ZACHARY QUIROA
Human
Posts: 61
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Apr 7, 2024 14:43:08 GMT
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Post by ZACHARY QUIROA on Nov 29, 2023 21:06:46 GMT
The second tub of ice cream slipped into trunk of the car alongside the first. Zach gave the lid a thump with his fist, not entirely trusting the assholes to get that part right. Since he’d caught Ricky scurrying after Manny he’d been taking less chances that usual. Double checking everything the pendejos did, even though they started muttering about being micro managed. He’d have loved to see any of them go to Manny to tell him that he was being too careful. Cause there was such a thing where Manny and the cartel were involved. You got sloppy, you got dead.
Or put behind bars.
He walked halfway down the alley in either direction before he’d barked at Juan to bring the delivery out to the car, trying to relieve the itch between his shoulder blades by making sure Ricky wasn’t hiding behind one of the dumpsters. Hiding in the filth probably woulda ruined one of those fancy suits he wore these days, but he doubted that would stop the boss’ brother from getting dirty if he had to.
Ricky’s attention all seemed to be on Manny, it didn’t mean the rest of them wouldn’t get swept up in the investigation though. They were just pawns in the vicious game of law and order between the brothers. It wouldn’t matter that he’d been there, trying to play third wheel, for most of their childhoods, only that he’d made his decision in the end and that had been to stick with Manny instead of clutching onto Ricky’s coattails. If he’d done that his parents probably would’ve been dead right now, his betrayal transferring the target to their backs. It wouldn’t have mattered that his parents were loyal as hell to the family, only that he wouldn’t have been then.
Drifting into the doorway, Juan frowned, black brows knotting on a forehead that he probably could’ve used to smack those tubs shut without a whimper. The ability to take a beating was a plus in the cartel, but some took it too far, ending up looking like cavemen, knotted up with scar tissue, any brain cells they’d had slowly disappearing. ”Hey, man, what do you want me to do while you’re gone? If the boss sees me just sittin’ around in here …”
”He ain’t gonna see you sittin’ cause you’re gonna be working,” Zach told him, smiling at him for a moment. His face had gone back to serious as he grabbed Juan’s arm and turned him back towards the store. ”Just watch the kids at the counter and try not to get in their way. It ain’t hard. I’ll be back in an hour.”
”I was meant to be…”
Juan tried to twist back, but Zach ducked under his arm. He was inches shorter than Juan, probably fifty pounds lighter too. If it was a straight fight, he’d be on his back on the floor, head ringing, in an instant, but it wasn’t and he just danced back towards the driver’s seat.
”An hour,” he warned. He got in, gunning the engine before Juan tried to push the point again. Probably faster since the wheels in his head span a lot faster than the pendejo’s.
Ten minutes later the first drop was done, the tub passed off to one of their distributors. The guy had seemed a little disappointed there wasn’t a little Rocky Road tucked in with the plastic bags full of sugar. Zach climbed back into the car, shaking his head. The store had proven a decent cover, but damn people got stupid about the ice cream.
Mystic Falls was small enough that he probably coulda found the next spot on his own, he thumbed the address into Google Maps all the same though. The chirpy voice talked him through the centre of town and onto a road that led out the other side – rural meant out of the way at least. He was staring down at it, trying to decide if the damn thing had lost its mind and was trying to send him up some track that’d get him lost in the woods, when he caught the flash of blue in the rear view.
Fuck.
He considered gunning the car and outracing whoever was behind the wheel, but he didn’t know these roads. The car would end up wrapped around a tree and the cops would be pulling a tub full of baggies out of the trunk. Zach panted out a breath and cursed before he slowed down. Maybe he’d just been going too fast. Maybe Ricky had finally grown a pair and had put warrants out for them. A quick glance at his phone didn’t show him any messages about the latter at least.
The car was pulled off the road. The window was rolled down, his hands sitting at the top of the wheel in plain sight. Zach watched the car in the rear view, letting out an explosive breath when he saw Ricky exit. Shit. He stayed put, knowing it wouldn’t be out of the bounds of reason that Ricky would shoot him if he gave him the perfect opportunity to get away with it. ”Is there a problem officer?” he called as Ricky approached. He looked up, a smirk that was definitely only surface deep on his face.
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ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA
Shapeshifter
Posts: 65
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Mar 22, 2024 22:48:16 GMT
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Post by ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA on Jan 8, 2024 21:01:49 GMT
━ if you support evil, you are evil ━ RICKY KNEW THAT MANNY WAS NO LONGER working with Hector, so it was only a matter of time before he popped up somewhere else. When the ice cream shop changed owners, he thought he’d scope it out, and found his brother (and Zach, along with all their regular thugs) frequenting the place. He could only imagine the kind of awkward things that went on there. It was a pretty busy place (in the summer, at least), so how many people were going to come in hoping for ice cream and get an unwelcome surprise when the person behind the counter didn’t know how to scoop it? Did Manny know how to keep this place stocked? If he was smart, he’d have somebody else running it for him.
And he was smart. Manny hardly got his hands dirty, which made it easier to keep his name out of their records. Zach, however, seemed to be doing some of the gruntwork━probably trying to make sure none of his employees had been replaced without his knowledge━so Ricky could very easily stop him whenever he wanted. Search the van. Bust him.
Firing up the department vehicle’s engine, he peeled out a few cars behind the van, and waited until Zach was on the outskirts of town. Fewer witnesses for however this turned out.
He flicked on the lights in the unmarked sedan, and stopped on the side of the road behind the van, then hopped out of the car. Before he could even get to the door, Zach was chirping at him, and Ricky’s mouth tightened into a thin line. Zach’s heart was pattering faster despite his outward appearance, though, which gave him a little bit of satisfaction. “License and registration.” He muttered as he got closer to the window, stopping with a foot between them. He may as well go through the motions, see if he could book them under a phony license as an excuse to bring Zach in. He had to start really putting pressure on them now, especially after what happened with Joel’s wh-re. “What are you carrying in the back, Zachary?” He didn’t expect the truth, but he was going to ask before making him open it. They’d never be able to say he hadn’t been fair.
ZACHARY QUIROA | no notes.
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ZACHARY QUIROA
Human
Posts: 61
Played by:
Ange
Last seen Apr 7, 2024 14:43:08 GMT
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Post by ZACHARY QUIROA on Feb 4, 2024 19:46:43 GMT
Mierda! Mierda! Mierda!
The stream of curses flooded his head as he saw the lights flash in his rear view mirror. Maybe another ten minutes and the second tub would’ve been dropped off too. Nobody could’ve argued he was up to anything when there were just a couple of empty ice cream tubs in the back of the vehicle. He helped managed an ice cream store, that was like business equipment – albeit probably full of traces of something other than cream and sugar.
For just a crazy second he’d considered trying to outrun the cops, but that was gonna be a death sentence. Even in a town like this cops were likely to shoot at perps who tried to run. He wasn’t Manny, he wouldn’t survive a bullet in his back. He wouldn’t survive wrapping the van around a tree either. Human little Zach didn’t have miraculous healing or the sort of relationship with the cop in charge of taking them down that would stop him from being hauled into the station this time around.
Groaning, he dipped his head over the wheel as Ricky got out of the car. All that time he’d spent trying to make sure he wasn’t infiltrating them and he’d just been sitting out there waiting for him to fuck up and he had. Manny was gonna kill him and his was one body Ricky would give a shit about digging up.
He pushed fear aside, although Ricky could probably smell it in the air all the same. ”You didn’t tell me why I was stopped,” he shot back, not making a move to get the paperwork out of the glovebox yet. ”You need a reason to stop me and ask, right?” If it was official he would, but Ricky probably hadn’t put half the shit he’d been doing in regards to his brother in his files. The sheriff would’ve had him off of the investigation in an instant if he had. People didn’t investigate family, there was, like, too much divided loyalty there. Any court in the land would toss it out too. What did they call it? Fruit from the poisonous tree?
Ricky was the snake in that tree, already interrogating him about what he was carrying. Zach’s smile didn’t dim, but his pulse gave a little kick. Like he could put off having to open the trunk, he reached slowly for the glove box. ”Ice cream,” he shot over his shoulder as he fished out his registration. While one hand continued to hover in the air, he flipped open his wallet where he’d tossed it into the central console when he’d gotten in. The license and registration were held up in one hand. ”Betting you already know we bought the store on the square. Figured it was time to diversify.” Or to find a new spot to distribute since Hector wasn’t keen on it happening out of the bar anymore. At the rate they were burning bridges in town they’d be home before too long.
Zach relaxed back into his seat, the smile a little easier as he stared up at Ricky. If he really had proof about what was going on there he’d have come to raid the store instead of trailing him away from there. His partner wasn’t with him, there didn’t seem to be a van full of the sheriff’s people waiting just out of sight either. ”We’ve got a decent dulce de leche there, promise you it tastes as good as the stuff my ma used to make. You remember that, Ricky? When my ma used to sneak the two of you little treats?” He doubted that it’d melt that rock of a heart in Ricky’s chest any, but with a possible arrest of him, it seemed worth a try at least.
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ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA
Shapeshifter
Posts: 65
Played by:
Julia
Last seen Mar 22, 2024 22:48:16 GMT
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Post by ENRIQUE DE LA PEÑA on Mar 22, 2024 22:34:03 GMT
━ if you support evil, you are evil ━ “YOU WERE GOING THREE MILES OVER THE speed limit.” Ricky said, his smirk just as dry as his voice. Technically, he didn’t have to have any clear reasons for it, nor did he have to tell the complete truth. But if that’s what Zach wanted, then Ricky could say anything to back this up.
If it were anybody else digging into their centre console, Ricky might’ve drawn his weapon, but he knew Zach wouldn’t touch him. He certainly wouldn’t try to kill him.
Ricky snatched the documents from Zach’s hand. “Of course.” He said plainly, “After Dacre got tired of your shit.” And that’d come right from the horse’s mouth, but Ricky was betting Manny hadn’t shared anything about their meeting with Zach.
He watched Zach’s face as the man attempted to hit some sort of nerve, his own showing no sign that it’d landed. He’d seen too much awful shit in his life for something to affect him so easily. “That’s an insult to your mom’s baking abilities, Zach━though I assume nothing could hurt her as much as your current line of work.” The tiniest hint of a dark smirk appeared on the edge of his lips. “Kill the engine. I put the keys on the dash.” He ordered without much of a pause, then added, “Unlock the doors.” He assumed Manny wouldn’t buy a piece of shit without power locks.
Ricky began walking to the back of the van without waiting, pocketing Zach’s documents for now. He pulled open the back doors and immediately began rooting through the containers. Most were empty, but, suspiciously, so was the truck. Finally, he picked up one that had a little weight to it. Ricky tugged off the lid and sighed.
He shouldn’t have been disappointed at finding evidence, but nnow he had a dilemma. After Dorothy’s alleged “s-xual ass-ult,” McGrath was itching for a win. Shutting down the whole business would overturn too much information he wasn’t ready to divulge yet. Plus, Ricky was still hoping the gentle, patient approach would work with his brother.
Ricky pulled the packages from the container and closed the ice cream tub again, then tossed it back in and slammed the doors shut.
Back at the window, he lifted the baggie and made a show of weighing it in his palm. “Get out of the car.” As he spoke, he reached into the window and pulled the handle, opening the door and stepping back to grant room. “Here’s what’s going to happen: I’m going to take you to the station and say I saw you driving erratically. When I asked you to step out of the vehicle, after noticing your demeanour was off, I patted you down and discovered this in your pocket.” He shifted out of the way, waiting for Zach to get out before he closed the door. “I searched the back of the vehicle and found nothing, and you have logs of legitimate deliveries from today, meaning it was a private offence. I’ll book you for possession and Driving Under the Influence, and one of my brother’s fancy lawyers will have the charges lowered or dropped completely, and it’ll be up to your employer whether or not he allows you to continue working for him.”
Ricky was being reasonable. He looked Zach in the eyes, willing him to be complacent as he slipped the cuffs from his belt, desperate for this to work in a way that could benefit everyone━or at least hurt them all equally.
ZACHARY QUIROA | no notes.
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