"That's illegal."

"Yes, I know."

"What are we doing here, then?"

I did not get a reply. I looked around, from far outside the crowd. I could hear a mix of cheers and groans. Some people were still waiting outside, in groups. Others were sitting in the middle of the road, smoking. It looked like weed to me because two of them had their faces planted on the road. Even the air around stank.

I heard roars of excitement and I peered inside to see what was going on. Seemed like someone finally won.

"Aren't you a law enforcement agent? You should not be participating in such activities," I said, turning around, only to realise that I was talking to the air. Where did Castiel disappear, leaving me alone in such a place? Did he abandon me to die here?

I walked around, back and forth, peeking here and there, hoping to see him but he seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

I couldn't even ask around because of the stares I was receiving. They must have been wondering what I was doing there.

Thankfully, the car was still there. I stood by the car, waiting. There was a man nearby, sitting on the ground near the pavement. I glanced at him as I caught him staring at me. I looked again and he was still staring. Did he want to say something?

"Beautiful night today, right?" I chuckled at him, "It's a great night for a...joint, yes." I eyed him with pursed lips as he smoked a joint and paused again, staring at me again. Okay...weird.

I leaned against the car door and checked if it was unlocked, in case. Just by awesome chance, it was locked.

I looked around, hoping there was another escape somewhere in case an unfortunate incident happened. I glanced at the man again and saw him flopped unconscious on the pavement. Oh, how relatable. Brought back memories of a few days ago.

I gasped in relief as I saw Shooky approaching me. I ran to him, clutching his arm.

"I appoint you as my bodyguard for tonight," I started and paused, "Do you do those things as well?"

"What? And can you ease up on the arm? You're pinching me," he requested, with a grimace.

"Did you come to bet?" I said as I loosened my hold on him.

"No," he frowned at me.

"Then, what are we doing here?" I asked.

"Let's go in," he said, marching in the fight club. With my hand clutching him, I got dragged along.

The place was hot and stuffy. The men snarled at me as I got knocked against them while trying to follow Shooky. Italian remarks flew around wildly; I was sure they were curses. My small self squeezed through the men until I arrived at the first few rows.

A man came on stage; it must have been the announcer. The next contestants were being announced. I didn't pay attention since I did not understand.

"Why are we watching this? Is this how you agents learn how to fight?" I whispered to Shooky. He glanced at me and looked up at the fight ring again. I huffed and looked back onstage and my mouth went agape.

I rubbed my eyes and looked up again.

Castiel, you idiot! What are you doing up there? I wanted to yell at him. But he didn't even spare me a glance.

I looked to the opposite side of the ring and gulped at his opponent's sight. He was about the same height as Castiel but he was...large. His muscles seemed to be bouncing as he moved. And tattoos made their way around his bald head, going down his shoulders and his arms. He must have been a popular one around, seeing that everyone was cheering for him, not that the cheers affected Castiel in any way. Instead, he remained his usual composed self.

Just as the whistle blew, Castiel went down like a leaf.

I screeched loudly, not that anyone heard me among the other men's loud cheering. The man tackled Castiel down mercilessly, throwing punches repeatedly. Castiel took the first punch but by reflex, was able to block the rest. With one swift kick from Castiel, the Godzilla went staggering back a few steps.

But it did not last long. The man dashed forward, using his whole weight to throw Castiel to the other side of the ring. I sighed at this. Why was Castiel doing nothing except trying to look weak and being only on defensive mode? Each time his opponent attacked, he took a step back, waited for another attack to him and dodged again.

Everyone was booing at him. My glares went undetected.

But Castiel remained blank as he eyed Godzilla up and down, in a calculating way. I could see the enemy getting more frustrated as time went by. And his attacks became less precise, and he acted in a more briskly way.

As Godzilla was about to swing one more punch, Castiel went under, delivering a fast side kick and rushed behind his rival who went down on one knee. Without sparing a second, Castiel shoved him to the ground.

The fallen man stood up with a groan. He was fuming as he roared out some beautiful Italian words that I couldn't understand. He tried jumping on Castiel and launching a kick but missed. Castiel went back to his dodging game.

I sighed. It no longer felt scary to me. It seemed as if Castiel was testing his rival's patience and messing with him.

"Finish it already!" I yelled. The other men yelled out as well. We were sharing the same opinions, except we were rooting for different men.

Castiel smirked and raised his fists, ready for attack. As the opponent turned around to send a kick, Castiel repeated his earlier move, delivering a hard kick, aiming for the other knee. This propelled Godzilla back to the ground.

As he was standing up, I noticed his legs trembling. Then, I understood what Castiel was trying to do. He must have observed how his rival used his weight on his legs as the base and stance for all his attacks. If his legs were weakened, his tactics would follow.

Before the man could stand up on his feet, Castiel launched a kick to his stomach, which propelled him on the ground. There were a lot of 'ooh's going around as I winced at the sight of the poor man, who didn't seem to have given up.

His eyes were like blazing fire while Castiel gave him an ice-cold look. With fury, he advanced towards Castiel. This time, finally, Castiel went into attack mode, serving a full course of quality punches, one after another.

Now, everyone went silent; they seemed worried. It was easy to guess who they bet on. I sighed.

I should have put some money on that match as well.

"Let's go out," Shooky said, in a bored tone, turning around. I zigzagged my way out through the mass quietly. And as I reached outside, I heard a chorus of groans erupted, which caused a grin to spread on my face. I didn't need to turn around and see who won.

I waited outside, beside the car. Castiel joined us after a few minutes.

"Aaay man! Highfi-" I looked at his bloody hands and retracted mine to my side as Castiel came closer.

"It was awesome!" I exclaimed, patting his back and again, I quickly withdrew my hand as I noticed him wincing.

I looked between the two men and waited. One thing I learned since the past few weeks is to not expect an answer to my question; so asking questions is useless.

A dark-haired, young guy approached us. The first thing I noticed about him is a load of cash in his hand. I must have had the dollar sign expression in my eyes as I fixed my gaze on him.

"Grazie. Seguimi," he nodded at Castiel and walked away. 

"Wait for me. I'll talk to him and come back," Shooky said and followed the young boy.

"Get in," Castiel said, walking to the other side and entered. I also opened the door and followed.

"So...I didn't know you were into this. Your job doesn't pay enough?"

Castiel seemed to want to argue against me but instead cut the chase, "That boy is an informant. He wanted to trade information with this."

"And he got all that money from this one fight?" I asked. Castiel nodded. Damn, he could have split.

I noticed Castiel's bloody, literally, bloody hands as I looked down. He didn't even clean up. I slipped my hands in my back pocket, reaching out for my handkerchief.

I grasped his arm, getting a startled look from him. I grabbed the bottle of water and let the liquid flow on the handkerchief. I swiped both hands around, making sure there is nothing left. I turned his hands to check if they were clean. Oh my God, I'm so weird but his hands are quite pretty. I placed his hands back on him after admirin- cleaning them.

Castiel stared at me quizzically.

"You have to drive. You can't get the car bloody, you know," I said.

He hummed in agreement but I saw his hidden expression.

"Don't act like this. Stop smiling at me," I scoffed and looked away.

☆☆☆

"Who is Alessio Verdino?" I asked.

Everyone was deep in thoughts as they ignored my question.

I looked at Raphael who was also looking around. Answer me!

I don't know either, was the reply sent by telepathy to me.

I looked at the time; it was 11 pm. The team was having a brief meeting in Castiel's living room. Shooky translated everything that boy told him. Apparently, Argus was a friend of his and had informed him that he made a deal with someone called Alessio. And almost everyone seemed to be aware of who he was.

"He must have joined another gang. It makes no sense for the Verdinos to be still around," one of the team members said.

I opened my mouth to ask a question again but closed it. Instead, I switched on my phone and went to google. I typed 'Verdino' and got some random shit. I should search for something more specific. I added crime and gang to the search bar.

Oh, there were some articles! But they were from years back.

I browsed through the titles of the articles. Hmm okay, the titles revealed enough. They were not a gang, but a mafia organisation! Ooh, Italian mafia, they were always famous, or should I say, infamous.

I cleared my throat and looked at everyone. "What happened to the Verdinos after the Boss died?"

"How-"

I pointed to my phone, which Raphael grabbed from me and started reading.

"Usually, when the Boss dies, it's one of the family members that take his position. But after Enzo Verdino, the Boss died, all their activities simply stopped. We rarely ever heard of them after that. Most members of the mafia left as well," Shooky explained.

"Oh, I remember!" Raphael said, snapping his fingers. "I heard about it from someone. They said that, after the Boss died, many illegal activities that took place on a local and global scale, decreased drastically."

"Definitely because the Verdinos were among the main organisations involved in multiple illegal trades with other main organisations. Like the international drug trade, both imports and exports decreased by 20% due to them going 'extinct'," Castiel explained.

"But did they, really? Or was it only a facade and they are planning something?" I whispered, adding my comment to build the necessary suspense.

Castiel rolled his eyes at me.

"I think the reason they went down silently like that has to do with the death of Enzo Verdino. His death remains a mystery to this day. How did he die? If it was a rival mafia or gang, I'm sure there would have been some revenge. Or if it was a natural death, there could have been an internal war for who will take his place," Raphael commented.

"If we get hold of Alessio, maybe we'll know. He was supposed to claim Enzo's position after he died after all. This makes me wonder why he approached Argus for this deal. He's up to something," Cooky muttered.

"We should inform Mr Ford and see about it tomorrow. And we have to run the profiles of some past members of the Verdino mafia through the Italian police, and tell them to notify us if any activities by these people are detected," Cooky said, standing up. The others followed along.

☆☆☆

Why does Castiel have a fridge when he keeps nothing in it? I huffed as I took the elevator down.

I halted by the vending machine. I felt the money in my purse bursting with excitement. Ooh yeah, another expenditure! I knelt down, eyeing my choices. I selected a pack of gummies and a coke. I inserted the money and waited.

I frowned as nothing came out. I clicked again and nothing came out. I tapped it lightly and still the same disappointing result. My money was long gone.

"Do you need some help?" I heard from above.

I looked up to see a man looking down at me. He had a bit of stubble, with an undercut hairstyle, his brown hair thrown towards the back. The sun seemed to lighten his already bright grey eyes.

"Woah, you're handsome," I breathed out.

"That's not the answer to my question," he raised an eyebrow at me.

I flushed red. I stood up and nodded, motioning to the vending machine. I wondered what magic he was going to perform. He glanced at the vending machine from both sides. He turned around, and with one swift kick to the side, both products I bought popped out.

I grabbed both quickly before the devilish vending machine could try to swallow them back. I glanced up to see the man already leaving.

"Hey!" I yelled as he turned back around.

"Thanks! How did you know I was not Italian?" I asked.

"I saw you with those British agents and took a guess. I also live in this building," he shrugged.

"Cool, I hope to see you again," I smiled.

"Maybe. You seem to be a first time visitor here. It's quite dangerous around here. I hope you are careful and do not trust anyone easily," he stated seriously and marched away.

"Okay," I mumbled to myself as he left. It seemed like he wanted to say something more. And, oh! I didn't even get to know his name. Bummer.

I walked down the road as I glanced at my phone. I felt lazy today; I didn't want to walk. I should call a taxi and then walk back after.

I hailed one after waiting for some five minutes.

"Dove vuoi andare?" the taxi driver asked as I got in. 

I showed him the poster of the art exhibition and he nodded.

I arrived quite fast, in ten minutes. I got down and glanced around. The place was crowded as usual. I peeped inside and saw that there were fewer people inside rather than outside.

A tap on the shoulder made me jump around to face Angelina, the painter I met the other day.

"You came again," she smiled brightly.

"Were you going in as well?" I asked.

"No, actually, since it's lunchtime, most people left. So I was heading out for lunch as well. Would you join me if you want to grab lunch first?" she asked.

I pondered over it. I was quite hungry as well, seeing that I skipped breakfast. Not that it was a rare occurrence anyway.

"Gladly," I answered.

☆☆☆

A/N:
Translations below:

"Grazie. Seguimi." = "Thanks, follow me."

"Dove vuoi andare?" = "Where do you want to go?"