When CJ finally arrived back to the trailer in Angel Pine, he exited the car and walked up to the trailer. Just then, he spotted Ryder talking to someone on the phone.
"From the betting shop," Ryder said over the phone. "Where else?"
A woman's voice was heard saying something to Ryder. CJ couldn't make out what the woman was saying due to her speaking distantly. But she sounded somewhat angry and irritated with Ryder over something.
"I told you," Ryder answered. "I'm through with the water for good! Believe me!"
The woman's voice sounding somewhat stern and skeptical to CJ.
"How the fuck I'm supposed to prove it to ya?" Ryder answered. "Can you see me through the phone?"
The woman said something else, still sounding stern.
"I told you, I ain't lying!" Ryder said, sounding annoyed. "I quit the water fo' good! Why don't you get off my back with that shit?!"
CJ heard the woman over the phone continuing incoherently.
"I am, girl! I am!" Ryder said, sounding more impatient than usual. "Now would you quit getting on my case with that shit?! I said I was off for good! What more do I have to prove?!"
CJ then heard the woman sounding as if she had calm down and somewhat still strict.
"Yo Ryder," CJ said to his best friend. "Who that?!"
"You don't need to worry about that!" Ryder said to the woman, ignoring CJ's question. "I know how to take care of myself! I'm a dangerous OG! Ain't nobody can stop me!"
The woman then said something else incoherently, sounding like she was worried.
"I will, girl!" Ryder replied. "I will! Don't worry about a thing!"
Ryder then hung up the phone and stored it in his pocket. He turned to CJ.
"That was Lisa," he answered. "She still don't believe I'm off that wet."
"That was Lisa?!" CJ replied. "How come you didn't let me talk to her?!"
"Nigga, what the fuck you need to talk to her for?" Ryder asked.
"I ain't seen her in five years, man," CJ said.
"So?" Ryder replied. "Her business is her business. You don't need to say jack shit to her! But I can tell you something else! Check it out!"
Ryder reached out of his pocket to pull out a bundle of cash. CJ was shocked.
"Holy shit!" CJ cried out. "Where'd you get all of this?!"
"From the betting shop, nigga," Ryder replied with a smirk. "I gambled $800 from those motherfuckers! Been taking they asses to the cleaners."
"Shit, Ryder!" CJ said, sounding very impressed. "Maybe you are a genius!"
"Jeah," Ryder replied. "I told you, my nigga. Here's $400. Spend this shit wisely, motherfucker!"
"Whatever, man," CJ said, accepting the money Ryder offered him. "Let's go inside. Cesar and Kendl are probably already in there waiting for us."
When CJ and Ryder entered the trailer, they found Cesar and Kendl making love to each other. When the couple noticed the two young gangsters walking in, they walked up to them.
"Hey, Carl," Kendl greeted as she gave her brother a hug.
"How you doing, sis?" CJ greeted back.
"What's up, CJ?" Cesar greeted, giving CJ a knuckle touch.
He then pointed to Ryder. "Oh, Cesar," CJ said, greeting Cesar to his friend, "this my homie, Ryder. Ryder, Cesar."
"What's up, holmes?" Cesar greeted Ryder, holding out his hand to shake.
Ryder just stared back looking somewhat skeptical. "What's up, homie?" Ryder answered back, sounding more ominous than friendly. "Sweet told me eses like you are all up to no good! So how I know you ain't gonna stab any of us in the back?!"
"Listen, holmes," Cesar stated, "I love your homie's sister more than ever and I would die from a bunch of bullets punctured in my organs to protect her. CJ, I respect him as a friend as well, and that's exactly why I told him about Smoke's betrayal because I still cared about your homie's safety. Trust me, betrayal is the last thing I would lower myself to."
Ryder thought about it for a second. After experiencing the terrible events he, alongside Sweet and the rest of the gang, got into the previous year, he wasn't sure if Cesar would be trustworthy. But thinking about what Cesar said about Big Smoke, he decided he would settle down with Cesar...for now.
"A'ight, homie," Ryder replied, returning the handshake to Cesar. "I guess we cool then. But just to remind you, I'm watching you, make sure you don't do anything sketchy! Believe me, I can tell when someone's about to play me, and you don't want to get on my bad side, homie!"
"Never mind him, Cesar," Kendl told Cesar. "He's still suffering from LMS: Little Man Syndrome."
CJ and Cesar laughed. Ryder was annoyed by Kendl's snide remark.
"Very funny," Ryder replied. "I'm not the one who pulled a muscle trying to lift a fucking book bag. So what do you got?!"
CJ laughed again.
"Whoa!" Cesar chuckled amusingly. "He got you there, Kendl!"
"Hey, that bag was heavy, okay?!" Kendl shouted, sounding defensive. "And I was only 12 at the time."
"Yeah," Ryder replied caustically. "Two flat books are definitely too much for you to handle."
"You're one to talk, asshole!" Kendl snarled. "I'm sure Lisa would tell us the story of the matches between you and her."
CJ and Cesar then gasped and laughed.
"Oh yeah, holmes!" Cesar called out. "Kendl told me how you kept getting your ass kicked by your own sister every time you two would square off with each other."
Ryder felt his face burning as CJ and Cesar continued to laugh.
"Hey, at least I won fights," Ryder shot back. "When's the last time you ever punched anybody? I still ain't gonna forget the time you were fighting with that crackheaded bitch at the playground and got yo' pants pulled down! Everyone could see your drawers, and instead of fighting back, you ran away with yo' drawers out!" He then began to laugh.
That's when Kendl lost it. It was in 1986, when Kendl had beaten up a 16-year-old slut who was doing crack, and right after she turned her back, the girl, bruised yet somehow still conscious, got up and snatched her pants off from behind, exposing her underwear. Kendl hated anyone who would bring it up in her presence and would resort in physical violence whenever they do. "I'ma pull that nappy Jheri curl out of that thick scalp of yours, asshole," Kendl shouted, "and you'll need a thinking cap on for life when I'm through with you!"
She charged after Ryder, but the latter was too fast and dashed around the room. He hid inside the closet and Kendl tried to reach up to Ryder as CJ and Cesar held her back.
"Come on, Ryder!" CJ said. "You just gonna run away from her like that?"
"Naw, homie," Ryder told him. "Because if she hits me, I'ma hit her back! And if I hit her back, you gonna try to fight me for putting my hands on yo' crazy ass sibling! You and me already fought once! So I ain't letting her put her hands on me!"
"Calm down, Kendl!" Cesar warned her. "Calm down! Listen, let's not fight each other. I don't want this to get anymore out-of-hand than it already is."
"Fine," Kendl grumbled, and reluctantly complied to Cesar's pleas. Ryder stepped out of the closet warily.
"Besides," Cesar continued, "we got much bigger issues to worry about, holmes! This ain't over, man! I did this to take care of my woman! But now I'm gonna head straight back home, and I'm gonna cap me some fucking dope dealers!"
"Hey look," CJ warned Cesar. "You go into the barrio with that big willy bullshit, and you gonna get shredded!"
"Yeah," Kendl added. "And I ain't losing you over no macho bullshit!"
"Listen to 'em, fool," Ryder chimed in. "Sweet and I made that same mistake last year and I had to get eight stitches on my leg because of that bullshit, homie!"
Cesar didn't say a word. He was just too frustrated. He stormed off a few inches.
"Hey relax, man!" CJ told his friend. "It's gonna get handled when it's time!"
Cesar then cut CJ off by raising his hand up front. "We already know who the fucking bad guys are, man," Cesar grumbled. "Your stinking Grove Street brother Smoke, and those chota pigs Tenpenny and Pulaski! Smoke, he's a pusher, man!"
CJ could hardly believe his ears when Cesar told him that out loud. While Smoke did stab him in the back, he would never sink so low to deal drugs.
"No, no!" CJ said, defending his homie. "Not Smoke! He might mess with C.R.A.S.H., but he don't mess with no yay!"
"Come on, CJ!" Kendl scolded. "How you think he got that new house, huh?!"
"You know," Ryder chimed in, "fo' the first time ever, I'm actually with Kendl here! CJ, you need to stop being a busta and concede the fact that Smoke been down with the drug trade! The clues were right in our faces! He lives in Idlewood! He had C.R.A.S.H. at his house! Hell for all we know, he could've very well made money off of yo' mama's life insurance! You in denial, motherfucker!"
"See?" Kendl told CJ. "Even your stoned-out friend here agrees with us! Just let that "Grove for life!" bullshit go and take a look around you!"
CJ thought about what the others said to him and paced around the room.
"Word on the street is twice a week," Cesar explained, "Smoke sends a car out to San Fierro, and the truck comes back full of white!"
"That's funny!" Ryder chimed in. "That's what my homie, LB, told me just this afternoon! He said Smoke's lieutenants carry the coke or whatever the fuck Smoke's been on on bikes and roll right across the country!"
"Shit!" CJ blurted. "I gotta keep my eye on the highway to San Fierro. Maybe I'll see something! Just...just lay low and I'll be back!"
"Right behind ya, homie," Ryder said, walking out the door with CJ. "I gotta get in contact with LB and see what kind of info he digging up fo' us."
As CJ and Ryder walked outside, Ryder turned back to CJ.
"Hey, CJ," Ryder said. "If you need any help, just call me, a'ight?!"
"Yeah," CJ said. "Sure thing, Ryder."
Ryder hopped inside a truck, started the engine, and squealed away.
Man I hope Ryder don't become the next victim of Smoke's conspiracies, CJ thought.
Just then, his cell phone rang. CJ pulled it out to answer it.
"Hello?" he answered.
"Where you been, asshole?!" he heard Catalina shout so loud that CJ had to hold the phone about two inches away from his ear.
How the fuck did this bitch get my number? CJ thought. Damn! Cesar probably gave it to her!
"Why don't you call, eh?" Catalina continued shouting.
"Well I was just about to call you," CJ lied. "But-"
"LIAR!" Catalina shouted, causing CJ to hold the phone in front of his face to keep from getting his eardrum blown out. "You've been hanging out with those stinking putas!"
"No!" CJ started to say. "If you'd just let me-"
"Silence!" Catalina interrupted. "Get up here! We've got places to rob!"
"Look," CJ told the crazy Latina woman. "I'm in the middle of some shit right-"
But before he knew it, Catalina had just hang up on him. CJ put aside his phone.
This bitch didn't even tell me where to meet her at, he thought. He hopped on a motorcycle and started the engine.
Before he started to ride, he heard his pager beep. When he pulled it out of his pocket, he read the message that said "Hideout, Fern Ridge, Red County".
"That must be the place," CJ muttered, and pulled out the map in his pocket.
He rode thoroughly and found that it was up north, miles far from where he was now.
"This bitch got me driving all the way over there," CJ groaned, and he rode off on the road.
While driving on a motorcycle in the evening sky, the air blew in his face, and he felt blood rushing through his skull. The cold air felt nice and relaxing. CJ felt a chill in his spine as he found the ride very smooth. After about twenty minutes of driving, CJ finally made it to Red County. He rode up the hill to his right and saw an abandoned hideout on the top.
This must be the place Catalina stay at, CJ thought. He hopped off the motorcycle and walked up to the hideout.