RISE OF THE DRUG RING

Everything is different, the second time around.

Prologue

Alex's heart was racing, her entire body was freaking out as she grasp the bar on the side door of the prison van. She couldn't believe it, she was getting out. Yet that wasn't really a relief. She knew with Kubra after her she wouldn't last long. She glanced out the window of the van, expecting every passing car to be Kubra's men, ready to gun her down. She couldn't stand it, but she couldn't stop thinking about how far she could truly be from death.

"What's the worry inmate, you're finally out of this shit hole. I'd think you'd at least be a little more thrilled about it," The guard said as he glanced back at her.

Yeah right, Alex thought. She had virtually no money, and no place to go. Now she was out in the open for Kubra to strike her down for betraying him. But that wasn't the worst of it. Sure she couldn't accept death, but worse than that Piper had left again. Alex hadn't seen Piper in 7 months; that's what was really hurting her, not death, but dying alone after being left alone. Alex shivered as she stared out the window as rain began to drizzle down on New York's gray city scape. Alex closed her eyes and tried to relax, she tried to think of good memories, times she was truly happy. One thought came back to her, the one thought that had always haunted her, Piper.

Piper had gotten out 8 months ago. She had said her share of goodbyes to all the other women, but also made sure the panty business kept running without her. But this hard exterior wasn't what she showed Alex. The night before she was getting out she out, she had taken Alex to the chapel. Piper had held her tight in one last naked embrace there. They were together, and Piper promised Alex that she would visit every week, she wouldn't leave her, ever again.

But she had left her. After week 4 there was no Piper, she hadn't even stuck around longer than a whole fucking month. Worse than that she never even said goodbye; at least when Piper left her before she knew why, but this disappearance was up to her imagination. Uh, how could she just vanish, there was no visitation, no note, and no Piper. Alex initially thought it had just been a one week thing at first, but she never heard anything from Piper for the rest of her sentence. She asked some of the other inmates what happened to her. They said Piper was doing everything from running her own biker gang, to tech support at a best buy. But Alex just couldn't see any of that. It wasn't like Piper to just leave, not again.

Alex played the last conversation they had in her head over and over again, trying to find a clue as to what had happened to her.

She remembered Piper saying on week 4 of visitation, "I'm still in this horrible apartment, but at the same time the panties were the best idea I ever had. Without them I wouldn't even have this. But I'm rambling, how about you Al, how's life inside the cage," Piper said with a smile.

Alex sighed, "Look Piper, I know you're trying to cheer me up, but I'm not in the mood. I'm stuck in this hell hole for another 7 months, then when I get out I'll probably be killed by one Kubra's men on the first day, things just don't look very good for me."

"Alex, you'll be okay. I left you once, and I will never make that mistake again. I'll be here every time I can for you. I'll do whatever it takes to make this right," Piper replied as her voice changed from humorous to determined.

"Okay," Alex murmured as tears filled her eyes, and she grasped Piper's hand across the table.

But Piper was gone after that. No one had heard from her, but the pantie business kept flowing just fine. Maybe she was gone, maybe she wasn't. But those last words, "I'll make this right," sent a chill down Alex's spine now. Kubra may have taken her out, ah, that would be just like him to do, kill off everyone she loved before ending her. He couldn't have just had her killed in prison to just get it over with. He had to send one of his men in as a guard to tell her she was dead as soon as she stepped out of Prison, but Kubra wanted her to suffer.

Alex couldn't take it anymore. Piper had disappeared from her life without a trace, and she was about to die alone in the rain. Alex leaned back against the seat, and cried, while rain poured down on the cold, gray city.