Chapter 5: Welcome to Black Mansion.

"April," Rain yelled banging on my apartment door. Dragging my one shoe along with me to the door and fighting my one arm through a slightly tight jacket— I barrelled out of my room. "April hurry up!" She banged harder shrivelling my last nerve of patience.

"There better be a fucking zombie apocalypse outside," I yelled, and pulled open the door to see Rain's face a pale sickly colour. Her eyes were wide and her lips looked like she had been chewing on them.

She pushed past me coming into my apartment," Rain," I gasped and she slammed the door shut, locking it. She turned to look at me with wide eyes as if she had seen a ghost. Her fingers were digging into my arm. "Want to tell me what's going on, you lunatic?" I pulled my arm out of hers massaging the sore skin. 

"That man," she said in a grave voice, "that man, you can't work for that man-"

"Rain, what are you talking about?"

"He's dangerous. He's a potential suspect in a murder." She pushed a magazine into my hands. She turned to pace. "Centrefold," she called out, fisting her hair.

I opened up the magazine to see the man who was blackmailing me into working for him. He was with another woman who had her hand up showing off her ring finger. While her other hand rested on his chest.

The article heading read: Constantine Leone—so that was his name— and Lexi Walsh made it official on social media.

The article further went on to say: Even though Constantine Leone was a suspect in the Maguire case that went unresolved for over a year that still didn't deter people from loving him. In fact, research showed that C-tech, one of the many companies he and his family owned raked in over 90 billion dollars in profit over the last year. Lexi Walsh the mayor's daughter seems to think her beloved is innocent or does daddy's little princess just have a thing for bad boys?

I threw the magazine on the couch. "Why do you read this garbage Rain?"

"You're missing the point here," Rain leapt at me. "He's a potential murderer. You can't possibly work for this man!"

"Rain the article said he was a suspect."

"Research the case then," she said, "the killer hasn't been found. April you cannot trust extremely handsome and rich men. They have a way of getting things swept under the rug!"

"You're acting like a crazy person," I snorted zipping up my skirt and stalking back into my room to find my other shoe.

"But the case hasn't been solved. They closed it when they couldn't find any potential leads. Some people suspect that he's paying the police off."

I reached under my bed and searched with my hand for my other shoe. Finding it I pulled it out. "So all you have is conspiracies and no proof?" I pointed out as I slipped on the shoe.

"You're my sister. I want you to be safe." Rain walked into my room.

"Rain," I stood. "I get that you worry about me. But I have to work for him."

"Why?" She asked, throwing up her hands.

"I just have to. Evan doesn't know I've been fired and I'm not going to tell him."

"April, Evan loves you. He would rather you be fired than work for a murderer."

"Potential murderer," I corrected. "We don't know the full story."

"I don't like half stories either."

"Rain, I'm going and that's that. If I get a funny feeling about him, I'll leave."

It wasn't like I had a choice of leaving. I couldn't leave without paying back my debt.

"Fine if you don't want to listen to me," Rain dug into her bag grabbing her pepper spray. She put the pepper spray into my hands. "Just be careful."

"I'd appreciate it if you don't mention this to mum and dad either," I warned.

"April," she looked scared and I sat down next to her, putting my arm around her. "I'll be okay. I promise."

My phone rang and Rain shrieked. I slapped my hand over her mouth. "I'm this close to committing a murder."

She mumbled an apology against my hand.

"You really need to calm down. You going to give yourself a heart attack." I swiped my finger across the screen answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey tiger," his voice was deep with a hint of smugness.

"Speak of the devil," I smiled tightly at Rain. She put her ear against the other side of the phone to listen.

"You were speaking of me. I could tell there was a spark between us..."

"The only spark between us is a spark that will set off my rage."

He laughed. "I'm parked on the side of your curb. Do hurry up or I will have to come and get you." He hung up.  

Rain looked at me. "Tell me that didn't sound Serial killerish." She grabbed my phone out of my hand.

"Okay, that's real mature." I stood.

"Relax I'm putting on your live location."

I moved to grab my things and leave the apartment. As we stepped outside she handed me my phone. "You could have any job you wanted, April," she said as I locked my apartment door.

"Not any job."

"You know when we were kids I always knew when you were hiding something from me."

"That you did," I dropped my apartment key into my bag.

"How did you meet this guy?" She asked.

I paused and her eyes narrowed. "I stopped at the bar after I got fired. We met there and started talking." 

I walked ahead of her. It was hard to lie to her when she saw through me.

She remained silent as we descended the stairs it's how I knew she didn't believe me.

She stopped me at the building's exit and pulled me into a hug. "You could always tell me anything. Like that time you and Ryan snuck-"

"Okay," I pulled away from her. I did not want to be reminded of that.

That was low even for me.

"I love you, April. You're the best sister a person could ask for."

"Rain, I'm not going to die!" I pushed the heavy building door and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

I spotted the most outlandish silver car parked on the curb. It had to be him. "That's me," I said and Rain nodded.

"Be safe," she said.

I walked up to the car and peeped through the passenger side window to see him dawning a pair of shades as he stared at his phone.

I didn't know whether to knock or get his attention. "Are you waiting for a formal invitation?" He asked, still keeping his eyes on the phone.

I gritted my teeth and moved to pull open the door. It was locked. "Are you going to unlock the door?"

"Are we talking in questions now?" He asked instead. He pressed a button and I heard the door unlock. I tried for the handle again and the door opened.

I slid into the passenger's seat and put on my seat belt. He turned his head slowly to look at me and pressed another button in his fancy car and all the windows went up.

I wasn't a car person. I had no idea what kind of car I was sitting in.

I noticed him staring at me. I adjusted my blouse covering the modest cleavage but he kept staring and I started to feel conscious about the way I looked.

"What?" I asked after he kept staring.

"Let's have our interview while I drive," he said, tearing his probing gaze away and starting up the car.

"You already hired me. What's the point of the interview?"

"You will be my assistant until your debt is paid to me," he reminded me.

"Yes, I know."

"That means we will be spending a lot of time together so we should know more about each other. Especially the do's and dont's."

"Fine my name is April and I like taking long walks on the beach." It was hard to keep the snarkiness away.

His face split into a grin."The sad part is you actually put that up on your tinder profile."

My mouth dropped. "You stalked my social media!" My eyes widened and then I realized he found out where I lived, "why am I surprised? You are a stalker."

He professionally cleared his throat. "Ms Danielle," my surname rolled off his tongue in an air of classiness, "it is custom for employers to do background checks on their employees."

"Fine, the tinder profile was a bet I lost at my last job. The person who couldn't stack the melons so they didn't fall had to make a tinder profile with all the personality traits given by the winner."

"Oh, so you don't wear men's underwear then?"

"That is too forward a question," I narrowed my eyes at him. I hated that I had a tinder profile out there with obscure things.

"So what about the toenail collection?"

"Urgh," I shuddered, "I hate feet or anything feet related."

He laughed. "You hate feet. Who hates feet?"

"I do."

He turned down a street."Have we come to the part of the  interview where I can ask questions now?"

"Fine," he agreed.

"Did you kill that man?"

He went silent and turned to look at me. "Which man?" He asked.

"Maguire..."

"Maguire," he grinned. "Yes I killed him," he answered casually.

"You're lying," I rolled my eyes.

"What makes you think I'm lying?"

"I don't know, you seem like a pretty boy."

He grinned. "Oh please continue," he turned to look at me his blue eyes full of whimsy. "I do love hearing how pretty I am."

"You don't have a face tat," I said and he checked himself out in the rearview mirror. "You dress clean," I stated and he looked down at himself with pride. "Plus you're smiling. I don't think a murderer would admit to killing someone while smiling."

"Maybe the best disguise for a killer is not to look like one."

"If you were a murderer you wouldn't tell me. " 

"On the contrary maybe I would because I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"Not unless I knew you would use reverse psychology on me and I did believe that you did do it after all."

"What?" He laughed. "Your thinking is very complex. Obvious signs of an artist."My face lit up in surprise. "Your painting of the scarecrow is magnificent," he continued, "I'd love to see it in person one day."

I didn't know what to say as I stared at him. He thought my painting was magnificent.

"Um, thanks."

"How long have you been painting?" He asked.

"From the time I was a toddler according to my mother."

He smiled and I watched him carefully for any signs of sarcasm.

The car stopped and I looked to see a black-painted building standing tall behind two large silver gates.

"Is this C-tech?" I asked.

"Head office and my house yes... How did you know about Maguire and the name of my company?" He asked in thought. "You didn't seem to know who I was before."

"You're not the only one who can dig around, Mr Leone," I smiled.

His face split into a grin and he nodded giving me the benefit of the doubt. The gates opened slowly and the car rolled forward. "Welcome to black mansion."