sanctuary. [oscar diaz]

[19] top ten 101.

"You're the leader, Violetta," Raquel looked over at me. "You can do whatever you want."

†††

The drive to Silver Springs was filled with a lot of Spanish music, desert, forest, mountains and traffic. We made it in ten hours instead of seven and I fell asleep for an hour during it. Oscar's presence in the back seat unnerved me and I was afraid of what he was here for. Like really here for.

He told Raquel is was to keep me safe, but I wasn't sure if I believed him. If he hated the idea of me taking in Cain's men enough to break up with me for it and then proceed to ignore me, something told me his intentions on coming to this meeting where the top five of Cain's leaders would be wasn't solely on protecting me. And as much as I loved Oscar, I had to admit he wasn't the strongest leader under my supervision and didn't have anywhere near the biggest gang.

The people that would be at Ground Zero tomorrow were Oscar times a thousand. They had gangs from all over the world with thousands upon thousands of people in them. If one of them did try to hurt me, Oscar or Los Santos was no match. They'd be dead right along with me.

"En qué piensas?" Raquel spoke from the driver's seat, pulling me out of my reverie.

I looked over at him to see him smirking at me. I sighed, "Nada. Sólo preparándome."

"No te preocupes," he comforted me, glancing between me and the open road in front of him. "I'm gonna get you ready. And remember, Cain's men sought you out to lead them. You have nothing to worry about from them."

"And what about my Dad-I mean my men?" I quirked an eyebrow at him.

"They're not happy," he said, honestly as he looked ahead and I groaned.

I turned my head again and watched as the brown and dry desert scenery whizzed by. We passed a 'Welcome to Silver Springs' sign and Raquel spoke again.

"But they'll learn to be happy," he followed up. "You're their leader, Violetta. This is your one and only chance to get that fact into their heads. They're your top five and best believe the rest of the gangs look to them for information that comes out of these meetings. You don't want them running back and spreading word that you're no good. That you're weak. That you don't know what you're doing."

"What if that's the truth?" I asked, afraid.

"Fake it," Oscar's voice sounded from the back.

I turned and glanced at him to see him leaning back, his eye closed. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the front. "Of course that's your advice," I scoffed, shaking my head.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"It means all you do is fake shit."

"What'd I fake?"

"You know what you fake."

"Stop!" Raquel yelled. "This is not the time for this. These gangs don't need to see you two fighting. It won't lead to anything good for either of you, I promise you both that. Oscar, if this is going to be the case for the next two days then I'll drop you off on the side of the road and let you find your way back home. I'm not about to listen to this shit."

"She started it," Oscar mumbled and I rolled my eyes.

"Fine," I sighed.

All three of us remained silent until we pulled up to Ground Zero ten minutes later. It was a large, abandoned building full of reflective windows so no one could see inside. Well, it was abandoned when my Dad found it. Raquel told me he came across it while traveling from San Francisco to Las Vegas one day and decided it was a good home base for he and his gangs since it was far from their original cities and none of his enemies knew of it. He fixed it up and it's served as his headquarters since then.