Delilah Lavigne
It's our second day in Maine and we don't leave until early tomorrow morning. The tour busses smuggling contraband arrived in one of the Precincts and the guys are on their way there now to get some information on the task/mission for tonight. I have no idea who they are going to meet though since Luca is still in California.
I am currently laying in the hotel bed by myself, thinking about last night.
What did that song even mean? Was it a message to me? I mean he made direct eye contact with me during the most important line so it has to be about me. Right?
He said some pretty heavy shit. The kind of shit that we have yet to discuss, shit like the L word.
And no, it's not lice or leprosy.
A knock at my hotel door pulls me out of my thoughts, I stand up and open it. Jade is standing in front of me with her arms crossed, "I figured you went with them." She invites herself into the room and sits on the bed.
"I didn't really feel like going, I don't need to be there for that part."
Hell, if I'm being honest I don't need to be there for any part including the missions. I barely ever do anything, I feel like a burden every time I go because all I do is just stand there.
She hums and scans her eyes around the room, "What have you been doing then?"
I sit beside her on the bed, leaning against the headboard, "Just thinking." I start picking at my nails.
She turns to fully face me and sighs, "Alright what is it?"
I look up at her with furrowed eyebrows, "Huh?"
"Somethings on your mind. Go ahead," She waves me on and I purse my lips, "It's nothing really."
"Oh yeah? Then why do you still have your mascara on from last night, your hair isn't brushed and your wearing nothing but your underwear and a T shirt? The Delilah I know wouldn't want to be caught dead looking like that unless something is truly wrong."
My jaw drops in offense and I whack her leg, "I'll bite you if you keep going."
She shrugs with a wink, "Kinky. But seriously what is it?"
I bite the inside of my cheek and decide on just telling her. I pat the open space on the bed next to me signaling for her to join me up here and she crawls up the bed and sits beside me.
"Remember the song Harry sang last night? The one he said he just wrote?" She nods, "Yeah it was cute, it was like a message to you."
"Yeah well that's the problem. The lyrics just felt so personal like he was trying to say something to me without actually saying it to me. Instead he sang it. In front of thousands of people."
She narrows her eyes, "Wait, have you guys not said it to each other yet?"
I arch my eyebrows and put my lips in a line as an answer. Jade's mouth forms into an O, "Damn, now I understand your frustration."
"It's not that I'm frustrated, because the song really was amazing, but he hasn't talked about it with me yet and I sure as hell know what those lyrics meant. He just doesn't ever tell me anything and it's hard to get through to him."
She nudges my shoulder, "He won't tell you anything if you don't ask."
"Trust me, I've asked. He always just shrugs it off or changes the subject when I ask him anything about him and his past. It kind of makes me worried, like he's hiding something from me because it's a threat."
Jade rests her head on my shoulder, "Wanna know what I think? I think if he meant what he wrote in that song, then he might be ready to tell you. But he doesn't want to just bring it up randomly, he probably wants you to."
I rest my head on top of hers, "I think you're right. Only one way to find out I guess."
"You either do that or do some digging yourself."
I lift my head up and look down at her, "How do you expect me to do that?"
She lifts her head up to me with one eyebrow curved, "I don't know I guess just go through his shit. His phone, if he has a laptop, his wallet. I've done it with Niall."
"And what did you find?"
She rolls her eyes playfully, "Exactly what I expected. Condoms in his wallet, porn on his computer and old booty calls on his phone. That man has nothing to hide because he is open about everything."
It kind of makes me jealous that she has a trusting relationship with Niall. He is an open book with her and I envy that.
She slaps my leg, "Get your boney ass up, we're going out."
I rub the area she slapped, "My ass isn't boney." I mutter to myself.
Jade has to practically force me to leave the hotel and go shopping with her. We are matching unintentionally and I have yet to point it out, waiting for her to figure it out. Baggy jeans with our Doc's and black graphic tee crop tops.
We buy a few items in stores aligned on the same street as the hotel, just some souvenirs, jewelry and clothes.
We got some lunch at a cafe that smelled like a library, which reminded me that I wanted to buy some books so after lunch we found a book store and I bought a few from my favorite authors.
Lately I've been reading a lot more, which is odd considering I don't really have any downtime to myself but I manage.
We just got back to the hotel and Jade and I walk up to her and Niall's door with interlocked arms holding our bags.
She scans the card and opens it, all of the guys are standing by a table in the corner, huddled around.
We walked in whilst laughing so I catch my breath and drop my bags on the floor, "What's going on?"
"Just discussing somethings." Zayn answers shortly, "Such as?" I push.
Harry stands up and walks over to me, kissing me on the head, "You look pretty." He eyes me up and down.
"Nice subject change." I narrow my eyes at him, "We were just talking about the plan for tonight, that's all." He reassures and I nod.
We show them everything we got as if it's a fashion show and they all watch intently, even though I can tell they're bored out of their minds.
Harry opens our door for me so I can drop off my stuff and goes back to Niall and Jade's room. Once I walk in I can see his wallet and phone sitting on the table.
What a weird coincidence.
What if I just so happened to trip and accidentally open his phone and search through it?
No that's spying. I can't.
But maybe I can with his wallet, I mean what would he even hide in there? A couple of credit cards and money? Big deal.
I make my way towards the table and pick up his wallet, he has a lot of folds stacked to the brim with cards and a slot for all of his cash.
I go through each one, pulling out random credit cards with his name on them that I am sure he probably needs to get rid of and end up finding nothing.
That wasn't so bad.
As soon as I go to shut his wallet, something falls out onto the floor. It falls face down with writing on the back, it looks to be a polaroid picture of something.
I bend down to pick it up and read the back first,
for you to look at when times get hard, im sorry and i love you -quinn
I flip it over and see a picture of Harry with his arms wrapped around a girl with big smiles on their faces. His hair is a lot shorter and he looks to be at least nineteen, maybe twenty. Her hair is a dirty blonde, her eyes look blue but it's hard to tell from the blurriness.
They look happy. I don't think I've ever seen Harry smile that hard. A ping of jealousy courses through my body. I don't even know this girl yet I'm jealous of something that I know she had with Harry, something that I know I will possibly never have.
The door starts opening so I quickly tuck the picture into my pocket and stand up.
Harry walks in with a confused expression, "Why were you on the floor?" He shuts the door with his foot and walks up to me, putting his hands on my waist, "I dropped my phone so I was picking it up."
He nods, "Did I tell you how pretty you look?" I run my hands down his shoulders, "You most certainly did."
His hands travel down my waist, taking a handful of my ass, "Easy tiger, I don't think I can go for another round until at least tomorrow."
He grins with his dimple popping out and I poke it, "You have such cute dimples."
His nose scrunches up, "Ew don't ever say that again." I chuckle, "I'm serious, they are so prominent it makes me jealous."
He cups my face in his hands, "You have pretty freckles."
I shrug my shoulders since I agree, "Thank you." See, some of us can actually take a compliment.
His eyes go to the top of my head and his hand swipes across it, "Do you dye your hair?"
My eyes go wide, "What?"
"You hair is a different color up here, it's a lot lighter." His hand rubs through my scalp.
I get out of his hold and run to the bathroom mirror, inspecting my scalp. Shit I haven't dyed it in god knows how long.
"What's wrong?" Harry leans against the bathroom door with his arms crossed, "My roots are showing!" I panic.
"So?"
"That's bad, nobody knows I dye my hair!"
"Why is it a secret?" His confusion keeps growing.
"I don't know I've just never told anyone, I hate my natural hair color." How have I not noticed that the ugly ass color is fading through my roots so badly, "How long has it looked like this?" I turn to him with offensiveness, "I don't pay attention to your scalp, how should I know?"
I groan, "Because you're super tall!" He holds his hands up as a surrender with wide eyes, "Sorry. Just go get some hair dye."
Harry and I go to the store quickly and come back quietly, my orders since I don't want anyone to know what we got.
I managed to dye my hair a jet black and washed it out all within an hour. I dried my hair with a blow dryer and straightened it again, as if it was never touched.
"Damn, you look super emo now. Like more than you did before." Harry comments on the color. I widen my eyes, "Is it super noticeable?"
He shrugs, "Not really but I watched you do it so it is to me."
I apply my mascara back on and once I'm done we sit down at the table, my eyes travel to his wallet that held the picture that is still in my pocket.
Harry goes through the plan for tonight. We have to go to a casino for him, Niall and Louis to play poker since they are apparently super good at it and their skills are going to win us money illegally. "So then what's my position in this?" I question once he's done.
"That's what I was leading up to. You, Zayn and Liam are going to retrieve a key card from a man named Ezra who will be playing with us, sneak through his hotel that will be across the street from the casino and go up to his room to search for a certain item."
"What's the item?"
"A necklace."
"So you're telling me it takes a team of three people just to retrieve a necklace?"
"Well yeah, there's guards. It's not a normal hotel and he's not a normal man. He's gotten into pretty heavy shit and he's well respected since he's got a lot of money and protection. We are just buying time for you guys to do that, but we are also going to be earning money."
I hum, "Okay sounds easy." He shakes his head with a smile.
We start getting ready and I have to dress fancy for tonight, but I am not wearing a dress or heels so I put on black dress pants, a black long sleeve turtleneck and Doc's with my hair straightened and winged eyeliner.
Harry is wearing a black silk dress shirt, dress pants and his only pair of fancy shoes.
"We look hot." I compare our appearances from across the room as I finish putting my earrings in.
Harry huffs a laugh while ruffling his hands through his hair, making it messier. God he's hot.
"Where's Jade going to be since she obviously can't come?"
"She's staying in her room until we come back, she can't be seen anywhere near us while on a mission, that way Luca has no idea she's here."
"But she's going to be at the concerts." I point out. I don't think I've really asked what the plan was on her when she was joining the tour.
"Luca doesn't monitor our concerts. A lot of people stand backstage, anyone would think she's just a fan or works with us as crew." He finishes up buttoning his shirt and we grab our necessities and head out the door.
We knock on each door again and the guys walk out of their rooms, "You guys look like an emo couple." Niall so nicely points out. I scan his appearance, "You look like you belong in 2013." He's wearing a white t shirt, a grey jacket with black sleeves and black ripped jeans. Far from casino attire. Zayn, Liam and Louis are all wearing dress shirts and pants as well so Niall definitely did not get the memo.
He sticks his tongue out at me so I return the action before walking towards the elevators.
The guy working valet gets our car for us and we all climb in, heading towards the casino which is only twenty minutes away.
Harry goes over the plan once more, since he always assumes someone might forget their role, and we finally pull up to our destination.
We go through the double doors and make it inside the casino. It's huge.
"That's him." Harry subtly points at Ezra, the man we have to steal from. He's sitting a table shuffling cards.
"How do we even know it's on him? What if his security has it?" I ask since it's a possibility. Not everything is as easy as it seems.
Harry looks at Liam, "You're quick with your hands, think you can feel around him for it?"
Liam narrows his eyes, "That's the grossest thing you've ever said but yes I can." Harry, Liam, Niall and Louis walk up to the table Ezra's at while Zayn and I stay back since all we have to do is wait for the card. Liam acts all buddy buddy with the guy, who looks to be in his early 40's, and puts an arm around his shoulder saying something I can't make out.
His hands lower down a little bit to his back as he takes a seat next to him while the others sit across the table ready for a hand.
I blow raspberries, "This sucks." Zayn looks at me, "What does?"
"We're just standing here. I wanna do something while we wait."
He looks around the area and points to a machine, "Wanna try to win the lottery?" His eyebrows arch when he turns back to me.
"Hell yeah." I grab his hand and practically run over to it and sit on the chair. Zayn drops coins into the slot and I pull down the handle.
I groan, "Nothing."
He pushes me to try again so I do, and once again I get nothing.
Zayn sighs, "Oh well, you'll be making at least $50,000 off of today." Very true.
I see Liam walking up to us with his hands in his pockets, "Let's go."
My eyebrows furrow, "Did you get it?"
He smiles and pulls the card out of his pocket, "He doesn't even know it's gone so let's hurry." I look back at the table to see the guys playing already, even though I've never done it so for all I know they could be playing goldfish and it would look legit to me. He's distracted though, so we have some time.
We walk out of the casino and across the street to his hotel. "Okay what's the plan? How do we sneak in?" I ask before we just enter through the front like we own the place.
"There's an employees only door back there so let's just go through there." Liam points down the alley between the hotel and another building next to it. "You do kinda look like a hotel employee." I point out his attire and he flips me off with squinted eyes, "Watch it." I grin in response.
We open the employees door and walk through the long narrowed hallway just for the workers. I need to come up with excuses because if we get caught then we're screwed.
We open two wooden doors that leads to the back of the lobby and quickly but silently tip toe towards the elevators in hopes of not being seen by the front desk.
Once it dings and opens, we pile into the elevator and click the floor that his rooms on. This hotel is way fancier than I expected. Even the elevators are pretty and the music playing through the speakers are fun.
"Why couldn't we stay in this hotel? It's nice."
Zayn chuckles, "Your focus is on how nice the hotel is?" I shrug, "I mean yeah, this elevator has mirrors. Ours doesn't." He turns around to see his reflection and hums, "That's actually cool." Liam puts his head in his hands to cover his laugh. The elevator finally arrives on his floor and we walk out. I immediately stop with my arms held out by my sides and they bump into me from behind, "What's wrong?" Liam asks.
"I forgot he had security." There are two guards in the hallway standing in front of a door. If my math is correct, that door is Ezra's.
"Shit, what do we do?" Liam starts panicking.
I sigh, "Give me the card." Liam hands it to me, "I've got this, just follow my lead." I start walking towards them and see that Zayn and Liam are just standing still, "What the hell do you expect to do?" Zayn whispers in urgency while him and Liam finally catch up to me and join me on my journey.
"Just be quiet." I whisper back and walk up to his door, in front of the guards.
"Gentleman," I nod to them and they just look down at me with no expression, "If you'll excuse me I need to get into this room." I step up to the door and they step closer to me, "Are you guys crazy?" I pretend to be offended.
They give each other a side eye, but don't budge. "My father would love to hear that his men refused his daughter into her own goddamn room." I cross my arms with arched eyebrows.
One of the mens eyes go wide, "Oh I'm so sorry Ms. Russo, we didn't know his daughter would be joining him today."
I hum with a fake smile, "Yeah I am so move out of my way. They are joining as well, hope that's no problem." I nod to Liam and Zayn while narrowing my eyes at them and push the key into the door.
We get into the hotel and close the door as fast as we can behind us, "Holy shit how did they buy that?" Liam laughs at their obliviousness. Men are easily manipulated.
"Because they're idiots and not well trained." Zayn answers and we spread out to start searching for the necklace, Zayn walks into the bedroom while Liam and I search the outside of the suite.
After almost ten minutes of searching through the entire place, we find absolutely nothing.
"This is some bullshit." I slide down the wall and sit against it on the floor with a defeated sigh.
"What kind of idiot even keeps a necklace in a hotel?" Liam whispers as he sits down on the messed up couch since we basically tore apart the cushions.
"He's probably traveling with it," Zayn continues to search through cabinets and drawers while Liam and I practically give up.
He walks past me and heads for the bathroom, "Wait stop." I hold my hand up and look at his feet.
He stops in his tracks and turns to me in confusion, "Walk the same path again." I urge and he does so but slowly since he has no idea what's going on.
Then I hear it again, "Oh my god." I crawl across the floor and stop in front of his feet, "Move your legs." I push him back and try to grab ahold of the floorboard. "It creaked when you walked on it, that son of a bitch is smart after all." I grip the floorboard and pull it up, and there it is in all its glory.
"How do you manage to find shit every time?" Liam joins us crowding around the necklace that I pulled out, "I guess I'm just good at finding hidden stuff."
It's a beautiful necklace. It's created in a swirl shape with red and silver diamonds in the shape of flowers. "I wonder how much it costs." I hold it in the air and Zayn crouches down to inspect it, "At least 5 million. I've heard of this before, I just don't know how this man would have it."
Well Luca wants it for a reason so the price doesn't really shock me.
We clean up the place a little bit and I place the floorboard back in place so that the area looks half untouched. I stick the necklace carefully in my pocket and open the hotel door, "Give this to my father will you?" I hand one of the men the key card and walk away from them with Liam and Zayn beside me.
"They for sure thought we had a threesome." Liam whispers, Zayn and I stifle back our laughs.
We hear footsteps rushing down the hallway we are about to turn down for the elevators, "That's them! Grab them!" Ezra points to us as two men start running towards us.
"Shit run!" Zayn grabs my arm as Liam follows behind us, the guards in front of his door notice the commotion and stand in front of us ready to catch us.
I hear two gunshots from behind me and then his guards fall to the floor, Liam's gun is in the air.
As we run past them, each of them have a bullet hole in their foreheads. "Damn good aim." I force out due to being out of breath to Liam behind me.
"This way!" Zayn points to the left and we narrowly turn that way, I look behind me just before we turn to see their guns held up as they are only a few feet behind us.
"Behind you!" I yell to Liam, he turns around swiftly and shoots at one of the guards in the crotch area and he doubles over in pain.
"Up there!" I point to another set of elevators in front of us just a little ways down the hallway and we run full speed toward them, slapping the button as if it will come any quicker.
His other guard turns down the hallway with his gun aimed at me, I take Liam's gun out of his hand and aim it up, squinting one of my eyes to align with his head.
Then I pull the trigger.
He drops to the ground as soon as the elevator dings.
We walk inside the elevator and just before the doors close, Luca turns down the hallway out of breath, looking at the scene in front of him.
Once the doors close Zayn turns to me, "Are you okay?" He places his hands on my shoulder, "Yeah, I'm fine." I nod.
"Y-You just shot him, like in the head." Liam mutters hesitantly. "Yes I know I did." I laugh.
"And you're okay?" Zayn questions once again. I place my hand on his shoulder with reassuring eyes, "I'm fine. It was either him or me."
He sighs with a smile and leans agains the mirror, "You are a badass Delilah Lavigne."
The elevator stops and the doors open, I see three figures out of the corner of my eye right in front of us so I raise my gun up, ready to shoot.
"Woah, It's just us!" Niall holds his hands up since I have it aimed at him.
"Oh shit, sorry." I lower the gun and hand it back to Liam.
"Are you okay?" Harry comes up to me and wraps his arms around me tightly, "Yes, they're all dead. Except Ezra." I answer.
"He noticed his card was missing and left before we could even stop him, we were just kinda hoping you guys would make it out." Niall explains how Ezra and more of his guards found us.
We practically run through the back way of the hotel and out through the employees door again, managing not to get caught.
"You got the necklace though, right?" Louis directs to us and we nod, "Yeah Delilah found it under one of the floorboards right before they started chasing after us."
"How did you even get in there to begin with?" Niall questions and I shrug, "Fooled the guards into thinking I was Ezra's daughter. Their asses believed it." He high fives me from the back seat right as Harry starts to drive in the direction of the Precinct where we have to drop off the necklace.
Once we arrive, we walk up to the warehouse and I'm the one to knock this time in the same pattern Harry does, since I said I wanted to do it.
The door opens, revealing a guard I've never seen before but obviously the guys have because they give him dirty looks as we pass through him.
He starts to walk with us, "We can get there ourselves." Harry holds a hand up in front of him and the man stops in his tracks with a disgusted look aimed at Harry.
There's some major beef flying through the air right now.
We walk in a group, minus the scary guard man, and Harry pushes through double doors leading us to a room with a table and couch in the middle. There's other people in here, but they don't look like workers. They are just hanging out on the couch laughing.
"We got the shit, now give us ours." I hand Harry the necklace from behind and he drops it on the table, a very large man stands up from the couch after shoving a girl who looks to be in her early twenties off of his lap.
"Well done, Luca will be pleased." He reaches behind him for a duffel bag and drops it in front of Harry, "Take it and go. We'll be in touch." The man says with a wink aimed at me, I push back my vomit and Harry reaches down for the duffel bag and places his hand on my back to start walking with him.
We silently make it back to the car and I open the duffel bag full of cash, "Looks like I won the lottery after all." I look up at Zayn with wide eyes and he has a smirk plastered on his face.
We finally get back to the hotel and I check the time on my phone, it reads 10pm. That took us three hours.
We bid our goodbyes to the guys and walk into our room.
We get changed into more comfortable clothes and get ready for bed. As I'm brushing my teeth I spot my jeans on the bathroom floor so I quickly rush rinsing my mouth and grab the photo out of my pocket, I leave the bathroom and walk over to my suitcase, tucking it into the mesh pocket without Harry seeing.
Hopefully he doesn't look at that photo often because if he does, for one I'll be a bit jealous and for two, he will clearly notice it's missing. I feel weird having it but I need to figure out who this girl is.
I will find answers one way or another, either he tells me or I find them myself. If she's the reason he's so closed off, I need to know what she did. I mean what's the worst thing she could've done? She looks so innocent and happy in this photo. As does he.
Maybe she's the reason he wrote that song to begin with.
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detective delilah making a comeback?