Afraid

Chp. 30

Oscar's POV

"What do you mean, she had the Prophet$ killed your dad?"

"She had...has everyone that matters on her payroll. Do you really think she didn't have some Prophet$ doing her dirty work?"

"No! That's insane. Why would she pay a rival gang? That makes no sense!"

"She was a crazy knife welding, batshit, lunatic. How could you not think she'd do something as crazy?!" I yell at him.

"Because...because..." I couldn't come up with a reason. She could have done something this stupid.

"She had you on her payroll, didn't she?" Sad Eyes asks Amaya.

"Yeah, she did."

"So you're a Santo?" Sad Eyes questions her now.

"No, she called me 'La Cazadora'." 

The Hunter.

"Why?"

"Because she had me hunting down Lil Ricky for the last six years."

"Why?"

"Because Oscar, I'm a ghetto bitch who knows how to use a computer. You can take the girl out of the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto out of the girl. Isn't that what you said?" I nod.

"She sent you to school, let you be yourself for a few years. Bankrolled you all the cash to motivate you to find him. Right?" She nods.

"I followed leads. She even sent me the stuff that Cesar and his friends came up with but nothing would match. The hate that, that woman holds for Ricky leaving her is a ruthless amount. She would take down every single one of us and not give two shits just to find someone who's been hiding since 1982. Oh and Lil Frankie, he's Ricky's son not Frankie's. Rose lied."

"Wow, what? Cuchillos didn't know about Ricky and Rose?"

"No but there is a song about all of them that Rose sang. I only heard it because I bugged Rose's house."

"What leverage did she have over you?" Sad Eyes says.

Amaya voided looking at us. Looking into the woods.

"Hey guys, were not alone." She whispers.

"What?"

I turn around and there's a bear ten feet away from the car.

"In the car. In the car, slowly." I say to them.

Amaya's closet to the driver's side and gets in. Sad Eyes plops into the back and I push back the passenger seat before the bear even moves.

"We gotta go!" Sad Eyes yells just as I hit the bear with the open car door.

Amaya swings the car around back in the direction of Freeridge.

"You're not getting out of talking about this."

"And you're not gonna get out of this." She screams through the windshield at the bear, who is now in the middle of the road.

Gunning the gas we fly by the bear, missing it completely.

"What leverage did she have on you?!" I yell at her.

"She had everything to use against me."

"What does that even mean?"

"It means she would have killed everyone I loved, including you." She spits out.

"What?" I'm so confused.

"Who do you think killed your dad, Oscar? Not the Prophet$, not the bad drugs that where found in his system, her. She shot him in cold blood. Stacey told me that right before she threatened my mother's life. She told me that again when she threatened all three of my sisters' lives and then yours. 'Everything in life can be taken away with a single bullet, mija'. I repeated that everyday for six years. Who do you think caused my accident? It was no accident let me tell you. I wasn't on drugs, I was fine, sober as a nun. She had her dirty cops inject me with heroin and THC to make it look like I crashed my car. Why do you think I have a problem remembering things? It's because I've pushed those memories away. Remembering who I was, what she did to me, that's not something I want." Amaya let out. "Now I'm gonna pull over and then I'm going to have a panic attack. That cool with you two? Great."