Language/Violence Disclaimer: There is violence here. There is also some heavy language here. If this bothers you I suggest you don't read this.

Love/Sex Disclaimer: There is same sex relationship here between two consenting adult women. If this offends you or if you are under age please don't read this.

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Part 11

Casey and Angel had been sitting around Angel's home when the call they had been waiting for finally came. Alexia had contacted Casey informing her to meet her at the place her father and brother had been killed, within the hour.

Casey left Angel immediately after the phone call, promising Angel that she'd be careful. Angel called Daniel to inform him it was time for them to get everything ready for Alexia. Calling up every favor anyone owed her Angel finally had it set that no matter what happened to either Casey, Clyde or herself Alexia would be taken care of.

As soon as everything was set up she ran out of the house intent on driving to the same warehouse she knew her best friend Alexia and her new business partner would be.

It was show time.

It didn't take long for Casey to arrive outside of the place she hated more then anything. Alexia's car was already parked outside, as was the Cadillac she recognized as none other then Richard Santiago's. Immediately upon seeing the car Casey had the urge to run inside the warehouse guns drawn and ready to fire on every person connected to the Santiago's. She'd save Alexia for last so she could watch the woman who had caused her brother's death die slowly and with a lot of pain.

Everything wasn't supposed to work out that way though. There was a plan that she had been relied on to execute. Her need for revenge had to be ignored so the bigger threat, Alexia, could be taken care of. Santiago would have to be dealt with by the local authorities. She had to force herself not to care about what Santiago had done, if only for this one night.

Casey straightened out her clothes. She had chosen to wear an ensemble that looked much like Alexia's standard leathers. Hers were not the midnight black that Alexia chose to wear, but instead a deep brown. The tall woman appeared to be just as dangerous as her new boss was. Angel had talked her into wearing the leathers for effect. Everything from here on out relied on putting on a convincing show that would fool every person inside that warehouse.

Gathering her courage, Casey walked up to the entrance of the warehouse and gingerly opened the door. She wasn't quite sure what was going to be presented to her on the inside.

Alexia turned and looked at the slowly opening door. "Come over here." She ordered the woman she knew would be on the other side.

Casey hurried over to where Alexia sat. The dark woman was sitting on a crate looking directly across at a tied up man who Casey instantly recognized as Richard Santiago. He had a small cut above his left eye that bleed sparingly. "What's going on?" Casey asked confused.

Alexia turned to Casey her mahogany eyes glinting. "Do you not like my present?"

"It's not that." Casey quickly responded. "I just thought he was a friend of yours."

"Hmm…" Alexia shrugged her shoulders. "Well so was Angel."

"What do you mean?" Casey asked alarmed.

Alexia jumped off the crate and walked over to the man lying bound of the floor. She wiped away some of the blood on Richard's forehead with her forefinger. She looked at it carefully. "Everybody bleeds Victoria." Alexia said casually. "And we all bleed red." She rubbed the blood on front of Richard's expensive white dress shirt.

"What does that have to do with Angel?" Casey asked worried that Alexia had finally lost whatever wits she might have had.

Alexia stood up and sauntered her way over to Casey. "She bleeds too." She answered cryptically.

Casey looked around the warehouse trying to locate anyone else that might be in their presence. "There's no one else here." Alexia informed her after noticing Casey's wondering eyes. "There will be though…soon."

Casey took a step away from the dark woman and surveyed her surroundings once more.

"Angel will be here soon too." Alexia informed her subordinate. She looked down at her watch on her right wrist. "She should be bleeding right about now."

Casey's blue eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

"It doesn't matter." Alexia waved her hand dismissing Casey's question. "Are you going to kill this man or not?" She asked sounding extremely bored. "If you don't I will."

"Why would you want him dead?" Casey asked letting her worry for Angel to subside for a moment.

Alexia laughed. "What do you care? You're the one who has been waiting to kill him…" She paused to think for a moment. "For how many years?"

"What the hell's going on?" Casey asked forcing herself to bite down on her urge to lash out at Alexia and the woman's smug expression.

Alexia waved her finger at Casey. "No, no, no…you must exercise patience." She walked back over to the crate and took a seat.

As Angel stepped out of her home she was surprised to be met with the large form of one of Alexia's friends, Jerome.

The brawny man reached out and forced Angel's arms behind her then bound her wrists together. "I'm sorry Angel." He told the much smaller woman. "But it's Alexia's orders."

"What hell are you talking about?" She asked the man with a surprisingly amount of control.

Jerome turned Angel back around and led her to the limo he had parked right outside of her home. She hadn't even heard him drive up.

"I'm sorry Angel." The large man repeated with honest regret. He had always liked the woman Alexia had so easily called her friend and regretted having to be the person who bound her, but he understood the necessity of what was happening.

"Where are you going to take me?" The blonde asked evenly as if she had expected this whole situation.

Jerome just thought Angel had learned something from Alexia. He could feel the shaking of Angel's hands, which she couldn't control and knew the smaller woman was nervous.

"To the warehouse." He answered her knowing she would understand what place he was talking about. He opened the door to the limo and gently placed her inside then took a seat beside her.

Immediately after they were settled the vehicle lurched into movement.

Angel surveyed her surroundings and noticed a figure passed out on the sit across from her. She couldn't get a clear look at what she assumed was a man because of the darkness of the night.

"Who's that?" She asked the large man that sat beside her.

"Clyde." Jerome's deep voice answered.

"Is…" Angel cleared her throat. "Is he dead?"

Jerome shook his head. "No ma'am." He answered respectfully. "He just put up a little bit of a fight.

As if he knew he was being talked about-and he did---Daniel groaned in pain. "My fucking head." He moaned and tried to grab his head when he realized his hands were bound and he couldn't move them.

"If I were you," Jerome told the groaning figure. "I wouldn't move that much. I think you might have a concussion."

Slowly Daniel turned his head and glared at the man who had supposedly caused him the pain. "Thanks to you, you bastard."

"There's no need to be calling me names." The muscular man answered in his deep accent. "It won't help you any."

"If he has a concussion, shouldn't he be in a hospital." Angel asked worried for her friend.

Daniel lifted his head as if just now noticing Angel's presence in the car. He then groaned as if great pain from the swift movement. "What are you doing here?" He asked after of a moment of seemingly clamping down on the pain.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Angel answered him. "Are you okay?" She asked him worriedly.

Daniel nodded his head. "I just have a small headache. It'll go away."

Angel leaned forward and closed the distance between her and Daniel. Jerome made no motion to stop her. She gently rubbed her friends forehead and placed a delicate kiss in her hands wake. "We need to get him to a hospital."

"What the point?" Jerome asked. "Alexia will probably kill him."

"Then let him go!" She yelled at the large man. "I know you have some compassion."

"I wish I could, little one." Jerome responded. "But I can not. Alexia will decide the amount of compassion that man deserves." He reached out and grabbed Angel to pull her back towards him before she realized Daniel wasn't suffering from any concussion.

They sat in silence the rest of the way to the warehouse.

"You are awfully silent." Alexia observed as she watched Casey pace the room. "You also seem to be a little nervous. You want to tell me why?"

"No." Casey snapped.

"You know," Alexia said conversationally. "That sounded an awful like you were being disrespectful."

Casey turned and glared over at the smirking woman. She felt very much like a wild animal caught in a hunter's trap. "Maybe because I was." She answered harshly.

Alexia crossed her arms over her chest and met Casey's glare. "I don't ask for respect Victoria, I demand it."

"I guess you believe you've earned it then?" It was not her intention to antagonize the dangerous woman who wasn't more then fifteen feet away, but Casey couldn't help it.

"You mean I haven't?" The dark woman asked flummoxed. "I thought that I certainly earned it after what I've just pulled off."

"What do you mean?" The dark haired woman asked icily.

"Well for starters," Alexia answered lightly. "I have your worst enemy bound and gagged lying on the floor awaiting his execution. Then, of course, I have you here pacing around like a caged beast worried about some woman you only met a few days ago. I should forget to mention the fact that I killed the man who was working with you in the DEA." Casey was shocked by the news but refused to allow Alexia to see it. "I also was able to obtain Angel's plan to kill me."

Alexia hopped down from the crate and walked over to the shocked woman. "That has to earn me a certain degree of respect."

Casey was reaching for her gun when the warehouse door flipped open and in walked the man she recognized as Jerome leading a bound Angel and a bound Clyde into the warehouse. Alexia watched their entrance then turned to face Casey. "It looks like everybody's almost here."

The dark woman walked over to Angel and looked her friend and locked eyes with her. "You didn't honestly believe I wouldn't find out, did you?" She asked with a surprising amount of gentleness.

While Alexia's back was turned on her Casey pulled out her gun and pointed it directly at the tall woman's back.

Jerome had seen the woman pull the gun but didn't make any move to respond. His arms were full holding Daniel and Angel in place.

"Do you really want to do this like that?" Alexia asked the woman behind her without turning around.

"I just want us all to get out of here alive." Casey responded evenly.

"If you put the gun away then that's what will happen." Alexia still refused to turn around and face her opponent. If Casey was going to shoot he she'd have to shoot her in the back…something Alexia highly doubted Casey was capable of doing.

Angel looked past Alexia. "Casey put down the gun, please."

"She's going to kill us." Casey yelled. "She knows everything."

Before Angel could answer the warehouse was suddenly filled with soldiers who weren't American. They each carried individual rifles and pointed them all at Casey.

Angel had noticed the soldiers outside which was why she had pleaded with Casey to lower her weapon.

"Good." Alexia said clasping her hands together. "The rest of the party is here."

Casey gulped and slowly lowered her weapon then placed it on the ground. She knew she was no match for some fifty soldiers.

Alexia walked over to Casey and picked up the weapon off of the floor. She leaned forward and handed it back to Casey. "You might need this later."

Without thinking twice about taking back the weapon, Casey reached out and took it from Alexia's grip.

As soon as all the soldiers were settled a man who looked to be in his early fifties stepped through the door. He was wearing an expensive dark suite that complemented his commanding figure. His dark eyes roamed over the warehouse then settled on Alexia.

"Is this the rest of it?" He asked in his native tongue of Swahili.

"Yes sir," She answered.

"And all these people?" He asked indicating the American's that surrounded him.

"They are left at your mercy." Alexia bowed her head and awaited her orders.

Angel stared at the man for a long moment her memory telling her she knew him, but she couldn't quite grasp from where.

"Kill them." He answered with a sweep of his hand.

Alexia leaned over to Casey. "This would be the time you need your gun." She whispered.

Without questioning her Casey pulled out her gun but wasn't quite sure who to aim it at. Alexia pulled her own weapon and pointed it directly at her father's back. "Father!" She yelled to him.

Angel remembered the man now. He was the one her father was speaking with when she had first met Alexia. She had never seen the man again after that fateful day.

The man turned around and looked down at his daughter waiting for her to say something that might interest him. "What is it you want?" He asked in his heavily accented English.

"I guess retribution for my stolen childhood might too much to ask for, so I'll settle for your death." Alexia responded almost completely emotionless.

"Why would you kill me?" He asked in monotone. "What would you gain from that? None of this men would follow you." He said indicated the lines of soldiers that surrounded him.

"You're wrong." Alexia shook her head. "They will not follow you."

For the first time Alexia could ever remember fear covered her father's eyes that looked so much like her own. She considered not pulling the trigger of her weapon for a moment but the moment quickly passed.

The gunshot echoed off the bare walls of the warehouse and her father's body fell to the ground.

The soldiers did nothing to retaliate. They all stood awaiting their orders.

Jerome reached out and released the bindings that held Daniel and allowed the muscular man to take his place next to his wife. He carefully laid a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. "We need to take care of everything else." He told her.

Alexia nodded her head and lowered her weapon. "Everybody clear out." She ordered to the soldiers and within moments they were all gone.

The dark woman then turned her attention to Casey who aimed her gun directly at Alexia's chest. "What the hell just happened here?"

"Doesn't matter." Alexia responded. "If you're going to shoot me my only request is you do it in a leg or arm. I promised him," She pointed to Daniel. "Our child would not die."

There could be heard sirens in the distance.

"Your time is running out." Alexia informed the dark haired woman.

Jerome didn't pay much attention to the scene that was playing out in front of him. He reached down and released the ties that bound Angel. "Go on over there, little one." He told her and gave her a soft shove in the direction of the other occupants of the warehouse. He looked on at the scene in front of him then disappeared from the warehouse as if he had never been there.

The sirens were closer now.

"What's going on?" Angel asked Alexia.

"Victoria's was about to shoot me." Alexia explained easily.

Casey shook her head and lowered her weapon. "I don't know why you want me to, but I'm not going to do it now."

"What about him?" Daniel asked pointing to Richard Santiago.

"He knows what happened here." Alexia answered.

There was silence amongst the four for a moment, as the police sirens only got closer.

Alexia sighed and shook her head then quickly raised her weapon and pointed it at Casey. Her finger was pulling on the shoulder when Casey shot her in the shoulder.

"Alexia!" Angel yelled running over to her fallen friend.

Casey just watched Alexia fall unsure of what she had just done.

Daniel looked down at his wife and gathered her up in his arms. "Are you okay?" He asked realizing the pain Alexia must have been in.

"Never better." She answered doing a good job of hiding her pain. She raised her head and looked over at the pale Casey.

"It time you take my place." She told the woman cryptically then passed out.

The police rushed into the warehouse then, yelling at Casey to lower her weapon.

Everything after that was a blur.

Epilogue

Victoria sat in a stale room handcuffed to the table. The guards didn't want to take a chance that their dangerous prisoner could escape. She had committed homicide and she just didn't kill some nameless face, but instead killed a diplomatic official. The people had yelled for swift justice and it was granted. The prisoner was going to be tried today.

It seemed like it would be a pretty open and shut case. The woman, a known drug lord, had been found with a gun in her hand pointing it directly at the ambassador's pregnant daughter while the ambassador lay dead not far away. If that wasn't enough to convict her, the police had found another known drug lord tied up in the back of the warehouse beaten up. He had told the authorities the dark haired woman had kidnapped her because she wanted revenge. The man knew the entire story of what happened and was promised witness protection if he testified at Victoria Garza's trial.

The ambassador's daughter's husband was also supposed to testify against the woman. No one was really sure what he as going to testify to though. Unfortunately, the ambassador's daughter didn't remember much of the incident since she had been shot. Things didn't look like they were at all turning out good for Victoria Garza.

The other woman who had been in the warehouse-Angel something or other-had mysteriously vanished during the District Attorney's investigation. They had looked everywhere for the woman but her neighbors had reported that she had a late night visitor one night and was never heard of again.

There were a slew of other charges that Victoria was being charged with and someone they had managed to pin Angel's disappearance on her as well. Anything that could not be explained had instantly become Victoria Garza's fault and no one could prove her innocence, and if anyone did know something they weren't going to come forth and say anything.

Apparently this is what everyone had meant when they had told her she was going to take Alexia's place.

The door to the barren room squeaked open and in stepped George McKenzie, the director of the DEA. She hadn't seen him in almost three months, since her arrest. He had come to her to tell her how disappointed he was in her and that was all she remembered. The conversation hadn't been that memorable.

The large man made his way across from her and took a seat on the other end of the table. "Garza, I'm here to tell you all the charges against you have been dropped."

The dark haired woman didn't respond. "Call me crazy, but I don't believe you."

"I can understand why not." The man responded. "But it's true." He threw a packet down on the table. "You can see for yourself."

Victoria reached out her shackled hands and took the folder offered to her. She opened it and read the contents. Sure enough she had been released.

"What's the catch?"

George shook his head. "No catch. You're a free woman." He stood from his seat. "Your rides waiting for you outside of the building." He then hurried out of the room and left Victoria alone in the room to accept what she had just been told.

A few moments later the guards came in and released her cuffed hands. They lead her to where she had been checked in, at this fair establishment then released her as if she was never a concern of theirs.

Intent on not dwelling on what was happening to her she walked outside and took her first breath of fresh air since the night she had been arrested. There was a car waiting for her and she walked up to it significantly surprised when Angel was in the driver's side.

Deciding she wasn't going to question anything she just opened the passenger side door and got into the car. "So." She said in a moment. "Was it you, me, or both of us that got played?"

Angel's green eyes studied her for a moment and chuckled slightly. "I'd say both of us."

Victoria nodded her head accepting the answer. "You know what happened to me, but what happened to you?"

"As soon as you were arrested I was rushed back to my home and no one asked me what happened. Then, Clyde" Angel shook her head. "I mean Daniel showed up at my doorstep and took me away. When he brought me back he told me you'd be needing a ride."

Again Victoria nodded her head just accepting what had happened and didn't question it. "Who's Daniel?"

"Alexia's husband." Angel answered softly. "They've been married for a while."

"What happens now?" Victoria asked her companion seriously.

Angel started the car and pulled out into the city traffic. "Here are the rules." She began to explain. "One. There are no lies between us. We've both already had enough of that. Two." She held up the appropriate number of fingers. "If we are to be friends, then we make sure it's an equal friendship. There can be no one having more power over the other. We've already had enough of that too. Three." Angel held up three fingers. "We get away from here and never look back."

Victoria leaned back in the leather seat of the two-door coupe. "I can do that." She said smiling at her companion.

Angel nodded her head. "Good." She responded. "Now we can start our lives over again." She held out her hand. "I'm Angel."

Victoria reached out her hand shook the blonde's. "My name's Victoria."

They sat in silence while Angel drove them as fast as legally possible out of Henderson. After a few moments Victoria reached down and turned on the radio.

"Good Evening folks, we've just been handed some very interesting news," The cheerful voice announced. "It seems Victoria Garza has been let go because they found out she didn't do it. It seems the prosecution's key witness was lying. Richard Santiago is supposedly now the key suspect. When asked about this turn of events Alexia Jomo, Ambassador Arap's daughter, responded she just wanted her father's murderer punished.

"Meanwhile, her husband, Daniel Jomo, is now running for the Kenyan Presidency. Mrs. Jomo says that is where her new focus shall lay since that is where her father would want her attention to be. Ambassador Arap was rumored to have wanted to take the next term of office, having promised the Kenyan people a change for the better, it seems his son-in-law now wants to fulfill the promises Arap had made. We here at 102.2 Henderson's jazz station wish the Jomo family the best of luck."

THE END