Chapter 24

7:24 AM

Boston, Massachusetts

February

Noel looked over at Leon, whom he had kissed last night without any regret. He wanted to tease him, it was part of himself to what to tease anyone, either platonically or romantically.

He knew if anyone found out he was one who kissed him first or find out that he's been pursuing romantic gestures to his boss, he would most likely get fired for good.

He had to stop completely, but his stubbornness got the best of him.

"Noel, may I see your hand?", Leon asked him while he was typing something on his laptop, his eyes gazed over at him attentively.

Noel extended his hand to him as he told, Leon realized he didn't bandage up his scrape on the palm of his hand, he lifted up his hand and the tip of his finger slowly brushed through his wound, he surprisingly didn't get a visible reaction of his bodyguard.

"Does it hurt?", Leon asked again, was he really concerned about him? Noel thought it seemed strange since usually Leon wouldn't give a single fuck to the entire world if it tore apart, except for his daughter, of course.

"It does a little bit, but it'll go away, Sir Cashmere", Noel replied to him, politely.

They were still waiting for their little companions to show up at the private dining room of theirs, which Leon desired to go outside but since he almost got himself into trouble with Vera's company, his mafia group had detained him from going outside without the surveillance of his men.

"Let's get you wrapped up", Leon stared at his hand as he grabbed it to examine it, he let go to close his device and placed it inside his backpack.

"What, Sir Cashmere? I'm fine, don't worry about me", Noel insisted, yet Leon ignored him, walking out the door as he was grabbing his backpack and looking around.

Noel walked up right behind him as he wondered of his next move.

They walked all the way back to his room, he got his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.

"Wait right here", Leon ordered him, Noel shook his head in response.

"Sir Cashmere, you don't need to do that. I'm okay", Noel still tried to stop him, hesitating to go inside his room. Leon looked around for a first aid kit and found it inside one of his drawers. He opened it and took out the nessecary supplies and walked up to Noel.

"Here, get all of this", Leon commanded as he made his bodyguard carry supplies in his other arm.

"Give me your hand again", Noel slowly extended his hand once more, Leon carefully cleaned up the wound with alcohol, Noel tried to flinch but the firm grip that his boss had on his wrist was enough to not pull his hand away.

Noel never treated his wounds, to be exact. He'll let them heal on their own, but he never thought Leon would go to this level to try and help him in any way.

"You need to take of care these, it'll get infected if you don't", Leon advised him as he continued cleaning the dried blood stains out of his hands.

"I also told you to do this last night and you never did", Leon's voice sounded less calmer than before, his Russian accent thickening.

"And I told you I'm fine", Noel replied to him, he simply never knew why Leon did the things he did.

Leon reached out to get the gauze out of his bodyguard's arm, he unrolled it, wrapping it around his hand delicately before finally securing the gauze as to not let it unveil off around his hand.

"There", Leon stared at him coldly before the remainder of the supplies back from him, which most of them he didn't even need.

"Umm, thank you, Sir Cashmere", Noel told him, dumbfounded about the entire situation.

"You should be. Let's go", Leon walk past him to go back all the way to the private dining table. He was tired of waiting for them so he decided to distract himself a bit... right?

As he went towards the door, someone yelled out from the distance, he immediately knew who it was.

"Good morning, Mr.Cashmere! How has your day been so far?", Lucio said as he was beamed at him happily, stepping forward as he passed by him, opening the door.

"Go ahead", Lucio offered him as he held the door for him, Leon walked inside before sitting down in his previous seat.

°~8:48 AM~°

"I see you're not using a briefcase..", Lucio pointed out as he saw him unlocking the combination lock out of the zipper of his backpack, taking out a few files out of the bag before placing them on top of the table.

"I don't like it",Leon stared straight into his soul, Lucio glared at him back.

"Good morning, Mr.Cashmere", Marcello entered along with his right hand man, whom followed him.

"Good morning", Leon told him casually as his eyes moved to gaze at him as he sat down to the ground.

"I guess you did kill Daniel Cordova after all. The Cordova family doesn't know who was behind his murder. How impressive, I must say", Marcello explained to him as he turned to his brother, he had a huge satisfied smile.

"But they do have a suspicious aspect that it was us. He was a debtor of mine, you see. We used to loan him money for intel in return, once he had a huge amount of debt, instead of paying it back, he decided to run away from us", he continued while clasping his hands together.

"What they don't know is that you're apart of this, you might need to be more careful as to not bring any more conflict, like what you did with Vera Blaine and Devito Lombardi", Marcello stared at him unexpectedly, Leon tried to not say anything rude back so he swallowed his words, sighing deeply.

"I know what it feels like always being told what to do. But sometimes we do need self control", Marcello advised, trying to be respectful. He hoped that Leon would listen to him, considering he's a guy who is really difficult to get put in his place.

"You're right", Leon simply replied as he rubbed his chin a little before placing his hand down to the table, pushing all of the files forward.

"This is the intel you wanted", Leon told him as he glared at every movement his ally did delicately.

"Excellent work", Marcello smiled happily as he saw all of the data he needed, coordinates, text messages, contract papers.

"They're working for EXCEED, how intruging", he mumbled under his breath as he gazed at one of the contract documents, basically saying that if they could find the culprits of their warehouse raid, they would get paid 100 million dollars off the bat.

"We're like treasure to them", Leon stated as he placed the document back into the folder, so Noel's intel was right after all.

"Right. Now that we know that Vincent still is out there, how did you gather the intel?", Lucio interrogated him, he gazed at him, demanding for an answer.

"What?", Leon looked quite puzzled, not understanding what he said.

"Did you have someone who told you that Vincent was still alive? Where did you get the other contract from Vincent Wales from?", Lucio asked him again, he wondered why he wanted to know who it was.

"Noel Rodriguez", Leon replied to him, getting some sort of presence that something is off.

"Who's Noel Rodriguez?", Lucio turned to ask his brother in confusion, Marcelo pointed towards the door while looking at him.

"His bodyguard", Lucio had an astonished expression at his response before going back to the man in front of him.

"So he was the one who gave you the intel? Where does he get the intel from?", he began interrogating him even more.

"I rather not say", Leon told him, but before Lucio could say anything else, two waitresses came inside with their foods and they began to eat without a word.

After they were all done with their meals, Lucio stood up and they left to wash their hands.

°~10:27 AM~°

Leon spent his time working on important documents in a lounge area, where they had tables to sit in, eat, and relax.

He decided to gaze at him at his bodyguard for a moment, his emerald green eyes gleamed as the sunlight touched his face as he was looking at the wonderful view from the glass wall.

He liked his eyes. He liked his short curly hair, his lips...his smile.

Noel's eyes turned to look at Leon, who he reflexively flinched away tand started to go back to work.

"What happened, Sir Cashmere?", Noel had caught him glaring at him so he was curious.

"Nothing happened, why?", Leon asked him, trying to act as if he wasn't glancing at him a few seconds ago.

"Heh...don't think you're sneaky", Noel smiled as he turned his body to face the table, looking at his boss directly in the eye.

"Noel, what are you talking about?", Leon feigned being confused, Noel kept smirking at him playfully while looking at him straightforward.

He was trying to let Leon confess the truth by being direct, what a move.

"You were looking at me, weren't you?", Noel laughed softly, he was such a flirty guy.

"Please don't start with me", Leon gazed down at his computer screen while resting his head on his hand, typing down something with his other hand. 

"Right, my apologies, Sir Cashmere", Noel politely apologized, knowing he was trying to tease him.

He pulled out his cellphone before he was texting someone, placing his phone back to his pocket while gazing towards his boss.

"Mr.Cashmere", someone spoke out of the blue, a man in a basic black suit and gloves appeared along with a few men, Lucio included.

"Mr.Cashmere, do you mind letting me speak with Mr. Rodriguez?", Lucio asked him, Noel felt puzzled at the sudden question, why did they need him for?

"Why do exactly need to speak to him for? He's not able to get off duty at the moment", Leon replied to him, also confused.

"It's just for a while, he'll come back to you. I promise", Lucio insisted as he glanced over at the bodyguard, Noel felt a stagnant presence that something was going on.

Leon's eyes met his, they both were quizzical about why he was asking such a request?

"Sir Cashmere", a few of his men entered the area immediately as they saw Italians surrounding him at this point.

"What are you up to?", Leon asked him again in a more serious tone, wondering what's with all of the commotion.

"I want to interrogate him", Lucio finally responded, Noel shot him a dumbfounded look.

"Hold on, what do you want from him?", Lucio stared sternly at him, he was getting impatient by how hesitant Leon was.

"It's for our benefit, Mr. Cashmere", Lucio told him before ordering himself men to get Noel, they grabbed him by his arm before forcing him to stand up.

"Wait!", Noel tried to resist the men by trying to push away from them, but one of the men gripped his wrist firmly before putting him in handcuffs...what the hell was happening?!

"What the fuck, Lucio?! He's, for fuck's sake!", Leon raised his voice at him as he stood up from his seat.

"He'll be back!", Lucio said to him before walking out without another word, his men following him, taking Noel with him. Some of Leon's men tried to stop Lucio from taking Noel away, and the rest stayed to watch after him.

Leon tried to walk out the lounge room but one of his men stopped him. "Sir Cashmere, please stay back as to not have yourself at risk", he told him, they were worried this commotion will lead to an entire mafia war all over again.

"Let me fucking go!", Leon yelled at him, trying to leave, but his men continued direct him back to the seat.

"Someone needs to tell me what the fuck is going on", Leon demanded angrily, his phone rang as he reached out for his device.

"Mr.Cashmere, please don't tell me my brother took your bodyguard away from you", it was Marcello, who already knew about the plan.

"What the actual fuck is going on, Marcello? I swear if you turned your fucking back on me, I'm going to murder you", Leon threaten him harshly, Marcello sighed.

"It's not me, it's Lucio who you should to murder, he thinks your bodyguard has some tricks under his sleeves. I tried to stop him, but Lucio is just being Lucio",Marcello sounded defeated, Leon was being barricaded from his men at this point since they fear he's going to lose his life, how pathetic.

"Fuck this shit", Leon muttered under his breath, trying to calm himself down.

He hanged up the call while desperately trying to get away from his mens' attention.

He was being treated like a kid and he absolutely despised it.

°~11:26 AM~°

"Sit over there", Lucio pointed over to a chair, Noel did as told, sitting down on the seat as he was being glared at by many of the Italians around him.

The men stepped away and stayed in each corner of the room.

"Noel Rodriguez, please share with us the latest intel you gave to your boss two days ago", he started interrogating him, Noel glared at him sternly.

"What are you talking about, Mr. Mancini?", Noel asked him, he was completely confused on the entire situation.

"You knew Vincent Wales was alive, how did you know about that?", he queried at him once more, Noel stayed silent as to not cause anything.

"Mr.Rodriguez, please cooperate with me. How did you know that Vincent Wales was still alive after we saw Mr.Cashmere kill another person that exactly looked like him?", Noel remained quiet while staring at him, Lucio chuckled as he was walking around past him before he stopped in his footsteps right behind him.

He suddenly tugged on his curly hair tightly, pulling his head backwards.

"Tell me how do you know that Vincent Wales isn't dead",he mumbled coldly right next to his ear, he wanted to break himself free from the grip he had on his hair.

His handcuffed wrists reached out to pull his hand away, Lucio noticed his attempt in getting off of him, he punched him harshly on the side of his face, but he didn't let go.

"You're not getting away with this! How the fuck do you know about Vincent Wales being alive?", he hollered at him, furiously.

"How did you know about all of this, his double, the recordings, the contract, where did you get it from?", he pulled his hair even more, Noel grimaced in pain but continued to not say anything.

Lucio realized it would be difficult to get under his skin, he pulled out a gun and aimed on the side of his head.

"Tell me or you'll die", Lucio threaten him again, Noel turned his gaze towards him.

He laughed happily, smiling without fear, Lucio frowned at his facial expressions.

"You can't do that, you're putting yourself at risk of breaking your promise", Noel replied to him, the man holding the gun widened his eyes in astonishment, he was right.

He kept staring at him deeply, placing the weapon back on his pocket before kicking the table in anger.

"Fuck! Are you seriously going to keep your mouth shut?", Noel continued to stay mute as he glared at him sternly, Lucio grabbed his neck with his hand before lifting his head up to make him look at him.

"I don't have time for this...tell us what have you been up to", he demanded in a cold, chilling voice. They both get  interrupted by loud banging on the door, bursting open to see Marcello and Leon speeding up their way towards them.

"You stupid bitch! I told you to leave him alone!", Marcello came towards him before punching repeatedly in the head, Lucio stumbled back before raising his arms trying to cover himself.

"Get him out of here!", Marcello yelled back at his men, they had Noel got up from his seat before another man took the handcuffs off of wrists.

He stepped forward right next to Leon, he smiled brightly at him, acting as if he wasn't taken away to get brutally interrogated.

"Are you okay?", Leon asked him, Noel chuckled happily.

"I am, Sir Cashmere. Thank you for asking",he replied joyfully, his boss felt even more puzzled than before...was he watching a shit show or what?

"Noel, if you're actually an insane person, then say it", Leon told him sternly, he was feeling quizzical that his bodyguard clearly was acting as if nothing happened.

"What do you mean, Sir Cashmere? I haven't done anything wrong, have I?", Noel asked, Leon averted his gaze, he shouldn't have never asked him such a question...

"Let's just fucking go", Leon turned around on his heel before walking out the door, Marcello stopped him to apologize on his part for his brother's chaotic scenario.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Mancini. He's lucky enough that he isn't my enemy anymore", Leon told him before continuing down his path to get back to work since he had no plans at the moment...

But he will have a lot of plans ready for the next day.