CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
“MAKING A DEAL”
SCARLETT DEL GATO
Eden pulls me into an empty classroom before school the next morning. And not gently, either.
I felt her cat-like talons digging into my wrist as she hauled me into the nearest and empty classroom.
I actually had to pry her hand off of my wrist before her nails would draw blood.
When she finally let go of my wrist, I rub it and glare at my best friend wondering why she had pulled me into an empty classroom so early in the morning.
She doesn’t say anything when she walks over to one of the desks before she sits down on the edge of one. She looks at me looking like she’s waiting for an explanation of some sorts with the way her arms were folder across her chest.
I narrow my eyes at her. “Can you at least tell me why I’ve been pulled into an empty classroom like I’m being reprimanded for my sins?” I ask her, the sarcasm dripping off my tongue.
“I’ve seen the news, Scar.” She says. “There was a damn shootout in the week and to make matters worse, I saw the same car Giovanni always drops you off in the mornings in flames and completely totalled. And when you didn’t come to school, I only expected the worst…”
My eyes soften.
I suddenly felt so bad for making her worry about me.
“I’m sorry.” I apologize to her. “I should’ve told you what happened.”
She sighs. “You have a lot of time to tell me right now.” She says, giving me a stern look. “You had me worried, Scar.”
I clear my throat, wanting to avoid this conversation with her but I don’t think she’s going to let me leave this classroom without an explanation.
I decided to tell her the truth because she’s my best friend and she needs to know what has been happening.
“Uh, we might’ve been involved in the shootout, yes.” I tell her, remembering the guy who attacked me back at my house being the one who attacked us again when we drove back to the mansion. “But they attacked first but we made it out okay.”
Barely.
Giovanni’s still battling with his shoulder. He took it out of the brace because it started to get too uncomfortable for him after a while, so he decided to take it off. He obviously ignored my pleas into letting him keep it on, so I finally just gave up. If he hurts himself more just because he was uncomfortable, that’s up to him.
“You could’ve gotten killed!” Eden shakes her head.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Eden.” I tell her. “Everyone came out of there alive. Well, except for the guy who attacked us.” I add, remembering his totalled car and the wounds he had on his body from being shot at.
“Did Vito or Giovanni get hurt?” She asks. “Did you get hurt in the shootout!?”
When she asks the question a little too loudly, I quickly press the palm of my hand against her lips, silencing her before she announces to everyone that I was there when the shootout happened the other day.
Once I was sure that she wouldn’t talk so loud again, I took my finger off of her lips. “You shouldn’t talk so loud. We have ears all around us.”
She nods, smiling apologetically.
She then beckons for me to continue with a nod of her head.
“Giovanni got shot in the shoulder, but he’s fine now.” I tell her. “I took some time off to stay home and to look after him. But I can assure you that he is fine now. Vito too.”
Vito almost losing his brother was a terrible sight to look at. I never saw him so quiet and so sad before. He really was worried for his brother. He didn’t think he would make it out alive, but I was so relieved that he did.
“I am okay too. I just—I needed time for myself to process everything.”
Eden releases a relieved breath. “Oh thank God. I was so worried.” She licks her lower lip. “When I saw the news that night, I was like: that car definitely looks familiar. And then it clicked. The fact that you were so eager to get away from my messages… You just wanted to take care of Giovanni. But what happened? Why was there a shootout and who wanted to target you?”
I lift my shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t know, Eden.” I shake my head. “All I know is that it has something to do with this beef between the Castiglione brothers and another gang…”
Not even I knew why the White Pistols wanted to target me, so that question will always be left unanswered—until I can figure it out, at least.
“I’m just glad that you’re okay.” She says right when the bell rang for the first period.
She jumps off the desk, following me out of the classroom.
Once we leave the empty classroom, I spot Diablo leaning against his locker. My heartbeat started to speed up when his eyes landed on me when Eden and I moved past him to go to our first class of the day.
“Diablo definitely doesn’t like me very much.” I tell Eden as we pass him.
I didn’t tell her about him and when he attacked me the other day. I don’t want to worsen things by adding more stress to her already-full plate. I was missing for a while and now I was almost killed in a shootout. And to tell her that Diablo attacked me… I don’t want to add more stress to her.
“He doesn’t like anyone after what happened to his brother.” Eden says, but once she realises what she said, her eyes widens.
I stop in my tracks to look at her. “Who’s his brother?”
I don’t know why I suddenly felt panic bubbling up inside me.
I swallow hard, looking at Eden to wait for her to explain to me who his brother was. Hell, I didn’t even know he had a brother until a few seconds ago.
Eden stops in her tracks too and she tries to avoid my gaze by looking at the ground, but I lift her chin so that she can look at me.
“Eden, tell me.”
She sighs in defeat, smiling sadly at me. “His brother was shot in a mall while he was shopping apparently.”
I swear I felt my entire world crumble to the floor when the words left her mouth. My heart stopped beating and I felt how the breath was knocked from my lungs.
I think the gasp was audible because Eden looks at me worriedly and she grabs onto my shoulders to keep me steady when my legs threaten to cave out from underneath me.
“Scarlett, what’s wrong?” She asks me while holding onto my shoulders. “Did you know his brother or something?”
I couldn’t process her words anymore. There was this loud ringing in my ears and the pounding of my heart against my ribcage didn’t help either.
The sound of lockers smashing shut and the talk of students was drowned out by the pounding in my ears too.
I shrug her hands off of my shoulders and turn on my heels. If I didn’t splash some cold water over my face right now, I’d pass out on the spot.
I ignore Eden’s calls as I made my way to the girl’s bathroom down the hallway of the school building.
As I enter the girl’s bathroom, I immediately make my way to the sink and open the faucet.
I splash some cold water over my face and let my hands clutch the sink.
I suddenly felt sick to the stomach.
Giovanni shot Diablo’s brother.
Giovanni shot Diablo’s brother.
Giovanni shot—
The door of the bathroom creaks open and Diablo steps inside, closing the door behind him before he locks it. I should’ve known it was him. He was watching me for a reason—he wanted to corner me. He waited until I was alone to do this.
He makes his way toward me, closing the distance between the two of us.
I feel his breath fan against the back of my neck when he stops right behind me, making me shudder on the spot.
I watched him in the mirror, how he practically towered me from behind.
He puts his hand on my shoulder, caressing it like a husband would a wife after a long day. I wanted to shrug him off, but I thought twice about it. I didn’t want to anger him, not after I know what happened to his brother and why he had this sudden grudge against me.
He also knows that I’ve been spending time with the Castigliones. He threatened me if I told the brothers about what happened in his car the other day, so he definitely knew about them and if he knew about them, he knows that I was there that day his brother was shot by Giovanni.
I swallow hard, looking at him through the dirty mirror.
Looking around the bathroom through the mirror, I released a relieved breath when I saw that there wasn’t anyone else in the bathroom. It was just the two of us.
Diablo seemed like the type of person who’d hurt someone just because they wanted to snitch on him and I didn’t want that to happen. I’d rather deal with him alone rather than worrying about what he might do to someone else if they caught us in the bathroom.
I look at him in the mirror again, seeing how his hand caressed my shoulder and the small smile he had on his lips because he knew he scared me. He took delight in seeing me scared of him.
I couldn’t turn around because it felt like my feet were suddenly glued to the dirty tiles of the bathroom, and it felt like I could barely breathe while he watched me through the mirror too.
“Do you want to kill me because of what happened to your brother? Is that why you hate me so much?” The words came out groggy. My throat felt scratchy and my hands were sweaty and trembling, clutching the sink.
I swallow down the bile that rose in my throat, waiting for his reply.
He chuckles, squeezing my shoulder before he flings me around so that I could face him.
He was tall, so I had to look up to face him.
I never found him intimidating before, but now, while he was towering over me and those eyes of his boring into mine, I was scared to be in the bathroom alone with him.
I draw in a deep breath when he rests his other hand on my right shoulder, keeping me in place in case I decided to bolt. He had me locked underneath his hand, and his piercing gaze.
“Who said anything about me wanting to kill you?”
Although his words should’ve been a relief to me, it wasn’t. His words didn’t tell me why he had me locked in the girl’s bathroom with him, or why he was holding onto my shoulder like he was afraid that I might run away from him.
“W-why are you here then?” I stutter, cursing myself for showing him that I was afraid of him after all, today more than ever.
“Can’t a guy talk to a girl nowadays?” He pouts, letting go of my shoulders before he takes a few steps backwards, giving me some space, and breathing room.
I clench my hands into fists, trying to keep them from shaking, but to no avail. They were sweaty and they were shaking. “You’re too calm for someone who lost their brother—”
He laughs bitterly, the sound piercing throughout the entire bathroom. He just shakes his head at me. To be honest, I expected him to slap me for making such a comment—but he never does, to my surprise.
“If you want me to hurt you, Scarlett, just give the word and I’ll hurt you.” He says, his tone awfully frightening. “And besides, I’m not the only one who lost someone.” He smirks, raking his fingers through his hair.
“How do you know that?”
I know that he knows about my brother, but I didn’t think that he knew what happened to him.
Diablo knows more than he admits and even though I was afraid of him right now, I needed to get answers from him.
“I can’t tell you.” He smiles. “Or, if I do, I’d have to kill you after.”
I step closer to him, closing the distance between the two of us.
He was surprised at my sudden movement, but he just smiled down at me.
I look up, into his eyes. “If you tell me something… anything that can lead me to my brother’s death. I will do anything.” I practically plead. “Please, Diablo, just tell me. I’m begging you. What do you know?”
There was a knock at the door and the door handle twisted, but once the person realised that the bathroom was locked, their footsteps receded down the hallway.
I release a relieved breath.
“Tempting.” Diablo smirks. “But where’s the fun in that? If I tell you what I know, you’ll run straight to them and tell them everything I told you.”
“What if I don’t tell them?”
His hand reaches out and he twirls a strand of my hair between his fingers. His forefinger grazed the skin of my cheek. “Oh Scarlett.” He merely chuckles again. “So desperate, I see.”
“Please, Diablo.” I whisper. “I’ll do anything if you can give me something about my brother… Anything…” I plead.
He grins, showing his perfect white teeth. “Anything?” He questions, his expression smug.
I nod, although I know that it wasn’t such a good idea to make a deal with him, out of all people.
Diablo leans down, bending down to come face to face with me. “Oh but what will your boyfriend think of this?” He asks, his breath fanning across my face before he closes the distance between us and places his lips against mine.
I stiffen on the spot and try to pull away from his lips, but he keeps me in place, pulling me closer to him with his hands now around my neck. He didn’t kiss me for long before he stops and pulls away from me, but his hands still lingered around my neck as he watches me with lust in his eyes.
“Are you going to tell me what I need to know or was this some kind of sick plan of yours to get me to kiss you?” I ask him, still feeling the way his lips moved against mine.
It didn’t feel anything like Giovanni’s.
Giovanni’s kiss was gentle and soft and I enjoyed it, but Diablo’s kiss was out of pure lust and the fact that he had something over me.
“It’s option number two.” He smirks. “I was just getting you to kiss me. And it turns out that you’re a much better kisser than I though—”
I slap him across the face, feeling the sting on the palm of my hand after the blow.
He lets go of my shoulder to rub his cheek where I had slapped him.
The slap hurt against my palm, so I rubbed my palm with my left hand trying to ease the burning against my skin.
Diablo faces me again, his cheeks red from anger. “I was going to tell you something about your poor little brother but seeing that you slapped me, you made me change my mind.” He rolls his shoulders and turns on his heels to leave the bathroom.
“Diablo, please…” I run after him. “You’re the only one who can tell me… please…” I beg, but he was already out of the door after he unlocked it.
I let out a harsh breath, shaking my head at my desperation.
I was willing to do anything to get a simple clue to my brother’s death, but now that I think of it, what’s there to find?
Nothing makes sense around here and no one wants to talk.
Unless I go back home to lure the White Pistols there…
That was the only option I could think of.
But if I am willing to skip school again to go back home, who’s going to take me? I can’t tell Giovanni or Vito about my plans because they’ll refuse to let me go to the White Pistols for answers, especially now that they know they’re after me.
There’s just only one person I can rely on not to tell anyone.
Jeremiah.
I rush out of the bathroom, but the hallways were empty.
I have no other choice but to announce that he has to leave school.
The lady in the office didn’t question me wanting to get Jeremiah out of class, but when I managed to tear up a little bit and let my lip quiver to make my story about our cousin passing away last night, she believed me and went to make the announcement to get him out of class.
I didn’t wait for long.
I spotted him walking down the hallway.
I turn to look at the office lady, thanking her under my breath before I left the office.
Jeremiah frowns when he sees me.
I grab his arm, pulling him out of the school building with me.
Once we were outside and out of earshot, I started to speak. “I have a favour to ask. I need a lift to my house. You’re the only one I trust right now to take me there.”
• • •
“I never got the chance to thank you after you came to the rescue the other day.” I tell him once we were on the road. “Diablo’s really something else.” I smile thankfully at him, but he just focuses on the road in front of him.
We were about ten minutes away from my house and Jeremiah never questions why I wanted to go there. He only drove his car in complete silence and focuses on the road instead of us.
He only listens to my instructions where to turn and where to stop.
He frowns when he sees that my entire house was still a crime scene, but he doesn’t question it—not that he would, he’s a mute, but okay.
He parks his car, takes the key out of the ignition, and gets out.
I follow suit.
As we near the front door of the house, Jeremiah opens the front door and enters first to make sure it was safe enough for me to enter, and when it was, he beckons for me to enter with a nod of his head.
I walk into my house.
Jeremiah plops down on the couch while I tried to think of something that can lead to my brother’s death, but just thinking about going back to the kitchen where he was shot made me feel sick to the stomach.
I ignore that part of the house and make my way up the stairs.
Maybe there’s something in his room I might’ve missed.
I didn’t have time to check the other day because right when I wanted to move up the staircase, someone decided to attack me. So I wasn’t upstairs in a while and just thinking about going to his room made me tear up.
I feel a wave of dread wash over me when I opened the door to Antonio’s room. His bed was still unmade, his pillow askew. His curtains were still shut and his drawers were slightly open like he didn’t have the time to close them properly.
There was a jacket lying over his desk chair.
I walk over to the desk and pick his jacket up. I inhale his scent still lingering on the jacket. He smelled like cologne and wood and smelling his scent again for the first time in a long time made my heart constrict inside my chest and my throat closing up.
Oh how I miss him so much.
I fight back tears as I make my way back to his bed, but as I was walking, one of the floorboards creaked louder than the rest of them.
I frown, putting the jacket on the bed before squatting down to the floorboard. There was a small crack in the wood and when I lifted the floorboard with my fingernail, it lifted up, revealing an opening space underneath the floorboard.
I spot an envelope and take it out of the hole. I take the envelope and walk over to my bed before plopping down.
There was a name written on the front of the envelope; Scarlett.
I open the envelope, careful not to tear the fragile paper with my fingers.
When it finally opens, I take out a folded letter.
A tear runs down my cheek when I see his handwriting, ever so neatly, on the piece of paper. He wrote prettier than me, more elegantly, while my handwriting was rushed and too small for someone to read.
My hands shake when I read the first line;
Dear little sister,
If you’re reading this, I’m already dead.
Sorry for being insensitive, but it’s unfortunately the truth. There are a lot of things I haven’t told you. Secrets I kept from you, from the brothers…
But just know that I had a reason for everything.
I did rat Giovanni out, but I swear I had a reason for that.
The White Pistols gave me no choice.
I frown at the letter, but continued to read it.
I had to do whatever it took to protect them, and Giovanni going to jail was exactly that—to protect him.
So I wrote this letter for you to tell you that I love you and that I am sorry for being in the middle of my mistakes. I’m sorry that I never told you about everything I was mixed up in.
I’m sorry, but I have to cut this letter short.
Vincent is on the warpath again and if he finds out that I am writing this letter, he’ll kill me for it.
I love you, so much Scarlett.
I’m so sorry for everything.
PS: I hope you manage to put the pieces together of my betrayal because what I want to say is too much for words.
I know you’ll figure it out. You always do.
Antonio.
I don’t know for how long I kept rereading the words written on the letter, but when I checked the time, it was nearly one o’clock. Just how long have I actually been sitting on my bed, rereading my brother’s words?
Jeremiah must’ve left already.
When I walk down the stairs, I wipe my tears with the back of my hand before I enter the living room. Jeremiah was still seated on the couch, scrolling through his phone without a care in the world.
“I’m so sorry, Jeremiah. I lost track of time… I just want to use the bathroom and then we can go.” I tell him but he just shrugs like it’s no big deal that we skipped an entire day of school.
I nod before going back up to my room.
I grab the letter from my bed before I fold it up again.
The White Pistols had something to do with my brother’s death.
But what?
Nothing made sense and it was driving me insane.
My brother was right about one thing: I will figure it out. I always do.
I hear footsteps coming up the stairs and quickly hide the envelope underneath the mattress of the bed. It’s not that I didn’t trust Jeremiah. I just didn’t want him to worry about me.
I turn to the doorway right when the footsteps stop near my door.
But when I turn to face him—it wasn’t even Jeremiah at all.