Chapter 26

9:52 AM

Boston, Massachusetts

February

(TW: mentions of suicide!)

"Sir Cashmere, are you ready?", one of Leon's men asked him before placing his black, simple luggage into the truck of his car. "We're ready", Leon replied to him before sighing, he was about to leave Boston afterwards what happened last night, they had a previous meeting and they all agreed to move back to LA, where he can finally see his daughter.

"Alright, let's go!", Leon commanded towards the other guys firmly, they all rushed inside of their vehicles.

Leon's bodyguard who was next to him, Noel opened the door for him, his boss got inside without another word.

"Good morning, Sir Cashmere. Ready to go home?", Alvarez spoke to him politely, Leon stared at him deeply.

"I'm ready", Leon turned his head to look out the window as the car door closed, Noel went around before getting inside, sitting right next to him.

He was definitely still tired after the entire ordeal, having to go on missions constantly.

He wanted to give up any some points in his life, but he knows what he got himself into being a mafia leader who's heart never cares about the world.

As he was getting profound into his thoughts, his cellphone started ringing relentlessly. He picked his device to see it was a call from his dear old friend...Parker.

"Good morning, princess", his enthusiastic voice called out to him, he felt the irritation he would always get from this man it was outrageous.

"What's up with your fucking embarrassing pick up lines, huh? At least talk to me with common sense", Leon replied to him arrogantly, looking out the window as he saw the highway full of cars and staring at the tall luminous glass buildings around the city.

"Goddammit...Why the hell can I not joke around with you at least once? Fuck how I missed the all of the times you used to not take a joke seriously", Parker complained in response, playfulness has been his charm since he was a kid, but he knows to get serious when he needs to be.

"Whatever... I just wanted to know if you were fine. Also wanted to tell you, Zoey is staying with me for now since Anya told me you sent her a message telling her to drop her off over here? What's up with that?", Parker asked him curiously, he didn't mind having his daughter over where he was, but he knew something was wrong.

"Just take care of her for me...", Leon replied ignored his question blatantly, his friend sighed deeply.

"I'll take care of her, don't worry but...is there something going on?", his friend asked again, completely puzzled about the situation.

"I rather not talk about it", he told him more sternly, Parker sighed frustrated, knowing how hard it is to get him to open up.

"Fine. This is fucking weird though, you can't just drop you're here without telling me why. I gotta go. Take care, man", Parker hung up without another word, Leon placed his cellphone back in his pocket. He took notice that Parker actually listened to him for once, which is quite astonishing. He knew once he went back towards back to LA, it was going to be extravagantly chaotic.

°~5:56 PM~°

"Hold on, Zoey! You're dad is here", Parker told her as he went towards the door where the housemaid opened the door for him to see Leon, he extended his arms before hugging him gently.

"Nice to see you again", Parker said, happily before gazing towards Noel, who greeted him politely.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Klein", Noel smiled at him brightly, Parker walked up towards him before shaking his hand.

"Good afternoon, man. Zoey, guess who's here?", Parker went back inside the home before Zoey stood there, her eyes widening in shock as she saw his father whom she missed very much.

"Dad!", she screamed happily as her hands dropped her teddy bear to the floor, she went to hug him tightly, Leon picked her up in his arms again, the love he had for her was unconditional.

"Good Afternoon, sweetie", Leon smiled at her delightfully, the joy he felt knowing she was fine was a relief.

As they all went upstairs, Parker suddenly stopped by his office, his hand reached for the door handle, he turned back to look towards the small little girl.

"Where's Fionna?", Parker asked him curiously as he was looking around, she came from towards the hallway, waving towards them.

"Fionna, please take of her for us. We need to discuss something important", Zoey turned towards Fionna, she signaled her to go to her, she ran away towards her happily.

"Let's go draw, ok? Follow me, Zoey", Fionna said joyfully, smiling brightly towards the kid as they both walked away.

"Noel, stay by the door", Leon directed his bodyguard, Noel nodded his head in response.

Parker finally opened the door before getting inside, walking towards his desk. He sat down in a chair, Leon closed the door shut before going towards a seat, sitting down.

"Why did you bring Zoey here?", Leon kept quiet towards the unexpected question. "Why is this your primary concern?", Leon replied to him, quite bothered.

"Oh, I thought you were going to tell me. So I'm going to act like a fucking dumbass and pretend that you didn't drop your kid off to my place without the reason why", Parker said sarcastically as he was looking away from his friend since he was already irritated.

"What? Did I become a babysitter to you?"Leon gazed at him coldly, not saying a word.

"I know she's safe when you're around. If I leave her with just my guards and her babysitter...you never know"he tried to explain, not trying to get to his friend's point.

"Leon, so you're telling me the only reason you brought her here is because you don't trust the people who you pay with your own money to protect your home?", Parker questioned him in disbelief, something wasn't adding up, and he was sure it wasn't going to be easy trying to get answers.

"This doesn't make any fucking sense", Parker told him firmly, Leon kept himself quiet from not causing any commotion.

"Leon, what the hell is happening?", Parker gave him a cold glare while placing his hands together on the back of the table, he gave him a cold stare back.

"I told you to take care of her, and you did. It's not your business to the reasons why, when I tell you to do it, you do it", Leon told him seriously, his friend didn't take him well.

"Oh so that's how you take me? I can't be nice to you because you'll take advantage of me! Do you want me to start being a fucking bitch to you?! I can be bitch if you goddamn want", Parker started yelling at him angrily, Leon realized he shouldn't have said what he said...Parker is his childhood friend who's always had his back since they were kids, it sounded as if he was using him for his own benefit.

"Anya told my daughter about my earlier suicide attempt! Alright? She knows and I didn't want her to know..", Leon blurted out before staring down at the floor, his eyes furrowed before placing his hand over his mouth.

"Wait- wait- what?!", Parker sounded quite astounded, his astonished expression proved it.

"Leon. You could've told me that instead of what you told me earlier", Parker replied to him while getting comfortable in his chair.

"I apologize", Leon said, Parker felt more shocked that he apologized, he never does.

"It's okay but, for God's sake, please know how to say shit right", his friend advised him, " About your daughter, do you want to talk about it with her? She's still a little kid, she can't be hearing all of that right now. It's later going to affect her".

"And that's what I don't want. I can't have her know that- ...you know", Leon responded to him quietly, taking a deep breath, he was angry with his aunt.

"Hey, it's okay. Even if she gets mad or worried, assure her you're strong for her, even you can't keep going on",  Parker saw his friend's hand placed on the table, he reached out to hold his hand gently, placing his palm over his.

His strong, serious gaze from before softened, Parker gave him a warm smile, they both fight like rabid cats and dogs, but at the end of the day, they're still meant to be close friends until the end.

"Alright, moving on to the attacks in Massachusetts. How did it go?", Parker asked him curiously as he gazed towards his friend, resting his chin on his other hand.

"It was smooth. The building of W.I.N is destroyed, killed a target, I killed the supposedly "double" of Vincent Wales, raided his warehouse", Leon decided to go into detail, Parker carefully listened to him.

"Cool shit. You know about the 5 million dollars, guess what? I got them back", Parker announced to him proudly, Leon's eyes widened slightly.

"You know I was going to get them back, alive or not", Parker told him as he let go of his hand before standing up, walking over to his friend's seat.

"Marcello called me, he wanted to meet up with us tomorrow. You coming?", he queried at him, sitting on top of his desk.

"I have no choice", his friend responded to him, sighing deeply.

"We'll talk about the plans in defeating W.I.N, we need a way we'll get intel from him directly. If we let him run us over, we will all be dead by now", his friend gazed at him, he needed a strategy to get to W.I.N and kill him, yet his minds felt blank until...he got an idea.

"I know who can help us with that"he  told him as realization hit him, his bodyguard's friend, Denise Villatoro.

"Who is it?", Parker frowned at his confession, looking up at him attentively.

"Denise Villatoro, Noel's friend. She works for EXCEED, she's the one who told Noel about the "double" of Vincent Wales. We might have to interrogate her to get us to where we need to be", Leon explained to him, placing his hand on his chin.

"Alright, I'll have her noted to get her information-", Parker messaged his secretary to get the intel, bit he later gets interrupted as Leon gave him a warning.

"Try to be secretive as possible. If they find out we have her in our hands, it's over for us and her", Leon warned him firmly, Parker looked at him directly before nodding his head in affirmation.

"Got you. Aside from that, I think that's all I wanted to talk to you about", Parker said as he got off his desk and went for the door. His friend stood up as he walked out of his office to be met by his bodyguard and...Julian?!

"Buenas Tardes, Mr. Cashmere. How've you been?", Leon stared at him coldly before crossing his arms.

"Fine", he simply replied, Parker followed him as he started to hold his hand again, Leon turned his head to gaze at him before squeezing his hand delicately.

"Where's Zoey?", Parker asked as he went deeper into the hallway, he later noticed the lounge area he has had people, Leon's daughter and Fionna.

They were coloring peacefully, she turned around before smiling towards his father joyfully.

"Dad, look at this. It's an angel", Leon releases the grip from Parker's hand to step closer towards his daughter, she drew an angel with pink wings.

Noel stood beside the entrance of the lounge area, Parker started to enter but suddenly a hand crept up on top of his shoulder, he looked over to see Julian.

"I need to talk to you", Parker scoffed playfully, what is he saying at this point?

"What do you need to talk about?", Parker queried at him, puzzled.

"I'll tell you, come with me", Julian forcefully took grip of his shoulder before taking him away.

"Shit, leave the fuck alone! I can walk by myself, bastard", Parker insulted him angrily before punching him in the arm aggressively.

Julian felt hurt by the sudden gesture he did, they went all the way back to his office, when it's not one thing it's always another...