"Listen Armando...," I start but was cut off by an angrier Kelly.

"What the hell is he doing here?," She says while pulling her gun out on him.

"Wait Kelly! He's with us!," Marcus says while trying to get the gun from her.

"Yeah, we can trust him, put the gun down," Mike tells her, slowly walking towards Kelly.

"Well I don't! Take him to your house, back me up here Y/N," Kelly says while motioning for me to speak up.

"Kelly... we need him. He's going to identify whoever framed Howard. It's a last resort but worth a try," I explain to her. Kelly begins to lower her gun after I explained the predicament, still eyeing Armando cautiously. "Do you trust me?," I continue.

"You know I do Y/N," She tells me while putting her gun away.

"You out of all people are okay with this?," Dorn asks while turning towards me. "Normally you'd be the one holding the gun," He continues

"We need him Dorn, I'm fine with it," I tell him.

"Are you sure?," Kelly asks again.

"Trust me, I'm perfectly fine," I say back with a small smile to reassure her. Yes, he killed Howard. And yes, he can be a jerk but we truly do need him.

"Yes, you are," Armando tells me while taking a beer from Dorn's refrigerator and peering into my phone more. We all look over at him and my dad opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off.

"Ouuuu, wait till I get my hands-," Marcus starts through gritted teeth.

"Language barrier! Ignore him." I say to Dorn and Kelly.

"That was English..." Dorn rebutted.

"Yeah, that was definitely English," Mike agrees, confused on my comment.

"Moving on! Mike, explain the plan please," I say quickly changing the subject.

"Before he does, who's Arthur?," My dad brings up again.

"Dad, now is really not the time!," I say back to him, shooting him a look that says "stop talking."

"Wait Arthur? As in Dorn's younger brother?," Kelly butts in.

"No way!! You decided to text him when I gave you his number?? My therapist told me that would be a good idea!," Dorn says while picking up his phone to text his therapists. "Wait are you the girl he made out with?," He questions again.

"Wowww, you're getting it in with Dorn's brother?," Kelly tells me with a laugh.

"Seems like it," Mike says with a stank face. "Isn't he the nerdy one with the glasses?," He asks, I hear Armando scoff under his breath after downing the beer.

"Oh! And doesn't he go to the same med school as you?," My dad adds his question in. Yet again, Armando does another grunt.

"You guys are truly not helping my situation and it isn't even like that!," I explain to them.

"Then how is it like?," Armando says to me. "He's blowing up your phone," He continues as another message goes through making my phone ding.

"Ouuuuuu," My dad says. "Playboy Y/N: one, Armando: zero!," He jokes agains.

"Marcus!," Mike yells through gritted teeth.

"Wait, are you two together?," Kelly asks me.

"Let me catch you up Kelly," My dad says to her while walking over to Kelly and placing the empty skittles bag in Dorn's hand. "Trash cans over there," He says to Dorn motioning over to the trash can.

"A please would've been nice...," Dorn says under his breath while throwing away the skittles bag.

"Alright so, I got no clue who this "Arthur" guy is but when I was stalking my baby girl's Instagram account, I always see these comments under the username of "kingarthur321," My dad explains to everyone.

"Kingarthur321?," Mike questions.

"I know right," Marcus says. "Not the point, He's always leaving these comments fawning over Y/N and calling her "gorgeous" so I thought he was a fan but NOW, the plot thickens. Y/N and Arthur may be dating whilst Armando likes Y/N," He continues.

"Wow Sherlock Holmes, you're able to figure out my love life but can't seem to figure out how to wash a single plate?," I banter back.

"Watch it young buck," Marcus counters while pointing his finger at me.

"We're on a tight schedule, so let's try this again. Mike please explain the game plan to Dorn and Kelly. Armando, can I talk to you outside?," I ask while looking over to him. He returns a slight nod and walks outside.

I follow quickly behind him before Dorn shouts something else out.

"Please don't fuck on my porch," He says after me.

"No promises!," I say after shutting the door and sitting down next to Armando. ——— "Beautiful view huh?," I say to Armando as we watch the cities lights.

"Are you dating him?," He interrupts. I take a sigh before answering.

"Armando you know the answer to that. Arthur and I are just friends," I explain. "In the past we had a little thing going on but it's in the past for a reason," I continued. "Arthur is just very...persistent?," I questioned.

"Bueno para ti," He says. (good for you) I take his hand and hold it into mine. "I can't stop thinking about you and us," He continues.

"I know we both promised to never mention what happened in my apartment years ago but that only made me like you more," I admit to him squeezing his hand and looking into his eyes. "You're so special to me Armando," I say.

"Ever think about what would happen after this? When we catch who framed your little captain?," Armando says while shaking his head. "I'll be back in prison," He answers his own question.

"We're gonna work something out, if we catch whoever did this it'll look good on your part," I tell him. He squeezes my hand back and pulls my body closer to his. Our eyes find each others and we start to lean in.

"Hate to interrupt but we got a job to do," Mike tells the two of us interrupting our moment. Armando let's out a groan and takes his eyes off mine and to Mike's. "We got a couple of pictures for you to look at to see if any of them are our guy," Mike continues while waving his arm over signaling for us to come in. ——— After countless of photos and documents that we looked through and showed Armando we were stuck with zero results. We've all already cleaned up and shower in Dorn's bathroom but we're still back at square one.

I walk up to Armando showing him a photo of a middle aged brunette woman shaking hands with a member of the cartel.

"Is it her? She's goes by the name of Lisa Rosé," I tell him while placing the photo in front of him on the counter. He doesn't look at the photo and continues to throw the magnets onto Dorn's refrigerator from his seat.

"It was a man," He says back.

"Worth a try," I say while walking away and putting the photo back where I found it. I continued to look through folders until Armando quickly walks over to Dorn and places a photo into his machine.

"Blow it up," Armando says with an accent.

"hey hey hey! It's not like I walk into your house and teach you how to make cocaine," Dorn tells him while zooming into the photo.

"That's him," Armando says, taking his index finger to point out a white man with gray hair. We all rush over to him to see the man. Dorn takes the photo and searches him up revealing the man's identity.

"Bam! Got a name, James McGrath," Dorn tells us. "Army man, Ranger School, Deployed to Mexico until 2005, worked with the DEA... oh shit, he was taken hostage by your friends in the cartel," He continues while patting Armando on the chest.

I continued to peer into the screen with all of the man's information before sending my attention back to Dorn.

"Gave up his entire squad, "under distress," Dorn continues while using air quotes.

"It's called torture man," Armando explains.

"He was the only survivor," Dorn says.

"I'm gonna try Rita agin," Mike tell us while walking outside of Dorn's house to make a phone call.

I turn my vision over to Dorn's laptop sliding him away and logging into my security cameras after plugging my phone in. I switch the camera on Queso's play area and see him nowhere to be found.

"Fuck fuck," I say while switching more through my apartments cameras.

"What are you looking for?," Armando asks.

"Queso," Dorn answers while helping me switch the cameras to look for him. Out of the corner of my eye I see Queso laying on his back staring off into space.

"Is he okay?," I ask absentmindedly while zooming in. Queso quickly stands up and looks around the living room. "What?," I say to myself.

"He can hear you Y/N, your cameras have audio," He explained to me. "Watch, hi queso!!," Dorn says enthusiastically into the mic. Queso quickly turns his head to the camera and his eyes widen into happiness. He tried to jump towards the camera but his legs are too small.

"Poor thing," Kelly says. "But you can't go back Y/N, it's not safe," She tells me.

"You're right," I say. "Maybe I could-," I start but was cut off by the camera moving to a new location "Marcus's house," giving us a notification of a break in.

"Shit! That's our house," My dad says to me. I pick up my phone to notify my mom and sister but no response. Marcus notifies Reggie out of all people and he instantly picks up.

Reggie hangs up the call and gathers both my mom and sister. He moved them to a closet and takes out a gun from a safe.

"So Reggie's allowed to have a gun in your house but I can't bring my sugar free gummy candies inside?," I say annoyed to my Dad, turning over to him.

"That's different, ones for protection and the other is for killing my appetite," He says back. Reggie is met by two masked men which he instantly takes down with his gun.

For a split second nothing but gunfire is seen in our cameras view, once it clears up we see that Reggie took a much bigger gun from one of the men and shoots them down. He immediately turns around to the next person, shooting them all down and elbowing one of them into the nearest wall.

"Who the fuck is this guy?," Dorn says out loud in amazement.

"That's my boy!," Marcus says proudly through gritted teeth. Another man is seen entering the house while checking his surroundings. Reggie swoops in from the corner and takes another down. Yet again.

"Oooo," Kelly says while loading her gun.

"DAMNNNNNN," Marcus says after seeing how brutal the shot was.

"He can do all of this but can't pass me the remote or better yet put down the toilet seat?," I say while still watching Reggie swiftly move through the house taking more and more men down.

He punches one dead in the stomach and turns him around shooting through him and his partner. He pushed the guy, who he was just using as a shield down and walks through the house once more.

"Alright Reggie Wick!," Marcus yells out.

Two men enter the kitchen area but a much quicker Reggie comes behind from the patio taking the gun from one of the men to shoot both with. He crouched down behind the dark brown wooden cabinets avoiding the shots they were shooting at him.

"No no no," I say under my breath after seeing how he had no time to stand up and shoot but he proves me wrong. He quickly jumps up and shoots down both of the men.

"Ouuu," Dorn, Mike, and Marcus say.

One of the men dodge the bullet and ran straight towards Reggie. Reggie pushes the man down into the counter but the man picks up a large kitchen knife and brings it to Reggie's face.

Reggie slaps the man in the face and grabs the knife to stab him. He throws the man's body through the glass door while taking double shots to end him. He runs over to the closet where my mom and sister were in to not only check on them but to also shoot down the man that was trying to enter.

"Me snacks is your snacks, Reggie!," Marcus yells through the screen while jumping up and down. Those damn skittles man.

Reggie moves my mom and sister out of the house to then salute the camera in front of him.

"Mike did you see that shit?!," Marcus asks Mike until he sees the stressed out man quickly walking out of the house making a phone call. My dad yells after him some more until we all walk after Mike.

Once Mike gets a hold of whoever he's calling, he quickly warns them until the line starts to click. His phone receives a call and he answers. He puts the phone on speaker.

"Mr. Lowrey," The voice speaks into the phone.

"Who am I speaking to?," Mike asks the mystery man cautiously.

"I think you know who you're speaking to," The man answers. "I need your boy and what evidence your beloved captain had swirled away. And for that, you can have your wife. I'll call you back with instructions," He continues.

"Shit," Mike says under his breath while doubling down.

"I'll go," Armando says to Mike. All of our eyes find his. His body was releasing heavy breaths and his eyes looked sad.

"Never.," Mike tells him. "Never," Mike says again while walking away. I shoot Armando a "Don't worry," look and follow after my dad who follows Mike.

"Mike, you need to breathe for a minute. This is a stressful moment but we're going to get through this," I tell him while rubbing his back slightly as his breathing begins to slow down. He looks like he's on the verge of throwing up.

"You're right," He says. He looks up between my dad and I before taking a seat. He looked deep in thought. "He knew....," Mike continues.

My dad and I share a look and I motion for him to say something.

"What do you mean?," My dad asks.

"He knew we were coming in. He knew we had Captain Howard's files. He knew we ID'd him... How!," Mike asks us both while taking heavier breathes.

"Only person you spoke to was Rita," Marcus tells him with an obvious face.

"It's not Rita," Mike says to us with a face of realization.

"Well then who-," I say before it clicked in my head. "Oh for fuck's sake," I continue under my breath. I knew I didn't like Adam! He might really be in love with the Black Panther movies but whenever he see's me, he always greets me with "Wakanda Forever."

"Damn! She got bad taste in men," Marcus says with wide eyes.

"You need to notify Rita right now Mike. She could be in serious danger," I tell him. He shakes his head in agreement and takes out his phone to dial her number. He walks over to somewhere more privately and I walk back over to Armando.

He looks over at me and moves closer.

"Sorry about Queso, I know he's missing you," He says to me lightly.

"He'll be fine, he's just missing the treats I give him," I say back with a slight laugh as he joins in with me. "You're really brave Armando," I tell him. He looks over at me and just stays quiet until opening his mouth.

"Thank you hermosa," He says. (hermosa: beautiful)

"You don't have to thank me, but whatever goes down in the morning, I need you to stay safe," I tell him. "You're brave, not bulletproof," I say.

"Little bit of both," He says with a smirk before laying a kiss on my forehead. I let out a slight giggle before a shoe is thrown directly at Armando's head. "What the fu-," Armando starts but was cut off.

"I'd fuck you up if we weren't bout to be shot down by a vengeful maniac," Marcus says to Armando while holding another shoe in his right hand. ——— hii guys!! I'm over the moon reading all of y'all's sweet comments. they're genuinely my motivation to keep posting and they brighten my day so so much!! as mentioned, this chapter was abnormally long therefore I took the executive decision to just split it in half lolll (i know for me I can't really read too long of a chapter because i either lose focus or interest)

i'm slightly busy this week so the next chapter may be out this weekend!!

per usual, please please let me know if they're any typos and i can't wait for y'all to see the next chapter!! 💕💕💕💕