11 | Progress
"Oh! There you are. Come on now, quick. Mr Grayson has been waiting for us." Alli skipped towards Mason and as usual, Oliver threw her a death glare.
"What's happening?" He asked.
"Stand with your hands behind you back and head dropped. Like a punished lad. He was waiting for you so that he could scold us." Alli flashed him the sweetest smile.
"Is this a joke to you, Miss Tanner?" Rafael slammed his palms over the wooden desk of his study. "You say you are going home, then you go somewhere else, hide such an important thing from us and take decisions by yourself."
"And we should report to you because?" Mason stated in a bored tone.
Oh no! This is going to turn ugly.
"Because I'm the fucking boss here, alright." He yelled.
Mason did a majestic eye roll, playing with the silver ring in his left ear. "I'm sorry but I don't work for anyone. As for Alli, you've agreed for an alliance. I thought you knew the meaning of that word."
"Jake deserved to know what was happening with his daughter." Rafael snarled.
"Like Vittoria deserved to know you're engaged? Is that the same logic you're talking about, boss?" Mason stressed over the word. Allegra scoffed in the most subtle manner.
Why is he so hell bent on provoking him?
My eyes went wide when they fell over Rafael's knuckles gone white and his hand balled into a fist shake with fury.
"What would have happened if I told Jake? He'd in turn tell you and we know how successful a history you have of protecting your people." Mason taunted.
That was it. Rafael lost all his control and lunged over him, landing a punch straight over his jaw. Mason didn't hold back either. He retaliated by hurling him into the wall.
"Stop it! Please!" I stepped forward but Oliver held me back, afraid that they'll accidentally hurt me.
"That's enough you two." He held Rafael back while Alli restrained Mason.
"That was too much, Mason." She whisper yelled but I heard her.
"You do know you're alive just because of Vittoria, don't you." Rafael spat, fiercely shrugging off Oliver's hand.
"Oh please shove those threats up your ass because I'm not fucking afraid of you."
"Mason please shut up already. And you too." I glared at both of them. "We don't have time to waste."
I swear my mind is going to explode. There was as it is so much work load today and after that, come home and handle these two testosterone fuelled beasts.
"At least one good thing has come out of this ordeal. The Visitant doesn't know about Alli and Mason. They attacked Suzanne because she's Jake's daughter, not because she's Mason and Alli's friend." Toby said, getting to the point.
I passed him a tiny smile, thanking him to divert their attention from killing each other. He always understood.
"Where were you? What address were they talking about?" I questioned.
"We found out about a person matching the name Sebastian Voss. Guess where he was staying? In close vicinity of Luca. Turned out that name was an alias. He was just a distraction."
"There goes nothing." I huffed, pacing from the door to the window and back to the door, repeating the process.
"I say otherwise." Toby smirked, looking at his twin who smirked back at him.
"It so happened, Vi," Liam jumped before me with his arms stretched out to stop me from pacing. "Sit down first. You're giving me a headache." He quite effortlessly flinged me on the brown leather couch.
"Then don't look at me." I stood back up.
"I can't do that." He grinned, pushing me down again.
"Hello! Someone is feeling jealous." Alli pretended to be angry.
"Hello! We were onto something." Oliver scowled.
"Who exactly is jealous now? I'm kinda confused." Mason dramatically looked around, scratching his neck.
"Is he bipolar?" Rafael asked, twisting his face.
"Probably." I shrugged.
"So I searched his place and found out something very interesting. There's a safe house in Naples. And we now have it's address." Toby held a piece of paper between his index and middle finger with a winning smile.
"So we're going to Italy? Yay! I'm gonna have ten pizzas daily and explore the entire city." I danced around weirdly.
"Stop dancing like a lunatic monkey. No one is going to Italy as of now." Oliver held me in place.
"We aren't?" I pouted.
Rafael muttered something under his breath, spinning his chair back. I didn't understand why.
"We can't just run away to Italy on the basis of one simple information." Oliver said, annoyed.
"But we can go on vacation. Tell you what!" Liam jumped up excitedly, his glasses dropping lower on his nose in the process. "Let's all go on a vacation as soon as Cami comes back."
"Yes! Time for a hip bump." I squealed, doing the fun task with Liam.
Oliver rolled his eyes at our childish behavior and Mason passed him a sympathetic look.
"Try him again." Mason urged, gesturing his eyes at the phone in Allegra's hand. She nodded quickly dialling someone.
Meanwhile my eyes fell over Rafael. His head was cradled in his hands, his dark brown hair all messy and charcoal eyes fatigued. He was completely worn out and in a desperate need of sleep.
And a hug.
And a kiss.
And a nice rough-
The fuck are you thinking, Vittoria! Pervert!
"ты, блядь, отвечаешь, когда я звоню. Вы поняли?" Allegra screamed into phone with utmost authority, sending all of us, including Rafael into a huge shock.
(You fucking answer when I call. You understand?)
"I'm scared of her now." Toby whispered.
"где садовский." She demanded.
(Where is Sadovsky.)
"какие! С каких пор?" She gasped.
"Oh no!" Liam's face went to being serious.
What now? He knows Russian as well?
"переведите меня к Иванову. Теперь!" She commanded.
All heads whipped to Liam for the translation.
"Transfer me to Ivanov. Now!" He whispered, imitating Alli. Only difference is that he looked like an idiot instead of powerful.
There was a brief pause which Alli utilized in blowing him a kiss while lover boy over here caught it and placed it safely in his heart.
The call was back and she conversed with some Ivanov for about five minutes. Liam kept on translating and it was heading somewhere very good.
Then something happened. The person said something and Alli went pale. So did Liam. They exchanged perplexed looks while we were completely clueless.
Another ten minutes passed in the similar manner. Liam was too shocked to speak. I wonder what could be so horrifying.
Finally the call ended. Alli looked at Liam. Liam looked at her. We all looked at them, staring at them creepily.
"Will you tell us or do you still want us to stare at that cliffhanger of your face?" I asked, on the verge of slapping both of them.
"Camila was spotted." Alli spoke, still ruffled.
"Where?" We all screamed, our eyes threatening to pop out of our sockets.
"There." Liam pointed at... What!?
"Camila was spotted in Toby's pocket? Go smoke another one Liam." I shook him violently.
"No! He means this." Toby gulped, extracting the address he'd found from that house.
Dumb! You're so dumb, Vittoria.
"Hold on! H- How's that possible? What's the connection?" Oliver started pacing now.
"Camila was spotted a week ago in that safe house in Naples. We still don't know who owns that property but Ivanov is onto it. He'll inform me if anything comes out of his search." Allegra informed.
"Who is this Ivanov? Are you sure we can trust him?" Rafael asked, skeptical.
"We can." She affirmed. "Ivanov is Nikolai's rival. After me, he's the one who strongly wants this world devoid of his presence."
"What if he tells Nikolai about you?" Oliver quizzed.
"Then I'll see the bright side and savor my freedom to go shopping which I haven't done since so long." She shrugged.
"But we have a problem here. Nikolai has gone underground yet again. That's concerning. Why would he do that?" Liam rubbed his chin.
"That's because-"
"No! Don't you dare, Alli." Mason cut her off.
All inquisitive eyes flew to him.
"Come on, Mase."
"No. He already thinks so highly of himself." Mason eyed Rafael disgustingly.
"That's because Nikolai is afraid of you, Mr Grayson. He fears he'd end the same way as Alvaro did." Alli said, ignoring Mason.
Rafael just smirked at him in return.
For once, I agree with Mase over here.
"How did this Ivanov know about Camila's location anyway?" Toby narrowed his eyes at Alli.
"Jokes on my moronic excuse of a psychotic obsessive ex boyfriend, there are a few moles in his team of Scavengers. They not only leak sensitive information to Luca, but also his other enemies. I just took an undue advantage of my connections."
"Did I hear you say Luca?" Oliver asked, tensed.
Rafael's interest piqued at his words and so did mine. A well known fear surrounded me. What are the chances that those men would inform Luca about me being Oliver's sister. He would want me more. If Luca can take such extreme steps to capture me just because I'm apparently Rafael's girlfriend, what all will he do when he knows I'm Oliver's sister as well.
"I believe Nikolai has kept this information to himself alone. Otherwise, Luca would've known by now." Mason suggested.
I hope it's that way. I admit it or not, a small little tinge of the Luca fear will always haunt me.
"So let's call it a night. I'll inform you if Ivanov gets to know anything about the safe house." Allegra picked up her coat and her car keys.
"Sure. We'll do some digging from our side as well. Thank you for your help, Miss Tanner. I really appreciate it." Rafael and Alli did a handshake.
"No problem at all." She smiled. "And you!" She mischievously turned to Liam. "You Mr Authier surprised me today."
"I had a Russian girlfriend in high school." He grinned, pushing up his glasses.
"So you know Russian? That makes sense." I rolled my eyes.
"Oh my god, Vitty. Did we just see you get jealous of his ex girlfriend?" Toby squealed, wide eyed.
Everyone looked at Rafael.
"What? No! I was just pointing out the lack of logic in that reason." I said defensively.
"I feel like the king of this world." Liam held a hand over his chest.
"Psst." Toby nudged him, gesturing his eyes towards Mason. Poor Liam quickly hid behind Alli. Such drama queens!
"My point is, I always admired her talking in Russian so I felt like learning it." He said.
Okay now that makes sense.
"Bonne nuit, beautiful people." She waved at everyone, winked at Liam, flipped the middle finger at Oliver and headed for the door.
"Я люблю тебя." Liam yelled, grinning like an idiot.
She stopped abruptly but didn't turn back to face us for a good ten seconds. When she finally did, the usual playful look on her face was gone. It was replaced by sorrow, agony and a hint of fear.
"Don't ever say that again. I feel sick by the mere sound of it." Her hand instinctively went to the bullet wound on her stomach.
"I'm guessing that means I love you." Oliver stated, staring intently into her eyes.
She held his gaze as if searching for something in his eyes. Something she didn't find anyway.
"I- I'm sorry. I crossed my limits." Liam mumbled, ashamed.
"Oh, no! No sweetie. You didn't know." She walked back to him and ruffled his hair playfully. "Don't you dare stop flirting with me, you get that, pretty boy?" She whispered.
"Naah, never." He sassed.
She let out a small chuckle but I knew she was just pretending. "Okay now I'll get going."
"Be careful Alli." Mason kissed her head.
I watched her leave with that smile on her face. The kind of smile which I'd made my loyal companion all these years.
Back in my room, lying on the bed with the blanket of stars above me, one particular question kept ringing in my mind, making my heart feel heavier with every passing second.
What has Nikolai done to her?
Vittoria: Vote!
Toby: Comment!
Liam: Let me sleep. Goodnight.