King of Hearts (House of Cards Series 2) [Student/teacher]

Seven of Clubs

West and Romeo stood outside, surrounded by the hazy smoke of cigarettes and joints, the stench of tobacoo and stale sweat making West wrinkle his nose in disgust. "You're sure about this?" the Cuban asked.

"As sure as I can be for this kind of thing." Romeo shrugged, scanning the crowd as well. "He's supposed to come out here almost every night. Apparently he likes to show off his money to the ladies and then bring a couple of them home with him."

West just grunted, golden eyes hunting for one familiar profile. Romeo had learned that Joao frequented Wet, one of the biggest clubs in the city, and so they had come out to see if they could follow Joao back to his homebase as it were. "There." his voice was low and soft, the word harmless but the tone full of venom.

Joao was just walking out of the club, a drunk girl on his arm who had probably gotten in because hte bouncer was too busy staring down her top to see that she looked around 13. It didn't seem to stop Joao any as he pulled her face to his, messily sticking his tongue down her throat while they waited for his driver to pull the car up.

West narrowed his eyes and gave Romeo a little jerk of the head to indicate that the plan was still on. With a devilish grin, the Trinidadian stumbled out in front of the car before they could pull away and pretended to be violently ill, pouring hte contents of a soup can mixed with vinegar out onto the hood and in front of the vehicle.

"You b******! Get away from the car! Go be sick in a gutter you rat!" the driver and Joao all cursed at Romeo who just pretended to be a sick but friendly drunk, too inebriated to know any better.

While his best friend offered a convincing distraction, West ducked around the back of the car and casually slipped the small locating device into the wheel well. That tiny, nickle sized transmitter with it's receiver had cost him more than his last car had, but it would be worth it to track this Rabid Dog down. West grinned to himself and slipped away from the car before anyone saw him hanging around it. He wasn't worried about Romeo, there were too many witnesses for them to do anything other than scream at him, and West spotted his friend making a stumbling get away as if he were going to be sick again. No one offered to help him or followed after.

Twenty minutes later and Romeo and West met back up, using the 24 hour Tim Horton's as their rendez-vous. Romeo strolled in to see West flinging individual fries at an overfull garbage, mindlessly littering the floor around the bin with pathetic looking fry corpses. "Is it working?" Romeo asked, throwing himself into the chair next to the silent Cuban. He grabbed some of the fries before they could all disappear and waited while West pulled out a small object that was receiving a ping from the transmitter.

"Still in motion. We'll follow along shortly after. I do not want there to be any chance that they associate your face with what happens tonight, so lets give them time to forget." West stated calmly, feeling that cold, god-less place inside shunt aside his emotions and concerns. If he couldn't figure out what Joao was up to, his confused emotions over Maddison wouldn't matter. They could never have a future together if he didn't bury the last of the demons of his past. Not that West was planning to kill or even hurt Joao, but if it came to it, he wouldn't hesitat and that was the honest truth.

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Romeo asked, fignering the bag of supplies they'd brought along for their scheme.

"I think it's appropriate, given the givens." West shrugged, not caring about his friend's amused expression.

"It's your funeral man." Romeo shook his head, laughing softly.

"No, he tried to plan my funeral a few years ago. This is just a little retribution. Don't ruin my fun." West finally cracked a smile, his friend able to pull him out of the murderous quiet that filled his blood.

Romeo laughed. "Oh, I don't mean to ruin it. I jsut wanted to make sure we were all set to go."

West just grunted, grabbing his own bag of supplies and following Romeo out to his car. West's own Hummer was too memorable, and Romeo's nondescript Fiat blended in far better. West didn't even have to ask, Romeo tossed him the keys knowing how bad a passenger West usually was. So West started the car and followed Romeo's instructions as he deciphered the route they'd have to take.

The large buildings of down town fell away, replaced by the suburdian haven that most cities were ringed by. Still Romeo directed West to driver father and farther out of the city, the Fiat having nothing to blend into at all as the rest of the traffic stayed within the city. And still they drove until Romeo had them pulling up what looked like a private driveway. It took them almost ten minutes to reach the gate, and when they did, West nearly swore as he recognized what had happened. Of course Joao didn't live in the city, Los perros rabiosos had small slivers in various cities around the world. This was the chapter house!

"I'm getting us the h*** out of here NOW!" West barked at his friend, startling the Trinidadian as West nearly spun the car in his rush to reverse course. West's agitation seemed to convince Romeo that this wasn't a time to aruge as he floored the gas pedal and they flew back towards the city. It wasn't until West pulled up outside of his grandmother's house that either man looked at the other.

"What just happened?" Romeo asked, not sounding scared. But he would.

"Los Perros Rabiosos. Gang chapter house. I only hope to god that the hidden cameras didn't catch my face." West rumbled.

"Hidden cameras?" Romeo asked, sounding mildly concerned.

"Yeah, these kind of guys take their security seriously. If they think we're casing the place, it'll bring nothing but trouble." West admitted.

"You mean guys like you." Romeo stated simply. But West surprised him by shaking his head no.

"I made the decision to not be that man anymore. Now I'm just West, self exiled son of Los Santos. My intention was to find Joao's house and return the favour of toilet papering his house. I'm not willing to risk the good things of my life now for something so stupid as toilet paper." West said the words and Romeo could tell by the electrical fire in his friend's eyes that he was deadly serious.

"Dude, you're totally whipped." Romeo said it, a grin coming to his face. West gave him a flat stare. "Hey man, I'm not throwing a dis down, I'm already flogged and shackled."

"You told Siobhan you've gone Eros?" West raised his eyebrows.

"Ya, even I don't get what that one means bro." Romeo stated.

"You told her you love her." West replied, voice flat.

"Yes. And to make my day even better, she loves me back." Romeo's face lit up as he said the words. West felt himself scowling for a moment, but then wiped it off his face and he smiled, happy for his friend.

"I'm glad for you man. S***, let's not tell the ladies what we found out tonight ok? The less we involve them, the less likely it can go wrong for them." West requested.

"Alright. But I think we need to involve Reaper if it gets serious." Romeo countered.

West hesitated, not wanting to bring Malcolm into this. He'd had a clean break, and a really good thing going with Alice. They were both some much happier and healthier than they had been. Other than Alice who seemed to be loosing an inordinate amount of weight lately. "We'll do nothing for now. Anything suspicious happens though and we'll tell him about it." West finally deflected.

"Hmmm." Romeo nodded, not really buying into it.

"What can we expect if they caught our little side trip up their drive way?" The Trinidadian finally asked.

"Maybe just a little surveillance, see if we're a threat. Maybe retaliation but I doubt it. There's too much risk, not enough reward." West explained.

"And what if Joao convinces them that you're a threat?" Romeo pressured.

West paused, eyes growing hard. His body stilled again, reaching for the killing quiet. "Then we go to war."