Arkham held the empty water glasses in his hand like an expert. Well, he was trained for it, and it's literally his job.
"I'll be back with your water in a minute." The butler promised before he speed walked down the hallway.
"Thanks!" Mar called after him before he slammed the door shut.
The platinum blond alpha smiled slightly when his eyes landed on his companion again. Beautiful magenta eyes met his blue ones once more, and Mar dropped himself on the couch with Liam.
The taller alpha didn't waste any time pulling his best friend closer. With his face nuzzled into the other alpha's hair, Liam began releasing his pheromones.
It's gonna be okay. Everything will work out one way or another. That's the message he's hoping to convey.
The scent of vetiver joined cedarwood in the air around them, making the platinum blond alpha calm down a little even though his best friend's pheromones was one of distressed.
At least they're still communicating.
"I think he'll understand." Liam mumbled. Even he himself thinks that he's too optimistic, but always give people the benefit of the doubt. There's no guarantee that people would do the same to him, but... This is Arkham. They have proof of him being suspicious, so if he's not cooperating, they can always flip the scene.
For some reason, his best friend began chuckling; the sound of his laugh rumbled throughout both of them.
"This entire thing is fucking ridiculous." The black haired alpha shook his head in amusement.
Liam wanted to ask what thing, but then his mind supplied him with everything that happened in the past few weeks up to this point in time. All the love making, all the lies, all the loopholes they hopped to get out of trouble...
Shit, what are they gonna do with the condoms?
A knock was heard from their door before it was opened again. Arkham peeked his head inside as if he's in a cartoon. His green eyes blinked at them for a bit until Mar waved for him to come inside.
With two bottles of water in hand, the butler placed them on the coffee table. Meanwhile, the black haired alpha got up from the couch, and he began pacing the room.
The poor butler looked so confused when Liam got shot him a nervous smile. "So... Arkham, buddy, we need to talk."
"Yes?" The butler tried to smile back, but it only added to the tension than make anything better.
"You know what, let's cut the formality for convince's sake." Mar let out a sigh before he sat down on his bed, where countless paintings were still left to dry behind him. "Arkham, we don't know your real name yet, but we're just calling you Arkham for now. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is in here? I don't know how much money you get for doing this or any of your intentions, but damn, we lost count of how many workers were disposed of, and we don't want to add you to the tally."
We?
Liam kept his mouth shut. He didn't agree to any of this, but at look at his companion said that Mar is speaking for both of them. Like a loyal little friend he is, the platinum blond alpha played along.
A nervous chuckle rang out from the butler in between both of them.
"I signed an NDA with Petrov, I know what I'm getting into when I applied to be a butler here." Arkham responded, and his greene eyes moved from Liam to the black haired alpha. "I appreciate your help when my sister unexpectedly visited—"
"All of you don't exist." Liam deadpanned. His blue eyes met violet ones, and Mar nodded to give him permission to continue. "We don't care where you're coming from or what you're gonna do, buddy, but you gotta get outta here. When Petrov catches up on you, it won't be fun."
"We're not forcing you to do anything, but..." Mar bounced off the bed, and he was pacing the room once more. That's something that he tends to do when he's nervous, along with having his slender fingers fiddling with something. "But think of it like this. If you quit your job, the possibility of you dying won't be so high."
Blue eyes watched the new butler's every move. From the way he gulped, to the way his bright green eyes dilated between the two alphas, everything seemed so calculated.
Ah, such a good actor he is, isn't he? All that innocence is just a facade.
"I can't simply leave, young masters." A strained smile came on Arkham's lips, different from his usual customer service one. "I appreciate that you care about my safety, but I am here for Young Master Tian Jun Devin. As long as he's here, I will be, too. I'm sure you can understand."
Oh.
Ooooh.
Liam's bottom lip fell open, and he craned his neck to look at his companion. The black haired alpha blinked back at him from wide eyes.
The silence broke when Mar nodded his head. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense."
No, it doesn't. The taller alpha needs to talk to his partner after the butler left, but for now. He's just playing along.
If Arkham is working for Tian, then it makes sense why he had to make time to meet with his boss; thus, they found Arkham collecting dishes longer than he should from Tian's room. The platinum blond alpha thought that poor Arkham had to deal with Tian's mood swings from the pheromones that stuck onto his being after his visit to the omega's room, but in actuality, Arkham is the source of the mood swings.
A while ago, Liam thought that poor little Arkham had a crush on the ever elegant Tian Jun, but that doesn't seem to be the case now.
As to why Tian is implanting his own spies in the mansion?
The answer is more complicated than Liam would like to think about, and he usually takes the surface level fact that Tian Jun had no reason to. Diving deeper into that mess, one could say that Tian is ambitious.
Also, if Arkham is working for Tian Jun, then what about his fake sister and her fiance?
Many more questions ran through his head, but Liam forced himself to focus on the situation at hand.
"Did you manage to talk to your sister since her visit?" Mar's question was rather casual. The tone switch was casual enough to be suspicious, but the tall alpha didn't point it out. Instead, he nodded like he had all the answers in the world.
The butler remained quiet.
"I guess that answer is no." The platinum blond alpha grinned before he took out his phone.
After unlocking his screen, he placed it on the coffee table in front of the butler.
"A friend of Tian is a friend of ours." Mar made his way to the coffee where the phone was placed. "We have Ruby's and Celesto's numbers. You can tell them your current circumstance. Tell them the reason you're texting from our phones."