"Today is Friday. So we're having a movie night," Remi explained.
"Lorenzo will be here too, he had an argument with Cait so she's not coming. They're fighting like cats and dogs sometimes" Milo explained.
"Then maybe I can make something to drink. How about ice tea?"
"I'm good with that"
"What are we watching?"
"Shrek?" Remi said, stuffing a handful of popcorn into his mouth.
No objection. Shrek is a timeless masterpiece.
"Don't eat before the movie," Milo scolded and grabbed the bowl with popcorn from his brother's hands.
The boys opened the door that in a normal house would lead to the basement. But it turned out that this place was nothing like a normal basement. It was more like a huge entertainment area with a bar and a pool table. The whole group ended up in the home theatre. Seriously. It was a room with chairs arranged diagonally in a row, of course, more comfortable than those in a real cinema. There was a huge screen taking up all the space on the wall in front of our seats. It was insane.
"Oh my God. What else is in this house that I don't know about?" Casey said, shock visible in her voice.
"Who knows maybe if you behave nicely we will give you a tour" Milo winked at her.
"Keep dreaming" Casey clearly wasn't interested in this exchange.
They ended up sitting on incredibly soft burgundy-coloured armchairs.
"Pizza is here, I will go pick it up," said Lorenzo with a phone in his hand.
"I hope there's no pineapple on it," Casey said.
"Who do you think we are?"
"We would have to change our surnames to non-Italian ones"
I had zero idea why people had the problem with pineapple on pizza. As we were waiting for Lorenzo I decided to hold to the topic of food.
"What's your favourite cuisine?"
"French," replied Milo.
"Boring. Sichuan is the best one, "Remi said confidently, scooping up a good amount of hot sauce with nacho chip.
"You just like to eat cruelly spicy things," noted Milo.
Remi shrugged his shoulders not even trying to deny it.
"And yours?"
"Indian food," Eliana and Casey said simultaneously.
"We know a good place in town, we'll take you there"
"What? You're visiting other restaurants, traitors?" Asked Lorenzo, pretending to be offended.
Milo rolled his eyes and was about to say something when Remi spoke.
"Shush, the movie starts"
At the end of the first part, they decided that they should watch Shrek 2 because it's just as good as the first one. After the movie ended debate sparked over which part is better. Personally, Eliana thought both of them are equally good, her answer caused common disapproval probably because it meant she opted out of arguing about it.
Eliana decided it was time for her to go to bed as the kids (and Lorenzo) were still arguing about meaningless things. It was a good day and she relaxed a lot. But nothing lasts forever. Especially not peace of mind.
When Eliana was standing up from her seat Lorenzo's phone rang. She was reaching the doorhandle when she heard Lorenzo saying:
"Okay, I'll bring her"
Lorenzo approached her and said quietly: "I know you want to go to sleep, but Rafael wants to see you," Lorenzo said.
"Now?"
"Yes. Come with me"
"Look at that is someone in trouble?" Remi joked, Eliana did not appreciate the joke.
It's not like she had a choice so she followed Lorenzo.
"His office is in the opposite direction?" Eliana looked at Lorenzo questioningly as they moved towards the front door.
"He's not home," Lorenzo explained, then stopped and looked at me, "Go change, he will murder me if I bring you there in your pyjamas."
"Can you say at least where we're going?"
"To the club," he replied.
"What for? Did he give you any reason?" Eliana asked trying to hide her nervousness.
"I don't know, Rafael doesn't like to be questioned after he gives an order"
"Well, damn it"
***
When they arrived at the club Eliana had a bad feeling about all of this. She shivered as she had to repeat the journey of walking downstairs behind the heavily guarded door to the club's basement.
What a creepy place.
If she could she would never come back here again.
Instead of going to Rafael's office, Eliana was led the other way. They entered an empty room with naked cement walls and a floor of the same depressing grey colour. In the middle, there was a simple, plastic chair on which sat the tied gentleman. The same one that she met at her workplace yesterday.
"If you excuse me I have something to deal with upstairs" Lorenzo said.
There were now three people in the room. Antonio, Rafael and her. Eliana desperately wanted to have a thing to take care of upstairs, any sort of excuse to get away from here.
"Do you know this man?" Rafael asked.
"What is he doing here?" she asked feeling nervous.
"Answer the question Eliana" Rafael said with a clear warning in his voice. Eliana didn't want to be the person sitting tied to the chair next so she responded.
"He's a regular client at my store"
"Is that so? Was he in the store yesterday?"
Rafael already knew the answer. He was just playing with her.
"He came drunk and angry yesterday. Is this why you brought him here? Are you spying on me?"
"It's Giovanni's job to keep you safe" This explained a lot. "Now, tell me, Eliana, what exactly did he do?"
"He called me a bitch spat on the floor and left" Eliana skipped the phone part.
"Footage from the camera in front of your store shows that when he had left the store he didn't leave the area. Instead, he waited until you leave and followed you"
"He also mentioned something about my ring. He saw it and assumed I'm doing well financially"
"I already know everything I need to know then. Antonio will now talk to Mr Klein and explain to him in detail who he robbed " Rafael directed and then he moved towards Elaina. He touched Eliana's back with his palm, directing her to leave the room with him.
"Wait, we are leaving?" Eliana asked confused.
"I will drive you home and come back to finish"
"To finish what?"
"My conversation with Mr Klein of course"
***
When they left the room Eliana said:
"You should just let him go," She worried about what might happen. Not because she particularly cared about that man. She just didn't what Rafael to do anything wrong. She cared about him too much. "You got the ring back, right? There's no need to keep him here"
"There was no need to hit you and yet he did and now it's time for consequences," Rafael said darkly.
Eliana knew she was not going to convince him to do anything different than what he already planned so she changed the topic: "Did you manage to settle things with my landlord or do we need him to bring him to the basement too?" Eliana asked with sarcasm.
"Of course. You no longer have to pay for the apartment. I will make sure someone tomorrow will collect all the things you left there " Rafael replied smoothly, and even smirked at her joke.
"How did you manage to settle it?" Eliana shouldn't be surprised, but what he could do simply amazed her.
"It's not important"
She wanted to argue, she really did. But I didn't know what to say. And she was terrified. Who was this man what was he capable of?
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Another update for today ^^ thank you for commenting, reading the story, and just being here for me. I have amazing and supportive readers and I am super thankful for that.