…To Kingdom Come

It was now morning, later morning to be exact. Vince had a long day helping out the 3rd Street Saints. He did four favors that day. One was to help out Johnny rescue the younger sister of a well-known singer, the other two involved hurting the Carnales, and finally, stealing a carrier truck hauling some cars.

Vince put on a purple jacket over a plain black T-shirt and some black jeans after he took a shower from the long day he had. He also had to clean off any blood stains he had gotten on himself. It was now time to see what else he could do. Even though he was still new to this lifestyle, he had shown that he was reliable to put it down for the Row.

The church was only a few blocks from his apartment in Mission Beach. As he walked up to the church, a black Zomkah pulled up and parked in front of the church. This car looked really nice. The driver's side door opened and out came a rather pretty African-American woman in a rather revealing outfit. She had on a rather small jacket, a tube top, a dark denim miniskirt, and some white knee-high boots, and to top it off, a purple and white cap that she wore with the brim facing directly to her right, along with wide hoop earrings. This woman looked familiar to him alright, as well as everyone else as they hooted and hollered at the sight of her.

Vince approached this lady, who looked up at him. She looked at him with some awe, as if she suspected that she had maybe heard about him rather recently.

"Hello," Vince said to the lady. "Aren't you…?"

"Yes, it's me, I am Aisha," the lady said. "You must be Vince. My sister Latisha told me about you."

Vince looked at her with such surprise. How could she have guessed that he was the man who saved her sister?

"It's nice to finally meet you," Aisha said. "You're new, right? I've never seen you hang around the Row."

"I am new," Vince said. "I started hanging around here rather recently, then all of this happened. So you know that I saved your sister?"

"Yeah, my sister was so scared, but she saw how brave you were in taking on the Vice Kings," Aisha said. "Though Johnny told me that he was the one who saved her. I need to talk to his ass. Come on, let's go inside."

Aisha walked up to the front door while everyone still applauded her entrance. Aisha smiled a bit.

"Come on, guys, you all know who I am," Aisha said and opened the door to get in as Vince followed her. She walked in like she knew the place already. She seemingly knew where to find Johnny. It wasn't long until she came across his office, especially with her face on some of the posters on display.

Vince stood back, as he saw that Aisha wanted to have this be a private conversation between the two.

Johnny sat at his desk, looked up and said, "Aisha, what a pleasant surprise, didn't expect you to come here."

"Shut up, Johnny," Aisha said. "I came because I needed to talk to you about what happened yesterday."

"What, how I saved your sister?" Johnny said. "It's more than what you have been doing around here."

Aisha glared a bit, how she was able to see through his BS.

"God, you haven't changed at all, have you?" Aisha said.

"Well, not all of us have a couple million dollars to make changes," Johnny said.

Aisha sat down in the chair in front of Johnny. "It's always the same shit with you."

"Oh, here we go again," Johnny said.

"What did you want me to do?" Aisha said. "Did you expect me not to take my shot?"

"No, I expected you to remember where you came from," Johnny said.

Aisha banged her hand against Johnny's desk. "Oh, fuck you, Johnny!"

"Fuck me? Fuck you!" Johnny said. "You're the one who ran off to be famous. The only time you remember who we are is when you want something."

"When I want something?" Aisha said. "My sister was kidnapped!"

"And I brought her back, didn't I?" Johnny said.

"No," Aisha said and pointed at Vince. "He did."

"Bullshit, I told him to do it," Johnny said and looked at Vince. "No offense."

"Whatever, I'm not getting involved," Vince said and stood back and watched what was going on in front of him. It was almost a bit entertaining to him.

Aisha continued to speak. "Look, Latisha was scared off her ass shitless. She may have felt a bit better, but I know she was still affected by this. All I'm saying is if you're going to help me, help me, but don't you dare try to hold it over me."

"Fine," Johnny said.

"Fine," Aisha said.

"Fine!" Johnny said.

Silence went through the air for a few seconds, until Johnny signaled to Vince to come over.

"Relax, man," Johnny said as Vince came close. "I see you've met Saint's Row's claim to fame, the one and only Aisha, and tonight, we're going to kill her."

"Whoa, whoa, did I hear you right?" Vince said.

"Don't worry, he's being melodramatic," Aisha said. "You see, I'm signed with Kingdom Come Records."

Johnny added, "And it's no secret that the label is owned by the Vice Kings."

"But the real deal is that once you're signed, you can't get out," Aisha said. "They rip you off left and right, and they extort you to stay signed. I've talked to Johnny and he said that might be willing to help me."

"Hold up, what?" Vince said and turned to Johnny.

"Relax, you've been proving yourself lately," Johnny said. "When you saved Latisha, as well as when we rolled on the Carnales, and Lin even told me that you took that truck singlehandedly."

"Okay, you're right," Vince said. "I'm listening."

"Now check it out," Johnny said. "Eesh has a recording session in a few minutes. That's when we make her disappear and give the Vice Kings a nice 'fuck you' while we're at it. I want you to take Aisha to her session, but on the way, stop at the chop shop to have your ride loaded up with C4. Samson knows you're coming, so be ready. Park the car at the studio and get the hell out of there."

Johnny turned towards Aisha. "Eesh, make sure someone sees you before you jump out."

Aisha sighed. "Johnny, I really appreciate…"

"Whatever, I was gonna blow that place up anyway," Johnny said. "Now you two go blow some shit up."

Vince and Aisha left Johnny's office to head out of the church. Once they got out, Aisha said, "You drive, I need to get my mind of some stuff."

"No problem," Vince said.

Aisha entered through the passenger's side, while Vince took the driver's seat. Aisha handed him the keys and it wasn't long until he started up the car.

"Is it okay if I pick the station?" Vince said.

"Not a problem with me, go ahead," Aisha said.

Vince went and put it on K-Rhyme FM and it must have been a flashback day, as "Guerrilla Funk" from Paris played. Vince remembered where the place was, so he drove straight until he made a right. The shop was just a block or two away.

"So I was wondering, does Johnny talk about me at all?" Aisha said.

"He mentioned you a couple of times, at least when I was around," Vince said. "I didn't think he knew someone famous."

"I may be famous, but I always remember my roots," Aisha said.

Right then, Vince pulled up into the garage. Some other men were working, and Samson came out.

"Hey, you're back," Samson said.

"Yeah, just doing another job today," Vince said. "Are those cars ready?"

"We're getting there, Lin wanted us to do something special for them," Samson said.

"Okay," Vince said.

Vince and Aisha stepped outside of the car as Samson worked his magic. He set some C4 underneath the car, enough to put a hole in the world. It took a bit, but he got it done.

"Okay, that should do it," Samson said. "You ain't got a lot of time, so hurry. One more thing, that shit in your car ain't exactly stable. I would be really careful if I were you."

Vince nodded his head and got in, as did Aisha. The garage door opened and Vince put the car in reverse and the two headed out into the street. Aisha, however, saw something, or someone she didn't expect nor wanted to see, which was a van and the driver wore glasses. She saw through the rearview mirror and even from a distance, she was able to recognize the driver.

"Oh no, not again," Aisha said.

"What's wrong?" Vince said.

"You see that van over there behind us?" Aisha said. Vince peaked at his rearview mirror.

"Don't worry, I got this," Vince said and got out of the car and got out his NR4 and walked right up to the van as Aisha looked on as what was going on in front of her.

Vince got to the window of the driver's door of the van. "Out of the fucking van, now!"

The stalker jumped. His eyes widened. He turned pale and even trembled at the sight of a gun barrel right in front of him. The stalker got out while Vince held him at gunpoint.

"I see you've been stalking the lady," Vince said.

"No, no, I love Aisha!" the stalker said.

"That's not what I heard," Vince said. "What you're doing doesn't sound like love. Let me guess, do you jerk off to her posters every night? Do you try to call her? You seemed to know where she was right now. Is she just a piece of meat to you, huh?"

"No! No! It's not like that!" the stalker said.

"Then what is it?" Vince said as he pressed the barrel against his forehead.

"I DON'T KNOW!" the stalker yelled. It didn't end there. Vince noticed that his pants started to get wet. He started to sweat, as well as tears running down his face.

"Let me just tell you this, if I catch you near the lady again, I will pull the trigger," Vince said. "But I will give you a break this time. Does that sound good?"

The stalker trembled, cried, and nodded his head.

"Okay, go on now," Vince said as he saw the stalker get back into the van.

Vince walked back to the Zomkah as the van quickly made a u-turn out of there. Vince got pack and immediately put the car in drive, all the while Aisha looked at him for what he just did.

"Wow, you got rid of him," Aisha said.

"Eh, it was too easy," Vince said. "Let's get going."

They were off. They headed down the street towards the entrance, only to find a cop car close to a truck that was blocking the bridge.

"I don't have time for this," Vince said and backed up.

"What are you doing?" Aisha said.

Vince said nothing. He just answered her question by hitting the gas and ramming into the police car.

"Be careful, we're sitting on a bomb!" Aisha said.

The cop car turned and the sidewalk on the bridge opened. Vince pulled into the sidewalk and merged onto the bridge. The bomb was on a timer, he had to get there as soon as possible.

"Don't go so fast, we don't want to hit anything else," Aisha said.

Vince sped the car on the bridge, heading into Brighton. Aisha navigated for him, as he turned left into in Union Square. She told him to make a right onto a street and headed straight until he saw a sign that said "Kingdom Come Records."

"We made it," Aisha said. "Time to disappear. Anyway, thanks for this."

"Don't mention it," Vince said.

"No, really, thanks for saving me from that creep and also saving my sister," Aisha said. "She kind of likes you, by the way, and also couldn't stop thinking about what you did for her. You should give her a call."

Aisha handed Vince a small piece of paper and handed it to Vince.

"Now get out before it blows up," Aisha said.

The two exited the car. Vince ran off in the opposite direction and watched as Aisha entered the building.

Aisha walked into the lobby of the building. The walls were light orange and dark orange, as well as had some gold record awards on the wall. A man at the front desk looked up and saw Aisha.

"Running a little late today?" the man said.

"Hey now, you got to look good to sound good," Aisha said.

"Want me to let them know you're in?" the man said.

"Would you do that for me?" Aisha said.

The man picked up the phone as Aisha walked away.

"She's here, Mr. Williams," the man said.

Unbeknownst to the receptionist, as soon as Aisha was out of his line of sight, she quickly made a break for the doors on the opposite end of the lobby. She ran as fast as she could until she found an exit to the outside. The car was still parked outside in front. It wasn't long until…

KABOOM!

The lobby and a few floors were blown up at Kingdom Come Records. One could wonder how much explosives were planted in that car, but it was definitely enough to blow up a few floors and leave some casualties in the process.

After a few minutes, several pedestrians walked out of the neighboring buildings, as well as cars to see the debris falling from the remains of the explosion. Vince even stood in the distance and walked away.

Meanwhile, a Venom pulled up nearby. Johnny stopped as he saw Aisha.

"Get in, Eesh!" Johnny said.

Aisha ran towards Johnny's car and quickly got in. They both sped away from the explosion.

SAINT'S ROW

Angelo, Victor, and several Carnales rolled up in their vehicles in the area. Angelo and Victor got out, strapped.

["Ready to take them down, Victor?"] Angelo said to Victor in Spanish.

["The blood of the Saints is ours, Angelo,"] Victor said.

Angelo gave an evil smirk. It was now on.

Author's note: That's it for this one. I wanted to change it up a bit to have Vince confront the stalker and scare him. As shown here, I'm going to characterize Aisha's sister a bit. She might appear again soon.

Next up, the Carnales take the fight to the Saints. Stay tuned.