short chapter ;)
Harry Styles
"I need you to do me a favour." I stand in front of Liam.
Backwards hat on, he looks up at me from his laptop.
"What?"
"I need you to connect Mei's restaurant landline to my room so I know when the store gets a call."
He furrows his brows from his seat on the couch.
"What?"
"I told her I would help with the phones after hours. But I don't wanna sit in her office all night."
"You want me to install a landline in your room?"
"Yeah."
"Can't, barely any service down here and no phone jack." He turns back to his laptop. "We live in a concrete box if you've forgotten. We're lucky we have regular outlets."
"Well, can you hook something up in my room so I know when the phone rings? I don't mind running up to grab it."
"Like what?"
"An alarm or a light?"
"That's a lot more work on my part." He grumbles.
"I promised Mei."
"Why would you promise something you can't fulfil?"
"Can you do it or not?" I get frustrated with the back and forth.
"It's going to take me all day. You seriously want a big light to go off in your room every time the restaurant gets a call? That feels really annoying."
"Yep." I head into the kitchen.
"Since when did you become so invested in the store?"
"I'm just trying to help her out." I grab a sucker off the counter.
In reality, I gave you the phone number to the store, Av. I don't want to miss if you call. You probably won't. But you might.
"And somehow I have to do all this work for something you will get all the credit for." He mumbles under his breath.
I sit down next to him on the couch.
Louis emerges from this room in his boxers. He covers his eyes with his arm and blindly stumbles over to the bathroom.
"You're up early." I start sucking on my candy.
"Yeah, it's only ten."
He gets into the bathroom and shuts the door behind him.
At the same time, I hear the door at the top of the stairs open, incoming Niall down the steps with a cigarette between his lips and a milk crate of stuff in his hands. His eyes turn to us as he enters, red backward hat keeping the hair from his face.
"Where the fuck have you been at this time?"
"And what is all the stuff?"
"I was snagging a couple of things around town." He mumbles between the cigarette, placing the crate down.
Liam and I both sit up straight, looking into the crate.
"Is that a video camera?"
"Yep," he blows smoke out the corner of his mouth. "Camera, tripod, batteries, tapes."
"Why?" I dig through the crate.
"You makin' another porno?" Liam adds.
"Nope, I've been fucking around with a little plan the past few days. One that you, Harry, might be pleased with." Niall smirks, heading towards his room to disappear.
"The anticipation is killing me." Liam says in sarcasm, eyes glued to his laptop.
Louis emerges from the bathroom, walking over and crashing onto the one-seater. He looks at the stuff on the table, spotting the camera equipment.
"Is Niall making another porno?"
"That's what I said!" Liam laughs.
"Apparently he has a plan?" I shake my head, sucking on the candy in my mouth.
"How was last night?" Louis asks, squinting as if he has a headache.
"Pretty good, actually." I continue. "Met up with her behind a tree."
"That sounds steamy." Liam types.
"Was it?" Louis adds.
Yes. God—yes.
"No. We're not fucking." I state.
"Why?"
"Because she tricked me last time and I don't want to fuck unless things are like...genuine." I wave my hand to find the word.
"Did anything else happen?" Liam smirks while typing.
Yes. God—yes.
"She was interrogating me about some missing necklace." I leave out the other details of what happened behind the tree.
"What necklace?"
"The one she had taken from that banquet. It's gone missing and she assumed I stole it from her bedroom."
"Did you?"
"No, why would I?"
"For money."
"How would I walk into a pawnshop with a multi-million dollar necklace?" I suck on the cherry candy.
"Did she believe you?" Louis asks.
"I hope so. She would never trust me again if I lied to her like that."
Niall comes back out of his room, his hands behind his back. He walks over to the coffee table in front of everyone, a smile on his face.
"Now, I know we think all I do is just fuck around and cause problems. But for the past week, I've been constructing a plan." He smiles like he's amping up to something amazing.
"Okay?" I nod for him to continue.
He pulls his hand from behind his back, holding out Aven's multi-million dollar necklace at his fingertips. A proud smile plasters his face.
"Tada!"
My face drops.
I see Liam and Louis look at me through my peripheral vision.
"Oh fuck." Liam says under his breath.
Niall's smile fades as he looks at everyone's unexpected reaction. I feel my head fill with hot pressure only known as rage.
"What?" Niall looks at each of us in confusion.
"Niall's dead..." Louis murmurs.
My jaw clenches as I jump up from my seat.
"You fucking idiot!" I shout, chucking my sucker at him before racing around the coffee table.
Niall dodges it and sprints away from me, curving around the couch as I follow.
"What? What!" He shouts in shock as I chase him around the room.
"You're the one that stole the necklace!"
"I was going to tell you—"
"You idiot!" I repeat.
Liam and Louis stay seated as Niall and I stand on opposite ends of the couch. Niall holds the necklace, his chest rising up and down as he stands in shock at my reaction.
"Styles, let me expl—"
I start sprinting around the couch again so he doesn't finish his sentence.
"I promised her I didn't take it!"
He stops at one end of the couch as I stop at the other again. My hands grip the armrest. Pure rage floods through my chest. My heart is racing a mile a minute.
"I have a plan! I'm not going to sell it!"
"Then why didn't you tell me about this sooner!"
He hesitates to answer. "Well...at one point I thought about selling it—"
I step on the armrest and run across the couch, stepping on Liam in the process who yelps.
"Hey!"
Niall doesn't move fast enough as I chuck myself off the armrest and body him to the ground.
The necklace flies out of his hand and across the floor, my hands grab his wrists and cross them against his chest. He squirms and kicks his legs.
"You robbed her!"
"But I changed my mind when I realized how much money this necklace is worth!" He spits out, squirming beneath me but not getting out. "It was in the paper!"
"What?"
"My back pocket! I have the article." He looks down at his jeans, not being able to show me because I have his arms trapped. "Look!"
"Harry, let him explain before you kick his ass," Louis reasons.
"I had a whole presentation, asshole!" Niall adds.
I let go of his arms so he has the ability to pull out a folded article from his back pocket. He hands it to me. I open it up and see what he's talking about. It's an article about his necklace being stolen from the banquet, the night we captured Aven. She stole this necklace, and it turns out it's not worth what she said.
"It's not worth a few million, it's worth nearly two hundred million," Niall says what I read.
Woah.
"It's a well-known artifact that has been missing since the night Aven stole it. I don't even think she knows how much it was!"
"Then why would you steal it from her bedroom? I trusted you when you came with me that night." I'm not any less angry.
"Because this is something Malikai wants." He states. "It's leverage."
I slowly get off Niall, keeping my eyes glued to the article. I sit down on the ground and finish reading the last paragraph.
"We can use this as ransom. But instead of money, we get Aven." He continues to explain. "That's why I have the video equipment. I thought we can make an anonymous tape and send it to him. Showing that we have the necklace and if he doesn't release Aven, he doesn't get it back."
I put the article down, processing all this information.
"He won't trade a jewellery price for his daughter, especially not after the asset she's become for his organized crimes." I shake my head.
"Well, hold on..." Liam butts in. We look up at him from the ground, seeing him staring at his laptop screen. "Niall might be onto something."
"How?" Louis says in disbelief.
"Apparently, this necklace has a long history. It's been an artifact stolen back and forth for years. It's not just a money thing, it's a power thing. This necklace is like a hundred years old and anyone that had it in their possession was considered on top. This necklace has been stolen nearly twenty times between groups."
"What do you mean groups?"
"It's not going into specifics. But usually, when the internet doesn't go into specifics it means the general public is not supposed to know details."
"Could be mafia related then."
"That's what I'm thinking..."
"Then this isn't just about money, it's a possession of power." Louis pieces together.
"And having his daughter flaunt this necklace like it's just material, makes him look very powerful," I add.
"Right, so where the fuck is my apology!" Niall frustratingly gets up off the ground with a push, dusting off his pants and putting his hat back on.
"I'm not apologizing. You still did something reckless. She could get hurt for this. The necklace was in her possession. If Malikai finds out she lost it, I don't know what can happen."
"We will need to act fast on this," Liam says. "But it may still take a few days to get everything air tight."
"We need to make it clear in the video that she was not involved," Niall adds.
"Niall, you didn't even want me to try and get her out of this because you were scared they would punish her. Why the fuck would you steal her necklace?"
"Because I realized this could work rather than the brainless shit you've been doing."
I look around at everyone else.
"This could work." Liam nods.
I look at Louis, who's a little more hesitant.
"I don't think it's a good idea." He admits. "Someone is going to get hurt."
"If anyone is going to get hurt, it will be me. I will take the blame for all of this if things go south." I state.
"And what about her?"
"As Niall said, we'll make it clear she had nothing to do with this in the video." I clarify.
"Exactly!" Niall claps once. "So, what are we waiting for? We have a ransom video to make!"
//
next chapter soon!