Part 1

The woman made her way up the path to prestigious home. She could hear the heavy metal music pulsing through the night air and cursed under her breath. There was no question in her mind as to what she would be finding when she walked into the house. There was obviously some type of party being thrown.

The woman was confident she would fit into the party. She was wearing her black leather pants that followed every curve of her body in a beneficial manner. The black leather jacket she wore was loose around her shoulders and fell down just past her waist. It was zipped tightly and hid any view of what was underneath it. Her dark hair was all in braids and was safely tied back into a ponytail. Her skin was dark, but not black. Most people would confuse her with being Hispanic, even though her parents were both African American.

The dark woman didn't even bother knocking on the door before she entered the house. This was an obviously open invitation party. Any person looking for any kind of "good time" seemed to be welcomed. She let the sights and sounds of the room envelop her. She was able to identify at least five illegal products spread about the living area, where the main party was happening.

Some man, whom she had never seen before, was sitting on the white leather couch snorting what she assumed to be cocaine. The young pink haired woman next to him seemed to be smoking what appeared to be marijuana and the young lady next to her was shooting something up into the vein of her right arm. All the supplies they seemed to need were spread out on the coffee table before them.

The woman continued to walk into the house past the activities in the living room. She was a woman on a mission and didn't find who she was looking for in the crowd of people in this room.

An arm thrust out from somewhere and offered her a bottle of beer. Deciding that she really did indeed need a drink she took the bottle and offered her thanks to a young man who couldn't yet take his eyes off of her ass.

"I'm Paul." The man introduced himself. "You look familiar. Where do you know Angel from?"

The last thing the dark haired woman wanted to do was carry on a conversation with some ignorant man just trying to get into her pants. "Is Angel here right now?" She could at least use the man for information.

"Yeah sure, but I wouldn't bother her. She just went upstairs with her catch of the night." Paul eyed the woman carefully. "Looks like you might be a little too late to impress her with all the leather." His gaze turned into a leer. "I'm still here."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the man. He was annoying her and she was already plenty annoyed. Usually when people annoyed her people ended up getting hurt. With that thought she smiled. She was itching for a fight, but unfortunately she had business to take care of.

Without another word to Paul she turned and made her way to the staircase. Paul tried to follow her but with one look from frightening mahogany eyes he turned away to find another companion for the night. He didn't need to be messing with some freak dyke anyway.

The leather-clad woman went upstairs and headed straight towards the bedroom she knew Angel would be occupying. The second floor of the house was just as impressive as the outside of the house and first floor looked. The home was well designed and looked as if it would have cost a small fortune, which the woman knew, it had.

The floors were solid wood and well cared for. The house was adorned with nice furniture tastefully chosen. It was a little on the dainty side, but it was a house that could be called a comfortable home. It looked lived in.

Once at her destination the woman paused outside of the door a little hesitant to walk in. If the muffled screams and shouts of pleasure were any indication as what was going on behind the door, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to enter. Yes, she had done it before, but was hesitant to do it again. The last time she had entered "at her own risk" she was unable to get the image she saw out of her head for many days afterward. She was still suffering from the aftereffects.

Throwing caution into the wind she reached out for the doorknob and twisted it. To her utter amazement it was locked. 'Damn Angel you were fucking serious' she thought. The last time she had walked in Angel had promised her that she would put a lock on the door. She just didn't take Angel seriously, but she realized she should have known better.

She could just kick in the door, she knew, but she decided to just pick the lock. Maybe by that time whatever was going on behind the door would come down by a few notches. The woman knelt down until she was even with the doorknob and examined the lock carefully. Her hand caressed the device then she reached down until her hand was even with the cuff of her pant leg. She lifted up the pant leg and stuck her hand inside the cuff pulling out a small knife in the process. She put the knife to the door's lock and within moments heard an audible click.

The woman stood back up with her knife still in hand. She took a deep calming breath and with her unoccupied hand reached down to open the door. The muffled yelling from the other side had not decreased in the least.

With her game face safely in place she turned the knob and opened the door. She was met with the seen of a short haired blond woman being straddled by a rather young, yet enticing, brunette on the covers of the room's bed. The blond woman's eyes were closed and her face was contorted with passion. Neither of the bed's occupants had noticed the new arrival to their private party.

The woman stood there for a moment, knowing there would be no good time for her to interrupt. She idly wondered if either of the women on the bed was under any type of outside influences. If they were, they would be harder to deal with and Angel could sure be a bitch if she wanted to be. But then again, the woman didn't really care about how bad Angel could get. She could always handle her one way or another.

The woman walked over to the side of the bed and still went unnoticed by the brunette but she knew the blond had spotted her.

"How hell do you do it Angel?" The woman's low voice filled the room. The young brunette immediately ceased whatever she was doing which caused a frustrated moan from the woman beneath her.

"Alexia. Get. The. Hell. OUT!" The blond woman screamed.

The dark woman never could take an order from Angel and wasn't going to start doing so now. She just reached out and grabbed the brunette by her hair and yanked her off the top of the blond with the order for her to get her clothes on.

The brunette looked towards the blond on the bed then back to the tall black woman looking for some hint as to what she was supposed to do.

"You better leave. Angel and I have to talk." The leather-clad woman said letting all the annoyance of the night seep into her voice.

Not wanting to be hurt by the tall woman the brunette quickly gathered up her clothes and made a hasty retreat. Angel watched the girl retreat without a word. She then rolled over to face the woman who had intruded on her night of fun.

"Alexia, speak now and it better be fucking good." The blond said seemingly unfazed by her nudity.

"You missed something today. Do you happen to have any idea what it was?" The dark woman asked snidely.

Angel brows were brought together in consternation. "Well it wasn't fucking Christmas that's for sure."

"Ok brainchild since you obviously don't know let me fill you in." Alexia sat down on the bed that smelled strongly of sex.

"You had a meeting today with Tony." The blond groaned and covered her eyes with her arm. "Yeah you missed your meeting with Tony, but I didn't. He has a new associate working for him too. She's an intimidating little shit. I bet she could drop Mike's ass in a second. I've never seen her in the ranks before so I'm having a few people check her out."

"What did Tony have to say?" Angel was feeling a little high strung at the moment and didn't feel like hearing Alexia's take on a new bodyguard for Tony.

"Tony wants to meet with you personally. It seems your little bitch isn't good enough to talk to."

Angel suddenly sat up as if the bed covers had just ignited. "Did Tony call you that?" She asked angrily.

"Yeah, he was a lot cockier with his new protection. I gave him a firm warning though about his disrespect." The dark woman smiled mischievously.

"Do I even want to know what you did?" The blond asked and sat back down on the bed.

"Probably not, but you'll hear about it anyway." Alexia answered. "You have a meeting with him tomorrow for lunch."

Angel fell back on the bed and looked up towards the ceiling. "I hate Tony."

The black woman maneuvered herself until she was straddling Angel and looking down into luxurious emerald green eyes. "I know you hate Tony, but look at it this way, he'll be gone real soon after you finalize the deal."

Angel's eyes widened until they were the size of saucers. "You put a hit out on Tony?" She asked incredulously.

Alexia's mahogany eyes stared deep into the blonds'. "That's for me to know and you to find out."

"If I order you to tell me will you?" The blond lips dredged out into a full out pout.

"When have I ever taken an order from you Angel?"

"I'm sure I can remember a time..." Angel eased her head up until her lips were touching those of the gorgeous woman above her.

After a brief moment Alexia pulled back from the kiss slightly winded. She looked down into the green passion veiled eyes beneath her. She lowered her head for one more kiss that was surprisingly tender.

"I'm still not going to tell you about Tony." She stated as she eased off of the blond.

Angel looked at her, her face flushed. "What about Tony?"

Alexia smiled and stood up fully. "My night isn't over yet. I still have a few things to take care of before I call it a night."

"Are you coming back here when you're done?" Angel asked seductively.

"It'll be late, but if you want I'll come back."

"I want."

"Ok then I'll come back." Alexia said simply and bent down and gave Angel a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Make sure all these fucking people are gone though. What are they all doing here anyway?"

"Lindsey wanted to have a party. I'm not sure where everyone came from or how they got in for that matter." Angel answered seriously.

"They're doing illegal shit downstairs. You might want to take care of that."

"Damn it! I'm going to fucking kill her. Did you see her down stairs?" Angels shot out of the bed and started reaching for her clothes that were scattered across the bedroom floor.

"I wasn't really looking for her." The dark woman answered and made her way up behind Angel to slow the woman's frantic pace. "But when you find her don't kill her. I don't think she expected this to get so out of hand. Just you two take care of it before you have the police showing up at your front door."

Angel turned around and found herself encircled by the taller woman's arms. "I'd never hurt Lindsey." She said innocently.

"I'm sure you wouldn't. You'd just ask me to." Alexia smiled down at her friend then let her go and walked to the door.

"Be careful tonight ok?" Angel's face and voice turned serious.

Alexia nodded her head then turned to open the door. "I'll be back." She then turned and walked out of the door hearing a muffled "Love you Lexi," being yelled behind her.

Alexia made her way down the stairs and out the house. She walked over to where her black BMW beamer was parked and got in. She sat back on the cool leather seat for a moment and thought about her relationship with Angel. They had been best friends for a very long time, ever since they were children.

Despite what most people thought, they weren't ever and had never been in a romantic relationship. God knows they had both thought about it plenty, but they had both decided a romantic relationship would never last. They had slept together yes, and some times on occasion would still sleep together, but that's as far as it ever went. Each of them loved the other dearly, but it just wasn't the type of love that was needed to maintain a close romantic commitment.

A lot of people thought Alexia took her orders from Angel, because they were known to be so close, but they couldn't be more wrong. Sure, Angel headed one of the strongest crime families in the nation, but she wasn't powerful enough to control Alexia, no one was really. Alexia worked only for herself and few people realized she had more power than Angel did. No one, including Angel, however knew exactly what it was Alexia controlled.

Bringing herself back from her thoughts of her blond haired friend, Alexia put the key into the ignition and pointed her car towards Tony Colleti's residence.

Tony knew his life was forfeit. He knew it the minute he looked into Alexia's eyes when she left the restaurant earlier that day. His father had told him countless times to always hold the most respect for Alexia, because those who didn't respect her turned up dead and whoever was answering to the dead person, now would answer to her.

Yeah, Tony knew he should have listened to his father. He didn't really mean to piss the dark woman off, but he was plenty pissed about Angel skipping out on their meeting. Everyone knew that Angel and Alexia were fucking each other so really what was the big deal with him mentioning it out loud? He had Casey with him and he was very confident in her abilities.

Tony had taken Casey from one of his subordinates after seeing her take out five guys in a shoot out with her bare hands. Frankie, the guy she was working for before, had left that gunfight unscathed. That's when Tony decided Casey would now be working for him. He saw potential there and just hoped no one above him would take his find away.

The doorbell sounded and brought Tony out of his thoughts. He looked at his wristwatch and thought it was a little late to be getting visitors. Who ever was at the door was sure to be bringing him bad news, and Tony didn't really want to hear any bad news.

Kelly, Tony's sister, stepped into her brother's office. She quickly noticed the lines of tension that showed on her brother's normally very handsome face. His baby blue eyes betrayed his anxiety and Kelly wasn't too sure she wanted to announce his visitor, but she knew she really didn't have a choice.

"Alexia his here to see you."

Tony looked up to his sister his face filled with fear. "Just give me a minute." He answered and slowly stood up from behind his desk. "Where's Casey?"

"She'll be escorting Alexia in here." Kelly studied her brother getting very concerned. "Is everything ok?"

Tony forced a smile on his face. "Of course everything is fine. I'm sure she's just here to talk to me about Angel."

Although she didn't believe the answer, Kelly had learned a long time ago not to mess with her brother's business.

Five minutes later Alexia walked into Tony's office followed by a dark haired blue-eyed woman who was just about the same height as Alexia. The woman moved ahead of Alexia and took her place behind Tony prepared for any action Alexia might take.

The dark skinned woman took a seat across from Tony's desk without invitation. She waited for Tony to sit down before she said anything.

"Casey took my gun. I'd like it back." She said evenly her deep brown eyes never wavering from Tony's.

At first he didn't know if she was serious. She couldn't really expect him to allow her to have her gun. Could she? No she couldn't, but she looked serious.

"Surely you understand Alexia, why I can't allow you to be armed here." He even sounded unsure to himself.

"Ms. Harrison."

"Excuse me?" Tony asked confused.

"You will address me as Ms. Harrison." Alexia crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair. "You gave up the right to call me Alexia earlier today when you decided to call me a bitch."

"Surely you didn't take me seriously?" Alexia only raised her eyebrow in question. "I meant no harm by it."

Casey fought the urge to groan in disgust from the display of this pathetic man. She really didn't want to be working for him, and wasn't sure if she minded if Alexia killed him or not. Part of her actually hoped leather clad woman would indeed kill him, but she knew she had to protect him. It was what she promised to do, and was just another stepping-stone until she could get higher up in the chain of command.

"You can take your lips off my ass now Tony. I'm not going to kill you...yet." An audible gulp filled the room, and it wasn't from either of the two women.

"You're going to give Angel the best deal you've ever given anyone in your life. After you do that you're going to transfer control over to your sister." Alexia uncrossed her legs and leaned forward in her seat. "I like her better then I like you."

"And why exactly would I do all this?" The man asked he was beginning to get annoyed with the younger woman. He didn't much like being given orders.

Alexia rolled her eyes. "You'll do it because I'm going to give you half a billion dollars to just disappear. Which is more then enough money to cover the expense of your entire organization."

Tony couldn't help it. His jaw dropped open and he just couldn't help the shock that surely showed on his face. He wasn't too sure he wanted to run the family business anyway. There were plenty of other things he would have liked to do with his life, like become an architect. He had always liked that, but his father had given him no choice but to run the family business.

"When do you want all this done by?" He found himself asking.

"Tomorrow you meet with Angel you finalize everything, then you leave and I never see you again." Alexia readily explained.

"Do you mind me asking why you're doing this? Is it just helping Angel out?"

Alexia sat back in the chair and crossed her arms. "Contrary to what you might think Tony, I'm not Angel's bitch. I am capable of having my own agenda." She stood up and walked closer to Tony's desk. "Now tell your friend Casey to give me my gun back."

Angel left the room soon after Alexia had left. She was now fully dressed in her black jeans and denim shirt. Her body still tingled from not being fulfilled, but she wasn't going to go looking for the girl she had been with earlier. Alexia, she knew, would be back and then she could get rid of the tension of the long week.

Slowly, Angel made her way downstairs looking across the lower level of her home with a critical eye. Normally, she wouldn't allow Lindsey to throw any kind of party like this, but Lindsey had actually begged her this time, and she could not refuse. Next time, she was going to have to have Alexia with her, because Lexi was much better at refusing the puppy dog look Lindsey had mastered.

The number of people on the first level of Angel's home seemed to lesson significantly since she had gone upstairs. Taking a peek at the grandfather clock against the wall she noticed it was going on one in the morning.

"Attention everybody!" Angel yelled when she reached the third step of the stairs. "This party is now officially over. Take all the shit you brought in here that is illegal and get the hell out. If you're not gone in the next five minutes you'll be thrown out." She smiled brightly. "Have a nice night."

The crowd started to immediately disperse. No one wanted to mess with Angel because despite her wholesome good looks and catholic girl persona she could make anyone's life a living hell. She had done it before a countless number of times, and she wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Lindsey, a short brown haired blue eyed figure, made her way to the staircase to talk with her friend. She had expected Angel to be preoccupied for a little longer and was quite frankly surprised to see her ending the festivities so early.

"Was she not a good lay?" Lindsey asked her friend bluntly.

Angel rolled her emerald eyes at her friend. "Lexi showed up and ruined my fun."

"Didn't you put a lock on your door because of the last time she did that?" Lindsey was now on the same stair as Angel and joined Angel in watching the all the people leaving hurriedly.

"I think she picked the damn thing. She came in holding a knife." Angel smiled at the memory of her friend scaring the brunette whose company she had been thoroughly enjoying. "Mandy is never going to be able to look at Alexia the same again."

"Oooh...kinky. I didn't know Lexi was into that sort of thing." The brown haired woman smiled mischievously at her friend. "I bet that really got you all hot and bothered." Lindsey took a quick look around. "I know she must of had to leave because otherwise I'm sure you two would be going at it like wild dogs right about now."

Angel couldn't help the slight flush that covered her face at her friend's words. "You know Lexi and I don't have that type of relationship."

Lindsey widened her eyes in disbelief at her friend. "You've got to think I've had way too much to drink tonight." She said incredulously. " Since when have Lexi and you ever not had that type of relationship?"

Angel face turned crimson once again. "You don't even have to respond." Lindsey held her hand up to forestall any comment from her friend. "Your face says it all. Lexi turns you on...hell Lexi turns me on. If I weren't straight I'd be begging her to take me to bed. What I don't understand about the two of you though is why you just don't commit. I mean you're great friends. The sex is obviously good. You love each other to death." Lindsey was ticking off each point on her fingers. "You'd make a great couple. You..."

Angel reached over and covered her friend's mouth with her hand. "We've gone over this before Lindsey. Yes, we do love each other but we are not in love with each other, and we both know that that is what makes all the difference." She eased her hand off of the other woman's mouth. "Besides, we're not in the same business."

"I will never understand that either." Lindsey said and crossed her arms in irritation over her chest.

"What's to understand?" Angel asked breaking her gaze with her friend and looking over the now empty first floor.

"You're a damn best selling author who happens to be in control of your family's extracurricular affairs. Alexia is...well I don't really know what she does, but where the hell is the conflict?"

Angel walked down the rest of the stairs and made her way over to the kitchen. She had had this same conversation with her friend countless times before. They never could agree on the issue.

Lindsey followed her friend into the kitchen and took a seat on top of the kitchen table. "Are you going to answer me?"

"You know I'm turning my family's business fully legit." Angel reached into the refrigerator and pulled herself out a beer, not even thinking to offer her friend one knowing Lindsey had probably already had enough to drink.

Lindsey exhaled heavily. "I know you both know what's best for you so I'll just keep my mouth shut. I just don't want either of you taking each other for granted."

Angel turned serious green eyes to her friend. "Lindsey the last thing Lexi and I would ever do is take each other for granted. No matter what happens with the business I will always want her as my friend."

"So what is Lexi doing tonight anyway since she's obviously not doing you?" Lindsey asked wanting to ease the air of seriousness in the room.

"You know she never tells me what she's doing and besides, who's to say she's not going to do me later?" Angel smiled smugly at her friend and took a long gulp of her beer. Lindsey just smiled back and had the decency to blush at Angel's candor.

Alexia made her way back out to her car from Tony's residence. They had come up with a plan on how to go about doing his switch of power as smoothly as possible. She didn't want any loose ends coming back to bite her on the ass later. She especially didn't want anyone to hear about her involvement with Tony Colleti's untimely retirement. Every link that led to her had to be destroyed.

The dark woman's power came from anonymity. She could go into someplace completely unknown and come out God incarnate. Alexia had the power that most of the crime bosses, drug lords, and political officials would ever want. Yet, no one really knew who she was or what she did to accumulate the power. Some people would guess that she just killed her way to the top. Others thought that she fucked her way to the top, using whoever had power to give her a boost.

The truth of the matter though, is that she did neither of these things. Every business she would accumulate or family she would take over she got it mostly from raw intellect and careful planning. There were the times however where she was forced to draw blood, but Alexia didn't really mind doing that. Her skills as a fighter were legendary and everybody feared her. She was the dark protector of Angel, and she didn't really mind carrying that name, not really thinking about the irony of the title.

Casey ran out the door after the leather clad figure knowing that she would be the key to getting her out of her commitment to Tony. She was on a mission and with Tony out of the picture she wasn't going to make any progress.

Alexia heard the woman behind her and turned around to watch her approach. Before, when she had seen her earlier at the lunch meeting with Tony she hadn't bothered to pay much attention to her. There was just a quick overview with her just measuring the potential threat. Now, however with the chance to look at the dark haired woman more thoroughly Alexia realized how beautiful she was. Her face was finely chiseled and housed two blue sapphires that even brought a small hint of fear to the darker woman.

This woman could be her rival, Alexia realized, and she wondered for the first time who this woman really was. Casey didn't carry any of the regular characteristics of Tony's past associates. She just didn't seem the type who would mess with the low-level family of the Colleti's.

"I was wondering if I could speak with you for a moment." Casey's low voice sounded in the night air.

"Get in the car." Alexia ordered then opened the driver's side of her BMW and got inside.

Casey looked at Alexia for a moment stunned at the brusque order. She quickly decided she should just go along with the dark woman for now, and got into the passenger side of the vehicle. As soon as she closed the door Alexia put the key in the ignition and sped away from Tony's residence.

Not knowing where they were going, but deciding she'd let the other woman speak first, Casey sat back in the leather seat and decided to enjoy the ride. Alexia reached down and turned on her radio turning it to some alternative rock station. She turned up the volume and then just continued to speed down the road hurriedly gaining distance from Tony's neighborhood.

Almost an hour and a half later Alexia pulled up to Jackie's, a bar located in the downtown part of Harrison. She got out of the car without a word to her companion and walked into the bar. Various patrons of the bar waved their hellos to the woman and she even returned a few, but not many. Casey exited the car and followed the woman through the bar. She was eventually lead to the upper floor of the bar and then into an isolated office in the far corner of the second floor.

Alexia made her way into the office stripping her coat in the process to reveal a white tank top covering her torso. Casey soon realized the woman was even more intimidating without the jacket, because the jacket hid the well-toned muscles that covered Alexia's upper body. The blue-eyed woman was drawn to the raw power of the dark skinned woman because it called to her own more animalistic nature.

"Casey, why don't you tell me who the fuck you are and save us both time without lying." Alexia's deep voice filled the room.

Casey swallowed a few times fully prepared to give the woman her practiced answer to the question, but with one look into the mahogany eyes she decided against it. "I'm the head of the Garza drug cartel and I'm looking to take under the Santiago's."

Alexia's facade didn't change one iota from the revelation. "Why the Santiago's?"

"They betrayed me." Casey said simply.

"Are you looking to take out the whole family or just Richard?" Richard was the head of the Santiago family and Alexia knew him rather well. They weren't friends my any stretch of the imagination, but they had worked out a healthy business arrangement.

"I want every last one of the bastards responsible to pay." Casey's voice was a low menace.

"Garza is a very lucrative cartel. It's very powerful. So I'm guessing you'd be Victoria Garza." Casey nodded her head. "Santiago's aren't very easy to get to."

"I know."

"On a scale of one to ten how deadly would you rate yourself right now?"

Casey gave Alexia an odd look not sure if she had heard the other woman correctly. "Excuse me?"

"On a scale of one to ten how deadly would you rate yourself right now?" Alexia repeated.

Smiling slightly Casey responded, "Eleven."

"You're a cocky lil' shit aren't you?" Alexia laughed slightly. "Ok Victoria what the hell do you want with me?"

"The closer I get to you, the closer I get to the Santiago's."

"I'm surprised we haven't met before Victoria. Then again, I don't really like meeting new people. I have heard of you though, and if your reputation is true then I should just act like you never told me anything and turn a blind eye to the entire situation." Alexia walked over to the far end of the office and took a seat on a worn couch against the wall and motioned for Casey to take a seat next to her.

After Casey was comfortable seated Alexia continued to speak. "I don't however turn a blind eye to anything. So, what we're going to do is let you get this whole revenge thing over with. I'm pretty sure you're working with someone else, but I don't really care about that right now because I know you're not after me." Alexia leaned further into the couch and rested her head on the back. "You can just continue to work for whomever the hell you're working for, but unofficially you can begin to work for me. I don't really have a place that needs to be filled at the moment, but as long as people think you're working for me you won't be messed with. Once your entire revenge thing is out of the way we can talk. Until then though, you just can do your own thing and you'll get a few assignments from me once in a while."

Casey was thankful Alexia didn't ask for any more information. She didn't think it was wise for her to reveal all her secrets in one night. Even though she was sure she really had plenty to spare. "May I ask you why you're so willing to go along with me?" She asked.

"Not everybody in our line of work is who they really claim to be Ms. Garza." Alexia stood from the couch and put her leather jacket back on. "We're leaving now. You'll come with me and stay over at Angel's. I think she might just be the person that can really help you out."

Usually Casey didn't like being ordered around by anyone, but for some reason she couldn't find it within herself to fight with the other woman. They were kindred spirits and right now, Alexia was the only person Casey trusted. She wasn't quite sure why she was so quick to trust her, but she knew that in this day and age where everything was so damned unpredictable, she definitely needed someone like Alexia on her side.

Continued in Part 2.