Why is Varo taking so long?

Tobias sighed as he held two vanilla milkshakes that the same woman at the counter had gifted him with. If the woman continued gifting drinks to fine men like that, she'd end up unemployed.

He looked outside to see Alvaro still towering over the officer who was beginning to look furious. He had no idea what his friend was trying to do in public.

He sighed and slowly walked out of the place. Varo had to be the dumbest person he knew...right after Miguel and well... Every single member of the family.

"Okay now, let's not do things we might regret later." He tried to reason on getting to his car where the officer was about to pull out a baton.

"M—mr Ferna." The officer immediately greeted and dropped his hand which made Varo back up a bit.

"What are you doing here, Paulo?" He asked calmly, taking his sweet time in opening the vehicle to gently place the milkshakes in the cup holders.

He eventually shut the car door to lean on it and face the policeman, who was a good gap away from him.

"I-I was only here to get lunch." The man stuttered and Tobias could see through his lie. Alvaro could too.

"And for some reason, your lunch was locked in my car?" He raised a dark eyebrow at the cop. There were snitches everywhere, and Varo was right. He couldn't trust everyone.

"No- I was only admiring it-" The bastard is lying.

"The car has been in Gillian's driveway for the past three days. Have you not had enough time to admire it?" Alvaro chipped in and Tobias couldn't be more grateful. Lies aggravated him.

"I-" The man tried to speak but Tobias interrupted.

"Let's do this somewhere private. Varo?" He asked a very willing Alvaro who nodded and Tobias led them to a place he knew too well- The alley beside the restaurant. He had caught Eniola there with some very unfortunate boys one too many times. He could not help the small grin that ghosted his lips when he remembered what happened to them.

Good times.

"Talk." He instructed the cop who was now roughly pushed against the dirty wall. Alvaro crinkled his nose at the awful smell and Tobias nearly rolled his eyes.

"I-" His hesitance made Varo's hands tighten around his neck.

"You what?" Tobias asked, leaning in to listen but avoiding the disgusting wall.

"I was instructed to keep an eye on you. I—I had lost sight of your vehicle and was only able to track you down when Mr M—Montez caught me." He rushed, still struggling to breathe but Varo did not give him breathing space. Literally.

"Who sent you?" He asked the man who immediately shook his head. He didn't expect a straight answer. He knew he would not want to disclose his benefactor so easily.

"Do you have your pocket knife, Varo?" He asked his friend who immediately reached into his back pocket and waved the small knife dangerously close to the man's face.

"I take it everywhere. You know, ever since you banned the family from using guns." The lawyer swiped at the man's face again but still did not come in contact with his skin.

The police officer was defenseless. His baton was pressing against his rib cage and he was quickly running out of oxygen.

Tobias thought he was pathetic to not have at least tried to put up a fight with them.

"You're a bit too pathetic for a cop." Tobias voiced out and Varo nodded in agreement.

"Yeah! What happened to those years in Police Academy training?" He added comically.

"Ah, that was a good movie." It really was. Tobias had to live through a whole week of watching each installment of the franchise with Rebecca.

"It's a great movie." Varo corrected harshly, tightening his grip around the man's neck. His fingers were beginning to pale. This man better talk before he dies.

"I'm going to ask you again, but more slowly so you can hear. I take it that the filth here somehow got into your ear and made you deaf the first time." Tobias leaned in after Varo was done buttressing his point. He caught the stench of tobacco that escaped the man's breath.

It has been a while.

"Who. Sent. You?" He asked for the last time and the man shook his head stubbornly. "Throat." Taking several steps back, Tobias instructed Varo who shared brief eye contact with him then gave the man the tiniest sadistic smirk before pressing the knife against his neck.

"Berlusconi!" The man yelled out just as the knife broke the skin and drew blood, making Varo pull away from him. "Giannini Berlusconi!"

"Who is that?" Tobias asked calmly, pleased that he now had a name.

"I do not know him exactly but he wants the girl. H-he says she has something that her father took from him. I do not know who he is. Our boss, Christopher Davis, passes all the information to us. He's the chief of the department." The man ranted in a bid to save his life.

The fate of his life however had already been decided by Tobias. The fate of the life of the certain Italian that had tried to hurt what was his had already been decided as well.

"Dude for a moment there, I was almost about to kill you." Varo chuckled quietly fully releasing the man who desperately gasped for air.

"Where do I find this... Davis? " Tobias couldn't help but think that the name sounded familiar. It was almost like he had met the person before.

"He would be in the court on Monday," Paulo said, breathing heavily and covering the blood that was now dripping and staining his police uniform.

"You have been really helpful. It's just unfortunate you broke your oath of silence in order to help me." Tobias sighed and began walking away.

"Varo, please help him maintain his omerta. I have a feeling Berlusconi would appreciate that." He called to the grinning man who immediately lunged at the officer.

He ignored the muffled yelling as he walked towards his car, a part of him hoping it hadn't drawn too much attention. Hopefully, the parking lot was fairly empty. Save for the few cars and bikes of oblivious customers.

He slowly made his way to Paulo's cop car that was parked unbelievably close to the Jaguar and decided to do a bit of snooping.

The car was locked but the window was rolled down, limiting his investigation prowess.

He could not find anything out of the ordinary except a gun that laid carelessly in a compartment drawer and a pack of mint chewing gum. He took both then cut the wires to the radio just because he felt like it and walked back to his own vehicle.

He studied the gun for a while as he waited for Varo who was taking a long while.

He seemed to enjoy wasting Tobias's time that day.

The gun was a Beretta M9, semi automatic. Shared a close similarity with another one that he just couldn't remember. Luca would know more about it.

"Oh my—" He was interrupted by Varo who whistled from the driver's seat as he craned his neck to gawk at the gun.

His hair was wet as it stuck to his forehead, his blazer was hanging from his shoulder and his shirt was off by a few buttons.

Maybe the chubby little officer did put up a fight after all.

"Found it in his car. Here." He trusted Varo to take care of the gun. He didn't want to deal with Enny's questions yet.

"Thanks, boss." His eyes shone in appreciation as he toyed with the gun and kept it in the blazer.

Tobias knew Varo preferred a Glock. It was more efficient. Weight-wise and all but he would need to make do with this until he had a few to select from.

"He's not dead, is he?" He asked and the man giggled and started the vehicle. "Alvaro..."

"He's not dead, jefe. Just writhing in pain and wallowing in the filth with a mouth full of blood." He answered almost poetically and Tobias wondered if he had been peeking into his literature notes.

"So you just cut off his tongue then?" He asked the lawyer who nodded, still keeping his eyes on the road as he answered. How original.

"I did. The idiot almost sprayed me with blood. Couldn't help stabbing him in the cheek. He was so damn annoying." Tobias nodded but hoped he made it out of that place and didn't end up dead. He wanted the Berlusconi man to know what was coming for him.

"What's on your mind boss? Why didn't you want me to just silence him?" He asked driving up the driveway slowly.

"The same reason I'm having this conversation in an allegedly wired car." He slightly raised his voice as he said 'wired'.

Berlusconi had one dumb man and Tobias was sure more than one injured person was needed to pass his message across.

"Are you saying–" The excitement lacing Alvaro's voice was evident.

"Yes, loco. The family is getting back together." The excited man couldn't help but pump his hand into the air and yell in relief.

"Fuck, yes!"

But Tobias was less happy. He was livid that someone would try to hurt what was his.

~~~