Paco waited until the g
irl gathered her things and left.

  “Who is this and what do you want?” Paco asked the person on the phone.

  Lupe wondered what the conversation was about.

  “The Rivera’s have been here for a while. Why is that of interest to you?” Paco asked.

  There was a long pause as Paco listened to the man on the phone speak.

  “Well that is a very interesting story, but what does it have to do with me?”

  “You have my attention. What is it that I can help you with?” Paco asked interested.

  MOSCOW, RUSSIA

  Katya Petrov was a 24 year old Russian Assassin with long blonde and black dreads in her hair. She had a round black bottom lip ring. She had a sexy body and a few tattoos. She dressed in dark sexy clothing like skirts, lingerie and leather jackets. She always wore black leather gloves and boots. Katya had her own custom made weapons. Like her golden gun with a silencer and golden knives which she kept hidden underneath her clothes.

  Katya was in a very expensive luxury suit dancing around a pole for an older man. He was sitting in his white robe smoking his cigar on his bed while watching her dance for him. She was barefoot. They spoke in Russian.

  “I love the way you dance for me.” He said to her.

  Katya just smiled at him.

  The man watched Katya dance around the pole to the music. Showing off her sexy moves to him. She twirled around the pole showing off her black underwear under her short skirt.

  “You have a very beautiful body.” The man said.

  Katya just smiled again while twirling around her hair. The man kept his eyes on her watching her every move. Katya finished with the pole. She slowly danced her way over to the man who put out his cigar. She slowly sat on top of his body. He touched her booty with his hands so she gave him a look as if not to touch her yet and bound his wrists to the bed. The man rather enjoyed it. Katya got up from the bed walking over to her bag.

  “Are you getting something else for us to play with?” He asked watching her.

  “Something like that.” Katya said to him.

  “Why are these so tight?” The man wondered about his bound hands.

  “So you can’t get free.” Katya replied retrieving something from her bag.