Kingdom Come

[king-castillo-blog]

“How cute,” said Gabriel frowning in a way that was almost playful. “Considering their obsession with me, you would think they would remember which angles flatter and which ones don’t.”

[lccastillo-blog]

Luis stood on the sidewalk, coffee in hand as he watched the city’s fire department extinguish one of the last fires as a result from the blackout. He sighed. For once, the city was in ruins, and he and his father had nothing to do with it.

Just as Luis was turning to walk away, he stopped. Leaning over to the person standing next to him, he smiled. “I’m starting to think a spontaneous vacation out of the city while all of this is sorted out would be best. What do you think?” 

[king-castillo-blog]

“I think that sounds like running away from a good fight,” said Gabriel who only half-returned his son’s smile. The blackout had been a blessing in disguise, one that painted him as a saint. Opening up warehouses to help the less fortunate keep from having to fend for themselves? It was an opportunity that left him beheld in high regard by Chicago’s citizens.

“You’re still in one piece, mijo, I take it the blackout didn’t effect you too badly?”

[king-castillo-blog]

nxdiamercxr:

“I’m fine, honestly! I was just trapped in a lift for four hours, nothing as scary as a fire or something”

“If you insist you’re fine-- I’ll believe you. I’m just glad to see you safe, Nadia.”

[sinfulxsoulsx]

[manolovasquez-blog]

There wasn’t a soul in the crowd who could fathom the history between these two men. He hadn’t taken more than two bites of his sandwich before it was destroyed, and still, he was beginning to feel sick to his stomach. Standing next to the man who gave the order to slaughter his parents, he’d be picked out as the villain. As the fucking fool who’d gone and made a mess of Gabriel Castillo in public. There was no choice but to act in a role that wasn’t himself. Dissociate from it all– until they’d parted, then he’d be free to break down in any way that came naturally when he was alone at home.

“Of course, Sr Castillo.” It burned like acid in his mouth.

Quickly (and with his best efforts to not tremble with rage) he bent down to collect the garbage, chucking it in the bin outside the door as he led Castillo into the deli. He even stepped aside to hold the door open.

“I’m sorry about your clothes.”

[king-castillo-blog]

Gabriel’s lips curved into a wicked grin. “It happens,” was his reply as he watched the man clean up his fucking mess. He entered the deli without even casting him another look. Every bit a pious, unforgiving god. At the comment about his clothes, Gabriel’s grin devolved to a smirk. 

“If you feel so badly about it, boy, you’re welcome to cover the damage. Though I wonder: do they pay the feds enough to purchase their own bespoke suits? Let alone cover another man’s?” It was a jab that slipped free from his lips with minimal effort. He didn’t care about the suit. Not really. 

If it pleased him he could have a bespoke suit made for each day of the week, wear it once, then incinerate it afterward. But Gabriel didn’t believe in waste. He played with the idea of taking some things in moderation. Indulging in others.

“You know, Agent Vasquez, if I were anything like my father,” he lowered his voice to a murmur meant to be shared between the pair of them, “I would ask you to lick the mustard off my shoe as an apology. But he lived some time ago, and I am a better man than he and his archaic ideology.”

He flashed his teeth, bowed his head with something resembling sympathy. “Though any apology made through actions are better than none, don’t you agree?”

[king-castillo-blog]

After Hours { Gabriel & Jamie }

[agentholder-blog]

Bribing law enforcement had become the norm in Chicago, unfortunately. A lot of police officers were on Castillo’s payroll, and it was hard to tell who that might be. It led to a lot of deaths. A lot of accidents. 

Jamie rested both hands in his lap, listening intently to Gabriel Castillo’s bullshit charity story. He didn’t buy it. Not for a single goddamn minute. Gabriel was known for being generous, whatever the hell that meant. The poor grandma probably had to sell her soul to the damned bastard to even see half of that money.

However, Jamie kept his cool, despite the fact that the story alone made him sick. Gabriel took advantage of people, used them up, and dumped them once he didn’t see the partnership benefiting him any further. Jamie was no fool. He wasn’t actually entertaining the thought of a bribe, but maybe he could get Castillo to play along. At least, for a little while longer.

Jamie sighed, running a hand through his hair slowly. His eyes met Castillo’s. “How much?” Jamie asked evenly, both palms calmly resting on his thighs. “My wife wants a baby. Money’s shit. How much?”

[king-castillo-blog]

Gabriel tapped his bottom lip with his index finger, almost as if he were deep in contemplation. Everything he’d ever known about Jamie Holder-- everything he’d ever seen with is own two eyes-- painted him to be a white knight. The type of selfless man who went trudging into Hell to save the damned even if it meant burning up himself. 

He knew Jamie Holder was the type of man who would ask not what was in something for him, but rather how it would aid the people around him. Fighting a war on crime wasn’t about recognition. It was about justice. Peace. Truth. It was about the people. The people Gabriel could crush beneath his boot. The people who were as useful as a house made of glass.

The corners of his lips upturned. He reached out and grabbed the framed photograph of Tatiana, turned it over in his hands. He made as if he were about to give an exact price-- a generous price, the type he offered to cops before he either killed them or shook their hand-- and then Gabriel Castillo did something horrible.

He laughed.

Threw his head back with a roll of his eyes, laughing until his breathing came on the verge of a sob. “Oh, Agent Holder,” he purred. “Don’t you think I know better than that? Better than to bribe a federal agent-- and with an exact sum, no less? I’m truly, truly hurt.” He wet his lips and chose to play with fire: “I’m sure Hermosa would be hurt if she heard that assumption too. Tsk, tsk...”

[jessaclarke-blog]

Jessa had been called out as part of a response team. The blackout wouldn’t have been that bad if it hadn’t been for the rioting. People were fighting in the streets, injuries were racking up almost faster than the emergency responders could handle them. She had just finished stitching up a gnarly lac on a man’s leg when the paramedics showed up to take him back to the hospital. She shouted orders at them about antibiotics and what to tell the intake physician as they loaded him into the bus and slammed the doors, the sirens went on and the ambulance spurred off towards the hospital. 

Jessa pulled off her gloves and tossed them into a nearby trash can. Before putting on new ones, she tossed her hair back into a tight bun. She grabbed a new pair of gloves from the pocket of her response uniform and slid them on as she walked towards an accident. She was about to approach the scene when a man’s voice told her to hold out her arms. She did so without a second thought.

[king-castillo-blog]

Gabriel put the child in her arms without a second thought, ignoring the way the child reached for him and screamed as if he were someone important to her. Perhaps he would be one day. There was always use to be had of children desperate for the attention and approval of a man among Gods...

“Help her,” a command and nothing more. He gestured to the child’s leg, where bone threatened to push through the flesh. “Help her, dammit.”

He looked to the mess in the street. The place where his car had been totalled and where, nearby, he could see the place where he had saved the child from similar ruin. The car he’d dragged her out of was aflame. He knew for certain that a female corpse was burning in the front seat, one whom the child might have known as ‘mama’. 

He swiped his forearm across his brow, pulled it back and was surprised to see the blood that came up on his skin. He touched the cut on his brow. The way it still bled, slowly, leaving him dizzy. 

[michaelaeverett-blog]

Thinking that she could navigate the city during such a dangerous time was a mistake. Michaela was terrified, but she hid it well. She held her belongings close to her body, ushering past a crowd of looters without being seen. She was a mess. Her dress was stained and torn, not to mention her heels were on the verge of breaking from all the running she’d just done. She was desperate to get back into her home, even if it meant sitting in the dark for hours on end. At least it meant some sort of shelter from the people on the streets.

The traffic was backed up drastically - a consequence of the street lights being out. She noticed a man - the same one she’d seen on all the papers, the face of Chicago, holding a scared little girl on his hip.

“Sir, you’re bl-”

“Put out your arms. Now.”

Michaela nodded quickly, stretching her arms out as she was told.

[king-castillo-blog]

He barely looked the woman over before he was taking the child in his arms and handing them over to her. The child’s shrieks became piercing and it took everything in Gabriel not to backhand them and demand silence. It was how his father would have done things. Quietly, he had to remind himself that he was not his father. He was better.

“My momma!” The child sobbed. “I want my momma!”

“We’ll find her,” he said to the child, tapping the tip of her nose with his index finger. His kindness could be stronger than his rage. His patience more resilient. He looked to the woman he had handed the child over to with a heavy gaze. The type that only a man like Gabriel Castillo could force into looking both frightening and trustworthy at once.

“Can you come with me? Her leg--” he gestured to where the child’s skin was pushed upward by what he could only assume was broken bone. “-- I need help. I need your help.”

[king-castillo-blog]

“I want my mommy!” the child’s sobs had grown into shrieks now as Gabriel continued down the street, an arm thrown over his head as if to shield him from some unseen light, the child clinging to his shoulders as he kept her on his hip. Downtown Chicago was a mess of darkness. Downed traffic lights left the streets prone to lethal accidents. Gabriel himself had only barely managed to withstand one, a cut having formed on his forehead from his head coming into contact with the window, blood trickling down the side of his face. 

He didn’t notice.

He was busy focusing on other things. 

He’d called the shots. Told his driver and his bodyguards to leave him be, to locate Viviana and ensure her safety. He would be fine. He was Gabriel Castillo, a God among Men, and he would survive this just as he had so many other things. ‘Money isn’t an object now,’ he’d told his men, pragmatic as ever in his decision making. ‘Find the sicarios. Find Viviana. And find some god damned warehouses for us to help these people. They need safe housing. They need protection.’

Protection and defense, granted unto them by only him. The only man who could stand in the thick of this, bleeding and exhausted, and maintain a level-head.

“We’ll find your mother,” Gabriel promised the child. But honestly? He doubted they would. It was only a matter of time before the cops appeared, before everything went completely and totally to shit. And he needed to get away. Grabbing the arm of the person nearest to him, Gabriel’s voice was nothing less than a predacious hiss: “Put out your arms. Now.”

[lccastillo-blog]

Feeling incredibly defensive once more, Luis nodded - perhaps a little too aggressively. He shoved the glass of alcohol away from him, showing that he was done feeling sorry for himself. “I will right this.” Luis paused. His father didn’t play around. He could’ve just agreed to something very, very bad. "Castillos don’t sit around feeling sorry for themselves. You raised me better than that." 

[king-castillo-blog]

If there was one thing you didn’t do it was shake the Devil’s and expect for him not to take your soul. Such was the case for anyone who dealt with Gabriel. He knew that among the Cartel his word was law. Staring down at his son, he placed a palm down flat on the counter to and leaned forward, just enough for Luis to hear his hushed words.

“Then in three day’s time you’ll go and you’ll find Jackson Donovan and you’ll rectify this. All of it. You’ll do for your mother what she wanted to do herself. You’ll remind dear Jackson of who and what our family is. You’ll do it, Luis,” a command. Nothing more. “And you’ll do it with your fists. I want it to be personal and believe me, boy, I’ll know when it’s been done.”

[micorazonxtata-blog]

She smiled at him, taking his hand with hers and shaking it. “Pleasure to meet you, Señor Alejandro Castillo.” It amazed her how much of a gentleman that he was; There weren’t many men left in the world who were like that. Hearing his name at first caused the red lights to blare brighter, but she kept on disregarding them. Castillo is a common surname, after all.

“A charming man who is loyal to his wife? They do still exist. I have no doubt in my mind that you and my husband would be good friends.” Oh, Tata, darling. If only you knew. And okay, so she had been questioning if Jamie truly is loyal or not. But she’s going to keep the faith. “Absolutely. Holder, Tatiana Holder. My friends and family call me Tata.”

[king-castillo-blog]

He felt a burst of fiendish joy spark within him. That was where she had looked so familiar. The woman of the hour. The fire of Jamie Holder’s loins. Tatiana Holder, sitting next to him, so close if he wanted to he could wrap his hands around her pretty little neck and wring it for all he was worth. Adrenaline filled his veins. He was nothing if not an opportunist.

“Oh, si, Tata, I’m sure your husband and I would get along swimmingly,” he said with a smile. He gestured at the club around them. “Do you come here often? I’m sure I would have remembered a face like yours.” And now he wouldn’t forget it.

[lccastillo-blog]

“I approached his brother in hopes that, in the future, we could reconcile with Jackson in particular and use him for the business. That’s all.” Perhaps Luis was getting a little too defensive now, but he knew his father wasn’t a liar. He meant every single word of that threat. Luis had let him down - the same way he had all those years ago, when he was only a kid. The first and last time that Luis ever lied to him.

“It’s over. I’m moving on. He has absolutely no interest in me or the family business. It was a misunderstanding. I hope we can move on from the fact that I embarrassed our family today.”

“I will put in the work to make up for it.”

[king-castillo-blog]

“Thank fucking God for that,” he muttered, looked away from his son for a moment as if the very sight of him was one he couldn’t handle. Gabriel could live hearing that Luis understood how badly he had fucked up, he could even sleep at night knowing that his son wanted to fix this.

But there was one more thing on Gabriel’s mind... “He disrespected your mother,” he said, his words cold. Icy. “And me. Now you. And you know I can’t leave it alone. Once one person pisses on your name, they all will. Tell me, Luis, will you really put in work to right this wrong? Are you willing to do it by any means necessary?”

[king-castillo-blog]

After Hours { Gabriel & Jamie }

[agentholder-blog]

The anger that surged through Jamie when Gabriel called Tata hermosa was… inexplicable. His hands shook slightly, and only moments later, he gripped the arm rest so tightly he felt it might actually break. “Don’t bring up my wife,” Jamie warned. Policing everything that Gabriel said was starting to get on Jamie’s on nerves, so for both their sake, he hoped Gabriel would stop saying every clever thing that came into his fucking mind.

“Futile task?” Jamie repeated, leaning back in his chair. At the sound of those words, Jamie experienced a sensation that could only be described as immense joy. “So you think… you’re completely clean?” Jamie tossed his head back, laughing loudly. He allowed himself a split second of selfishness, to simply revel in the fact that Gabriel genuinely believed he was untouchable. He composed himself, leaning forward, both his hands on the desk as well. 

“We’ve arrested your people before, Gabriel. You don’t think we can get ‘em to flip on you? It won’t take long for one of your sicarios to find out the DEA is on their ass. And when they do, they’ll get scared. Desperate. That’s where I step in and sweep ‘em off their feet.”

Jamie wasn’t worried. Not even in the slightest. Gabriel’s own arrogance would be his downfall.

“So what the fuck do you want? I have somewhere to be.”

[king-castillo-blog]

He shrugged, though he knew that with the expansion of his business came the fact that people would not be nearly as steely as they once were. He had dealt with informante pieces of shit in the past before, and he wasn’t afraid to deal with them again. It wasn’t hard to dig a hole in the ground and place a body inside of it.

Perhaps one day Agent Holder might share that same tragic end.

It was an idea that put a smile on Gabriel’s lips.

“I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re talking about,” he said though he knew his shit-eating grin shrieked otherwise. “Sicarios? I’ve never heard the word before. But if I had and if I did know what they were– in a hypothetical situation– I would be glad that you and your friends are weeding out the unloyal ones. It would be like you’re doing my job for me.”

He leaned back in Jamie’s chair. “Did you know that I met an old abuela once in California? Her son’s back was broken and his wife had left. She could barely walk and the government was threatening to take away her grandchildren. She couldn’t work. Couldn’t afford to feed them. So do you know what I did? I took care of them. Her, her son, her grandchildren– I took care of them all. While one of her grandkids goes off to Harvard Law School and the other finishes her last year of medical school... To this day, I take care of them.” He frowned.

“It’s getting harder and harder to live in his country. Not without debts. Not without giving away your soul and your freedom to a machine that you don’t even see.” He spread his arms out to his sides, his most vulnerable show yet. “I would what I did to that abuela for anyone, Jamie. I would even do it for you…”

[manolovasquez-blog]

From this man, he needed something far more substantial than an apology.

                                              “No.”

The only word that came from Manny’s mouth as he dared to raise his head. It wasn’t uttered in any special way, but the look in his eye gave away everything he was feeling. He was mortified, and bitter. And the only person around who could see it clearly was Castillo.  His heart suddenly felt heavy.

“I couldn’t waste good food on a prank,” he confessed, glancing back down. His eyes went over the matching stains on the other man’s clothes. My mother would turn over in her grave.

[king-castillo-blog]

“Well at least you have that going for you,” he murmured, glancing down at the coffee that had soaked through his jacket and was seeping through his shirt. Tutting softly, Gabriel removed the jacket, placed it lightly over his arm and let his gaze flick around the crowd of onlookers. People stared, mouths agape in horror at the situation. There was no denying Gabriel always looked pressed and polished. For him to be soaked in coffee and lettuce was horrifying, not for him, but for the man who had caused the incident.

He smiled slowly at Manolo. His eyes saying everything his mouth could not. The both knew who the charitable Mister Castillo was. What he was. Gabriel had no fear of it being known, especially not by the man in front of him.

“Are you going to keep admiring what used to be a wonderful part of my closet, Agent Vasquez, or are you going to offer me a hand? It’s the least you could do, isn’t it?” 

[vivicastillo-blog1]

Viviana knew he’d react this way. Both of them were filled with pride. Their passion, temper and stubbornness didn’t tame it, either. “He called you a puto. He insulted our business, our family. I want to slit his insolent throat.”

[king-castillo-blog]

He exhaled slowly. “That can be arranged,” he murmured, the anger in his made harsh. Cold. He brought his lips back down her brow, pressed a kiss to the space between her eyes. “We’ll need to send them a message, amor. The type that cannot be ignored.”

[vivicastillo-blog1]

“Not yet,” she said. “But I have spoken to Jackson.” Her voice filled with venom at the mention of the Donovan boy. “I wish I cut out his tongue in the middle of the diner the way he spoke to me.”

[king-castillo-blog]

Before he could process it, his hold on her wrists was suddenly tight. He didn’t notice. Not yet. Only brushed his lips up her brow and looked past her, wrath filling his heavy gaze. “Tell me what he said to you.” A command. A plea.

[vivicastillo-blog1]

Viviana leaned into Gabriel’s touch. “I just wish he was as lucky in love as I was,” she sighed, remembering her conversation with Jackson. Having him back in his life couldn’t have been easy for Luis. 

[king-castillo-blog]

Those words were enough to kill his mood. He sighed deeply, took hold of her other wrist and let his lips brush her brow as he spoke. “If I ever see that pinche puta he wasted his time with again, God only knows what I’ll do.” Though he imagined Viviana had a good understanding of the extents of his rage. “Have you spoken to our son about him?”