Note: It took me longer than expected to post this chapter, since I rewrote it yesterday, and rewrote half of it again today. I have some difficulties getting the right atmosphere here, switching between several multichaptered fics tends to mess everything in my head with the different tones I try to give to each one. That's why I'm trying to finish everything I have in progress so I can concentrate fully on what's next :)
Chapter 16 is the ending, it was supposed to be this one but rewriting lengthened that one.
Oh, and it seems I got a great response to my A/N from chapter 14. I've been flooded with private messages and reviews on my various fics, it was just amazing, I love you all soooo much, and I hope to be able to share my writing with you for years! I'll reply as much as I can individually! My favorite author even posted a MxM oneshot lately, so I'm feeling a lot better concerning FanFiction!
Once they had parked in front of the old building, Matt got Seth to help him get Jim's body out of his trunk, then shot the man. Leaving both bodies on the gravel, he then left quickly, the sound of cars having alerted the men inside. He just had the time to reach the end of the gravel alley that the mafiosos were in his rearview mirror. He was too far for the men to shoot though.
He'd be back anyway, now that he knew of the location, but the two corpses would surely raise some questions and worries among the men. Which was exactly what Matt wanted.
Matt went back to Manchester, still hoping that Mello would be finally there. Finding it empty only fuelled his despair more. He was torn between hope, always expecting to run into Mello somehow, and the fear to be without Mello, to never see him again.
But for now he had to wait for a few hours, to make sure that his first move reached enough men in the Mafia. The questions raised by his actions, who killed the two men, why, who would be next, it had to insinuate among the gang, before he did another move.
Dozing off on the couch, Matt only woke up with the first rays of sun bathing the living room. He started, and gave a glance at the clock. He had fallen asleep for barely one hour, the drive from London to Manchester had been long and ate a bug part of the night.
He began his routine: shower, breakfast, cigarette. Only after that would Matt go on with his plan. He needed this routine, it had become like a spell that was calling Mello, like if doing what he did everyday in the past would bring his boyfriend back, the two of them just like in the past...
Sitting on the couch again, he retrieved the number of the doc from his laptop, and, blurring the line with a firewall, he called.
"Yes?" the voice of the man was weary yet annoyed. Getting a call from a hidden number was never welcome when you're in the Mafia.
"I'm Matt, Mello's friend." the redhead simply said.
"Had I not told you never to call me again?"
"Well, I need your help again, but on a totally different level..."
The doc cut him: "Listen, I don't know what you were thinking when you thought it was safe to call me again but I won't help you so don't call ever again, understood?"
"I'm afraid you're the one that doesn't seem to understand. I wasn't asking for help, I was demanding it. You don't have a say in the matter, unless you want to finish on the gravel just like Seth and Jim." Matt, even if his interlocutor couldn't see it, smirked contentedly at the gasp on the other side of the line.
"You...? Are you crazy?" The doc stayed silent for a few seconds, "What the fuck do you want?"
"See, I've kind of lost track of Mello. I have the lives of all your Mafia friends in the palm of my hand, yours included, you have the means to find him. I think this is clear enough."
"I'm just the doc here, what power do you think I have?" the doc was right, but Matt wouldn't stop at that.
"Well, if that wasn't persuasive enough, maybe should I pay a visit to your wife?"
"You're completely insane..." the doc's voice trembled. Matt had thrown this on pure hazard, he didn't even know if the doc had any relatives.
"Probably, so don't take a chance." Matt replied, chuckling.
Matt gave some more instructions to the doc before ending the conversation. Maybe the doc didn't have much power, but still, he was in the Mafia, and he had a boss that he could contact.
This could work or not, Matt didn't know the outcome of this, but Mello was a kid from Wammy's just like him, and if he had really decided to disappear, he knew as well as Matt how to erase his tracks. Matt was more skilled with hacking, computers and everything related, but even the best hacker cannot find a track that doesn't exist.
And if something had happened to Mello, this could only be a threat from the underground, so the Mafia was his best bet at finding a lead. Maybe.
After some more researches on his laptop, he scribbled something on a piece of paper, slid it in an envelop, and left.
He was back a good ten hours later though, and decided to cook Mello's favourite dish. Just in case the blond would be back for diner...
Matt made a call as he was eating, alone in the living room.
"Got my little note?" he said just as the call was picked up.
"Did you really have to do that?" the doc said angrily.
"Just wanted to make sure that you took me seriously."
"Leave my wife out of that!"
"Don't worry, I just gave her the note for you, I didn't tell her that her dear husband works for the Mafia. Not yet though."
"Bastard!" the doc seethed, but he couldn't do much. That Matt guy was a lot scarier than Mello, for he was totally unpredictable, and didn't seem very sane. At least with Mello it was all black or all white, you kind of knew where you stood, even if the tiniest mistake could cost you your life as well.
"Nothing new I guess?"
"No, give me time."
"I'll finish my diner then." Matt hung up. But his plate was totally unappealing all of a sudden, as he watched the empty space all around him. Sobs began to escape him. Why didn't Mello come back?
Matt called the doc on a regular basis to be informed of the progression of things. But at some point, the boss of the Mafia required to talk to him.
"You little shit" the boss began immediately after he got the doc's phone against his ear, "Do you think you can use my men and boss them around, and even kill them, and get away with it? Who do you think you are?"
"Well, obviously, you don't know who I am, so I'm very likely to get away with that, Mr Dwight Gordon."
The line went dead. Matt smirked. He was pretty sure that after this little tantrum, the boss would probably have called back to negotiate. Matt had the upper hand, and a protected line, so his phone stayed silent. He'd call himself, but later. He had nothing to negotiate anyway, if anything, he'd give the rhythm of the dance.
He waited one more day. First, he wanted to give them more time, and second, he didn't want to look in a hurry.
It was the boss himself who picked up the call.
Clever, Matt offered to use emails as a contact mean. Dwight Gordon, known as Rod Ross in the Mafia, didn't oppose. He quickly had a mail sent to Matt's firewalled mailbox, not knowing he had given the redhead an open door to his data.
Matt was confident, using the Mafia and leading them up the garden path was easy. Ross had even thought he was acting on Mello's behalf to trick them, but apparently the doc had managed to convince him to cooperate, and the man was willing to provide Matt with any information he would find, setting his men on the case.
Matt only had to keep an eye on their data, to know if they made any progress. He couldn't be threatened by the organisation, and even less by their hacker. The latter had tried to hack into Matt's mailbox but only got a virus in response. "Noob", Matt thought, "I hope Mello wasn't the one to hire you, that would be a shame."
Ross barely emailed Matt, saying that they didn't progress, mostly.
But the data said otherwise. Two days later, Matt knew where Mello was. And that Rod Ross had deluded him. All Ross was interested in was knowing that Mello was alive, when he had thought for a few days that he was dead. The doc was iced the day his boss discovered that he knew, and even had taken care of Mello at some point. Thus the reason why it was Ross talking on the phone. When Matt had thought that the doc had been useful at convincing his boss, he was already rotting somewhere in a refuse dump.
Matt grabbed keys, laptop, batteries, and soon he was driving to Mello's location: another hideout, occupied by a powerful gang of Manchester. Mello had stayed close, at least this was on Matt's side, since the information he'd found in Ross' mail were only a few minutes old, so even if the Mafia boss had his men on the move already, they needed to cover the distance from London. But why Mello had joined a gang was beyond Matt. Why do that again, why act so dangerous?
Matt's attire would not be enough. The redhead needed more guns, more chargers, more of everything. It was quite scary to realise that you could get, legally, everything to make handmade explosives. Getting more fireguns was a bit more complicated, though. Fortunately, time was on Matt's side. He hacked into the security system of an armoury store, deactivated it, and then he just had to go there and shop to his likings.
He wasn't really embarrassed by the choice since he had learnt, just like all the other students, to use any type of weapon, at the orphanage. Mello was the most dedicated to that class, but Matt was good at aiming anyway, games helped a lot. Who said video games were useless?
Going for the automatics and a simple Beretta, just because it was Mello's favourite, he stuffed as much chargers for the Beretta as he could in his various pockets, in the hem of his jeans, everywhere one could be contained.
Automatics needed a cooling time, and he'd be happy to be able to shoot in the meanwhile with the smaller gun.
Making sure he could grab the automatic he had chosen with both hands, the Beretta still in the left one, he took a second one that he would be wearing with a shoulder strap. Being destabilized by the blowback of the item would get him killed, so he needed to have a good grip on it.
He was careful to respect every red light, every stop, on his way to Mello. If he was arrested now for a stupid driving mistake, he was going straight to jail.
It wasn't long until he found the location. What with being so keen on hiding in the woods? Mello, or any Mafia guy he had encountered before, were as far from Robin Hood as could be.
Matt parked at a safe distance. Daybreak wasn't far, the sky was softly changing colours from a deep blue to a lighter gradation of purple, pink and yellow, giving him enough light to progress between the trees he was cutting through, avoiding the alley leading to the building. It looked like an old bunker, partly covered with moss, dead leaves and mud.
There were two men talking and smoking just at the entrance. Screwing the silencer on his Beretta, Matt shot them. Neat and quick, without a sound other than bodies falling on the ground, leaves muffling the landing.
Mello was in there, and if anyone thought they'd take him away from him, they were plain wrong.