I hadn't heard from Giuseppe in days.

I didn't want to admit that it hurt me, because then that would make my feelings real...but fuck. It left me bruised and battered. Giuseppe was my closest friend the last umpteenth months, and for it to be ruined by Luca walking in on us almost doing something  tasted sour in my mouth. 

But then again, Giuseppe was never 'my' anything. He was simply one of Luca's henchmen that was sent out to befriend me for a job. How much of anything was real?

Did he secretly resent me? Did he hate that his job was to watch over some girl that didn't mean shit to him? Did he try to hook up with me in the bathroom at the club to get back at Luca?

Everything felt so real though, and that's maybe what bothered me most. The fact that I didn't catch it. The fact that I always talked a big game of keeping my walls up, but they fell so quickly when Giuseppe entered my life.

I did everything wrong, and now I had to live with my shitty consequences.

My checking account was still getting money on it, much more than I should've; that along with my now very heavy savings account just made it more obvious Luca was keeping his word, albeit more than what was originally settled on. I didn't feel weird. I was owed this. I was fucking entitled to this after everything he put me through.

...Right?

I huffed and shook any thoughts from my head, putting my hair in a bun and taking a long look at myself. I wasn't shit. My facade was fully gone now and left in it's crumbles was simply bitch ass Chaya Wixtrom.

A knock came from my door, and before I even had a chance to open it Luca was walking in and sitting on my bed. 

Not my bed. The guest room bed. Nothing in here was mine.

"We still haven't been able to make anything of that note," he spoke without looking up from his phone. "Everyone's so quick to say it's gibberish to fuck me up, but I think it's more than that."

I nodded, taking a cigarette from my ashtray and lighting it. "It's not binary. We should be able to make something out of this, but we're obviously not thinking straight. Obviously."

"Obviously."

The room was silent, the only noise coming from Luca's fingertips viciously tapping the keys on his phone. I didn't want to be the first one to speak in fear of something dumb verbalizing from my vocal chords, but every time we were left silent it physically panged my heart.

Would we ever get back to normal?

"This was worth the 3 hour drive, right?" Luca said with a huge smile as we walked the three yard distance from his family's beach house to the beach itself. 

I could barely contain my excitement as I hurriedly shook off my slides to start walking on the sand. "I love LBI. I used to come here all the time when I was little and ride the Pirate Ship at Fantasy Island so much I would throw up."

We made our way to the middle of the beach and picked out the perfect spot, setting down our towels and putting our phones on the corner so they wouldn't lift up in the breeze. I wasted no time putting tanning lotion on my body and falling into the perfect position. Ear buds in my ears, I smiled to my best friend who was sitting up next to me.

"There's too many guys looking at you," he mumbled under his breath as he surveyed the beach underneath dark sunglasses. "Annoying."

I raised an eyebrow. "Any cute?"

His eyes narrowed. "Really?"

I shrugged, shutting my eyes again. "Just asking."

"I'm about to kiss you in front of all them so they leave you alone."

My eyes shot open as I picked myself up and turned to him. "What? No. That's weird. Besides, more girls are checking you out."

The face he was making was unrecognizable; I couldn't make out his emotions. "It's weird to kiss you?"

"Obviously."

"Well, I guess it's weird that we fucked underneath the staircase two days ago, then." 

Before I had a chance to answer, he got up from his towel and made his way towards the ocean. "What a fucking baby."

Luca stood up suddenly, halfway out of my room before saying anything. "Let's go."

"What? Where? I'm not even dressed."

He turned around and looked me over, my attire of capri yoga pants and a baggy hoodie making me suddenly embarrassed. "That's perfect. Let's go."

I quickly grabbed my purse and threw anything I would need in there, taking large steps to match Luca's pace. "Where are we going?"

"The person we were looking for on the Island was seen at the mall."

"Ughhhhhhh."

---

The ride was silent to the Staten Island Mall, the ever growing building surprising me every time I stepped foot in it. "Remember back in like, '04, maybe, when there was nothing here but a Build-A-Bear and Johnny Rockets? My aunts lived on the Island so I came here a lot."

Luca didn't look up from his phone, but from the corner of my eye I saw a smile. "Don't forget those weird cart vendors that had the bamboo plants with Beta fish in them."

"I had one of those...oh! Speaking of. Giuseppe isn't talking to me, can you make sure our fish is doing good?"

I didn't get a reply back, only a look that made me make a mental note not to mention Giuseppe in front of Luca. This annoyed me a little more than I had hoped for.

Samuel parked the Escalade and Luca and I entered the mall from the side, going through the dead Sear's floors and making our way hastily into the main area. I couldn't help but wonder how whoever we were looking for wouldn't notice Luca first - he didn't exactly blend into the fucking crowed. 

It was at that very moment he pulled his black hood up, his sunglasses doing a good job of concealing most of his face. I couldn't help but laugh. "We look like the people I counsel."

He laughed, a sound I hated to love. "We look like the people who shop at Gucci but pay in cash and flex on Snapchat then rob someone later to get more Gucci."

I raised an eyebrow, trying to keep a straight face. "Oddly specific but okay."

We finally made our way to the center of the mall, taking a stand near the railing. I leaned over, keeping a birds eye view on the place while Luca propped his arms up and had his back to me, lazily lounging. "Blonde hair. Older, but she's the type to look fifty but only be forty."

"Anything else?"

He paused for a moment. "Nah."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes. That could be a thousand people - Staten Island was notorious for chain smoking women in their forties. This stake out could take years.

I let my eyes wander to the stores, fascinated at each and every one of them. Zumiez, Mac, Constantine and...XXI? 

I felt like I got hit by a stick. "What if...what if that note was roman numerals?"

Luca didn't bother to turn around as he replied. "We tried that already. We tried just taking the words and putting them into google, running them against who we're after. Nothing shows up."

"It has to be a secret code from the alphabet..." My voice trailed off as my mind ran a mile a minute. 

My head turned to Luca. Although he was focusing intently on looking for whoever we were after, by the way he was chewing his lip I could tell he was thinking the same thing I was.

The alphabet. A code from the alphabet. It wasn't any coding speak, binary, or anything remotely close to mathematics...what fucking was it?

Think. How did I use to pass notes in class?

"The letters - they're switched. Z means A, Y means B!" I shouted as I turned to Luca. 

His smile was wide. "Let's go."

"Back to your house?"

"No. I found the target. Follow me and call Samuel while you're at it - get him to get one of the guys to forward you the picture. This is exactly what we need right now."