Trials and Tribulations

Chapter 18

Another one.

Jazmin

"Nothing but ashes." I repeated back to myself. This has to do with what they were talking about earlier. About the message they sent. I guess this letter means the job was carried out.

I wonder what they could've been up to? Come on, Jaz, use your detective nosey skills. Ashes would imply there was fire involved. Oh shit.

The D.A. candidate. His house caught on fire tonight, this couldn't be a coincidence. I was just talking about how I wonder if Stephen was caught up with politicians.

I put the letter down and let my eyes linger on it for a moment. I already knew how Stephen's lifestyle was, so it's like a "what did you expect".

But it never fails to surprise me when he does one of his horrible acts, like this one.

"Jazmin." I jumped a bit and looked at Stephen with nothing but sweatpants on. His hair was wet from him just getting out the shower. "You alright?" He pans his eyes down to the open letter on the counter. "You were in my things?" He now had his eyes slit.

"Did you do it?"

"You're gonna have to be specific." He gritted out. This was going escalate quickly. I leaned against the counter with my arms crossed.

"Tonight, I heard on the radio. The D.A.'s house had been burned down." I turned around and picked up the letter, "Then I see this-."

"You had no right to read that letter, Jazmin."

"Maybe not, but I did and I'm pretty sure I have my answer." He walked toward me slowly and I could smell his cologne on him.

"Okay...and?" He probably was wondering what was going through my mind at the moment. Was I mad at him? I'll always think the stuff he does is unnecessary. I am a firm believer that violence is never the answer...well.

"Why?" I looked up at him. His eyes were trying to read mine, then he looked away.

"He was overstepping his boundaries." He said in a emotionless voice.

"What was he doing?"

"He said if he were elected D.A., he was going to come after Giovanni, Damien, Vinny and I. He claimed he had solid evidence against us and we would surely be sent to prison for the rest of our lives." He scoffed, "I had someone do recon on his house and they found out where the evidence was, but it was too risky to just take it."

"So I made it look like it was a gas leak, but my guy just tampered with the radiator valve." He looked at me, intensely. "And I burned that bitch to the ground." He said unapologetically.

"What did he have on you?" He looked taken back by the question. I crossed my arms, letting him know damn well I was serious.

"A couple years ago everyone was trying to kill me. Three mafia leaders specifically, who are no longer with us." He sighed, "One night, we knew exactly where they were going to be together at the same time. One of my guys had gotten inside and then told us about it. The guys and I went to that warehouse on the edge of the city, around midnight." He laughed, "I don't know why the hell they wouldn't bring any type of backup, stupido. But when they were discussing at the table, they got straight bullets of our AR 15's." He shrugged, "That's that."

"What was the evidence to prove you were there?" He shook his head.

"Vinny was being an idiot and wanted to go through Machiavelli's pockets. Then they ended finding Vinny's DNA and were going to connect all of us for being there at the scene." He threw up his hands, "That's the entire story."