Running ✔️ [UNEDITED]

Chapter 18: Bonding

AN: chapter 18. Enjoy people. 8k+ views?! You're kidding me right? 😂

Lila's POV:

The study wasn't big enough to accommodate us all, so we went to the dining room. In an awkward moment, Solomon and Alessandro tried to sit in the same chair at the head of the table. They had a brief standoff as if they were both thinking 'seriously, dude?' Before giving the chair to me (AN: does anyone know which book references this is from? If you do, virtual blue cookies for you ;)!). I chuckled at their antics.

"So what did business did you guys want to discuss?" I asked. We heard the front door slam, and I presumed that Xander left the house. Seriously, what was his problem? I've been trying to be at least civil with him, and he's pushing me away.

"The 'Shadows' have struck again," Solomon said, and I sat forward, suddenly interested. The 'Shadows' had been causing a lot of trouble to gangs and mafias across the globe. Our allies- Russian and Italian (my brothers)- have been reaching out to us, but we are also suffering some losses.

"Where?" I asked.

"They disrupted the shipment we had a couple of days ago," Reece tells me, "they disabled the cameras and took most of the products."

"Any leads?" I asked.

Solomon shook his head.

I bit my lip and thought carefully, "Alessandro, do you have a list of all the places that these 'Shadows' have been hitting?"

Alessandro nodded and passed me a piece of paper.

"Will, could you spread the map out please?"

Will did so.

I took out some pens and carefully marked the places where the Shadows have hit. There were quite a few. When I was done, I joined them up in a different coloured pen; it felt like a large 'connect the dots' game. Finished, I picked it up and held it at a distance, hoping to see some sort of connection. Unfortunately, there were too many pieces missing- it felt like the answer was on the tip of my tongue, but it was just out of reach.

"Can anyone see a link?" I asked, and the others shook their heads.

Reece's phone buzzed, and he checked it. He looked up apologetically and said, "Sorry, guys, I gotta dash. Elise and I adopted a kid a few days ago, and she needs my help with something."

"Wait, you have a kid?!" I was shocked and proud. Elise was Reece's fiancee, and she was involved in an accident a few years ago, which meant she couldn't have children. 

"Yup," Reece's face was shining with happiness, "And Elise wants to meet you soon, by the way."

"Sure," I replied, "I'll come round next week?"

"Deal," Reece grinned.

"We'll be there, too," Will butted in.

Reece scoffed, "you practically live at my place."

Will shrugged, "What can I say? Elise's food is AMAZING!"

"Come on, idiots," Sol grabbed their arms, "let's go. See you soon, Lila."

"Bye!" I called out as they left.

Vito's POV:

I was slightly jealous at how comfortable Solomon, Reece and Will were with Lila. However, I knew that it couldn't really be helped; she'd known them for a lot longer than us.

"So," I cleared my throat, "Let's eat?"

I heard a chorus of agreements, and we went to cook Lunch.

"Erm, so what should we make?" I asked sheepishly.

Lila rolled her eyes, "I'll cook, and you guys sit and wait."

"Deal," Olly moved to sit, but Drake pulled him back.

"Uh-uh," Drake said, "the five of us will be cooking for you."

Lila looked faintly amused, "Alright, then," she sat down and watched us.

"Right, what should we make?" I asked again.

"Um, how about... chicken?" Drake suggested, flicking through the dusty cookbooks.

"Yes, we should feed meat to the vegetarian," Alessandro rolled his eyes, gesturing to Lila.

"You're a vegetarian?" I asked Lila, shocked.

She looked at me weirdly, "I've been living with you for about a month now and you haven't worked that out yet?"

I blushed slightly. To be honest, I hadn't really been paying attention to her diet. Looking at her properly, I noticed that she was a bit on the skinny side.

"How about vegetarian Shepard's pie?" Drake asked.

"Sure," we all agreed.

The next few minutes were chaos.

We could not decide on what vegetables to use and who should do what.

It went further downhill when the tomato sauce exploded everywhere.

We all just started flinging food at each other while Lila laughed hysterically behind us.

Suddenly, my brothers and I looked at each other and grinned evilly. We advanced towards Lila and immediately assaulted her with food. She screamed and threw food back. Then, we tried to tickle her. Tried to.

It seems we'd forgotten that she was trained.

She twisted our arms behind us- even Alessandros- and kicked her. Even though we had out behinds kicked, we were quite proud that our sister managed to take down 5 grown men down.

So there we were, laughing on the floor when Xander walked in, completely and utterly drunk.

End of chapter 18.

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