Chapter 5

Kai lets the silence sink in for a moment before the corner of his lips pull into a half-hearted smirk. Placing his elbows on the table Kai slowly leaned forward before finally opening his mouth to speak.

"It has been a while hasn't it, Chris. How has the family been?" Kai asked sarcastically. Chris began to chuckle for a few moments before calming down.

"Let's save the reunion for a later time old friend, for now, I need your help with something." Kai began, crossing his fingers underneath his chin. "My lover has taken a brief vacation from rational thinking, and has thought it best to leave me for another."

Chris nodded, staring into Kai's deep eyes. Thinking for a moment, he let the silence settle over them for a short moment before his voice boomed from his throat again. "I will help you, but I will ask you for a favor, in the future, as payment."

Kai scoffed, he should have expected this outcome from Chris. He was a mafia man, of course he would want something in exchange for helping him. Truthfully, he was suspicious that Chris hadn't asked for something just for agreeing to meet with him on such short notice. Everything came with a price in this world, that's why he hadn;wanted Jack to know about this side of him when they were dating. Jack would've seen how scary and dangerous this world was, and would have run for the hills.

Coming back to his senses, Kai nodded and reached his hand across the table in order to lock the deal into place. Chris took the hand into consideration, staring at it for a while before taking it. Both Kai and Chris shook with the strength of the chuckles and let go of each other after a few shakes.

"Welcome back old friend, We have missed you." Chris let the words that had wanted to come out spill from his pale, chapped lips.

Kai shook his head, "I had intended to stay away from this world a little longer, at least until I had a child I could proudly show off." Kai sighed. It was true, he had wanted to settle down and have a cold with Jack before introducing them to his empire.

Chris nodded, mirth filling the laugh that rumbled through the room, like thunder before a storm. "I remember when my wife was pregnant with our first child," he said, gaze becoming clouded as his voice began to soften.

"We had done everything to ensure that she was safe from the prying eyes of the people that I worked with." He wiped a small tear from his eye before putting on a shaky smile.

"God, the day I had received the news that my wife and only child were dead, and I had been the reason for their early departure." Kai remembered that day. That day, Chris had one missing for over twelve hours and had come back bruised, bloody, and changed. That day, a very powerful politician had disappeared from the face of the underworld, where he was most active.

Kai had the sneaking suspicion that the weakly politician had never fully died, from time to time, Chris would disappear for days and come back with bruised knuckles and in a better mood than when he had left.

"So tell me," Chris continued, "where do you believe this lover of yours has disappeared to?" Kai signaled Chris to follow him. It seemed they were going to take a walk while they talked.

Chris chuckled, for what seemed like the millionth time to Kai, getting up from his seat at the table in the process. But, this was just how Chris was. He was a cold a snowy mountain of a man on the outside, but on the inside, he was a titanic teddy bear. This duality was what allowed Chris to be who he was today. The toughness of his exterior was what got prisoners to spill their deepest, darkest secrets to him, without him even having to pull out the torture devices.

Walking throughout the house, Kai's posture was that of an important man, one with business that needed to get done as soon as possible. And he was, he was the secret leader of this criminal group. To those that knew of him, he did not have a face, he did not have a voice, he did not have reason. He was infamous in the underworld for killing without reason or logic. He had a face that would go to meetings, events, and deals for him. That face being Chris.

"My lover has taken a sudden leave of absence from our home, without notifying me, and has caused me great heartache in finding him." He began, hands behind his back and shoulders relaxed. Chris turned to look at him.

"Did he find out?" Chris questioned, knowing the answer but wanting to hear it from Kai's mouth himself. Chris had known that Kai was cheating on his fiancé and wanted to get him to stop but Kai seemed not to want to listen.

Kai's lips pulled up into a snarl, "Do not mock me Chris!" The older man's name coming out like venom. Chris took this as affirmation to his guess and hummed.

"So, he found out, left, and now you can't find him." Chris said, inevitably connecting all of the dots to Kai's shitty behavior for the last few months. Kai turned to him sharply and swatted his muscled arm. For all the things Chris was bad at, why was being smart one of his strong suits?

Although he did not voice it, Chris felt that Kai deserved his lover finding out about his infidelity. Chris believed that no one should be cheated on, even if they were the scum of the Earth. But he also couldn't help but take pity on him as well. By the frantic way Kai spoke, or his unkempt appearance, Chris could tell that Kai's lover meant a lot to him. He could not fathom what ridiculous path his brain had taken to justify cheating if he cared that much. But Kai was family, and his boss, so there was not much he could do.