14

'Of what is concealed can also be revealed.'

Pushpa Rana

_ _ _

-Kara-

"Y-you? What? How? Uh... Wait are you pranking me?", I asked puzzled out of my wits.

"Stay silent for a few minutes and I'll tell you everything.", Kara said.

I closed my slack mouth and stared at her face with confusion and demand.

"OK. Here goes nothing... So I'm the leader of Snow's Hold, the 2nd most feared gang in the world. My father is Antony Snow a.k.a Tony Chióni."

As soon as she mentioned her father's Greek name, recognition dawned on my brain. I was sure she could see the info buzzing through my head. Tony Chióni, former leader of Snow's Hold which under his leadership used to be known as Snowstorm. Son-in-law of the Sideris family, who were the most feared gang in the world - Polemistés. All in all one very dangerous person.

"Okay. So you know the general story about how my dad married into the Sideris family and the gang rose to the present position. What you don't know is that my mother died and my dad couldn't bear the second loss after the death of our sister. He left the gang and being the eldest, I became the successor. I changed the name of the gang to Snow's Hold. Then my dad couldn't live in the old house full of memories so we shifted here. I'm sure you saw my friend when they arrived. They came here because we had some problems with another gang i.e the one before yours, Meridian Waters. And also because rumors are circulating that my mom and sister were actually killed intentionally by some rival and that, that rival could have an accomplice who is one of the Sideris'.", Kara said.

"So can I speak now? I have some inquiries. ", I spoke up.

"Go on. "

"You're the leader... So... The guys that came are your gang members? ", I asked.

"That and they're my best friends, my family.", She replied.

Thank God! Nothing more.

"Okay. Do you have any suspects?"

"Yeah. Quite a few actually. It could be rivals of both the gangs which sums up to at least a few hundred. Or a member of the Sideris family. But we have rounded them off and we have a total of 7 suspects.", She told me. I concluded that she had done quite a lot of research to gather info.

"Alright, Kara. There is one more question I need to ask you... Will you let me help? ", I asked and waited for her answer.

"I need to think about that. You're another gang leader after all. ", she said.

"Sure. I respect that. Let's hold a meeting at the end of the week. "

"Deal", she replied and then continued, "So, you wanna meet my besties? "

She wants me to meet them. This would give me chance to assess their feelings towards Kara.

But what if there is one with those feelings for her?

"Hell yeah!", I said smiling but for some reason couldn't let go of the petty jealously I was feeling.

She took me downstairs where the bunch of them were lounging in the living room watching Netflix.

"Whatcha watching? ", she asked as we entered the living room.

"Gossip Girl", the boy with brown curly hair replied sighing.

"How come?", she asked and I could tell she was trying to suppress her laughter. But I couldn't stop.

Which guy watches Gossip Girl?

"We lost a bet with Seth.", The light blonde haired guy said and then he noticed me behind Kara, sniggering and narrowed his eyes with suspicion.

"Who is that? How did he get here? Cuz I'm sure I didn't hear the doorbell ring. ", he asked Kara looking straight in her eyes.

This caught everyone's attention and all the heads turned from the TV to us.

"Oh. This is Caden Pierce. ", she said and then turned to me. "Caden this is Tyler... Jared... Sky...and Seth. My best friends.", she told me pointing to blondie sitting on the bean bag glaring, a calm brunette on the armchair with an inquisitive look on his face, the curly-haired brunette on the floor looking at me like he's saying,Yeah man. I caught you kissing her. And a dark blonde sprawled on the sofa looking like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Wait a second. Caden Pierce? Leader of Evloen?", blondie - Tyler -asked.

"Yeah. I told him everything. He wants to help. But I'm gonna take a week to decide and we'll have a meeting on Saturday to discuss what to do. ", Kara said.

"Wait so how did he get in?", Seth asked, his innocent stupidity shining on his face.

Sky burst out laughing.

"He snuck in through her window. When I caught him, he and Kat were up to something that's impossible for Kat to do.", he said chuckling. Impossible for Kara? Wait..was I her first kiss?

"What?", Seth asked.

I felt my face heat up in embarrassment.

"Oh, God! Kat's blushing. ", Jared said with laughter clearly shining in his eyes. She's blushing too?

"They were kissing ya big idiot.", Tyler said and plonked Seth on the head like he was trying to knock some sense into him.

"Uh... So I'm gonna get some sleep. You guys go to sleep too because we have school tomorrow and it's you guys' first day. Good night. ", Kara said and hurriedly gave them a peck on the cheek each flaring my jealousy for no reason. Then she caught my hand in hers and pulled me upstairs while the house resonated with the laughter of her four brawny best friends.

***

I couldn't believe it. Kara Snow, my gorgeous neighbor, my sister's best friend, a straight-A student, was a gang leader. That too of Snow's Hold and was the granddaughter of Jonah Sideris, leader of the most feared gang in the world - Polemistés.

It had been two days since I learned this truth. I had informed Gavin and the others about the main matter and that we were having a meeting with Kat Brooke on Saturday. But, they didn't know that it was Kara and were giddy on getting a chance to meet the famous leader.

In the last two days I took the time to observe Kara and her friends closely. It had created quite a commotion when they had walked in laughing and having fun on Monday morning but all their actions were natural and didn't show any signs of being gang members.

All I could do was to wait in anticipation for Saturday to finally arrive.