Looking up at the night sky, Kazimir and Naydine sit on the back of the young man's car, eating chicken nuggets and french fries.
"That bastard already told me what happened."
"I don't even know what went wrong; it all just happened so quickly. One minute I'm buying medicine for my little brother and the next I'm thrown into the back of a truck." Naydine says, sighing.
The young detective takes a bite of his fry.
"I called Dréy's cousin and told him I found you. I'll take you back to where I'm staying and we can let your parents know that you're safe now."
"What're you even doing here in the first place?" Naydine asks.
"It's a long story, but I'm looking for Khristina. She was kidnapped from school."
"That's so terrible to hear, I'm sorry! I do hope you find her as soon as possible!"
She goes quiet for a bit, before looking back up at Kazimir.
"That wasn't your first time doing that, was it?"
"Doing what?" Kazimir asks.
"Beating the man up, then murdering him."
The young man shrugs.
"Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, I heard from a little birdie that you have a crush on me."
"Huh?"
"Yes, Naydine; Aria told me that you like me."
"Oh." The young woman softly replies, chewing on a piece of a chicken nugget.
"I know this is probably what you didn't want to hear, but I'm not ready for a relationship right now; it's best if we remain friends. I don't wanna ruin our friendship."
Naydine nods.
"I expected those words from you, but you're right; we do have a great friendship."
Kazimir smiles, bopping a bit of barbeque sauce onto Naydine's nose.
"Just like old times."
The young woman chuckles, before doing the same back to Kazimir.
"Just like old times."
--------
"I'm ready for bedtime, Dré Dré!"
Averting his attention from the T.V. screen, Dréy gives Bianca a warm smile.
"A'ight, I'mma be there in a minute, I gotta make sure this dude over here don't score. You wanna sit by me and watch Uncle Dré Dré finish this game up?"
The small girl happily nods, wedging herself in between Dréy and Jai.
"Can you spin me around Dré Dré? Like you used to a few years ago?" the little girl asks, happily bouncing on the seat.
The young man chuckles, pressing a few buttons on his game controller.
"Shit, Uncle Dré Dré ain't got the stamina like he used to."
Bianca shakes her head.
"But back in November, I heard my sister tell our cousin that your stamina was really good and you're both the same age!"
The room goes silent and Laurenté leans forward.
"Bianca, why don't you let Mr. Laurenté tuck you in for bed?"
"Okay!" the little girl replies. "Can you read me a bedtime story, too?!"
Laurenté nods.
"Of course."
*KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!*
"Lanté, somebody's at the door!" Dréy yells, keeping his eyes on the screen.
Laurenté rolls his eyes, flipping a page in a nursery rhyme book.
"I'm a little busy at the moment!"
Sighing, Dréy gets up from the couch and opens the door.
"Nay-Naydine?"
In one swift motion, Dréy hugs the young woman.
"Awww, is she your girl?" Jai asks.
Naydine shakes her head.
"No, we're not together."
Jai smiles, running a hand through his hair.
"Are you perhaps interested in Hungarian men? Like ones that have 1,047,248 Discord subscribers and will feed you yellow rice with nacho cheese sauce?"
"Why don't we let Naydine sit down first and then she can answer?" Kazimir asks, leading the young woman over to a chair. "Right now, it's around 1 P.M. in Claiza City, so we can call your parents now."
He gives Naydine his phone to call them, and the young woman excuses herself.
"Oooh, I don't think she likes you, Dréy." Jai says, pressing a few buttons on the game controller.
"It's probably 'cause I said if we were to marry, she gotta stay home and take care of the kids."
Jai turns to Dréy.
"Do you regret saying that?"
"No, 'cause it's true; I don't trust daycares. My wife can work from home until the kids are old enough to attend elementary school."
"I always expected Alexei to be the traditional type, but I guess it makes sense 'cause you two are brothers." Jai says, shrugging.
Dréy chuckles.
"Wait 'til you hear his views. A'ight, I'm think I'mma turn in now. Night, y'all."
"Goodnight." Kazimir says.
"Night!" Jai replies.
Walking back into the living room, Naydine hands Kazimir his phone back.
"Thank you for letting me use your phone."
The young man shrugs, putting it back in his pocket.
"It's no problem. I'll let you stay in my room for the night and I'll just sleep on the couch."
"Kazimir, I don't want to kick you out, it's fine." Naydine says, sitting down.
"You can come and stay with me!" Jai says. "We can talk about gaming as we fall asleep; do you like to game?"
The young woman nods.
"Uh, a little."
"Yes!" Jai says, putting a fist in the air. "I'll take you up to where I sleep!"
He walks over and smiles down at her, placing his hand out.
Shrugging, Naydine places her hand in his and Jai leads the way upstairs.
"My goodness, putting children to bed really should be considered a chore." Laurenté says, walking back into the living room.
He turns to Kazimir and chuckles, as the young detective had fallen asleep on his couch.
"I guess it doesn't take much work for young adults, hmm?"
Hearing a knock upon the door, Laurenté opens it and sighs in relief.
"Finally, you all are accounted for."
He watches as his younger cousin carries in a black briefcase, heading to his room to open it.
"How much is that?" Laurenté asks, standing over Alexei.
"It should be $300,000. Motherfucker tried to play me like a fiddle."
"Let me guess, he's no longer with us."
The young law student shrugs.
"If that's what you'd like to believe."
"Don't you think you're getting a little too deep into this self-employed business of yours?" Laurenté asks. "It's alright to have a side job and everything, but you're shipping off firearms almost every other day."
Alexei looks up at the older man.
"You think the law will eventually catch me, don't you?"
"You're getting somewhere." Laurenté replies with a smile.
"Well, I've already fooled them 17 times; pretty sure a couple more won't hurt. Besides, who's to say most of them aren't doing similar things such as I?"
He gives Laurenté a stack of dollar bills.
"That's $50,000 to stay out of my business. Please, buy yourself something nice."
"So, how's the airline company?" Laurenté asks, counting the money.
Alexei smiles, closing the briefcase and taking a piece of paper from his coat pocket.
"Funny you should ask. I recently read over a stack of father's old documents and one of the papers that caught my eye had been printed a year before his and mama's death."
He hands the paper to Laurenté, who reads it.
"So the company was planning to do away with the co-CEO and make Uncle Elliot the head and only CEO?"
"Yes." the young law student replies, crossing his arms. "I wonder if that's another possible reason behind his killing."
Laurenté looks up from the paper and raises a brow.
"Then what was the first?"
"Nothing in particular. I was just pondering on different reasons."
"You should confront them about this." Laurenté says, giving the paper back to Alexei. "Well, I'm turning in for the night. See you tomorrow."
"Goodnight." Alexei replies, looking down at the paper.
-------
Yawning, Kazimir walks into the dining room, taking a seat.
"NOOOOO! THAT'S MY CHAIR!"
Jumping at the ear piercing scream, Kazimir steps back, as Bianca happily sits down.
"My bad, kiddie."
He walks over to Dréy and sits down.
"Damn, I thought Khrissy came back for a second." Dréy says, scrolling through his phone.
"She's sure had an influence on Bianca." Kazimir says, rubbing his eyes.
"And I have Borderlands; do you like playing that?!"
Walking into the dining room, Jai happily pulls out a seat for Naydine.
"Uh, my little brother Kale plays it. I've never did. Is it fun?"
"It's one of the best games in the world!" Jai replies.
"I'll have to check it out then."
"If you make an account, make sure you add my user; it's JaiTheRipper23!"
He looks around the table and raises a brow.
"Where's Lennox?"
"Probably still asleep; you know that boy like to sleep in late." Dréy says.
A faint yawn comes from the living room and Lennox enters the dining area.
"There you are!" Jai says. "Naydine, Lennox; Lennox, Naydine. Lennox's one of my best friends, we met in school this year actually!"
"Hi, nice to meet you." Naydine says with a smile.
Lennox shakes the young woman's hand.
"Nah, my pleasure."
"Alright, everyone. Breakfast is ready."
Placing the food in the middle of the table, Laurenté steps back.
"Ham, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, toast and cinnamon rolls. There's freshly squeezed orange juice in the refrigerator, along with apple juice and milk."
As if it was a race, Jai and Bianca immediately reach for the cinnamon rolls.
"Where's your little brother, Dréy?" Laurenté asks.
"Right here." Alexei says, sitting down next to Jai.
"Good morning, Alexei!" Jai says, a couple of cinnamon roll crumbs falling out of his mouth and onto Alexei's tablet. "Oh, are you having a baby? Who's the mother?"
Alexei shakes his head.
"This isn't for me. It's for my late friend's parents. I found out through his cousin they're 2 months pregnant."
"Aye, congrats to them, but that's gotta be sad as hell." Dréy says. "Amir always wanted a lil' sibling."
"Yes, though I'm sure this is probably what will comfort his parents the most."
"Cousin, that's enough chitchat for now; remember we still have an errand to run." Laurenté says, picking up a piece of toast. "Ms. Naydine, we'll be gone for a bit, so please make yourself at home."
"Oh, uh, thank you." Naydine says, watching as the two cousins walked out of the door.
"Uncle Dré Dré?! Can we play video games together?!" Bianca asks, leaning across the table.
"Uncle Dré Dré is gonna be busy today, but when we get back to Claiza City, we can have a lil' video game playdate."
"Yeah, so we need you to watch Bianca for us, Naydine." Kazimir says, placing his plate in the sink.
She shrugs.
"Okay. Have a good boy's day out or whatever y'all are doing."
The young woman looks on as the four young men walk out of the door and turns to Bianca.
"What do you say we have our own girl's day out?"