ˡᵒᵛᵉʳ'ˢ ᵍᵃᵐᵉ ▷ⁿᵃᵗʰᵃⁿ ᵈʳᵃᵏᵉ ¹ ✔

five

Halle's POV

The wooden plaque outside the church had a gold tree and it read santa maria del pi so Nate was right. It wasn't an actual tree, it was just a church with a tree for a logo.

Dad opened the book, shocked at the resemblance. "This has to be it! You might be a genius!"

"Genius is a stretch." I commented as Nate gave me a look as I played all innocent, like I'm not guilty. I didn't want him to think I'm guilty. I want him to think I'm sweet and innocent.

Well sweet because I lost my innocents (virginity, but for this book it's innocents) when I was seventeen to my ex-boyfriend Leland. That's a story for another day.

"Oh yeah? Look at that." The tree in the book looked amazingly identical to the gold tree on the plaque. "And now you know why I brought him."

"What about Halle?" Chloe asked as I'm guessing that she pointed at me. I looked up at her for a second before looking back down.

"Technically I hitch hiked with Nate, so that's why I'm here." I say as Chloe smiled a little at me. I'm guessing she likes me and not the men.

That's understandable.

"I'll go see when we might have a private look inside." Chloe says as she left to talk to the nuns about the church's schedule. Dad waited until she was out of earshot to say things about her. Definitely different things compared to the things he had said before you met her.

"She's not to be trusted, okay? You only met her for two minutes and she already stole the cross from you. Do not be fooled by anything she tries."

"She likes me, I don't know what you two are talking about." I say as Dad gave me that 'Dad' look, as I shrugged my shoulders.

"Senorita eh coming." I say in a terrible Spanish-Canadian accent which Nate tried not to laugh at.

At least he's finding my jokes funny. I'm not talking about you Dad.

"There's a midnight mass tonight, so tomorrow's the earliest we can poke around." Chloe says.

"You got our gear at the house, right?" Dad asked.

"Yeah." Chloe says.

At the so called house, I was in the lounge trying to text to Papa but he's not answering. I'm not worried about it, because he probably left his phone at the house, like he always does.

I was sitting by the window too busy on my phone to even care what the others were talking about. I was trying to find anything on Sam, mainly for Nate as I know how much that his brother meant to him. I feel bad for Nate as Sam left and never really talked to Nate, outside of sending post cards until he went missing. Which that's understandable. I'm mainly doing this so that Nate can stop talking about the negative things of Sam. It's starting to get annoying.

I look up from my phone when I felt something hit my head as it was a wadded up piece of paper, as it was Dad who threw it as Nate was pouring glasses of a dark red liquid. Probably wine.

"Can I help you?" I say in my irritated tone, as I was busy and Dad interrupted me, as I'm not in the happiest mood to talk to him. Nate probably, but not so much Dad. He hasn't earned my trust yet. Unless you're talking about the 'peanut gallery', then that's about it.

"Want some wine? Or are you done with your share of alcohol?" Dad asked as I looked at Nate, who grinned as he held up the wine bottle with half of it.

"Will it get you to leave me alone? Because if not, no." I say going back to my phone with my feet propped up on the chair.

"I don't know maybe." Dad says as I shake my head as I looked up at Nate and shook my head as he nodded his head.

"I found my cross in a crypt in Genoa, but I didn't know it was a key to a much bigger fortune. Sully knew. Doesn't say what happens after we turn the keys." Chloe says as she read a translation from a sticky note on the book. "Trust in your fellow man for one will go to heaven and the other hell."

I wasn't really paying attention to what they were talking about, as I grabbed the nearest paper and something to at least write with. I wrote what I had on my phone onto that piece of paper and then I shoved it into my pocket when I was done.

"Well, it's ironic, seeing as the only point in having two keys was that the eighteen didn't trust each other." I heard Nate say as I was busy doing my thing.

"Well, good thing they didn't or we wouldn't be here, right? Like one big happy family. Toast?" Dad says as he raised his glass and started reciting spanish words: arriba, abajo, al centro y pa dentro.

They brought the glasses to their lips and took a sip of the dark red liquid. I looked up at Nate as he was downing the whole thing. Like how I was downing Dad's vodka and tequila at the apartment.

"Hey, kid, slow down. That's a vintage rioja, alright? You might just wanna taste it, savor it..."

"Don't listen to him." I commented as I went back to my phone.

"Or chug it down like you're on spring break, all good." Dad says as he was definitely done with Nate.

Honestly I would be too, if he wasn't cute.

not too long later

Six bottles in, Nate still hadn't had enough of drinking, going out of the lounge to find more. Dad was laying down with his arms and legs sprawled all over the couch, but thankfully I haven't left my spot by the window. I realized Nate was taking too long as he went to find some more alcohol, so I stood up.

"Where you going?" Dad asked.

"Why should you know?" I snapped at him as I went looking for Nate. I got scared when I saw a shadow and I flinched as I grabbed my knife and held it up like a gun.

"It's just me." I heard Nate say as I lowered my weapon feeling embarrassed that he caught me in this situation.

"You okay? You up and left." I tell him as I was worried about him.

"Yeah, to get more alcohol." He said as we weren't that far from each other as I caught a waft of his breath as it smelled completely like alcohol.

Great...he's drunk.

"You talk about me, your breath wrecks." I commented as he took a sip of the alcohol.

He tried to get through the door, but ended up stumbling into my arms. His heavy ass weight pinned me against the door, as I felt hot drunk breath fanning the crook of my neck as I almost gagged at the smell of alcohol fused with his breath along mixed with men's cologne on his blue shirt.

"Don't you sleep and puke on me, I haven't done laundry." I tell him as I tried to push him off me.

"You're lucky you're cute, Halle." He says as he quickly came back to his senses but not fully. He went through the door without stumbling and announced he had another bottle to the others, completely forgetting everything that happened.

I couldn't help but feel sad, but I pushed it aside for the time being. I knew he was drunk, so it probably didn't have meaning to it. At least to him, but to me, it felt differently.