Chapter 26 Chapter 25:
Devon:
I am already in the car, driving recklessly to Golden Retreat, my mind is piecing possibilities together as I am eager to know who Maryanne’s killer is, my hands tighten around the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white.
Despite the darkness of the sky, it takes me at least twenty minutes before I reach Golden Retreat. I walk through the automatic sliding doors before taking the elevator down. The underworld is busy with people, all holding mugs of beer, while yelling. My brows furrow as I search for Leto, finally I see her pushing through the crowd, with a can of beer. When she reaches in front of me, her cheeks are flustered red.
“Are you drunk, Leto?” I ask in disbelief, out of all the times for my cousin to get drunk, she chose today? Seriously?
She shakes her head, stumbling, but I catch her by the waist. “No, no. I am just excited.”
“Why?” I ask.
She drags me towards the VIP seat and forces me to sit down. One of the waiters offers me champagne, but I decline.
“Someone here has been stealing information and giving it to the silver vipers.” Leto snaps her eyes over to me, before gesturing towards the boxing ring. I turn to see Xavier with brass knuckles circling a man. That must be their traitor; the man looks helpless, still begging for his life, unlike Xavier, he’s not putting on any brass knuckles.
“I feel pity for him,” Leto sighs, taking a gulp out of the can. “Xavier hates betrayal more than anything in his life, we could have just easily banished him away from The Nexus but Xavier wants to give him a lesson he can’t forget.”
Before I can say anything, Xavier lunches forward, the brass knuckles catching the light as they collide with the man’s face. The sickening crunch of bones resounds everywhere, my stomach rolls as the man’s brutal screams cuts through the air, Xavier lands another punch to his face, and another until blood starts to splatter across the boxing ring.
The whole place is dead quiet as no one dares to order Xavier to stop, even for a moment, Leto feels sorry for the guy.
I know Xavier is ruthless but seeing him like this...so utterly merciless sends a chill down my spine. By the time Xavier is done, the man is a bloody heap on the floor; the place is silent except the dull thud of Xavier’s boots as he walks over to us.
I stare at him in surprise, reminding myself not to ever cross his dark side, the moment he sees me, he breaks into a cool grin.
“Devon! You made it.” He says smoothly, as if he hadn’t just beaten a man into pulp in the boxing ring, he grabs a napkin and begins cleaning any sign of blood on his fingers.
“Yes,” I say stiffly, “I made it. Now, are you guys going to tell me who in the hell killed Maryanne?” Maryanne deserves justice out of everyone, she had been murdered in her own blood at her own house and everyone fucking believes she committed suicide, even her own sister.
“Right. The silver vipers murdered her.” Xavier says, matter of fact, before grabbing Leto’s can of beer, she yells for him to give it back, but he ignores her and turns towards me.
“The silver viper?” I ask in confusion, “what the hell?”
Leto sighs, and begins explaining. “Mafia groups are all about power. So, whenever a mafia group kills someone, they leave a mark for other mafia groups to know that they killed them. It’s like an act of dominance for other mafia groups to know that they are responsible for the person’s death.”
I feel utterly disturbed just by hearing this; this is exactly why I try not to get near mafia groups, “how did you guys know that the silver vipers were responsible for this?”
“They usually leave their signs where the police or a normal observer wouldn’t even care to look, but for us, we know exactly where to look and so, Xavier and I went to the crime scene.” I want to ask them how they managed to get through the yellow tapes and the police, but I decide not to, who knows what the hell they did.
Xavier speaks then. “We found the mark inside a shampoo bottle.”
“Huh?” Now, I am getting more confused.
“They hid some sort of liquid that was designed to look like snake venom inside the shampoo bottle, it blended easily with the color of the shampoo so the police didn’t even bother to look into it, but we knew.”
A member from the silver vipers is the one who shoved Arya down that stairs, now the silver vipers are responsible for the death of Maryanne/Meg.
Leto nods, “someone is paying them for this, Devon.” But the question now is who?
“So, you are saying that the same person paid another member to push Arya down the stairs?” It isn’t a coincidence, but whom? Who wants Maryanne and Arya dead at the same time? “Can you track them down?”
“This is hard, Devon. The silver vipers and the Nexus rank together in power, if we start a war with them, then we are inviting death to our members.”
“Can I speak to their leader?” I ask and Xavier and Leto exchange a strange look, before bursting into laughter.
Xavier takes another gulp, still laughing. “Unless you want to be shot before you reach their front door, then go ahead. Besides, their leader is anonymous, mafia leaders always go into hiding, aside from our mafia members, no one outside our mafia group knows that Leto and I are the boss.”
I nod my head, still not understanding the way the mafia works. I know something; someone is paying or even controlling the silver vipers to kill people and that same person might be the one who ordered for Arya to be pushed off that stairs.
“Look, Dev. We are going to keep doing our best to find out what’s truly going on, but let me tell you, it won’t be easy one bit. Put your trust in us, okay?”
That’s the problem, trusting people is not something I really do.
“Leto, can I ask a favor? Can you help protect Arya in the shadows? The person that did that to her won’t stop there, he’s going to want to do it again.”
“You are right.” Her eyes lit up with an idea. “That’s it! We are going to lure that person out again. He will want to attack Arya again and I will swoop in and bring him here, then Xavier can torture him to speak up.”
When Leto mentions torture, Xavier who looks bored suddenly brightens up.
“We can cut his fingers; drill into his lungs, burning, the rat cage torture, electric shock, knife torture and the list goes on.” Xavier says, excitement flashing in his eyes. My stomach rolls. I don’t find such an idea enjoyable or thrilling or even fun, honestly people like me shouldn’t even be interacting with the Nexus, but Xavier and Leto use brutal methods to get nothing but the truth.
“I don’t want Arya to get hurt.” I confess, the thought of anyone coming near her to hurt her doesn’t faze well with me, my knuckles tighten into a fist.
“That is why I am going to protect her in the shadows, of course.” Leto rolls her eyes and Xavier nods, taking a sip out of the beer.
“Alright.” I stand up, “I have to go home now,”
“Bye, greet baby Vera for us.” Leto blows me a kiss. As I step into the elevator, a text from Ethan comes into my phone. I am surprised because this is the first time he’s actually texting me.
Ethan: Nicholas and I are in Golden Retreat, do you want to catch up while we drink champagne?
My body stiffens as I stare at the screen, I tell him yes and step out of the elevator, thank goodness the elevator is in the kitchen. When I step out, I already see Nicholas and Ethan in a corner, laughing brightly.
I shove my phone into my pocket before approaching them, “hello, gentlemen.”
Ethan looks up at me, grinning. “Dude! Come on, sit down. We already ordered wine and champagne.”
I am not in the mood to get drunk today; my mood is sour as hell.
Still, I sit down and Ethan pours me a glass, he stares at me carefully, as if examining me. Nicholas removes his suit jacket and drapes it over his seat, since he’s still dressed in his suit; I know he’s coming back from work.
Ethan is wearing a Henley shirt and dark jeans coupled with designer sneakers, his blonde hair slicked backward.
This is going to be a long night.
“How’s Arya doing?” Nicholas asks, his voice stiff. There’s an edge of protectiveness when he mentions her name which makes me become protective too.
“She’s doing great.” I reply, not breaking eye contact. Ethan notices the stiffness between us and pours us more wine.
“Let’s all calm down here. Nico. Devon is part of us now, if he hurts Arya, we will haunt him down, right?”
“Right.” Nicholas adjusts his tie, before breaking into a gentle smile. “How are you, man?”
“I am fine.” They look at me, waiting for more. Sighing, I say. “Just exhausted.”
“That’s not what we are asking, dude. Have you fallen in love with Arya?”
I am taken aback by their questions. Nicholas reaches out from his pocket and brings out a carefully folded paper, “look, let me tell you. I made my parents get together, in other words, I am like a love doctor.” He passes the paper to me, “this is a list of everything that Arya likes, follow the instructions and she will fall heads over heels with you.”
Ethan is still grinning. “Read it, we made it together.”
I read.
What Arya likes.
P.S if you follow this, you might have a chance.
Flowers- not roses, gosh she hates those. Get her something like daisies.
Tip, buy her a bouquet, not roses, trust us.
Coffee: Pumpkin spice latte. Always know her order!
Music: She pretends to like romance songs, but if you play anything rap, she will let loose. Tip, play her favorite songs on a car ride and she won’t stop smiling.
Food: She loves chocolate, trust us when I say she sneaks some of Vera’s chocolate into her mouth during midnight, she also loves pastries, just don’t overdo it, she will think you are trying too hard.
Underneath the note is ‘P.S If everything fails, just be yourself. She can tell when you are pretending!’
“Oh.” I shove it into my pocket. “Thank you, I will put this to good use.”
Ethan nods eagerly, “we know that you are some hot-shot billionaire, but so are we. So whenever we are together, be free with us. Think of us as the brother you never had.”
My shoulders stiffen when they mention brother and my temples harden. “No problem.”
“You could use a little more smile to your hard features, just look at you giving off that cold, don’t mess with me kind of look. Fuck, I like you already.” Ethan laughs. “Just try all of those things. Everyone comes to me for advice for love.”
My phone pings with a message and I bring it out to read Nicholas’ text.
Nicholas: He advises people on love, but is completely oblivious to his love life. My cousin has a crush on him, but he has no idea.
Nicholas winks at me, placing his phone on the table.
We end up talking some more- Ethan and Nicholas doing most of the talking, I listen on, feeling the stress lift away, is this what it means to have friends? To talk and laugh and drink wine? To be completely normal? In my world, everything I do is seen and judged by everyone, but just by being with them, I feel like I can laugh and not feel judged.
I know now what it feels like to have friends and connect with them, and for the first time, it feels so right.
Later on, when we are done, Ethan forces us to play a game and the loser gets to pay the bills. I didn't bother playing so I paid. They wave me goodbye as I step into my car. Now that Maryanne is dead, only four candidates are left, Theo Duncan, I, Lawrence Jones and Phoebe Galindo.
My phone pings with a text from Daphne
Daphne: Lawrence Jones just withdrew from the election, not only that. He handed in his resignation letter.