Happy Reading.
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Her school clothes having been replaced by the casual clothes she often wore to hang out with the members of Randzion, Mallory pulled as hard and fast as she could towards the building. What made her feel most uneasy was how the Chaopard Diamond that she always kept hidden in a small pocket tucked into the sleeve of some of her collection jackets, continued to emit an unusually bright blue light, causing its luster to shine through the layers of Mallory's thick jacket fabric.
Mallory's eyes were less focused on the road in front of her as she occasionally looked down at her right arm to make sure the blue light did not attract the attention of people on the road, even though she herself was driving at a high speed. Mallory arrived at Randzion's main headquarters nearing late afternoon, the sky blending in with the deep orange of the sun accompanied by the silhouettes of birds flying freely in the air.
The engine of her vehicle reduced its performance when she arrived at the headquarters parking lot, finding two sports bikes parked comfortably like they had been there for hours, which she was sure belonged to Azrien and Mattheo. Mallory got off the bike without removing her helmet to bring it in, and inside the gathering space her eyes found two men struggling with the wooden boxes in front of her. Sure enough, Azrien sat with his back to her as he removed weapons from the boxes, while Mattheo took the weapons Azrien had removed to put together an assembly from the thick open suitcase next to him.
"Where are these weapons from again, Az?"
Mallory's voice drew the two men's attention spontaneously diverted, Azrien could be seen carving a faint smile at Mallory before focusing back on the business at hand. "This is my order that arrived again. The semi-automatic weapons are already a little behind, did you order any more?"
"Oh, I'll call my cousin to order it later." Mallory walked over to the sofa and leaned back, Mattheo took a quick glance at her and noticed a blue light coming out of Mallory's jacket sleeve. "Uh, you guys already know that the Olymphic Dr..."
"It's open to the public, right?" Mattheo immediately interrupted. "I just saw it on the news, that it's generally open to Black Aoudra's current captain, Jonathan. But they didn't confirm anything with us, at least Zane tried to tell us this. There's no way they don't know about the origin of this annual race,"
"I was thinking about this actually, Theo." Mallory said. "But considering how the relationship between Randzion and Black Aoudra is getting strained, especially since the betting races with them are more Randzion wins. I'm sure they did this on purpose." Mattheo gave a small nod to Mallory's words.
"Talking about Zane, did you know Black Aoudra will be changing leaders again? Zane's position as replacement leader will be handed down to Jonathan," Mattheo asked without looking away.
Mallory tore her attention away from her phone, opening her mouth in disbelief followed by a slow shake of her head. "How come? They have internal problems? So who will be the leader?" she asked persistently.
Azrien glanced out of the corner of his eye to answer. "I don't know much about the name, I just heard that the new leader is a man with mixed American and Chinese blood. Sounds familiar, huh?"
"I'm kind of familiar with someone with mixed Asian American blood like this." she said before leaning back against the sofa. "But is it true that Dalton is back from Mexico?"
Mattheo stopped assembling the weapon and turned to Mallory with a slow movement of his face, making Mallory unconsciously hold her breath feeling how Mattheo's sardonic gaze was directed at her. "Where did you get this information? This afternoon I just tracked Dalton's whereabouts, he's still in Mexico, more precisely around the Chiapas area." Mattheo's tone changed to sound more serious but seemed to doubt what Mallory was asking.
Mallory tilted her head slightly in response to Mattheo's sharp gaze. "Last night when I asked you to pick me up at the Santa Monica Pier, it was actually because I saw Dalton." Mallory said, her voice lowered. "So now I'm asking if he's back from Mexico or what?" Afterward she took a breath though her face didn't show she was about to relent, she was so sure what she saw that night couldn't have been someone's fault. She knew all too well the persona of Dalton Ventura.
Azrien raised his hand to stretch between Mattheo and Mallory's unbroken gaze, separating the tension between the two most stubborn members of Randzion. "So what you're saying is, Dalton was in two different places in fairly close proximity? The flight from Chiapas to Los Angeles only takes a few hours, he could be traveling back and forth," Azrien said, trying to mediate.
Mattheo lowered his gaze and went back to his assembly, Mallory raised one corner of her lips in a small victory. "It's actually possible that Dalton did travel back and forth from Chiapas to here, but in such a small amount of time...," she trailed off. "It seems impossible," Mallory's voice turned into a whisper, as if she herself was suddenly questioning the probability of her estimate being wrong.
The weapons that had been given additional assemblies by Mattheo, Azrien took one by one and put them back into the wooden box. Afterwards, he stood up and put the box on his wrist to carry it to the other weapons. "Better tomorrow night, we try to ask this with other members, such as Aesira or Odessa or even William to find out the truth whether Dalton has really returned from Mexico, or is still in Chiapas."
Mallory and Mattheo didn't glance at each other after Azrien's words, but both nodded. Mallory's chin lifted as her mind realized something. "Oh yeah, speaking of William. Anthony's death is on the news again," her words made Mattheo pull one of her shoulders. "There's new cctv footage not far from the Olymphic Dr. track, showing two men being seen tinkering with Anthony's bike. So Marzio went to William's house this morning to find out more, maybe you guys want to join in?"
Mattheo released Mallory's shoulders from his grip, stood up and slid off the couch looking for his motorcycle keys and jacket amongst a pile of cushions. And after finding them he opened his mouth to shout. "WOI, AZRIEN HATHAWAY! WHEN YOU'RE DONE, MEET ME AT WILLIAM'S HOUSE!" The scream of one Mattheo Sullivan sounded shrill and heavy at the same time, booming throughout the empty base until it was heard outside.
"YEAH, TELL DAREEN TO FOLLOW ME TOO!" Azrien yelled back from inside, but afterward he laughed softly and Mallory laughed along with him.
Mallory decided to go home feeling that there was nothing else she could do especially when the base didn't have many people coming every afternoon. Mattheo had raised his hand to wave to Mallory, indicating that he would go first. Mallory's motorcycle drove back to leave the headquarters which he felt increasingly losing the warmth of being together in it, his chest suddenly felt heavier like a rock holding his breath, but he knew that the heaviness of his chest was due to the sense of losing someone who was back up.
The black and blue sports bike had just entered his residential block when he saw a black car stopped in front of his fence. The car looked very unfamiliar, Mallory's facial expression turned curious mixed with surprise because the car seemed to have entered the area around her house for the first time. He decided not to go home immediately let alone approach the car, but he chose to pull his motorbike not too far from the house, giving a distance of about six neighboring houses with the car so that he could still keep an eye on watching every movement of the person inside.
"A visiting car is fine, but not Papa." said Mallory, raising one eyebrow. "Uh, Marzio's back yet, huh? Mallory's mouth opened with widened eyelids, she had just remembered that Marzio was probably still at William's house, and she could be sure that people who would visit her house would not be welcomed.
Not waiting too long, the person in the car moved to get out. The left door opened slowly first, lingering for a few seconds before someone finally got out. Mallory's mind immediately felt like it couldn't process what she was seeing clearly seeing who had just gotten out,
"Lorenzo...? What does this kid want to do now?" She grumbled softly without letting go of her attention. "But how come... there's someone else coming down too?"
A few seconds after he got out of the car, the man walked towards the other side of the door opening it on the passenger seat. Slowly the man's legs extended out before his figure was visible, as he got out and immediately stood with his well-built body wearing sunglasses, his back wide as if he dominated the space around him with his casual but very masculine appearance. Mallory dropped her jaw wide open as she finally remembered who Lorenzo was currently with.
"That's the CEO of GH'Y Industry...?" Mallory's breathing was heavy. "He's one of the biggest fundraisers of Dr. Olymphic Race, but how can he be in the same car with Lorenzo?" Mallory felt his heart pumping furiously in his chest, trying to piece together the possibilities of what would allow Lorenzo to be with the man behind the success of the annual race that had been going on for the past few years.
Mallory refocused on watching from a distance as Lorenzo and the CEO walked side by side together, entering her yard with Lorenzo carrying a rather large box in his hand. At first he intended to go over to check on the duo's intentions, but when Mallory's eyes caught the blue glint of light from the diamond in his jacket sleeve pocket he decided against it, remembering that Chaopard was in his hands at the moment.
Not too long into the wait, Lorenzo and the CEO reappeared walking back towards their car, but the box they were carrying was gone, which Mallory deduced meant it was probably something either for her or Marzio. The car was seen making a U-turn to exit the housing block which was exactly in the direction of where Mallory was now, the girl jumped in surprise and went straight into the lush ornamental plants around her ignoring her motorcycle parked at the edge of the sidewalk. Inside the car Mallory could see the shadowy silhouette of Lorenzo and the man seemed to be talking intimately.
It was only after the car had driven off the road around her house that Mallory came out of her hiding place and rushed after her motorcycle towards home. Coming home to see what was in the box Lorenzo was carrying, her mind went to the worst thing worrying that it might be a dangerous item.
"I feel that you're planning something wrong." Mallory, without taking off her helmet first, went straight to unpacking the contents of the box, using her motorcycle key to tear off the clear adhesive in several parts until she could open all sides of the box.
Again and again Mallory felt so much pressure inside her head that it seemed to stop her heartbeat for a second. She couldn't believe what she saw in the box Lorenzo had brought her, it was so far from what she had expected thinking that it might be a tool or something. But no, the contents of the box were two bouquets. One was a bouquet of white roses, the sweet fragrance of which came out mixed with the scent of $100 bills in the other. Mallory felt like laughing at herself for thinking such nonsense, as her hand reached for a brown box tied with a pink ribbon and a letter tucked on top.
"Damn, the contents are really far from what I expected myself to be too worried about." Mallory raised her hand to brush her hair back. "But, what exactly did this kid give me all this for? What's the point?" For a moment the girl contemplated the contents of the box while biting her lower lip lightly.
Mallory's gaze shifting this time to something else in the box in front of her, she bent down further to reach the letter on top of the brown box, then opened it slowly while her eyes occasionally looked around.
Mallory Halloran.
I actually wanted to talk to you about something important, but why did you block my private number? But it's okay, I want to meet you and Marzio next Saturday night. I'll come to the house to pick you up. This time I beg you to listen, it's all really very important to talk about.
With love, Lorenzo Jefferson.
Mallory's breath lingered in the air for a second, ignoring the afternoon breeze brushing the exposed surface of her neck. She slammed the letter back into the box and closed it again, carrying it into the house with her footsteps like she was being rushed. Mallory threw the box on the table and fled to fling herself on the pile of sofa cushions. Her head throbbed as if playing waves inside her own head, and she massaged it with her fingertips lightly.
"It's too obvious, I'm pretty sure the changes he's made since the last few months... let alone this!" Mallory snapped the room around her staring at the box before her wide-eyed. "It's very clear he's trying to get close to me, but he has other intentions," Mallory's head was confused by all the events that happened in just two days, everything seemed to pass too quickly making her feel that her brain was slow to process everything.
"Why did Lorenzo's attitude change so drastically like this...?" The girl with shoulder-length black hair stood up, taking a small walk around the surrounding sofa. "I admire the figure of Lorenzo Jefferson who is known as the prince of the school, as people say. Including as a respected student in the school because his father is an important person in the school, and also... he seems to be someone with a calm and I guess, authoritative demeanor."
Mallory's neck craned to a stop just below the unlit chandelier, scrutinizing every detail of the beautiful hanging crystals brilliantly flickering lightly even as her own thoughts wandered in another arena. "That incident back home together yesterday... I suddenly felt that his calm demeanor and appearance, which I thought was authoritative, suddenly disappeared." She lowered her gaze, staring at the beige wall in front of her. "Lorenzo's original demeanor, too, was the exact opposite of what I expected. Okay, maybe he's trying to be friendly, but... really friendly or something else, Lorenzo Jefferson?"
Those brown eyes slowly closed not wanting to look around more, as her own head was already noisy in there filled with various small memories of events involving Lorenzo's existence. Her footsteps moved backwards slowly feeling each foothold on her feet for balance, until finally her body could feel the sofa supporting the small of her back. As her eyes reopened, Mallory felt a slight burning sensation from the dryness, blinking her eyelids repeatedly until the burning sensation disappeared and unconsciously making her slowly approached by drowsiness.
"I'm really sleepy all of a sudden... Where did Marzio actually go? It's been so long since I've been home," She glanced at the clock on the wall near the stairs, already showing that the night was getting later and later. "If I sleep upstairs, I won't hear Marzio calling..."
Mallory finally decided to temporarily lay down on the long sofa, giving her eyes a rest for a few minutes before Marzio returned to open the door. She deliberately did not turn on all the surrounding lights to keep the atmosphere minimal accompanied by the cold that slowly creeps in to fill the air.
The burden on her body lessened as her breathing became more regular implying that she was allowing her body to release all the fatigue in her life, even if it was for a short period of time. The dropping temperature outside changed the scenery as the sky had just been visited by a horde of clouds ready to drop the water they contained. The rain fell in thick pressure until the sound dominated everywhere, the rushing water became the perfect background for Mallory until unconsciously in her sleep she carved a small smile for this comfortable soothing atmosphere.
There was only the sound of raindrops.
The girl had slept curled up looking for warmth around her even though her sleep was now very deep starting to enter her subconscious. The blue light on the arm was the single most dominant source of small illumination in the room. But before she could fully enter dreamland, a loud noise like an object falling outside woke her up. Mallory suddenly opened her eyes feeling her consciousness return fully, her heart beating so fast that she felt like it could beat out of her chest. Her head throbbed slightly from the shock of waking up.
Although it was still raining heavily outside, the sound of the falling object was loud and clear. Just as Mallory was about to get up from her lying position, the lights in her house suddenly went out, leaving only a blue glow nearby. Her body automatically went into survival mode by leaning her back against the wall, and she slowly rose to her feet in front of the back of the sofa to see the pitch-black surroundings. Her instincts were always sensitive to her surroundings, and with the light of the Chaopard Diamond flickering rapidly behind the pocket on her sleeve, Mallory was sure it signaled that something was lurking. She immediately pulled out the gun that was always tucked into one of the couches, then turned on her cell phone flashlight.
Her gaze roamed the entire living room observing carefully although in her heart a little scared because there was a feeling of childhood trauma associated with the dark, Mallory hoped that Marzio would come home soon, because not only did she feel threatened but the light signal from the diamond in her pocket added to the feeling of tension. After a few minutes of waiting in silence, the house lights didn't come on but the rain was still pouring down. And her eyes misfocused on something in the window right in front of her.
The distance between the living room sofa and the window was quite far because it was near Marzio's work area, but something coming from outside really made him wonder, as someone wearing a black hat stood staring at him from outside in the rain. His eyes stared intently at the shadow of the person outside the window with a strange flutter. As the lightning shone outside followed by a rumbling sound the figure he saw outside suddenly disappeared and at the same time the lights in his house instantly turned on.
Not having time to sigh calmly, her feelings were slightly jolted again when looking towards the window, the figure of a person wearing a black hat reappeared outside. Mallory stared at the figure for a long time until her trembling hands dropped her cell phone unceremoniously, switching to holding the gun with both hands, cold sweat broke out slowly all over her forehead even though her feelings told her to retreat to guard Chaopard, but her instincts instead convinced her to advance slowly towards the window.
Just as her feet hit the floor, a flash of lightning distracted her from the window and instead looked the other way, when her head turned towards the window again the figure was gone as if it was never there. Mallory swallowed saliva in distress feeling tense and stiff all over her body.
"I hope I'm hallucinating right now... because sleep doesn't lead to dreams," she said to herself.
Even though it was still raining heavily outside, occasionally followed by the rumbling sound of lightning and there were other strange things around, the temperature of the room changed suddenly and it felt warm even though she had only been in the living room, not going anywhere, let alone turning on the heating. Little by little her instincts calmed down as she realized the flickering light from Chaopard had weakened, indicating there might be no more threat. Mallory lowered her body to lean against the sofa, but suddenly there was a very cold gust of wind from nowhere that pierced around her neck. Her right hand gently rubbed the nape of her neck as she closed her eyes to relax, though her stronger left hand remained in an alert position. After the wind disappeared, his sense of hearing faintly heard a whisper.
"The Chaopard Diamond is a threat, you need to get off that thing immediately if you want to survive a Dalton Ventura,"
The voice sounded small as if from a distance but what was said was very clear to her ears, Mallory frowned unsure of what she heard earlier and immediately took her cellphone running to the stairs to her room on the second floor. Arriving at the room Mallory got a message that had just entered from Marzio, his brother said he would stay at William's house tonight because the rain was still too heavy if forced to go home and also the night was late, Marzio also told him to sleep in his room because it was safer there even though he was alone at home.
"I don't know what that was...," Mallory paused for a few seconds before taking a deep breath to calm herself again.
See you in the next part!
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