Chapter 22 Noah
It was about a week later when I got the call from Leo to meet with him and follow up on our last conversation. As I'd already stepped down from my own company and had only been waiting on this last part to be taken care of before I left for good, it was no hassle to meet with him the next morning.
As my car was waved through the gate to his place, I marveled at the beauty of his property. Trees and flowers of every color and species abounded, Ivy crawling up the stone walls and making it look like I'd entered some kind of fairytale forest with a random house in the middle of it. It wasn't what you'd expect the seemingly cold leader of a mob to have his house look, but it also seemed to fit him, once you knew him a little more.
I parked and walked up to the front door, startling a little when it opened before I could reach it. A sense of deja vu filled me, and a flitting memory of the man standing at the door filled my head. Amnesia was a weird thing- you could get all your biggest lost memories back at once, but the smaller ones tended to take a little effort to recall.
I racked my brain for the name of the man at the door all the way up there, and thankfully remembered just in time to greet him. "Marcus, you're looking well."
"Thank you sir, as are you."
"I certainly hope so," I responded as I passed him. "I'm not totally sure where I'm going, care to show me?"
"Of course." I followed Marcus, the man who handled everything of Leo's that wasn't business, down a couple hallways until we came to the dark wooden doors that I remembered led to Leo's office.
I thanked Marcus and turned the knob after a couple quick knocks, walking in to see Leo leaning on a corner of his desk, X sitting in a chair nearby. They both held a drink in their hands, and I declined the offer for my own once Leo offered.
"Take a seat," Leo said in a mild voice, motioning to the empty chairs scattered around his office. I took one that was somewhere in the middle of Leo and X, noting the smug look on X's face. I gave him a short nod, but didn't say anything as I didn't want to burst whatever psychotic bubble he was currently living in.
"Now," Leo continued, "it seems as though we have an issue, and I would like to get it all sorted out and then move along."
"Yes, I believe you're quite right," X chimed in, side-eyeing me. It made my blood boil, knowing that he'd done everything in his power to get rid of me and make me look guilty, but I figured Leo had a plan and I didn't want to fuck it up so I stayed silent.
"X, my old friend, what would you say should become of someone who has betrayed a business partner?" Even though Leo spoke the question to X, his eyes held my own. I calmly sat there, waiting to see how X was planning to condemn me.
"Well now, how bad is it? If it was a mistake, and the first one at that, I could see a little lenience going a long way. But then again, I could also argue that a betrayal is a conscious choice and not a mistake- and a choice that deserves the highest of punishments, at that." X played his role well, I had to give him that. A little bit of thoughtfulness in his voice, like he actually had sympathy for the fool. But there was a note of glee in his last words that even he could not hide.
I wasn't sure exactly what I had ever done to him to make him want to get rid of me so badly, but it seemed to be that nearly losing my life wasn't enough for him.
"I see," Leo commented before finally breaking eye contact with me and going around to sit at his desk. He pressed a button on his desk, and a moment later, a couple of his guards came in and stood in the corner silently. "Well Noah, do you have anything to say for yourself?"
I glanced over at X and didn't miss the second of confusion at Leo calling me Noah instead of Slate, but he rid himself of the look to replace it with undisguised hunger to hear my defense.
"The only thing I really have to say is that I agree with what X said. Seems only fair; betraying you was never a smart idea in the first place."
"Too true. Guards, please get him out of my sight."
X chuckled with victory, but only for the moment it took Leo's guards to walk over to him and grab his arms. His face paled immediately, looking quickly between myself and Leo.
"B-but, I thought... No, wait!"
"I have been waiting very patiently, X. I have never trusted you, but you nearly had me fooled. And I don't care to be made to look the fool. Your scheming and outright cruelty has finally caught up to you, and I can say that it gives me immense pleasure to rid you of my life, once and for all." A wave of his hand had the guards wrestling X from his chair and carrying him away, his voice and cries for mercy echoing down the hall until he was out of our ear shot.
"Immense pleasure, huh? I get the feeling there's something deeper there I don't know about."
"I'm not sure what you mean," he responded in short, cold tone. I decided to leave it, not wanting to test him. We were on fairly good terms but I knew that could change at any time.
"Hmm. Either way, thank you. I'm assuming I don't have to worry about him anymore?"
"Not at all. I will make sure he is taken care of. And in repayment, I expect that, before you leave to find whoever it is you pine for when no one's looking, the old building for the nuns will be restored?"
Ignoring his comment about my daydreaming of Olivia and Mason, I nodded. "I will make sure it happens."
"Well then," Leo said with a hand slap to the desk, "I suppose our business has concluded. If you need something, don't hesitate to let me know."
"Likewise," I said with a shake to his outstretched hand.
I left his house, and with the knowledge that all I had to do was talk to Desmond to get the building restored and then I could finally, finally, get back to the two people I loved, my steps quickened with excitement and nerves at how they would receive me when I showed up again.