2

    The day my school's principal called me into his office to have a word with me, I knew it wasn't good news, and somehow I'd seen it coming. 

There was no hiding it as the rumors had been going on around the school, fast spreading like wildfire. The famous Lobos Samuel Curtez had been killed at his own party. Samuel Curtez was the world's biggest nuisance and the country's most wanted criminal. He was New York's head of the popular 'zolo' mafia gang, taking after his late father, Carlos Curtez, who had terrorised and shaken up the world in the same manner. 

Samuel Curtez was rumored to run the largest drug moving organization in fifteen different countries. Last semester, Katy hadn't resumed school with us and when she was asked, she said her sister went missing and that she overhead her parents saying Samuel Curtez had kidnapped her from the rail road but they didn't want it to go out.

Samuel Curtez, the most notorious criminal ever recorded and ever wanted in history. I couldn't imagine what it's like to stand in front of him. I would probably die from his hard glares.

 I've only heard stories about him, and that was enough. And now as I walked into Mr. Henderson's office and watched him give me a tender smile, I knew what it was about. Samuel Curtez, the latest talk of the whole city.

My father had found a way to sneak in a burner phone like he always did when he wanted us to have a 'private talk' and ha whisper warned me not to say anything if the Feds came to my school. And I'm smart enough to know that that goes for anybody else here, including Mr. Henderson. 

"Good morning, Rose. Have a seat." The pretense in his eyes is not even hidden. 

I sat down carefully and watched him.

" I'll go straight to the point, Valdez, I'm gonna have to give you a temporary suspension. " he said.

"Suspension? Why? I didn't do anything. " I said.

"No, Rose, you're a good kid, but as you might have heard, there's been an investigation going on around here. Samuel Curtez. He died. Last night. " He said.

I shifted in my seat, my great attempt to look surprised. "Really? What happened?" I asked him.

"I know you know exactly what happened, Valdez, and now your father's men will be here any minute. He asked for your immediate return home." The principal said.

"Return home? Why?" I asked, now confused.

He spread his arms and replied, "There's a rumor going on that your father may have had a hand in his murder." 

My eyes went wide. So that's why he asked me not to say anything if the Feds came to the school. 

"Listen, Valdez, I've known your whole family even before you were born, and I know the kind of shit you all do. So the best I can do is send you home where you'll be safe. You'll be picked up soon. Now, if you need anything, I think now's the right time to go pick them up." He said to me.

I watched him for a while, trying to understand all he had just said. Why would my father be involved with Samuel Curtez in the first place? Is someone trying to frame him? And what did he just mean by he knew the shit my family does? 

In the next few minutes, I was on my way home, breathing in the air of New York again. But unlike the other few times I've visited from school, I wasn't so excited.

Once the car pulled up, I didn't wait for the bodyguard to pull the door open for me, I sped out and hurried up the stone steps that led to my doorstep. As soon as I furiously pushed the door open, I'm met with a completely different scene from what I had in my mind.

Then I had a quick flashback to the many sparkly black cars parked around my house, which I'd been too furious to even pay attention to.

At the front of the fireplace stood a tall man, his hair tinted blond on one side, his chin held high, the smoke from the cigarette stuck between his lips colliding with the sunrays that seeped in through the window, obstructing my view of his face. He had on a black suits but he was beside the point right now.

Besides him, there were many other men dressed in suits surrounding every corner of the room. And in the middle of them all sat my father, his blond goatie pointing directly at me as I walked in.

"Rosella, you're home." My father spoke, causing me to look at him again.

"Dad? What's going on here?" I asked slowly as I gently set down my backpack on the couch. I'd completely put my rage behind me as I watched all the men that surrounded us, all looking like they were going to grab me soon and kidnap me, just like in those movies.

At the back of my mind, I knew none of this mattered, because the most important thing right now is getting answers to my questions about all Mr Henderson said about our family and how he was involved with the most wanted criminal in the whole world.

My father rose up before I could reach him and said, "Rose, I want you to meet someone very important." I watched as he turned towards the fireplace, to the man with a black tinted hair, drowning in his cigarette and eying me like he had never seen a female his whole life.

"Meet Samuel Curtez. " My father adds

My jaw dropped as my eyes quickly went back to him, and he gave me a smirk before popping a smoke from his cigarette towards me.

My eyes moved back to my father, and he nodded gently. I must be staring at his ghost, right?

"I have something else to tell you, Rose," my father said, a bit of a worry in his face. "I made a deal with Samuel Curtez on your behalf. "

My heart sank.