"What about your security cameras?" Luca said, strapping on leather gloves. Following his lead, Josephine found herself looking for corner fulls of them. Instead, she was met with cobwebs spun over cheap paint.
"There isn't any," Dante said. Josephine didn't say a word. That sounded oddly familiar.
Luca trailed a finger over a wooden table and then lifted it, promptly inspected the residue. Dust. "And why would that be?"
"Hugo's orders," Dante replied.
Camillo shut his eyes and groaned. "And why would the person who was murdered ask for no security cameras?"
Josephine watched, displeased, as Dante pressed his lips together in a flat line. There were no words. He had no answer. And he looked livid.
From the window, Beatriz's reflection was full of longing. Josephine narrowed her gaze on the shadows that crept over her. She's mourning for Hugo. Beatriz folded her hands as she continued to stare at the broken window, her eyes reveling in a plethora of stories. Perhaps the tale of her brother's death. One of Hugo being thrown in, his body slung across the glass in pure agony, another for his hopeless fight. His plea for survival, for life, to be alive and full of light in the world that wanted to silence him... then quiet. The type that loomed over fear and watched with horrid, feverous eyes.
Josephine pursed her lip. She had never experienced death. To her family, greed was their god. They were analytical, always cryptic like dragons who hoarded their gold. But this wasn't an accident. Hugo was murdered. It was planned like how Josephine planned what shoes to wear in the morning.
Though they all acted impassively, there was something more sinister lurking. It was unnerving. Camillo's comments were sly, but they weren't wrong. The lack of security cameras was one thing, and Dante's reasoning was another. There was no reason to remove them, unless, of course, you were planning on hiding something.
Beatriz turned, and where she went and kneeled made Josephine's stomach heave. She turned her head in any direction to avoid looking at that.
Camillo strode to join Beatriz with his hands in his pockets, his eyes aline with the massive stain on the floor whereas Hugo's corpse had been. That stain, now faded and a murky copper, spread across the wooden floors. Josephine's disgust rose as her nostrils filled with the metallic smell of blood. Camillo brought his fingers to his chin, then bobbed. "Ah, so he was stabbed."
Beatriz opened her mouth, then closed it. She rose in silence, and Josephine saw something inside of her untethered, unraveling. She didn't understand why Isla was so worried about Josephine's ability to aggravate anyone when Camillo was doing such a great job.
"He was stabbed," Beatriz said testily. Josephine held her breath, fearing she would snap at any time. "Then shot to death."
"How long was it?" Camillo said unimpressed. "Did he thrash around like a baby or was he a quick and easy shot?"
Dante took a step forward. There was livid fire in his eyes. She was sure they were all going to burn. "Why are you here, Camillo?" His voice was so calm, so quiet and unnerving. "To gloat? To congratulate me on my new position as heir?"
"Hey, now," Houston swatted Dante back, pressing on the grooves of his shoulders. "Let's not get too rattled. I'm sure he doesn't mean it."
"Oh, I do." Camillo grinned, his brown eyes vivid and full of starlight. Houston's glare was from down under. "And to answer you Dante, I'm here for our alliance."
Dante turned on him."There will be no alliance if we don't figure out who murdered my brother."
Camillo wiggled a finger. "Ah, don't be cheeky now. That wasn't the deal."
"The deal was we find out who killed Hugo and our family keeps their eyes off of you," Beatriz said sharply as his friends began to ground their stances. For a bloodbath.
Camillo huffed a laugh. "I can't guarantee to find the killer, Beatriz. That's a given. The most I'll be able to do is help." His eyes rose in challenge. "There was no promise in solving your brother's murder."
Josephine unconsciously started shaking her head. She was reliving that moment, nights ago. What began an alliance ended in a gunfight. They all slowly shifted to each end of the room, pitting against each other like burrowing insects. With these proximities, she was sure if they were to begin fighting, Josephine would bathe in blood.
Dante thrusted an accusatory growl. "Then why bother help at all if you don't care?"
Camillo said shamelessly, "For my alliance."
Isla blurred into the conversation. "Dante, we should stop. Take a deep breath and think about Hugo. All this fighting isn't worth it."
Isla was always passive, always the saint never the sinner. But Dante didn't look like he wanted to stop. He looked as if he wanted to beat them all bloody and ruthless and find their way to his brother.
"There's something you're not telling me." He raised his head, crossed his arms. And before Beatriz could interject with some snide remark, Camillo flashed a cooling smile. "I know there's a lot more to Hugo's death that you're not telling me. A lot of the stuff you're saying is obvious, things I already know. But Dante, what are you hiding?"
"Spit it out, Russo," Dante said, no longer on a first-name basis. Mother above.
"It's been a year," Camillo said blankly. There was something sinister molding beneath that impassive charm he had so delicately crafted, and Josephine found herself clamping her lips, afraid to say a word. "Why are you so hell-bent on solving this now?"
Josephine was too shaken with nerves to be stunned. Of course, there was more to the game. Hugo's death was planned. This was a mafia. They were a mafia. She was their golden bird, foreign and caged inside of their steel bars and tore down with clipped wings.
"Well?" Camillo said impatiently. Valentina stuck out her lips in an ugly sneer. The twins looked at each other in a flicker of confusion, then back to their targets at hand. Neither Houston nor Isla knew what deeper secrets floated at bay, as they watched Dante bristle with rigid wraith. Beatriz only followed Dante's stance, eyes trained on her lord. The future heir to the Valencios.
He swallowed. There was a short breath of composure, at least a tiny effort in Isla's advice before he answered. "My mother is going to wage war with the Russos if this isn't solved by the end of the year."
Josephine shut her eyes. She didn't want to listen, she didn't want to hear—
Camillo lost his smile. "On what grounds? Because Hugo was found with the Russo enigma that any idiot could have done in five seconds?"
"It's enough for her."
"Cordelia is insane." Camillo let out a soft laugh, running his fingers through his hair in frustration or in disbelief. Either or, he was shaken. "She's really going to risk war over a stupid whim?"
Dante's eyes darkened. "It's not some stupid whim. You of all people have the most to gain from his death."
"I see where Houston got it from," Lucia muttered from the side.
Josephine's heart leaped to her throat as Beatriz whipped her head in a flash. "Got what from?"
Lucia's scowl was full of predatory instincts and riddled with anger. Luca took a step forward to intervene, as Houston did the same. Even with her short stance, Lucia still somehow managed to look down on Beatriz without saying a word. She outright glared.
"Got what from?" Beatriz repeated.
Lucia said no words. No one did. The silence clang through Josephine, hollowing her ears. Her throat burned as if she had swallowed glass.
Houston peeled an all too familiar smile of savagery. "Cat got your tongue? Or do they not teach bitches like you how to speak?"
The first threat. Josephine could have drowned in the stench of bloodlust growing by the second.
She understood now. Whatever Lucia would answer, it could lead them to chaos. The possibility of it made Josephine's veins freeze. From this proximity, she wouldn't be able to avoid the fallout. She couldn't run out of this one.
Lucia's hands twitched to her pockets where Josephine imagined a switchblade. But somehow, she still managed to make her smile full of pride. "Out of everyone, Houston, you're doing a damn good job of making us suspect it was you."
"Suspect me for what?"
Lucia cocked her head, mouth tightening. "Oh, you know... a good ol' bit of what you like to do with your guns at family reunions."
The shadows bellowed as the spacious room suddenly felt tight. Josephine flickered in between the two: a killer jaguar and coyote slick with mania. She waited for someone to intervene at the threat, but when no one did, her blood raced.
Dante said, "First you come and insult my brother, then you throw baseless accusations?"
Lucia's eyes flashed. "You said it yourself: Hugo was shot to death. And who else is a better sniper than him?" She hurled an accusatory finger.
Isla's voice was thin, scratchy. "Houston would never hurt his own family. It could have been someone from extended family."
"And what if it's not?" Camillo suddenly spoke, his tone so playful that it unnerved Josephine. The reason they came here at all was to help. "Who else do you think would kill your precious brother?"
"That's for you to find out." Dante spat.
A feline smirk danced on Camillo's lips. There was a part of him that enjoyed the rousting."I said I'd help, but I never mentioned becoming your bitch." His eyes flashed across."You already have Beatriz for that part."
Dante swung first. Camillo dodged left and then they were on each other. Dante had pent enough of his frustration, raining blows like he meant to smash Camillo down to the earth and join Hugo. Josephine was too stunned to get involved, to speak a word. She felt small.
Beatriz joined only to reel Dante back from throwing Camillo near the closest wall. Before Camillo could intervene with another jab, Lucia stepped in front of him and seethed with her eyes as if to say this wasn't the time. Camillo obliged with a step back, managing to look guilty.
Josephine couldn't believe what she saw. One moment they were on each other, and the next common sense grew and they were separated. If Camillo was so sure he wanted an alliance, he was doing a horrible job at proving it.
Valentina gripped onto Camillo's arm in concern, a frightened look pooling in her eyes. He wiped a trail of blood from his lips with the sleeve of his jacket. "Always swing first, don't you, Dante? I thought you 'd learn by now, but you still need your bigger sister to help you out."
Dante whorled and Beatriz struggled to hold him back. "What do you want from me? My trust? My mother will kill you all if you don't find out who murdered my brother."
Camillo peeled back a smile. "Well, if she wants to try—"
"Can you all just shut up?" Josephine snarled. Though Camillo had refused to warn her of Dante's wraith, insisting that he come, he forgot to mention their own capability as teenagers. She had seen toddlers with more maturity.
Before she was quiet. Nothing but a dandelion fluff broke by fate by whatever willed it. After seeing them going back and forth on their trivials, their anger, pure spite... All that was left was harrowing, rotten rage.
When all eyes were on her, she was too overwrought with emotion to fear the worst. She would throw daggers at Camillo first. Josephine met his gaze and outright glared. "This is an extremely sensitive place for Dante and his family. Your comments aren't helping." You're going to ruin your own alliance by talking. "Would it kill you to grow a brain and remember? And Dante," She turned on him. "He can't make any progress with finding your brother's killer if he has to tiptoe around every single question." Then it was all of them, a lecture for whatever mobsters stood in the room. Stupid teenagers and their stupid problems. "Teamwork takes effort on each side. You're all going to end up killing each other before actually doing something. I've met cheerleaders with more communication skills than the group of you combined. Listen to yourselves. You're all so caught up in whatever drama is going on within your family, that you're forgetting the reason you met in secret was to avoid them. Or am I wrong? "
There were no words.
"No, I'm not," Josephine said, full of stoic pride. "I don't want to end the night deflated by bullet holes, I suggest you all shut up, keep all of those enraged teenager hormones to yourself, and get the damn job done. "
Josephine waited for a few more moments of silence before she harrumphed, crossing her arms. Around her, hung everyone else awkwardly. Valentina hooked her thumbs in the pockets of her waistcoat while Isla fiddled with strands of her hair. Josephine wondered how long the entire ordeal would take. As of now, she wanted to be home with a hot bath and a peppermint mask for wrinkles. She was sure she gained a few just being with all of them.
Out of nowhere, Luca said softly. "She's right. We can't figure this out if you guys are keeping us out of the loop with everything going on." Then a brief nod to Dante. "Apologies, Valencio. We'll try to keep the comments in place."
An apology to family, not to Dante. To the three teenagers bound together with that name, a sliver of the same blood tracing their bodies, by god knows who. Though Houston puffed out his chest, there was an ounce of acceptance in the apology that formed on his face.
Isla said no words, something else flickering deep in her eyes. Perhaps memories of Luca, of them together. Josephine had not forgotten their prior history. In a second, the emotion was gone and Isla turned to focus on Dante.
"We need to tell them," Isla said. "They can't be expected to help us if we don't tell them what we already know."
"Fine," Dante merely replied. Beatriz nodded in silent agreement as the others raised their brows. They hadn't expected him to be this compliant so early on. Perhaps Josephine was more persuasive than she thought.
"Hugo was stabbed multiple times," He said. There it was, the closing of a castle on his emotions. Brick by brick, line by line. If Josephine would have met Dante today speaking about his brother, she would have thought that Hugo meant nothing to him. But that was far from the truth. "The autopsy shows that the wounds were small but precise. They think the knife could've been something short but the attack was obviously planned. The cuts were sharp, easy to go into the skin."
"Where was he stabbed?" Camillo tucked in arms towards his chest.
Dante didn't so much as wince. "At his abdomen with some cuts below his chest."
"The killer must have been short." Valentina shifted uneasily, her skin normally tan and smooth looking quite pale with the grotesque information. Josephine wondered how she came to that conclusion. "Maybe girl?"
"We're not sure." Beatriz said. "Though it would explain the height and placement of the wounds, going for the abdomen is a lot easier than going for the heart." Josephine grimaced at the thought. "Or the neck with how skilled Hugo was."
Was. Camillo surveyed the broken window and its diffuse shards of glass. "Do you think Houston was the one thrown inside?" He asked again.
"It could be either-or," Beatriz admitted. This time there was no stinge that sharpened her words. "For sure we know it wasn't an easy fight."
Josephine could have rolled her eyes. As if the room in shreds wasn't evidence enough.
Isla tentatively took a step forward, being careful to not meet Luca's eyes."We're assuming the killer to be middle-aged. There's a lot of signs that a man entered and lingered around the bar before the murder happened."
Houston crouched to look at the floorboards. Then he pointed. Josephine strained to see someone hidden amongst the wood, but could find nothing."There are several footprints around this area, we found them when we swept the bar. They're a size twelve. Pretty big for some short guy, so Beatriz's theory might be true. And then over here we have some more footprints right where the brawl between our pesky killer and Hugo took place." Houston stood, his mouth given to an exasperated sigh. "There's too many options to look through. A middle aged man with big feet doesn't particularly ring any bells. Which is why we need Camillo to look through his list of old, fat uncles."
Camillo grimaced. "Too many to count, but I'll look through them."
Houston slapped his hands together. "That's the spirit. Now we're actually doing something."
Dante ignored his half-brother's dazzling attitude. "We also have other things to address—" He cut a hard glance at Josephine, the fly in the room. She realized he wanted her gone."—if you'd want me to share it with her with us."
Josephine's eyes stung. She knew that luring over Dante was difficult, but the wall that divided them hit her like the weight of bricks. She hadn't won his trust, and all she knew is that she invested a good pair of boots to be ruined for his wild agenda. Like hell she was going to be kicked out.
But Camillo waved off the suggestion with a rustle of those lovely eyelashes. "I trust her."
The impact shouldn't have felt as great as it did. Josephine tucked her gaze somewhere else to remove the giddiness piling at her cheeks. He was a womanizer. Words to him were like the breeze against an old oak tree. And like she had always known the emotion leeched off her face in remembrance. Though it would be dangerous to not ignore the details of their conversation, any shroud valuable she would tuck inside her mind, it was as bad to believe it all.
Finally, we're here. At the crime scene. Also, shame on y'all for not correcting me last chapter! I accidentally wrote Hugo as Houston full throughout some scenes.
Anyways,
I have now begun to unravel my web of lies! Mwhahaha...
Sadly to my wallet, I will be departing from my job for further education studies. For you guys, that just means more time to write more. Now I will have several days back for my schedule to do whatever I want. And you guessed it... to write.
Furthermore, what do you guys think of Hugo?
Though he's not an actual character he's really important in the entire spectrum of things. You'll see why soon. :)
-Mel