Invisible String

Chapter 4

The bald man patted her shoulder and kissed her head. Even if he was her sugar daddy, he has been one of the people she respected and has shown that he genuinely cared about her. "You can stay here at my apartment while you don't have your own yet," he said then turned to Ray, "Darling, fix up your room and order another bed for April."

It sounded like a good idea but she shook her head. "I'm still staying at Ramee's. I'll just use the guest room that I was supposed to use before."

"You're just torturing yourself," Ray commented. "And don't you wanna be roomies with me?"

April smiled at her but shook her head again, "I wanna be roomies with you. But everyone will ask questions about why I moved out of his apartment when it's the most spacious apartment and Vinny's already housing three of you."

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay, my dear? My door is always open whenever you need it," Vinny assured her and gave her a tight fatherly hug. "You're gonna be okay, April. And I promise I won't tell anyone about this."

True to his words, Vinny didn't tell anyone about what he heard from the redhead that day. The rest of the gang had their suspicions and tried to instigate, especially Taco and Curtis who were constantly trying to stir the pot between the two. It wasn't until April left Los Santos that Ray accidentally lashed out at Ramee, revealing the once-beautiful relationship to everyone.

"I can't believe she'd leave without saying goodbye," Taco said quietly, as he tried to hide the sadness because of the loss he was feeling.

Ray, Randy, Taco, and Curtis were on the rooftop of the cubby, talking about their favorite popstar who just left the city, and reminiscing all the good memories they had with her after they heard about the redhead leaving the city from their leader. They couldn't believe how Mr. K just casually asked them not to look for her or find her.

"I know it's the gang leader's orders, but we should at least try and find her," Curtis suggested. "Randy, you know people outside the city, I'm sure you could ask."

Randy was just about to agree but got cut off by his best friend who was silently eavesdropping on their conversation from the ladder to the rooftop.

"Stop weeping, guys. We don't have time, we have a bank to hit," Ramee said when he revealed himself to them while holding a joint and a bottle of vodka. "I've been waiting for you for an hour, we've already planned this job since yesterday."

"Ramee, I don't think anyone could do a bank job today," the British man said, while he tried calming down the petite woman beside him who just stopped crying on his shoulders to look at his best friend piercingly.

"This is ridiculous. We're the top criminal organization in this city, we shouldn't let someone leaving the city hinder us from doing what we should be doing."

"Someone?!" Randy tried to stop his mentee but she was too eager to lash at the vulture. She stood up, walked towards Ramee, and pressed her finger on his chest. "You are a fucking asshole, Ramee," she uttered angrily and snatched the bottle from him. "Instead of drowning yourself in alcohol and trying to hide that you aren't affected by this, why don't you help us find her?"

The vulture was too stunned to speak. It was the first time he saw the piercing look in the woman's eyes. He had known Ray as one of the kindest CG members, she may be unhinged during SBS moments, but she wouldn't even hurt a fly unless she had to.

"Are you really not gonna do anything about it, Ramee? Are you just gonna let her go and act like nothing happened, like how you did not fight for your relationship and lost her?"

Vinny's eyes landed on the three people who were sitting far from each other when he arrived in the CG mansion's pool area. Ramee and Carmella were talking to each other by the bar while April was talking to the girls in the pool. The gang had already organized a pool party to celebrate April's return to the city.

He looked for his children and saw her daughters preparing the food on the table set up in the garden, and his son behind the bar, giving out drinks. He walked towards the sisters and kissed them both on their heads. "The food looks good," he told them.

"Of course! I cooked it," Ray said, which made him raise an eyebrow at her. "Fine, you got me. We ordered the steak at Corleone's, the pizza we had delivered from Maldini's, and the desserts from UWU," she confessed.

Novah and Vinny shook their heads and chuckled at her shenanigans. "How are they?" he asked them, referring to the three people who got caught in a possible love triangle.

"Carmella and April had been good, they don't have any bad blood against each other and they shouldn't be. Ramee and April, however, haven't talked to each other after their casual greeting. It's better than causing drama, though, especially with Carmella not knowing the history between the two," Ray answered and sighed. "This is gonna be a rollercoaster ride from here."

He nodded in agreement with his daughter, then looked at the redhead who was now talking to one of the Mandem, CG's ally gang. His instincts made him look at his fellow Chang Gang OG member in the bar area who was stealing glances at the woman. A smirk appeared on his face.

"Vinny!" The redhead got out of the swimming pool, revealing her red bikini, and ran to her former sugar daddy. She has been talking to a lot of people at the party that she did not notice when her former sugar daddy arrived.

She hugged him, making his clothes wet, but he couldn't care less about it. He kissed the siren's head and asked how she was.

"So you are the siren," Vinny said, smiling at her. "I didn't expect that it would be from you when we got the best coke formula. I'm proud of you, my dear."

She giggled, "People just gave me that name, and I just went with it when dealing with illegal stuff. Glad you didn't catch on to it."

"I thought of you when I first heard it, and to be honest, I was hopeful, but when I got people to find out who the siren was, it didn't link to you," he explained. "That just shows how good your security is."

She was about to say something when someone talked from behind her. She looked over her shoulder and saw that it was Raymond Romanov, a member of the Cleanbois, a criminal organization that was once CG's rival but eventually became their ally.

"Oh, hey Raymond!" she smiled at him and turned back to Vinny. "Let's catch up tomorrow, Vinny. I'll visit," she told the older CG member, to which he agreed.

She made her way back to the pool, with the Russian man tailing her. Raymond was flirty so she couldn't resist flirting back. "So what have you been up to, Raymond?" she asked him as he joined her in the pool.

"Just doing stuff with the boys," he answered with his Russian accent. "How have you been, April? I've missed you in the city."

She smirked at what he said, "I've been good. I've missed you too. Do you still have that Lambo you had? Or do you have any new cars?"

Priorities, she told herself.

"I sold the Lambo, but I have the new Ferrari F8 Tributo in red. It's a new supercar and it's really sexy," he bragged, which made her chuckle.

"Aww, I'm assuming it's red because of me," she smiled sweetly at him and added, "Would you let me ride it? I'd look hot in that."

The Russian man bit his lip and stared at the siren like he was gonna strip her off her bikini. "Yeah, you'd look really hot riding on it."

She let out a flirty giggle and took a sip of the beer he was holding, which made the man grab her on the waist, pulling her closer to him. April smirked, wrapped her arms around him, and stared at the man drooling for her.

She convinced herself that a little fun wouldn't hurt and let Raymond kiss her. She was enjoying the steamy kiss when her eyes met a pair of piercing hazel eyes staring at her from across the room. The stares they gave each other while she was kissing another man were enough to make her experience the foreign feeling of butterflies rioting in her stomach.

The owner of those eyes felt the same. He felt chills all over his body, and even if he wanted, he couldn't stop himself from staring at those ocean-blue eyes and wishing that it was his lips she was kissing.