Carl Weber's Kingpins

home. . . standing in the backyard smoking marijuana. Tiara was thrilled to have the house to herself. That meant she could sneak some ice cream and watch an R-rated movie before her parents arrived home. As she was sitting in front of the sixty-inch floor television in the family room of the home her father had built from the ground up, she heard footsteps coming from upstairs. Tiara had never been the type to run from danger. She was the type of kid to go check out what was going on. Standing up, she set her almost-empty bowl of cookies-n-cream to the side and wiped her hands off on her soccer shorts. Walking to the stairs, she slowly crept and made her way up. As she got closer to the top steps, she stretched her neck to see who was cutting into her time. When she finally made it to the second level, the noises got louder and more distinct. They were coming from her father’s office, and Tiara knew that her father wasn’t there. She also knew that nobody was allowed in her father’s office—only her cousin, who she viewed more as an uncle.

“Cousin Vincent?” Tiara’s high-pitched voice called, assuming that it was him.

She pushed the door open to see who exactly it was in the office, but as she pushed, someone pulled. Tiara was shocked at the face she saw on the other side of the door. It wasn’t her father or Vincent. It was another one of Blake’s trusted hands, Diablo. Tiara looked at him with a confused look frozen on her young and innocent face. He looked just as shocked to see her as she was to see him, but he quickly recovered.

“Lo siento mucho! I’m so sorry, Princess,” he flashed her a charming smile. “I did not know anyone would be home.”

“What are you doing in my dad’s office?” Tiara asked, her eyes finally landing on the black bag hanging from Diablo’s shoulder. It was slightly open, and Tiara was able to peer inside and see what was there. Her eyes widened.

Diablo noticed her alarm and thought fast. “Your father and I were out in the . . . um,” he cleared his throat. “In the field, and he needed me to run here and grab a few things for him. His hands are tied up at the moment. We all know how busy your father gets.” He gave a small laugh.

“He’s waiting for me, and I don’t want to keep him waiting.” He stepped out of the office and shut the locked door back before Tiara could get a good look at what was behind him. She did, however, notice that he had a small disk in his hand. “Would you like me to tell him you are home alone?”

Tiara quickly forgot her suspicions and shook her head fast. “No, that’s OK,” she said. “My mom should be home soon.”

With that, Diablo planted a kiss to her forehead and walked past her to the steps and headed for the front door.

“See you at dinner on Sunday, Princess!” He called to her over his shoulder right before the door slammed shut.

After that, Tiara put the incident to the back of her mind, but that night as she was perched behind the stinky trash, the images of Diablo leaving Blake’s office with a bag full of cash just didn’t add up. Tiara felt tears falling down her already beautiful face when she saw how helpless her cousin was. She understood why Diablo stood there looking like he had won the lottery, and she also knew why he had given her father the idea to tape his mouth shut. It wasn’t so that Texas couldn’t hear his cries. It was so that he couldn’t tell who the culprit really was. Tiara watched her father hit Vincent a few more times, but soon, the blood got to be too much for her to bear.

“Daddy!” she yelled and jumped up from behind the trash can in the corner. “Stop it!”

Blake was so shocked to hear Tiara’s voice, the familiar voice of his princess, that he stopped his attack on Vincent’s face in mid-whip. Turning his head, he saw his beautiful baby girl standing behind him with tear streaks on her face. The face that mirrored his exactly. The men surrounding Vincent didn’t miss a beat. They stood in front of Vincent in hopes to shield her eyes from seeing the shape that he was in, but it was too late. She had already seen enough, and the horrified look in her eyes told Blake just that.

“Tiara,” Blake said, shaking his head, “what are you doing out of bed, sweetheart?”

“I heard noises,” Tiara said. “I heard screams . . . I heard . . . Oh, Daddy, what are you doing to Vincent?”

Blake turned his head back to Vincent, whose head was nodding as he tried to stay conscious. Blake could lie to his child all he wanted, but unlike most kids her age, Tiara wasn’t stupid.

“This is what happens to anyone who betrays your father,” he told her. “Cousin Vincent has been a very bad man, baby. And now, he has to pay the cost. But you know you are not supposed to be out of bed once it’s bedtime. Take her back to her room.” He motioned for one of the men to escort Tiara back to her bedroom.

Tiara backed away from the advancing man, and her bare foot stepped into something cold and wet. She looked down and saw that she was standing in a small puddle of blood on the concrete floor. She knew that if she didn’t speak her peace right now, her innocent cousin would be dead.

“Daddy, it wasn’t Cousin Vincent!” Tiara looked up and glared at Diablo, who looked like he had just seen a ghost.

“Somebody get her to bed,” Diablo said, hoping that someone would listen to him and not her. “Now!”

Tiara snatched away from her father’s henchmen.

“It wasn’t Vincent, Daddy!”