A True Queen

Paring: OC/James, Teresa/Guero

Summary: it isn't Teresa's future self that guides her; it's Concetta. A woman who's seen and endured some twisted shit. Concetta is the definition of a survivor and she'll protect Teresa with her life.

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EJERCICIO OCHO

Billete De Magia

When James walked into the warehouse and approached the cages where Valentina and Teresa slept, he let his lips quirk up in a smile briefly. Valentina was sleeping with Teresa beside her, both women squished on the tiny mattress. He slowed his pace as he approached, not particularly wanting to wake Valentina up just yet.

He had to though...

This was an order, not a request.

Quietly walking up to the two of them he tapped his hand on Valentina's arm. "Hey" he rasped out. "Wake up"

Valentina jerked awake and quickly scanned her surroundings, vigilantly trying to assess her situation. Her surprised eyes meeting his own as she calmed down. "Hey" Valentina said after a second of silence.

James nodded, "C'mon. Wake her up, we're going" he sighed and watched as Valentina woke Teresa up.

"It's 3am" Teresa complained. "Where are we going?"

"Just hurry up" James grunted in irritation. Teresa still hadn't comprehended the fact she wasn't calling the shots around here.

There is no choice in all of this.

If Teresa doesn't want to help him, then her only other option was to get turned out as a drugged up puta or simply dead. He doesn't have to tell her shit - Teresa's lucky that she's even being allowed to help with this type of work anyway. James started walking away, knowing Valentina was hot on his heels with Teresa lagging behind still reluctant about all of this. They rounded the car and James nodded for Valentina to sit in the front passenger seat.

Valentina rose a brow at him but didn't ask... and he wouldn't have told.

He wasn't going to let them both know how much he didn't want to hear Teresa questioning him the entire ride. Not when he knew what he was about to do wouldn't sit well with Teresa. James wasn't a babysitter and he didn't have time to deal with that.

He wanted Teresa out of his way.

Once they were all in the car, Camila approached the window looking between both women with a fake smile. "I need you both to do something. It's important" Camila told them

"What is it?" Teresa asked warily

"Today is a different kind of business. Turning 2.5 million into 5 million... it's not an easy trick" Camila started. "You're both going to be taking the same risks as everyone else. So, I suppose you have the right to know what goes down... and how it goes down"

"Some guys are coming in from Florida this morning. We're gonna meet them, and then we're gonna rip them off" James informed them with a shrug.

Camila looked to Valentina next, "You have proven you can be relied upon to do what I need. I don't know everything about you... you only reveal what you want to"

"Porque i'm not stupid" Valentina rolled her eyes

"That's smart" Camila nodded then looked over at Teresa in the back window. "You're both smart. Enough so to understand why I protected you and kept you both alive... and kept you a secret from Epifanio, right? Why is that?"

"What we know makes him vulnerable" Valentina nodded lazily as she looked over at Camila. "We're leverage"

Camila nodded, "Correct, but today is different. Today we have to take a risk. If something happens to you, either of you, I lose my leverage. I understand that. But if we don't succeed today, I have nothing left, and leverage means nothing. With nothing, I cannot protect you"

"Yeah we get it" Valentina cut into Camila's speech. "We all lose if this fails"

James held in a laugh at the look on Camila's face as she was interrupted yet again .

After a second Camila gave up on trying to talk to Valentina and turned to Teresa in the back window instead. "I know you're scared. Use that fear to stay alive"

James glanced at Valentina and Teresa before he pulled out of the parking lot. He drove them to the address where some of the guys were already waiting for them to show up. It was a small house in an average residential area. He didn't say anything as he nodded for them to follow him inside. Immediately James was met with the sight of a man chained to the ceiling, being dunked upside down into a tub of water.

Slowly drowning the man.

"¡Por favor no me mates!" The man yelled and squirmed as he tried to avoid being pushed under the water again. "¡Déjame ir!"

As he watched the scene play out in front of him - James was aware that a good person would be horrified. A good person would feel something about this situation. He didn't feel anything though.

Wouldn't or couldn't?

What was the difference?

He didn't know if he was capable of feeling anything about the situation at this point in life; but he didn't really care to find out either way. He looked over his shoulder to see the same harsh look of indifference on Valentina's face. He wondered what she had seen in life to make this share that acceptance of violence?

Teresa on the other hand looked like she was fighting everything insider her not to run and try to stop the 'interrogation'.

James supposed that was a reasonable reaction to this though. However it was weakness for someone in this life and it would get Teresa hurt one day.

Of that he was certain.

He walked over towards the other room hearing sobbing. A woman was clutching her son, trying to shield him from everything happening. Grabbing a chair he sat in front of them. "Tell me. What time did you go to work this morning?" He asked the mother

"Cinco y media de la mañana" the sobbing women answered without hesitation.

James reached forward and wiped her tears away. He didn't particularly like making women cry - especially ones he knew hadn't done anything wrong. "If you cooperate with me this will only take a few minutes" James said quietly. "Are you going to help me?"

The woman nodded easily and sniffled as her son moved closer to her chest for comfort.

James nodded, "I need you to tell me everything about your work. Everything about that hotel. I want to know about the security cameras and I want your pass key"

"They reset the keys everyday" she told him crying again. "We only get them when we go in"

James sighed, that had been the main reason for this little visit. The hotel was too upscale for them to just walk in and not get caught. They couldn't have the Florida guys figuring out what they had done. And they couldn't have other cartels hearing that they had to resort to ripping someone off.

Shit was bad for business.

James leaned forward looking at the woman with a serious look on his face. "If you tell anyone we were here, we will come back for you. Do you understand?"

"Yeah! Yes!" The woman nodded. "I won't tell anyone I swear!"

"Okay" James said on a sigh before standing up and nodding to the guys guarding the room as he passed by them. "We're leaving" James said to a bored looking Valentina and a disgusted looking Teresa.

They both followed him to the car again.

James drove them to the hotel in silence. Every now and then Valentina would fiddle with the radio, turning on a song and then switching stations when the ads came on in between. James chuckled a little at that but otherwise stayed silent for the drive.

"We're here" he announced parking the car across the street with a sigh. It was light outside now and they had a clear view of the hotel.

"What are we doing now?" Teresa asked

James sat back in the drivers seat, settling in for what he knew would be a long day. "We wait"

Concetta looked up at James when his phone rang in the silent car. He answered it nodding at whatever the person had said before asking, "They're here? Okay" and hanging up.

James looked at them then and pulled a plastic looking thing out of his pocket.

Concetta met his eyes with a raised brow and watched in wordless understanding as he flicked his eyes towards Teresa. He wanted Teresa to actively participate in whatever was about to go down.

She didn't like it but she nodded in response.

Concetta had to be willing to back down on this one, though what choice did she really have?

She had to pick her battles and this wasn't one of them.

"Alright. This is the tracker. When you're ready, you take it out. Just holding the edges, don't touch it flat on. The charge lasts for 2 hours" James' explanation was aimed towards Teresa.

Teresa nodded, "Where do you get this?" She sounded a little fascinated by the government grade technology. Concetta couldn't blame her for that because even she thought it was a cool little device.

James shrugged, "You can get anything on the black market these days, if you can afford it"

They both nodded and Teresa took the device from James and placed it carefully in its package before sliding it into her pocket. James watched before silently handing over a glock. Concetta took it without hesitation. She could fight, that wasn't an issue, but she preferred to be on an even playing field if these guys caught them. She nodded at Teresa before they both got out of the car and headed towards the hotel.

Once they got inside they took a seat on the couch in the lobby. Each facing the opposite direction to have a line of sight on both entry points.

Concetta gave a subtle nod to one of Camila's cartel guards.

In the time she had been with Camila's cartel - even as a hostage/employee - Concetta had managed to earn the begrudging respect of a few of the guys that usually worked with James. She had managed to surprise them all at how level headed she always was when shit got tough. Which it had been since she had been at the warehouse.

Camila's cartel guys learned quickly that if it came down to it, Concetta had their backs.

Teresa and she sat in silence as they waited for the signal that the guys they were ripping off had arrived. It came not long after, in the form of a tip if the hat from Ernesto who was sat near the reception.

"That's him" Concetta muttered to Teresa who nodded and glanced at the men.

Concetta waited for Teresa to get up and stick the tracker on the bag. However, Teresa hesitated making her sigh quietly in annoyance.

Ernesto rolled his eyes as he walked past Teresa and Concetta fought off an amused smirk. She watched Ernesto follow the Florida guys into the elevator while they headed for the stair well. They had gotten a few flights up the stairs when Concetta's phone buzzed with a message from Ernesto.

12th floor

"Oh great" she muttered rolling her eyes as she took to running up the stairs and dragging Teresa behind her. They had to intercept these guys before they got into their room. Breathing in deep she forced the burning in her lungs away.

Concetta opened the stairwell door and walked into the hall looking for an opportunity.

"...so is everything cool?" One of the Florida men was saying.

They talk guy, probably the leader, nodded and shrugged. "Yeah. I had to set some boundaries. Tell him what's up - but that's how it's done though, right?"

Concetta couldn't imagine this guy ever telling James what's up and she resisted the urge to laugh at the notion.

"That's right!" His other friend, the bald one nodded appreciatively.

Concetta cursed softly in Spanish as they walked into their room. She nodded for Teresa to follow and she walked back into the stairwell down to the lower level.

"What's the plan?" Teresa whispered harshly

"One you won't like" Concetta muttered and quickly spotted a maids cart out from of a room. She had been a maid in a hotel at one point in her early teens. It paid well but it was risky... especially in the dangerous area of Mexico she had lived in. One time a maid was found tied to the bed, her uniform missing and they'd all quickly realised the hotel had been robbed.

This was essentially the same thing, right?

"Hola perdón" Concetta greeted walking into the room currently being cleaned.

The woman cleaning looked up and smiled sheepishly. "¡Oh! ¡lo siento! ¿Quieres que vuelva más tarde?" The maid asked

Concetta smiled charmingly, "¡No! no está bien" she waved the maid off and the woman went back to cleaning as Concetta shut and locked the door behind Teresa.

The maid walked into the bedroom blissfully unaware of the danger she was currently in.

"Lay on the floor!" Concetta said pulling the gun on the woman and clicking off the safety. "Tírate al suelo, por favor. ¡Ahora!"

The maid looked terrified as she turned around to face Concetta and eased herself onto the floor. "Please" the maid whispered helplessly

"Dame tu telefono" she instructed nodding in approval when the maid shakily handed it over. Concetta took the ID tag while she reached to grab the phone. "Tell me where your from?" Concetta asked as she crouched in front of the woman.

"Durango" the maid whispered and Concetta raised a surprised brow. The woman was from Mexico too, not far from Sinaloa, she had to know how these things worked then.

That's good.

At least she hoped it was good.

"Then you know what it means when I tell you I'm from Sinaloa" Concetta stated.

The maid nodded and whispered a small, "Sí"

Concetta opened her mouth to finish delivering the threat but Teresa stepped forward. Teresa took a picture of the woman's ID with her phone. "Maria, I know your name now. The people we work for can find you and your family... so you have to be quiet and do what we say. Okay?"

She rolled her eyes at Teresa once again trying to play hero. This woman has to die and she really hoped Teresa understood that. This was a loose end that they couldn't afford to leave behind on this job.

Their future survival was at stake tonight.

Despite all of that, Concetta didn't voice her thoughts. Instead she looked down at the woman and sighed, "I need your clothes"

The woman's eyes went wide but she shakily didn't question it and got undressed. Teresa turned away to give the woman privacy but Concetta didn't bother.

What the hell did it matter right now?

She quickly changed into the maids uniform and handed her clothes to Teresa to hold. Giving Teresa a stern look she said, "Don't let her go. Stay here"

Teresa nodded.

With that Concetta left the room and headed for room 1208. She watched two of them leave and decided to grab a few towels to make this look real for the guy left in the room. They didn't have all the time in the world and she had to get this done.

Unlocking the hotel door she walked in with the towels in hand.

"...well, what'd you tell him?" The leader of the three men from Florida was sitting talking on the phone. He looked up when she walked in.

Teresa paused, "I'm sorry, I knocked. I guess I can come back later though" she sighed softly hoping it would work.

"It's okay" the man waved her off, "Just go on"

Concetta nodded and walked quickly into the bathroom placing the towels in their regular spots. She could still hear him on the phone though and breathed a sigh of relief that he wasn't paying too much attention to her presence.

"...yes i promise I'll call her" he was telling someone on the phone.

She quickly bent down and placed the tracking sticker on the suitcase before walking to the door to leave.

"Hey!" He yelled stopping her from leaving.

She turned forcing herself not to panic and nodded. "Yes?"

"Bring some shampoos?" He smiled and she nodded before reaching for the door. Opening it revealed the two other men he was travelling with and they looked worried. "What's wrong?" He demanded when he saw his friends faces.

Concetta didn't stick around to find out what was wrong - she hightailed it out of there.

Heading back to the room she left Teresa in, she unlocked the door expecting to see the two where she left them but was met with empty space. "Teresa? Maria?" She called out hoping like hell something bad hadn't happened.

Teresa appeared from the bathroom with a worried look on her face.

"Maria?" Concetta asked knowing something had gone wrong instantly. She signed, "I shoulda shot the pendeja"

Teresa started explaining how she'd found the woman trying to cut herself free of the rope in the bathroom. "... I had to free her to clean up all the blood and she took off before I could stop her"

Concetta didn't believe a word coming out of Teresa's mouth right now, but what she was she supposed to do about it?

Instead she sighed and cursed and then pulled herself together. She quickly changed back into her clothes and sat down near the window sending James a message that it was done.

Now they had to wait for James to come get them again.

They sat in tense silence for over an hour before James called. Teresa was avoiding looking at her and they both knew why, despite neither voicing it. "Hey. The maid is gone... got the jump on Teresa. We're ready to leave" she told him as she answered

"Well we have trouble" James sighed and Concetta quickly put the phone on speaker so Teresa could hear. "One of them is alive. He got away. Go back to his hotel room and see if he shows, keep him there if he does"

"Keep him here?" Teresa echoed. "What do you mean keep him here?"

James sighed, "He saw my face. He knows what happened. I don't care how you feel about this Teresa... you do not let him leave. Keep him there - I'll handle it when I get there"

They hung up and both Concetta and Teresa took off in the direction of this Florida guys hotel room.

He was probably gonna show, he had no place else to go.

When they got into the room the leader guy was sitting on the couch. His arm bleeding as he sobbed. They walked in just in time to see him picking up his phone.

"Put the phone down" Concetta said clicking off the safety on the gun. His head snapped up towards them. "Put it down"

Teresa snatched it from him and quickly stood out of reach again.

"You were here before!" He pointed an accusing finger at Concetta. "You're both part of this? Oh you don't know how dead you both are"

"Shut up" Concetta signed and picked up the tiny beretta from the couch, handing it to Teresa so she was armed as well.

Teresa hesitatingly took the gun and pointed it at the Florida man.

"You understand me? You. Are. Dead" he hissed at them. "All of you are dead!"

"Stop taking" Teresa sighed, she probably already felt guilty for having a hand in his friends getting killed.

He didn't listen though, "You have no idea what family you just messed with. You are dead little girl" he sneered at Teresa clearly seeing his words hit home with her.

Concetta just looked bored and she took a seat on the couch opposite the table from him.

"Stop!" Teresa snapped sounding as scared as she probably felt.

He laughed, "Oh! Look at you! You're so scared you can barely hold the gun... you're so scared your shaking!"

Teresa panicked, "Listen to me! Go. Okay? Just go. I'll tell them you never came back here"

"Teresa!" Concetta hissed knowing she could never allow that to happen. If it meant putting a bullet in this man before James got here then so be it.

"I get it now" the man continued taunting Teresa. "You're scared I'm gonna hurt you... well I'm not gonna kill you, either of you; I'm gonna let you both go. That's right. I'm gonna let your little sweet ass walk out of here. You wanna know why? Cause you remind me of a story I heard once"

Concetta's stomach dropped.

She knew the story...

She lived the story and she didn't want to her it over again.

Never again.

He laughed at them, "You ever heard the story of the great badass warrior who kills everyone in his town? He kills them all and let's one live to go back to the other town and warm them about the tale of what he had done. That's gonna be you two - you are the survivor" he spat out

As soon as the words left his mouth Concetta squeezed the trigger and fired off two perfectly aimed shots into his heart.

Instantly relief flooded her and gone were the past memories along with the life in this mans eyes.

Teresa jumped and looked at her frantically but Concetta ignored her friend and rushed for the door. They needed to get out of here and fast. That shot would have been hear throughout the hotel. They took the service stairs again until they were out the back exit of the hotel.

Teresa kept asking what that was and if she was okay?

However all questions fell on deaf ears at the moment.

Her fathers voice ringing out through her mind, his twisted laugh was all she could hear at the moment. The way he told the story of the best killer to ever grace Mexico. It want the same as how that Florida guy had told it, but it was the same thing.

She was the survivor...

Until she became the killer instead.

James was driving towards the hotel when he spotted them on the side of the street walking the opposite direction. He pulled up beside the and rolled down the window, "Get in" he signed.

He didn't think that Valentina would leave without knowing the threat was eliminated. And as he got a closer look at her he noticed the blood on her face and he hoped she had taken care of the guy. Once they were in he sped off getting back on the road.

The tension he felt between them was enough to know his assumptions were correct.

Valentina was unusually quiet and tense as she stared out the window. Teresa didn't utter a complaint about what happened, she was staring at Valentina as if by looking hard enough she would get answers from the woman.

James took note of the fact that Teresa looked scared and seriously worried about Valentina

Something was wrong.

"Are you hurt?" James asked looking over at Valentina trying to figure out what was wrong for her to be acting like this. He hadn't known her long but he knew this wasn't like Valentina.

"No, we're not hurt" Teresa answered for both of them but never took her eyes off of Valentina from the back seat.

James frowned, "What happened?" Neither women answered him and James grunted in annoyance. "What happened?" He repeated

"I shot him" Valentina said, her tone harsh and unforgiving as she spoke and handed over the gun she had in her waist band. Valentina didn't look anything less than indifferent if not a little tense.

But she was missing the snark and the smirk he had come to associate with the woman.

James was confused, he had seen her shoot people before and not bat an eyelash. He had watched her reactions to seeing and knowing people were going to die and she never seemed bothered as long as it wasn't her or Teresa. Something about this was different and he didn't get what.

"Is he dead?" James asked in a small sigh, unwilling to admit he was concerned.

"Yeah" Valentina sighed and scrubbed a hand down her face before she rested her head on the window and shut her eyes.

James was forced to leave it at that for the remainder of the drive back to the warehouse. However it was plain as day that some had really messed her up if she wasn't able to hide it anymore.

He wanted to know what the fuck had done that to such a strong woman?

When they got back to warehouse Valentina practically ran into the warehouse. Leaving him and Teresa to watch her go. James raised a brow at Teresa expectantly. "What happened back there?"

Teresa sighed, "I have no idea what happened. One minute she was relaxing on the couch looking too relaxed for some holding a guy at gun point..."

James held back a smile - that sounded like Valentina.

"I was shaking as I held the gun. He was laughing and said that he wasn't going to kill us-" Teresa cut herself off and her eyes widened with realisation

"What?" James demanded harshly. "What did he say?"

"The story" Teresa mumbled furrowing her brows to recall the story. "About the badass warrior who kills his town and leaves one survivor to go and tell the story of how he did it to other towns"

James's nodded, he knew the story, or one of its many versions. People could be cruel like that and shit like that was 'inspirational' to some twisted people sometimes. "What does that have to do with anything?" James sighed in annoyance

Teresa shook her head and sighed. "He said we would be the survivor and that's when she shot him"

"So you think she's upset he called her a survivor?" He asked confusion evident in his voice as he wondered how Teresa was coming to this conclusion.

"No I think it was the story itself - that must be her story" Teresa sounded like she was thinking out loud rather than to him.

James thought about that for a minute - it made sense.

Her survival instincts were spot on for someone who had been doing it for a long time. The way she talked was like she had gone through some real pain. The other night Valentina had hinted that something had happened in her childhood. It wasn't exactly normal for kids to use guns.

He nodded slowly at Teresa who was staring at the warehouse with wide eyes.

"What's her past? Her real past?" He asked studying her reaction closely to see if she was going to lie.

Teresa shook her head, "I don't know. She never really told me... all I know is that it's bad. Really bad. It has to be bad to have someone like her scared. Guero knew some of it but he refused to tell me anything. He said it was something he wouldn't wish on anyone" she explained

James believed her and he sighed as he nodded. "Go back to the warehouse"

Teresa walked away and he went to find Camila. He needed to update her on what went down today. If there was any good news today; it's that the job was successful. James might be a little worried about how Valentina was taking this but if he knew anything about the woman - it's that she would be fine soon enough.

Valentina wouldn't allow whatever had spoked her to get into her head...

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