'We've come too far, to give up who we are. So let's raise the bar, and our cups to the stars.'
Song: Get Lucky - Daft Punk
*****
Harry's P.O.V:
2 DAYS AGO
I looked down at the pale, decomposing body in front of me. I could smell a pungent stench of his decaying body, it fucking stunk.
I lightly nudged the body with my shoe and saw a large reddish-brown blood stain underneath him.
When his body was lifted the suffocating metallic smell instantly filled my nose. I took my foot off him, and the left side of his body fell back on the ground letting out a small thump.
My fucking carpet is ruined, and probably not repairable. Couldn't he have bled out not in the middle of a casino floor. We might not even be able to be open tonight, and that will look suspicious.
"Oh for fucks sake." I exclaimed. What a fucking inconvenience. I could have gone without having to deal with this first thing on a Thursday. So now I'm going to have to get rid of the body discreetly, have to make a whole entire reason as to why he's dead, and I'm going to have to clean the blood and other remains. Fucking hell.
I pursed my lips, a slight furrow between my eyebrows, my arms crossed over my chest. I bent down as I looked over at the body again and saw a large 'X' that had been burnt into his skin. The area on his forehead where he had been burnt, had slightly raised and puffy skin. The skin surrounding the burn was a pink colour, and the burn itself had yellow-orange hues to it. It looked bumpy and extremely fucking painful.
But now it's going to be even harder to hide the body or come up with a reason as to how he died, because the fuckers who killed him, made sure he had a huge, prevalent 'X' right in the middle of his fucking forehead.
"Ugh that's fucking nasty." Zayn said, I stood up and looked over to him and he had a disgusted look on his face, his eyes were narrowed and his mouth was turned down, clearly displaying how grossed out he was. Zayn has never really been good with the look and smell of dead bodies, he finds it repulsive. Well, it depends on how they die, but this one looked nasty, so Zayn was probably fighting the urge to throw up.
"Have you called Leo?" Niall exclaimed.
"Yeah, he should be on his way." Louis replied back.
"Harry, did you make sure the security cameras were on last night when you left?" Liam asked cautiously.
"Yes Liam, I'm not a fucking idiot, 'course I did. Why?" I seethed, already pissed off enough as it is, without my time being wasted. I want to get to the bottom of this, not have stupid questions asked.
I've been in charge for years, I always remember to check they're on. It's like how before you go to bed you make sure all the lights are off, that the stove is off etc. It's just part of what I do when I leave. Plus if I'm not there, someone else will be there to check the cameras are on.
I mentally scoffed, and the fact that Liam thought I was dumb enough for that, my ego was bruised.
I heard snickering and I looked over to Louis and Zayn who were quietly laughing over my response. I glared at them and clenched my jaw, and Zayn covered his hand with his mouth and coughed, smiling innocently back at me. Louis smirked, but tried to hide it by biting his nails.
Fuckers can never take anything seriously.
They've always been the same, as long as I've known them they've been the trouble makers, the pair that's always been inseparable.
I glared at them. "Hey you two, if you don't stop acting like eight year olds, and help us work out what happened. You can both fuck off or end up like Derek. Got it?" I motioned my head in the direction of the dead body of one of our drug suppliers.
"Harry, focus," Liam began, "The cameras were cut and we couldn't see anything for about fifteen minutes. I rewinded the tape back and there were no signs of anyone coming in, then I skipped to after around fifteen minutes and the cameras were working again. Oh, and then Derek's body was there."
"So what happened then?" Niall questioned.
"I think that the cameras were somehow cut for a certain window of time, enough for whoever killed him, to sneak in and out. The connection for the cameras seems to have been cut from the outside." Liam explained.
Why the fuck would those guys come in here, kill Derek and then leave? That makes no sense.
"So what you're telling me, is that those bastards came in and killed one of our suppliers, and we have no evidence of them even being here? So I can't beat the living shit out of them all? Fucking wonderful." I remarked.
"Harry calm down, fuck. Can't we check the cameras from the strip club? Or any other places around here? We've got to have footage of them somewhere." Louis said.
"I hate to admit it but you're right."
I heard a 'heyyy', from Louis, jokingly acting like I offended him. I stifled a laugh at his attempt to lighten the mood.
"Holy shit, another one?" Leo yelled. All of us looked over at him as he came running through to where we were.
"Hey, careful of the-" Liam started.
We heard Leo shout out an, 'ow fuck'. He's a dumbass, of course he would fall over a duffle bag. I've never in my life known someone to be such a clumsy fuckwit in my life, Leo falls over absolutely nothing. When he's drunk, it doesn't even make a difference, sober or not he falls over his own feet.
Liam went over to help him up, while Zayn and Louis giggled again. Niall looked over to me and we both simultaneously shook our heads, while Niall smiled and looked down at his feet. Leo rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. They were all idiots.
"Well, at least I didn't end up like him. He hasn't had much of an excellent day." Leo snorted as he over pronounced the 'X'. Leo must have seen the 'X' on the dead body, and apparently thought his joke was the funniest thing ever.
Zayn, Louis, and Niall all started laughing along with Leo, then Liam joined in, and I tried not to, but then Leo started exclaiming, "Look, I have tears in my eyes." He came up to me and when I could see the tears, I chuckled. It wasn't even that the joke was funny, it was bloody awful, but the fact that he had tears in his eyes over his own joke was quite funny.
"Hey so I've been thinking-" Zayn began.
"Uh oh. You and thinking in the same sentence, didn't know you were capable of that. Should we be scared?" Louis interrupted him.
"Louis, shut your fucking mouth and listen dickhead. So, isn't this like the third time you've been robbed or had the casino broken into, across like... three years?"
"Yeah, the fuckers are getting brave now. Apparently robberies have been happening all across America. I think there's a group of guys who just go around the country doing it. It happens like 3-4 times a year, and big casino's just get robbed." Leo said.
"What does the 'X' on his forehead mean though?" Niall asked.
"Honestly? No fucking clue. Maybe they're pirates with the 'X' marks the spot, but aside from that I can't think of anything." Leo sighed, after letting out a little laugh.
When we were at Niall's house the other day, we discussed how there was a robbery in the Empire City Casino in New York. $30 million was robbed from the Empire City Casino. It wasn't a huge amount, they've robbed previous places for close to $80 million before.
The Empire City Casino was robbed a couple of months ago, and then there were no casino's being broken into, until mine. There's a good chance it couldn't be them, but I don't want to take a chance. I can't believe a group of men have just been scamming casino owners and robbing them, bleeding them dry out of money.
We used to have security guards who carried guns, but we can't because we risk huge lawsuits if we give guns to them. Crowded casinos, and guns are extremely risky and dangerous, that's why we only have security guards with guns when me or Louis aren't on the premises, and there's no one in the casino.
Which is how I don't get where all the security guards went. I'm going to fucking kill them. What if we actually got robbed last night? We'd be fucked.
I heard thudding coming from upstairs, the boys and I all looked at each other, I put my index finger on my lips to tell them to be quiet. We all gripped our guns and made our way upstairs to the office area.
Niall and Leo opened up the door and pointed their guns.
There's the fucking security team, and Blair. What the fuck? They were all tied up, their hands and feet were tied separately, they all had duct tape on their mouths.
We brought our guns down and put them back onto our waist or in our pockets. I sighed, running my ring clad fingers through my hair. What the fuck even happened? Why were all of the security guards up here and not where they're supposed to be? Why was Blair here after working hours?
"Why were you all up here? Not where you were supposed to be?" I snapped.
"W- well we heard a window smash so we all came up. Then th- the lights went off and next thing I know we're getting tied up and we couldn't see a thing." One of the security guards stammered.
I pinched the bridge of my nose, we have a dead worker downstairs, we had no security last night, and the entire casino could have been robbed.
"Why the fuck did you all come up?" Louis scolded from behind me.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault. I- I was in the casino because I lost my car keys so I was trying to find them. After I found them I came up here to get my stuff to go home and then the windows broke so I got scared and screamed. I guess the security team heard the glass break and me scream so they all came up. I'm so sorry." Blair whispered, her voice breaking as a sob slipped through her lips.
"Blair it's fine, they shouldn't have all come up, only a few, it's not your fault. Niall, Zayn and Liam, stay here and get them all untied, then clean up the blood downstairs, and call someone to come fix the window. Leo and Louis, come with me, we have to go sort Derek out, downstairs. Be done in an hour." I declared.
Liam pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time, he nodded and started untying the security guards and Blair.
I walked out of the room with Leo and Louis, I was going to bring Zayn with me but he was nearly gagging looking at the mutilated body downstairs, and I can't leave Louis and Zayn together otherwise nothing will get done.
We went down the elevator and I ran my hands down my face, now I was going to have to waste my Thursday morning, disposing of the fucking body.
"Louis go get the van and bring it to the door out the back, me and Leo will get changed and get the gloves on and meet you out there. Since Derek is somehow a fucking minister of the church, we'll drop him off at the Church. Leo, do you have any drugs on you?"
He whipped out a little bag of white powder out of his pocket, and waved it in my face, smirking.
"Okay we'll plant the drugs, but we'll need to transfer it to a new bag so there's no evidence of you. We'll put the drugs in his pocket and it will look like someone has gotten angry that he's a minister, but has been doing drugs. Then since he has a burner phone to contact you, we'll take that and smash it, and then throw it in the forest behind the church."
After five minutes, I heard light knocking on the backdoor. Louis stood there rolling his eyes, and pointing to the non-existent watch on his wrist. I stuck my middle finger up at Louis, and Leo nudged my shoulder with his hand.
We got into the car and drove to the Church, Louis was driving and he was playing 'Get Lucky'. He was singing it at the top of his lungs, when we stopped at a red light he'd start moving his arms around and dancing. Of course Louis would be playing that song, while we're driving to go dispose of a fucking body.
I quickly texted Niall and asked how everything was going. He responded with "Everyone is free, sent them all home. Blair seemed shook up and felt bad, she said sorry, again. Maybe just text her that it's all good. The blood is a bitch to get out, dunno what we're gonna do. P.S, what about Derek's car?"
I shot him a quick reply, "Bring it to the church, don't get your DNA on it. Text me when you're here."
We're probably going to have to get new carpets if the blood won't come out, and just say that we spilled an entire casing of red wine, and that it won't come out. Especially because the smell will be pretty bad. I'll ask Leo to call someone he's in contact with and he can tell them to keep quiet about it for money.
People will do anything for money.
When we get back I'll ask the strip club if they have footage of anything. If the police come asking about a loud sound last night, we'll say some dumb kids threw a rock at the window and it smashed. But we didn't see any point in telling the police, as it was an easy fix.
"We're here lads." Louis said sitting up.
"In and out. Ready?" I whispered.
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