Love Vs Murder

Chapter three: Trouble at the Bando

Walking into the bando carrying two large black duffel bags, Manny grinned from ear to ear as he sat the bags on the rickety coffee table. Accompanying him inside the nearly empty house were only three of the most trusted female drug runners, along with Nico, and Del hoisting smaller bags on their shoulders. The girls sat their bags just below the coffee table and routinely settled along the wall where there should have been couches.

Manny peeled off his jacket. Nico and Del gathered around the table to help Manny remove the contents of the bags. The first duffel bag was unzipped, revealing stacks of money secured with rubber bands. Nico picked up a stack of money and fanned himself with it. Manny and Del laughed, another successful run made but this time it had been even more profitable.

Manny, who was assigned to be in charge of this run by Antonio, knew this meant good for him. He'd worked for two years to prove to Antonio that he was trustworthy. When Antonio had finally given him a small amount of authority he knew this was his opportunity to show that he deserved a promotion. He couldn't wait to drop the money off to Antonio so he could see what he'd gotten accomplished. He hoped to be working closely with him and making just as much money as he was.

Manny signaled for one of the girls to retrieve the scale from the kitchen. The other two girls moved over to the table and began emptying the totes that they'd brought along. They unloaded the contents of the bags and opened the clear plastic full of pure white powder. The other girl retreated into the living room with the double pan scale. Manny moved the bags over, making room for the scale to be placed in the middle of the table.

The girls began weighing the powder, white residue puffing up into the air and then vanishing each time they dumped a pile onto a scale and then removed it to weigh the next pile. Manny, Nico, and Del counted all the money by hand like Antonio wanted them to. He liked it that way not for specifics, he knew how much was coming back, but he wanted to make sure that he could trust the men that handled the cash.

With that, no one ever complained when counting the cash because they knew a decent percentage of it belonged to them; and that was just for counting by hand. Manny had no idea how much Antonio made a year but he knew that it had to be in the millions or even above because he paid handsomely.

  While counting and weighing, there was an unusual knock at the door. Everyone halted. Nico hesitantly stood up and quietly crept to the door. He placed his eye on the peephole and saw the faces of several police officers in fisheye; they were going to be raided.

Nico rushed back over to the table and began piling the money back into the bag. With no questions, everyone else followed. Del rushed to the back of the home returning with another bag full of guns.

The second knock on the door was far more forceful. They continued to gear up. One of the girls began shoving clips inside of the guns and another carried pounds of product to the bathroom, attempting to flush it all down the toilet. Back in the living room, the door was now being caved in. As the rest of the crew stood with their guns aimed at the door, waiting to ambush the police, Manny picked up the bags of money and what was left of the drugs.

"Take that shit and go, Manny!" Del instructed him while he still had a tight grip on his pistol.

Manny fled to the back room, opening the window to see that police had the house surrounded. He took the bags and placed them over his shoulder and ran back into the hallway and pulled down the door for the attic ladder. He set his foot on the first step and he heard the front door come crashing down and shots being fired. He scattered up the ladder and quickly pulled it up.

He breathed heavily and his heart rate went up but he had no time to stop. He could still hear the shots ringing out and a hard thud he assumed was the result of a body falling on the floor. He pushed the attic window open to see that the roof of another house was close enough for him to jump onto. He looked out to see if the police would be able to spot him but, due to the closeness of the other houses, they weren't in sight. He let out a sharp breath and jumped onto the house from the window.