Hearing that familiar voice using such an unfamiliar tone, the bad kind of chills shot up the poor woman's spine, and before her brain could even register what was happening, her gut reflex had already pressed the hang-up button.
Noah's sister clutched at her chest, cold sweat rolling down the sides of her face, 'What the fuck was that?!?'
Well, obviously, that was her fiancé. Asking a very mundane question. The problem was his tone! 'How come– how come his tone sounded… sounded…! Sounded so' – cold shivers once again traveled down her body – 'pampering??'
She must have heard it wrong!!
…though that did explain why her soul nearly leaped out of her body in fright back then. Who wouldn't crap their pants in horror if a ferocious, bloodthirsty shark suddenly started to smile?!? The image was the stuff of nightmares!! Run! Run for your life, little cannon fodder! 😱
Even now, her heart was beating wildly as if she had been watching a horror movie!
Good thing she called her little bro to probe for Levi's mood! If she had called her fiancé directly, she might have gotten her head bitten off!
The pale-faced sister puffed out a few hot breaths of air and then remembered that her hang-up was a bit too abrupt, so she quickly sent her little bro her apologies, "Sorry, bro, gotta go! Talk to you later!"
Noah speechlessly stared at his light screen interface. What just happened? Why did his sister suddenly hang up without a word? Why did it seem like she was avoiding brother-in-law? Did the two of them have a fight?
Noah closed the light interface and turned to face the approaching Levi. Seeing his brother-in-law's excellent mood, Noah thought he must be overthinking it. How would the groom be in such a good mood if he had a dispute with the bride days before the wedding?
Naturally, the answer to that question was very simple – the mentioned groom was, of course, in a great mood, thinking about how he would be sharing a bed with his baby in the complete privacy of the presidential suite for several days! How would this hungry wolf not be beside himself with joy thinking about the upcoming juicy "feast"?
***
When Noah and Levi towed their suitcases downstairs, what was waiting for them in the foyer was a whole entourage of stern men in black, looking like a group of army veterans in a bad disguise. It was as if someone dressed up a bunch of macho men in black suits in a comical attempt to pass them off as refined gentlemen.
In other words, yep, they looked exactly how Noah imagined the men sent by Levi's general of a father would look like.
No, wait! At second glance, the word 'men' wasn't quite accurate. After all, though it might be hard to tell, there was also a middle-aged aunty among them with impressive chest muscles.
No, wait, wait! Not all of them were Levi's men! Noah gaped, "Trey?? What are you doing here? Why are you not in the hospital resting?"
It would seem that while Noah was packing, Trey had arrived to join their bodyguard entourage.
How and why?
Well, this morning, Trey accidentally found out his young master would be attending Levi's bachelor party. And how could he possibly rest at ease with his innocent young master surrounded with no backup in enemy territory?! Without him there to guard his young master's chastity, what if this fiend of a brother-in-law kidnapped him to do something unspeakable?
So what if the hospital refused to discharge him? 'Hmph! I can still leave whenever I want!' is what Trey thought as he wrapped himself in his own shield and jumped out of the 5-story-high window like a fugitive on the run.
Blackie, "…" (≖_≖)
What have we learned from this incident?
It takes years to raise a gentleman, but only a few days to turn one into a rogue! In other words, kids, don't learn from Levi's lousy example! Just look at Trey, such a pure and honest gentleman learned to act shamelessly in mere three days of bad influence!
"Young master, I was discharged from the hospital this morning." It would seem that spending a few days with Levi made Trey pick up more than just a thing or two, because, though lying through his teeth, his smile seemed very reassuring, "And since I am perfectly fine, there is no reason for me to not report to my post."
"They discharged you already?" Noah's eyebrows furrowed in worry, "I think it would be better if you took a few days off to rest and recuperate."
"No need," Trey waved off Noah's decisively, "This bachelor party sounds like fun. How could I possibly miss it?" Trey's eyes locked with Levi's. The look they shared was only understood by the two of them.
Levi's lip twitched, "This party might be a bit 'too fun' for you to take in your current state."
"My state is good; thank you for your concern," Trey smiled perfunctorily.
Noah scratched his head sheepishly, "What brother-in-law means is that this might get dangerous… this party…" Noah sighed, then motioned Trey to come closer. When Trey leaned in, Noah whispered near his ear, "We are expecting the terrorists to crash the party."
The hair's on the back of Trey's neck rose but not due to Noah's words but due to his warm breath tickling his ear. He caught Levi's black face from the corner of his eye and barely suppressed a smirk, "All the more reason why I should come along. More Shielders are always better than less."
"I guess that's true…" Noah hesitated; Trey should be resting, but… he could understand why Trey was so insistent on coming along. If it was him in Trey's place, he would have wanted to see this case to its end too. Trey had followed them through this entire investigation and even gotten hurt due to the terrorists; how would he be willing to stay at the sidelines now when they were about to catch the culprits?
To be the only one of the quartet left out…
He'd be really sad, no?
"Alright, you can come along, but take it easy. Don't overexert yourself." Noah caved in, much to Trey's delight and Levi's displeasure.
The former smiled radiantly, while the latter looked as if he had just swallowed a pot full of vinegar.
Great! Just great! Levi ground his teeth. Another cockblocker! And just when he had finally gotten rid of Cordia daddy!
***
Noah's plan to capture the terrorists started with Noah and Levi posting a status update on their social network last night, seemingly in order to appease their family and friends.
This status update basically thanked everyone for their concern and assured them that both Noah and Levi were fine. In fact, they were 'so fine' that they would still be holding the bachelor party 'as planned', the day after tomorrow. They even gave the terrorists a day worth of leeway, worried that they wouldn't have enough time to set up their nefarious sniping.
This 'planned' bachelor party would be held in Astar family's mountain resort made of two skyscrapers situated on top of a tall snowy mountain.
The reason why the trio had chosen this place to stage their plot was due to its tactical aspects. To catch their sniper, they needed to be able to predict his movement. And the venue where they would be holding the bachelor party was thus set as the rooftop condo on the east skyscraper which was directly facing the other skyscraper. Due to this, the only place from which one could snipe this rooftop party was, naturally, from the only other rooftop on the entire mountain – the top of the west skyscraper.
In other words, if their sniper wanted to crash this party, they would need to camp at the other rooftop.