Chapter 2 The mistake

Xavier groaned as he woke up with a throbbing pain in his head. He looked around and realized he was in some kind of basement. He observed the place, there was a single bulb providing faint light in the room. There was a mattress and a plastic chair, the walls had dried blood on them and the place reeked.

He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He really should have just listened to his supervisor. His supervisor had told him to drop the case, but he was too stubborn to just give up. He believed he could find the evidence and missing pieces to pull the case through.

'At least I was not wrong', he thought to himself. He did find the evidence against Diego, just before Diego was murdered. His stubbornness was both a gift and a curse. If he had just listened instead of following Diego, he would be safe in his house right now. But then, he would not have gotten the evidence and witnessed Diego's murder, which he was sure had to be connected to something bigger.

'Maybe I can make this situation work, if she does not kill me first. I could draw information from her and put the pieces together.'

*****

Chiara threw the remote against the wall in anger. She was pissed with herself and confused. She did not know what was wrong with her. Never had she done anything so stupid. The family came first, always had. She really needed to figure out what to do, she could not keep him simply because of an attraction she did not understand.

That was the most confusing thing, she had never been attracted to a man before. In all her twenty four years of life, not once had she felt a sexual attraction to a man. At some point, she had thought she was gay, but it turned out she was not attracted to ladies either.

It was the worst way to find out her hormones did work. She ought to kill him, he was a loose end that needed to be tied. She took her phone and pulled up the app connected to the cameras in the basement. She watched him search the concrete floor with his hands. She knew he was looking for a weapon and she scoffed. She was not stupid to leave any harmful thing there with him.

After she had knocked him out, she took him to her house in Beverly, MA. It was a villa she got four years ago after she moved out of her dad's house. She had dumped him in the basement and locked it. She had no maid or servants in the house as she preferred her privacy and the five bodyguards assigned to her always stayed outside except under extreme conditions or if she requested it. She made use of a cleaning agency, they sent two maids to clean the house three days every week and the maids did so under the supervision of two bodyguards.

She had dismissed her bodyguards early so she could get his body into the house. She did not want her dad to find out about him and her bodyguards would have reported to her dad if they found out. Her dad was the boss after all.

She calmed down after taking a shower and she went to the kitchen. She was rummaging through the refrigerator when she heard her front door creak. She pulled out the gun strapped beneath the countertop in her kitchen and she walked stealthily towards the door with the gun pointing forward. She cut through the living room and saw a man with his back facing her in the hallway. She sighed in relief and relaxed her arm.

"Hey Jackass! What happened to knocking?"

Marcos turned around and smiled, he walked pass her and headed straight for her bar in the dining room. He poured himself a glass of whiskey and downed it in a go.

"That bad?" She asked him, referring to his day.

"I had to get information from a dude." He poured himself another glass and drank it.

"Ooh! Have they caught Alberto?" She smiled at him and went to the kitchen. She knew how much he hated torturing people. Marcos was one of the few people she knew who had a conscience. He would act all tough, but she knew he preferred to just kill his targets quickly.

"Not yet, the guy is sneaky."

Marcos took the bottle and was drinking directly from it.

"Are you trying to cook?" He asked with a fake frightened expression.

"Calm down, I'm not ready to die. I'm just looking for leftovers." She took out the pizza in the fridge and put it in the microwave. She could not cook to save her life. The one time she ever cooked, she and Marcos ended up in the hospital with food poisoning. She had not tried cooking ever since then. That was three years ago.

"You know that whiskey is worth four thousand dollars." She glared at him and shook her head. He was not affected by her glare, unlike everyone else. He always took her wine whenever he visited her and they squabbled about it.

"No wonder it tastes so good. Thanks." He replied and continued drinking it.

"I did not buy it for you."

"Well, you certainly did not buy it for yourself. I am just helping you out here." He teased her about the fact that she didn't drink alcohol.

"Yeah, it is for guests."

"Well then, it is serving it's purpose." Marcos smirked and started pressing his phone.

"You do not count as a guest in this house. One day, I am going to start making you pay for the drinks." She pulled out the pizza and served it in two plates. Marcos took a piece from hers and she slapped his hand.

"So what is the deal with this Xavier McKinney?" Marcos asked as he took another gulp of the whiskey.

"How do you know about that?" She had sent Xavier's details to Logan for a background check. Logan was an associate of the family, he was a highly skilled hacker and was good at acquiring hidden information. She had told him to keep it between them because it was a personal affair.

"Logan told me. Is it a new assignment?"

She groaned and ran her fingers through her hair. 'Of course Logan told him, I am going to have a nice talk with Logan about the meaning of confidential', she mused.

"No, it is personal." She said in a flat voice and resumed her eating.

*****

Marcos looked up at her face in shock. She had a blank expression on her face, which meant she was serious. They had always shared everything with each other, so he was surprised by her answer.

"Did you get in any trouble?" He pressed on.

"No."

That only made him more curious. Logan told him the guy was a FBI agent and that had him worried. He was concerned about Chiara, she could have gotten herself in trouble but didn't want to admit it. He promised himself to get to the bottom of the matter.

"Where are your bodyguards?" He changed the topic because he did not want to stress her.

"I gave them the night off." She replied tersely.

He knew she was hiding something from him and he was determined to find out.

"Alright then. Can we watch a movie now?" He walked to the living room and switched on the television. He saw the broken pieces of the remote on the ground and he smiled as he noticed she was staring at it too.

"I guess the television offended you. I am grateful you did not break the television at the very least."

She avoided his eyes and sat down. He was concerned about her behavior, it was not the first time she broke an appliance or furniture out of anger, but her avoiding his eyes was weird.

"It seems we are going manual." He sat down beside her after choosing a movie. He watched her intensely while she watched the television.

*****