Chapter 03 – After Dark

***Orangeside Streets***
(In the shadows outside)

The rain softened to mist.

Vincenzo slid his ornate golden ring off his finger and into his pocket. 

Vincenzo followed Chase and Amelia, using the mist, parked cars, and bad lighting to stay out of sight. Every moment Chase glanced back, he stepped into a shadow. Whenever Amelia drew his attention, the gap closed.

Vincenzo kept thirty paces back, phone raised, screen brightness dialed all the way down. He wanted the natural shake.

On the porch steps, Amelia stood barefoot, shoes dangling from her fingers. Chase said something too low to catch. She laughed once quiet, then lingered on the top step longer than she needed to. The porch light carved soft shadows under her collarbones.

Vincenzo stood in a darkened alley. Camera pointed at Amelia and Chase. His thumb hovered over record.

Click.

He caught the exact moment Chase smiled up at her. Unguarded and hopeful.

Amelia disappeared inside. The light above her door died. Chase turned and started down the wet sidewalk, hands in his pockets, shoulders looser than they’d been all night.

Vincenzo lowered the phone. 

He saved the file. Named it.

[Initiation]

“Good.” Pressing his lips on the cigarette taking a slow drag, he closed his eyes tilting his head back.

Vincenzo exhaled smoke that the mist swallowed immediately.

“Just trying to unlock easy-mode, my friend,” he whispered. 

He turned back towards the reunion, messaging Chase:

‘Getting a limo to bring me to the estate for the after-thing. You’re both still invited.’

Vincenzo pulled the ring out of his pocket, sliding it back on his finger. Tapping it twice against the alley wall.