Full-blown anger!

Noah answered the call calmly and picked up with a simple, "Hello...". But apparently this one word had been enough to trigger the already enraged Harold as he started screaming right away. "Hello!? Hello!? That is all you have to say after putting a kid in jail?! I knew you were a horrible excuse for a human but to go after my family?!? How dare you! You little ingrate! I let you get away with it when you stole my company from me during my time of weakness, which was a cowardly move, but I didn't think that you would ever stoop so low as to go after my nephew unprovoked."

But despite all Harold's shouting and insults, Noah remained calm. He simply said, "Good to hear from you Harold. Happy to see hear you are still healthy. As for calling my actions unprovoked, I think we both know that isn't the truth. If it was unprovoked, I wouldn't have been able to get a warrant in such a short time, now would I?"

"Don't provoke me you bastard. I am already angry enough to want to drink your blood. So, what? So, he took some pictures of you? Was that really enough for you to want to see a kid in jail?? Is that how cold your heart has gotten?? Do you even have any proof?? Even if you do, in the end it wasn't him who was cheating on his pregnant wife. It was you. Yeah, I know about the little one you have on the way. Some father you'll be if you are at ease doing something like this to someone else's kid. Great role model he will have. A cheating coward who bullies children over a harmless prank."

Noah's expression, which had been quite at ease up until now, started to become more grim. His jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. In a tone that revealed how much he was holding himself and his anger back, Noah said, "I'm warning you Harold. Keep your hands off my family. Don't even take my wife and child's name in your mouth. Regardless of what I am, your nephew committed a crime and it is on you for instigating him to do such a thing in the first place. It is your misplaced anger that caused him to do this. Why else would he have a reason to take pictures of me regardless of what I am doing or who I am with. He does not know me, he has never met me and I have never done anything to him."

Harold seemed amused by Noah's cold words and let out a disdainful 'ché' before saying, "Oh my, little Noah has learned how to act tough now as well, hmm? But that is rich coming from you. All I wanted to do was cause a little fight between you and the missus. It was you who involved family in our beef. By going after my nephew you have crossed a line that should not have been crossed. So, I am warning you, I will give you this chance only once, drop the charges and walk away from this little petty crime or I will make sure you regret the day you met me."

But two could play that game and Noah was not one who responded to threats well. So, instead he continued to push Harold's buttons. Figuring that he would be too busy dealing with the trouble they had caused for him last night to be able to do anything to him any time soon. With the secret agent protecting Laila and baby Nick, and a second agent watching his back, there wasn't much for him to worry about.

So, instead of complying with Harold's demands, Noah said, "Now, now Harold. Is that any way to be asking for a favour? Though there is no way that you would be able to create any trouble between me and my wife with such a petty little trick like this, the fact that you tried to harm my marriage gives me plenty of reason to want to get even with you. To me she is a very important part of my family. You knowing that she is pregnant and still trying to pull something like this, disregarding the harm this kind of stress can do to both mother and baby, makes you the one who lifted the ban on attacking family. Especially since I have no way of harming you, I have to go after the people you care about and hope you will be the collateral damage."

This caused Harold's earlier arrogance and smugness to revert back to full-blown anger. "Damn it Noah! I am not playing. Drop the charges or I will make sure you regret it! Come after me all you want but leave him out of it. If I don't hear from my lawyers within the hour, you'll get what is coming to you. Don't come crying to me then and begging for mercy. Because by then it will be too late and you will only have yourself to blame."

After he had said this, Harold hung up and after a few seconds of residual silence, the room erupted with questions. Steve squeezed his shoulders and expressed how proud he was of his responses. Though he wasn't sure if throwing oil onto that already strong burning flame was a smart idea, he couldn't blame Noah after Harold had brought Laila and his unborn son into the conversation. With Noah's level of protectiveness, this was the only logical outcome. Though they never planned on going through with the case against his nephew as it was only intended as a distraction for him and as a warning/lesson for the nephew to change his ways, this conversation made all of them even more unwilling to drop the matter. But for now that was a matter to concern themselves with later. For now they would sit and wait for Harold to see the rest of the mess they had created for him.