Anywhere But Home

{11} The 'Bible'

Emily Roberts 

''What was that piece of s**t doing here ?'' Christopher yelled, crushing his fist on the wall. ''I thought you said he was going to stay in New York.'' He hissed looking at Brian, who looked as confused and pissed at him.

''It's not my fault that the guy is a freaking unpredictable person.'' He replied on the same cold tone walking closer to Christopher. ''He won't stop until he gets it back, you know that right ?'' He whispered loudly making Christopher push him away.

''Only over my f*****g dead body.'' Christopher state in a serious tone, while running a hand through his brown hair.

''This is exactly why we should have taken that to the police in the first place.'' Brian said pacing around still keeping his gaze on Chris waiting for an answer.

''It wouldn't do us any good. We know there are dirty cops involved in that too.'' He said crossing his arms leaning on the wall. ''I will only rest when I figure out what I want to know. Until then, that stays with me.''

''Can someone explain to me what the is going on here ?'' I gasped, introducing myself on the conversation since I was feeling totally cast aside.

Christopher looked at Tori, narrowing his eyebrows at her. ''You haven't told her ?'' He asked in disbelief.

''Told me what?'' I inquired looking to Christopher and then to Tori, who just stood there speechless.

''Just leave her out of this Christopher.'' Tori finally said, breaking her silence in a warning tone. ''There is no need to get other people involved in this.'' She added shrugging.

''She needs to know.'' Christopher said looking into Tori's eyes, breaking after the eye contact.

''Can anyone just take a freaking second of their time and start explaining what the hell is happening before I lose my s**t?'' I snapped impatiently looking at the three of them expecting some sort of explanation.

''We might as well just tell her Tori.'' Brian said walking closer to her, stopping a few inches away. ''It's better this way.'' She sighed, putting her lips on a thin line, but nodded.

''That guy that just left here is the son of José Hernandez Martinez.'' He said still leaning on the wall. The hall is still empty and I lost the track of time, but I'm too curious to leave.

''Never heard of him.'' I informed honestly nodding. The name sounded familiar and I know I've heard it before but right now I couldn't place where.

''The famous leader of the Martinez gangue that operates on the west side of Manhattan?'' He asked rhetorically. ''Jesus Emily who in this world haven't heard of the guy?'' He blurted walking closer to us.

''Sorry if I can't keep in touch with every criminal in the United States. I have a life, you know ?'' I inquired rolling my eyes at him. Now I remember! ''Isn't that the guy who was involved in the distribution of a drug named '' Lupion'' last year?'' A lot of people actually died because of that drug. It had a substance that messed with the nerves and some people stop walking because of it. It was a wicked thing.

''Yes.'' He said firmly.

''Isn't he in prison?'' I asked.

''The police can't seem to catch him.'' He replied angry evident on his voice. ''The guy is like a freaking ghost. Every time they get a tip about his location, he runs away. He must have someone working on the inside of the police force.'' He finished looking at Brian who was still next to Tori.

He pressed his lips on a thin line and cleared his voice. ''When I was fifteen, I received an anonymous letter in the mailbox of my house saying that my brother was owing some money to a guy on the Martinez gangue.'' Christopher began taking a few steps closer to us, with his one of his hands inside this pocket. '' The letter said that my brother's accident was not an accident and that is was actually a professional murder order by a guy in the gangue.''

''Of course, I didn't believe a s**t about what was on that letter. I thought someone was messing with me, because let's be realistic, we had all the money we could want at our disposal and if this person knew something that I didn't, why did he/she wait a year to come forward?'' He added still looking at us.

''But eventually, curiosity got the best of me and I had to investigate.'' He said taking his wallet and handing me a letter, that I assumed it would be 'the letter', but it wasn't. ''We still hadn't moved any of my brother's stuff away because it was too painful and my mother was having a hard time admitting that he was gone, so one day I went there and found a safe. Not one of those cheap ones, it was a real state of the art one, with three locks, so I got suspicious and brought it to a locksmith shop.''

''I founded two 45 Glocks, fake IDs, a lot of cash and a letter of my brother, saying that if something happened to him, probably the fault belonged to the gangue and that I should just stay away from it. Little did he know.'' He sighed looking at the piece of paper I had in my hands. ''That's the letter.''

''He told everything he knew to us the day after, because we were still in good terms at that time, the three of us came out with a plan.'' Tori introduced herself, gaining our attention. ''Chad attended to our school and only a few people knew that he was José's son.'' She continued. ''The plan was making him fall in love with me so that I could get access to his house and to the 'bible', which I did. It was no secret that he wasn't very good in school so I started helping him on tests, giving him my notes and summaries and with that, his grades got better so he started paying attention to me.'' She added. ''It wasn't easy gaining his trust, but I did. After a few months, we here dating and I was able to steal the 'bible'. ''

I part of me was actually surprised that Tori was able to even do something like that.''What's the 'bible'?'' I inquired slightly confused. ''Like the Christian Bible?''

''No silly!'' Tori chuckled followed by Brian who despite the fact of trying to hide his laugh, failed roundly. ''It's a book that has all the names of the people that belong to the gangue, including the supposed name of the guy who killed Christopher's brother. All the safe houses, bank accounts and all that sort of stuff.''

''And you guys have that in your possession?'' I gasped growing my eyebrows at them. ''You know that is very dangerous, don't you? They can kill you!'' I whispered loudly turning around.

''Yeah, but they won't.'' Christopher intervened. ''I told them if any harm ever happened to any of us or to anyone we cared about, I would give that to the police.''

''What makes you think that they still want the 'bible' you guys have? It's been three years. They can have a new one by now.'' I asked crossing my arms.

''It's not like that. They may have a new one now, but the majority of the information we have can still put them in jail for a long time.''

''That's all very funny Chris and I wouldn't mind having guys armed to their teeth in New York, because it was a city that we knew by heart and we had our families there, but here in Miami we are easy targets.'' Brian blurted grinding his teeth. ''I have a bad feeling about this. I just do.'' He said putting his hands on his pockets.

''He is not the only one.'' Tori added bending over to pick the books that were all over the floor and handing them to me. She then makes her way closer to Christopher who was staring to her and put a hand over his shoulder. ''I know you said you want to catch the guy who killed your brother and we get that. ''She said in a low voice looking to us and to him. ''God only knows what I would do if anyone had killed my little sister.''She mumbled. ''But this is getting to dangerous. People will get hurt if you keep pushing this Christopher. People including yourself. And I don't think your parents can't bear the thought of losing you too.''

''I can't stop now Victoria.'' He sighed looking over to us. ''And I can't make you guys stay in the crossfire with me either. This is a thing that I have to find out by myself. I shouldn't have let you get involved in this in the first place.'' He said grabbing his bag from the ground and started walking away.

''Chris! Wait up!'' Brian said grabbing his bag also and walking to him, but was stopped.

''I want to be alone ... Stay here, go to class and keep an eye on both of them.'' He said looking at both of us, focusing on me a little longer, before turning his gaze to Brian. ''See you at home.''

''Where are you going?'' I shouted hoping he would listen, but he didn't. Damn it, Christopher!