The Entertainment

The Entertainment Chapter 22 part 2 © 2011 by SheaRyhai

Less than the Truth

The sky was turning a beautiful red and gold as Salina and Jordan reached the gate. Xavier waited for them, talking discreetly on his phone. He hung up a “call you back later” before walking towards them, eying the pink hat and balloon crown with minor interest.

“Where did you have to go?” Salina asked curiously. Ignoring her question Xavier pulled Jordan's phone from his pocket and tossed it to him.

“You're brother called. Needs you home for something,” Xavier explained. Jordan grunted then checked his text messages. With a slightly frustrated sigh he gave them both a mock salute.

“Guess I'll head out first,” Jordan said with a forced grin, passing his blue cotton candy to Xavier, who eyed it like something contagious. Spinning on his heel, Jordan walked back quickly to give Salina a brief hug. “Call me if you need to talk – or anything,” he said hurriedly, before walking briskly to his mustang and starting the engine.

Salina stared after him, befuddled by the unexpected hug. But, accepting it as Jordan's kindness she relaxed as Jordan honked and waved before spinning his tires for a flamboyant exit. When she turned to Xavier, he was eying her with a curious look.

“What?” Salina demanded instantly irritated.

“Should I go ahead and tell him, or are you gonna do that?” Xavier asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don't know what you're talking about, and where did you disappear too?” Salina snapped back, heading towards the waiting SUV.

“It's just – with you wanting to destroy his brother and all, you might want to think about not being to friendly to him. I understand your anger to Dylan perfectly, but hurting Jordan seems a bit excessive,” Xavier rambled on nonchalantly behind her. Salina stopped in her tracks and turned to him with a frustrated growl.

“I have no intentions of hurting Jordan, you're not making sense, and you're avoiding my question,” Salina exclaimed voice rising in anger. Xavier eyes locked with hers for a few moments before he looked away with a chuckle, tossing the blue cotton candy on the ground, before getting into the SUV.

'Still avoiding the question-' Salina tossed her left over candy into the nearest trash can, and took a few deep breaths before joining Xavier in the vehicle. Sitting as far from him as she could, Salina locked her arms, and leaned back into the cushion closing her eyes.

The driver started up the engine, and the muffled sound of tires spinning on rocks soon ended as they turned onto the private road.

“To answer your question,” Xavier spoke as soon as they turned, “I was making a new friend who provided me with some helpful information.”

'Most of which you're probably not going to share with me – as usual.' Salina turned away from him, eyes still closed. Moments later the cushions near her shifted, and Xavier's arm grazed her's as he unclasped a suit case. Peeking through one half shut eye, Salina saw him pull a file out which he then passed to her, carelessly bumping it against her boobs.

Grabbing it quickly, Salina gave him a full on glare before opening the thin file. A rather cold looking man, who might be considered handsome by son, stared up at her from a photo.

“That's Carlos Gambo, your intended fiance,” Xavier explained, anticipating her question. With a shudder Salina turned the page. Another man stared up at her, this one some what familiar.

“That's Mr. Green – an alias I'm afraid, but its all I have to work with,” Xavier commented. Salina stared at the man's face for a good minute before recognition sunk in.

“He-” she swallowed as the gun fire echoed in her mind, followed by the memory of Gavin falling on his knees. “This is the man that shot Gavin,” she explained, struggling to hold back more tears.

“He and Carlos both work for this man,” Xavier reached over to turn the next page. “Nicoli DiNapoli.”

“DiNapoli?” Salina repeated, remembering the changed grave stone in Arizona. “But-,” she broke off uncertain.

“Yes, he's your uncle,” Xavier filled in the blanks for her patiently. “And this, is his wife. Cynthia DiNapoli.” He flipped to the next photo of a beautiful blond woman, who could have easily been a model.

“My Aunt?” Salina asked staring at the woman's unfriendly blue eyes.

“Yes, though – I'd keep my distance. They call her the Ice Viper,” Xavier added in an almost joking tone.

“What does all this mean – and why did this man k- shoot Gavin,” Salina asked, returning to the photo of Mr. Green.

“I'll try to explain as simply as I can,” Xavier cleared his throat. “Two years ago, when your father died, Mr. Green was sent to locate you. He hired Mr. Kennedy to help, since Kennedy had been a friend of your father and mother while they were alive. He also hired Gavin, for reasons already explained, and when they found you, the goal was to get you to agree to a marriage with Carlos.”

“Okay, but why?” Salina pressed turning back to the picture of her uncle, Nicoli DiNapoli. It wasn't hard to see the resemblance between him and her Dad.

“As I suspected, your Dad let you some property and a nice amount of cash. The marriage was their way of keeping the inheritance in the family,” Xavier explained slowly.

“Money? How much?” Salina asked still confused.

“Upwards of 20 billion,” Xavier answered without hesitation. Salina's eyes left the photos to stare at him horrified.

“What?” Slowly her brain ticked through all the information in front of her. “So that's what this was all about – money?”

'Gavin could be dead for all you know – because these people wanted to take back their money?'

“That's a big part of it yes,” Xavier nodded, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “But there is more.”

Holding back angry tears, Salina looked at him, waiting for whatever he was reluctant to share.

“The DiNapoli – is a leading family of the Italian Mafia.”

Salina stared at him, mouth dropping open as the folder fell from her lap spilling onto the floor.

“What?”

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Jordan unlocked his apartment door, inwardly at war, wondering if he'd over done it with that hug. 'Please don't let her think I'm weird because of that.' With a sigh, he flicked on the kitchen light and headed for the fridge, already hearing steps descending the stairs.

“Welcome back,” Dylan appeared through the TV room door, walking past Jordan and ruffling the younger brother's hair. “You're wet,” he commented with a grin.

“Any particular reason I had to be home?” Jordan asked, faint irritated, before grabbing a can of Mt. Dew and closing the fridge.

“I was hungry,” Dylan explained sliding three Chinese restaurant menus across the counter to Jordan. “Figured you'd be hungry to so I thought we'd eat together for a change.”

“Are you serious?” Jordan demanded, opening his soda aggressively. “You called me home early cause what? - you didn't want to eat alone?”

“Come on Sport, you make it sound like I ordered you home. I just didn't want you to go missing all night again,” Dylan protested sheepishly.

“Seriously,” Jordan stormed to TV room. “I'm eighteen! Not like you've been around the past two years – so please don't start smothering me now,” he shot over his shoulder sinking into the sofa and picking up the remote to turn on the TV.

“Hey, I'm sorry if I ruined your evening,” Dylan followed him, looking somewhat perplexed and hurt by the comment. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Did you go to the pool?”

“Water park – how did you know?” Jordan asked suspiciously.

“You hair smells like chlorine,” Dylan pointed out with a hesitant grin. “Which one did you go too?”

“Beach Hill Water Park,” Jordan answered picking up the x-box remote and signing in on x-box live.

“The one next to the Hughes?” Dylan asked in a slightly worried tone.

“There's only one Bro,” Jordan snorted. “You've been there before, back when you used to be fun!”

“Okay – Ouch,” Dylan crossed his arms and leaned against the door way. “Did I pull you away from a date or something? Is that why your practically chewing my head off right now?”

“It wasn't a date. Xavier and I took Salina there to cheer her up,” Jordan answered tensely.

“She needs cheering up because her manager got mugged?” Dylan asked curiously. Jordan's grip on the controls tightened at his brother's tone.

“She happened to be close to the guy, so yea, she was pretty upset by it,” Jordan explained. 'Okay, so maybe he hadn't been completely truthful to Dylan about the fact that both Salina and he had been there when Gavin got shot; but that was only because he knew Dylan would freak out for sure if he knew.'

“How close are we talking?” Dylan asked, still apparently curious.

“What is your deal?” Jordan snapped tossing the controls on the floor. “Since when did you work for the tabloids? How would either of us feel if Erick got killed by some mugger?”

“Okay, I get your point,” Dylan raised his hands in surrender. “I'm sorry, stupid question.”

Picking up the controls with a deep sigh, Jordan signed into Call of Duty: Black Ops, determined to just ignore his irritating older brother.

“Sure you don't want some Chinese food?” Dylan asked from the kitchen.

“No,” Jordan grunted, before adding, “Erick should be stopping by tonight with some subway.”

“Oh, got your next movie picked out?” Dylan asked, happy to change the topic.

“No,” Jordan carefully snapped to players from the top of a pipe. “Actually – I'm thinking of taking a small break.”

“A break?” Dylan appeared behind the couch, sounding concerned. “Why?”

“Just figured I could use some me time, I just finished two movie back to back,” Jordan explained reluctantly. 'Admitting that the decision had been made so he would have free time to check in on Salina would only provoke further questions from Dylan. Jordan was worried the loss of her manager, and still potential loss of her recent movie role would convince Salina to quit. No matter what he wanted to make sure that didn't happen.'

“Something bothering you?” Dylan asked, still hovering behind Jordan.

“No, I'm good Bro.” A muffled knock came from the apartment door. “That should be Erick, you mind letting him in?” Jordan asked before taking down anther player trying to sneak behind him.

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Gavin paid the taxi before glancing around at the exterior of the second rate apartment complex. 'This should be far enough off the radar,' he admitted, picking up the two suite cases and heading to the door. A few knocks later and it was opened by a red head, who appeared to be around Gavin's age.

“You look like you got fucked up,” the red head observed bluntly over his cigarette.

“Your Ripley?” Gavin asked patiently, more then aware his face was several different colors, none of which were complimenting.

“Yea, and I don't care to know who you are,” Ripley returned before nudging the door open wider. “Get in before you attract attention,” he barked gesturing towards the dark living room buried under a cloud of cigarette smoke.

Stepping into the mess, Gavin followed Ripley to a small room in the back, that thankfully came with a window.

“Make yourself at home,” Ripley grunted closing the door quickly behind him.

'Friendly fellow,' Gavin observed setting one suite case on the bed, the other on the small, battered desk. After opening the window for some ventilation, he opened the briefcase and pulled out two thin laptops and several disposable cell phones.

He hadn't been surprised when Cynthia cut him lose to 'find answers'. After all, she knew he wouldn't go anywhere without Salina.

'Don't think you can play me like all the other men in your life,' Gavin though bitterly, connecting both labtops to the internet. 'I'll show you just how powerless you'll be once Nicoli isn't around to protect you.'