Chapter 1

Angela sat quietly with her brother in the car behind the meeting place for their father's latest client. She could feel her heart pounding as she her lament for what she was being for to be a part of grew. Because tonight, not only was she being asked to deliver illegal drugs, but as of late, they had been finding leaks in their territory and after delivering the drugs, they were to hunt down and take out the leak. She could almost breathe with relief that they had no idea that it was her, but she felt equally guilty that some innocent person could die because she was secretly delivering information about the trades and the clients to the police thanks to her friend, Derek.

Angela gripped the strap of the duffle bag tighter as the anticipation of when their client would be arriving grew faster and faster.

"Are we sure he's coming?" she asked trying to hide the fact that her voice was possibly shaking.

"If not that just means we will have more of a chance to spot this leak that has been crippling our line of clients." Her brother Josh, who went by the nickname Jet within their father's cartel, answered fiddling with his gun.

"Josh would you please put that away." Angela pleaded.

"What did you call me?" he glared at her.

"I called you…"

"You just called me Jet, now didn't you?" he said making his point by pointing the gun at her.

"Fine, Jet would you please put that away, you're making me nervous."

"Actually, I think someone needs a little lesson." He said handing it to her.

"No thank you." She said trying to push it away.

"Take it, I will not ask again." He growled at her.

With shaking hands, she took the gun from his and held it in hers. "Now put the barrel in your mouth and pull the trigger." He ordered her.

"What no! I will not do that!" she shouted trying to toss the gun back to him.

"You will do it or I will." He glared at her forcing the gun into her hand.

Knowing there was no way she could get out of this, and right now feeling like her only escape from all of this was to die, she slowly took the gun and did as her brother told her. She put the barrel in her mouth and with even shakier fingers, pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened, just a click as the trigger pulled, but no shot, no bang and no bullet. Her heart raced as she realized that the gun had been empty all along. She looked over at her brother and saw him holding the bullets and laughing at her.

"Let that serve as a warning to watch your step Scarlet." He laughed taking the gun back from her.

"Yes, Jet." Angela answered trying to calm down.

She and her brother waited another few minutes before they saw an old man with a cane walking through the alley way where they were waiting.

"Looks like we have ourselves a trespasser." Josh said cocking his gun.

"Jo, Jet no, he's just an old man." Angela begged grabbing his arm. "He's not doing anything wrong."

"Those who stroll into Angeles Diablos territory uninvited must be punished." He sneered.

Josh pulled free of her grip and strolled out of the car toward the old man. Angela scrambled to undo her seat belt and get out of the car to catch up with him to stop him from hurting the old man.

"What are you doing on our streets you leech?" he brother sneered pointing his gun at the old man.

"Please young man, I'm just trying to get home." The old man pleaded.

"And I'm supposed to believe you?" Josh growled knocking the old man to the ground. "Those you wonder into our streets without an invitation get lead out." He sneered pointing the gun at the old man.

Angela ran as fast as she could and pushed her brother's arm up as the trigger was pulled. "Jet, he's just an old man, he hasn't done anything wrong!" She yelled as her brother turned on her and pinned her back against the wall next to her, pointing the gun at her head.

"If you were not my sister, I would put a bullet in your head for that." He said pointing the gun at her head. "If I were you, I would learn my place Scarlet and stay there." He warned her walking back to the car.

Angela turned back to the old man and helped him back on his feet, handing him his cane.

"Thank you young miss." He sighed with relief.

"I'm sorry, my brother is a bit a trigger happy moron." She said handing him his bag and noticed that in the fall he had been scratched really bad by the pavement. "Here, this'll help with the pain and keep it from getting infected." She said reaching into her purse and handing the old man some medicine she carried with her.

"Very much appreciated miss." The old man said with a smile.

"Angela, my name's Angela." She said shaking his hand. "If I were you, I would stay away from this part of town, it gets really dangerous around here after dark."

As if on cue, Angela heard her brother rev the car's engine telling her they had to go. "I've gotta go, but I'll pray that you get home safely." She said turning to leave.

"You know Dad's not going to be happy with you for this." Josh warned her.

"We've already got the police breathing down our necks with all the drug trafficking we're doing, we don't need them to add flat out cold blooded murder to the charges." She argued as they drove back to their base of operations.

Neither she nor her brother said a word the rest of the drive back. When they got to the warehouse, Brock, one of their father's thugs, was waiting for them.

"Your father's waiting to see you two." He said taking the duffle bag from Angela.

Angela could feel her heart pounding with anxiety as she and Josh walked in through to the back where their father sat waiting for them with his back to the them.

"It is my understanding that there were some problems at the trade off this evening." Their father, Isaac Monroe, stated without turning to face them.

"Yes, our client didn't show up for the trade and we had a trespasser wander into our alley way." Josh answered almost animatronic.

"And was the trespasser dealt with?"

"No, Scarlet interfered and let him go." Josh answered glaring at Angela.

"Why would you do that Scarlet?" Isaac asked turning to face her.

"Because he was just an old man, a harmless civilian. He wasn't doing anything wrong." She defended. "We already have the police on us about drug dealing, we don't need to add murder to the list."

Isaac looked at her with furious eyes, but still managed to maintain a calm composure. "There is a reason our client failed to come tonight." Isaac said as if moving on. "It seems the police got to him before he could get to us."

"What!" Josh exclaimed in outrage.

"Yes, it would seem that this leak is in deeper than we thought." Isaac said looking out the window.

"Any ideas of who it might be?" Angela asked nervously.

"My guess is that it is someone that the police have sent in undercover as one of us and they are delivering information of our trades and our clients."

Angela had to keep from heaving a sigh of relief. "So what are we going to do?" she asked nervous to find out.

"Josh and I will figure this out, you are going to go to your room and stay there for the night." Isaac ordered her. "You've done enough damage tonight."

"But Dad…"

"I am your father and you will obey me, do you understand?" he yelled at her.

"Yes sir." Angela answered feeling defeated. She turned and followed Brock to the car that was waiting for them.

The entire drive home, Angela wondered what had happened to the man her father used to be. Ever since their mother had been killed in a shootout between the Chupacabras and the police, he hadn't been the same. They all used to be so close, but now, she felt lucky to wake up each morning and even see them.

When they got to the house, Brock escorted her inside and upstairs to her room. As she walked inside, she gave Brock a glance and then said good night as he shut the door behind her. Angela sighed with sadness and defeat. What more could she do to keep trying to bring her family back together. She was already risking her life and Derek's by secretly passing the trade information for him to give to the police. And as it crossed her mind, she remembered that she had to call him and ask if the police got what they were looking for.

She sat down by her desk and pulled out her phone to call her best friend. As it rang, Angela became more anxious the longer it rang with him answering. Finally, she heard his voice on the other side.

"What up Angel?" she heard him greet with his usual laid back California accent.

"Not now Derek, I just need to know if the police got there in time." She said cutting to the chase.

"You know it girl. They were stoked to get their guy tonight, although they're still pretty bummed that they're not much closer to finding your old man." He informed her. "You sure, you don't just want to come clean and tell them that you're the one passing the info to me to pass to them? They could totally use your help in bringing this whole low tide cartel down bra."

"No way, it's way too risky, if I went to the police, my Dad would do heaven only knows what to make sure that the police don't even come close to catching him. If he finds out that I've been passing information to you to give to the police, I could die, you could die, many other people could die because of what we're doing." Angela answered him in a panic. "Derek I am begging you as a friend, for the love of all that is good in this world you cannot tell the police that the one working as a mole in the Angeles Diablos is me."

"Chill 'lax bra, I got your back." Derek assured her.

"Great, so if we can move passed that, I just need some minor notes from class today. You think you can help me with that?"

"No prob." He answered.

For the next few minutes, Angela wrote down some notes she missed from her courses that day as her father had called her out of class to come help them with the trade for that evening. After getting what she was missing, she thanked her friend, hung up and got started on her homework for the next day. By the time she was done and got a look at her clock, she saw that it was already late getting close to midnight. She quickly got a shower and ready for bed.

As she laid down in bed trying to go to sleep, she found her thoughts wandering back to that old man she saved earlier that evening and hoping that he made it home alright. She was happy the police got the guy that was supposed to meet her and Josh for the trade, but she would've been happier if the man she saved hadn't shown up because now, if Josh and her father suspected that he was the leak, they would try to find him again and silence him. She only hoped that where ever he lived, it was safely out of their turf.

At last her eyes started to get heavy and she let herself drift off to sleep. When she opened her eyes again it was starting to get light out. She looked out her window and saw that it was almost sunrise.

"Now would be the best time to go for my run." She yawned to herself.

She pulled herself out of her pajamas and into her running clothes. Quietly, she slipped out her bedroom window and down the fire escape into the yard and over the fence. Having successfully escaped her house, she took off on a slow jog down the street. With hundred meters, she found her troubles becoming something farther and farther from the front of her mind as her body worked to wake up and keep with her pace. After jogging and running for almost an hour, she ran home and slipped back into her room trying to remain undetected.

Angela then went to take a shower and get ready to head out to her classes that day. As she was pulling her bright curly auburn red hair up in her usual 'I dream of genie' up due, she heard a knock at her door.

"Ma'am, your father wants to talk to you." She heard Brock say at her door.

"Tell him I'll be down soon." She answered not opening the door.

After getting her hair and makeup done, she ran down the stairs to her father's office down stairs. Her heart started to pound as she wondered what he could possibly want to see her for this time. When she reached his office door, she took a deep breath and opened the door.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked with a shaking voice.

"You will be going with Brock for another trade tonight." Her father told her without even looking at her.

"But I have to…"

"If you value your education at that community college, you will do as I say." He threatened her.

Angela's words caught and choked in her throat. "Yes sir." Was all she could get out.

"Good, now you may go." He said dismissing her.

As she left the office and headed for the front door, she could feel herself begin to cry. She fought to hold back the tears and left the house to head for her classes. As she started down the street for the bus that would bring her to the campus of her college classes, she found herself wondering if her Dad even really cared about her and what she really wanted for herself.

'He can't expect me to be a part of this forever.' She thought as she put her ear buds in and started her digital music player. 'Sooner or later he's going to have to let me go.'

As the bus pulled up, she caught a glimpse of the other side of the street and could've sworn she saw the old man from last night. But when she looked again he was gone.

'It's probably nothing. Just my mind trying to get over last night.' She reasoned with herself.

The entire bus ride to the campus, Angela reviewed her notes and looked over her homework again. But she could not get it out of her head that her father was threatening to take away his support for her to go to college. Here she was, 20 almost 21 years old and her father was threatening her like she was a little kid that needed to be controlled. She could feel herself grit her teeth at the fact that even after graduating high school, she still had no freedom to become what she wanted to be, anything but a drug trafficker.

Finally the bus pulled up to the campus and let her and everybody else off. As Angela headed for her first class for the day, she found Derek talking with his girlfriend, Abbey.

"Hey, what's up bra?" Derek greeted her as she walked up to them.

"Not much." Angela answered not feeling very spirited.

"Are you doing okay?" Abbey in her thick black glasses and basic black pig tails asked as she got a closer look at Angela.

"I'm fine, it was just a long night, that's all." Angela answered rubbing her eyes, realizing how red they must have looked from trying to hold back the tears. "I was up late last night studying and finishing my homework. I had a long night with my family last night."

"Well, hope you weren't hoping to catch a break today, we have a test in Calculus today." Abbey informed her.

"Augh, I completely forgot." Angela groaned mentally slapping herself. "I wasn't able to study for it last night, I'm doomed." She said ready to collapse right there with despair.

"Look, it's going to be okay Ange, just do your best and you'll be fine." Derek said supporting her. "We better book before we're late."

The three friends ran quickly for their first class and quickly took their seats. As Angela took her seat by Abbey near the front, she looked at the row just across from her and saw a guy she had never seen before.

"Who's that?" she quietly asked Abbey.

"That's a new guy from Mexico City. They say he moved here a few days ago but I did my thing and found he's actually the son of the police sheriff around here." Abbey explained.

"First of all, why would you do that, and second what's his story?"

"Well, you know how I am, I need to know the facts when it comes to new people. And apparently his momma was an illegal immigrant and tricked big daddy into having a baby, but that didn't stop the law from sending her and her baby back to Mexico."

"Wow, new guy have a name?" Angela asked.

"Miguel Dorado, at least that's the name that was on his birth certificate, his baby daddy is Sheriff Willis."

"Girl, how you are able to dig deep enough to find this stuff out, it amazes me that you haven't been arrested for hacking on a federal offense level." Angela said with a laughing smile.

The two girls laughed as the professor entered the room and the class began. Angela soon found she couldn't stop looking at the new guy and couldn't help but feel that she had seen him somewhere before. And the name, where had she heard that name?