Chapter 168: Horsepower

Loiza's POV


"Are you serious right now Kayden? You ain't boss no more! And she ain't talking about the slavery stuff she's talking about your fucked up parents stuff! Can I seriously call you Izzy instead of Alpha? Umbros keeps saying I sound ridiculous! And seriously did these brownies get me THIS stoned?! I had only smoked weed I never had edibles! People back home are a bunch of narcs! Oh and thanks for the car! Trust me I will get that thing running!" Umbros's facepalms himself in humiliation, Adam is almost lights out!

K & M: DUUUUUUDE!!!!

L: "Umbros do you think the name Alpha does not suit me?!" He glares at Adam.

U: "I never said that!"

L: "Adam, yes you can call me Izzy, you're welcome for the car and no you can't do all the work by yourself! I want proof that you both brainstormed and worked together as a team. I'm sorry, but Umbros almost killed people once and every time that he is on a mission we all know that those in the plane with him have a great potential of dying, I had to take first chair from him when I was 16!

"I need to be sure that whatever you learn and figure out with the potential I know you have, he will accept and not be a proud dumbass! I know that he wants to drive just to have fun at The Drag, not to be a better agent! I wanted to win at The Drag so that I knew that I could use that skill to save my life and that of my team. And that's the drive I always had that made me win! You want to race for the sake of proving to others that you can. That will never be good enough to give you the skill to be GREAT! You will just turn into a joke and completely embarrass the family and that's in the BEST of circumstances, in the worst circumstances it's the end of you cousin.

"You think that protecting the borders of a pack is dangerous Adam?! Your mate will let you look into his mind so that you can see what we have gone through, being able to keep a level head in spite of the harsh world that is out there, that is what makes us powerful! Being able to completely change your strategy in a split second the moment you notice that your primary plan will go to shit, improvising, adapting, being focused, those skills among others are crucial for being a successful agent. The Drag helps you hone in these skills, especially when they keep changing the route mid race, that's why it has never been banned in spite of Umbros's brouhaha.

"So I already gave you both the command, I'm going to get that Cobra and I don't want NEITHER of you NEAR it! In fact honestly the only people I trust around that car are Maco, Ura, Lola, Freya and Víctor. Bayo, it's nothing personal it's just that I haven't raced with you and I really need to for me to do a full assessment if you can actually do it, and even when Kayden taps into my own racing skills, he has never done it practically. So there's no way he's going near it either until I actually see what he can do, that is a dangerous car people, Nía, no joke, I know I promised you before the blast that I would teach you and I will, but I don't want to see you or Nasser near it.

"Here, let's do this, you and Nina take my Honda for now so that you can practice and I'll get you something that we BOTH can work from scratch and customize it to how you want, so that you can keep practicing on that by yourself and Nina can eventually keep the Honda deal? Tony it's a fun ride I put special things in it! According to how I modified it it should be an easy car for them to start with, if I'm getting Abuelo's car I can let go of the Honda so that you can play with it now. I can't wait to race you!"

S: "Seriously?! Thanks Izzy! No worries I won't touch the Cobra. Nass think about what car we want! Can it be purple?!" I think she didn't hear the part that we would buy something and we would WORK it together! She's a good driver, and the times that Ura and I would go with her she proved to have pretty good control over the car at high speed, I have been thinking of sending her with Joey for a bit for just Epsilon training with Brianna, those two have always gotten along. And seriously Kayden cannot go near that car either, now that I pinpointed more or less the era of our past reincarnation, there were no cars yet. He can drive perfectly fine and I've seen in his memories how he has played around with his own car back in Virginia in places he could, but nothing like what we do. The thing is he has an amazing car for racing, and I can't wait to play with it myself!

G: "Awe Izzy! I know what that car means to you! You've always been good at sharing! Okay guys wish me luck let's hope I don't kill anybody! No seriously don't worry I've been practicing! Kayden bro, I'm sorry for your Hillbilly cousin, but I just saw that car, it's beautiful! It's so distinct of the spirit of the era! Does it need any repairs?"

K: "It does actually but he's like you guys and he likes working it on it himself. Maco showed them yours and he's excited, he won't race that one but he says he will customize another one. The man has been doing this since the seventies!

Ura: "What ride do you have man?" He asks Kayden. This is the relationship I have been looking closest since Kayden's arrival. If ever any of them were to go against each other, my loyalty would be somewhat divided. Urayoán has always been my main source of support in this family and we are so in tune with our ideas. I know them both enough to know that they will get along, even if it is for my sake. He would be the same if ever I would have a problem with Artemis. Don't get me wrong Artemis is like my own sister, but if we would ever fight he wouldn't dare take a side.

These are lucky if they ever se Avis AGAIN! When something is hers Sammy hates sharing, with Joey as her twin sister I don't blame her. Well maybe after Nina redoes the burial chamber. As second cousin like the Ollers they come every year for Día de los Muertos and leave offerings, just like we do the rounds down to the Ollers always taking oranges for Cacicaná from the garden that were her favorite treat! We feel her spirit every time we come into the house. Another spirit that welcomes us full of joy and love, this year will be the first year we visit our ancestors from the Guerrero family. This is so much more homework!

K: "A '16 Bass 770." I smile waiting for either of my brothers or Lola to answer.

B: "WHAT?!"

M: "Are you serious?"

Ura: "You seriously spent over half a million dollars on a muscle car and not race it?! Oh, I think we can stretch her legs! So when do we play with THAT?!"

L: "ASAP! I want to see how much muscle that muscle car has before we decide on the tank for it!

K: "Wow! Don't I get any say woman?!" Adorable!

L: "Sure you do! But the moment that switch is flipped put a surgical mask or you'll choke on my dust! I still have a lot of work that I want to do to The Boss and I haven't seen The Cobra. Maco, how're the experiments with the isotopes of hydrogen?" If we can change the fuel systems we won't have to steel barrels of gasoline and have a clean fuel system.

K: "Seriously?!"

M: "Very promising! No explosions so far!" So far so good!

N: "Don't tell me you too have a half a million dollar car!" Tali asks Marcus.

M: "Well... It's umm... A Lamborghini."

Ura: "Yeaaaah, which model?" I look into Kayden's head. OH MAN! HA!

M: "Aventor." And he focuses on his plate.

L: "Regular SVJ or Roadster?" Ha! The Roadster model it's a bit more expensive. Lola's just twisting the blade right now!

M: "Roadster."

Ura: "And you bought these cars to race where exactly?! You guys have all this horse power to go on Sunday strolls?! There's over a million dollars with just those two cars! Did you guys wake up one day and say 'I really need a half million dollar car for a picnic'?!" This is personal for Ura! He became obsessed with Ferraris on a mission we had in Rome and he was able to jack a Ferrari LaFerrari because we REALLY needed a fast getaway with an severely injured Sammy! I know he wants that classic '63 because it was the year Abuelo caught Mengele, but I KNOW he wants a Ferrari LaFerrari but it's starting price is over a million!

Even if it is a drop in the pond for us, it's just not how we were raised, even Tía who tends to be less frugal than Dad was she still doesn't waste her money on nonsense. Nina has always been the high roller and even then she made sure it was top quality and was used, cared and maintained. Lola, Nía and myself have Babka's vintage dresses starting from when Abuelo took her shopping through Europe before bringing her home. We have them in our closets not the vault, in our heads we see it as wasteful to get new if what we already have looks even better?! We usually spend big in INVESTMENTS, that's why I absolutely agree with Nina. I WANT Hacienda Florencia and I'm willing to spend, but not at a loss, we were raised by Betas, they will calculate the shit out of the purchase of a candy bar! As an Alpha, it took my Mom a while to adjust to it, they want results not caring about the budget. And right now I don't care to break the bank to ensure our ancestors legacy so that the next generation is set.

K: "Come on man give us a break it was a present! We each got a nice car for our 20th birthday!" I can alread hear the pitch of his voice get a little screechy.

L: "Ura can you imagine going up to Dad and asking for half a million dollars to buy a car? Or to buy ANYTHING really!

U: "I can already see his back walking away after choking on his beer while laughing at me!" Exactly!

M: "Oh come on give us a break! We were rich kids! And even though our parents turned out to be psychos they did dote on us!"

B: "Marcus, WE ARE rich kids too! There is no way in Hades that our father would have ever even THOUGHT of that! He bought Izzy that Honda and it was because it only cost him two grand and it was to feed his own curiosity! And by the way I know how she customized it, it would still kick your asses! We're definitely bringing those cars over but we're playing HARD with them! Ura's right we got to see what they got! Even with the horsepower in those cars you will have to do certain customizations to it to be able to WIN at The Drag. Trust me it's going to be a little embarrassing taking those two amazing cars to The Drag and losing big! Hey Nina can you keep your eyes open for a '68 GT Fastback, CHEAP! I'll work on it myself!" So he's going for Bullitt!

G: "Yeah sure, do you want me to do a special order for Highland Green paint?!" Nina may not know how to assemble a car but she does know aesthetic and beauty and the reason why Bayo wants it in this color. All of us are big Bruce Lee fans! We studied his techniques in training, he is one of my favorite humans! It's kind like how humans like Dracula. Vlad the Impaler was considered by the other vampires to be a rogue, they had to end him or really risk exposure, but humans seem taken with the guy! We became fans of everything Bruce Lee in our own way... for Bayoán, he started watching Steve McQueen movies since the actor was a pupil of Bruce Lee, thus creating an unhealthy obsession with Bullitt. Ura, Nía and I watch The Grandmaster if anyone would mention it, who touches on the life of Ip Man, who was master to Bruce Lee. And my favorite human movie soundtrack is the one for The Crow, and I think Maco still cries every time he watches Enter the Dragon.

B: "Maybe." Ha!

G: "Well guys, um... Is it not so embarrassing when the car is expensive but WAS raced only it had to be put away because the pack was in danger right?" And Tony facepalms himself!

T: "Chèri, there's no need to say anything! Look I was very irresponsible, too! I was an only child and my parents we're loaded and spoiled me terribly and LOOK! I lost my pack because of my stupidity! I also have a deed for a my mother's family home outside of Paris and another in Avignon, but I couldn't go to the bank where the deeds are. We couldn't travel to that vault before sending everything I could to Luxembourg! Oh whatever! I'm a proud Frenchman and I'll take the scorn, I'll get back at you assholes at the finish line!"

F: "Well damn Tony! Rock on! You went from shame, to apologetic, to excuse mode then to bribing, shifted to defensive mode and finally attack mode in just a few sentences! That was impressive... Now I'm DYING to know what car is it!" Nina looks at him silently chuckling... And from the inventory and numbers they handed Maco and Bayo earlier, he IS LOADED, no wonder Nina was willing to pay back everything without complain! He's flipping the bill! We even told Tony that he should take a part to open an account just for him and Nina, the latter started to blush... they already had! His personal wealth alone is larger than our family one, just his contribution to the family more than doubled our net worth. The company is failing because they couldn't leave their territory and left a Board of Directors who got greedy... They will be taken care of.

T: "A '17 Bugatti Chiron." WHOA!

EVERYONE: "WHAT?!" Tony blushes deep!

Ura: "Tony are you serious right now?! Ok... WHERE did you race?!" We all look at Tony, if you're going to spend 3 million dollars on a car you might as well make it FLY!

T: "The route would start at home south of Avignon take the A7, reach A55 to Marseille costal highway, reach Toulon get on A57 straight to Monaco and finally Antibes in the French Riviera! Those were fun times, and even then we had to be cautious ALL. THE. TIME. So we put the cars and other toys away... My father had already started sending everything he could to Luxembourg... I had to finish the job." Nina is combing through his long hair giving him comfort. Sigh...

L: "Ok... So back to the chat about the corporations the packs brought. Bayo, which packs brought assets like this?

B: "Well, besides Kayden and Tony, Cesar, Federico, Diego, Hiroto and Ishaan all handed corporations and Ştefan, from Romania has all the human legal documentation for their town, he went ahead and did the same as Marcus in registering everything locally. Some of the companies are doing well while others aren't I'll leave it to Víctor to contact his cousin tomorrow to start verifying his plan and to meet with those who have brought these assets. Do you have a specific end game for this Izzy or is it just profit? I feel something up on your end of the Beta Bond."

"Of course I have an end game! I hope you're all ready to take over the world." Humans have lost their right to rule it...