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“Are you making dinner?”
The man let out a hum.
“Do you mind if I stay here, then?”
“Do whatever you want.” He sighed, sounding like I was inconveniencing him somehow.
Wasn’t he just filled with sunshine and rainbows?
Nonetheless, I remained seated at the table, watching him as he continued to cook in silence. One by one, first Ace and later King, started to join us in the kitchen.
King’s gaze lingered on me for a second, but he stayed quiet. A plate was soon placed in front of me, and we all started to eat shortly after.
Dinner was mostly a quiet affair, save for an offhand comment or two, most of them coming from Ace. Nobody tried to talk to me, which meant that I was free to take a turn analyzing each man at the table without any interruptions.
It didn’t take me long to see that they were all wildly different from one another.
I was curious about how they all ended up here together.
Were they related? Or just friends? Did they first meet by working for the Don, or had they known each other from before?
So many questions and there wasn’t even one answer that wasn’t rumors or made-up stories. But I could be patient.
From that day on, I took every opportunity to join them at meals, and as time passed, I slowly started to get a feel for each man’s personality and character.
The way King carried himself was that of a gentleman, but I had a strong feeling that there was something much darker lurking beneath the surface. He also seemed to have a never-ending supply of patience, never once raising his voice, and appeared to play the role of a negotiator between the other two.
Ace was charismatic, with an ever-present grin on his face. He was also a sleazebag, but he had an almost childish quality about him, as well. I also learned not to take his remarks at face value once I figured out that he was mostly doing it just to get a rise out of me.
On the other hand, Jack was an exact antithesis of Ace.
He was very grumpy. And very quiet.
Those were the only two things I could say for certain since he so very rarely showed anything else. While I couldn’t get asgood of a read on him as I did on the others, I was sure that I was going to figure him out eventually, too.
A new idea sparked in my head and I began to develop a plan.
I was determined to discover what made them tick, one by one, until I found something that was going to get me out of this place.
I didn’t care about how long it was going to take me — I had a goal in my mind now.
Dead or alive, I was going to get out of here, no matter what.
Five
Alessio
“What were you thinking, Alessio?”
Those five words were the first memory I could remember — a constant that had followed me around from childhood until now. They were always accompanied by furrowed brows and lips pressed together in a tight line — a clear expression of disappointment — not unlike the one Jack was sporting now.
“Alright… So, in hindsight, I realize that I could have taken more time to think it through.”
“Think it through?You set the entire warehouse on fire!”
When he put it like that…
“In my defense.” I held up a finger. “It wasn’t like there was anything of importance in there, anyway. And it turned out to be a great distraction! No one even tried to follow after us as they were too busy trying not to burn to death.”
