Chapter 35

Luca's Pov

"Lila." I greet with a tight-lipped smile, eyes watching as she steps into my office.

Her black hair hangs a little past her shoulders and she's dressed in clothes unfit for winter, a halter top cut way too low and a skater skirt that doesn't end too far past her ass.

Arsenio grins, eyes roaming the ebony haired woman. "So you're the woman my brother just can't seem to shut up about, you certainly are a treat. "

Glaring daggers at Arsenio, Lila smiles broadly looking as if she is practically bursting at the seams with undeniable joy.

"Hopeful good things." She mumbles, blushing.

"Yes of course." Arsenio continues to torment me, very much enjoying himself.

I clear my throat, glancing away from her penetrating gaze. "How is your mother?"

Lila's brows furrow briefly and I catch a look of utter confusion on her face for only a split second.

"Oh, my mother is um....she's fine, getting better every day. " Lila waves off, rubbing the back of her neck.

"That's good....but you really didn't need to come, Lila." I dig my hands into my pockets, closing the door.

She shakes her head, nibbling on her lower lip as she stares up at me through her lashes. "I really really want to help, Luca."

My eyes widen as suddenly the girl launches herself on to me, wrapping her arms securely around my torso. Snuggling her head into my chest.

I clear my throat, feeling the eyes we gather from everyone watching the scene. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just trying to comfort you, I thought you needed a hug. " She giggles sheepishly as she draws back.

"Thank you but I'm fine," I assure her, taking a few steps away.

"So, Lila," Ezra pipes in, thankfully. "Uh, how are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks uhm...Erica." Lila smiles sweetly though it doesn't quite reach her eyes.

"It's Ezra," Ezra responds peeved.

"Yeah, that's what I said. " Lila rolls her eyes and clicks her tongue.

"Bitch." I hear Ezra grumble under her breath sending Lila a dirty look.

"So, how can I help? I can help in anyway you want. Anyway." Lila purrs, her tongue darting from her mouth briefly to run across her crimson red coloured lips as she eyes me like a snack.

Zev snickers but keeps his eyes glued to his laptop, Arsenio has taken a relaxed stance on the couch, his legs crossed as he watches this unfold with amused eyes.

I clear my throat once again, rubbing the back of my neck. "Well, we haven't generally decided on what we're doing as yet but I'll let you know when we decide."

"Well, have you informed her parents as yet?" She inquires, strolling around me.

"No, I believe it would be best if her parents were unaware of the situation. I would hate to.....worry them." I answer, observing as she takes a seat leisurely at my desk.

Of course I couldn't tell her parents she had been kidnapped, the whole reason Iris and I had been wed was to keep her safe in exchange for my family's legal immunity.

"If you do, need someone to talk to them, I'm especially good at playing devil's advocate not to mention but Mrs Harding simply adores me." She grins, flicking her hair to the side and toying with a pen that rests on my desk.

"We'll take that into consideration." Arsenio winks, a hand under his chin as his eyes rolls over the female yet again. "Are those claw marks on your arms?"

She smiles and nods, looking down at her arm. "Yeah, I have a cat. His name is Baymax."

"Interesting." Arsenio hums, tilting his head to the side.

"So, uh, when does Nikolai get here?" Zev spoke up filling the slightly unsettling silence.

"I'm not sure, I called him and he-" Ezra is cut off by the door bursting open, to present Nikolai.

He strolls in oozing confidence like no other, his baby blue suit jacket in hand. A cocky smirk on his face.

"Relax, people. No need to get your panties in a bunch, I'm here." He tosses his jacket on the couch, next to Estevon and Arsenio who both roll their eyes at his dramatics.

"Late as usually." Zev shakes his head.

"Hey, traffic was a bitch." Nikolai scowls, running a hand through his hair.

"Well, we are honoured that you could grace us with your royal presence." I narrow my eyes at him, to which he only smirks and winks.

I watch as his eyes scan the room, landing on the girl who sits at my desk, toying with a pen in clothes fit for summertime.

"Well, if it isn't the sultry raven-haired seductress." Nikolai cocks a brow, his lustful eyes running over Lila.

"Nikolai." She greets, with a slight wave of the fingers and a bright smile.

Ezra clenches her jaw and averts her eyes, lips pursed in annoyance.

"You look.....stunning." He compliments running his eyes over her excuse of an outfit and sauntering towards her.

"Don't I always." She bites her lip, outstretching her hand for him to take.

Nikolai's lips curl up at the corners as he takes her hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles. Lila hums, drawing her hand back after his soft kiss, eyes twinkling.

Interesting.

The ring of an iPhone makes their small moment come to a sudden pause, Lila sighs heavily and pulls from her pocket the ringing phone.

Her brows furrow as she clenches her jaw. "Could you excuse me? I uh...have to take this."

"By all means. " I reply without a sliver of hesitation.

Her presence unnerves me.

A smile slips back on to her face at my words and she gets up from her seat on my chair, strolling out of the office and closing the doors behind her.

"That girl is something else," Arsenio comments, eyes still transfixed on the closed door.

"What she is, is a whore," Ezra grumbles, sulking.

"Now, that she's gone momentarily, can we please talk about the plan? " I inquire leaning against my desk.

"Why is it that we don't want her to know our plans again?" Nikolai questions, rather confused.

"Because we don't trust her and according to Luca, something is off about her," Zev says, filling him in. "Plus he slept with her."

"Of course he has." Nikolai chuckles, pouring himself a drink.

"So, what's the plan? " Ezra cocks a brow.

"I'll tell you, Luca and I are going to pay the kid a little visit while Nikolai you're going to keep our little friend busy-" Arsenio dictates, running his finger across his lower lip.

"Wait, why the hell is she going with Nikolai?" Ezra perks up, glaring hard at Arsenio clearly jealous.

"Because obviously she has a thing for him and you two don't seem to work well with each other. " Arsenio answers, shooting her back an icy glare. "You're going to be teaming up with your brother."

Ezra grumbles to herself, obviously pissed.

"And uh...techie, you can stay here for all I care. " Arsenio directs at Zev, who flips him the bird with a nonchalant look.

Zev closes his laptop and rolls his eyes up to Arsenio. "No thanks man, I think I'll tag along with Nico and the chick. Luca's right, there is something pretty off about her and I want to find out"

"Well, then it's settled," I speak up, clapping my hands together.

At that very moment, the door opened and Lila walks in, pocketing her phone.

"What are we talking about?" She inquires, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"We're talking about the plan." Estevon quips up nervously, getting off the couch's armrest.

"Oh, what did we decide?" She says quizzically.

"That we would divide the city and conquer," Estevón answers, rubbing the back of his neck.

Lila raises a brow, a scowl on her face. "What?"

"We decided that we would divide the city into quadrants to look for any possible leads." Zev jumps in, acting a lot cooler than Estevon had.

"Oh okay." Lila nods, trailing her eyes over Zev with mild apprehension.

"So, Ezra and Estevon, you guys take the northeast side of the city, Nikolai, Lila and myself, we can cover the southeast quadrant and Luca, you and Arsenio can take the northwest and southwest side." Zev voices, whipping up a 3D imaging of New York City in google maps format.

"New tech?" I ask, watching as he divides the map into 4 parts.

"Pshh, old tech. " Zev chuckles, looking over his shoulder.

"I don't understand." Lila mutters, a frown settled on her face.

"What the hell don't you understand?" Ezra says bitterly.

"I don't understand why it is that I'm not paired with Luca. I mean wouldn't my skill set be vital to him. " Lila pouts, arms crossed over his chest.

What fucking skill set?

Looking like a whore?

Yes cause that'll come in handy.

"I'm hurt, doll. You don't enjoy my company." Nikolai holds a hand over his heart, mocking a hurt look.

"I-" Lila isn't allowed to finish her sentence as Nikolai, loops his arm around her shoulder.

"Let's go, gorgeous." He gives her his signature charming grin.

Lila pouts but says nothing more, only casting me one last pitiful look as she's lead out the door. Zevenous trailing behind them with a soft shake of the head.

"That one's got crazy in her eye," Arsenio comments, a smirk playing on his lips.

"And how do you know that?" Ezra raises a brow at him.

"Crazy tends to know crazy, Ezie." Arsenio winks at Ezra who shakes her head, turning on her heel.

"Let's go Estevón." She mutters impatiently, strolling from the room.

Giving us a mock two finger salute, Estevón rushes from the room after his twin sister.

"Ready to go, fratello?" Arsenio asks, standing and straightening the lapels of his jacket.

"Si, let's go." I nod, grabbing the phone from the desk drawer.

✨✨✨

Smiling at the woman at the front desk, I hear Arsenio grunt as she blushes bright red.

"Amateur." He mumbles.

He and I make our way up the flight of stairs, up to the second floor. Once we've made it to the white paneled door, I knock loudly.

In a matter of minutes, the door swings open, a toothy smiled Mel. Her brunette hair is a mess atop her head and what I suppose to be paint is splattered all over her.

"Luca." She squeals making me grin.

"Hello, principessa." I say, lifting her into my arms. "Don't you look a mess."

Her bright eyes shoot to Arsenio who stands behind me, her little head tilting to the side in question. "Who's that?"

"He's my brother," I answer, strolling deeper into the house which looks like it's gone through a hurricane.

"Oh. Hi, I'm Mel and I'm this, many," She then proceeds to hold up 4 fingers.

"I see." Arsenio grins, digging his hands into his pockets. "It's quite nice to meet you, piccola."

"Mel, where is everyone?" I inquire, noticing how empty the living room and kitchen are, devoid of its usual childlike playfulness.

She hums, brows contorted as she thinks. "The twins, Gabe and Chris are napping, um....Mimi is doing big girl stuff in woom and Gracey said she'd be back swoon."

"And James? Where is he?" I cock a brow.

"In his woom." She answers, glancing at me with her sweet innocent eyes.

"Thank you, patatina. Stay right here, okay. I need to have a little chat with him." I smile, placing the small child down.

"Okay." She giggles, running over to what I suppose is a drawing table.

"Do we know exactly what room this kid's in?" Arsenio questioned, trailing behind me as I make my way down the narrow hallway.

"No."

Prying the first door open I find it's only the office of the caretaker. Closing the door, I reach for the door knob of the second door, when I hear soft moans.

"I think that's Mimi's door. Big girl things duly noted." Arsenio smirks, to which I rolled my eyes.

Pushing past me Arsenio stops in front of a door which is laminated with stickers of skateboards and a huge keep out sign.

It screams teenage boy.

Turning the handle of the unlocked door, Arsenio pushes the door fully open. James has yet to recognize our presence in the room, he's much too immersed in whatever game he's playing.

He shouts loudly, obviously speaking to other players through his headset as they run around, battling others on a semi-realistic survival based game world.

I kick the door shut, and it makes a loud bang. James' head shoots up and his eyes widen as he sees Arsenio and I.

"Hello James, long time no see, ay?" Arsenio chuckles, plopping down on the kid's bed.

"W-what are you doing here?" He stutters as he pulled his headphone off his head, resting it on his desk.

"Turn the game off," I say sternly, arms folded, my stance commanding.

"No." He gulps, shaking his head furiously. He's determined, I'll give him that.

"Turn the fucking game off, kid." I growl, eyes narrowed.

When still he refuses to do as told, I near him watching as his eyes grow wide, looking like he's almost about the shit himself.

I rip the desktop cord out of the electrical socket, letting it fall from my hand.

"Look, kid." I start.

"I'm not a kid." He speaks up trying to sound brave but he isn't fooling anyone, he's scared shitless.

Gritting my teeth, I resist the urge to teach him some manners, instead I pull his phone from my pocket dropping it into the desk.

"This is yours isn't it?" I question, pointing down at the beat-up device.

He rubs his face. "Yeah. Where did you find it?"

"It doesn't matter, what matters is why you texted Iris that you were in trouble and that you needed her help ?" I grunt, glaring hard at him.

"Is Iris alright? She hasn't visited in a while...Did you do something to her?" He asks, gripping the armrest of his chair hard.

Slamming my hand into to wall, I hiss. "My question first."

(A/N: 😋)

As if the boy's eyes couldn't go wider, I watch as he trembles like a leaf. My anger flows from me in waves and I have to stop myself from whooping his ass to a pulp.

"Brother, let me." Arsenio steps up, placing a hand on my shoulder.

Sighing heavily, I send one last threatening look at the boy before taking a seat on his bed.

"Pardon my brother, he's going through a lot right now and as much as I'd love to see him hand your ass to you, I need some answers." He grins cynically, leaning against the boy's desk. "You remember what I showed you don't you?"

The boy nods, eyes averted.

"Good, see, I just want to ask you some easy questions, very very simple questions that I know you will answer for me but if you so wish to be uncooperative I will have to implement some rather drastic methods. And you don't want that do you?" Arsenio narrows his cold silver eyes, leaning in and tilting his lips up into a cruel, chilling smirk.

The boy shakes his head no.

"Now, tell me. Why was your phone found outside Iris' office?" Arsenio cocks his brow, stroking his thumb across his lower lip.

"I-I don't know." He stutters, trembling.

"Bullshit!" Arsenio shouts, as he grabs the boy's headphones and tosses them into the wall, causing it to shatter on impact.

"I, I, I don't know, I really don't know. I left my phone here, I swear. When I got home, it was gone and I couldn't find it. I promise you, I do not know how the hell it got to Iris' office. " He rushes out, throwing his hands up and fidgeting in his seat.

"So, you didn't text her and tell her you were trouble and needed her help. " Arsenio murmurs.

"No."

"Look I believe you but if I find out that your punk ass lied to me. I'll cut of all your fingers and pour cement down your ears. " Arsenio threatens as he straightens himself up. "Are we clear?"

"Yes, sir." He swallows and nods immediately.

"Luca, let's go." Arsenio calls as if I was one of his boys, digging his hands into his pockets and making his way out the door.

Rolling my eyes, I send a final look the boy's way. Suddenly a thought pops into my mind, switching my gaze back over to the boy who has slumped down in his chair and closed his eyes seemingly trying to calm himself down.

This kid looks smart and judging from the endless amount of tech in his room, I'm guessing he's good with electronics.

"Kid, can you by chance decode qwerty code?" I inquire, raising a brow.

"Yeah, I-I uh...recently picked up cryptography." He responds with a shrug. "It's fairly easy."

"Did you write any codes for anyone recently?" I question, watching as he scrunches up his nose in thought.

"Yeah, I uh... wrote something for Gracey." He answers.

"Do you remember what it was? " I press him further.

Could it be the very same note?

Of course it has to be.

"Uhm, something about truth, I think." He racks his brain, shrugging with a frown when he comes up partly empty handed.

"Thanks kid."

Without waiting for him to say anything I stroll from the room and close the door behind me to find Arsenio standing in the hallway, a brow cocked.

"We need to find the caretaker," I mutter to which he gives a curt nod, without further questioning.

But before we do that. I reach for the handle of the first door I'd stopped at, prying the door open. I shuffle into the room, Arsenio behind me.

"What are we doing?" Arsenio cocks his brow looking at the tiny, standard room that holds a filing cabinet, a desk, a chair, bookshelf and a computer.

I don't reply, I move to her filing cabinet. Searching for anything, something. Then I find it, tucked away at the very back, a little red diary. Plucking it out, I skip through it's pages.

Arsenio cocks a brow and strolls over to me, looking over my shoulder.

For the most part it's just log about missing home and never being able to go home because she got kicked out of the army and how her father who was also in the army would be disappointed.

But what caught my eye was a meeting, a meeting she'd arranged with a Dr. Oaks. The very Dr. Oaks who had revoked Iris' licenses.

And other log in which she borrows a drone from an old friend of hers which she used to send a brick message through the window of Iris' house by the request of her lover who she never names.

Next are a few logs about her being anxious, nervous to get a job done. The last entry is November 24th and it's simply her feeling guilty.

"We really need to find this caretaker." I mutter, closing the diary and glancing at Arsenio.

"Let's go."