Chapter 2

"So, Bernardo, now that my youngest son is home from New York we will have no peace around this house, will we, Salvador?"

Leonardo Mendosa reached out affectionately and rumpled the dark thatch of curly black hair on his youngest son's head as he would a child.

"Sure, Dad, and Salvador isn't wild at all," he replied, reaching into a pocket of his black leather jacket with the Morros insignia on the back for his comb and nervously rearranged his rumpled hair. He hated his father when he rumpled his hair that way. That was for boys and small children, not for a man such as he. He hated the fact that he could not tell him to stop doing it. Under ordinary circumstances, he would have told him not to do it anymore, but now, with him so ill, he could say nothing.

He was alarmed at how much he'd changed, just since the beginning of the summer, but he'd quickly put the thought out of his mind. Old people were always getting sick, weren't they? It couldn't really be serious. All he had to do was cheer him up a little, like he had ever since he was small, and he'd let him get away with anything he wanted.

"Look at him, Salvador," the bedridden older man laughed, turning to his elder son, his thin face wreathed in smiles. "Not a hair can be out of place. But you make me proud of you. I have heard from my cousin in New York and they are all well pleased to have you marry their daughter. She too, is pleased to have you as her husband. You did well in New York. We have done well through your actions."

"I am glad. She will make a good wife," he said. "It will be a long wait for me until she is old enough to be married. How many years will it be? Three? Four? Whatever, I will look forward to it anxiously."

Looking from one to the other, Leonardo Mendosa spoke, his voice trembling with intensity. "For a father," he said, "all the medicines in the world don't do as much as having two sons as fine as you two are. Sometimes this summer, when I was really bad, I didn't think I'd live to see tomorrow. But now, today, I feel like I could live forever. And even if I don't, just seeing my youngest son fulfilling my dream of reuniting my family that was so cruelly separated in Cuba, makes all things fine."

"And you will be there at the wedding!" Salvador added, his high forehead furrowing into an angry frown. "You're talking like you won't be here to see the wedding, but you will be, you must be!"

"I hope so," he insisted. "No matter what, I can meet Saint Peter with a pure heart because I know I have done my best to bring our family together again. I am so proud of my two good sons!"

Leonardo settled back on the pillow and smiled weakly. "It is good to have you home again. We have missed you. I'm tired now. I have to sleep."

A few moments later, Bernardo and his brother were making their way down the hall from their fathers bedroom, both silently worried about their father's condition but neither speaking of it to the other.

It seemed to the older brother that his life was full of problems lately. Not only was there tension in the Morros gang over how to defend their turf from rival gangs, he was also faced with the total exposure of his gang and its activities by the biggest newspaper in Miami. For months now there had been newspaper articles in all the local papers about street gangs in Miami, making it hot for all of them, for everything they did was subject to investigation. Sensing the issue's vote-getting potential, the mayor had personally instructed the police commissioner to launch an all-out war on the most powerful of the gangs to break them up, destroy them. At first, Salvador hadn't thought too much about it. The Morros had ridden out these things before. All you had to do was lie low for a while, and lay off the heavy crime and soon the media and the police would almost forget they were even alive. That was the way it normally worked, and would have worked this time too, but for one man, one stupid, idiot reporter who had taken more than a passing interest in the Morros. He had gone after them like a holy cause, writing article upon article about them, as though he wanted to see them all in the grave. He had come pretty close to doing just that too. He had made life so hot for the Morros that they could hardly walk down the street without being followed by cops or by the reporter himself. Hell, the guy, Rick Taggart was his name, seemed to know as much about them, their history, and what they were doing as they did. Somehow or another, they were going to have to shut the guy up, but how?

They had three choices on how to get rid of the guy, each one posing its own particular problems. The whole gang had discussed what to do, and a lot of very dangerous arguments had come to the surface during the discussion, but eventually, they had all come to the same conclusion. They couldn't murder him; it might cause more trouble then they could handle. Nor could they try to scare him off. Knowing Taggart, it would only make him all the more anxious to destroy them. No, the only workable solution was to simply knock him and his credibility out of the picture. They had even figured out a fool-proof plan, one that could not fall, and it all depended on Bernardo's power of persuasion over his sometime girlfriend, Maria Paloma.

Later, after Salvador had explained the plan to his younger brother, they both parted to complete their parts of the plan, Salvador going off to get the necessary materials, and Bernardo off to find the person who could make or break the whole deal. He found her in one of the deserted houses the gang used as a hide- out or meeting place. She and one of the other Morros members, probably the meanest of the gang, Chico Ramirez, were engaged in some sort of weird game. Maria was down on her knees in front of the muscular gang member, moving away from him. She lurched awkwardly upward, her hugely billowing tits bobbing balloon-like up and down as she twisted and swayed, trying to stand up. There was something strangely exciting about the tableau they made, and Bernardo's cock stiffened against his thigh as he walked toward them, realizing that she had been sucking Chico's prick. Unconsciously, he moved with the measured, slightly swaggering step the other Latin men used to show their superiority to women. The sight of the lewdly wriggling and panting girl made his hard young balls contract hotly inside his slacks. Chico knew how to handle women, all right. "Salvador wants to see you down at the corner of Fourth and Main."

"Yeah? What about?"

Bernardo eyed him coolly. "He's got some business for you to take care of."

"Right, man, right. Say, nice to have you back from the Big Apple."

"Thanks."

"Salvador tell you the plans for Taggart?"

"Yeah, that's why he wants you. Gotta get the stuff for the frame and I have to get rid of you in order to get my part settled."

"Oh, yeah. Sure. See you later."

With a short laugh, Chico looked at Maria and back at Bernardo, then left the two alone.

"That Chico's a fuckin' creep," Maria muttered, getting to her feet after the black-haired Chico had made his departure.

"You miss me, Maria?" Bernardo said, knowing damn well she never missed anyone. She was a hard-hearted bitch if he had ever met one.

"Oh, you're full of shit," the girl replied disdainfully, combing her curly black hair and adjusting her makeup with a pocket minor. "You know damned well that I like you as much as I like anyone, but did I miss you? Shit, I don't even miss tomorrow if it doesn't come!"

Bernardo smiled, his eyes darkening as he took in her sensuously rounded form crammed into the tight-fitting shorts and top, beneath which she was apparently not wearing a bra because her tits were molded seductively into the halter top, filling the material to the bursting point. "Yeah, you didn't look like you missed me very much a few moments ago."

Maria shrugged in annoyance. "Oh, that's just a cock. Doesn't matter who's it is, I use cocks 'cause I like to fuck. Sometimes I like the man who owns the cock, sometimes not. No matter either way."

"And Chico is one you don't like," he asked.

"But I like you," Maria replied.

With that, the sensuous brunette sidled over to Bernardo and pressed her body up tight against his, wriggling a little so he could feel the surging outline of her titties and the hard mound of her pussy. "Hey Bernardo, why don't you and I go have a fast one, huh?"

"Sounds good, Maria," Bernardo answered, his cock throbbing hungrily at her obscene invitation. "First I want you to do me a little favor, okay?"