#contaminatedfic

The night was early, but Lara was over being out and socializing. She had spent a majority of the night outside of EZ’s trailer with him and Frankie, just bullshitting the time away but now found herself walking back to the clubhouse. She hoped maybe Angel was back from whatever run he was out on and could take her home. 

The sound of Taza’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts, her head raised to see him calling her from the porch. 

“Lara!” His hand raised as if she wasn’t able to see him. 

“What’s up?” She answered him as she got closer to the steps. 

“Do you mind taking your dad home? He uh- he really isn’t in any condition to drive.” 

“Can’t like Uncle Hank take him or something, me and him aren’t really–”

Before Lara could even finish her sentence, the clubhouse door barreled open and Bishop’s voice was the only thing that could be heard probably in a 5 mile radius. 

“Heee-hey!” He called out and threw his arm over her and Taza weighing them both down. “My best friend and my daughter, what more could I ask for?” His breath reeked of alcohol, it was practically pouring out of his pours. 

“Lara’s gonna take you home, mano.” Taza shifted in a way to lean most of Bishop’s weight on him so it wasn’t weighing down too much more on Lara. 

“Nah, nah, nah, nah” He repeated over and over again like saying it the first time wasn’t enough. “I can get home, I can take my truck.” Bishop pointed to where he thought his truck was but was far from the correct location. 

“No c’mon, I’m gonna take you back home.” Lara started to move down the stairs. “Let me get your keys.” 

“In a bit, let’s go back and hang for a little bit, there’s still a lot of people here.” Bishop’s words slurred as he tried to turn back around. 

“Give Lara the keys, Bish.” Taza’s voice was firm but still soft. 

“Alright.” Bishop gave up when Taza gave the direction, his misogyny showing. 

Taza took over getting the man into the passenger seat of his truck, letting Lara stand outside the driver's seat fiddling with the keys. 

“He’s good to go.” Taza came back over to the driver's side to hug the girl goodbye. 

“Real quick,” Lara pushed off the car and spoke to Taza. “Is Angel here? I had to ask him something about the scrapyard paperwork.” Lara came up with an excuse that by reading his expression Taza bought. 

“Ah, no, he’s not here. Still out with Gilly. I can let him know you were looking for him once he’s back.” 

“No, it’s fine. I’ll find him when I find him.” She shrugged and turned to get into the car. 

“He’s practically knocked out, should be an easy ride home, once he wakes up at the house he should be good to walk in with little help.” Taza called out to her. 

He wasn’t asleep. Or he wasn’t asleep for long. Just after Lara adjusted the seat and mirrors to fit her height and was making the right out of the scrapyard he opened his eyes. He was still out of it, but he definitely wasn’t asleep. 

“Where the fuck am I?” Bishop’s voice wasn’t at a yell but it wasn’t normal either. 

“I’m driving you home.” Lara’s voice was dull, just giving information not trying to poke the bear. 

His head snapped over to his daughter, taking in the site of her driving his car because he was too drunk to drive. His head fell back against the head rest and he closed his eyes, slightly ashamed at everything. 

“You, uh.” He sat up now, adjusting his posture in the seat. “You look different. You got” he moved his hand up to point towards his head. “You got new glasses or something like that?” 

“Something like that.” Lara responded. 

“Alright.” Bishop snapped. “I know I was a failure of a fuckin’ father.” Bishop spit out one of the most harsh sentences. “I got one kid dead and the other doesn’t even wanna talk to me.” 

The emotion was bubbling up in him, the drunkenness making it worse as his words slurred and he stuttered to find the things he wanted to say. 

“I know you hate me.” 

That sentence felt loud and clear. 

Lara’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as she got uncomfortable, she felt like a kid again, helpless, hopeless. 

“I was an awful father.” He was repeating the same things over and over again. “I pushed you away, I pushed your mom away, I pushed Antonia away. I lost Aiden, I lost your mom, I lost Antonia. I’m losing you.” 

“I didn’t realize I bought tickets to the pity party.” Lara spoke out, not wanting to sit in the uncomfortableness of everything. 

Bishop didn't say anything, just leaned against the passenger side window. 

“You weren’t a shitty father. You did what you thought was right.” Her voice was firm but she was trying to comfort him. 

“No. I was. You fuckin’ hated me. You left, you went off and moved in with some fuckin’ piece of shit. Only need me to clean up your dirty work.”

Lara knew he wasn’t trying to direct that anger on her or at her, he thought he was just shitting on himself but in the process, he was bringing his daughter down with him. Those words cut Lara deep. But the next ones cut deeper. 

“I’m just your piece of shit father. President of a fuckin’ MC, a goddamn gang. I’m the president of a fuckin’ gang and my daughter is a murderer.” 

My daughter is a murderer.

Lara tried to swallow the pain that came with that sentence but she felt it coming back up her throat. She tried to forget about the traumatic events of what was self defense towards her ex but every so often they found a way of sneaking back in, but all on her own account. Never her fathers. She pulled into his driveway now, what felt like hours of hearing Bishop shit on himself and now Lara was only 15 minutes from the clubhouse to his home. 

“We’re here.” Lara said, still monotone as she stepped out of the car and moved over to his side of the truck to guide his drunk being inside.

“Who's taking you home?” 

The sentence offered a moment of something, relief might have been too generous of a word but some hope for better conversation until Bishop shattered it with his next ones. 

“Cause you’re not fuckin’ stayin’ here.” 

Again, he was in his own pity party and he was dragging Lara down with him whether he knew it or not. 

“Look, you either got to move the fuck on or shut the fuck up.” Lara was over this, she wasn’t a kid anymore, she wasn’t going to take this. 

“Ge the fuck out of here.” Bishop snapped right back at the girl. 

Lara was now standing in the driveway staring at her father who barely could hold himself up when she nodded her head and took a step back. 

“Aiden might be gone for good. But I’m here. All I’ve ever wanted was to be here. I left because you made me. You pushed me out. I’ll get the fuck out of here, no problem. Because, hey,” Lara shook her head and smiled through the tears, “that’s what we do best, Dad. You push people away and I’ll just keep running away.” Her feet moved to walk away from him, not wanting to let him get another word in but his arm extended out to grab her. 

“Don’t!” She yelled out the first word. “Don’t fuckin’ touch me.” The volume of her voice lowered but it was pointed and said between her gritted teeth. 

 Bishop was quick to retreat to the house, turning off all the lights which left Lara sitting at the curb crying in the dark as she pulled out her phone.

“Hey, I was just about to call you. We just got back to the club.” Angel’s voice was chipper. 

“Can, can you come pick me up?” Lara got the sentence out through sobs. 

Angel’s voice immediately turned from chipper to worried, “Are you okay?” 

“Yea, I just need a ride. I’m at my dads.” Lara wiped the tears and took a deep breath in followed by a few sniffles. 

“I’ll be there in 5 minutes.” 

_____

Lara expected to hear a motorcycle pulling up in front of the house but was shocked to see Felipe’s truck with Angel in the driver’s seat before he threw the car in park and hopped out to help her up off the curb. 

“You aight?” Angel asked as his hands met hers and brought her back into a standing position.

“Why didn’t you bring the bike?” Lara didn’t let go of his hands. 

“You didn’t sound like you were in the state to ride, plus didn’t know if this was more of a stealth pick up thing.” He pointed to Bishop’s house. 

Lara nodded as he helped her into the passenger seat and made his way back over to the driver’s side. Once he was in the car and situated, he looked at the girl. He wanted to ask her what happened but he noticed there was something different about her appearance, something small, but he put his finger on it immediately. 

“You cut your hair.” He said it with a smile. 

Lara looked back at him with frown and a smirk peeked through her tears. 

“You noticed?” 

“Yea it looks good.” Angel nodded and moved to place the car in drive. 

Angel wasn’t the type to notice things like that, and Lara really wasn’t one to care much either, but after the start of her conversation with her dad, this felt like some type of universal sign. She felt wanted. She felt safe. She felt seen. 

Weeks had passed without incident. In every aspect of, well, everything. The Calavaras hadn’t left a note, made an appearance, or made themselves known at all to the club or to Lara. And per Bishop’s rules, Lara was home at 10 every night. No one suspected Angel and Lara of anything, including Frankie or EZ. Overall, things were going pretty well. 

Lara made her way out of her room, it was early but she had the first shift at the restaurant today, some business meeting rented the entire restaurant out. Lara walked down the hallway of her apartment and froze when she saw Bishop sitting at the island in the kitchen. After the initial startle of things, Lara kept walking over to him. 

“Didn’t mean to scare you, Frankie let me in while she was, well I think on her way in, also.” Bishop tried to joke and ended his sentence with a chuckle. 

“Yea not everyone has an early curfew.” Lara rubbed the sleep out of her eye as she reached for a mug and poured a cup of coffee for both her and Bishop. 

She turned around and placed the cup in front of Bishop, “4 sugars, no cream.” 

He nodded and wrapped his hand around the mug, letting the liquid cool down before sipping it. The only sound that could be heard was the clock mounted on the wall ticking, the blinds blowing in the subtle morning breeze from the window, and the slight slurps of Lara sipping her coffee. 

“Why are you here? I’ve been abiding by your rules. Home by 10, everyday. There haven’t been any notes. What’s your beef?” Lara crossed her arms. 

“No beef. Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday.” Bishop picked something out of his pocket and pushed it across the island towards his daughter. It was a long black velvet box. 

Lara stared at the box for a couple minutes before uncrossing her arms. “I honestly forgot it was today.” She shook her head and pulled the seat up across from her father and made her self comfortable. “You didn’t have to do this.” She pushed the box back to him. 

“It was your mother’s, birthday or not, you should have it. It was one of the first pieces of jewelry she made.” Bishop left the box where it was and finished his cup of coffee in one last sip. He stood up from the table. “That was all I came for, thanks for making things easy. I–uh, I’m handling the Calaveras. It’s not done yet but we’re almost there.” Bishop offered up the smallest piece of information he could, but Lara knew it was a lot for him. But even though it was a lot, it wasn’t enough for her. 

“Thanks.” Lara said with nothing else but a nod. 

Bishop began walking away towards the front door, he did what he came to do, and even though it pained him to leave like this, he knew he had to, but not without one last try. “There’s a party tonight at the club house. You should come. Forget about the curfew, you’ll be with the club, and  if you want to go home, I’ll have one of the guys bring you home.” Bishop was turned slightly with his hand on the doorknob but looking for some type of acknowledgement from Lara. 

“Birthday party? The guys better have presents for me.” 

Bishop let out a genuine laugh at that comment, there she was, the daughter he knew. While, he was well aware that she was joking, he also knew it wasn’t his place to joke back with her yet so he left with a chuckle and a ‘see you tonight.’ 

Lara let out a breath after Bishop left and laid her body across the kitchen island almost in defeat. It was easy to put a front up to Bishop, especially while she was still upset with him, but the aftermath of that looked messy for Lara.  Her head laid on the cold countertop of the island as she let out a groan, as her arm sprawled across the island it bumped into the velvet box, pushing it a couple inches away. She looked up through her hair and hesitated before finally grabbing the box and opening it. 

It was a soft, silver metal chain. Thin and dainty with a small clasp that could you tell was attached by hand. Lara’s hand glided against the chain until it hit the main design of the bracelet. 3 butterflies, all welded together. They looked like they were made from spoon handles, one of Lara’s favorite things to use for jewelry making. 

“I wish you were here.” Lara mumbled as she clasped the bracelet around her arm. 

____________

So, the business meeting at her job was more of a Galindo rent-a-space situation. The morning consisted of breakfast with Miguel and his family. That lasted longer than Lara expected a brunch would, but I guess family time was limited with the Galindo’s and they’d take any opportunity of shared time. After that, Marcus had showed up along with who Lara knew was Miguel’s head of security. It was news to Lara that Marcus was getting buddy buddy with Miguel and crew, luckily as he was walking into the restaurant wasn’t her way of finding out. Marcus had left a note for her the day before at her hostess stand. 

Mi sobrina. I’m taking you up on your offer. Don’t need the free meal, but could use the space tomorrow for business. Make the reservation under Galindo. Whole restaurant, all day. Left a deposit with the owner but wanted to give you the heads up. Didn’t mention you, but I can if it’ll help. Love you, see you tomorrow. - Tio Marcus. 

It was now hours into their meeting upstairs, it was pretty quiet in the space, some chatter from the group of men but besides that it was her and one other waitress who Lara knew could keep things disclosed without issue. Lara was at the hostess stand figuring out the rest of the weeks reservations and caterings.

“Lara.” Marcus nodded as he approached the girl. Lara looked up a bit frazzled but relaxed and shook her head once she saw Marcus with a soft smile on his face. 

“Everything okay? Anything I can get you guys?” Lara closed the planner she was working in and stacked the restaurant’s iPad on top of it as she leaned onto the stand. 

“No, no, everything is perfect, you set us up perfectly. Discrete. Good food.” Marcus put his hands to rest on the hostess stand as he spoke. “Just came over to thank you and let you know they’re wrapping up soon. I know we’ve been here a long time.” He smiled as he looked up at the clock above. 

“No worries, I blocked out everything for the whole day to be safe.” 

Marcus nodded and tapped his fist lightly on the top part of the stand. He had his riding gloves on, but Lara knew he didn’t bring his bike here. 

“You still ride?” She pointed to the gloves. 

“Any chance I get.” He answered her quickly. “You can take the biker out the club but you can’t take the biker out the man.” 

Lara let out a scoff, it was meant to be more of a chuckle but it definitely came out more harsh. Marcus picked up on it and gave her a look. “Sorry, just–” she paused wondering how much she wanted to share with him, how much he already knew. 

“He’s protecting you.” Marcus started at the girl straight in her eyes. “It’s what I would do, too.” 

Lara knew better than to argue with Marcus, so she nodded and broke eye contact. Marcus didn’t mean to overpower the girl, it was a demeanor that he just had. He also was good at reading the room so he quickly changed topics and lightened the mood. 

“I’m getting out of here but Izzy is hounding me to get you over the house.” He stepped back a few feet which is when the rest of the Galindo crew started to make their way downstairs.  “Oh and uh, happy birthday. It’s today, right?”

Lara smiled, “yep, another year wiser.” She gave a wink with a grin. 

“Thank you for the hospitality.” Miguel was now in earshot as he buttoned his suit jacket and placed his cellphone in his pocket. 

Lara answered him with a simple nod and with that he was out the door that Marcus was holding open for him. 

“Yea, uh, thanks for the hospitality, and giving us something pretty to look at.” Galindo’s head of security nodded up at Lara. 

At this point, Marcus and Miguel were outside already, getting into the various G-Wagons that were parked out front. 

“I’m Nestor, I can drop you off if you need a ride? Or we could hang out?” the man with braids outreached his hand over to Lara entering her personal space. She took a step back to create more space between them before shaking his hand. There wasn’t much room behind the hostess stand so she was leaning up against the marble counter that served as a divider from the entrance to the restaurant. 

Their handshake dropped, and before Lara could answer, someone else’s voice spoke up. 

“What’s up, Pippy Longstockings?” Angel’s voice was full of pettiness and a little humor. His gaze landed on Lara and he smirked. 

Nestor looked over at Angel who was standing next to him, and then turned back to Lara. “I guess we’ll rain check that ride home.”

“It’s okay, Angel normally gives me a ride home.” 

“And if he can’t?”

“Then I’m here.” Bishop’s voice could be described as booming. It was loud and firm as he walked into the restaurant. It echoed against the empty walls of The Villa. 

Lara brought her hand up to rub her forehead as her eyebrows raised in embarrassment. Nestor took the hint without issue, made his exit quick and quiet leaving the two bikers in front of Lara. Without words she shook her head and wrinkled her forehead as her hands raised. 

“Figured we’d give you an escort to the club. Frankie’s there already.” Bishop gave an answer to Lara’s silent question. 

“Takes two of you?” Lara tried to give off an attitude to throw any trail of her and Angel’s secret relationship to the wind. 

“Angel and I were doing shit nearby, figured you could use the escort.” Bishop said. 

“I had Frankie drop me off this morning, don’t have my car. Gonna have to hop on your bike.” She was looking at Bishop when she said it, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do. If it was up to her she’d ask Angel to drive her out of town, get far away from the MC, from her father, or at the very least she would have asked him to take her home and hang there for the night. But instead, she had to save face, which meant doing exactly what she didn’t want. 

“Angel will take you to the clubhouse.” Bishop said looking at his phone. “I got something I gotta handle.” 

Angel looked back to his president and moved his head towards the burner cell. “All good, prez?” 

“Yea, yea, it’s Sophie.” Bishop said putting his phone back in his pocket. 

Lara bit her tongue, she wanted to say something to tease her father. Sophie and Bishop was something she had toyed with setting up in her head a lot and to see that over the last few weeks something was starting up between them made her a bit happy. Bishop needed that. Maybe it’d offer Lara some benefit as well. 

Luckily for Lara, Angel didn’t need to bite his tongue. 

“Bow chicka bowwww wowwww, Bish. Didn’t know you started pressin’ up on that.” Angel said as he lightly tapped Bishop like he was fake boxing with him. 

“I ain’t pressin’ up on shit.” Bishop pushed Angel’s hands away. 

Angel raised his hands in surrender but still had the biggest smile on his face. “You got it, Bish.” 

Lara was holding back the biggest laugh, it was a breath of fresh air, but then again these past couple weeks have been that with Angel. Despite trying to hide their relationship, things were great with them. They were going on dates, out of town but dates none the less, they were sneaking over each others places, talking, it was exactly what the girl needed. 

“Go, both of you, before I decide I need you to wash my truck and my bike tonight conveniently making you unavailable for the party.” Bishop stared at Angel. 

Angel nodded knowing not to argue with Bishop anymore. He lead the way out the restaurant, holding the door open as Lara grabbed her jacket and bag. As she slung her bag over her shoulder her eyes met with Bishops, instead of letting them linger she gave a half ass smile and nod and walked past him towards Angel who had the door open. Bishop followed shortly behind her, and made his way towards his bike, not saying anything else. As he started his bike he lifted his hand up in an attempt to say goodbye, but he knew there was tension between him and his daughter. Lara didn’t do any but look at him before averting her gaze to Angel who was still holding the door open. 

“You can wait outside, I have to lock up.” She dangled the keys as she spoke to Angel while the sound of Bishop’s bike faded in the distance. 

He nodded and moved through the second set of doors to The Villa and stood right next to it on the outside. 

Lara shut the lights off and slid the latch over the door before locking it, she turned to the second door and made her way outside. Her hand grasped the handle and closed it shut, she played with the key ring looking for the right one to lock the door. 

“You know you don’t need to stay so close.” She said it with a smile. 

Angel smiled back as he leaned against the window of the restaurant. “Looks good to Bishop. To him I’m just your protection.” 

“I don’t see Bishop here anymore.” Lara said as she finished locking the door and moved to lean against it looking up to Angel. “Plus I don’t think you need to monitor my every move.” 

“I don’t know about that, I think you got a couple moves I need to monitor.” His smile turned into a grin. 

“Shut tup and take me to the clubhouse. And if you go over 80, there will be no monitoring of any moves.” Lara pushed herself off the glass and made her way to his bike. Angel was close behind her as they approached his bike. As they got situated on the bike, Angel grabbed his helmet and passed it to the girl before turning over the bike to start.

“Happy Birthday.” Angel said over the engine. 

She froze with her hand on the helmet she was putting on. She was staring at the back of him wondering if maybe she heard him wrong. “You remembered my birthday?” 

“Heard Bish mention it to Hank today.” He said as he placed his riding gloves on. 

“Thanks.” Lara said awkwardly. 

“Why didn’t you tell me your birthday is coming up?” Angel asked curiously. 

Lara thought about how she wanted to answer, there was a truth behind why her birthday was not something that was celebrated too often. But she wasn’t sure if she was ready to open up about it, especially to Angel. 

“I stopped paying attention years ago, you know, after 21.” She shrugged it off. Angel accepted the answer and went to hit the kickstand up on his bike while Lara moved her hands around his waist. She felt the awkward tension, the fact she kept something from him, the very clear excuse behind why her next words weren’t exactly what she wanted, but she knew it’d get a laugh out of him. “So what’d you get me?” Her head rested on his shoulder. 

With a chuckle and a shake of his head he looked back at her, “was hard to pull together a last minute gift.” And with that, they drove off. 

______________

Lara let out a belly laugh as she casually bumped into Angel on the picnic table they were sitting at with Frankie, EZ, and Coco. EZ’s laugh was comparable in volume. The group of them were having the time of their lives at the club party. To be honest, since Lara and Angel had started their sneaking around, or as their group of friends looked at it, their newly found friendship vs their previous bickering, the entire group of them had a really great time together. 

Angel wasn’t even drinking that night, he took his responsibility for Lara seriously. He knew Bishop wouldn’t let him be the one to keep eyes on her if he fucked anything up so if that meant sticking to cigarettes at a club party then so be it. 

EZ stood up from the table, grabbing everyone’s empties. “‘nother round?” he asked looking around the table for confirmation. 

“I’m good.” Angel replied a little too quick to get past EZ. His younger brother stared at him with a slight frown for a minute before his thoughts were interrupted by the girls. 

“Yea I could have another.” Frankie was scrolling on her phone, barely paying attention to what was around her. 

“I’ll have one more.” Lara said before pulling her own phone out. 

EZ frowned deeper, and this time his reaction was matched. Frankie was looking up from her phone now at her best friend in shock. “One more?” Her voice was confused. Despite it being just a general out of the norm behavior for Lara, it was her birthday, which made it all the more weird she wasn’t drinking much. 

“Long day, I’m tired.” Lara shrugged it off, paying more attention to her phone than the company around her in hopes to get them off her back. 

“It’s your birthday.” Frankie stated like that fact changed everything. 

“So?” Her shrug would’ve been enough to say it all but the added ‘so’ was the cherry on top for Frankie. 

“What is it? Your 50th birthday? Too old to party? Take a shot.” Frankie was a little tipsy which was where the encouragement to drink was coming from. 

“Even the 50 year olds can hang.” Coco said pointing to the group of the older Mayan men who were hollering about something or someone, clearly wasted beyond their means. 

Lara had looked up to see where Coco was pointing to which is when she saw Bishop making his way in from the gates of the club. He was just getting in from wherever he was with Sophie, if that was the truth. His eyes were scanning the lot, taking in the state of his clubhouse. Lara could tell he was taking note of everything, who was here, who had disappeared, what the state of the yard looked like, how many people were already passed out on some piece of furniture, and that’s when their eyes met. His eyes softened, it was a look Bishop rarely was able to give anymore, but just seeing his daughter sucker punched it out of him. It was one of the many reasons he hated having her around the club. She made him soft. It was a weak spot, and anyone with eyes could see that. Bishop nodded his head at the girl. There was a lot being said in the gesture and Lara knew that.  At some point while Frankie was explaining how Lara aged into an elderly woman because she only wanted one more beer, EZ had retreated to the clubhouse to get the drinks. The beer clinked down in front of Lara and without even looking down she took it and raised it towards Bishop. His eyes moved to the beer and that’s when he saw the bracelet on her arm. A smirk filled his face for the quickest second, it felt like a win for him. He left expecting the girl to not even look at the gift, let alone wear it. But it felt like his effort had been received. And just like that, her eyes moved and it was like nothing had happened. 

Lara was mentally not okay. Between her the weight of her birthday, the tension with Bishop and the fact that Frankie had started to drink hard liquor, she just wanted to go home. Her eyes scanned over Angel who was in a deep conversation with Coco about god knows what. Her mind was trying to process the best way to go about leaving where Angel could take her without it being obvious she wanted him to take her. After a few minutes of thought, she was up and moving towards Bishop. 

“Hey, I think I’m gonna go home.” She said interrupting his conversation with a patch from another charter. Bishop turned to Lara shocked she was talking to him. 

“You sure? I had the prospect pick you up a cake.” 

Bishop’s voice wasn’t normal. The sentence even earned him a look from the people around him. He was trying. Which is why the next words out of Lara’s mouth killed her to say but she couldn’t deal with him pushing her out when he wanted and bringing her back in when he wanted. She knew he had valid points for doing what he did, but after all this time, she was done with him pushing her away and despite the fact that he was inviting her in again, she wasn’t going to be stuck in a cycle of this. She had to break it. 

“Don’t want cake.” She stared at Bishop with a neutral face. It was silent between them, the few guys that were around Bishop had gotten up and moved, clearly feeling the vibe. “So am I ubering or is one of the guys taking me home?” Her arms moved to her back pockets but in no way was she relaxed. 

“You don’t need to check in with me, you can just go home.” Bishop said a little more like the president of the club now, not Lara’s father. 

Lara let a laugh out, it was unbelievable what he just said and she was going to let him know. “Don’t bullshit me. If I took a uber you’d have a fucking conniption. Don’t act fuckin’ coy, Bishop.” 

“Angel!” Bishop called out not wanting to have this discussion any longer. 

Angel made his way over with a slight pep in his step. “Sup Bish?” 

“You been drinkin’?” His eyes were still on Lara. 

“Nah, not even one beer.” Angel lifted his hands in innocence. 

“Taka Lara home.” Bishop wasn’t even going to let Lara weigh in, his eyes were focused on Angel. 

“You got it, Bish.” 

Angel and Lara began walking towards the row of bikes in silence. Lara still had her hands in her back pockets as she walked, Angel ahead of her due to his long steps. Bishop had turned back around in his seat, leaning back as he smoked a cigarette. There was a change in demeanor, he felt the anger inside him bubble up. He was sick of the attitude from Lara and had no idea how to handle it. In all honesty, a sit down talk and some compromises on both ends would have been enough but Bishop and Lara weren’t exactly the best at communication. Which is why Bishop didn’t think twice before speaking, he knew the words he was going to say would cut, but he didn’t care in that moment.

There was a cold breeze that came in and it made Lara remove her hands from her pockets so she could rub her hand up and down her arm in an attempt to shake the chills. She was only about 10 feet away when Bishop called out to her. 

“Hey, Lara.” Bishop said not even giving her the respect of looking at her. “Don’t forget I’m the only family you got.” 

Lara was already frozen from when she turned to acknowledge him, but she felt her heart stop when he finished his sentence. It wasn’t a gut punch, that was a calculated statement. It was a good one too. To listening ears it seemed like a simple reminder, sure, a little pointed, but something anyone could shake off. But to Lara, it held power. Her birthday held a lot of pain, her brother’s death anniversary was only a few weeks away and the weight of that got heavier, made it hard to celebrate. Bishop knew that. Knew the comment would knock the girl down. 

Lara had instantly buried the pain, anger taking its place. So many things popped into her head to say back to him. There was even a moment where she considered stepping to him, pushing him off the chair. But instead she turned around and kept walking. Her eyes met Angel’s who was waiting for her, she wasn’t sure if he heard the comment, but he definitely saw her wipe a tear or two from her face before she made it over to his bike. 

“You good?” He handed her his helmet. The both of them standing on opposite sides of the bike. 

Lara placed it on her head and clipped it and just gave him a nod. “Yea, I’m fine.” 

He nodded, and got on the bike, knowing there wasn’t anything he was going to pull out of her here in the scrapyard. 

_______

Angel pulled up to Lara’s place, cutting the engine of his bike. He wasn’t sure if he was staying but he did know he wanted to at least talk with the girl and didn’t want to be screaming over the rumbling. 

“You got a minute?” Angel said to Lara as she walked up to the front porch of her place. 

“For you? I’ll make it two.” She smiled sitting on the steps. 

Angel smiled and joined the girl, he sat a step above her, his leg was against her shoulder. She leaned into him for a second before getting up and moving in between his long legs, still a step below him. She leaned back against him as he placed his arms around her shoulders. His lips came down to her cheek and he pressed a kiss to it before whispering in her ear. 

“I got you something.” 

Lara looked up at him. “I thought you said it was too last minute.” 

“I heard Bish say it this morning. Gave me time to pick something up, just wanted to give it to you when we were alone.” 

“Oh it’s that type of gift.” Lara turned back around with an eye roll before he was leaning back over her. He laughed as he placed a kiss on the side of her head as he grabbed the gift and brought it around in front of her. It was a medium sized box covered in confetti wrapping paper. It wasn’t wrapped beautifully at all, but the effort was there. Lara felt her heart in her stomach, she truly wasn’t expecting anything. 

“What is this?” She frowned and looked back at him shocked. 

“Open it and find out.” He nodded at the gift. 

Lara’s attention moved back to the box as she stood it at dumbfoundly for a minute, purely in shock that Angel had actually picked something up for her. She began to unwrap it, the wrapping paper falling to her side on the stairs to reveal the beautiful hand painted jewelry box. It was clay ceramic but painted over completely in black, the cover had a bird painted in purple and pink pattern with a similar pattern in teal surrounding it. The walls of the box had pink flowers, each one slightly different than the next, hand painted around it. Inside was a soft cushion on the left that was made to hold a variety of rings while the right was divided into two sections for other pieces. The roof of the box was saved for necklaces, while it’s surface was bare only showing the clay colored ceramic, there were tiny metal hooks that looked custom made with small details around them and held in place with small ceramic tiles that matched the colors outside. 

“Angel.” Lara’s breath was hitched in the back of her throat, the shock, the amazement, all the emotions were flooding her as she stared at the beautiful jewelry box he had just gifted her.

“I noticed that you had a bunch of wooden boxes for the stuff you make and they’re overflowing so, I don’t know thought maybe this could be some sort of solution, although, it’s not gonna fit all your stuff, but if you like it, I can take you to the place in Mexico where I got it and we can get more, it’s got those compartments and shit to organize things better, if that’s what you want, no pressure, the lady told me you can take that stuff out if you like the system you got going on.” Angel rambled on, clearly nervous that it wasn’t a good gift and that Lara was upset. 

“Mexico?” Lara’s head snapped to look at him, even more shocked that he made a trip over the border for this. 

“Had some time this morning, noticed the spot once when a group of us were over in Santa Madre. Figured I’d try my luck. Feel like you can’t buy the girl who makes jewelry, jewelry, you know?” He chuckled, still nervously. 

“Angel this is…” Lara tried to find the right words before landing on one. “This is perfect. It’s beautiful, I can’t thank you enough.” Her glance went back to the jewelry box, her hands running over the textured paint and smiled back at him. 

Relief washed over him, his face filled with a smile as she still stared at the jewelry box. “Oh, and look,” Angel’s hand reached over the girl’s shoulder and grabbed the ring cushion out and flipped it upside down. “There’s a little secret pouch for things you want to keep hidden.” He unclasped the fabric that opened a small bag like area for exactly that, items you wanted to keep more private. 

Lara smiled as he brought the cushion back into the box and secured it back in.  “Do you want to come in?” 

___________

He did. The two took advantage of the house being empty, Lara was grateful that Frankie had decided to stay at the clubhouse and party a bit more, gave her a moment (or two) with Angel back at home. 

The two of them laid in Lara’s bed, the covers laying over their naked bodies as they caught their breath. 

“I would have bought you a jewelry box years ago if I knew it was going to get me that.” Angel teased as Lara chuckled and slapped his chest. “Happy Birthday” Angel laughed and kissed the girl on the lips, his hand cupping her face as he did before falling back in bed, his left hand moving back behind his head as Lara rested her head on his chest.

White noise filled the room, neither of them were asleep, but it was in the air. That was until Lara spoke up. “Do you think I should have stayed at the clubhouse tonight?” 

It was a genuine question. Her mind might have been occupied with other things since getting home but now that things were quiet, her mind was able to fill back up with all the thoughts again. 

“You think you should’ve?” Angel answered her question with a question, his eyes closed as he answered. 

“I think that everything is fucked.” Lara said point blankly. 

This made Angel open his eyes. 

“Not this, I don’t mean this. I mean with Bishop.” Lara corrected herself. 

“Bish’s got a lot on his plate you know–” Angel started. 

“I’m not talking to you as a club member, Angel, I’m talking to you as the girl you fuck from time to time and buy jewelry boxes.” Her words were harsh but she knew Angel could handle them. 

“So my girlfriend, you’re talking to me as my girlfriend.” He said and Lara could feel his heart speed up a bit as the nerves worked their way through his system. 

“Finally.” Lara said with a chuckle and started to trace his tattoos on his chest. 

Angel took a sigh of relief and kept the conversation moving, they didn’t need to dwell on the details just yet. 

“You talkin’ about what Bishop said to you tonight?’ Angel’s other arm, the one not behind his head moved up and down Lara’s back. 

“You heard him?” Lara now was sitting up a bit, so she could see Angel’s face. 

“I did. I still stand by what I said, he’s got a lot on his plate, makes someone lash out easier.” He shrugged in explanation. 

“Feels like it's just who we are at this point. Two people who will never see eye to eye, always at each others necks, always fighting.” 

“Ain’t that a father daughter thing anyways. Frankie fights with Hank.” Angel struggled to understand. 

“Not like Bishop and I do. Our shits deep rooted. 

Just when Angel was about to ask what that shit was, finally get Lara to really open up, there was a noise. 

“Speaking of Frankie.” Lara shot up and looked out the window to see EZ in Felipe’s truck dropping the drunk girl off. She walked by Angel’s bike without noticing it, Lara prayed EZ didn’t say anything while in the car, it was something that needed to come from Lara. “Go to my closet!” Lara demanded Angel as she jumped in bed and pretended to be asleep. Angel got up, not as quickly as Lara was moving, but fast enough that when Frankie opened Lara’s bedroom door, he was hidden. 

“Hi, I’m home. And drunk. Very drunk” Frankie slurred as she leaned into the door, hand on the door knob and other hand on the frame to keep her balance. 

Lara groaned like she was getting woken up. “Okay, thanks for letting me know. I’ll make you coffee in the morning.” Her words came out groggy. 

“Th–thanks,” she began to close the door and then opened it again, “happy birthday, I love you.” 

Lara closed her eyes, it made her feel shittier for hiding something from her even if she had her reasons for doing so. “I love you too.” Lara said before Frankie closed her door. 

Angel came out from the hanging clothes and back to the bed, trying to push Lara over for him to lay back down. 

“You’ve got 10 minutes and then you gotta go. Frankie’s gonna come in here in the morning and it’ll be better to sneak out now than run our chances in the morning.” Lara explained. 

Angel groaned in complaint as the tiredness fell over him. “You’re gonna have to tell her one day anyways no better day than today.” 

“I’m gonna tell her, just how I want to.” Lara protested back. 

“Alright, alright, 15 minutes.” Angel agreed. 

“8.” Lara corrected him. 

_____

Lara let 15 minutes pass, the house was quiet before she rolled Angel out of bed. He was groggy as Lara pushed him, quietly out of her bedroom door. 

“C’mon, Lara. Just 2 more minutes.” Angel complained as he made it to the hallway. 

“Shh.” She shushed Angel as she pushed against his back down the hallway. 

Angel turned around to face Lara, starting to smile and try and argue his way out of leaving, but as he turned, his head hit the light that he normally ducked to avoid. As he reacted swiftly to steady it but as he did, his back knocked against the pictures on the wall. 

Lara tried her best to cover her laughs, her arms moving to steady Angel over her previous pushing him out stance. One hand was on the light to stop it from swinging while the other was moving to catch the picture frame. Angel turned now fully facing the picture frame and placed it back on it’s hook, he paused for a minute as he looked at the photo. 

“Who is that?” 

Lara’s laughs faded away almost instantly as she stared at the picture. 

“That’s my brother.” Her words were cold as she spoke. 

“I didn’t know you had a brother!” While Angel’s voice was at a whisper, you could hear the excitement coming from his voice. “You had to be like… what? 16? He looks like what 5? Gotta make him like 13 now?” 

“19. I was 19 in that photo. Aiden was 4 in that photo. He’d be 14.” Lara’s voice was still cold. 

“I didn’t realize Bish had a boy, wow.” Angel’s voice was eager as he looked closer at the wall. When Lara didn’t answer he turned towards her, she looked sick to her stomach. “What’s wrong?” His eyebrows frowned. 

“He doesn’t.” Lara kept a straight face. “He doesn’t anymore.” Her eyes moved to Angel’s. He looked even more confused. “He died.” 

Angel’s head snapped, shocked by what she just said. 

“Lara…” Angel’s voice got softer. 

“It’s fine. It was 7 years ago. Well, 8 in two weeks.” She chuckled and shook her head. 

“That’s why you don’t like celebrating your birthday.” Angel nodded as he began to understand. “Is that Bishop and your mom?” He asked looking at the photo above the one of Aiden, the one of you with your birthday cake. 

“Yea, my 5th birthday, just months before she died.” 

Angel’s face dropped, the fact that Lara dated and remembered these photos by when the people in them passed… it had to be heavy. 

“I didn’t realize,” Angel started, and shook his head, “I thought Aiden was…” He didn’t know how to finish the sentence. But he didn’t have to. 

“Antonia. He was Antonia’s.” Lara nodded, her arms crossed. 

“I’m sorry, Lara.” Angel didn’t know what else to say. 

“You know, I don’t really talk about this. Or him. I mean, to Frankie, sometimes, but not just anybody.” 

It was true, Lara was starting to open up to Angel. 

“So I guess I’m not just anybody?” Angel teased and moved towards Lara with a smile, but before he could reach her his head hit the light again causing Lara to let out a snort. 

“C’mon Smooth Talker,” Lara pushed Angel back down the hallway. 

They reached the front door. Angel opened it and leaned against the door frame. “You know I could stay. Make you breakfast in the morning, coffee…” 

“I’ve had your coffee, it’s not really a selling point.” Lara teased him. “Plus, Frankie, that’s not how I really want her finding out.” 

“Holy shit.” 

Lara and Angel’s attention averted to the living room that had a perfect view of the front door. Frankie stood there, drunk, in shock, and jaw dropped. 

Angel looked between Frankie and Lara before speaking up.

“So this has been going on for five years?” Frankie sat at the kitchen island trying to wrap her brain around everything. 

“No, once five years ago. And now, only for a few months.” Lara explained. 

“Months?!” Frankie’s eyes went bug eyed. 

“Weeks! A few weeks!” Lara corrected herself to ease Frankie more into it. She was in full damage control mode and trying to back track her mistake of not telling her best friend about her and Angel, although classifying it as a mistake wasn’t exactly true. She had her reasons for not saying anything but she was regretting her finding out this way. Lara’s eyes moved over to the person to her right expecting him to chime in but Angel was too busy stuffing his face. 

Lara closed her eyes and took a big sigh before looking back at Frankie. 

“I was going to tell you, I promise I was going to tell you.” Her hand extended across the island to grab Frankie’s. “I just, things are really complicated right now. I didn’t wanna risk Bishop finding out and honestly we weren’t really sure this was anything until yesterday anyways.” 

At that Angel looked up from his plate, “Um, no I was actually sure, just following your lead.” 

Lara looked at him with a frown and then back at Frankie, “Alright well I wasn’t sure this was anything so I wanted to wait to tell you.”

Frankie just sat there, frown on her face, more confused than angry as she took in all the information.

“Are you happy?” She looked at Lara and asked, her face was serious. 

Lara looked at Frankie for a split second before looking over to Angel who was also waiting for her response. Her silence was bringing anxiety to everyone in the room except herself. Turning back to Frankie she nodded. 

“The happiest I’ve been since Aiden.” She knew Frankie would get that, Lara loved her little brother like anyone would have loved and cared for their little sibling, but Aiden brought Lara pure joy into her life and when he died that light in Lara went with him. 

“Okay then.” Frankie said with a nod and she stood up getting ready to leave. 

“I’m going up north with Hank today to see my grandma.” She was grabbing her bag and situating it back over her pajamas. 

“It’s like 5 in the morning.” Angel said confused since the girl had just gotten home an hour ago and was pretty drunk. 

Lara knew though. This time of year was difficult for everyone. For Lara and Bishop it brought up the painful memories of losing Aiden. For Frankie and Hank it was his mother, her grandmother, while she was still alive, she was going downhill but they still went up every year around this time to celebrate the anniversary of her beating cancer. It was fucked up that the year she beat cancer the early onset of Alzheimer's began. It gave them an excuse to visit her and ring the bell every year, though and it did bring some happiness to each of them to see her celebrate it. 

“I completely spaced.” Lara said realizing it was one of the reasons she had gotten drunk. “Do you need a ride?” Yes, Lara was sucking up, but that’s what you did when you were in full damage control mode with your best friend. You kissed her ass. 

“No Hank’s picking me up, I’m gonna wait outside for him.” She squeezed Lara’s arm and gave a half smile even though it looked more like a frown. “I’m happy you’re happy. You deserve that.” 

As Frankie passed Angel she leaned over to give him a quick goodbye. “If you hurt her I’ll fuckin’ gut you.” It was said at such a whisper, Angel almost missed it but he didn’t. His eyes went wide and his brows met in the middle of his forehead as the shock and confusion of what Frankie said to him settled in. As Frankie pulled away the smile on her face was like nothing of the sorts had just been spoken from her mouth. 

Lara walked Frankie to the door, there was so much more she wanted to say but right now wasn’t the right time. But she couldn’t just say nothing. 

“I want you to know it’s not because I didn’t trust you–”

“I know, Lara. It’s because you wanted to keep it yours. I get it.” The smile on Frankie’s face was a lot more genuine now, “but I’m still mad at you. And whatever this is, I expect it when I’m back.” She laughed, referring to Lara’s full kiss ass mode. 

The two hugged before Frankie walked out the door leaving Lara and Angel in the apartment by themselves. 

“That could’ve gone worse!” Angel said, standing up from the stool. 

“That could’ve gone better.” Lara said with an eye roll. 

“Well, I’m sure a couple hours of sleep will make you feel better.” Angel was practically begging to go back to bed. 

“You can go back to bed but I have tons of shit I need to get done.” Lara started picking through the cabinet under the sink for cleaning supplies. 

“What?” Angel frowned and looked at what Lara was doing. 

“I’m in full damage control mode, I’m gonna clean her room, like really clean her room and do her laundry.” Lara said in an obvious way like Angel should have known better. “Why don’t you go home, crash, and call me when you’re up, I’ll come over and we can stay at your place tonight. Give Frankie some space.” 

Angel was genuinely baffled and confused but knew better than to argue with the girl. “Sure, you don’t need help cleaning?” 

“Thanks for the offer but I’ll be good.” Lara smiled as Angel bent down and placed a kiss on her head.

Cleaning was actually pretty therapeutic for Lara, it gave her time to clear her head while also going through some thoughts and feelings she needed to sort out, doing this for Frankie felt like the right thing. She honestly didn’t hide it because she thought Frankie would tell Bishop it was exactly what Frankie said, she wanted it to be just her and Angel’s thing. No outside sway or opinions. It was dark by the time Angel called, Lara knew he had probably been up for a while and got called into club stuff, she didn’t mind, it gave her more time around the house. 

Now at Angel’s, the two of them were knocked out on the couch, both catching up on the hours they missed from the night prior. Hours must’ve passed by just with the TV playing overnight in the background while the two laid snoring on the couch. An alarm went off on someones phone, causing both of them to stir awake, both a little frightened while they searched for the source of the noise. 

“It’s not mine.” Angel said his voice groggy and raspy. 

“It’s mine, I have a shift. It’s already 7AM.” Lara sighed and plopped back down against Angel who had already tried to go back to sleep. 

“Call out.” Angel mumbled. 

“I wish, I need the money. I’m gonna shower.” Lara wasn’t exactly speaking at anything higher than a mumble either. “Please can you make me coffee?” 

The groan from Angel’s throat was one of annoyance but not one of defiance so Lara knew she’d have a hot cup of coffee when she got out of the shower which is what motivated her to get up in the first place. “Thank you.” 

______

“I don’t know what you did to get water pressure like that but I’m demanding you come to our apartment and do it to our shower.” Lara said as she walked through Angel’s house in one of his flannels and her hair wet ready for a coffee. 

To Lara’s surprise, Angel wasn’t alone, she walked right into the living room where EZ was with the biggest grin on his face. 

“Hi Lara.” He smiled from ear to ear. 

“Prospect.” She rolled her eyes, no need to hide now. If Frankie didn’t tell him, she eventually would have and there was no going back from or denying her swimming in Angel’s clothes. 

Angel had a cup of coffee in his hand and handed one to Lara. “EZ brought coffee, you can have mine.”

“If I knew you were gonna have company I would have brought three, or not come at all.” The grin on EZ’s face was getting bigger as he spoke, he wanted to boast and tell Angel every version of ‘I told you so’ that he could. 

Lara took two sips from the cup and handed it back to Angel. “Here I just needed a jolt, I gotta get ready and head out anyways, I’ll grab something on the way.” And before she could even let either of them respond she was running back into Angel’s room and tossing her all black hostess outfit on and tying her hair back. 

As the two boys stood alone in the living room, EZ wiggled his eyebrows at Angel which earned him a light shove and ‘shut the fuck up’ before Lara reappeared in the room. 

“Sorry to leave like this, thanks for the coffee sips.” She stood up on her tip toes to grab Angel’s head and leave a kiss on his lips before grabbing her purse off the hooks and going to the door to leave. “Bye EZ!” 

Now both the men were truly alone in Angel’s house, there was a couple seconds of silence before EZ spoke up. 

“So should I say I told you so, I was right, or something else? I’ll let you come up with it even, it can be a joint effort.” EZ was still grinning from ear to ear. 

“Man, shut up.” Angel turned to grab his kutte from the hooks. “I thought you needed me for club shit.” 

“I do, but this is just my reward for having to play hide n seek with the fuckin’ club. No one answers their phone this early.” 

“Yea bro, it’s 7 fuckin AM.” Angel’s eyebrows raised as he placed his kutte on and grabbed the coffee back to chug half of it down. “Come on let’s go.” 

“Yo,” EZ said as they started to head out themselves. “Don’t fuck this shit up.” It was serious, he wasn’t grinning anymore, it was coming from a genuine place. 

“Don’t go saying shit at the club, aight? Bish doesn’t know and I’m gonna let Lara tell me how she wants to deal with that.” Angel yelled back at his little brother and paused before speaking up again. 

Lara rolled over and groaned. The sun wasn’t exactly up yet but the orange and yellow tones were starting to peek through the window causing her to stir awake. As her eyes fluttered open, she realized she didn’t recognize where she was. Her heart dropped and she quickly made notice of her surroundings. The minute she saw Angel to her right, she felt a breath of relief escape her mouth before letting reality set in. 

Of course, she ended up at Angel’s house. Her next move was to notice he didn’t have a shirt on and she was miraculously missing her other clothes too. Her eyes shut, the sigh she was letting out was in defeat. There was nothing she could do about any of this now, except settle her mind on the fact that she slept with Angel. Again. 

Luckily, Angel was a deep sleeper. This allowed Lara to grab what she could around her to get dressed and get out without having to deal with, well, Angel and everything this situation entailed. She didn’t pay mind to what she was putting on, she just needed to cover up so she could get to her car and get home.

Lara had successfully maneuvered her way out of the house and into her car but when she was met with a picture of her and her best friend in the sun visor, thats when more of reality hit her. 

“Frankie. Fuck.” She thought to herself as she checked the clock in her car. 7:29AM. 

Her eyes looked down to notice she was wearing Angel’s tank top. A deep sigh escaped from her mouth. If Frankie was home, she would have known immediately what happened. If not for leaving with Angel and coming back home in the morning, but what would seal the deal was the fact Lara was wearing his shirt. She banged her head against the headrest of her car a couple times before she came to a realization. Frankie had stayed at EZ’s, there was a really good chance she wasn’t home yet, and Lara would take those odds. With that, she quickly sped through the early morning light traffic that Santo Padre had to get home. 

Now, Frankie finding out wouldn’t have been the end of the world. It was her best friend, and if anything, she was dating EZ, she’d get it. But that was the thing, Frankie and EZ knew what they were doing, they had mutually agreed to being a couple. All Angel and Lara had mutually agreed on was sex, and even that was strictly consent based, there had been no conversation about labels, fuck buddies, friends with benefits, none of that. If anything, Lara expected things to go back to how they were years ago when they first had sex. Angel ignoring her and Lara making life hell for him. It was the only logical explanation, plus history tended to repeat itself, right? 

There’s a saying that when you leave it to chance, all of the sudden you don’t have any luck left. Well, in this case, that was a lie. Lara pulled up to her house and quietly tip toed her way through. As she trekked down the hallway, she glanced into Frankie’s room since the door was open. Empty. She hadn’t been home. Her head dropped back as she smiled and then made her way to her room. 

After a quick shower and a short lived nap, Lara was being woken up by the ringing of her cellphone on her nightstand. 

She let out a grumble instead of a pleasantry for whoever was on the line. 

“Come to the clubhouse in about an hour. We need to talk.” Bishop’s voice said not even bothering to comment on her grumpiness.

Who needed alarm clocks or roosters when the eerie call of your father who sounded just about ready to kill someone did just the same thing. 

Lara shot up out of bed, “El que?” The shock had been so real that she flipped to Spanish like it had been her first language. 

“10:30. The Club. It’ll just be for a few minutes.” Bishop said still with the same firmness in his tone. He didn’t give her a chance to respond, just hung up leaving Lara in bed, hungover, half asleep, wondering what what going on. 

Her head began to fill with thoughts as she drove down to the clubhouse. Had her Dad solved the issue? Had he dug himself deeper? Had he dug the club deeper? Had he fucked up? Was he sending her away for good? The thoughts weren’t going to stop, she thought by stopping for coffee, it would give her something to enjoy but the caffeine just made her spiral more, until she started to drive down the dirt road towards the club. 

That was the funny thing about getting behind that metal fence, it ironically felt safe. It felt quiet. It felt calm. There was a peace to knowing that all of the people here would have her back, not just because she was the El Presidente’s daughter but because they all did genuinely care about her. 

The yard was packed, there had to be 2 times the amount of bikes there. For the first time, Lara hadn’t recognized half of them, but she did recognize one of them. 

Tio Marcus. Curses flooded her brain as her thoughts went back to being extremely negative. Lara now stood in front of the club, staring at all the bikes. The feeling of safety was still there but it was being pushed to the back burner. Nervousness, anxiety, pressure, and the most prominent, scared. All words she’d use to describe her thoughts right now. She would give anything to go back to last night, where nothing mattered. But instead, she was here, while reality started to hit her like a brick. 

“Lara!” A voice said from behind her causing her to jump and get startled. 

“Sorry,” EZ grinned getting a bit of enjoyment out of startling her. 

“Yea, the sympathy is dripping off you.” Lara rested her hand on her chest to catch her breath. “How’s Frankie doing?” 

EZ’s grinned stayed plastered on his face, “back asleep, I gave her Tylenol, a granola bar, and a gallon of water to keep her hydrated while I’m on prospect duties,” he explained, “planning to bring her lunch later.” 

Lara nodded as he talked. 

“I didn’t expect to see you here so early,” EZ added as they stood in front of the clubhouse. 

“Came to talk to Bish.” She pointed inside. 

With a nod, EZ began walking towards the building, Lara in tow, “They’re in templo.” he informed her. 

Lara froze for a minute. “All of them?” She pointed towards the bikes, “do you know why they’re all here? What’s going on?” Lara was starting to spiral. 

EZ turned to face her and pointed at the prospect patch on his kutte, “Your guess is as good as mine.” And with that he entered the club. 

That was a lie. Lara’s guess was most definitely way better than EZ’s, but she also didn’t want to believe it. With a deep breath, she followed behind EZ and just as she entered the club, templo was over and the large amount of Mayans were exiting the room. None of them looked twice at the girl, or even once for that matter, not even the ones that she had known. It made her think that maybe whatever this was about had nothing to do with her, it was just some larger club business, which Lara would gladly accept. She was turning now towards the templo doors that were still open, sneaking a peak to see that the head patch members were still in there. She managed to get a glimpse of Bishop and Marcus before the doors closed again. 

Lara didn’t have enough time to sigh because in the next second Angel was in front of her. 

“Sup?” 

Lara was frowning, there was so much going on in her head at this moment, everything with the Calaveras and Bishop and now Angel, who was standing in front of her, neutral faced, talking to her like nothing happened. 

“Sup?” She repeated his question. While she was really questioning it, Angel took it as she was genuinely asking. 

“You left your shirt at my house,” he smirked. 

It was said at a whisper which made Lara smirk but she was still a bit confused. 

“Maybe you can come by later and pick it up,” he shrugged trying to keep a cool composure. 

Lara was honestly shocked, she hadn’t expected Angel to give her the time of day and here he was trying to get her to come over again. It was better than the last time, and honestly, she was on board, so she went with it. 

“I took yours by mistake this morning.” 

“Yea, mistake.” Angel nodded. 

“Hungover, half asleep, you know, wasn't paying much attention.” Lara smirked. 

“Right, totally makes sense.” Angel nodded. 

“I mean, if you want I can stop by tonight, pick mine up, drop yours off.” Lara continued. 

“That works,” Angel faked like he was thinking pretty hard. 

“See you tonight, then.” Lara turned as she saw the templo doors open.

She didn’t have a moment to process what really happened, she was already focused on the main reason she was here. 

Marcus had walked by her, offering nothing but a nod, but Lara could tell there was something off with the way he looked at her, he normally would stop and chat, but this time he was leaving before she could even wave. Her eyes moved towards the next few people that passed by, president patches from the other clubs, offering her no glance or acknowledgement. Finally, Bishop walked out and they made eye contact. 

There was so much tension between them. Lara felt it. Bishop felt it. 

“Come on, let’s go outside.” He said and before Lara could argue he was already halfway out the door. 

They stood against the railing of the porch, watching Marcus get on his bike and leave. Once he was gone, Bishop spoke up. 

“If you get any notes, any calls, any in person run ins, any fuckin’ morse code messages for all I care, you tell me immediately. You don’t wait till you see me, you call me immediately. I don’t care if you think it’s not from them, I want to know. I want you home by 10, everyday, if you’re working, me or one of the guys will follow you home. No more going out to God knows where with God knows who.” Bishop was firm in his words. 

Lara opened her mouth to argue. 

“I’m not done.” Bishop didn’t even look at her. “If there’s so much as a fuckin post it note on your car, I’m putting someone on you 24/7. I’m not going to lose you over this.” His eyes were still staring straight off. 

The urge to argue was gone. Lara knew there was no version of this conversation where she’d end up winning or getting anything that she wanted out of this. So she decided to go the route where she metaphorically punched him in the gut. After a long pause and a deep breath, Lara spoke up. 

“You lost me a long time ago, Bishop.” She began to take a couple steps down the stairs. “Don’t worry, if one of the Calaveras sends pigeon mail to me you’ll be the first to know.” She called out now that she was further away. 

Bishop stood there, ruminating on her first words. You lost me a long time ago. Bishop. Bishop. She used his first name. Which wasn’t uncommon; she had used his name before, especially when talking to other people, but this was different. He heard the sting behind her tone, he felt it. But regardless his number one concern was her safety. And that’s what he was doing. That’s what he was always doing. Whether he was doing it right or not. 

_________

Before Lara knew it, it was night time. She briefly checked in with Frankie earlier in the day and she was spending another night at EZ’s. There were pros and cons to that. For one, it meant that she had no one to talk to about what happened. This wasn’t something she wanted to explain over text, but she also needed to explain the audacity of Bishop, and maybe get a dose of reality from Frankie but either way she just needed that support. On the other side, it meant that EZ and Frankie would be occupied tonight, which made sneaking to Angel’s, well, less sneaky. 

Which is what brought her where she currently was. Sitting in front of Angel’s house. It was a little intimidating if she was being honest with herself. They had a history, and she wasn’t sure if she fully trusted him yet. But there was something there. There always was. It was also different this time around, for a multiple of reasons. She felt more vulnerable, which was likely because of everything happening with The Calaveras and Bishop and yet the butterflies were on level 10. 

Lara knew if she sat there any longer, she’d psych herself out. So she grabbed his shirt which was in the passenger seat and made her way to his front door and knocked. 

Angel opened the door and it was one of the first times she saw him (outside of their intimate interactions), without a kutte on since their first time meeting. She was taken aback a bit which is why she paused after his greeting but quickly recovered. 

“Your shirt.” She lifted up the tank and kept eye contact with him. 

“Right. My shirt.” He smiled and opened the door more and nodded to invite her in. 

She stepped inside, even though she was there in the morning, there wasn’t really much time to look around and take in his place like she could now. It looked like a frat boy’s house. Random flags and signage, old black leather furniture, a mini fridge even though the kitchen was not too far. It was very, Angel which gave her a bit of a giggle. 

“Nice place.” Lara was still looking around. 

Their conversation hadn’t gone past 4 words a piece, yet. 

“Ain’t much, but it’s home.” Angel shrugged, moving to the mini fridge and grabbing beers for the both of them. 

Okay 5 words. They were getting somewhere. 

Angel approached Lara with the beers, startling her a bit. “Oh, no, I’m not drinking tonight.” She shook her head and pushed the beer away a bit. 

Angel’s eyebrows raised in shock, he wasn’t sure if he had ever heard Lara Losa turn down a drink before. He wasn’t going to push her, though. He nodded and went into the kitchen and grabbed two waters. 

“You don’t have to not drink just because I’m not.” Lara grabbed the water from him. 

“Nah, it’s cool. I still feel like I’m fighting a hangover anyways.” Angel shrugged and plopped down on the couch. Lara nodded and stood awkwardly still looking around his house. 

“You can sit down, you know.” Angel tilted his head next to him. 

Lara hesitated before she moved to sit next to him, letting her mind go a mile a minute before pushing every thought to the back of her mind and sitting down on the couch to his left. 

“It doesn’t have to be awkward.” Angel said as he turned the TV on to have some background noise. “I had a good time with you last night, even before we came back here.” Angel boldly said. 

The girl wasn’t expecting that from Angel, and he definitely wasn’t either, which is why he started to back pedal. “But whatever you wanna do, you know. We can act like nothing happened, go back to how things were, you know.” 

“Is that what you want?” Lara turned to face him even though he was nervously staring at the TV, “to go back to how things were between us?” 

Angel should have thought before he spoke, but that rarely ever happened so he just blurted out something. “Whatever you wanna do, you know?” He shrugged like they were talking about traffic or the weather not the situation between the two of them. 

Lara in that moment felt her confidence overtake her. She saw through Angel’s charades and knew that the power was in her hands, it was up to her, and that made Lara thrive. 

“I think the sex is too good to go back to how things were” Lara smiled. 

Angel’s head snapped to her, stunned at her words but managed to let a smile build on his face. 

Lara’s nostrils flared as she tried to hold back her laugh as they stared at each other before they both let a belly cackle out. 

“So what are we watching?” Lara got comfortable on the couch, the two of them weren’t touching yet, but it was progress from when she first got there. 

______

It had been 4 hours since Lara first arrived, she was currently sprawled out on the couch, her shoes off, swimming in one of Angel’s hoodies, and cuddled up next to the man. 

“I can’t believe we’ve been watching Guy’s Grocery Games for the past 4 hours.” Lara said as she checked her phone, 9:27PM and a notification from Bishop. 

9:26PM Bishop Losa: Home. 10PM. Don’t forget. 

“I mean, it’s the superstar challenge, we gotta see it through,” Angel said as he innocently looked down seeing the message on her phone but quickly looking away. 

“Wish we could but, I gotta get out of here. Plus this is the last episode on for the rest of the night,” Lara leaned over to the coffee table and grabbed the remote and pressed the button that allowed the tv guide to pop up. “See, Kitchen Nightmares is on next.” Her body fell back into his. 

“Man, I fuckin’ hate that show.” Angel said, wrapping his arm around the girl effortlessly as her head rested on his chest. “Makes me never want to go to a fuckin’ restaurant ever again.” He shivered. 

“You easily have 4 different kinds of takeout in your fridge as we speak, Angel. That’s never happening.” She went to stand up. 

“You leavin’ already?” Angel changed the subject. 

“Yea, gotta get home.” Lara said leaving the rest to be interpreted, but Angel wasn’t going to let her go that quickly. 

“Bishop got you on a time clock?” He frowned, he didn’t get up or even change his position on the couch. 

“You shoulder surfing?” Lara frowned realizing he had read her text. 

“Didn’t mean to,” he adjusted his posture and was now leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. 

“What do you know?” Lara asked, sitting on the wooden table so the two were eye to eye. 

This was the million dollar question, what did he know. What was she going to share. Were they going to trust each other. 

The answer was yes, but also no. 

“I know Bishop’s got some personal shit going on that he brought to the table.” Angel started, trying to tiptoe around the templo meeting this morning. 

“Bishop?” Lara frowned and nodded. “Sure let’s go with that.” Lara wanted to leave it at that, but she couldn’t. “I get that what happens in templo is sacred, blood brothers, secret spit handshakes and all that shit, but I know Bishop said my name at that table this morning. What do you know?” 

Angel thought about it, this was the first time they were hanging out as whatever they were and he was already seeing the consequences of messing with the club president’s daughter. 

“You know I can’t tell you about templo, but I can tell you that Bishop is serious about keeping you safe.” 

Lara nodded, “So you know that I have to be home by 10.” 

“I didn’t know that, but it makes sense. I know there’s some shit that went down with The Calaveras and I know that the day I saw you at the main square you were having issues with someone wearing a Calaveras rocker.” Angel shared, hoping that would be enough. He knew a little more, but there was a line he had to tow when it came to this. 

“So observant.” Lara sarcastically joked. 

“What happened?” Angel asked, now flipping the interrogation onto the girl. 

“I used to date one of the guys from The Calaveras, bad breakup, they’re taking it out on Bishop.” Lara told a partial truth. 

Angel didn’t push for more, he just stood and stuck his hand out to the girl who stared at it for a minute before taking it in her own. 

“Well, I guess we better get you home before the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella.” 

“10, and I think I’m more of a Mulan.” Lara said with her hand wrapped in Angel’s who looked at her a bit confused. 

“Disobeying my father, but still fighting for his honor, you know.” Lara grinned. 

Angel took the bait that Lara probably didn’t even realize she left. “Well if you’re disobeying, you might want to go to my bedroom.” Her eyes went wide in shock not expecting Angel to be so bold. “To get your clothes, from this morning.” He smiled even harder knowing he had made the girl blush with her assumption. 

“Right, my clothes.” Her head moved up and down as she stepped away from the tall man and inched her way to his bedroom. “You know I think I might need your help to find them.” She turned to him with a fake confused look on her face. 

“Well, you know me, I’m a helper.” Angel’s shoulders shrugged and followed her through the house. 

Meet me at the house. We need to talk. Now. 

The message was brief, it was to the point and she could hear Bishop’s frustration behind every one of the typed words. She stared at it for a while before offering up a simple reply...

okay. 

After that, Lara took a couple minutes to sit at the edge of her bed and just contemplate what had happened the night before. Waking up this morning, she had hoped everything had been a dream, even down to her encounter with the Calaveras, but as she continued to sit on the edge of her bed the more she realized she couldn’t hide from the reality of things anymore. 

________

“You haven’t looked that happy in fuckin’ years!!!” Lara yelled at Bishop from across the kitchen. 

To say their conversation wasn’t going well was probably an understatement. The irritation was felt from both sides immediately when Lara showed up at his house, even despite her bearing apology gifts of coffee and breakfast.  

“Don’t raise your fuckin’ voice at me.” Bishop barked back with a tone just as raised. 

They had been arguing from the moment they stepped into each other's presence. The things said were a build up of years of tension, years of unspoken emotions and thoughts all bottled into this breaking point. 

“Real swell, comin’ from you, pops,” the girl didn’t hesitate to match his attitude back. 

‘When Sophie called me to tell me you got attacked in the fuckin’ street–”

“What?” Lara frowned at the realization that she freaked out on Angel for no reason. 

“Sophie called me and told me what happened, she must’ve seen it from her shop, I just– when did we start keeping secrets like that?” Bishop questions. 

“When did we start keeping secrets?” Lara repeated with shock and laughter in her voice. Her eyebrows raised and her head began to shake as the next statement readied up in her mind. “Like father, like daughter, I guess.” She felt completely shocked at the man’s words; she wasn’t holding anything back. 

Bishop choked a laugh out as he shook his head, bringing his hand up to his mouth to rub his chin in thought. He turned around and threw open a drawer and pulled out a note and slammed it on the table. He pointed at it while his hand shook. 

“Alright here, no secrets, go ahead, read it,” he nodded towards it. 

Lara grabbed it aggressively and flattened out the piece of paper, still keeping her eyes on Bishop for more of an answer about what it is he was giving her. 

“It’s the mail Chucky gave you, to give me, the other day.” 

Her eyes moved down to the note, the handwriting was vicious looking and there wasn’t much to read in the first place. 

“This isn’t a fuckin’ game. Your family problem just became a club problem...heads are about to roll. And if this isn’t clear enough, we’re coming for you. Ojo por ojo, sangre por sangre.” 

“This?” Lara scoffed. “What pussies, it’s a fucking letter.” The paper was thrown back on the table, along with the weight of its words. 

“Yea, they’re built fuckin’ different Lara, they’re crazy,” he took a breath and was going to bite back his next words but let them roll off his tongue no issue. “You out of everyone should know that, you dated and killed one.”

The way the mention of murder was so casual, so lighthearted, hurt Lara more than she cared to admit. But being a Losa through and through she just buried that emotion and spewed out more attitude. 

“Fuck you,” She let those words fall out of her mouth just as easy as Bishop’s previous ones. 

“Don’t disrespect me like that in my own home, I fuckin’ helped you, after not hearing from you for months, I showed up, no questions asked!” Bishop yelled. 

“Congratulations for acting like a father!!! Do you want a cookie? Maybe a bottle of whiskey seems more fitting. Yay! Bishop Losa finally stepped up as a father, everyone!!” Lara yelled louder. 

Bishop stood frozen at the girl’s words. 

“I was happy when you decided to stay, despite my dreaded fuckin thoughts of what could happen. I wanted to get to know you, help you..,” Bishop started to finish his sentence but Lara didn’t let him get another word in. 

“Get to know me? You’ve kept me at arms length since day 1.” 

“To help you!!” Bishop snapped. 

“Okay fine, you wanna get to know me? I’m fucking contaminated. I can’t be helped. I guess I get that from you, the good ol’ Losa way, stuck in this contaminated fuckin’ cursed town letting it suck the life out of you. I thought I could get you to change, I really did,” Lara scoffed again. The tears were pouring from her face now but her voice was steady. “But I was wrong, you can’t change. Aiden died and took every last redeeming bit of you with him. Lucky for you, when I go, there will be nothing left of you to lose out on. You can put all your focus on the club.” 

“Lara..” Bishop’s voice was soft as he reached out for her. 

“Don’t. I’ll do whatever you need me to do regarding this fucking shit since I’m the one that brought you into this, but once you’re done, we’re done.” 

“Lara..” Bishop said again, reaching for her as she stormed to the door. 

She stopped after she propped the door open, her hand resting on it as she stared at the picture hanging on the wall. “You know, I think you forget that I lost him too,” her eyes bounced to him for a second but she knew if she let herself stare at him a second longer she’d lose it. And with no time at all she took the step that would define their relationship moving forward and left, slamming the door behind her. 

_________

Lara got in her car and sobbed, she drove and sobbed letting her muscle memory take her down the different streets. And like that she was pulling into the clubhouse. She laughed at the irony of it all, having nowhere else to really escape to in this town. She could’ve gone home, but she wasn’t looking to sit in her emotion right now, she wanted to forget everything. Fill the void. 

Lara parked her car, and practically body slammed herself into the clubhouse doors. Her eyes wandered around the room, thinking of what her next move was going to be. Her eyes fell on Angel, talking to one of the club hang arounds. She didn’t even care, she walked up to him with no warning. 

“Let’s go somewhere,” she said, interrupting their conversation. 

Angel made a face, looking at Lara and then back to the woman he was originally talking to. He nodded at her to excuse her from the conversation and Lara took her spot at the corner of the bar they stood at. Angel looked down at the girl, frustrated at her randomly showing up. But once he saw her face, the blood shot eyes, red cheeks, and completely distraught presence, he frowned. 

“You smokin’ that shit??” he questioned her. 

“Let’s just go somewhere, we’ll drink and just party or something I don’t know,” Lara shook her head trying to come up with something. 

“What the fuck, Lara?” Angel said still pissed, “last night you’re tellin’ me to go fuck myself and now you’re here trying to go on a fuckin’ bender with me?” 

“I’m sorry, I know you didn’t tell Bishop, I shouldn’t have lashed out on you like that, I just– it’s– I’m sorry.” Lara was getting caught up on her words. 

“You’re really fuckin’ losing it. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you apologize,” Angel laughed. 

Lara chuckled, “So you in? Let’s just get out of here.”

Angel looked down at her for a few minutes before answering. “Alright, we’ll take my bike.” 

“Not the bike,” Lara practically threw up the words. 

Angel rolled his eyes, “so what other rules do you have for this spontaneous bender of yours?” he asked. 

“Spontaneous bender, huh?” EZ appeared from behind the bar placing a large cardboard box down. 

“Yup, Angel’s taking my car and we’re leaving Santo Padre in the rear view mirror,” Lara turned to lean on the bar facing EZ. 

“Oh, I’m taking your car?” Angel raised his eyebrows. 

“I’ll come with, I could use a break from staring at this fuckin’ clubhouse for a bit,” EZ wiped his hands on his pants and moved around the bar. 

“Fantastic, let’s go,” Lara threw her keys to Angel who was the closest to the door. 

“Go where?” Frankie said as she entered the clubhouse with Coco behind her. 

“Roadtrip motherfuckerssssss,” Angel dangled the keys in Frankie and Coco’s face. 

EZ walked by and quickly placed a kiss on Frankie’s lips to say hello to her before grabbing the keys from Angel. 

“I’ve served you at least 5 beers already, and I’ve had...let me think...none, so I’ll be driving,” EZ said looking back over at Frankie nodding his head towards the door for her to follow him out. 

“I’ll be there in a minute, you guys go, we’ll meet you out there,” Frankie’s eyes moved over to her best friend who was rummaging through the bar now throwing bottles of alcohol and beer into a box. 

“You good?” Frankie asked as she watched the girl. 

“Not at all, but I don’t want to talk about it and not sure when or if I will, so for now I will be drinking and attempting to have a good time for one night,” she paused and looked up at her friend who was taking in everything the girl said. 

“Don’t forget the tequila,” Frankie said, leaning over and grabbing the bottle and placing it in the box. 

The both of them walked outside, box of booze in hand and a full 12 hours of insanity and fun ahead of them. 

“You’re comin’ with?” Frankie asked Coco, who was getting in the back seat of Lara’s car. 

“Ain’t got nothin’ better to do so figured being fifth fuckin’ wheel was the way to go,” Coco said which earned a smile from EZ and Frankie. 

“Shotgun!” Angel called out as he finished smoking his cigarette. He was staring at the back of Lara’s car at the bumper sticker plastered right on the trunk. 

Frankie stuck up her middle finger as she entered the passenger side, making EZ chuckle as he got in the driver's seat. 

“Looks like you’re sittin’ next to me,” Lara raised her brows. 

Angel sarcastically smiled as he threw the bud to the ground. He grabbed the box of alcohol from Lara for her and they both headed towards the car. 

“What’s with the fuckin’ ‘cute but psycho’ bumper sticker?” Angel asked as he placed the box in the car. Lara snuck in between him and the trunk and grabbed a couple bottles to keep on her. 

“It’s true,” she shrugged, and made her way to the car. 

Angel rolled his eyes and made his way to the last empty seat. 

“Could you at least move your seat up, I got long legs,” he peaked over the car seat, looking at Frankie who moved the seat up barely two inches. 

“Well, jeez, thanks,” Angel said resituating. 

“So where to?” EZ said, looking in the rearview mirror at Lara, waiting on her direction. 

“Far from here,” was the only response she could think of and that was followed by a large gulp of the tequila bottle before passing it off to Frankie and opening one of the beers she grabbed from her collection. 

“Slow down there, we got the whole night ahead of us,” Angel furrowed his brow. 

“If you fuckin’ yak on me at any point of tonight, I swear to fuckin’ God,” Coco said opening the window so the smell of alcohol wouldn’t stay trapped inside the vehicle. 

The driveway of her rented house seemed exceptionally long as she sped walked to the front steps towards the porch. Lara refused Angel’s offer to follow her home but he did do her the courtesy of escorting her to her car. While she liked to play the calm and collected woman who wasn’t worried about what had just happened, she was terrified. On her second lap of circling the block to make sure she wasn’t followed she realized just how spooked she was. 

Her hands shook as they fumbled with the keys to get in the door and after a few failed attempts she finally got it open, quickly escaping to the opposite side of the door and locking it shut. Her eyes scanned over what she could see in the house and it seemed that everything was in place and normal and as she walked up the entryway stairs her eyes did the same. Her body jumped as Frankie exited her room and started to speak without warning. 

“You’re home earlier than I expected,” she practically skipped by Lara. The both of them were at completely different levels of emotions currently.  Lara stared at her almost in envy, wishing she could go back to the bliss she felt nearly an hour ago. 

“What’s your deal?” Frankie walked back by her now with a snack in hand. 

“They know,” the only words that escaped her mouth as she began to really process what happened. 

“Who knows?” Frankie questioned, still with her upbeat inflection unaware of what the girl meant. The instance was nearly 5 years ago, the girls had moved on, so much had happened, it almost could have been another lifetime.

“The Calaveras.” Lara kept to her two word statements. The adrenaline was gone, the realization was now sinking in. 

Frankie now froze, her emotion began sliding down the spectrum getting closer to where Lara was at now. 

“Ok, I need information,” Frankie was still level-headed enough to come up with a plan. 

Lara looked up at Frankie, tears in her eyes as she began shaking, not able to get a word out. Frankie understood and just grabbed the girl in an embrace. 

Silence. The girls held each other with no words, just the sound of the clock over the kitchen sink ticking back and forth almost mocking them as if a countdown had begun to shit hitting the fan.

__________

Eventually, the girls sat down on the couch and began to talk. Lara filled in Frankie on what happened, what the man said, what she said, how Angel showed up. 

“He’s going to tell Bishop,” Lara shook her head. 

“He won’t, but would it be so bad if he did?” Frankie frowned. “I mean Bishop knowing seems like our best bet right now.” 

“For sure, but there’s so much shit going on, I feel like I flipped his life upside down with this shit before and it was just beginning to settle,” Lara massaged her forehead, she knew she had to tell him, even though it was just going to push him further from her, but this was bordering on the line of life or death.  “Alright, I’ll go to the club tonight and tell him,” she said abruptly. 

Frankie looked at the girl as she ran through all the possibilities in her head, how to say it, what to say, what his reaction would be. 

“You wanna practice how you’re gonna tell him? I can be Bishop,” Frankie shrugged.

Lara looked at Frankie expecting her to be joking, something that would have eased the tension in this moment but she was staring back at her dead serious. 

“Oh, you’re serious.”

“Yea, Bishop’s going to freak you might as well be prepared.” 

“Thanks,” Lara’s lips turned straight as she smiled sarcastically. “Hey dad, remember that guy I killed? Well apparently what’s left of his club knows and their VP practically jumped me in the street.” Her voice was dripping in sarcasm. 

“You’re fuckin’ kidding me!!!!” Frankie’s voice raised and came out octaves deeper than her normal voice. 

Lara jumped and her eyebrows creased as she regained her thoughts. 

“What the fuck was that?” Lara barked at her best friend. 

“Probably how Bishop is going to react,” Frankie answered her friend. 

“That’s just fantastic,” Lara was now standing up pacing in front of the coffee table that resided in their living room. 

“I mean, that’s the ideal scenario, right? You want some reaction out of him, if he gives you nothing…” Frankie paused as she thought of the best way to get out her thoughts. “I just mean a freakout reaction is better than shutting you out.” 

Lara took a minute to process what Frankie was saying and began nodding. “Yea, you’re right, I just don’t know what I’m going to do, like what’s my next move?” 

“That’s for Bishop to figure out, this isn’t just a you circumstance anymore, it’s a club call,” Frankie spoke the words Lara had yet put together truly. 

“It’s funny cause I told Angel it wasn’t” Lara laughed ironically. 

“So he just came up and intervened?” Frankie asked at the mention of the biker she knew Lara didn’t particularly like. 

“Yea I guess he was at his father’s shop or something. I don’t know, but it was nice,” Lara was back to pacing. 

“Wow,” Frankie leaned back and took a sip of her water bottle that she held in her hand as her eyebrows raised. 

“Wow, what?” Lara asked. 

“Didn’t realize you two had it in you to be nice to each other, that’s all,” Frankie shrugged. 

Lara froze again, wondering if it was worth telling her best friend about her and Angel’s night so long ago. Weighing the pros and cons in her head, it wasn’t that she wanted to keep anything from her but it was honestly that she wanted to erase the night from her brain, from existence even. But it was too late, what made Frankie, well, Frankie was her ability to read a room, it also made her great at psychology and almost impossible to keep a secret from her unless you simply just never thought about it around her. 

“What’s that face for?” Frankie was intrigued. 

“Nothing,” Lara shook her head but before she could quickly bring something else up, Frankie was pushing for information. 

“No, something is up, I know that look,” Frankie was leaning forward and pointing at Lara. 

Just as Lara was about to speak, her phone began to ring. A wave of relief came over her as she picked up the phone. 

“Hello?” she turned away leaving Frankie annoyed and quite literally at the edge of her seat. 

“I need you to do me the biggest favor,” EZ’s voice was frantic on the other line of the phone. 

“Are you sure you called the right number?” Lara answered. 

“Yes, Lara, I did. We’re having this like big thing at the club tonight, totally last minute and I’m swamped here and Bishop–you’re dad, he wants Dos Equis and we have none left here and I gotta go pick up the steaks from my Pops and–”

Lara cut EZ off. “You need me to pick up a case of Dos Equis so my dad doesn’t rip that prospect patch off. Say no more, I’ll do it and see you soon.” 

“Thanks Lara, I owe you,” Ez graciously answered. 

“I’m holding you to that,” Lara replied before hanging up the phone and turning to Frankie. 

“C’mon, your boy toy needs me to run some errands for the big club party tonight,” Lara was grabbing her bag to head out. 

“I think I’ll sit this one out, I’m still recovering from last night,” Frankie didn’t move off the couch, “and this doesn’t mean you don’t owe me an explanation for whatever you’re not telling me,” she pointed at Lara and squinted. 

“I promise, one day you’ll know every little detail about my life, Frankie,” the girl rolled her eyes with a chuckle. 

“Let me know when you get to the liquor store, and when you make it to the club…” the girl left her statement hanging for a minute, “cause you know,” she finished with a worried tone. 

“I’m gonna go to Top’s and pick it up, that way it’s familiar faces in a public setting that’s literally walking distance from the club if anything goes left,” Lara explained before heading towards the door. 

Frankie made one last comment before Lara was able to leave, “And be sure to tell Bishop, it’s the perfect scenario in all honesty, tell him you’re being stalked by the men with the creepy kuttes and before he gets mad show him the case of Dos Equis, soften the blow.” 

 “Yea, yea, love you, bye!” The Losa girl called out and made her way out of the house. 

__________

Lara walked into the clubhouse with the case of beer in her hand. The scene unfolding in front of her was unlike any of the recent parties she’s seen. There were tons of bodies flooding the clubhouse, the volume was 10x louder than it normally was, and then there was Bishop who was practically rolling on the ground with how hard he was laughing. He explained the story inbetween chuckles and after every punchline the group he was talking to exploded in laughter. 

It was the first time in years she’d seen her father this happy. The belly laugh he gave out as he pointed at Taza was something that felt comforting to the girl, this was the Bishop she grew up with, before the club took over, before Antonia and him had split, before Aiden had passed. Lara smiled for a minute as she took in the presence of her father but that didn’t last long. She remembered the news she had brought, but before she could think of what to do, her father had made eye contact with her. The smile plastered on his face grew from ear to ear and it was enough to discourage Lara from even thinking about mentioning her run in with The Calaveras earlier in the day. 

“Later, I’ll tell him later.” she thought to herself as she matched his smile as he approached her. 

“My girl!” he called out as he casually strutted up to the girl with his arms wide open and then brought them close together up to cup her face. “What brings you here?” he slurred his words a bit. 

“Definitely not telling him,” she thought again to herself as the slurred words left his mouth. 

“I come bringing gifts,” she lifted up the case of beer that was quickly taken out of her hands by EZ who ran over the minute his eyes glanced over. 

“Thank you,” he said before quickly disappearing back behind the bar with the case Lara brought.

“I guess we do got the prospect runnin’ bitch for everyone,” Bishop laughed as he threw his arm around his daughter bringing her to the table where the group of Mayans and Sons sat. 

“So much so that I’m now runnin’ bitch for the bitch,” she teased which made the group chuckle.

Before the conversation could continue, Bishop was interrupting the lull in conversation with another thought of his. 

“Guitar!” 

The one word escaped out of his mouth as he slammed his fist into the table causing Lara to jump. “I’m gonna get my guitar!” He was now pointing at Taza who was shaking his head with his hands up as if he was denying whatever Bishop wasn’t saying but was able to convey through his few worded comments. 

“Yes, yes!” Bishop laughed and with that, he was moving quickly through the clubhouse searching for what Lara assumed was his guitar. Bishop excusing himself caused a few of the men to follow him, while others moved to different parts of the clubhouse. Lara stood frozen, trying to take in everything, things were beginning to stack up in her head emotionally and she wasn’t exactly sure how to process all of it. The overwhelming feeling was building up and she could feel the tension practically welling up in her throat. 

“You alright?” the familiar voice said, causing Lara to snap out of her panic attack for a moment. 

“Huh?” she turned to where the voice was coming from. Angel stood tall, now looking down at her. 

“You good?” he repeated himself. 

“Yeah, just–” she stopped as her eyes wandered to Bishop who was now strumming one of the guitars that was previously mounted on the wall prior to being in his hand. 

Angel let out a chuckle, “yea, Bish did work today, settled some big shit for us not just as a charter but as a club,” he willingly gave out a little information, leaving the details to be imagined, but it was something. 

Lara looked at him confused for a moment and then her eyes softened, almost as if to say thank you. He looked back down, meeting her eyes with his. 

“What do you want, Angel?” Lara quickly let the friendly face fade. 

Angel didn’t speak for what felt like minutes but was probably only a few seconds. “Figured I’d check in on you,” he shrugged, breaking the eye contact. 

“I’m alright, don’t need a babysitter, or a knight in shining leather,” she rolled her eyes. 

Angel chuckled, “I know you don’t,” he was about to walk away when he turned on his heel, “honestly I just wanted to say sorry or whatever,” 

“Or whatever?” Lara’s left eyebrow raised at his half-ass apology. 

“Yea, you know for all that shit that went down with us years ago, it was stupid–I was stupid.” Angel’s hands tucked into his pocket. It was a big step for him to apologize but he figured it was the right thing to do. 

“Wow, wish I recorded that one,” Lara couldn't believe what she was hearing. 

“We cool?” Angel chuckled from her response. 

“Uh-huh,” Lara accepted the apology. 

“We friends?”  Angel added seeing how far he could get with the Losa woman. 

“Don’t push it,” Lara began to walk by him towards the bar while Angel nodded as a chuckle escaped from his mouth. 

__________

The night continued, the music was blaring, the drinks were flowing, the joints were being passed, and pool was being played and lost by the Losa’s. 

“Ay, you’re cheating!” Lara pushed Coco as he casually pushed one of the solid billiard balls with his hands towards one of the openings. 

Coco let out a belly laugh that was echoed by Lara’s, Bishop was now drunkenly pushing the stripe balls into the pockets to even out the score. 

“This” Bishop pointed to the shot he was about to take, “this is where we make our comeback!” he called out before taking his shot. As his cue stick scratched the table he collapsed over the table in defeat. 

“I thought you said this was our comeback, Dad,” Lara moved over to her father and rested her hand on his shoulder. 

“Looks like your dear old dad was wrong,” he brought himself back up to a vertical position and looked over at the girl. “I think we need more alcohol,” he nodded, answering his own statement. 

“Yea, you go nurse those wounds while I try to make that Losa comeback you mentioned,” she pushed him towards the bar. Lara then picked up the stick and took a moment to line up her eyesight with the ball, the air inhaled into her lungs through her nose as she concentrated and aimed, bringing the pool stick back and forth towards the white cue ball, she closed her eyes and held her breath, and just as she let the built up air escape through her mouth, her eyelids fluttered open and she made the angle shot, sinking the striped ball into the pocket effortlessly. A smile grew on her face as she stood back up and moved to chalk the stick. As she moved around the table with a grin, her eyes traveled and met someone that was almost waiting for her to look at him. 

Angel lifted his beer up towards her and mouthed over to her. 

“Nice shot.” 

He brought the beer to his lips and if Lara had been sober, she probably could’ve let the sensuality of his actions roll off her back with ease but as she stood there leaning on the wooden pool stick watching his moves she felt the alcohol working its magic on her, or maybe it was just the Reyes charm. Hell, it seemed to work on Frankie. Angel didn’t break his stare at the girl even after the beer bottle moved down back to its position in his grip at his side. As his eyes were still met by Lara’s he brought his tongue to his lips to clean off the beer that was left behind from his sip. 

For a moment, Lara wished she had that beer on her lips, or that Angel had a grip on her like he did on that beer bottle. It was almost like he could read her mind because he let out a small exult and shook his head. Lara copied the man and let a small smirk grow on her face. 

“Don’t smile yet, we’re still losing,” Bishop was back and handed her a shot of some clear liquor. “For good luck,” he lifted the glass and took his shot. 

She was stunned out of her thoughts as she tried to shake her mind clear. 

“Or to drown our sorrows because you just lost,” Coco said as he cleaned the table. 

For Lara, the shot was liquid courage, the liquor trickled down her throat slowly, it not only sent a burn down her throat but it warmed her whole body up, it shook every doubting thought in her brain while also putting a million more in their place. She looked over at the clubhouse door to see the back of Angel’s kutte as he snuck out the entrance. 

“I’m gonna get some air,” Lara said without cognition and let her body move her towards the door. Bishop and Coco were so deep into their drinks and arguments over the lost pool game that neither of them paid any mind to the girl leaving. 

The chill breeze of the night hit the girl as she left the clubhouse. She crossed her arms around her chest to bring in some body heat. The crisp air didn’t do much to sober her up, her eyes wandered around the lot until they landed on who she was looking for, the only person out there. The cloud of smoke is what gave Angel’s location away, he leaned on the edge of the scrapyard’s office building smoking a cigarette. 

She approached him, her demeanor wasn’t sloppy drunk, but it wasn’t confident sober either, it lived somewhere in between the two, if you were to ask her to describe it she probably would have said it was the most laid back she had felt in a long time, she felt like herself again in that moment. 

“You know those will kill you, right?” Lara spoke. 

“Yea, I think someone told me that once,” Angel responded, handing her the cigarette knowing she had plans to swipe it out of his mouth anyway like she had done in the past. 

She took a step closer to him, closing the gap in between them and took the cigarette. She brought it to her lips and instantly she could taste the beer, her mind went back to moments ago when he licked the residue of it off his lips and she felt chills move down her spine. 

“If you’re cold you should go inside,” Angel responded, almost to suave for his own good. 

“Why would I do that when my friend is out here?” It was like her mouth was thinking before her brain. 

Angel couldn’t hide the growing grin on his face at her sentence, “friends, huh?” 

“Don Julio convinced me,” she passed the cigarette back to him like they were smoking a joint. 

“He another friend of yours?” Angel asked as he took the last puff of the cigarette. 

“Something like that, I think,” Lara tilted her head to the side trying to read the man standing in front of her. “Don and I are like the type of friends who bring out the worst in each other if we hang out too long,” 

“Maybe you shouldn’t hang out with Don too much,” Angel countered the girl’s statement. 

“Why do you think I came out here with you, friend?” 

Whether Lara knew it or not her body was moving an inch forward with every word she let roll off her tongue. 

“And what type of friends are we?” Angel threw the cigarette to the left of him and brought his eyes down to look into Lara’s. 

“The kind that do this.”

Lara brought herself up on her tippy toes and brought his face down to meet hers. Their lips crashed into eachothers and it didn’t take them long to fall back into what they started 5 years ago. Angel immediately wrapped his arms around her torso, moving it to rest on the small of her back and slowly retreating lower and lower. 

The taste of the beer Lara was fiending to taste filled her mouth as their tongues danced back and forth. Something that normally would have repulsed her but thanks to her friend Don Julio was enticing her more. The smell of the cigarette mixed with cologne on his kutte filled her nose and it oddly comforted her. He was familiar. And not in the ‘been there done that’ kind of way but in the comforting, safe, ‘you know me and I know you’ way. 

Angel moved the girl’s hair out of her face with his left hand as he cupped his palm around her cheek to bring her closer to him as if that was even possible. Lara’s hands moved to Angel’s kutte and ripped it off his shoulders, then grabbed the sides of his flannel to grip him flush against her body. With that movement Angel brought the hand that was resting on her lower back underneath her shorts to cup her ass. He felt Lara’s smile as they kissed and it was the push he needed. Suddenly he was moving his left hand to mirror his right and with a steady grip he picked the girl up. Her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist as she let a chuckle out and his hands didn’t move from cupping the denim back pockets. 

Angel brought the girl into the office, not letting their lips part, just putting all his faith in muscle memory of how to properly enter the building. With what some would call luck, he made it without stumbling and placed the girl on the desk as he began to finish what Lara had started by taking off his flannel. They leaned their foreheads against each other and as he did so, Lara started to unbuckle his pants.

“Slow down,” Angel said after he threw his flannel to the ground and gripped Lara’s hands to stop her from continuing her task of undressing him. 

Lara frowned for a minute until Angel lifted the girl's hands straight up. They were now up above her head and met together at the wrist by a tight grip by Angel’s hands. He began to slowly kiss his way down her arm, some spots were unmarked without a kiss but the touch of his hot breath against her skin filled those empty spaces. It was the simplest form of foreplay but it was enough to get to Lara. A moan escaped her mouth as he reached down to her bicep. 

“See good things happen when you slow down,” Angel chuckled and moved to her neck, letting her arms fall and rest around his naked upper chest as she leaned back letting her neck be completely exposed for him to explore like a treasure map. 

“And good things happen if you just fuck me already,” she let out the aggresive statement without thinking and let her legs spread and bend at the knee so their clothed bottom halves were against eachother. 

Angel let out of breath but didn’t argue with the woman, he undid her denim shorts and slid them off her silky smooth legs, he moved her underwear to the side and brought his hand to her inner thigh which made the girl tremble a little. She arched her back and leaned back so she could regain balance and just as she did, Angel brushed his fingers against her opening, causing her to lean her head back and let out a whine. 

After moments of him teasing her still, she was about to beg for him again but he stopped. She brought her eyes back to see him undressing what was left of his apparel and move back to let their bodies touch again without anything in the way now. 

“No,” she said as she brought herself back up. Angel froze, nervous that he had done something wrong, something to upset her, but she jumped off the table and pointed for him to lay down on it. 

“My turn to do the work,” she smiled. 

Angel got onto his back on the table and quickly put on the condom he had before Lara brought herself on top of him, she rubbed herself on him before moving to let him enter her. As he slid into her a few curses left his mouth, and he grabbed tight onto her hips, practically doing the work for her by moving her back and forth. Lara leaned forward letting her chest rest against his, her hand gripping his face, and Angel moved slowly out of her before she began moving her hips back down, building up momentum as she bounced up and down on him. Moans escaped from both of their lips and the sounds met each other as they kissed. 

“You feel so fuckin’ good,” Angel let out as he pushed the girl back up so she was now sitting upright on his member. He gripped her arms again, much like he did earlier in the night but this time each of his hands was gripped around one of hers to hold her up in that position as she rolled her body with him inside her. 

“I’m gonna cum,” Lara’s head fell back as she moved faster against his body, Angel’s hands squeezed harder as he panted. 

“Cum for me, come on Lara, cum on my dick,” Angel let himself get lost in the moment. 

“Fuck you feel so good,” Lara spoke in a breathy tone before she reached her limit. “I’m cumming, Angel,” she screamed and Angel matched her moans with his own as he met his climax himself. 

Luckily there was enough space on the desk for both of them as Lara moved to lay next to him. The two of them had their eyes shut and chests moving up and down as they laid there enjoying the moment. The silence took over the room and for a moment, as both of them processed what had happened. 

__________

Back in the clubhouse, Bishop had slowed down on the drinking, not because he wanted to but because he got a phone call. 

“Bishop?” Sophie’s voice sounded concerned on the other line. 

“What’s up, Soph?” Bishop moved to the room behind the bar that kept their inventory of beers where it was much quieter. 

“I just wanted to check in on Lara, I just tried calling her but no response, and after what happened on the strip today just wanted to make sure she was holding up okay.”

“She probably didn’t hear it ring, she’s somewhere around here at the club,” Bishop leaned over to peek through the door opening to search for his daughter. His eyes landed her sitting on one of the couches sipping on a beer. 

Lara was back in the club house now, Angel and her had reentered at different moments to ward off any suspicion of their late night activities, which did them right because no one had a clue. 

“Yea she’s here,” Bishop responded after locating her but then froze when he processed the rest of Sophie’s statement. “What happened at the strip today?” A frown grew on Bishop's face, confused as to what the woman was talking about. 

“I was at the jewelry shop, opening up, and I saw Lara get into it with someone wearing a kutte, I was gonna intervene but someone else did so I just backed off, figured it wasn’t worth making a scene,” she explained. 

“What kind of kutte, Sophie,” Bishop’s voice was serious. 

“It was hard to read anything on them, but they had skulls or something on the rocker.”

Bishop felt like he couldn’t breathe. Anger, fear, confusion, frustration, all flooded to his head, it sobered him up real quick. 

“Thanks for checking in, Soph,” Bishop said after taking a minute to process everything, “she’s fine and I’ll have her call you back tomorrow, I gotta go,” Bishop hung up the phone and began making his way towards Lara.

His voice raised, it was louder than the music and it was louder than the crowds. 

“You got fuckin’ jumped in the street and you didn’t think to fuckin’ tell me? You keepin’ secrets now?”

Everyone’s voices got brought down, there were a few murmurs here or there as the Losa’s stared at each other but aside from the music, nothing could really be heard. 

Lara turned to him, “I–” she began to speak. 

“You got any idea the fuckin’ target we got on us?” he stared into his daughter's eyes, referring specifically to her and him. 

“It–” Lara began to speak again. 

“I expected more from you,” Bishop said before stomping out of the club. 

Lara followed him outside, yelling after him to stop. 

Bishop made his way to his bike, every step heavier than the last until he turned around, almost causing Lara to collide into him. 

“Tell me one thing,” his voice was low but firm. “Do they fuckin’ know?” 

Lara didn’t need more context, she knew what he was asking, and she couldn’t even find it in herself to answer with words, she just nodded as she stared at the dirt below her. 

Bishop sucked his teeth and turned back around making his way over to his bike. The sound of the engine turning over drowned out Lara’s thoughts, but as her father left the clubhouse and the sounds got softer and softer, the noise in her head got louder and louder. 

Once the bike rumble completely faded she turned around to see Angel at the top of the clubhouse stairs. 

“Figured since we’re friends, I’d check in on you, think that’s part of the job description,” he tried to make the girl laugh. 

“Don’t talk to me,” she said as she passed him on the stairs. 

“Lara come on, he’ll come around,” Angel pleaded lightly with the girl. 

She turned around now that she had passed by him, practically mirroring the behavior of her father moments ago. 

“You had the fucking nerve to sleep with me after I told you not to tell him what happened. After you looked me in the goddamn eyes and we talked all that bullshit about trust, and you burned me again.” Lara spat the words in anger.

“Lara I didn’t–” Angel began to defend himself. 

“Save it, Angel. Go fuck yourself.” 

Lara slowly trudged up the sidewalk that led to the driveway of Bishop’s house. The sun was rising and the morning dew dripped off the grass at an even slower pace than Lara at that moment. Turning towards the house she stood for a moment staring at it, wondering how she was going to maneuver sneaking in. 

The clothes she wore from the previous night were still hanging off her body, but just a bit more disheveled. That’s what happened when you stayed out all night at some dive bar though. As well as when you’re in and out of any room with a working lock in said dive bar, fooling around with some random stranger after having a series of traumatic events in your life. 

Without thinking a second more, Lara had her plan perfected. Bishop was likely asleep on the couch and she’d just move quickly through the door and make her way to the bathroom, playing it as though she was up early to conquer the day. 

She did a brief look at herself in the rearview mirror of Bishop’s truck on the off chance he woke up once she was in the house. Her natural curls were tangled within the curves of one another and the frizz was growing by the second in the Santo Padre humidity. Her lips were completely clean of any gloss, stain, or chapstick and they definitely were a little more plump from the activity they saw. Her neck had smears of her foundation that was intended to cover the red marks but was now only doing about half of that. She regretted not putting powder on top to really secure the makeup but there was nothing to do about it now. Lara began to quickly adjust herself, wishing she had carried a purse with some essentials, something that would help her wipe the day old mascara that had slightly smeared on her face or a face spray to liven her up, but she worked with what she could in the small side mirror before giving up and making her way towards the front door. 

She placed her hand on the doorknob and took one last deep breath before holding it in as the door creaked open. Quickly maneuvering around the door, she pressed her left hand flat to it, the right still on the handle and as she turned to shut it, she positioned her body practically flush against the oak to hush the sound of it closing. As this happened, she heard the clink of a glass in the kitchen. Her head snapped immediately to see her father, hand on a coffee mug and sitting alone at the kitchen table. 

The breath she was holding in let out as she knew she had been made. She took getting caught with pride as she strutted into the kitchen right by her father as if nothing happened and this was completely normal. Her eye caught the large tattoo on Bishop’s bicep that wasn’t there two years ago, but now with him sitting in an undershirt under the harsh kitchen light, was impossible to miss. Not to mention that the tattoo was her little brother’s face and for a moment when she saw it she felt her heart ache a little but not long enough to offer compassion to the man, if anything this fueled her attitude more. 

“Nice tattoo,” the little sass in her tone didn’t go unnoticed by the man as she went to the fridge to grab a carton of milk. 

Bishop’s eyebrows raised and he nodded briefly as he accepted this was how this conversation was going to go.

“Where were you last night?” He asked her, ignoring the tattoo comment. 

“Went and got a drink,” she shrugged, pouring a cup of coffee. Still standing at the counter behind him so both their backs were facing each other. 

“A heads up would have been nice,” he turned his head to look at her, not wanting to be demanding but trying to establish some ground rules. 

Lara laughed for a moment and turned to him now leaning against the counter. 

“Hey Dad, decided to go on a little bender by myself, I’ll call you if you have to come and bury any bodies.” She smiled sneeringly as she took a sip of her coffee. 

Bishop continued to shake his head until his voice snapped. 

“You think this shit is fuckin’ funny?” He stood up now, the chair screeching against the tile as it pushed back quickly. 

Lara stopped chuckling and sunk down as the man raised his voice. Bishop saw the change in demeanor in the girl and immediately realized how scarred his daughter actually was. 

He brought his voice back down and looked around the kitchen taking a deep breath. 

“You can’t be doin’ this shit, Lara.” He said with more of a softer tone. “After what happened not even two nights ago, and you just go up and missing on me. You know who those people are? They aren’t people you want coming after you.”

Lara opened her mouth and thought to argue but stopped, she knew there was no point to argue. Their clashing personalities is what got them into this mess years ago when she left. 

“Why do you think I called you. I knew you’d know how to handle the fuckin’ disaster I got myself into.” Her voice cracked as the tears formed in her eyes. 

“Those bikers aren’t like me and Hank, they follow no code, they’re all about money, power, and self.” He said hoping she’d understand. 

“So now what? I go into hiding for the rest of my life, staying two steps ahead of The Calaveras.” She placed the mug in the sink, now worried and concerned. She hadn’t given any thought to what was going to happen next and now the thoughts were overflowing her brain. 

“No. I handled it. No one’s ever going to know it was you. For all they know, you left a month ago. They have a laundry list of people who could have done this as an act of revenge.” Bishop explained knowing he purposely dropped a reaper pin that used to sit proudly on someone’s kutte but now had a home at Jesse’s house. 

“You just left the body there?” Lara was now alert and oriented 10x more than she was previously. 

“Are you crazy? Hank and I handled it.” 

Lara took a moment to be relieved. The two sat in the heavy silence of the room. 

“I’m sorry about not coming home last night, I’m just used to making decisions on my own.”

“I get that.” Bishop answered, nodding his head. “You know me, I don’t need play by plays or tracking devices. Just wanna know you’re all good.” 

Lara nodded. “Note taken.” 

“I’m gonna head down to the clubhouse, let me know if you need anything and I’ll bring it back.” Bishop threw on his button up that was draped over the kitchen chair and then moved to the hooks near the front door where his kutte hung. 

“Let me come with you,” She grabbed his coffee mug and put it in the sink before taking a couple steps toward him. 

“Absolutely not. You’re not even going to be staying here long.” Bishop shook his head as he adjusted the kutte on his shoulders.

“Don’t.” Lara said firmly. “Don’t do this again. It’s just going to be an exact repeat of what happened two years ago.” 

She hoped the words stung him. Not because she wanted to hurt him, but because she wanted him to see the full picture.

“It's not safe here, never has been,” he said with pain in his eyes. “I should’ve never brought any of you here. And that’s something you said to me, so you know it’s true.” There was just as much pain in his tone as Lara’s. 

“Clearly it's not safe where I end up either.” 

Her point was crystal clear but yet Bishop had no response. He just moved towards the girl and kissed her forehead. 

“There's movies and shit in the tv stand, one of the guys got me one of those playstation things if you wanted to hook it up,” he said as he exited the door leaving no moment for Lara to say anything more.

Lara stood in the entryway of the house, feeling empty, abandoned, and hollow. She picked her phone up and moved back into the kitchen and made her way to the fridge where Frankie’s number was pinned up. Something the girl must've done when she was down here visiting once. 

The phone rang a couple times before there was a cheery greeting at the other end. 

“You got time to come to Santo Padre today?” Lara asked, skipping pleasantries and jumping straight to the point.

“Lucky for you, I’m already here, came down with Hank not long after you left. I’m at his place now but I can be at Bishop’s in 30?” The girl knew immediately who was on the phone. 

“Meet me in the town square? I got a couple errands I want to run.” Lara said, grabbing her bag so she could begin her walk. 

“Sure, see you in 30.” 

————

“So your errands were to apply for a job?” Frankie said as she caught up to the girl who had a bunch of applications in her hands. 

“Need money,” she shrugged as Frankie snatched the papers from her hands to look at the places she was planning to apply at. 

“Nope. Come on.” Frankie turned the girl around and brought her to her Honda coup. 

The ride was silent. Lara was trusting of the girl, so wherever they were going she knew there was purpose. 

They pulled up to another main strip, but this one was nicer. No trash, no graffiti, and Lara knew it all too well. The memories flooded back to her like they happened yesterday. Her eyes fell on the municipal building and the image of the family she once was a part of took her away from real life for a moment.

“One, two, three, JUMP!” Antonia and Bishop’s voices boomed with laughs as they walked down the municipal stairs with Aiden clinging to their hands as they lifted him up with every step. Lara smiled as she headed down the stairs alongside them picking up her pace so she reached the bottom before them. 

“Feeling left out?” Bishop laughed as his arm swung around the girl’s shoulder and brought the girl close to him as they walked to the truck. 

“You’re annoying,” she laughed, pushing him off her which earned a laugh from Antonia. 

“Hey, if I’m annoying to you that just means I’m playing my role as a father correctly.” he smiled and unlocked the truck. 

“Can we get ice cream?” Aiden’s voice yelled before they got into the truck. 

Lara picked the boy up and held him in her arms. “Pleaaaaasseeeee” she rested her head against her little brother’s and they both poked out their bottom lip. 

“Your mom had a long day at work, buddy,” Bishop’s hand extended out to the little boy's face.

“Okay, we can drop Antonia off and you’ll stay with her and I’ll take him to get ice cream.” Lara smiled in hopes to get the car. 

“Nice try.” Antonia smiled from the passenger seat of the vehicle. “I could go for ice cream,” she looked at Bishop and shrugged. 

“Alright, family trip.” Bishop grinned. 

Lara was taken out from her memory when Frankie put the car in park. 

“Right there.” Frankie pointed at the two story restaurant. 

“Right what?” Lara said, turning to look where her finger pointed. 

“That’s where you’re going to work. What you’d make in a week at any of those places” Frankie nodded to the stack of paper on Lara’s lap. “You’d make in a day at this place.” 

Lara looked out the windshield at the lavish restaurant that read “The Villa” in the most elegant script font. The golden pillars held up the upper half of the restaurant and the smooth jazz that was playing from the entrance could be heard through the open windows of the car just slightly over the white noise of the fountain that sat in the courtyard where the outdoor tables were. 

Just from looking at the place, Lara knew she was right. 

“And how am I getting here on the daily?” Lara asked. 

“Bishop can get you a car in an hour, easily.” Frankie frowned as they walked up to the restaurant so Lara could get a look. 

“If it was up to Bishop, I’d be in another town in an hour.” Lara sighed. 

“Ahhhhhh, I see. Look, if you tell him you’re gonna stay around for a bit, stay low and just work here, Bish isn’t gonna argue.” She explained. 

“The Bishop you and I know are very different.” Lara smiled. “But honestly seeing how he’s been living? He needs help. He needs me here. Probably just as much as I need him.” Lara realized there was no point in arguing it. The two Losas’ needed some TLC in their life and some father-daughter bonding might be just the solution for both of them. “Alright. Let me apply.” She brought herself to enter the building. 

The inside of the restaurant was even fancier than expected, and a gust of a cool breeze hit Lara as the ceiling fans in the restaurant slowly spun around. Waiters bustled around and were delivering plates that looked like they had been created on the food network to tables with people who looked like they would never be caught dead watching the food network. Some tables occupied families that looked more normal compared to the suits that occupied the other half of the eatery. 

Lara stood at the podium waiting for someone to take notice of her. Frankie was outside across the street waiting on her phone. This gave Lara a few extra minutes to take in the richness of it all. 

“How can I help you?” A voice asked from the podium.

“I wanted to apply for a job, anything you guys have available, I can serve, wash, cook.” She laughed trying to be as charming as possible. 

“We actually could use a hostess.” The girl said looking over her shoulder at another waitress who was gathering utensils. 

“Totally could.” She laughed as she dismissed herself to seat the people that came in behind Lara. 

“You got any restaurant experience?” The waitress asked, now giving Lara her full attention. 

“If I tell you yes, will you hire me on the spot?” The girl grinned hoping that by being funny and pleasant the girl, who had to be about Lara’s age, would give her a chance. 

“To be honest you could say you murder people and I’d still hire you because you seem like a people person and you have a smile that will bring people back in, which is all the owner wants.” 

Lara’s laugh after that comment was dripping in irony.

“Only murdering I’ll be doing is killing all the guests with kindness”  Lara could have cringed at her joke but truthfully she’d say or do whatever to get a job right now. Being able to show Bishop she was serious about staying here was going to take some effort and already having a job lined up would be a huge help. 

The two talked more about figuring out details of the job, like when to start, what her hourly rate would be, tips, dress code, just the basics. After about 15 minutes passed Lara was back outside making her way over to Frankie. 

“You’re looking at the new hostess of The Villa” She said in her most fancy sarcastic voice. 

“Amazing” Frankie smiled and hooked her arm into Lara’s as they walked back towards the car. “You mind if we stop at the club? I gotta pick up something.”

Lara looked over at the girl and didn’t speak for a minute. She knew going to the club was going to get a reaction out of Bishop, and not a good one, but also she could use the opportunity to talk to him about staying. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be your back up.” Frankie said as they approached the car. 

______________

They pulled up to the clubhouse and immediately Lara was hit with a flood of emotions. This place was ultimately what broke the family she had and it gave her mixed feelings. She knew the way the club could suck every ounce of life out of you, but she also knew it was probably the only thing holding her father together. 

“Everything ok?” Hank called out as he approached the vehicle and opened the car door for Frankie. 

“Yea, just came to say hello,” she smiled up at her Dad. “Coco here?” She stepped away from him looking into the scrapyard and then moving her eyes towards the clubhouse. 

“He’s in the office.” Hank pointed to the scrapyard station. 

Frankie nodded and jogged over to the office door as Coco was exiting. Lara wasn’t far behind her after she quickly greeted Hank. 

“Whatchu doin’ here?” Coco smirked and nodded at Frankie as he made his way to one of the piles of metal on the yard. 

“You know Hank, can’t go more than a week without seeing me.” She smiled and followed him. “This is Lara.” She introduced her to the man. “Lara, this is Coco.” 

Coco nodded at the girl and looked at Frankie. “Thought we had enough strays make their way through here.” He joked as he wrote a couple things down on the paper and then finally turned to both of them giving his full attention. 

“She’s Bishop’s kid.” Frankie sported a shit eating grin as she saw Coco’s face fall. 

“Fuck, my bad.” He offered the girl apologetic eyes. “Jus’ a joke you know,” he got a little nervous. 

“You don’t gotta apologize, seems like we’re all strays off the beaten path,” 

The man smiled, “Off the beaten path or following true destiny.” He began to get philosophical. 

“Don’t get him started on this shit, he’ll have you thinking you smoked 20 blunts by the time he’s done explaining his Church of Coco meaning of life nonsense.” Frankie rolled her eyes. 

“Says you, who hits me back with all that psychological textbook bullshit.”

They both stared at each other seriously for a minute before they both broke out in laughter. They had Lara fooled for a minute thinking that they were actually fighting. 

Coco began moving back to the office and the girls followed behind them. 

“I gotta ask you a favor.” Frankie said confidently. 

“Ain’t nothing good ever come out of you asking  me for a favor.” Coco turned around and got serious for a minute. 

“Relax. It isn’t that deep. Figured since I’m down here early you could give me my monthly pick up.” 

“You’re  always asking for more than you’re payin’ for, you know that?” He leaned over the office table and pushed a few things around the drawer that was open and pulled out a bag that had about an eighth of weed in it. On the baggie itself it said “Frankie” on it, all ready for her. Coco tossed the bag to her. “Don’t tell me I ain’t ever did nothin’ for you.” 

“You literally are sent from the heavens, you know that.” 

“Yea tell that to every other mother fucker in my life.” His lips curled to one side in a smile as he brought his cigarette to his mouth. 

Both of the girls began to walk towards the clubhouse. Frankie put the weed in her back pocket while Lara tried to get her head on straight for her talk with Bishop. After a few seconds of getting overwhelmed and only having taken two steps towards the green building she decided she’d just wing it. Quickly, before she gave it a thought more she turned to Frankie. 

“So you two like a thing?”

Frankie practically choked on her chuckle. “Who? Me and Coco?” She laughed some more. “You smokin’ the shit I just bought?” Frankie joked. “Nope, just friends. He’s probably the closest person I got here. Everyone else is old as hell and too loyal to Hank– which I get by the way.” She turned sideways to talk to the girl as they strolled to the stairs. “It’s just nice having someone whose around a lot that I don’t gotta worry about always running to my dad.” 

“Oh Frankie did this, Frankie was here, Frankie asked me for that.” She mocked what Lara had to believe was some of the other MC members. “Coco just gets it. He’d never betray any of them, but he knows when to keep his mouth shut is all I’m saying. Plus he’s smart. He’s got a lot of knowledge about life.” Frankie explained. “He brought in the prospect too, who's cool, but still too early on to trust him like I do Coco, you know.” 

“Gotcha,” Lara nodded. 

“Why, you interested?” Frankie teased. 

“I think I need to take a break from boys.” Lara sighed. “Look what happened to the last one.” She quipped. 

“The last one, hm?” Frankie said as they made their way up the rickety steps leading to the entrance of the club. 

“What’s with that questioning look?” Lara frowned. 

“Bishop called Hank last night to ask if he saw you. So in turn, Hank asked me. Figured you were out and about, but that was like 1AM, so that also usually means you were out with company. And I know you weren’t with an ex.” She teased back. 

“You should go to school to become a detective.” Lara joked. “Yea I was with a guy. One night stand shit, nothing serious. Just needed to let off some steam.” Lara explained. 

“Let off? Or Get off?”  Frankie wiggled her eyebrows as they pushed through the clubhouse doors. 

The smell hit Lara like a ton of bricks. The alcohol, the smoke, the smell of outlaws. It was so familiar and brought back so many feelings. Her gaze went from left to right, scanning over the chairs and then to the bar, and over to the pool table and then the big stained glass door. It was closed which meant someone was in there, and considering that some of the members were outside she knew it wasn’t an official church meeting but her father was probably stuck behind the head seat. 

Frankie moved over to the bar but before Lara could follow, the door slid open. Taza emerged and saw Lara immediately and his face looked ecstatic. 

“Lara.” He said with open arms and walked over to the girl and embraced her. 

“Hola, Taza.” She hugged the man, giving him a tight squeeze. 

“Your dad is–” Just as he turned to look for Bishop he already appeared. 

“Right here. And wondering what the hell you’re doing here.” Bishop said with a firm voice. 

“I’ll leave you two.” Taza said as his face filled with a pitying look before disappearing. 

“Hear me out, please.” She said, holding her hand up. 

“This better be fuckin’ good.” He mumbled. 

“Let me stay here with you, you’re all alone in that house, it’s practically falling apart, inside and out. I can help out around keep the place looking livable, clean things up, and God forbid we spend a little company together. Would that be the worst thing?”

“We can do that if you’re a couple towns over. You can come visit every few months or I can come to you.” Bishop argued. 

“So you can continue to live in a pit full of alcohol? No. I already got a really good job, Frankie helped me get it all arranged.” She pointed at the girl who was drinking a beer, she offered up a wave before she made her way over. 

“Uncle Bish, it’s all set up, she’s going to be at her job more than she’ll be here, plus it’ll give me someone to hang out with when I come home and that’s also time spent away from here.” Frankie said, trying to convince the man. 

“You spend all your time here when you’re home.” Bishop frowned at his niece. 

Lara gave Frankie a look as she raised her eyebrows, expressing that she was doing more harm than good. 

“Well, if Lara’s here then maybe I won’t be.” She said and quickly brought the beer bottle to her mouth so she wouldn’t dig herself any deeper. 

Bishop managed to laugh. “You thought this through didn’t you?” He looked at Lara. 

Lara nodded in hopes he was changing his mind. 

As he began to speak, the door to the clubhouse opened up and Lara’s attention moved over to the commotion. The group of about 3 men walked in. She recognized the one man as Coco, and the other as Hank. The third man stood tall but she couldn’t see his face yet but he looked recognizable. She frowned, hearing her father still going on in the background but she was occupied with putting her finger on who that was and how she knew them. 

He turned around and that’s when she saw his face. Her body practically froze. He was the guy from last night. As the world continued without her attention, her eyes followed the man who was yet to notice her as he moved to the corner of the clubhouse with Hank and the man she just met, Coco. 

As Bishop wrapped up his long winded statement, Lara looked back at him. 

“What?” She said still half out of it. 

“I asked where are you working?” 

“The Villa.” Frankie spoke up seeing how distracted Lara was. 

Bishop nodded his head. 

“Alright, yea you can stay for a few months. But don’t be hangin’ around here.” 

Lara smiled, now coming back from the distracted zone she was in and hugged her father. 

“Thank you.” She kept her gratitude simple. 

“Don’t make me regret this.” He said giving her a kiss on the forehead before heading over to Hank at the bar. 

Meanwhile, while Lara was having her conversation with Bishop and Frankie, the mystery man had caught a glimpse of Lara and was in just as much confusion and shock as the girl. 

“Ay man, who is that?” He leaned over and asked Coco. 

“That’s Hank’s kid, Francesca – Frankie. You fuckin’ know that, fool.” Coco said as he lit up his second cigarette of the hour. 

“Nah, not Frankie. The other chick, talkin’ to Bish.”

Hank now interrupted the conversation. “That’s Bishop’s kid. And if I were you I’d stay far away. For your own sake. Bishop doesn’t play when it comes to Lara, and I don’t either.” Hank stood up and walked over to the bar. 

As both Bishop and Hank were occupied at the bar, Lara turned to Frankie. 

“Who is that? The tall one.” 

“Who?” Frankie casually looked over her shoulder as she asked and then realized who Lara was referring to.

5 years later. 

There were two things Lara thought were definite the day she officially moved back to Santo Padre 5 years ago. One, was that she would rarely, if ever, be at the clubhouse. The second, was that she was going to have a conversation with Angel, the man she thought she’d never see again. Establish ground rules between them, whether that be messing around in secret or deciding it was just a one time thing and they’d be civil with each other. 

Neither of those things happened. Angel had ignored her that day. Walked right by her like he had no clue or care who she was. That continued for the day, then the whole week, followed by the month. The tension that built between the two grew large, eventually the two were just out right rude to each other. 

Which leads to the first thing she was so definite about. Visiting the club. Bishop gave that up within the first month of Lara living with him. He found that having her around wasn’t just enjoyable, but also helpful. Lara knew her way around the scrapyard and was cleaning the place up. Organizing paperwork, scheduling visits for copper pickups, working with refineries to repurpose the metals, and everything in between. She mainly kept to herself, so that did help Bishop in the grand scheme of things along with the fact that he kept club business way out of her reach. While she would occasionally hang out with the guys, she mainly just lent a helping hand and when she was hanging with the guys, Bishop would lie if he said it wasn’t damn entertaining. Seeing her deliver an attitude, that usually only he saw, at the guys to keep them in their place was not only hilarious but it made Bishop proud of his kid. 

So much in fact, that here they were, five years later and Lara was still living with him. And he was content with the idea of her in Santo Padre, but that didn’t mean Lara wasn’t ready to rock the boat a little bit. 

_______________

The sound of motorcycles vibrated the ground but Lara kept cleaning up, unfazed by the group of bikers entering the yard. Through the headphones that were blasting music in her ears, she heard the familiar voice of her father as he approached her. 

“You know we got a prospect to do that, right?” The man was taking his riding gloves off chuckling at the scene of his daughter cleaning up. 

“Maybe so, but you got EZ runnin’ bitch for everyone else that clean up seems to fall at the bottom of his list,” she smirked as she tossed the bottles into the recycling bin and then folded up her sleeves. 

Bishop laughed at the boldness of the girl, she was the only one who could ever talk like that to him and truthfully it was because he knew she got the attitude from him. 

“You left the house early today,” he followed her to the steps of the clubhouse making conversation. 

“I went to go see an apartment.” 

The words froze Bishop for a moment before he furrowed his brows and began to question the girl. 

“Where?” His voice was gruff and deep. 

“One on Mango Street and another on Cherry Blossom,” she didn’t even offer a look towards the man knowing that his response was about to start an issue between them. 

“So you saw apartmentS,” he emphasized the plural in the word, “in Santo Padre.” 

They stepped inside the clubhouse where pretty much everyone was hanging around, doing their own thing. 

“Yup,” she squeezed behind the counter next to a couple of the girls who manned the bar as she dropped the glassware she had collected outside into the sink and washed her hands. 

“So you’re looking to move into your own place in Santo Padre?” he said standing in front of the bar trying to make eye contact with her. The questions he was asking were pretty much a repeat of the last. But it was just taking him a minute to wrap his head around the shock of it. 

“You ask a lot of questions,” her attitude was growing as she popped her headphones out and put them in her pocket. 

Before he could respond a group of the younger Mayans had entered into the clubhouse with loud laughs as they joked with each other causing both of them to look at the door. Lara took the opportunity to slip from behind the bar and to the table where Hank was sitting, in hopes to escape the conversation she was having with her father. 

“Save me,” she whispered to Hank as she approached the table. Lara gripped her uncle’s shoulders in desperation for him to help her and almost instantly a smirk filled the man's face. 

“Not sure if I want to be dragged into whatever you got going on with your ol’ man,” he laughed. 

“Lalo” Bishop used the nickname he gave her when she was a little girl with firmness behind his tone. “We agreed you’d leave here,” he leaned over the table, “and now you’re out here looking at fuckin’ apartments on fucking Cherry Blossom Street,” he spoke outraged.

“Yea, you’re on your own.” Hank got up and kissed the girl's head before retreating to anywhere but there. 

“Are we really going to do this?” Lara sighed and looked at him. 

“Yea, we fuckin’ are,” his anger level was rising. 

Lara rolled her eyes and then looked at her father, his face was filled with frustration and she’d lie if she said it didn’t break her heart a little bit. 

“Look, I just need my own space,” she pleaded with him knowing that wasn’t his concern. 

“That’s fine, Lalo,” his voice had more sympathy in it as he moved to sit down at the table. “I just thought we agreed that you would leave Santo Padre. Start fresh somewhere.” 

She joined him at the table, her shoulders leaned against the back of the chair. “We said that nearly 5 years ago. It was only two years after Aiden. Things were different,” she paused for a minute thinking about how much changed. She got pulled into thinking about what brought her back here which led her to her next statement. “Things were...messy.” 

The name of his youngest child stung Bishop as it left Lara’s mouth and she could tell immediately. 

“I don’t want to be far from you. Is that so much to ask?” she smiled hoping it would lighten the mood. “Dad’s little girl,” she raised her eyebrows and laughed at the comment. 

“Shut up,” his eyes rolled as the smirk grew on his face at the sarcastic comment from his daughter.

“I’ll even let you come over and fix shit,” she crossed her arms and leaned back in the seat. 

“Oh yea, I’m sold,” he laughed nodding his head. 

Before they could continue someone was interrupting their conversation. 

“Yo, Bish. El Padrino’s on his way.” Angel hovered over the two with an unlit cigarette dangling from his mouth.

“No one ever taught you manners?” Lara was standing up now fully annoyed by the tall biker. Angel and Lara had a simple dynamic, they didn’t like each other and they made it very known. Between what went down between them, she had seen the way he treated the girls that hung around the clubhouse and that mixed in with his cockiness created a very noticeable dislike between them. 

Pushing her way in between Bishop and Angel, she bent down and kissed her father on the cheek. 

“I’m going to pick up Frankie and we’ll be at Soph’s teaching the kids jewelry making all day.” Lara said as she hugged the man goodbye. 

“I’ll be home late too. I have a shift at The Villa tonight,” she completely ignored Angel’s presence until she reached and grabbed the unlit cigarette from his mouth.

“You know these will kill you?” She brought it to her mouth and lit it, taking a deep inhale. 

“What the fuck?” His voice raised a pitch at the audacity of the young woman. 

Bishop offered a slight smirk but then wiped the look off his face before either of them could see. As Angel looked towards him to do something Obispo lifted his hands up in surrender. 

“Don’t look at me,” his head shrunk into his shoulders as he shrugged. 

“Maybe next time you’ll learn to say excuse me,” Lara called out as she grabbed her backpack and headed out the door. 

_______________

“If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life what would it be?” Frankie asked Lara as they sat at the table putting together bracelets as the kids around them were doing the same. 

“I think I would choose the Frozen CD!!!” a little boy who was about 7 years old jumped up to answer the question he overheard which caused the table to shake and the assortment of beads to rattle. 

“Great choice, Joshua!” Lara smiled at the young boy. “Remember to try and be aware of your surroundings though, we don’t want you to get hurt,” she gripped the table to stop the shaking before things fell to the ground. 

“Sorry Ms. Lara.”

“No need to apologize,” she smiled at the boy and stood up nodding for Frankie to follow. 

Lara began volunteering at Sophie’s jewelry shop without even realizing it. She ended up visiting the woman so much that it just sort of happened. Lara had always been into making designs up when it came to jewlwery. Beading, braiding, bending, you name it. It was therapeutic for the girl, while also kept her mind occupied, even back in the day when not nearly as many thoughts were taking up space in her brain. Bishop always used to say to anyone who’d listen, ‘Lara could accessorize trash and turn it into something beautiful.’ There were just so many reasons she held onto the hobby, which is what led her to the present moment. 

The girls made their way over to the register of the shop as Lara continued to make her bracelet in hand. 

“Did you tell your dad that we got an apartment?” Lara asked Frankie. 

“Did you?” she responded back with her eyebrows raised. 

“My dad wants me to stay as close as possible, when I told him we got a place together in Santo Padre it was like a sigh of relief came over him. I only live one town over now and you’d think I was halfway across the world,” the girl joked and jumped on the counter to sit. 

“Bishop freaked,” Lara grabbed her water bottle next to the register, wrapping the finished bracelet around her knuckles as she cracked the cap of the bottle. “And I didn’t even mention that we signed a lease.”

“I’m sure you freaked too, Mrs. Attitude,” Frankie smirked. 

“Besides the point,” Lara rolled her eyes with a chuckle, “it seemed like he partially came around in the end. It's gonna take a few more conversations but either way I’m doing my own thing. Only reason I stayed this long is because domestically, he’s a mess. The man needs a woman in his life because otherwise that house would just crumble.” 

Just as she finished that statement Sophie came out from the back with a shipment box. The kids at the table began to get riled up in excitement to see the woman. 

“Hook him up with Soph,” Frankie said casually as she scrolled on her phone. 

“Honestly, not a bad idea,” Lara looked at how amazing the woman who owned the jewelry shop was with the kids. She already meddled enough in Bishop’s life though, organizing the scrapyard and keeping his house clean was enough for Lara, she didn’t need to get involved in his love life too. She moved on and continued to talk about her father. 

“He’s finally starting to show signs of healing but you can’t even say Aiden’s name without feeling like you just stabbed him in the heart,” Lara brought the bottle up to her mouth. 

“We all have different ways to grieve,” Frankie sympathized with the man. “I mean, you’re here,” she motioned around the room at the kids making jewelry.

“This is to honor him though,” Lara offered up an excuse. 

“And maybe what Bish is doing is his own way of honoring him.” Frankie shrugged knowing her point was clear but not wanting to rub salt into her best friend's wound. 

“Alright, Jennifer Melfi.” Lara referred to her as the therapist from the Sopranos as a joke. 

Frankie laughed and walked over to the table to help the kids get ready as the session was wrapping up for the day.  For a moment Lara went back in time in her mind, thinking about this connection to her brother.

“Lara, can you teach me how to make jewelry?” The little boy said randomly as she pushed him in the grocery cart with Antonia next to her. 

“Of course I can.” The girl smiled as she leaned over the cooler to grab a tray of steak. 

Antonia looked over and smiled at the comment the boy made and continued walking down the food aisle. 

“Will they bully me at school for wearing it?” He asked as he was swinging his legs through the cart openings.

“If anyone says anything to you, you tell them your sister will come down there and scare them straight,” she whispered so Antonia couldn’t hear. 

“Thanks Lara.” The boy smiled and rested his hand on hers that was gripping the cart. 

“I know you hate hearing this but you are so much of your father it blows my mind.” Antonia said as the two of them caught up to her. Lara had thought she was out of earshot to the woman but clearly she wasn’t.

Lara smiled to herself at the comment. It had been an act whenever she’d roll her eyes at the ‘your just like your father comments’. Truthfully, it made her happy. Her father was strong, he was resilient, being like him was a compliment. 

The memory quickly faded from her mind and she joined Frankie to help the kids pack up and as the parents arrived Frankie continued to talk to the girl about club stuff. 

“You comin’ to hang at the club tonight?” Frankie was adjusting the backpack on one of the kids before sending him out the door. 

“I’m at The Villa until closing tonight, if I’m able to hop out early I’ll probably come by,” she was crossing off the names of each student who left to make sure everyone was accounted for. 

“EZ told me it’s just going to be lowkey. Not too many randoms.” Frankie now stood next to Lara leaning against a table that was now practically empty and only had a few more kids left around it. 

“Then what’s even the point?” Lara smiled knowing her best friend was about to lecture her. 

“You know one day one of the randoms you bring home or to the bathroom of the club, whatever you do, is going to be a serial killer and I’m going to have to help two white girls that run a podcast solve your murder,” she glared at the girl, “and I’m not holding back. They’re gonna know every excruciating detail about you.” 

Lara laughed out loud at the comment, “I mean I’m not sure what the difference is, it’s not like the ones I actually know are any better, they were now whispering secretly so the two kids left that were playing at the furthest seat at the table couldn’t hear.  “So I have some fun,” she shrugged her shoulders, “I see no harm. Plus, you’re getting your information from the Prospect. That’s your first fuck up,” Lara joked. 

“Harm is... it's what you’ve been doing for 5 years now. You know it’s just a temporary bandage on an overly infected wound,” the girl lectured her. 

“When you said you’d want to go to school for psychology I didn’t realize I was signing up to be your guinea pig patient,” Lara answered with a tone that was friendly enough for Frankie to surpass the sass. 

“Mhm. I’m just looking out for you,” she said, hoping to end the conversation there, “and if anything, EZ knows what the party’s going to be like because they make him get all the beer and food and shit,” she rebutled as they packed up before heading their separate ways. 

___________

Lara said her goodbyes to the last family to leave the restaurant for the night. It had just hit 10:30, which was an early night for her. Typically she would find herself leaving close to midnight but then again, it was a weekday. She said her goodbyes and clocked out, taking her apron off, along with her tie as she walked over to the car Bishop had got her. Before getting into the driver's seat she rummaged through the back for an outfit to put on. Working late nights at The Villa turned her car into a walk in closet to avoid the extra stop between destinations. She quickly changed her outfit and took her hair out of the messy bun it had previously been in before driving off to the clubhouse. 

The gate was open, which meant more people were coming, and that meant that this wasn’t some lowkey party. Lara parked off to the side, close to where EZ’s trailer was to avoid getting blocked in. As she locked her car, she made her way towards the large green gate to see dozens of people in the lot. The music was blaring, the fight rink was seeing a lot of action, people were dancing, and that’s when she saw her actual uncle about to walk past her. 

“Tio Marcus?” Her tone came out as a question even though she was 100% it was him. 

His face looked sad, a look Lara wasn’t familiar with when it came to the man. He was always cheerful around the girl, she knew he had a serious side to him, but it was something she rarely saw growing up, only when she would interrupt him and Bishop. 

“Lara?” He said in the same questioning tone. His face lit up a bit when he saw her and he quickly brought her in for a hug. “Where’ve you been all day?” The two let go of their embrace and stood in front of one another.

“Work,” she sighed, holding up her name tag that was on the sweater she held in her right hand. 

“All day?” he frowned knowing he got there around 10AM. 

“I volunteer at the jewelry shop when I can,” she shrugged, “then I work nights at this restaurant downtown,” she explained. 

“Workin’ hard. I’m proud of you.”  

“Where’re you headed? Seems like the party’s just getting started.” Her eyes glanced around the yard as the large crowd around the fight ring yelled to declare a winner. 

“Business. My partying days are over,” a smile formed on his face.

“I don’t believe that for one second,” she smiled back before giving him a goodbye hug.

“Next time you’re in town, take your business,” her tone was cheeky, “to The Villa, I’ll set you up at a good table, you might even eat for free,” her eyebrows raised and wiggled. 

Marcus laughed, “Speaking of, Izzy’s been asking about you, think she wants to cook you a free meal.” 

“You tell Izzy I’ll come over for a free meal anytime,” Lara called out as both of them parted ways. 

Lara scanned the scrapyard for a familiar face, and stopped when she found her father who seemed absent minded as he sat at one of the wooden picnic tables. 

“Why’s everyone look so damn sad around here, haven’t you got the memo, we’re partyin’” Lara took her sweater and lightly hit it against her father’s legs as she sat down next to him. 

“Long day,” he responded without averting his gaze. 

“Tell me about it,” her face grew in a smile because she knew her response would get some reaction out of Bishop. 

He looked over at her with a smile on his face that couldn’t be hidden. He placed his arm behind the girl as they both leaned back against the table. 

“You wanna talk about it?” she met his gaze. 

“Things around here are changing.” 

Lara nodded and understood he wasn’t going to get too in depth of what the issue was. To be honest, what he had said was strides compared to years ago where he kept her completely in the dark. But even this, it was surface level. He never divulged anything about the club to her that wasn’t public knowledge. It bothered Lara, it put her and Bishop at odds very frequently, but tonight, she wasn’t going to argue. 

“Aren’t they always?” Lara responded as she took Bishop’s beer off the table they were leaning on for herself. 

The two sat in each other's presence for a few minutes, soaking in the night around them. 

Lara enjoyed moments like this. Sitting in comfortable silence with her father while the world around them moved on and they were just on lookers of it all. It was the quality time she enjoyed because she didn’t need to be thinking, just observing and enjoying. 

In the midst of her observation, she noticed EZ standing on the edge of the porch of the clubhouse with Frankie on the steps to his right as they chatted and laughed. Lara could pick up on the energy between them and just offered up a little smirk to herself as she sipped on the beer. 

“What’s goin’ on with those two?” Bishop asked with the same exact smirk on his face as Lara as he pointed nonchalantly at EZ and Frankie. 

“Beats me,” Lara responded by moving her eye around the scrapyard and stopping at Angel. 

“What’s goin’ on with that one?” her head nodded towards Angel who was sulking privately which was unlike the man, especially at a party. 

“Family shit.” Bishop said, standing up. “Can’t believe I’m sayin’ this, but if I tell you this, you can’t go runnin’ your mouth to him.” Bishop pointed at her. 

“Me?” she pretended to be shocked. “Run my mouth?” her hand raised to her chest as her jaw dropped and she looked around as if she was searching for the audacity of her father’s words. 

Bishop rolled his eyes. “Cut the bullshit, Lalo.” he joked back at her. 

“Tell me all the chismoso,” she leaned forward. 

“EZ asked me to be his sponsor. The two of them got some shit to work out, who knows.” Bishop explained, standing over the girl. 

Lara’s face dropped a bit, the last time Bishop was a sponsor was the last time she felt she really knew her dad. Or at least who he used to be. She’d get glimpses of that man every so often still to this day, but once he sponsored Medina for the club, that was when he became 100% invested. It made sense, with someone’s life on the line, and that call on your conscience. But it didn't make it any easier on the family Bishop left behind. 

“Don’t give me that look,” Bishop said to Lara, knowing everything she was thinking just from her expression.

Lara quickly shook her head to wipe the disappointment off her face and replaced it with a grin. “He’s lucky to have you. You’ve always been a good person to look up to.” The tears began to well up behind her eyes but after a few blinks she was able to push them back. 

Bishop kissed his teeth and brought the girl in for a quick hug before he got down to her eye level. 

“I’m sorry I pushed this life on you,” his hand cupped the back of her head with a strong grip.

“When are you going to realize I want to be a part of this life?” Lara wasn’t being mean this time though, she wasn’t trying to argue, she was being honest. She accepted that this is what was meant for her life a while ago, but Bishop was still not letting anyone in.

He reached towards the girl to wipe the few stray tears that began to fall on her cheek and was about to speak but she didn’t allow it.   

“Don’t,” she stopped him by shaking her head loose from the grip. “Don’t do this shit now. I’m here now because I want to be. Let’s leave it at that.” She quickly pressed a kiss to her fathers cheek as they both stood up. “I’m going to get another beer and enjoy this party,” she was now too far for them to get any further in the conversation, “and I suggest you do the same!'' She called out and then jogged up to EZ and Frankie. 

“Look what the cat dragged in.” EZ grinned as the girl approached. 

“Heard the big news, prospect.” Lara said as she tossed him her empty beer. 

“Not sure if you’re happy for me, or happy you have something to hold over Angel’s head.” EZ laughed as he straightened his back from leaning on the porch. 

“Why does everyone think I’m gonna use this as some sort of leverage on Angel?” A scoff escaped her mouth as she turned to Frankie since EZ was now laughing and making his way inside to replenish the girl's beer. 

“Because anyone with two eyes and ears can see that you two have some deep rooted shit.” Frankie spoke. The girl had no idea about Angel and Lara’s run in at the local bar five years ago. The only people that knew were Lara and Angel and Lara was going to keep it that way. 

“You two bicker like an old married couple,” Frankie continued to explain. 

Lara quickly changed the topic not wanting to hint at anything between her and Angel. “You’re getting mighty close with EZ,” her shoulder lightly tapped Frankie’s in an attempt to tease her. 

Frankie laughed, “What if I told you, we were kind of…”

Frankie didn’t get to finish her sentence before Lara interrupted. “Tell me you’re dating the prospect. Teeellllll me you’re dating the prospect.” She repeated over and over again. 

“Can you relax?” she shushed the girl down and linked their arms as they declined down the stairs to go somewhere where less people were gathered. 

“So it’s not like there’s an official title or anything but we’re definitely more than friends,” she explained as they moved to the right side of the clubhouse ground, still near the porch. 

“So it seems like Coco ain’t the closest person you got anymore.” Lara teased again. 

“Things just are easy with him,” she rolled her eyes.

“Easy with EZ” Lara kept the mocking going. 

“Can you be serious for like 2 minutes,” Frankie pushed her. 

“Okay, you got serious me for two minutes then I’m going inside and taking about 3 shots and a round at the pool table with Coco to try and win back the money I lost last week.”

“Do you think I’m crazy?” Frankie wasn’t going to waste any time, she knew Lara was being serious about the two minutes and she understood she had a long day and needed to unwind. 

“For dating EZ? No. Not at all. Look at him. Plus he's like crazy smart, I’m sure the two of you could come up with a world peace agreement if you really tried. But at the same time, he’s more factual while you’re more philosophical, so it evens itself out, you know? Logic versus emotion.”

Frankie looked at the girl in awe. 

“What? You asked for serious, and you got 90 seconds left of it, so ask away.” Lara leaned against the pillar of the porch.

“That was really all I wanted to know. I’m going to take the rest day by day.” 

“You tell Hank yet?” Lara was still being serious, wondering how the man was going to take it. He had to know something like this could happen, especially having her around so often.

“Tell Hank what?” Ez smiled as he reproached the girls. 

“About the apartment,” Lara covered for the girl quickly. 

“Oh yea, Frankie told me you’re moving into your new place on Saturday.” Ez handed over the beer to the girl. 

“New place?” Bishop’s voice sounded from the left. 

He was in perfect earshot of the conversation. Lara kicked herself off from leaning on the porch as well as mentally kicked herself in the ass for not being aware of her surroundings. Her plan was to warm Bishop up to the idea of her having a place in Santo Padre, and with how things went this morning she was still in the beginning stages of her plan. And while Lara wasn’t sure how much he heard, he definitely heard enough which meant she skipped warming him up and ripped the bandaid straight off.

Lara took a deep breath as she took in Bishop’s face. She swore she could see steam coming out of his ears. This might’ve been the angriest she’d seen the man since she was a kid and all she managed to come up with was a cheesy smile followed by one word.