9:21 AM
San Francisco
February
"Good morning, Sir Cashmere", Noel greeted his boss politely with a genuine smile on his face as Leon walked towards him, he was waiting for him to get out of his room, which felt like an eternity considering that he has been awake since 6 in the morning, Noel wanted to sleep as the sleep deprivation was slowly getting onto him.
"Good morning. How are you today?", Leon replied to him casually as he stared into his green eyes.
"I'm feeling quite tired but I'm able to continue throughout the day, Sir Cashmere", Noel said as he later let out a small laugh, his eyes looked over at him, Leon passed by him and was heading his way to the staircase.
"Sir Cashmere, I need to talk to you", Noel's tone suddenly changed, Leon stopped in his footsteps and turned around to see Noel leaned back against the wall staring straight into him with his arms crossed, he wasn't joking. He was being serious.
"What do you want to talk about?", Leon frowned a little as he tried to examine his bodyguard's expressions.
"The person you killed, Vincent Wales...that's not him", Noel said in a lower tone as to not let anyone else around them overhear their conversation, what...what is he saying?!
"Vincent is left handed and would always hold his gun in his left hand, the man was holding it on his right, he also has a small scar under his chin, the man didn't have it, that guy you killed is shorter than Vincent himself, and the guy was probably 3 inches shorter.He didn't have his regular old 1969 authentic watch on his left hand either", Noel went off on him immediately, he was a detective in disguise...and Leon thought he was just a regular bodyguard.
"Right. So who was he?", Leon suddenly came to the realization of that killing the guy was so easy to do, usually with facing real enemies you'll have to at least sacrifice yourself into some sort of rational life-or-death situation.
"That was his cousin, Victor Wales, since him and Vincent look the same. They're like twins", Noel replied to him, Leon felt like a train hit him in the head, he had probably messed with the wrong guy.
"Well...It is what it is", Leon told him as he turned back before finally walking towards a staircase with Noel following him.
While he may have killed the wrong guy, he didn't care.
He was an assassin anyways, so it wouldn't matter killing anyone. But maybe he did kill the right person...and Noel is just lying to him.
°~10:11 AM~°
"Good morning, Sir Cashmere", his men greeted him as he went out, he put on his mask on. He obviously couldn't be seen by anyone else in the building.
He walked all the way through the private diner area, where surprisingly a handful of people were there.
"Good morning, Mr.Cashmere! How are you in this wonderful day?", Marcello said happily, suddenly the audible voices went silent and their eyes were staring straight into Leon's soul.
"I'm fine", Leon replied flatly, one of the waitresses showed him his seat and he sat down silently before everyone in the table was gazing at him, he gave them a cold stare in return.
"He's our new ally from now on, what do you think, father?", Marcello brought along his dad, Romeo Mancini.
Romeo gave him a stern look at him, looking him up and down. "You're...Mr.Cashmere, correct?", Romeo asked him.
"Yes, sir", Leon replied to him as he placed his hand on the table.
"You are the grandson of Adrik Cashmere then", he said, the rest of the people looked over at him.
"He looks so good...", a woman said before laughing hysterically before some other women laughed along, Leon was definitely being talked about and he wasn't having any fun for it.
"Ladies, compose yourselves! You're such pieces of scum for being careless about your thoughts!", Romeo shouted angrily at the ladies, the silence rose up from the dead again and it was such a quiet ambience.
"Everyone, he's Leon Cashmere. A man who's used to not be on our side until we decided we would have to team up on our own accord", Romeo stood up and decided to do a speech, Leon felt as if it was completely unnessecary.
"I wanted to thank him, for his help and support from the Mancini family. I'm thankful for everything you've done", Romeo grinned at him frankly, Leon kept staring at him deeply.
Afterwards, everyone started clapping their hands except for Leon, who always showed apathy towards everyone.
"Now then, Let's enjoy our food", Leon decided to dig in his plate, the food was good. He decided to take a few small bites, and then looked at Noel who was standing beside him.
He decided to stare back at his food as he was eating his meal. Romeo decided to interrogate him a little.
"You speak Russian, no?", Romeo spoke to him in Russian, it appeared as if he also knew how to speak the language.
"I do speak Russian", Leon replied to him, Romeo's eyes widen a bit from astonishment.
"That's impressive", Romeo complimented him, Leon took a sip out of his drink.
"I heard you killed Vincent, correct?", Leon nodded slightly, he wanted to eat peacefully, not have someone talk to him.
"Oh...congratulations", he simply replied, he continued to try and have a conversation with him but Leon gave him simple and short answers in return.
After the entire scenario, he decided to get up and leave without a word to explore around San Francisco on his own.
°~11:54 AM~°
"Sir Cashmere, do you need anything?", Noel asked Leon as he was in the city walking around with his face mask on.
He wanted to do something on his own while he was in San Francisco, he had heard of a new building being constructed, where Romeo was going have more business, according to him.
He was building a new headquarters, which he didn't care about such thing but...he also wanted to check it out a bit.
"I do", Leon walked around all on his own, he had to sneak himself out of the hotel in order to not have his men around him trying to protect him. He never liked being supervised all day everyday.
He suddenly walked into himself all the way into in front of a construction site, where he saw the building almost done, the windows were installed, it was painted, and a lot of details was already implanted into the building.
"Let's go somewhere else", Leon told him as his eyes were staring at the unfinished structure, he decided to walk around the streets of San Francisco for a while and bought Zoey a little gift from a high end jewerly store.
"That'll be 1,437.46", the cashier said, Leon without hesitation pulled out his credit card, Noel felt paralyzed as he saw the price of two gold chains and a gold chain bracelet.
Leon swiped his card and put down his pin number in, he felt the presence of being glared at from the cashier along with his bodyguard.
"Thank you, have a nice day", the cashier shot him a fake smile as he grabbed his bag and left without another word. "Noel...", Leon called his name as they both walked out the door.
"Yes, Sir Cashmere?", Noel asked him casually, Leon's eyes stared at him attentively before crossing the street.
"I-...nevermind", Leon decided to swallow his words before silently walking around freely with Noel, he wondered what his boss what going to say but he didn't bother asking him to continue.
Leon's phone rang out of the blue and he picked up the unexpected call from Andrew.
"Sir Cashmere, we are looking for you everywhere. Where are you now?", he asked him, concerned.
"Just leave me alone. I'll be fine", Leon brushed him off, he heard a frustrated sigh from his right hand man.
"Leon. I'm being serious. We've been searching for you for almost two hours. How the hell am I supposed to be calm knowing your roaming the streets as if bitches aren't looking for you to kill you", Andrew started going off on him, he never called him by his name unless he was ticked off. He had definitely made him mad, but he never gives a shit of what the universe thinks.
"пошел на хуй (Fuck you)", Leon cursed at him before hanging up the call abruptly, he gazed over at the streets before walking across the road.
He wanted to have some freedom on his own, though he couldn't have it completely because of his bodyguard following him around like a dog.
He spent another hour walking around and trying to forget everything off of his mind since his luck wasn't having mercy on him these past few days.
He had to leave to go to Massachusetts tommorow, which he didn't mind but it meant that his daughter will either stay in the house alone with her two babysitter, servants, and his men surrounding the home or she'll get to stay with her aunt for a while.
He saw and decided to go into a building, one of the main headquarters from Vera's fashion company in San Francisco, Vera Blaine.
He knew he was doing something he wasn't supposed to do at all, but he wanted to take the risk. He wanted to mess around. He saw the building from a few blocks away, which wasn't very far.
As he got closer to the location, he saw a bunch of cars parked everywhere and he saw a bunch of people with cameras, microphones, and some had some items with a pen in their hand. "Looks like they're busy", he thought to himself as he examined his surroundings.
He got closer enough to reach the crowd along with Noel, suddenly one of the people saw him and their mouth was wide open from shock. "It's Leon Cashmere!", someone exclaimed excitedly as suddenly more faces were taking notice of his presence.
"Mr.Cashmere! Mr.Cashmere!", a lot of voices started to exclaim his name loudly, Noel tried to make a way for Leon to pass through the large amount of people hunched up like animals.
As he finally passed through the main entrance, the front doors came into view, where two women stood there in astonishment and confusion.
"W-what are you doing here?", Leon gave her cold, heartless eyes, she felt goosebumps latching onto her skin. It was the owner herself, Vera Blaine.
"I'm coming through, so if you excuse me", Leon told her in a ignorant way as he walked past her, she suddenly grips onto his arm tightly making him stop in his footsteps.
"Listen, if you're here to fuck around, I'll have you escorted out right now", she gave him a warning, Noel moved Leon to the side to push him away from her, she shot him a sharp glare.
"Oh...look who's here", another figure appeared suddenly in front of the door as it opened, he had grey hair with a side cut, square shaped glasses, hazel eyes, and was wearing a classic black suit.
"Devito Lombardi", Leon said as he slowly stepped back a little, Noel kept staring at his boss as he wondered what was he planning to do in the first place.
"Wait! Wait! Go back wherever you came from!", Devito shouted angrily, the crowd's faces stiffened as they thought the both of them got along really well.
"No, leave him be. If he's here, he's probably for Carlos", she wasn't wrong, another reason he wanted to go inside was to see another friend of his, Carlos Nodal.
They have known each other for quite a long time, and it's been a long time since they last seen each other.
"Don't you dare mess with us-", Vera walked up to him and pulled him out of the doorway before taking their leave.
"Keep yourself together, people are watching us...", she muttered under her breath as she sternly stared at the crowd, some stood there astonished of this new 'attitude' of them, which didn't look as pleasant as usual.
Leon gazed over at them before going inside, security were trying to discard of the people trying to get closer inside the building, which looked like a riot.
"Hello sir, anything we can help you with today?", the receptionist said from across the place, he looked around the building and found the person he was looking for by coincidence, his short medium brown wavy hair and green eyes noticed him in a instant.
"Leon!", he shouted before walking over to his direction and shook his hand before patting him lightly on the shoulder.
"Good to see you again! It's been 3 years since I last saw you", he beamed at him politely, his eyes met Noel's.
"And this is?", Carlos asked him curiously, Leon turned his head over his shoulder to gaze at his bodyguard who was being a formal man.
"He's my bodyguard", Carlos looked a little astonished, he furrowed his brows a bit.
"I thought you said you hated bodyguards?", he stated before turning around and they went started to walk deeper into the headquarters.
"Sir! Sir!", the receptionist tried to call out his name but another woman came in from behind her seat to shush her up.
They took an elevator and went down to a private lounge area, where only higher rank employees and associates were able to grant access.
°~12:58 PM~°
"So how's everything been? Last time I saw you was when you were at the funeral", Carlos mentioned as he took a sip of his cup of coffee.
"Right...", Leon averted his gaze as the funeral was being brought up, the funeral of her.
"Anything new happened while I was gone?", Carlos tried to ask once more, he placed his coffee on the white table in front of them, he wanted to know how much of his friend's life has changed since he was absent for the past few years.
"I wouldn't agree with that in this case" he briefly replied to him, Carlos chuckled joyfully.
"I heard you had a daughter, is that true?", Carlos asked him happily, Leon silently nodded his head.
"Congratulations! Just one step ahead all of us", Carlos happily said as he clapped cheerfully.
"I still haven't had kids yet, who's your new wife? If you don't mind me asking, of course", Carlos had assured his friend finally moved on and had a kid with someone else, which wasn't true at all.
"No one", Carlos gave him a puzzled expression in return as he rested his arms on his elbows on his knees, clasping his hand together.
"What is this supposed to mean?", Carlos queried at him as he slightly raised his eyebrow.
"I adopted her", Leon replied, Carlos finally understood.
"Oooh, got it. So you're raising her on your own?", Leon nodded his head, Carlos smiled again as he got himself comfortable in his seat.
"Oh wait-someone's calling me, I have to go now. I'll talk to you another time, I promise. Thank you for stopping by after all!", Carlos beamed as he waved at him before walking out the door.
"He left his coffee over here", Leon thought as he saw the unfinished cup of coffee going cold.
"Noel", his bodyguard went inside the room, Leon moved his head to stare at him.
"I want to talk to you about what you said this morning", Leon told him coldly, Noel shut the door behind him before pulling out his cellphone.
He got his screen ready to show him something unexpected, that'll eventually get him to believe everything he says is the truth.
"Here, this is Vincent", Leon gazed at him puzzled, he already knew what he looked like, so why was he showing him of a surveillance picture of Vincent Wales walking out of a liquor store?
He examined the picture and looked at the date on the bottom right where the photograph was taken, it was recent. They took it two days ago, the same day he had actually killed his "double" and not Vincent himself.
"What if it's edited?", Leon asked him, he still was hesitant about it.
Noel then pulled out an audio recording and played it so they could both hear it clearly.
"Vincent Wales, on this day, where we both find out that your warehouse was raided by some...Italians. Nobody knows who these people are, but here we are, trying to look at our options to find and capture the main culprit behind this horrible mess", the voice said in the recording calmly, they could hear Vincent's sarcastically laughing.
"Do you know how much money I have lost from this?!! There's no way that I can get ass kicked behind my back and let these little fuckers get away!", Vincent shouted and he heard his hands slam against a table, full of rage and agony, just what Leon wanted to hear.
"I know this is such a surprise to us, especially considering you had over more than 10 million dollars worth of drugs and weapons. We'll find those pieces of shit and get them done with. Once we have them gift wrapped with a little bow, I'll invite you to the celebration", the man in the recording said, Vincent sighed frustratedly.
"You better keep your word, because once you fail me, you're not crawling out alive", Vincent threaten the guy harshly, the recording finally came into a halt and silence sang at top of their lungs.
"This was a conversation he had with W.I.N's right hand man 18 hours ago", Noel explained to him, Leon stared at him once more, trying to look at his expression to see if he was hiding something under his sleeve.
"What if the recording wasn't from Vincent and from someone else?", Leon wanted to be fully sure, he needed to know whether he could really trust him.
Noel moved his screen to show the surveillance footage of the previous audio recording.
"I need physical evidence", Noel searched in his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, it was a contract from EXCEED with Vincent's signature on it.
"It's a copy from the contract Vincent signed yesterday with EXCEED, to capture the people who raided his warehouse", Noel said as he gave it out to Leon, he grabbed it and read through it cautiously.
"Are you sure you're not lying?", Leon still insisted on believing him, Noel sighed deeply before glaring at him in the eye.
"Sir Cashmere, how would I show you so much evidence and still have the audacity to say that I'm lying to your face? This doesn't make sense", Noel told him in a firm voice.
"Your intentions don't make sense. What are you up to with all of this?", Leon replied to him emotionlessly while leaning back against the couch, crossing his arms as he locked his eyes into Noel's.
"I'm protecting you, Sir Cashmere. That's my job, it's also on the contract to not keep any confidential information to ourselves. If you don't want help, then I will keep my mouth shut", he offered him, he was being serious about this.
"Then tell me how did you get the copy", Leon demanded, while giving him a suspicious look.
"One of the spies from EXCEED gave the digital copy to me through my computer and my cell phone, and I printed it out last night", Noel explained to him in details, how did he get a printer inside of the hotel room?
"How did you get your hands on a printer? You know you need to get into an office that would be able to have the machine inside", Leon interrogated him at this point.
"I had to secretly get inside a manager's office, the one in the cooking department to be exact", Noel replied to him, his answers were straightforward and his demeanor seemed to be determined to convince him he was a man of his word.
"Show me the digital copy you have on your phone", his boss continued, he's really into details.
Noel without second thought looked through his phone until he found the copy on his phone and he displayed it to him.
Leon peered at it for details of it being fake, but it wasn't. It seemed like a real document. Leon holded his phone to take a closer look to see if his mind was playing tricks on him, but no...it was a real digital document of the contract.
"Can I trust you?", Leon stared into his eyes deeply, he passed the device back to him.
"You can trust me in anything, Sir Cashmere", Noel replied to him, he seemed straightforward and was actually a very independent person unlike the others.
"You're sure you are going to keep your word?", Leon asked once more, Noel nodded his head in affirmation.
"I'll keep my word, Sir Cashmere", Leon sighed, he had to get all of the information that Noel had from wherever he got the intel from to his allies and seize a plan of action.
"Good", Leon rose up to his feet and patted his bodyguard's shoulder lightly.
"Let us go", Leon commanded as Noel reached the door knob and opened the door for Leon.
Maybe he was a trustworthy person after all...