Broken Kings (House of Cards Series 0)

Cuarto Paso: Los Tiburones

The news went absolutely wild after Westley killed the cop and his pedophile lover. Of course, the policia went out of their way to try and hide the fact that their colleage was a sick pervert who liked ot rape young boys, was corrupt and in the payroll of the mafia men and had a torture room. But for once the news papers weren't making it easy on them to just cover it all up. And part of that was thanks to Reaper and the Barrio Boys.

After Wolf had come to Reaper and told his story, Reaper had plotted with Carlitos and then taken West back to the house of corpses. This time they had a plan in place. Remove any evidence of West being there. Photograph everything, especially any damning evidence against the pedofilo and his dead lover. Take what they could that would serve the Barrio Boys. Plant evidence at the scene to put the entire blame at the feet of Logan and his mafia men. That last part was the hardest and yet the most crucial, because if Reaper and Wolf could turn the policia against the mafia men, they would ahve to do next to nothing to watch that empire fall. And despite the tensions between Reaper and the other Barrio Boys, the gang was going to love him after this. Because if the mafia men were eliminated, or at least broken and scattered, the Barrio Boys would be top gang on the streets of Madrid. They had a reputation as being ruthless when cornered and otherwise pretty decent. Which kept the people of Madrid placid enough that they never interfered with the Barrio buisness dealings. Even though the community at large still feared and detested street gangs as a whole, Carlitos had kept the Barrio Boys in line enough that they had a better reputation as most, because they didn't go out of their way to molest the largely innocent population.

But amongst other gangs, the Barrio Boys were feared; because they were smart. Those too dumb to be more than brutes were paired up with those that were usually too smart for their own good, but unable to be as physically intimidating. And Carlitos maintained control over the group of individuals by guaranteeing them two very important things: security and profit. If you wouldn't watch you brother's back, you were out. If you were too greedy, you were out. However, if you would guard each other and split the profits amongst all equally, you would be a brother for life. After Reaper had stitched West up and heard his story, he called the gang leader in to consult on the best course of action. It had been Carlitos that had brought with him stolen physical evidence to plant at the scene and lead the blame to Logan and his mafia men. It was Maya who suggested that they take pictures of everything and send it to as many of the tabloides as possible, as well as all of the periódicos.

Reaper's history at breaking and entering for kidnapping made sneaking into the house of the dead beyond easy. No one had reported the gunshot or screaming of the Wolf's attack because the bastardo enfermo had his entire villa sound proofed. So Reaper and Wolf took their time, stumbling across the torture room the two dead men had used to inflict horrors on an unknown number of 'missing' children and photographing the evidence with churned stomaches and clear consciences. As horrific as it must have been for young West to see what had almost happened to him had he not successfully escaped, it was also doing something to ease the guilt of murder on his shoulders. Hard to feel anything but relief that men such as these dogs had been put down at last.  And that was what caused the internal strife inside Reaper.

He was trying to ease the young man's emotional burden, but to do so was all but glorifying murder and the fragile part of Malcolm that was still a decent man could not do that. But neither could his remaining compassion let West wallow in his actions. There was no right answer to this situation and so once they had finished their tasks and gave Carlitos what he needed to start bringing down the mafia men, Malcolm decided that the best thing for West was distraction.

And as sick as it was, the only way Reaper could do that was to involve him in every step of his planned revenge against Juntez. The players of this little tragedy were already set up, the last of the sharks drawn over onto Reaper's side of the issue. They didn't care about politics, gang loyalty, affiliations or revenge; the language of the sharks was always and only ever money. So when Reaper needed to go speak to them and set up his request, he brought Wolf along as well.