Hi everyone..

Sorry for the delay...

Alexia's pov:

I look at the time and it has already been 10 mins. I quickly wipe the smile off my face and go into the warehouse. It was an abandoned place with dust and scrap all over. I could see cameras all over the place. Noone would doubt this place to be a gang base other than the fact that there are 2 guards on the front gate.

They verified my identity in their database and then allowed me inside. One of the guards led me to the lift and pressed the underground parking button.

As the lift door opened, it revealed a large open area. There were around 20 guards positioned all over the area. There were different cars here making me assume that these were the gang cars for escape in case things went south. He led me to a room towards the end of the parking area. It was a meeting room with a large table in the middle and 12 chairs around it. The room was pretty basic with nothing much than the furniture. My friends were already seated. Opposite to them were 3 people. I recognized one of them as Alonzo and the other was there 2nd in command. The third one was his 2nd eldest son.

I walked towards my friends and gave them a nod indicating that things went as per plan. I turned towards the other three and introduced myself.

"Hello Mr. Bianci. I am Alexia Rodriguez." I introduce myself by bringing my hand for a handshake.

"Hello Cara, and just Alonzo will be fine. This is my 2nd in command Idris Joseph. And that is my son Mattias Bianci. My eldest son, Gabriel, is away for business so it's just us for now." He says introducing the other two. I shake hands with both of them.

(dear)

Mattias was a handsome guy with brown hair and light blue eyes. And the small boyish grin on his face made him a bit cuter. I maintained eye contact with him for a while and moved forward taking a seat opposite to him.

"Devin has already called me and informed me about everything. We have our people keeping an eye on their warehouse near the port. We'll be notified if they make any move to attack." Alonzo says.

"We are already aware about that but we cannot wait for them to attack. We need more time to figure out about them before we enter into real war." I tell him to give Romeo a nod to take over.

Romeo puts some maps on the table with some markings.

"We have figured that they are getting the weapons from Western Africa. That whole area is under control of Naxalites. We have no intel about their manpower or weapon force. We need someone who can get us any information about them." Romeo says pointing to the area under control of Naxalites.

"I have some connections in western Africa. I'll see if they can find anything about them. " Idris says, looking at the map.

"The southern jungle has a lot of wild animals so I am sure they don't have much control over that area. Noone risks entering from that side. We need to find a way so that we can try to send someone from that side." I say back looking at the area.

"I'll check if there are any underground tunnels or bunkers which can be useful." Bella adds.

"Apart from all this we need to figure out how we will delay the attack." Mattias speaks for the first time in the meeting. I held my eye contact for a second before looking away. I could see his tips of ears turning red due to the intensity of my gaze. I am brought back to the meeting by Silas's voice.

"We have a plan for that but we need confirmation before we do anything." Silas says, looking at me.

"The work will be done by tonight. If it fails, we have to attack their warehouse and take away all the weapons." I tell them.

"But that will make us open all our cards in front of them. At least now we are having the element of surprise. If everything is revealed, they will get alert and we won't have any advantage over them." Mattias says with frowned eyebrows.

"We don't have much choice. It's a do or die situation. If my work is not done tonight we'll have to reveal ourselves. It will be an open war." I say.

We spend the next few hours going through our plan and make a backup plan for it. A lot is at risk and I just hope Blaze does my work.

We conclude our meeting by 5:30. I text Al saying I will be home by 7:30. It was a bit late than dinner time but I couldn't just walk out of the meeting where I was making plans to save their asses. I was about to leave but Mattias stopped me.

"Hey, I didn't get a chance to talk with you. I am Mattias." he nervously says, bringing hand for a handshake.

"I have a good memory so I do remember the introduction a few hours ago." I say shaking his hands. I could feel blush come over his cheeks.

"Ya right. That was dumb of me." He says running his hands through his hairs trying to calm down his nervousness. He looks towards me trying to say something but stops himself. There were a few moments of awkward silence where no one said anything.

"Cool then. So see you later." I tell him, giving him a nod.

"Of Course. Right. You need to leave. I just wanted to say you were amazing in the meeting. I mean the boss trusts you so you would be amazing. It was really great to meet you. So see you soon. Have a good dinner. And a great night. And sleep well. And I should probably shut up. " He rambles with an embarrassed smile.

By boss he meant Devin. Devin has introduced us as his high level members so that everyone cooperates with us. He didn't want to reveal our identity and put us on target.

Mattias waves his hand for a goodbye and quickly walks away embarrassed.I chuckle seeing him walk away before going towards my friends.

I leave from there with my friends. Bella was sitting besides me with boys behind us. I quickly start my car and drive towards the Deluca mansion.

"So that Mattias guy? " Silas asks, poking his head from between the seats, wiggling his eyebrows.

"What about him? " I ask him back, nonchalant.

"Don't give me that look. You were practically eye fucking him whole meeting. So spill the tea." He says jumping on his seat.

"There is nothing to say." I say ignoring his questioning.

"Oh come on Lexi. He came to meet you after the meeting. Did he ask you on a date?" Bella asks with the same excitement turning towards me.

"I don't like him." Roman says with a scowl. His twin didn't say anything other than giving him a nod of agreement with the same scowl on his face.

"You don't like anyone so shh." Silas says waving Roman away. He would have practically died with the death glare Roman gave him but he was too excited for the gossip to notice it.

"He is cute and all but that's it. There is nothing more to it." I answer them.

"So the whole staring for 2 hours was for nothing?" Bella asks, giving me a ridiculous look.

"Don't try to read much. He is attractive, I won't deny that but that's all." I said.

"He is ok. Did you see his left brow was a bit longer that right?" Romeo says with a scowl.

"Were you seriously staring at his eyebrows in the meeting?" Silas asks, giving him a stink eye.

" He doesn't even look that good. And he kept asking dumb questions in the meeting." Romeo mumbles.

"Aww Romeo. Are you sure that is the reason for your dislike?" Bella says teasingly.

Romeo was quick to glare at her. It kept on staring at each other till they came to an agreement to not speak about it. I looked at both of them but they were acting as if nothing happened. The rest of the drive went by listening to music and light conversation.

As soon as I reach there I get out and Roman gets in the driving seat.

"See you tomorrow." I tell him, giving him a hug. He nods at me. I quickly bid my friends a goodbye and entered the mansion.

I am already tired from the first day of school and this meeting. I hope there is no more issue waiting for me in the mansion.

As soon as I entered the house I could just think of one word.

Chaos. Utter chaos.

A bag pack was lying around in the room. A suitcase was open with clothes all around as if someone tried to unpack in a hurry.

Rosie was crying sitting on the couch in the left of the room. Matteo was consoling her. Rosie had a small scratch on her head and some dried blood on her pants. Matteo had a large gash on his hand which was still bleeding. Both had some other minor scratches as well.

I turned towards the other side of the living room where Xander was having a bag in his hand and Xavier was trying to take that away from him. Xanders hair was all disheavened and he was yelling in anger. This was surprising considering no one was treating injuries of Matteo and Rosie. They both are literally babies of the house so this has to be serious.

For a second I thought they might have been attacked but looking at the circus around, I eliminated that possibility.

Elijah was running around scolding everyone who was cursing. Al was on call with someone shouting about hurrying up. Fran was trying to calm down everyone. Luca just sat on the couch looking at everyone with bored eyes.

"Xavier you better give me my fucking bag or I am going gut you with a knife." Xander shouts.

"Xander language and calm down. I have it under control." Elijah says, trying to calm him.

"I don't give a damn. You better give me my bag or I am leaving without it." Xander says frustrated.

"Like hell you are leaving. Luca you sadist bitch. Stop enjoying our miseries and block the damn door." Xavier shouts at him. Luca rolls his eyes ignoring them.

"Xavier Deluca. Mind your words in front of your sister. And for god's sake Rosie stop crying." Elijah says, throwing up his hands.

"Xander shouted at me. It scared me. So just let me cry in peace." Rosie shouts while continuing to cry.

"I will shout as much as I want. You should have fucking listened to me for once instead of whinning and getting things your way. You got us into this trouble. God knows what will happen now. '' Xander

"Xander, stop cursing at your sister." Elijah gasps in horror.

"Well when she finds out it won't be just cursing that I'll receive. So shut up and let me curse my heart before I probably land up in a hospital." Xander shouts.

"Xander we can apologise. It will be okay. Relax." Matteo says nervously trying to calm him down.

"Go shove that apology in your ass. If I wasn't busy trying to leave from here I would have hanged you on a tree. You are the one responsible for all this." Xander says threatening him.

"Can you all shut the fuck up. I am trying to fix up your mess. Just shut up and let me handle things. Okay." Alessandro says, raising his voice. The whole room gets quiet hearing his voice.

"Maybe we all should calm down and think." Fran suggests.

"Or maybe I should just jump off a cliff or something so that she never finds me." Xander says seriously.

"Someone call up the hospital. He is turning suicidal." Matteo shouts.

"Bitch you better keep your mouth shut. I feel like killing you and then bringing you back to life just to kill you again." Xander shouts at him.

In no time the argument resumes and Rosie is back to her crying. Luca finally notices me standing near the door and gives me a nervous wave with a sorry look. I look at him puzzled. The argument and shouting is not helping my headache.

"The hell is going on here. " I ask, raising my voice a bit to gain their attention.

-----------------

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Do vote and comment. Appreciation and criticism both are welcomed.

Question of the chapter: O

ne thing that you would have asked your parents if they didn't have the option of saying no to you.

What do think the whole chaos is about?

Word count: 2100+ words

Date:17 January 2023

Thankyou -Dolly