Don't You Recognize My Face?

The Pacific breeze blew threw the open Cherokee that held the Marino sisters. The same Marino's that have been known to run most of North American crime. The drive and the ones riding shot gun were twins, and looked almost exactly a like. The two in the back were the two youngest of the family.

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“Where are we going?” The youngest asked me.

“To our new house.” I mumbled back, getting into the turn lane, now heading towards the beach.

“Alex, what was wrong with our old one?” My twin, Amber asked.

“Cops were on to us, anyways we are in a new city now, shouldn't you guys be excited.” I said back, sighing, I didn't want to leave either, Yuma had almost become my home, and that was a first, no place was safer. Until now.

“But what about our parents?” Emily asked.

“They will be fine, they are moving farther out no one will find them. We have to make a name for our business here, they will continue down there.” Amber assured Emily. It is true. Our parents did leave without us. But that is how it is in this world, the second you turn 18 you take your siblings and go to a state with little to no family influence. It is how you keep a business like this running or at least that is how it worked for us. "Anyways, you should be happy we get Southern California. It was here or Iowa."

I sighed, turning up the music so I could drown out their conversations, Oingo Boingo was not exactly what I was feeling, but it still did the trick, my sisters knew to not talk over my music by now. I could smell the salt coming off of the beach, it was such a drastic change from the heavy smell of hot as balls desert.

“Where is our new house?” Amber asked, turning down the music.

“It’s not that far, it’s in Huntington so maybe ten more minutes.” I said after turning on Pacific Coast Highway.

“Lets listen to Metallica, it'll only take one song to get there,” Emily suggested from the back.

“You have a problem with Oingo Boingo?” I asked, I wasn't feeling Metallica at the time I wasn't even feeling Oingo Boingo, but I'd be damned to let my sister win.

“No, I’m just a bit bored is all.” She growled back.

I sighed, switching the music to something harder, which ended up being Metallica, go figure. We quickly got to our new home, in the middle of Huntington. Pulling into the driveway of our new house I noticed the group of guys sitting in the driveway of the home nextdoor. They all looked to be about my age, except one who was closer to Chloe's age. Just by one look I knew we would be doing business together soon.

“The only thing guys is that we only have clothes, we need to go furniture shopping.” I said, turning off the Jeep and stepping out, welcoming the cool breeze.

“Well, it could be worse.” Chloe mumbled as she got out and grabbed her bag from the back.

“I get the biggest room, Amber gets the second, Emily you get the third room on the left up stairs and Chloe you get the one to the right of Emily’s.” I explained as I pulled the bags out of the trunk.

The room had two floors, three if you included the basement. The house had always been owned by either the family or close business partners. To keep it on the down low the only thing that has ever stayed the same between sales was the sound proofing and office in the basement. Other than that there was never anything left behind. No furniture, not even a speck of dust. It has always worked for us, and I could not be happier about the placement of this home.

It took awhile to get each of our bags into the correct room, but finally the Jeep was empty and I could have a smoke break. I lit up a joint on the front step trying to get an idea of the neighborhood around me. These streets had to be my streets and they had to be my streets as soon as possible or I might have gone mad.

“Hey!” I heard from next door.

“Hey.” I mumbled back, blowing out the smoke from my lungs as I let that one word out.

“I’m Jimmy, this is Brian, that’s Matt, Zacky’s over there and then that’s Johnny.” Jimmy said, pointing to everyone.

“Well, I’m Alex.” I said, taking a long drag again, holding it in long enough to feel it begin to burn in my lungs.

“You wouldn’t be smoking a joint would you?” Jimmy asked, coming closer, he had the cutest look on his face. Almost as if he had just found his soul mate.

I looked up and blew the smoke into his face with a smirk on my face I said, “Does that answer the question?”

“Yes, it does. Know any good dealers?” Jimmy asked, smirking as he sat down next to me. I knew we would be doing business together, we would be doing quite a bit of business together.

“You’re looking at her.” I mumbled, noticing that I had already smoked half the joint.

“Oh really now, wasn’t expecting that.” He said, throwing his arm over my shoulder as if we were already friends, friends after ten minutes.

I flinched when his arm landed on my shoulder, and gave him an apologetic smile. Nothing is worse to me than having a stranger touch me, well that or getting food on my hands while eating.

“So what brings you guys down to the good ol’ Huntington?” Matt, I think was his name, asked as he walked over and sat on the ground in front of Jimmy and me.

“Couldn’t stay where we were.” I said, not wanting to inform them of the family gang or anything of that sort, not until I found out whether they were who I thought they were.

“Where are you from?” The youngest, who I was sure Jimmy had introduced as Johnny, asked as the rest of the guys came and joined us on the steps.

“Yuma.” I said, finishing the last of my joint, flicking it away from any of us.

“That’s far, what about your parents? Why are you here without them?” The tannest one asked.

“They couldn’t leave, business and all. Anyways, I am an adult it was time to move us all out.” I said, not going into detail but not lying.

“Alex we need to get shopping, oh who are you guys?” Amber asked coming out of the house with a brand new box of cigarettes, packing it as she walked closer.

“Um, this is Jimmy, Matt, Brian, Zacky and Johnny.” Nodding to each one, hoping I got each one right.

“Oh, well I’m Amber.” She said, lighting up a cigarette and blowing the smoke away from me.

“You better finish that before you step foot in my Jeep.” I growled to her, I had only a few rules and they were to not smoke in the house or the car. Period. No smell is worse than smoke inside, but maybe I was hypocritical seeing as weed was one of those things that seemed to pass that one rule everyday.

“Fine.” Amber growled back before sitting on the other side of me, smoking faster than she normally did. We were twins, one thing we shared was getting things done. No wasted time. Fast and to the point, that is how it is.

“Oh shit! Are you guys twins?” Johnny asked, with a huge grin on his face, almost like he had never seen twins before.

“No.” I said sarcastically.

“Stop being an ass, yes we are. She’s older.” Amber said, smiling over at the smaller male.

“Amber go get the others we need to get this over with as soon as possible." I said, standing up and stretching, it was not a comfortable set of stairs and my back was already throwing a fit about it, too many fights.

“Why’d you have to move?” Zacky asked, as if he had his own thoughts on why we are here and did not believe what I had said before.

“Well, some things happened and we couldn't stay there.” I said, making a face telling him that was I was going to tell, he didn't ask anymore after that but had this one look of determination to find the truth.

That was the truth, but not all the truth. The cops in Arizona had found the body of a drug dealer who had crossed me one to many times. Only thing is they found my signature and my parents had decided that they were getting too close. This day was coming for awhile and I had prepared by having my car registered in California instead of Arizona. It just made the move easier and that is why I was in charge of my sisters and Southern California.

“So guys I don’t mean to be rude and ditch you guys, but we need furniture.” I said, giving a small smile.

“I understand.” Jimmy said, helping each of his friends up from the ground. They got this devious look before pulling me into a giant group hug.

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Jimmy’s POV

We left Alex and her sisters, heading for the conference room. Our only soundproofed room we used to discuss our own side of the business.

“What do you think of the new guys?” I asked, finding a seat at the head of the large table in the center.

“I feel as though they are going to try to take us over.” Matt said from his spot on the other end.

“They know what they are doing.” Zacky said, rubbing his face, "you cannot be able to afford that house at that age if they didn't"

“If they get bigger than us we need to bring them down.” Johnny said, pointing out the obvious.

“Look, it’s four girls, we don’t have anything to worry about.” Brian pointed out, getting a course of ‘yeah’s from everyone.

"It is four girls that we could use to our advantage. Maybe they would be willing to join in with us we could all benefit from it. And anyways they aren't too bad on the eyes think of the guys who would buy from them," I suggested.

“Well, do you think they would join us? I mean, if they have done it for a while they wouldn't trust us to bring them in, or even join us. They would be more to the idea of building themselves up and have their own name” Matt said, challenging my ideas.

“That’s why we get with them, find what they like, get attached, something so they will trust us. There cannot be a rival gang, especially one next to us.” Zacky said, seeing my plan already.

“We don’t even know if they are actually part of that gang yet.” Johnny groaned.

“Can’t you tell? Their parents sent them away, they are from Arizona but already have a California license, they don’t tell the truth.” Brian pointed out.

“We will let them tell us the truth.” I said before starting up a new conversation about our recent suppliers untimely death.

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Alex’s POV

All of us loaded into the Jeep fighting over what music would be best to play for the ride to Ikea. We ended up all trying to rap along with Tech N9ne, but we are all teenage girls and we all know that that is not a thing that actually works out.

“I don’t trust them.” I said to my sisters.

“Why not?” Chloe asked.

“Well, they act as if they are in a gang, we have to hide ourselves as well possible in this case. If they even for a second think we are Marinos we could be completely screwed. Father said there will be another local gang living on the same street as us, I just have a feeling that they are the gang he was talking about. If anything we can use that towards our advantage. Gain some loyalty, get some new buyers from them, possible even try to join teams, just as long as everyone knows who they are up against.” I said, making sure the glove compartment was locked up before we left the Jeep once again.

It took hours but we finally hit all the furniture needs, making sure they knew to deliver exactly two hours after purchase.

“Who are you texting?” Amber asked our younger sister.

“DJ.”

DJ was our cousin. He was probably the most important of our family. He planned all the meetings as well as our hits. He chose who and how someone was going to go depending on just how bad they crossed us.

“Why isn’t he texting me?” I growled.

“Because it isn’t about anything with the family.” She sighed before turning her phone off.

When we got home Jimmy and his friends were no longer in their front yard, for some reason that worried me. There was this strange feeling that maybe they were planning something, what if they already knew who we were, already planning to go against us.

Looking out the window of my room I found I was able to look straight into a room that was almost like a meeting room. And to my luck they were all in there deep in thought. All I could think about was how well I chose my room, and how much I hoped they would leave the window open just once.

My own thoughts made me smirk as I began setting my room up for paint, and to my standards at least, setting up a room for any sort of work means blasting music and dancing to it while doing what I need to do.

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Jimmy’s POV
Our conversation was cut short by the sound of loud music coming from the house next door.

“They listen to good music.” Matt said, looking out the window, who ever it was was listening to Megadeth and they were listening to it loud.

I looked out the window to see Alex painting her room. It was a beautiful sight and I could not help but smile. The terrible thought of them being Marinos and us having to kill them off was still stuck on my mind.

“If she is one of them we have to be able to take them all out.” Brian said, trying to see if anyone was up for that.

“I never killed such good looking women.” Zacky said, placing his head into his hands.

“Lets do it the easy way, try to get them in with us. Combine both powers, they are a large gang, we aren’t, we could use people like them.” I said, trying to get the image of her laying lifeless out of my head.

“Is the great Reverend going soft?” Brian gasped.

“Shut the fuck up Syn.” I growled.

“You know guys, we fucked up. We told them our real names.” Johnny said, slapping his forehead.

“Doesn’t matter if they are who we think they are they can’t tell anyone without fucking themselves over.” Matt pointed out, making everyone nod before looking out the window.

Barenaked Ladies was now blaring through the window and she was dancing, singing into the rolling brush. I couldn’t help but smile.

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Alex’s POV

When I was done painting my room I looked around, smiling at my accomplishment and began to sing and dance to what was playing, “Be My Yoko Ono” by Barenaked Ladies.

I laughed as the song finished. I was still high, which was a weird thing for me, DJ found a great one this time. The guy definitely deserved some props for this stash.

I sat down beside a box that held my bed frame in it and began to put it together. My iPod began to play the most random of things, from Metallica to Oingo Boingo to Tech N9ne to Hilary Duff, it was as though it was fighting over what it liked most.

When I was finished with both the side tables I moved on to my desk, it was one of those you put in a corner, it was large, but it fit in with the rest of the room. When I was done I sighed and started on the chair, time flies when you're building furniture and I could just tell that my sisters were going to complain about food soon.

When I finished the chair there was a knock on my door. I smirked before walking over to it.

“We are hungry.” Amber said, of course it was Amber she was the only one that wasn’t afraid of me at the moment.

“Did everyone finish their rooms?” I sighed, rubbing my face before looking into my room which was covered in plastic and boxes.

“I think Chloe has one more thing to do.”

“Well, I need to get my mattress in and make my bed so it should be enough time for her to finish and then we will go to In-N-Out how does that sound?” I said, licking my lips at the thought of In-N-Out.

“Sounds great I’ll go tell them now.”

When she left I went into the hall and pulled in my mattress, making sure to look out the window. I smirked to see everyone was still in there taking glances at me. I looked away and began to make my bed with the pink and purple blankets and pillows. When I was done I put the iPod deck on one of the side tables, grabbed my iPod and purse, closed the window and turned around leaving my room.