CALAMITY (h.s)

TWELVE.

TWELVE. || WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE.

Emaline woke up groggily, unsurprisingly exhausted. She popped her joints with a sigh of relief. Being tied to the bench last night has her body aching.

It was still dark outside, causing Emaline to feel discombobulated. She couldn't remember where she was or what day it was.

When her memory eventually caught up to her, she wandered towards the bathroom to freshen herself up before she would attempt to get some breakfast.

When Emaline tried to open the door, it was blocked by two tall men.

"Ms. Thatcher, are you ready for breakfast?"

She just nodded, stepping forward, allowing them to escort her to the kitchen.

Emaline was surprised to see almost the whole group sitting at Harry's main dinner table.

Zayn pulled out a chair for Emaline, placing a plate of scrambled eggs before her.

"Thank you," Emaline sat and dug in.

Harry stood at the sink icing his fists. He hadn't slept after splitting his knuckles wide open.

As Harry assigned the group different tasks for the day, the group slowly dispersed to begin their day of work. This left Emaline, Zayn, Harry and Liam.

Liam was nervous for the moment that he would have to inform Harry of the mess him and Jo found in Emaline's apartment yesterday. Especially now that Liam saw first hand what the stress of this was doing to him. Harry was excellent at throwing a punch, and he was smart — most of the time. It was unlike him to punch without gloves, let alone hurt himself like that.

"Styles, can we speak in private please?" Liam whispers.

Harry takes an aggressive bite from his apple and follows Liam into another room, closing the door behind him.

"What's up?" Harry asks while still chewing.

Liam looks down briefly, taking a deep breath, "Somebody was in Emaline's apartment."

Harry smiles big and gently smacks Liam's arm, "Yeah. Us. Don't remember?"

"No no, someone else," Liam shakes his head.

Harry's eyebrows furrow, "What d'ya mean?'

"All her stuff," Liam reaches for his pocket to get his phone, "It was all in different spots."

Liam unlocks his phone to show Harry a few pictures that he took before leaving Emaline's apartment.

Harry takes a step closer, pinching his fingers to zoom in on the images. Eventually, Harry looks back up to Liam with the slightest hint of fear in his eyes.

"You don't think—" Harry couldn't even complete his sentence.

Liam presses his lips into a tight line, nodding, "I do."

"Fuck!" Harry instinctually threw his bag of ice hard at the wall.

Liam puts a hand on Harry's shoulder, who immediately shakes out of his hold, "We knew this would happen."

"Yes, but I didn't expect it to be this fucking soon! Fuck!!!" Harry rubs his eyes, making any sort of attempt to release tension.

Harry takes a second to collect himself. Yes, they did know this would happen. The wealth that Luca stole was at the center of a mafia family war for two centuries now. The Wright-Styles family, who the wealth originally belonged to; versus the Clifton mafia family.

"That's you and Zayn's task today then. Go back to her apartment, collect any evidence or information that you can," Harry explains, taking another bite of his apple.