(NFTMB)Chapter 84
Alessandro
(Bloody Liar)
People can sense and identify different things at different weird times even in their subconscious.
For most people, it’s their favorite song.
Others’ it is their favorite scent and then for the freaks, it’s their special someone.
But for me, it’s the sound of a gun.
I’m very familiar with that sound that even if I was in a deep sleep I would know it when I hear it.
It’s not instinct.
It’s familiarity. Friendship, you can call it.
I’m very conversant and overly familiar with the gun.
I’ve handled it since I could barely differentiate good from bad.
I knew every fucking thing about a gun.
The way it’s made.
The way it’s set up.
They way it is handled.
And the way it smells.
I know firearms like the letters of the alphabet.
And right now when most people in the ballroom were ducking and the ladies were screaming while the men and the guards pulled out their weapons and aimed at invisible targets,
I stood straight.
My ears are quick enough to trace the location of a gunshot and right now it came from down the hallway.
And I’m sure as hell that it isn’t from the Russians.
The party was almost over excluding the last spectacle of the night which was the bidding.
“Ladies and gentlemen please take your seats. My men are testing out new firearms and one of them must have fired in target practice.
There’s nothing to be worried about and to prove that point, I’ll go check on my men while my mother and wife to Nicholas Rossi, the late mafia boss, Elena Rossi takes over from me.
Please feel comfortable and relax. I’ll be back soon”.
Bastards.
If I didn’t introduce her that way, these fools would have wrinkled their noses in disapproval and gossiped about us all night long.
Fucking misogynistic old fools.
I helped mother up the stage as she took over and began to address the guests before I left the stage.
I headed straight down the hall.
And I was right.
I saw it before I reached it.
I saw her white dress peeking from the doorway and I knew she was dead.
Jasmine.
Well, if it isn’t my lucky day.
Whoever did this should know I owe them a favor.
I hastened my steps and reached the door in no time as I saw Niccolo, Valentino and Victoria inside the room.
Need I say a very shaken up Victoria.
She looked scared.
“What the fuck is going on here”
“Alessandro?”
“Obviously!”. I said sarcastically.
“When did you get here?”
“Have you been standing there for long?”
“Get over here, Victoria”. I beckoned her.
She was standing close to Valentino. Very close. Almost too close for me to handle.
She slowly made her way across the body and across the room before coming to stand beside me.
“Well, can someone open their God damn mouths and tell me how the fuck your modern woman is laying dead in a dress that was supposed to be auctioned off tonight!”
“Geez, Alessandro. That’s harsh you know”
“Well, that’s your fucking problem! How! How did this happen?!”
“I shot her, okay? I was the one that shot her”
“Okay. Thank you so much for that. Good job. But then how the fuck did that happen?! And also, haven’t I been the one laying claims on the position of the person to shoot her?”
“Well, it’s just that she—”
“She attacked Victoria!”
All eyes including mine snapped to Valentino’s.
“She what?”
“Yes, she attacked her and the baby and Nic shot her as the last resort”
“Is this true, Victoria?”
She was still shaken up and literally looked scared.
“Yes”. She whispered, wiping a tear.
“Good job, Nic. You did good. One way or the other I knew she wouldn’t have survived this night without having a bullet in her”.
“That’s true. And to think that I had threatened to shoot her this morning if she made it to the ball wearing that dress. I guess I did now”
“Bloody useless”
I pulled out my gun and shot her again.
“Hey, what was that for?!”
“She’s already dead, Alessandro”
“I know but still I’ve fantasized about putting a bullet in her and now I did. Mission accomplished”
“What do we do about the dress?”
I looked carefully at the dress she still had on and analyzed some certain things.
“Someone get that dress off of her”
“What?”
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Alessandro?”
“What?! We need that dress for tonight”
“But what about the blood and all?”
“It’s a design. A bit bold but still a design.”
“That’s a weird design, then”
“That’s why it’s called fashion. It will serve as grandmother’s blood”
“Kinda makes sense though”
“Of course now someone rip that dress off her body”
They both stood still looking at each other.
“What? I’m not about to see your girlfriend naked. You do it!”
“How the fuck does that matter? She’s dead bro! Take off her clothes! Besides I’m sure she’s got something else underneath, like her underwear or something”
“I’m not doing that. I’m not touching her. She was your girlfriend! You’ve seen her that way! Why don’t you just do it?!”
“Will you both just shut up?!”
“I’ll do it”.
I turned to Victoria to see her exhale and inhale to get rid of the nerves.
“Are you sure about this?”. I asked her.
“Yes. I’ll do it”
With that she slowly walked to Jasmine’s body before bending with obvious great difficulty and started loosening the intricately woven strings on the back of her dress.
“Niccolo a little help please?”. She said after she was done.
“Shit!”
“I told ya!”. Valentino said.
“Give me that!”. Niccolo said to a dead Jasmine as he violently pulled the dress off of her body.
“Now what do I do with this?”
“Hold on, let me call Franco to clean up this mess”. I said while fishing out my phone from my pocket and calling Franco.
“Franco, I need you to do something for me now. Get your men but make it as discreet as possible and come to the hallway at the left side of the ball room.”
I hung up immediately before turning to Victoria.
“Niccolo go put that with the rest of the items for the bidding.”
“Okay”
After he left I noticed Victoria was still acting weird. She was almost shaking now.
“Victoria, are you okay?”.
“Yes, I’m just shocked”. She said while rubbing her arms up and down.
I took off my jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
“Thank you”. She said,
I just nodded before turning to Valentino.
“How did this start anyways? How did you all come to arrive here together at the same time? What were the three of you doing before she tried to attack Victoria?”
“We were talking okay? Me and Niccolo before Victoria came in and spoke about Jasmine arriving in a wedding dress. We were still discussing that when she emerged here and tried to attack Victoria for betraying her and that’s when Nic shot her”
Hmm.
Very convincing.
But still a lie.
I was with Nic when he told me about this nut job showing up in a wedding dress while he himself was with the ladies while I left Victoria with Bianca.
So, how did you all now have this grand meetup to talk about the same white dress that now resulted in a dead body?
I know a lie when I see one. Especially a very well crafted lie like this one.
I’ll still find out the truth.
“I see. He did good. I was planning to kill her myself but I’m glad Nic finished her off”
“Yes”
“Excuse me, I just need to use the bathroom”
Victoria walked away with shaky footsteps to the bathroom as I looked at her retreating back for a while before going back to Valentino.
“You said Jasmine accused Victoria of betraying her? What did she do that was labeled a betrayal?”
“Oh she never got to say what it is seeing as Niccolo shot her in the head. That’s instant demise, you know”
“I know but I was just curious.”
The thing is that I trust myself when I say I trust Victoria but to a certain extent.
I don’t trust her with my life. Never. She already proved that she can be a raging lunatic when pushed.
I trust in the fear she has for me.
It controls her and makes sure that she doesn’t go out of line.
I was just curious to know if there is something else that went down between her and the dead girl that Victoria might have kept away from me.
Jasmine was a loud mouth and a screamer so it’s possible she might have blurted out whatever it is that Jasmine did to her.
Or maybe she didn’t do anything and it was all Jasmine still going on about the microphone thing.
I wouldn’t put it past her to try and attack Victoria based on that.
I don’t know which slum Niccolo picked this girl from but I’ll certainly have a word with him and let him know that the next garbage he drags into our family will die by my very hands before she crosses the threshold of the mansion.
Valentino was still looking at me.
Well, if you want a staring or rather a glaring competition then that’s what I’m going to give him.
I stared right back at him and straight into his brown eyes with an arched eyebrow till he eventually shot me a strange look and looked away.
But I saw it.
I saw it now.
There is a lipstick stain right on his lips.
“Valentino, what’s that on your lips?”
He froze before he aggressively started to wipe his lips with his hands.
There is so much more to this story than they’re letting me in on.
This is barely half of what went down tonight.
And for hell’s sake it had better not be what I am thinking.
Else, hell wouldn’t even be able to save who I’ll deal with.
“This is nothing. It’s my natural lip color. What’s it to you anyways?”
“Why so defensive? It’s just a question, Valentino. Don’t get all haughty on me”
Besides, your natural lip color now leaves a tint on the back of your hand?
Nice try, Valentino but you failed this lie.
“I’m not being defensive, I just hate when people nitpick about my looks”
What? That doesn’t make sense.
“I’m not nit picking about your looks I’m only noticing something off about your appearance”
“Well, you shouldn’t have to call out everything you see”
“So you wear makeup now then?”
“And why the fuck would I do something like that?”
“Then how the fuck is there lip stick on your lips?”
“It’s Stephanie’s okay!”
I see.
Another lie.
“Her husband is here. I hope you know what that means”
“What does it mean?”
Franco and a bunch of men walked into the room as I took a step back.
“I’ll leave that to you to figure out”
“Boss!”
“Franco, you and your boys clean up this mess. I want a clean job. You can keep her in the cold room till the night is over and a warning to you all, whoever leaks this to Sebastian will pay with their head! Not a word about this to Sebastian or anyone!”
“Consider it done, Boss!”
I gave Valentino a nod before leaving.
Let’s confirm from Stephanie shall we?
I walked into the ballroom and immediately walked over to my target.
The woman of the hour, Stephanie.
She was surrounded by women as they all talked about something which I’m sure will be sure to bore the fuck out of me.
“Ladies!”
“Oh, Alessandro!”
“I’m glad you all could make it”
“Well, of course. We wouldn’t miss it for the world”
“Ah, Stephanie. You look as lovely as always”.
I took note of her glossy deep red lipstick which didn’t look smudged and which didn’t look like what Valentino had in his lips.
Liar.
“Ohh, that’s a first. This is the first time I’m receiving a compliment from you but I’ll take it. Thank you”
She smiled and batted her eyelashes.
Not a chance, lady.
“I’ll take note of that keep the compliments coming then”
“As you should”
“I almost could’ve sworn that I saw you down the hall now. Was that you?”
A look of confusion overtook her facial features.
“Down the hall?”
“Yes. I would recognize your beauty anywhere”
“Oh, Alessandro”. She blushed.
“Must have been a mix up because I haven’t left the ballroom since I arrived. Right, ladies?”
“Yes, that’s correct. She hasn’t left, she only caught up with a colleague at the other side of the room but she came right back to this table afterwards”
“Ohh, I must have seen wrong then. Enjoy the rest of your night ladies”
“Thank you!”
Valentino, you bloody liar!
What are you hiding?