A Dangerous Alliance (on hold)

4. Boston Tea Party

Song: Lotta True Crime - Penelope Scott

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Adelaide

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The walk back from the park had been lonely and quiet, I spoke to nobody and nobody spoke to me as the day dragged on. Even as I entered the apartment, I knew that Zahid and Malcolm wouldn't be back until the early hours of the night, until their target had been eliminated.

I headed directly to my room, feeling the weight of my secret excursion on my shoulders as I moved around the apartment.

Sitting on the bed, the note seemed to grow heavier in my pocket by the second, feeling almost as if it was burning a hole in my jeans. Carefully, I pulled the little slip out and unfolded it, reading over the scribbled words.

The Boston Tea Party Cafe, 2 AM

I stared at the piece of paper laying innocently on my bedroom floor as I sat on the bed, cross-legged and slightly annoyed.

The possibility of Jaekyung being at the meeting was high and I ached to see a familiar face outside of the cryptic messages of Silver and the two idiots I lived with.

Even though every fibre in my body told me to go, I had to take into account the possibility of it being a trap. I didn't have a good track record with Silver and abduction.

The element of mystery, his possible knowledge of my family, seeing Jaekyung, as well as the supposed hit Romano, has placed on my head all were factors in favour of me going to the appointed time.

On the flip side, my life was at risk.

How could I know that Silver himself didn't want to return my head in a box to his brother to be able to get some sort of stake in the family business?

The options weighed on my shoulders like a ton of bricks, I knew if I didn't go I would always feel my lungs constricted in 'what ifs?' before eventually being killed by one of the assassins allegedly out to find me.

The information Silver had offered me was too big of a deal to pass up.

Family.

A mother and father, possibly siblings, maybe even a cousin or two.

Hours passed as I spent the rest of the day idly trying to distract myself and failing, finally ending up reading quietly on my bed.

I broke out of my dreamlike state as the main door slammed open and two masculine voices entered the flat, shouting and popping my bubble of quiet solitude.

I hurriedly snatched the piece of paper from the floor and shoved it into my bra before nonchalantly walking from my room to the kitchen to see what all the fuss was about.

"...You nearly got us killed, Zahid!"

A slam on the counter soon followed after his exclamation, causing me to linger by the doorway, contemplating whether I should intervene.

My nosy ass decided to see what the fuss was about.

Casually, I strolled into the room, and, in the middle of their fight, opened the fridge and took out a beer, sipping it as I slid onto a counter.

They didn't even notice me, too enraptured in their fight.

"Well she was making moves on you, what do you expect me to do?" Zahid replied, running his hands through his hair, rumpling his delicate curls.

Malcolm let out a sigh, moving to the other side of the counter.

"Zahid," He paused, looking down at his hands, splayed on the counter, obviously just barely holding in his rage, "The whole point was for her to flirt with me, to distract her so the poison could be administered, not for you to sit down next to me and stake your claim."

At this point, the grip Malcolm had on the counter seemed as if it could shatter the marble.

I still didn't interfere, allowing my mouth to quirk up and taking a sip.

"I can't believe you!" Zahid shouted, before storming out of the room and into their bedroom, huffing and puffing the entire way.

Silence settled over the kitchen for a brief moment.

Malcolm slowly turned to me, his visage looking completely and utterly tired after being out working until almost 1 AM, something that many people couldn't do.

Without saying a word of salutation to me, he snatched the beer out of my hand and stormed to the couch, letting himself sprawl on the plush covers and turning the television on.

With a huff, I slid off the counter and took out another beer before returning to my room without any words to the boys, they seemed like they weren't in the right mindset to talk and I didn't want to set them off any further. The weight of my secret hung heavy on my shoulders as I closed the door behind me.

It was decided, I would go.

I checked my watch, it was around 12.30 in the morning and I had around 1.30 hours until I had to be there and, taking a quick look at google maps, the cafe showed to be quite a walk away.

With a heavy sigh, I took a quick shower, brushed my teeth and washed my face before changing out of my clothes, choosing to put on some warmer and darker clothes. I checked my watch again and I only had around 1 hour to get there.

I walked out of my room, noticing that Malcolm had fallen asleep and Zahid was still nowhere to be seen and quickly filled up a flask with hot coffee and a water bottle with some water before quickly snatching my coat and slipping out of the apartment, taking my time with closing the door behind me.

I walked briskly the whole way to the designated spot, my headphones in and at a low volume, just in case this was an ambush, and managed to get there in 50 minutes, ten minutes earlier than the supposed time frame.

I stood warily on the other side of the road, watching to see if anybody came in or out of the cafe.

The cafe itself looked fairly normal.

It boasted a cosy and sweet setting with a large "OPEN 24 HOURS" sign on the front door but had no visitors inside aside from a bored-looking barista.

One minute before the meeting time, I was just about to turn around and leave back to the safety of my apartment until a shadowy figure started to walk down the opposite side of the street.

I patiently watched as they stopped in front of the coffee shop and, against my better judgement, decided to cross the street and follow them in.

The inside of the shop was warm, instantly heating my frozen fingers and cheeks though I kept my head down, concealing my face as I stood behind the mysterious figure.

"Americano," He ordered, his voice low and smooth.

My head whipped up at the sound of his voice, almost recognizing it instantly.

"Excuse me, sir?" I asked, tapping on his shoulder, my eyes wide.

Slowly, he turned around until he was fully facing me, his mouth curling into a sly grin.

"I'm so glad you made it, Darwin."

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I have another book published called "Worship" so go check that out if you're interested

If you have any song recs, comment here

Hope you like the chapter, it was kind of a filler, who do you think the mystery man is? Can you remember from the little hint ? ;)

Okayyy, bye