Louisa's p.o.v;
The chief came and saw the messy police station and got mad at us for being careless with our work and asked us to call the cops who are in the fields investigating the case and the ones on patrol.
Raphael and Elisa went to make calls to the cops who weren't in the police station while Eduardo and I got lectures from him.
After a lecture, The chief said to Eduardo, "Call someone to clean up this mess."
After Eduardo left, he turned towards me and said, "I heard about the casino issue. Don't make another mistake or it'll be the reason for your suspension."
"I'm sorry for my actions, Sir. it won't happen again."
After some time, everyone came back except for one person, Gabriel since he was out of town to meet his parents.
The chief also took away everyone's cell phone and asked us to clean the messy police station along with the janitors who came to clean it and left the police station.
While we're cleaning it, Raphael said, "I checked the surveillance camera, there was nothing about the chaos, looks like someone deleted it. I wonder who had time to delete it during the chaos in the police station."
"Are you suspecting me?" I asked him.
"You're the only one who can erase and retrieve the footage here. Is it wrong to suspect you?"
"No, but I was busy firing at the people so I don't have time to do what you're thinking."
"Okay then, if you're innocent, we can let it go."
He finished his sentence and then started to clean with me.
We spent an hour cleaning and when we were done, we put everything back where it is and went to take a lunch break leaving the remaining job to the janitors.
Elisa, "When they tried to break the back door, I thought we're going to get crushed by them but didn't think it was you guys. Why did you scare me like that?"
Eduardo said, "Those guys were the ones who were banging at the door before us. after getting a few punches from us, they left."
"Then why didn't you tell me it's you and made me struggle to hold the door?"
Raphael, "Louisa!"
"huh? what did you say?" I asked him.
"What are you thinking about?"
"nothing." and continued eating my food quickly and got choked.
Raphael patted on my back and asked, "Where are you hurrying to? eat slowly."
After finishing my lunch, we got back to work and continued cleaning the place.
After 2 hours, we finished cleaning the place along with the janitors and checked the servers for the damages.
As we finished looking through the CCTV cameras, the phone rang.
Elisa said, "Someone called again, I'll answer it." and picked up the phone and said hello. After hearing the other side of the line, she hung up the phone and told the others, "There's a murder in hales Avenue. They're asking for a police officer to take a look."
Raphael, "Louisa will take care of it." he turned to me and asked, "You will, right?"
I stood up from my desk and said, "Yeah, I'll go and have a look."
When I was about to leave, the chief called out my name and said, "Give me your firearm before you go."
I handed over the gun and asked, "Shall I go now, Sir?"
He gave a nod and walked inside the police station as I walked out.
An hour later, I came to Hales Avenue and checked the crime scene. I noticed a black van near the police tape at the corner of the road and went to check it. Inside the van was a man sitting on the chair and on the floor.
"Who are you?! how'd you get in?!" I asked him.
He turned around and looked at me, and answered, "Don't worry, I'm not a criminal. I am the guy you see outside the van."
I raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out why he would show himself to me and said, "If I see any suspicious things inside, I will report you. understood?"
"Yes, mam. understand."
"Good. Now get out, this is a crime scene." and went to walk past the car.
As I walked past the police cars, a man stopped me and asked me, "You can't just enter without permission from us, miss."
"Someone made a call to the JK police department. I came here because our chief asked me to."
"Are you Heloisa Alves?"
"yes."
"Come with me."
He took me to the crime scene while saying, "I'm Benicio from north of Sao Paulo. We have some witnesses who said that they saw a man leave before all the cops got there..."
When I saw the deceased person I was stunned. It was the same person who pointed the gun at me in the casino. How did he die?
"I want to see the witness right now."
He called a elderly guy and said, "His name is Heitor. He's the one who saw him."
"Heitor, can you tell me what you said to those people?"
he nodded and said, "I saw a guy dumping something into the trash and leaving in the car."
"Do you remember the car plate number? try to remember..."
While I was talking, Benicio said, "He didn't see the car plate number."
"What about the CCTV in these streets? Have you checked them?"
"There's nothing in them."
Will it be Ace? While I was being confused, Raphael came out of nowhere and said to Benicio, "Louisa has something to do so Eduardo will take it from here." and turned to me and said, "Let's go." and took me in his car.
While we're inside the car, Raphael asked the driver to stop and got out of the car. I got down and asked, "What is it?"
He looked up and said, "Listen, I know the situation isn't ideal but if you are really Ace's girl then i think you can help us."
I looked at him confused and asked, "what do you mean by that?"
"You have to talk to Ace and ask him to stop it."
"I don't get it."
"Why are you still acting like you don't know?"
"I don't really know what you're talking about?"
"Okay. I understand if you really don't know what I'm talking about." After saying this, he took out his phone and showed me some footage inside the document room where Ace and I talked.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"What is he doing in the police station, Louisa?"
"Didn't you say I'm his girl, he came to check on me whether I'm safe."
"Exactly," he replied with a smirk. "Well, I thought this footage could prove who you really are and give a better reason for him stopping everything."
"Are you trying to use it against me?"
"No, no, I was just looking to prove something." He paused and added, "But, now I think I found that thing." He continued to stare at me before saying, "Look, if you're not willing to help then forget I even told you anything."
"What help do you want from him?"
"Make him talk to the Pandora gang and ask them to stop the shit whatever they're doing all over the city. I don't want to pick up dead bodies from every street."
"They won't listen to him."
"If you tell the Pandora gang then they will listen to you since you already put their gang leader behind the bars."
"And why should I do that?"
"Because if you don't then I'll do it."
"Do what? Tell them I'm Ace's girl?"
"Yeah. What else do I have to hold over your head if you refuse?"
"Fine! I'll do it. what if they won't listen to me as well."
"It's the only way."
With that being said, he got into the car. With one hand on the wheel, he used the other one to reach inside his jacket and pull out my gun and two more guns. He pulled the first gun out and said to me, "Take it with you." and left in his car.
I looked at the guns in my hand and sighed as I started driving back home. When I arrived back at my house I went straight up to my room and changed into comfortable clothing before heading outside once again.
Bernie stopped his car in front of my house and asked, "Want a ride?"
I got into his car and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I got a call from Raphael. he told me everything. shall we go?"
"Do you know where we're headed right now?"
"To talk with the Pandora gang, right?"
I let out a sigh and said, "Aren't you busy with your work? How did you find time for this?"
"When Raphael discussed this with me, how do you expect me to react? I can't let my friend go just like that into that hellhole."
"And, do you think I'll take you there?" When I was about to get out of the car, he stopped me and said, "No matter what you say, we're going. That's it. I can't let you go alone either." And started his car.
An hour later, Bernie stopped his car in front of Paulo warehouse and asked, "is this the place?"
"Yeah." I got out of the car and asked for his phone to make a call since mine was confiscated by the chief.
I walked away from him and made a call to Ace. After he picked up, I said, "I'm at Paulo warehouse."
"What the hell are you doing there?"
"Raphael asked me to talk with those descendants of Paulo to stop the chain of murders in the city so i came to talk with them."
"And, do you think they'll invite you for a talk? Are you insane?"
"Raphael has footage of us talking in the document room."
"So what? Let him do whatever with that clip. We're going to flee anyways right? Who's phone are you talking from?"
"Bernie. He's with me right now."
"Okay, I'll be there."
"No, don't come…"
Ace ended the call before I said anything.
Bernie asked, "Who was on the call?"
I said, "A friend."
he gave a nod and asked, "How are we going to do it? Do you have any plans?"
"I do."
I knocked him out and put him inside the car, closed the door and walked into the warehouse holding a spare gun of mine.
When I entered the warehouse, Paulo's guys were standing in front of me.
Pedro, one of Paulo's closest henchmen, asked, "Well, well, well. what do we have here?"
"I'm here to talk with you."
"with a gun?"
"It's for my safety."
They laugh.
"We know you don't need it. We're gonna get rid of you anyways, if you think you can take us all down. That's why you came here. You thought you would kill us?" They laughed again.
"I'm not here to kill anyone. I came here to ask you guys to stop doing whatever shit You're doing in the city."
They stopped laughing.
"You've come too late. If there is anything you've learned over the years from watching movies like I see on tv, it's that we have no choice but to keep doing things how they are now. That's just how It works."
"Then, I don't have a choice either."
They looked at me suspiciously and I smiled.
"That doesn't look very confident, young girl"
My smile grew.
"I don't need to be confident to be smart. And besides, you won't even know what hit you, because your little gang can't protect you from a bullet."
"What?"
I pulled out my other gun and fired a bullet at his feet. He screamed bloody murder as his foot caught fire.
"There, I have you right where I want you now! No more fucking around!"
The other guy ran towards me, and he was fast. He grabbed the gun out of my hand and held it to my throat.
Pedro while screaming in pain, he said, "Why are you cops are so stupid to aim at our feet when you got chance to aim at our chest." and laughed.
I enjoyed seeing him struggle under pressure.
Finally, the guy let go of my neck and aimed at my arm after getting an order from Pedro.
"No!!" I cried, grabbing the gun out of his hands and shooting Pedro's hand and shooting at the guy who was holding me before. Since many were in the city, the warehouse didn't have a lot of Pandora gang members which made it easy for me to shoot them while hiding from them.
After finishing this, the remaining two henchmen started firing at me from behind while I was running away and I dodged them without missing a step, until I couldn't anymore. A large man came running towards me and punched me hard enough that I fell on the ground.
While I was on the ground, looking at the guy who punched me, he said, "You think you can run away easily."
I let out a smirk and said, "You made a mistake by hitting me."
"What?"
The Ace who was standing behind that guy slashed his throat and he fell on top of me. I pushed him off me and stood up to face Ace, my back against a wall.
"Where's the rest of your henchmen?"
Ace shrugged and looked at me. "Maybe we should just end this here and get outta here."
"Not possible. There's too many of them coming."
Suddenly, something exploded on top of me. Ace protected me and covered my eyes and tried to shield them with his hands. Suddenly, the smell of gasoline filled the whole warehouse.
"What the f**k!?" I shouted as I looked at the gas filled room. The floor was getting wet with gasoline.
"What did you do?" I asked Ace.
"Do you think we two can single-handedly kill all those guys?"
"Probably not but you could try."
He gave me a smirk and gave me a peck on my cheek. "It's a start." he then jumped onto the ceiling and started fighting the remaining thugs on the second floor.
I quickly followed him and helped him fight them, since they seemed stronger than him. After fighting for about ten minutes, a lot of the thugs started pouring into the warehouse.
Ace gave me a lighter and said, "Take it."
I accepted it and lit the rest of the floor on fire and threw it to the last floor which had all the thugs that were left. Some of them had fled while some were still stuck with their arms tied.
Ace held my hand and said, "Let's go. they'll never survive this."
I pulled him closer and kissed him on his lips, before saying "Thanks, babe." he just nodded his head in response and kissed my forehead, before pulling me closer for a hug and said, "You're welcome." He then pulled apart and said, "We should get out of here."
We came out of the warehouse through one of the broken windows. We were met by several police cars and ambulances and firefighters. We ran away from the scene of the crime as soon as possible.
A day later, I found myself sitting in a transit lounge holding Ace's hands while he was checking the flight timings of the flight we're about to board. He kept his phone in his pocket and said, "There's still ten minutes left." and gave me a peck on my forehead.
While I was looking at him all smiley, a familiar figure near the gate. It is Raphael.
Ace, "Where are you looking at?"
Ace spotted Raphael and asked, "How did he find us here?"
"I'll go talk to him."
When Ace held my hand to stop me from seeing him, I tapped on the back of his hand and said, "It's okay. I'll be back." and walked to Raphael.
Raphael saw me walking toward him and said, "Looks like you're leaving somewhere."
"Yeah, he... we decided."
"Everyone's thinking that you died in that fire accident in the warehouse yesterday. For a moment, I believed it too. Until I saw a note with the airport name and time. Why did you leave me a note if you decided to leave anyways?"
"Because i know you'll find it in the end so i came out by myself to you."
He gave a nod and asked, "You still know that I have the right to arrest him right here, right?"
"I do."
I held his hand and handed over a drive.
he asked, "What is this?"
"This has every information about the phantom gang and other gangs in the city."
"How did you get this?"
I let out a chuckle and said, "You know that I'm an expert in deleting and retrieving data, right?"
"Ace is still wanted even if you do this. I will chase him with whatever information you gave me."
"Ace was just a puppet for his father's work, Raphael."
"Then what about those five murders? Do you still believe a murderer?"
"The girl who was involved in Paulo's case was me."
"What?"
"I didn't go to my parents house that week. I got kidnapped by five guys and those people handed me over to Paulo. Paulo tried to rape me for putting him in prison. In order to save me from him, Ace killed him and those guys who kidnapped me to not let this out."
"He's still a murderer, Louisa."
"Raphael, if you want to arrest him, you should go over me. I won't let anyone come near him until I'm with him." I pointed at the pen drive and continued, "Take this evidence and get others before they flew like me." and walked away from him.
When I came to Ace, I asked, "Is it time for our flight?"
"yeah." he said while looking at Raphael and asked me, "What did you talk to him about?"
"Just work matters."
"I thought he's here to arrest me."
"No way. He's here as a friend to give a farewell." We talked as we walked past the gate.
When we arrived on the plane, we sat next to each other again. As I leaned my head on his shoulder, he put his arm around me and placed a kiss on the top of my head.
I said while closing my eyes, "I love you, Salvador." and after waiting for him to respond.
He gave me a smile and asked, "What did you call me now?"
"That's your real name, wasn't it?"
He gave me a kiss on my lips and said, "Yeah, it is." He intertwined our hands and said, "And I also love you, Louisa."
The End of the Mafia gets…
Ace, "Hold on!"
Louisa, "What is it?"
"Where's the red stone which made our fate intervene together?"
Louisa whispered into Ace's ears and Ace smiled at her.
With that, One Million Reais came to an end.
Thank you for reading "One Million Reais" till the end and giving your support. I'll return with another adventure story soon.
From the author, Hellan White.