“No. We’ve never lost anyone.” Tina visibly released her breath and saw that Carmen was leaving something out.

“Carmen,… what!?”

“A couple of people have been shot though.” Carmen finished and looked away from Tina.

“Oh god.” Tina’s voice cracked as the tears laced with fear and dread fell from her eyes. Carmen grabbed her and hugged her tight whispering in her ear, “It’s ok. Tina she’ll be ok, she knows what she’s doing. Toni wouldn’t let her do anything that was dangerous and Bette wouldn’t put herself into something she couldn’t handle.” Carmen swayed her back and forth until Tina started to pull away from her and taking deep breaths to calm down. Carmen pulled back and looked Tina in the eye and said, “Come in the kitchen with me. Let’s make some tea. And I’ll tell you all about this crazy little family.”

……………………

Bette was sitting in her Nanna’s chair contemplating things and trying to figure out how she was going to go about this with Alicia. What angle would work best? From listening to Toni she knew how to get there, but she didn’t know what to use. Bette was drawn from her silent torment by headlights dancing across the living room walls. Toni came out of the kitchen and looked at Bette who had already sat up straight and was reaching for her pistol. Toni peaked out the window and saw that it was Lisandro and the boys bringing Alicia home. They brought her up the stairs and she was so high she didn’t know where she was or who was with her.

“Put her in the back room, strap her down and meet us in the kitchen.” Sergio was already making coffee for the crew and he waited until everyone was in the house before they began to get ready for the inevitable meeting with Alicia’s “boyfriend” Alphonso.

“What happened?” Sergio asked as they all sat down in the dining room.

“She was shooting up when we got there. So she’s gonna be out of it for a little while.”

“Anything else.” Her uncle was also direct and to the point.

“We had to lay out a couple of people but other than that nothing to serious. I suspect Alphonso should be coming through any time now.”