OH? ISN'T THAT COMMON SENSE? "I learned on the hard way that you must be careful with everything someone else gives you. Be it a drink, food, or anything else. Assassination by poison is more common than you could imagine, Khloe. Being rich and famous as you are, you should be careful about that too. Famous people such as yourself, may have fans, but they have haters as well, and these are the type of people who would do harm to you just for the sake of it!"
Jesus Christ! "You thought we would poison you?"
Chiara grimaced, "Don't feel offended, Khloe. I don't trust a soul other than my own and my famiglia. My Italian famiglia, I mean. And we don't really know each other. That was a first for me as much as it was for you. I had absolutely no reason to trust any of you."
Ouch, that stings. But I guess she's right. "We could start on the building-trust process with a TikTok," she tried again. "What do you think? We both must work a bit to build this bridge, no?"
But she only gained another glare as Chiara closed the mallet with the guns and put back where it was. "Non mi va."
"Please, cousin!" She pouted.
It wasn't of any help, since she gained another cold stare from her cousin. "No means no, Khloe! I'm not in the mood for making a TikTok with you, merda. It's been almost three months since I lost my family, I'm grieving, I do not feel like being in your famous account on social media. I don't feel like doing anything but getting revenge on the figlio di puttana who did this. But I can't do that yet, so I'm not in the fucking mood for anything. Is it hard to understand that?"
Khloe felt instantly bad, "I'm just trying to help you on not thinking about it, Chiara."
Chiara scoffed bitterly, "And you are doing that by asking me millions of questions about those I lost, coglione? Very effective. I'm staying away from you because I don't want to be needlessly rude and a puttana to any of you, just because I'm angry and hurting. But I won't be able to hold my merda to myself if you keep coming for me and asking stuff all the time, stronza. I'm a temperamental person, you should know that, and it's very hard to control myself."
I would be going insane in her place. "Sorry, I don't know how to help you out, but I'm trying. I want to help in something, and I want to be closer to you. Is that anything I could do to help you take your mind of all this for a while?"
Does she genuinely want to help me? "A task. Give me one."
Khloe arched her eyebrows confused, "What kind of task?"
"Is that someone you want to investigate? To know all about? Do you have any enemies in your famous bubble? Someone who is always on your nerves and getting between your affairs? I know you date an actor, so, maybe one of his exes if he has any?"
Oh. She means a task that she'll use her hacking skills on. "I don't know. You mean to stalk?"
"Stalk. Virtual attack. Destroy a database. Get information." Chiara caressed her wild curly hair. "Or anything else, such as taking care of someone for you stealthily. I'm the best at doing that!"
Jesus, is she talking about killing? "I'll think about-" Wait, maybe I could make her learn more about her future in-laws without her knowing. She'll thank me later. Khloe snapped her fingers, "Yes. There's a person. Not just a person, but a family that gets on my nerves a lot. On our nerves. Nina Scarlat's family!"
Chiara leaned closer; her interest picked. She always did those tasks for her parents and siblings, since they knew how good her skills at hacking are. "Scarlat?" She grimaced, "Sound Romanian to me!"
Oh, she's smart. "It is. It's a British-Romanian family that is extremely powerful on the UK. Not just on the UK, but on Europe overall. More powerful than we are."
That's not so hard, since my famiglia is more powerful than hers. But that's interesting. "You know I'm not a fan on Romanians?"
She licked her lips, "I've heard that Italians and Romanians don't go very well with each other. At least the Mafia. And this family in question, the Scarlat, they have roots on the Mafia of Romania, but they aren't from them. It's a family of eleven."
"And they get on the nerves of you, your brother, and parents?" A nod. "Don't you want to… give them a lesson? Maybe take them to a travel with no ticket to come back?" Wouldn't that be the best for them?
Khloe turned even more pale, "You can't!" She gasped.
"And why is that?"
Fuck. "Your father was connected to them," she blurted.
A shadow befalls over Chiara's face again, "What? What do you mean by that? How was papa related to Romanians? He never mentioned any of that. And I certainly didn't see any contact on his phone that was from Romanians."
Did she stalk her family too? Sigh, "Uncle Rufus and the head of the family, Nicolae Scarlat, were best friends since middle school."
What? Did Papa have a childhood best friend? "And he was so important that he never mentioned him. Did mama know about that?" Khloe nodded. "Whatever. Papa is gone, but I'll respect his relationships, and won't harm them physically. Eleven people, you said. That will give me some time to spare. When do you want the information?"
"Can you gather it all in two weeks?"
Chiara chuckled softly, "I can gather them in one, if you want to, Khloe. Your famiglia is my famiglia now. If you have enemies, they will become mine too. That's how mama and papa decided, and I will always respect their wishes, because they would never make a decision that wouldn't be good for me, even if I do not like it or understand it. If someone offend you, they will be offending me. Italians are loyal until their deathbed, Khloe, and their loyalty will never wander. I'm loyal to the Di Matteo and to the Armstrong, you can count on me to protect you with my life, because that's my way of doing things."
She's intense. I love it. "Count on me too, Chiara. Though I doubt I know how to do anything you don't. But I'm still here." And as Chiara got up and began to build a setup with four computer and two tablets, she gasped. "Wow, you must really be a pro."
"Sí," she rolled her shoulders.
"What are your favorite songs ever? A top 10," when Chiara glared at her, she chuckled, not feeling as intimidated as before. "Knowing someone's music taste helps me to know them better."
If she says so. "Middle of the Night by Elley Duhé. Party Monster by The Weeknd. What You Need by Ashley Sienna. Pretty Poison by Nessa Barrett. Dirty Thoughts by Chloe Adams. We Go Down Together by Dove Cameron ft. Khalid. Haunted by Isabel LaRosa. Collide by Justine Skye ft. Tyga. Darkside by Neoni. Unholy by Sam Smith ft. Kim Petras." Chiara sat on the bed and opened her computers and iPads all with seven different passwords. "They aren't the ones I'm currently listening, because those are depressing for obvious reasons, but they suit your question, as you asked for my favorite songs ever!" She said looking up at her, and as she clicked a button, the Spotify playlist with the songs she just said, began to play.
"You have a really good taste in music, cousin."
"I know," Chiara took a sip of her iced coffee on the side-table. "I've been listening to my twins, mama and papa favorite songs these days, but they all heighten the anger inside me."
"What was their favorite songs?"
Doesn't she get tired of this? Sigh, "Clementine's a hardcore Taylor Swift fan, and her favorite song was Mr. Perfectly Fine. Now, Cosimo was more into SZA, and his favorite around the time he… you know… was Big Boy. I also love SZA, but I prefer Kill Bill."
"Was Cosimo into boys?" Chiara nodded. "Any boyfriend?"
"Flavio Mantovani, the second son of a pharmaceutical clan in Sicily. A cool kid, but who had no idea of our Mafia ways, since my brother was in that side of the famiglia, as I told you already."
"Did you have a boyfriend?" To that, Chiara flinched.
"Certo che no. I never had time for that kind of distraction, Khloe. I was too busy with mama and papa's business and studying."
She blinked, "What did you say in Italian?"
"It means of course, not. The boy Taddeo saw me with, was an assignment from mama, who I had to get to know better for reasons I can't talk about. He saw us smiling while having a gelato. We didn't kiss or anything," she exhaled tiredly. "I never dated."
That's interesting. "Back to the songs."
"Papa's favorite song was, coincidentally, the one you came here asking me about, Heartless by Kanye West." She smiled faintly at the memory of her father. "Mama was a Camila Cabello fan; her favorite song was Shameless. Quite the combination, hm? Shameless and heartless," sounds like me.
"You all have a good taste in music, it must be in your blood." She sat on her side in the bed and picked at the screen of Chiara's computers. "Do you want me to send a printer here to your room?"
Oh, that would be useful. "Hm, I would appreciate that."