"Lovi, do you believe what Nonno told us? Can Antonio really not be trusted?"
"I don't know, Feli. And keep it quiet, will you? He might hear you from the floor!"
Feliciano turned back to scrubbing the last of the dishes in the pizzeria's kitchen. Lovino and Feliciano had been charged with closing up shop, along with Antonio as the waiter on the floor. Their grandfather had requested that Antonio stay at the base overnight for his own safety, instead of heading back to his apartment after the closing shift.
However, Romulus added on a bit more information when explaining it to the twins: Antonio might be a traitor, and they needed to keep an eye on him at all times.
"Leave the sink full when you're done," Lovino instructed as he came to Feliciano's side, dropped a couple more kitchen utensils on the counter beside the sink, and grabbed a wet cloth, "I'll need to clean the knife after slicing up the pizza."
"Why did Nonno go out?" Feliciano asked, "If it's not safe for Antonio to go back to his apartment, then how is it safe for Nonno to be out on the town?"
"Nonno and Miguel shouldn't be long, they just went to check in with some informants," Lovino assured as he wiped down the nearby counter, "He wants to find out what he can about the Kohler base getting busted by the police, and make sure we're not next on the list."
Feliciano rinsed the last dish in the sink, before drying his hands and coming to his brother's side.
"Antonio couldn't be involved in that, do you think?" Feliciano whispered, "He's been here since early this afternoon, how could he turn in the Kohler gang while serving tables?"
"As I said, I haven't a clue," Lovino hissed back, "For all we know, Toni could be colluding with whoever turned in Kohler, and they plan to do the same to us."
"Dio mio," Feliciano muttered.
"The tables and bar are all done," Antonio reported as he strolled through the kitchen doors, "Everything done in here?"
"Yes, I think we're done," Feliciano stuttered, taking a quick glance around to make sure of it, hiding the fact that he and Lovi were just whispering about the Spaniard.
"The pizza should be ready any second," Lovino advised, "Since you're stuck here with us, we were thinking of having a movie night."
"That sounds like fun!" Antonio cheered, "How about I pour us some drinks, and get the movie set up in the den upstairs?"
"I'll come with you, Antonio," Feliciano offered, "We can grab a bottle of red wine on the way."
"You guys go ahead," Lovino encouraged, just as the oven buzzed, "I'll slice this pizza and bring it up."
Feliciano followed Antonio to the stairs, and they stopped at the wine rack at the bottom.
"What's on the pizza, Feli?" Antonio quizzed, looking at the bottles, "We want the wine to match it nicely."
"Lovi made it, so it probably has lots of tomatoes, meat and oregano," Feliciano guessed, reaching for a bottle he recognized, "Whatever he did, there's nothing like Chianti from Tuscany to go with pizza!"
"Italian red wine with Italian pizza, how perfect a match!" Antonio observed as he slipped the bottle of wine from Feliciano's hands and led him up the stairs. They each greeted Gupta on their way past the computers, before arriving at the den and flicking on the lights. Feliciano strolled right past Antonio, over to the wall filled with DVDs.
"What should we watch, Toni?" he queried, turning back to see that Antonio had gone to the bar.
"Why don't you pick the movie, Feli?" Antonio replied as he brought out three wine glasses, "I'll just pour the wine here."
Feliciano turned back to the DVDs, and noticed a familiar case.
"How about Kill Bill?" Feliciano proposed, "We can do a marathon with both volumes!"
"Ah, that's the only way to enjoy The Whole Bloody Affair," Antonio accepted, popping the cork on the bottle of wine, "Get the first one going!"
Feliciano pulled the case off the shelf and walked over to the entertainment system, trying to keep his eyes on the bar. As Antonio poured the wine, Feliciano had to look away for a few seconds to put in the disk and hit the right buttons on the players and remotes. While he was turned away, the Italian thought he heard two other small bottles pop open, but glancing at the bar again proved nothing as Antonio finished pouring the wine. The Spaniard grabbed one of the glasses and took a sip just as Lovino entered the room with a pizza in one hand.
"What are we watching?" Lovino asked, grabbing a wine glass from the counter, allowing Antonio to grab the last one for Feliciano.
"Kill Bill, we'll do both volumes," Feliciano relayed, hitting the last button to make the movie start before hopping over to the couch and taking the left side.
While Lovino moved the pizza to the middle of the coffee table, Antonio took the middle seat of the couch, and handed Feli the last glass of wine. The Italian sipped at his wine and allowed the robust taste to fill his mouth, along with something else.
"That's strange, the wine is a bit sweet," Feliciano noted, "I've never noticed that with this brand before."
"I can't spot any sweetness," Antonio replied, as Lovino took a sip from his own glass as he stood up, "Must be your perfectionist tongue."
"Or maybe your tongue has a lot to learn," Lovino snapped back, walking back to the door to hit the lights, "Fratello's right, it's a little sweeter than normal, although not overpowering."
Feliciano shrugged and took another sip when Lovino hit the lights. With the television screen filling the darkness, the Italian grabbed a slice of pizza, and hardly noticed his brother sitting on the couch as the movie got going.
The moment Lovino opened his drowsy eyes, he knew something was wrong.
The first thing he saw was the movie playing on the big screen, showing the scene where Beatrix was on her way to face Bill. As much as Lovi loved these movies, he had never fallen asleep through them before. It's a little hard to doze off when Uma Therman is fighting the Crazy 88's, and yet Lovino hardly remembered reaching the scenes in Okinawa.
The second thing he saw was the coffee table, where half the pizza was still untouched, and two of the three glasses of wine weren't even finished off. Lovino knew for a fact that the pizza should have been devoured by now, and they would've already grabbed a second bottle of wine.
The third thing he saw was the couch, where Feliciano had drooped down to stretch across the couch and sleep, taking up the space where Antonio had been sitting between the twins.
Lovino frowned. Where was that damn Spaniard?
He leaned over and tried to shake his brother awake, but it didn't work. Knowing that something else was always guaranteed to wake up both twins, Lovino smirked as he grabbed the curl in Feliciano's hair and pulled hard.
"Vaffanculo," Feliciano groaned slowly, "Let me sleep in peace."
"Wake up, fratello," Lovino pushed, giving his brother another shake to the shoulders to keep him from falling back asleep, "I think something is going horribly wrong here."
"Okay, I'm up," Feliciano grumbled again as he sat up and looked around in confusion, "Did we sleep through the movie?"
"Not only that, but we hardly touched the food and wine," Lovino confirmed on, standing up and stretching, "That has never happened before."
"Where's Antonio?" Feliciano asked.
"Not here," Lovino answered, walking over to the door, "I think something happened."
Lovino flicked the switch on the wall, and turned to look as the lights came back on, freezing in his place when he saw a couple small purple vials on the bar counter. He walked over, picked one of the two vials up, and read the label that had been left on it. There was a complicated chemical name, but Lovino knew exactly what it was advertised as on the black market.
A sleeping serum.
He looked back at the coffee table, realizing that Antonio was the only one to finish his glass of wine, and the only one to not notice the unusually sweet taste to it.
"Feliciano, who poured the wine?" Lovino interrogated, "Please tell me you at least watched Antonio pour it."
"Antonio did it while I picked the movie," Feliciano answered, "I watched him as closely as I could, but had to turn away a couple times to fiddle with the entertainment system."
Lovino tossed the vial over for his brother to look at, while he checked the label on the second vial to confirm it was the same serum.
"Antonio drugged our wine and put us to sleep," Lovino alleged as he pocketed the second vial and stormed out of the room, "We need to find him immediately."
"Where do we look?" Feliciano grilled, following his brother closely, "Should we tell Nonno?"
"You go upstairs and start searching there, tell Nonno if you don't find Antonio," Lovino instructed, "Gupta is on overnight computer duty, I'll see if he knows anything."
Feliciano bolted over to the staircase while Lovino marched in the other direction down the hallway, quickly arriving in the lounge. Gupta was the only one in the dark room, sitting at the computer.
"Gupta, have you seen Antonio?" Lovino requested as he approached the Egyptian's right side, "I think he tried to drug me and my fratello."
The Italian looked at the computer screens, and didn't see anything of interest in Gupta's browsing. After a few moments, Lovino realized that the police scanners were the only source of noise in the room, and turned to look at Gupta sitting motionless in the chair.
"Gupta, did you hear me?" Lovino checked, "You didn't fall asleep on the job, did you?"
He grabbed the Egyptian's shoulder and shook it, making Gupta's head fall forward limply. Noting a flash of red in his sight, Lovino spun the chair to look at the left side of his head. Gupta's keffiyah had a red bloody spot in the fabric, surrounding what looked like a small hole. Lovino gently reached over, placing a couple fingers from his left hand along the neck while pulling the keffiyah up with his right hand.
As if the bloody bullet wound in the head weren't enough confirmation, the skin at the neck was cold, and there was no pulse.
Lovino backed away from the corpse in shock, bumping a computer dial as he did so. The volume suddenly skyrocketed on the police scanners as a result, and Lovino attempted to cover his ears as he reached over to turn it back down. While decreasing the volume, Lovino heard something that caught his attention on the scanner.
"We have confirmed the location of the Vargas base, available units converge on the location."
Lovino gasped in alarm. Did they find the base?
"This is Lieutenant Adnan, paging all units. The target is the Sapori d'Italia pizzeria at Douglas and 6th. The first units will be arriving at the location in 3 minutes."
"Merda," Lovino swore as he reached over and pulled on the fire alarm. He allowed the loud bells to ring through the building for a few seconds, before turning on the connected PA system and shouting into the microphone.
"Everybody, wake the fuck up and evacuate the building! The police have found our base, they'll be here in 3 minutes!"
Lovino turned off the microphone, and rushed over to the stairs. If the police were that close, there wasn't time to grab anything other than his shoes, a coat, and keys for a vehicle. He slipped on his shoes as he heard yelling above him, before his brother ran down the stairs to join him.
"Antonio isn't there, and the others were all still asleep," Feliciano reported as he grabbed his own shoes, "Should we wait for the others, or do we run for it?"
"We don't have time to wait for anyone," Lovino answered, throwing a coat at his brother, "Even we might not yet be lucky enough to escape!"
Lovino bolted down the stairs, hearing his brother's footsteps follow closely behind. He grabbed a motorcycle helmet and a set of keys before barreling out the door into the alley. Spotting the right bike, he rushed over to it, swung his legs over, and started the engine. Lovino felt his brother mount behind him, and reach around to hang on.
"Andiamo, Lovi," Feliciano pleaded in his ear, "I think I hear sirens!"
Lovino backed the bike out of its spot, before switching gears. They quickly moved forward and turned onto the street, picking up speed as soon as possible. As they turned right onto 6th Street, he nearly lost his focus on the road as a rush of flashing police cars went by in the other direction and turned left towards where the twins came from.
"Dio mio, Lovi," Feliciano whimpered, "Where do we go now?"
"I don't know, fratello," Lovino exhaled, "For now, we can only hide."