Daliah's POV

SHIT I'M LATE FOR WORK AGAIN!!

The front door to the cafe banged open as I rushed in and hurriedly wore my apron. Lisa had taken my place as cashier while I wasn't there and I made my way over to her. A nasty look was thrown my way as she brushed past me.

Before leaving, she flashed a seductive smile at the man who was ordering, holding her thumb and pinky to her ear, mouthing, call me. In return, he shamelessly threw a wink towards her as a smirk crept up his face.

I looked around and spotted Caleb glaring at the customer, who made his way over to a table where a few other guys were sitting. They laughed and clapped his back as he sat down.

My eyes landed on Caleb again but instantly averted as Lisa started sucking his face, yanking him closer by the collar of his shirt and his hands instantly cupped her ass, pulling her towards him.

Thankfully, a customer entered just then and I turned my focus towards him. The first thing that caught my eye was his short, ash grey hair. A friendly smile decorated his face as he stood in front of me "Hey.." his eyes lowered to read my name tag, "Daliah. Can I get one chocolate croissant and one latte with oatmilk?"

I typed in the order; oatmilk huh? Interesting choice. "One chocolate croissant and one oatmilk latte. Sure, anything else?" "Nope, thats all." He replied and I shot him a smile before he spoke again. "Just out of curiosity, may I know when your shift ends?" He inquired and I scanned his face suspiciously.

"Um..it ends in an hour but I have two more after it. Er-why do you ask?" I replied carefully. His eyes flickered with surprise for a moment before he smiled shaking his head. "Like I said, it was just a question out of curiosity."

Weird.

"O....kay." I replied. "Anyway, nice to meet you Daliah." He spoke and turned to leave. "You too..um.." after contemplating for a moment I decided to just ask him, "may I know your name?" He turned around, walking backward as his lips stretched into a grin.

"You can call me Leo..."

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Dante's POV

I heard a knock on my door and opened it, expecting to see Daliah, but instead-

"Leo?!" I exclaimed and he shot me a wink. "Miss me baby?" He spoke and leaned in, puckering up his lips. A disgusted scowl instantly painted my features as I took a large step back, placing my hand on his chest to prevent him from getting closer.

"No." I deadpanned and he rolled his eyes. "Oh come on Danny, don't tell me you don't want a piece of this.." he waved his hand over his body, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

There was silence for two seconds before we both burst out laughing. Well, he laughed. I just grimaced. "Oh I missed your stoic ass." He sighed, wrapping his arms around me and twirling us around. "Yeah yeah, cut the sappy crap it's disturbing." I grumbled, but put one hand on his back nonetheless.

Leo drew back, and his eyes furrowed as they landed on my crutches. "What the fuck are you doing here?" I questioned before he could start fussing over me. "And I thought you'd be happy to see me." He sniffles dramatically. "Let me rephrase. What the fuck are you doing here?"

He grinned triumphantly, "I tracked your location when you called me. Sent someone to spy a little bit and got to know what your saviour woman looks like. Matter of fact, I just met her at the cafe she works at before coming here to meet you thinking you'd welcome me with open arms and become all emotional because of how much you missed me and ki-" "I think we both know you didn't come her to just meet me, Leo." I cut him off. He wiggled his eyebrows again and I glared at him before he scoffed and shoved a file in my face.

"I looked into the ship explosion and waddya know, one of the captains actually survived! So I researched a little about him before tracking him down to get some answers. The fucker shot himself in front of me when I threatened to give him a slow death if he didn't spill all the beans. But before he bit the dust I got some information. And we all know how smart I am sooo drumroll pleeeease...I prepared a list of suspects who could be involved in this whole mess!" He finished and I studied the papers.

"Oh and that's not all," he continued in a sombre voice and I lifted my face, glancing at him. "The accident you were in. Karl and Stefan weren't the only people involved."

My face hardened. "You mean to say..that there could be more traitors?" "There's something big going on behind our backs Dante. Something involving people you'd never suspect. You can't trust anybody." Leo rubbed his face.

After a moment I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry so much Leo. Stuff like this is inevitable in the kind of world we live in. It has happened many times in the past and never has it brought us down before, so it will definitely not crush us now. Sii calmo nella tempesta. Capito?" (Be calm in the storm. Understood?)

"Aye aye Cap'n!" He saluted, making me roll my eyes. "Can you ever be serious?" "You have enough seriousness for both of us Taytay." He raised his hand to pat my cheek but before he could touch my face I twisted his hand behind his back.

"Owowowow, OW. OKAY, OKAY FINE IM GOING, IM GOING!" he yelped and I released his wrist. Leo huffed before he turned his nose up in the air, glared at me and waltzed out.

I shook my head in exasperation before limping over to the chair and plopping down on it. My legs spread in front of me as I made myself comfortable, clutching the file of suspects in my hand.

When will Daliah be back, I'm feeling hungry.

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Daliah's POV

I knocked on Enzo's room after returning from work. A sliver of light illuminated my face before he pulled the door open.

"Dinner is ready, so are you gonna..." I trailed off, fiddling with my fingers. He silently switched off the lights, stepping out and we walked together towards the front door.

I don't know how, but the next second I pitched forward as my whole world jerked downward. Before I could touch the ground, two strong arms firmly enclosed around my waist, twisting me around and halting my fall at the same time.

Clear brown eyes met mine for a split second before they widened and my surroundings plummeted yet again. While trying to save me, Enzo had to let go of his crutches and his legs weren't strong enough to hold both our weights yet, making him drop down as well.

"Oomph-" "Mmph-"

Hot breath fanned the skin on my neck and something soft brushed against my jaw as Enzo's hair tickled my forehead. I gasped, scrambling to get away from under him. He rolled away, lying with his back on the ground. I stretched my hand forward, hesitantly clasping it around his and pulled him up. "I'm sorry." I spoke quietly, handing him his crutches. "Not your fault." He mumbled, as I tried to calm down.

Closing my eyes, I shrugged away my thoughts and we continued making our way towards the kitchen in awkward silence, avoiding eye contact. After quietly serving food, I spoke. "It has been a week so your first check-up is tomorrow. We can leave after I come back from work in the evening...i-if that's okay with you?" "Thats fine." He acknowledged and neither of us said anything for the rest of the dinner.

It had become a routine of sorts to wish each other good night after dinner everyday. To be honest it was pleasant to have a sober, non violent person in the house, even though I couldn't confirm the latter 100%.

But something was lurking in the back of my mind for the past few days, like a prowling shadow, waiting to trap my mind in its terrifying claws.

That something was the fact that I didn't see any sign of Dimitri this whole week.

No calls or messages, demanding for money or information about any street fights. It was too good to be true. It felt like the peace would be shattered all of a sudden, like a pebble breaking the surface of water, making it ripple aggressively.

But all I could do was float on the surface, waiting for the pebble...

Waiting for my serenity to be splintered... _________________________________________

A.N:-

alrighty so i TRIED to make this longer-

almost every other chapter is less than 1k words but this one is about 1400+ IK ITS NOT THAT MUCH but it was time to update and i didnt want to go back to my l a t e chapters lmao

hope you uNdErStAnD :)

im working on writing the next chapter(s) and personally, i think the trying-to-make-them-longer thing will improve my writing sooooo...yea- future chapters should be better

anyway, hope you liked this chapter :) vote if you did (it helps with mah motivation) lemme know what you think in the comments (feelin like a youtuber bYE-)

SEE Y'ALL IN CHAPTER 13!

<333 _akuto _________________________________________