Chapter 13 (Marco)
Chapter 13 (Marco)
“I thought he was supposed to stay behind, Aliyana’s father…”
“Doesn’t get to make those choices where Salvatore is involved.” Deno finishes Matteo's sentence.
I shoot a text to the ghost saying that it was Salvatore.
My phone beeps almost immediately after that,
Not that camera, the one on your bedroom
Ghost
I say nothing further or draw any further attention to Salvatore’s arrival.
“I need to go to the bathroom, let’s get the plans on the table and get the others in here.” I leave them and head up the stairs and straight to the bathroom where I open up my phone and punch my pin and then finger print Michael Stone set up for me, and add in the time and date into the videos search box.
The signal is fast, another thing Michael Stone added for me. The search finds my result and I watch the feed.
A tall hooded man, walks into my room and goes straight to my safety box I keep on the floor beneath a tile. He opens it and places something in it. Then seals the box and puts everything the way it was before leaving.
Following the footsteps of the hooded man, I head to my bedroom, ignoring the black bedding filled with toys and straight to the tile. I open my box and look inside to find a small USB.
I head to my computer on the right side of the room and put it in.
The video plays Jack Creston and a shorter hooded figure exchanging something, I almost close my laptop when a figure in the background catches my eye. The video ends and a message pops up to open file 227 and I do, to see Mero at the back of the restaurant kitchen, talking to a girl.
I frown as I see who she is. What were two of them talking about. I watch them exchange words and Mero gets pissed off as she starts smiling. He storms off.
I frown, because I don’t see or understand the connection.
Me: What am I missing?
I shoot the text to the Ghost hoping he'll know more.
Ghost: Ask the fucker who put it there.
Me: I thought I was?
Ghost: I'm not 6.2 but someone in your house is
Me: Got it
Ghost: You should have chosen the Queen
Me: .
I leave the room after putting everything back to how it was. Downstairs the women are sitting and discussing something, with Gabriel as he sits near Mischa, helping her build the puzzle on the wooden board.
Aliyana has her feet on the couch already comfortable, as Guilia and Camilla sit around the fire with a glass of red wine.
“You all look cozy, enjoying yourself?” I ask and for some reason Aliyana doesn’t even look at me, it is like I am not even there.
“Aliyana, and Gabriel, a word.” Camilla frowns, but says nothing, she knows better than to question me about anything in front of guests.
Aliyana unfolds herself from her position and Gabriel stands up leaving his water on the table. They both share a look I don’t like but I leave it be and walk out of the lounge and down the passageway, to the library area where I stir them to the bar area on the left wing.
“Sit,” I tell them as I round the bar counter and pull a bottle of Jack down from the top shelf.
“What is this about?” Aliyana asks me,
“You are going to want a drink for this.” I tell them as I drop 3 glasses on the counter and start pouring us all a stiff drink.
“I think I'm good for now.” Aliyana says and I give her an exasperated sigh.
“Mero ever mention he was seeing someone in the Famiglia?” I ask them both, Aliyana frowns, but Gabriel merely gives me his eyes.
His poker face is good, but I am a bit better than that, “It might prove his innocence.”
“Wait, Gabriel knows?” Aliyana asks,
“Yes, you told me, just now when you were taking the dinner plates to the kitchen.”
She rolls her eyes, “you were eavesdropping.”
“No. When the two of you arrived today you were both separated. While Gabriel watched you, you contemplated whether you would trust him and tell him the truth behind why you have not hung out with
him alone in his home. And then your hedge man Salvatore arrives and whatever the two of you discuss for hours in a locked room, you come to a decision. The question is, Aliyana came clean to you, why don’t you come clean to her, and tell her who put that Usb in my safe.”
Aliyana takes the drink and shoots it down.
“Usb? Not me.” He frowns, and I see he knows nothing about it, which leaves 2 people left.
“How did you know Salvatore is here?”
“Cameras, he wasn’t that discreet about it.”
She shrugs it off, “It wasn’t a secret.”
“Now that we are all on the same page, I have a job for you two, call it an extraction.”
“You want us to kidnap Dylan Creston.” Gabriel says already knowing the plan I was yet to inform the others on.
“Did, as in the past tense. I have a new person in mind.”
“Who?” They both ask in unison.
“Your friend, Romero.”
“I’m not kidnapping Mero, forget it,” Aliyana starts to get up but Gabriel stops her, holding her arm and they exchange another fucking look.
How the hell is Aliyana going to marry a man one day, if the made-men she calls her friends touch her as if they own her. Or maybe she owns them.
“Why would you want us to kidnap Mero? He is our friend,”
“A friend that could have killed my brother.” Gabriel rolls his eyes and releases Aliyana who sits back in her seat, looking at me like I’m crazy. Little do they know I have proof.
“Mero is not the killer, he loved Ren like we all did. There must be reason to whatever you think makes him a perpetrator.” Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.
I pour another glass of brandy and swallow it, in one big gulp. The burn is nothing like the smouldering evil eyes Aliyana is so inclined on giving me.
“Maybe you should take a second to let that brandy sink in, it might give you a brain.”
“Aliyana,” Her name comes out like a whip through my lips.
“No Liya.”
Gabriel is wise to read the signs of this meeting getting bad fast.
“Many men would never talk to me like that.”
“I am not many men. Asking us to spy on some guy is one thing, expecting us to kidnap our best friend is not just another thing, this is serious and it has no grounds. Mero is not the one who killed Ren.”
“Are you trying to convince yourself of that or me?” The truth fears nothing but secrecy.
“I don’t need to convince myself, or you, I am not going to be an accessory to my friend's death.” Aliyana gets up and leaves and this time none of us stop her.
“If you want to kidnap Mero why don’t you just get it done yourself, why get us involved?” Gabriel asks me a question I normally wouldn’t answer but I do so now, because he has to learn how this life works if he is going to stay on the top once he is handed a small thrown.
“I was curious to see the extent Aliyana would go to protect her friends.”
“So, you knew she wouldn’t agree to it but you asked anyway.” I smile at the young soldier, my small cousin with so much potential.
“Yes, loyalty and duty are different in our world, sometimes one outweighs the other. The question is which one do you fall under cousin?”
He casts me a look that I’m sure one day would make men and women shake.
“I’m here aren’t I?”