18| Houses

Chapter Eighteen

Alessio

"Don't look at him. Look at me," Damien laughs before he punches one of the gunmen.

The warehouse, or better yet, a new order of operations in all things torture and information grabbing, is here. It used to be a nice dark room, under the garage only accessible for top agents such as Damien. He is joyfully punching our hostage in the face.

I miss the soundproof room, where not even a signal could come into. It was filled to the brim with torture weapons and pullies. My favorite was the water torture system, highly effective in making a person go insane.

"I won't tell you shit," the hostage spits out, earning him another punch.

Two days of torture and nothing, not even a name for this person. And his friend has managed to stay silent, not even giving Damien and me a fuck you for punching him. They're too calm, and threatening to kill one seems to hold no value.

They don't know each other, so killing one will do nothing.

I open my phone and send Odella a text, asking for any and all information on these two she can find. There has to be something for us to use on them.

"You know, the pain will only get worse. First, it's my fist, then my knives, then well... I wouldn't want to spoil the final for you." Damien says sinisterly.

I turn my attention to the other hostage. His demeanor is cold. He doesn't avoid my eyes. It's like whatever I do will never be enough. There's nothing for me to say to him. I draw my gun, his eyes widen. I press the muzzle to the tip of his forehead.

"I'm gonna count to five. If you don't tell me anything worth knowing. I'm gonna blow your brains out."

I don't have time for this. I don't have time for him to play some silent game, wasting my time when I could find another angle. He remains silent, and I pull the trigger, killing him without a second thought. I turn my attention to the more talkative one. He looks down at the gun in my hand. His ears are probably ringing from the gunshot, and that bruise on his cheek probably feels like nothing to him now at the sight of his dead buddy.

This is real.

"You can keep all the secrets, fine, but you will die if you do. Take your comrade's death as a warning that I am, in fact, serious. When we get back here. I want to know where he is." I tuck my gun into my suit jacket, nodding for Damien to follow me.

"Wait!" I turn my attention back to the man tied to a chair, bloody and bruised. "I want to tell you guys, fuck I do, but the moment he finds out, I said anything. He will kill me."

"And if you don't, I will," and with that, I walk out of the warehouse.

"Shit, Alessio," Damien mutters. "Why would you kill him?"

"He was saying nothing, and I got irritated. And did you see the look on his face? The fear? He's gonna talk the moment we walk in later. The blood would have seeped to his feet, and the heat will make his friend's dead body decompose a lot quicker too."

"Wow...you are crazy."

"Says the man that was punching him for hours with a smile on his face. Damien, I want you to monitor the security cameras tonight. Our hostage will surely say something of use. He's in a state of shock and fear, and that's always a good indication for something," I say as I walk to my car.

"Are you serious? Why can't an intern or Odella do that?"

"She is...I need you to-"

"Right! Of course, I will do that. Odella and I are on the case," he says before rushing to his car.

God, this thing that started as a joke seems to be a bit too real with the way he's so excited to see her.

I need to have a talk with Odella about him.

I look into the rearview mirror of myself, analyzing any hint of blood or guts on me. I'm fine, and the stuff in the trunk is enough of an alibi that I was out for two hours getting gifts and things for Aria and Alice.

The girls probably aren't home. They're supposed to be at the salon, getting pedicures and whatever else they want. I am supposed to be meeting them for dinner, in precisely twenty minutes, and Alice is never late.

She's more so early, which means I have ten minutes to get there. I wasn't expecting them not to talk. I thought after a few hours in the dark. I would hear about a location, maybe even an ambush.

But nothing. So, now he-without-a-name is gonna sit in a hot warehouse with a rotting body until he tells me what I want to hear. Killing Patrick Kinsman now is personal. He's killed too many of my agents, and he is simply annoying.

He's annoying and too close for comfort. I know he's in New York, but where the hell is he?

I drive to the restaurant, giving the valet my car keys in the process. I straighten my jacket and push back my hair before I walk in. I see Alice's freshly, now redyed platinum blonde hair first, then Aria with one purple streak in her black hair. Seems like the two of them did something different with their hair.

Aria spots me first in the midst of me, taking in Alice's hair that's closer to white than the blonde I knew for the last few years. She kept her hair long as well, one surprise after another. I walk towards the two. First, I kiss the top of Alice's head, inhaling the scent of her new hair. "I like the new hairstyle," I say.

Alice runs a hand through her hair and smiles. "You do? My stylist, after I said I wanted a redye, said I should try this platinum. I thought it was a little bit weird, but I think I really love it. It really makes people look at you twice."

"I know, it fits you to a tea." No person on this planet can just take a glimpse of Alice. You see her, and then you have to keep on watching.

Aria pushes back her hair, and I immediately turn my attention to her. "Aria, I really like your hair. It looks really good."

She turns away from my eyesight and pushes back a bit of her hair behind her ear. "Thank you."

I take a seat next to Aria, "you know. Maybe you should dye your hair. How about you go blonde, or just dye it black," Alice suggests.

"Or purple," Aria peeps up.

"No, to all suggestions," I say as the waiter comes setting down a series of drinks for all of us. "Thank you," I murmur, taking a sip of my drink. "I am not dying my hair."

Aria pulls at a strand of my hair. "Maybe you should soon. You got gray hair." My eyes widen. What the hell is she talking about? Aria snickers, "it's only a small one. No one would notice unless they really look."

Alice leans over the table and inspects my hair. "Huh, she is right. It's only one strand, though." A gray hair? It must be because those dumbs at my job-they're slowly killing me. I let out a sigh. "Don't be too upset, Alessio. I think a gray streak will be quite..." she looks at Aria, whose waiting for her to finish her sentence. Alice has been entirely mindful of the racier things she wants to say to me. Her potty mouth has taken quite a nosedive. Once Alice wouldn't have thought twice about what she said; now, she stopped before. "Handsome," she finishes.

I swallow the spit forming in my throat, "so, how were you ladies' day?"

"Well, we spent two hours in the salon, two hours at the spa, and then three hours of shopping, with one, may I add ice cream stop and a deli sandwich for lunch," Aria says.

"A travesty," I say with hints of sarcasm.

"An absolute travesty. So, for dinner, I think I'm owed ice cream. Right Alice?" She raises her eyebrow, making Alice laugh. She pushes my shoulder. I turn my attention to the doe-eyed young girl as she attempts to win us over.

I look to Alice, who is already looking at me. She knows I wanna give her the ice cream and only shakes her head. "After dinner," I tell her. "It is a travesty that you only got one I've cream cone."

"See? I thought so too, Alessio," she says. The waiter comes, and we tell them our order. Alice gets a salad, most likely because they have a heavy lunch that's still weighing on her. I, on the other hand, go for the prime rib, and so does my twelve-year-old dependent as well. And I'm sure she will finish it as well.

Where does all this food go? She eats a crazy amount of food, and it goes nowhere at all. She's still a skinny kid, so skinny that I wish she eats more, further filling in her cheeks.

"Oh!" Aria shouts. "I forgot. Alessio, you have to see the cool thing Alice brought me. We were at the mall, and they had this retro gaming store with arcade games. We played for a while, and it was so much fun."

"Okay...now what did you buy?"

"Well," she looks to Alice.

"I may have sorta brought one...or two or five of them," Alice stammers out. I raise an eyebrow. "Before you get mad...Aria really likes them, and I think you will too."

"I'm not mad. I- I just am wondering where you're gonna put them at. I hardly think five arcade machines are gonna fly in your mother's home. She's quite particular about the rooms inside."

"Yes," she smiles. "Which leads me to the next order of business. We should buy a house." She lowers her gaze and backs up to me. The reason we stayed with her mother was that we both knew she wasn't stable enough. She needed Melissa and her mother when I wasn't there to work. "I was looking around on the internet since we got engaged, and I thought I wanted a yard, a big one with a lot of rooms. One where we can have Charlie run around and maybe another dog too-a big one. And place in a good school system too...for Aria," she says.

"What do you think?" The waiter comes with the food and places it in front of us.

I nod my head and stare at the two doe-eyed girls waiting for my answer. "Yeah, I agree. I think we should start looking," I look to Aria. "All of us, together."

Aria lets out a squeal. "See! I told you." She takes out her phone. "So, I was looking at some places, and since you two are both multi-millionaires, money should be no problem."

She slides her phone to Alice and pushes her plate towards me so I can cut her steak. It's an unspoken thing now that she has no idea how to cut her steak properly, earning me the job to do it.

Alice smiles at the picture and does a series of swipes. "Oh, well, if you don't want to become an engineer or work as a Ceo like Alessio," I clench my jaw. "You can be a real estate agent because wow. This place is nice. It has this big driveway that gives off the privacy you would want. Oh! And a pool, a sauna too. And it's only twenty minutes away from my mother's house, ten away from your office too. There's like a little community too. Alessio," she gawks. "We have to see it."

I chuckle, "can I see it?" I slide Aria's plate to her, and she makes no haste in eating.

She hands me the phone, and she is right. This is a great house, with six bedrooms, four and a half baths. A yard so big that maybe a pack of dogs could run around it. And a pool, with a hot tub, in a small community with people with a bunch of money.

Aria could make friends here, and the high school is a charter school. Oh? A place where we teach future successors.

"You like it? I know you do. I am awesome enough to pick out our future home."

"You know," Alice says. "We can pack our stuff up and go take a look. It's only thirty minutes away, and you do have your car, Alessio." Alice raises an eyebrow, "right Alessio."

"Sure thing," I laugh. I raise my hand, "can we have some to-go boxes and the check."

We pack the food and rush to the car. The drive is easy, low traffic, the sounds of Aria eating in the background with Alice feeding me every so often as I drive to what may be our future home. The street lights are on, and the neighborhood is quieter than I am used to. I ease on the gas, stopping in front of the house with a big for sale sign.

She wasn't kidding about that driveway. It's huge, "Alessio, drive up," Alice says. "We can't see it like this."

I drive up the long driveway. Alice is first to get out of the car, with Aria behind her in tow. With her shoes off, Alice runs up to the front window, peering into what seems to be the living room. Aria, by her side, does the same thing. I let out a sigh at the spectacle.

From the naked eye, they look like two crazy girls who are curious about some big house. Not some billionaire and adopted daughter who is interested in this huge house. "See, there, Aria. We can put a massive television and couch right there. And would you look at that? It's a chandelier."

"It looks great inside of here."

I look inside the window. They're right. The pictures don't give the house nearly as much credit that it deserves. "We should go in the back." Alice grabs our hands and walks to the back, which has a gate between us and the pool. "Alessio, give me a boast."

"What are you going to do?"

"Unlock the gate, obviously. I wanna see the pool and the yard. Now give me a boast." I raise an eyebrow. A boast, she says like I can't pick her up with ease. I lift Alice, making her squeal and able to get over the gate.

"You two are cute," Aria murmurs.

One moment later, Alice unlocks the gate, and we enter. She already wears a smile. It seems like she loves this too. The pool is big enough for a party Aria or Alice would hold for friends and family. The yard is big. Charlie would have one hell of a time running through this yard with his tongue out with maybe a little brother and sister with him.

Aria puts her hands on her hips. "So, I don't know if anyone else is gonna say if but I want this house. And I know I'm not the one with the money, but I think there's no need to look at another house because this is the one."

"Well...I'm in." Alice smiles, one of her dazzling smiles.

I sigh, "I'll call them tomorrow and make an offer...after we look at the inside. Okay?"

Aria and Alice let out a squeal and hug me.

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This family is so freaking sweet.

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