Little Mafia Boy - Chapter 24: Chapter 24

{Nico}
"I told you we should have gotten a double bag!" Glasses was currently yelling at me. "but, nooooo. You were rushing me so we left after they put only one bag!"
He was picking up the fire crackers that had fallen out of the now ripped plastic bag. Dylan, yes I've known his name all along just calling him Glasses and other names angers him which gives me purpose in life, was kneeled down on the ground making sure he picked them all up. He had wasted a lot of time going back and forth between which ones he should buy. He was so indecisive I was tempted to buy them all just to lessen the time I had to spend next to him. We only had about five or six minutes until New Years and I really didn't want to spend the first few seconds of the new year with Glasses.
Just the thought alone was enough to make me barf.
Dylan kept complaining on and on about how the bag ripping was my fault. Honestly? It wasn't. If he hadn't taken so much time this whole situation could have avoided. My prayers were heard as my phone rang in my pocket. I looked down and saw that it was Frederik. "Stop talking for two seconds. I have an important call." I ordered Dylan.
"I get that you're some big shot Mafia member or whatever, but I'm not your underling. You can't just order me around and expect me to listen to your every command." He complained to me.
"I'm walking away now." I told Dylan and did just that. He shouted something at me but I didn't pay it any attention. I picked up the call and put the phone to my ear, "Any news of the medicinal tea?"
"Yes. That's why I'm calling"
"Great. So? What's the news?" I asked with a small snicker and ran my free hand through my hair.
"Yes, well, I was I was getting to that. We ran every possible test we could but it came back as just normal tea. Herbs and leaves inside. Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Positive?" I asked, "maybe you missed something?"
"Not possible. We had our best working on it."
"Seriously? Well, fuck." I said a little mad that there wasn't anything dangerous inside the tea. I was kind of hoping there was some kind of poison inside so I could get rid of Naomi from both father's and my life. However, since everything came back negative, I had no proof that Naomi was behind my father getting sick. Therefore, I was stuck living under the same roof as her.
"What did you hope to find in it?" Frederik asked breaking me out of my thoughts.
"Hm, poison or some kind of drug that made someone sick and weak."
"That sounds like anyone getting old... Oh, we looked into why you wanted us to check out the medicinal tea. Your father is sick right? You suspect his wife has something to do with it and used her connections to kill your father?"
"If you knew then why the hell did you ask?" I asked, trying to keep my calm.
"I was hoping you would tell me yourself. That way I would know the reason but you wouldn't know that we looked into things behind your back.." Frederik said bluntly. "Then, I wouldn't feel so bad."
I frowned slightly, "and do you? Feel bad that is."
Frederick made a small humming noise like he was thinking about it and then said, "Not really but I figured that it would make you feel better if I acted like I was feeling guilt for doing my job."
I shut my eyes tightly and said, "I thought you guys never looked into anything unless you're given a request to do so." I opened my eyes and was glaring at nothing in particular. "I don't recall ever asking you guys to do anything else besides check out the substances of the medicinal tea?" I asked with an annoyed expression on my face. I should have known better. They're private investigators after all. Basically, they're professional snoopers. Always sticking their Pinocchio noses where they didn't belong.
"True, but we felt we should have a right to know."
"No? You really didn't. The medicinal tea had nothing to do with Eli." I corrected him. Although that wasn't entirely truthful. I, myself, still wasn't a hundred percent sure of that. Eli very well could have had a day on poisoning my father. However, now that the medicinal tea came back negative, I was right back at square one.
"While that may be true." Frederick interrupted my thoughts. "We didn't know that at the time since you refused to explain further. For all we knew, Elisha could have very well given you the tea himself. You didn't give us much information so we had to take things into our own hands." He finished and I heard arguing on the other side with Frederik. It sounded just like background noise. It could have very well been just the television or radio.
I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Fine." I said trying to calm my anger down, "Is that all you were calling to say?"
"Yes."
"I'm hanging up." I said and stuffed my phone into my pocket.
I suddenly felt a wave of regret in ever knowing that Frederik was a private investigator. I knew nothing good would come out of exchanging information with them and I was right. Why the hell were they poking their noses into my own business. I understood they needed information on Eli to give back to their current employer but they weren't going to get anything from looking into me. All they needed to do was to keep a sharp eye on him at all times.
I ran my hand through my hair again in slight frustration and sighed dramatically. I turned around and saw that Dylan had his shirt extended out and the fire crackers over it. He had pulled his shirt forward to create a small basket for them while he waited. He rose his hand to wave at me and then some fire crackers rolled off of his shirt.
I rolled my eyes and walked over to him. I picked up five of them and dropped them back onto his shirt, "Smooth. Maybe next time don't stupidly let go of your shirt when it's supporting something, deal?"
"Shut up." Dylan groaned as he began walking in front of me. "I was trying to be friendly with you."
I smirked and followed after him. "Why the hell would you ever want to do that? I don't like you. You don't like me. There's no need to do anything unreasonable." I told Dylan without sugar coating my words. I didn't like him for very obvious reasons. We didn't need to play 'friendly' with each other.
"We'll be seeing a lot of one another, you know? You might as well start warming up to me, brother-in-law."
I pretended to gag as he called me that. "Gross. Don't." I strictly told him, "Max and I aren't actually related. So stop that." The thought of him being my brother-in-law gave me the creeps.
His shoulders were slightly shaking and I knew he was laughing, "You two are really close though, right?"
"Sure, but that doesn't mean that you get get to call me that. I don't like you." I told him again, making sure he understood. "Besides, don't get so full of yourself so fast. We still don't know if Max will agree to dating you."
"Hmph." Dylan said huffing out air. "You see to believe that Max and I won't end up together. It's written in stone. Our meeting was fate." He said using a dramatic tone.
I rolled my eyes at Dylan's stupid ideas of fate. Such a thing didn't exist. I ignored his last remark and said, "Damn right. I'm betting with Sera serious cash on this. It's no laughing matter." Sera seemed to believe that Max and the dork would end up dating. Or at the very least, confessing to each other. I, however, was trying to stay positive. I was betting that they would never in a million years start dating. Max is seriously stubborn. With that information I didn't believe Max would agree to date Dylan in the two year time frame I gave him.
"That's kind of mean. I'm hurt." There was no real sadness in his voice as he spoke in monotone.
We made our way towards the beach. Most everyone was where all the stands were in a huddle to try to keep warm. Only our group and a handful of people were stupid enough to actually start a fire down by the water where it was way colder. We were just lucky it hadn't started snowing.
"I couldn't care less about your feelings." I said bluntly.
"Max needs a new best friend." Dylan mumbled in front of me.
I smirked and raised my arms in the air with a small yawn, "I could say the same about Mikhail." I let my arms drop and managed to catch a glimpse of something flying towards Dylan. "watch out!" I yelled out in reflex and yanked back on his coat. He stumbled backwards, losing his footing. His back smacked into my chest as I caught him. My right arm around his waist to keep him from falling to the ground and my left hand holding onto his elbow. A fire cracker zipped in front of Dylan. If I hadn't pulled him back when I did it would have smacked right into him. Towards my left I heard the fire cracker go off as it fell towards the beach. "Are you fucking blind? Did you want to get burned?"
"I was too focused on not dropping anything from my shirt." Dylan said seeming a little shocked.
I rolled my eyes and said, "You sure know your priorities." I groaned and added, "Get off me." I pushed him forward and dusted myself off. It's not like he had gotten any dirt on me but it got my point across that I didn't like him touching me.
He clicked his tongue as one of the fire crackers fell to the ground. "You're going to make me break them all even before we have a chance to use them!"
"Oh, shut up." I said, irritated. "They're just fire crackers. I'll buy you a hundred more if you just stop talking with your annoying voice." I scowled as he turned back to look at me.
"Yeah?" He asked with his eyebrows raised.
"If you stop talking and we get back to Mikhail before midnight." I added.
"What? Are you Cinderella now? Do we at least get a pumpkin carriage to make it on time, princess?" Dylan said as he tried to hold his laugh in.
"Keep that up and I'll punch your nose in." I said with an annoyed expression. I bent down and picked up the fallen fire cracker and took a step forward and dropped it in his shirt. Did this guy think he was funny? He wasn't. Not in the slightest. "Besides, it was me who saved you just now. You even fell into my arms. If anything, you're the damsel in distress." I said quickly.
"What?! No way." Dylan said in denial. "You're definitely the princess off to see her Prince Charming."
"Idiot. I'm the prince off to see the princess. Don't get it twisted. No way in hell is Mikhail anything other than a princess." I said furrowing my eyebrows at him. "I just happened to stumble upon a klutzy damsel on my way to Miki. You know, the damsel that always runs head first into danger? Forever the annoying heroine that gets on everyone's nerves."
Dylan grimaced and shook his head, "Nu-uh! I'm seriously the super masculine hero that rides a super majestic horse and saves the world"
"Okay. You're not Link. Calm down." I rolled my eyes.
"Ah!?" Dylan shouted almost making me go deaf.
I took a step away from him and scowled "What?!" I shouted back and rubbed my ears that were still ringing.
"You, some rich little Mafia boy, know The Legend of Zelda?" The look on his face was priceless. I was half tempted to take out my phone snap a picture of his idiotic face but then that would mean I would have a picture of his idiotic face on my phone. See the problem? How the hell was I going to explain that one to Mikhail without giving him the wrong idea.
I was about to keep arguing with him. Of course I knew the game. I didn't grow up in some cave off the coast of butt fuck nowhere, but then realized I had fallen into the idiot's banter by mistake. I groaned out loud and smacked my palm into my forehead. "I feel like I've just lost precious brain cells talking to you." I said.
"Rude."
"Just, shut up before I take you into the ocean and drown you." I threatened him in a serious tone.
I saw Dylan take a small step backwards. I smiled and counted that as my win. I was about to tell him to move his ass but in the corner of my eye I saw kids running over quickly. I turned and saw two little kids with a scared expression, "I'm sorry, mister! Did you get hurt?" A little kid with red-brown hair asked.
"Who? Me?" Dylan asked as he looked around and then smiled at the kids when he realized they were asking him. "I'm completely fine!" He replied with a wide smile, "No worries! Not even a scratch."
"Bullshit." I called out and glared at the kids who looked startled, "Did you idiots really think playing with fire crackers in the middle of a festival was a smart idea to begin with? Go down to the beach if you're going to do something so stupid. You're all lucky I pulled this bimbo back before he got hurt."
A kid with blonde hair tried to be tough and hold his ground but was talking from behind the redhead. "It- it was your fault to begin with! If you two hadn't been there-"
"If it had been anyone else besides us, your parents would have had a law suit waiting for them in the morning." I told the kids. I was already annoyed by Dylan's nonsense so I was lashing out on the kids, or so I told myself. I didn't want to believe that I was mad at the kids for almost hurting Dylan. No way could I actually care about what happened to a brainless Donkey.
"Calm down. It was an accident." Dylan said next to me. "No one got hurt."
I took a deep breath and sighed in frustration. "I should have let you get hit." I walked away towards the railing to let Dylan deal with the kids. I leaned back on it and watched them all with a glare.
It wasn't like I actually cared about the stupid Donkey, right? Mikhail would be worried if Dylan got hit with a fire cracker. If it was a serious burn, he would get sent to the hospital and all my efforts of making today romantic would go down the drain. I wasn't about to let Glasses ruin everything for me.
Honestly, he should have been scolding them and teaching them a lesson. Instead, Glasses thought speaking eye level and in a soft voice would actually make them learn their lesson. That wouldn't do anything. The brats would just wait until we were gone and would once again start lighting fire crackers again where it was dangerous. Brats like them never learned anything if they weren't scolded properly.
I wasn't going to intervene though. What did I care what two little brats did. I wasn't about to waste my breath scolding them properly if it was all going to go in one ear and out the other.
I saw Dylan patting each of their heads affectionally. I narrowed my eyes at him. For a second, it reminded me of Eli back when everything was good between us. I shook my head of such thoughts when I saw Dylan walking back. "Let's go?" He asked with a small frown, "You okay?"
"Fine." I said quickly and pushed off of the railing and walked down the steps and onto the lightly covered snow beach. I wasn't about to have a moment, especially not with the brainless Donkey. It wouldn't do any good, nor would it improve my mood. If anything, it would put me in a worse mood.
We walked in silence. I noticed everyone getting ready to watch the fireworks together. We would probably all set the fire crackers on after the firework show or during, depending on what everyone decided.
"So, thanks for saving me back-"
"Stop. Don't thank me. It was out of reflex. If I could go back I'd let you get hit." I told him so that I could prevent him from saying thanks. That was the last thing I needed.
"Really?" Dylan asked with uncertainty "ugh, but still, it would have been bad if I got burned. Thanks to your cat-like reflexes-"
I extended to right arm to the side and punched his left shoulder. "I'm not a cat."
Dylan yelped out loud. He hadn't expected for me to punch him so suddenly, "The hell, man? I was trying to-"
"Be quiet." I said frowning. Dylan groaned out loud as he was staring at me. I didn't have the time or patience to amuse his little brain anymore. The spot where we left everyone was empty. I ran over without saying anything to Dylan.
The backpack Dan was carrying was lying there unattended. The camera Dylan had left with Max was still nearly on the floor where Max should have been. Looking closely at the fire I saw three three phones completely burnt. If I had to guess, it would be Mikhail's, Dan's, and Max's phone. That would mean Sera either finally made her move or she managed to hide her phone.
Dylan came running over and dropped everything on the floor. He kneeled down on the floor next to his camera and held it in his arms with affection. He was saying something but at the moment my ears weren't working. All the noises around me quieted down. I felt like I was the only one at the beach. I slowly looked over to where Mikhail should have been and saw droplets of blood soaking the white snow. My jaw immediately clenched as my anger over flood any other emotion.
"ico- Nico!" Dylan shouted as he shook my shoulders. I turned away from the blood and looked at Dylan with stone cold eyes, "uh" he hesitated momentarily, "Where did they go? That's blood, right? Also, Max wouldn't have just left my camera unattended. He knows how much it means to me." If that was true then they were obviously taken against their will. I looked down at the fire again.
Phones completely burned beyond repair. Getting anything useful from them was impossible now.
"What's going on, Nico!? Are they in danger? Max, he's still hurt and I'm worried about Dan and Mikhail-" he let the sentence drift, "Did this happen because you're in the Mafia?"
"What the fuck do you think I'm doing, Dylan!" I yelled in frustration. "I'm trying to figure that out now!" Dylan looked stunned and then his face hardened. I couldn't tell if he was surprised that I said his name correctly for the first time to his face or that I wasn't my usual self.
Fireworks blew up overhead. the crowd cheered loudly. Couples kissed and kids looked up with awe. It should have been a cheerful moment. Everyone should have been there enjoying the show together. Max would start complaining immediately but would secretly enjoy the show. Dan and Sera would be smiling timidly at one another or still be completely awakened like they were when we first got here. Mikhail should have been leaning on my shoulder after we kissed to signify the new year and the new beginnings.
Dylan Looked lost on what he should follow. I knew he was just worried but I was on the verge of having a full blown panic attack. Dylan didn't know the kind of things Eli was capable of. If I was right and Eli had gotten Sera to take them away then I was on a time limit. I had to find them but I wouldn't be able to do it alone. Father wouldn't believe me and it would take too long for me to convince him to lend me support. I dialed Frederik's number immediately and picked up Dan's bag and slung it around my shoulder. I pulled Dylan with me as I walked back towards the festival and headed towards the entrance. I kept my eyes moving to see if I saw anyone suspicious moving around. I let go of Dylan's arm as soon as he started following my on his own.
"Yes?" Frederick answered his phone. He sounded completely calm. It was New Years so he had the holiday off. He had every right to enjoy his day off but i grew even angrier at the fact that Eli potentially made a move right under their noses.
"Are you even doing your job!?" I shouted over the fireworks as I covered one ear so I could hear him properly.
"What? What are you talking about?"
"Where is Eli!"
"Elisha? At your house. Junky is keeping an eye on him-"
"Make sure that's the case." I ordered. "I just lost four people here. I'm thinking Eli kidnapped them-"
"Hold on!" Frederick said sounding alarmed, "I'm not understanding you. Elisha is at your house. He hasn't left all day. Why would he kidnap your friends?"
"That's what I would like to know." I said trying to keep my calm. I wouldn't be helping anybody if I lost my temper.
"Ah- hold on, Nico. Junky just phoned in. Seems like Elisha is on the move." Over on his side it sounded busy. It seemed like everyone was getting ready to move out and follow Eli. If I was correct and Eli had taken everybody then they could take Eli in for kidnapping. It wasn't much but it would be enough to keep him locked up so the F.B.I. could gather more information and his years would add up.
"Pick me up. I'm at the New Years festival. Tell Junky not to lose his trail. I also have a phone I need you to trace." If we could trace Sera's phone then we could have a better chance of finding them.
"Look, we've got this handled. You shouldn't-"
"I don't think I asked. Pick. Me. Up. Now." I stressed. I knew why he didn't want me to go. I was too close to everyone to make a sound judgement if it came down to it. However,I wasn't about to just sit back and let investigators handle it when my friends were in danger because of my feud with Eli.
"...Fine, but you have to listen to us. You're under our jurisdiction until we catch your brother and put him behind bars. We say jump. You jump. We say bark. You bark. Got it?" Frederick asked sounding like he was in business mode.
"Yeah." I said with confidence. I didn't mind taking orders from the private investigators. They were my best shot at finding Eli.
"Good. Be there in ten."
"Make it five." I told Frederick and hung up. Things were moving rapidly. I was kind of scared. I didn't want to think the worst but I did. I imagined Mikhail dead. The very thought sent terrifying shivers down my spine. I wouldn't let that happen. I wouldn't let anyone close to me die again. Beside me, Dylan coughed making me jump. I had forgotten he was still there. "Go home. This doesn't involve you."
Dylan looked at me and shook his head, "I'm going with."
"Are you stupid? What can you do? You don't know anything. You'll just be slowing us down. Go home and sleep. I'll bring back Max and everyone else safely. Trust me."
"I'm still going." Dylan said stubbornly. "I'm not walking away." I glared at him. He really was a stupid, brainless Donkey. Though, not many Brainless Donkeys would throw themselves in harm's way. "If you slow me down, I'll push you off a cliff." I warned. "It's dangerous. If- if the person I'm thinking of did those, it won't be a walk in the park."
"I know." Dylan said with a serious expression.
I sighed softly and shook my head. I couldn't believe I was actually letting a civilian join me. It was a suicidal mission for everyone involved. Dylan had to had at least an idea of that, yet he was willing to bet even his life. If we all survived this, I would have to stop treating Dylan so much like an idiot.
My beliefs of God and the supernatural forces were very thin, but in that moment I couldn't help but pray to whatever God was out there to help me make it on time. I hoped Mikhail's mother was watching over him and protecting her little baby. I felt somewhat ashamed. I had promised as I spoke to her gravestone that I would protect Mikhail and make him happy.
Eli gained nothing out of killing everybody. He wouldn't kill them immediately if he really wanted to get me to hate him with 'everything'. Besides, he was never one to carry a gun.
I hoped that was still the case.