Incident
THE DOOR'S LOCKED, and Kael doesn't know how to pick locks. Alec does, but he isn't there to help. Knowing Alec, he'd only help if Kael gave him an acceptable reason. A good acceptable reason.
Anyway, the door's locked, and the only option is the window. The problem is, his room is on the third floor of the mansion, with no nearby tree to climb down from. Jumping isn't an option, with how high the second floor from the ground, he might crack a bone or two. The only good thing about his room is that the window faces the backside. No servants or maids went there all afternoon while he was scheming.
Kael waited until the sky grew dark. Laian visited to bring his dinner, which he happily—almost suspiciously, took from her. After brainstorming while munching, he came up with a brilliant plan.
It was almost 7 pm. Kael gathered all the sheets he could find in the room, from the closet to the bed. He tied them end to end until they formed a long rope.
"Now, where am I going to tie this?" he mumbled, searching for something to secure the end.
His face brightened when he spotted the large bed. To test whether it could hold him during his escape, he tried to push the bed, which of course didn't move. Happy, Kael tied one end of the sheet to the foot of the bed and gathered the rest to throw it outside the window.
He secured his phone in his pocket before climbing down the window using the makeshift rope. It was a little short, but he managed to jump the rest of the way to the ground.
Crossing over the gate wasn't a problem, he was a veteran at crossing school gates during his high school days. Good thing he remembers the way they pass through the day Ms. Jang drove him. Now that he was outside the mansion's premises, a cab conveniently passed by, so he hailed it to take him to their meeting place.
He didn't know at first, but it was a club. The loudness of the music could be heard outside, and he could tell it was a famous one because of the long line at the entrance that it took him a while to get in. And when he did, the deafening beat of the music welcomed him, along with the dim surroundings and the disco lights.
A crowd of people was partying on the dance floor. To avoid most of the crowd, he went to the bar, where the bartender was busy mixing drinks.
"Espresso Martini," Kael ordered as soon as he reached the counter.
"You really have your way to fuck my night, don't you, K?"
"Oh! It's you, T!" Kael exclaimed, as if surprised. He had already seen Tairon from the moment he came in. "You're working at a bar now?" he grinned, enjoying the annoyed look on Tairon's face.
"Don't piss me off. You know what I'm doing," Tairon answered as he moved his hand to mix a drink.
"Of course! I can even mix a Ramos Gin Fizz for you."
Tairon threw him a glare, poured the drink into a glass, and slid it to Kael, who quickly stopped it.
"VIP 3, I reserved the room. Wait for me there," Tairon said before leaving to serve another customer who had just arrived.
Left alone by his friend, Kael drank the drink he ordered in one go and left to search for the room. Kael wasn't a light drinker, in fact, his tolerance for alcohol was even better than those Alphas he knew back in Germany. But as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. When he got drunk, he did extensive silly things, which is why Alec would always volunteer to stay sober whenever they had a victory party with their co-racers.
Kael asked for directions from the club staff. After a couple of searches, he found it. Entering the door, the lights were on. The room was spacious and had a long sofa in a U shape. At the center was a glass table with a bottle of whiskey, a glass, and an ice bucket on top of it.
Pleased, Kael changed the lights from white to disco lights then made himself comfortable on the sofa, pouring himself a glass of whiskey. He drank it in one shot, feeling the warm burning sensation go down his throat. Ha, peaceful at last.
By the time Tairon arrived in the room, Kael had already emptied the bottle by half.
"Took you long enough. How about another bottle? For extra?" Kael said, drinking the last glass of whiskey.
Tairon put on a displeasing look but fetched one anyway. Kael took it as soon as he came back in the room and poured himself and Tairon a glass.
"Ice or nah?"
"With ice," Tairon answered. "I know you have a high tolerance for alcohol, but you're no immortal. Don't get drunk. Alec's not here. I don't want to take care of your drunk ass."
Kael just gave him a wink and raised his glass to toast with him. And like the other glass of whiskey, he poured it down his throat in one go.
"What do you want?" Tairon initiated the conversation, his eyes stayed on his glass of whiskey.
Upon hearing it, Kael put on a serious face and poured himself another drink. "What do I want?" He repeated, took a sip from his glass, his eyes wandering around the room. "You know about it. Why didn't you tell me?"
"You can't answer a question with another question."
"I already did." Kael's eyes moved to give Tairon a glance. The atmosphere around Kael changed, from the silly air earlier to a heavy dark aura. His playful smile had also disappeared.
Tairon rolled his eyes to look away, a grunt escaping his lips. "A day before I arrived here in New York."
"And that was?"
He heard Tairon let out a defeated sigh. "A year ago."
Tairon watched as Kael nodded in response, shook his glass a bit before pouring the liquid in his throat.
Hearing no reply from Kael, Tairon spoke. "I was planning on telling you—"
"But?" Kael interrupted.
"But I don't think it would be a good idea if you were to come here." He watched as Kael's eyebrows furrowed. "I intend not to tell you but..." Tairon let out a scoff. "...you find out anyway."
Tairon watched as the Omega's jaw clenched. "Why? You know I would love the idea of having a sibling more than anything. Why would you hide it?"
"The situation wasn't easy, okay. Kaisen was caught in trouble and now someone wanted to silence him. The fact that he had gone missing, how am I supposed to tell you?"
Kael faced Tairon with concerned eyes. "Did he do something wrong? How long has he been missing?"
"That... I'm not sure. By the time I came here, he was always in his suite. And there are a lot of whispers about him so I tried and managed to meet him... kind of."
"Kind of, huh?" Kael sniggered.
"It was just that one time. Don't make fun of me. I was just concerned because he's your family."
"I'm not, really, I'm not. You really didn't consider telling me and yet you meet up with him. Thanks, friend."
"I'm sorry, okay."
"Tsk, fine. Apology accepted and forgiven. So what happened?"
"Apparently, your fame hasn't reached New York yet, so I told him about you, showed him proof, and gave him ideas on how to reach you. Haa, since you're already here, I hope you can manage."
"You mentioned about someone wants to silence him. If it really came to that, your words, I'm no immortal'. How can I manage?"
"I know you can! Compared to your dainty twin brother, you're a prodigy at escaping life and death situations, after all." Tairon finally emptied his glass, so Kael poured him another.
"Prodigy, my ass," he retorted. "Now, where is he? He told me to meet him, but he didn't show up."
"Well..." Tairon downed the drink before continuing, "he disappeared. As to how, I don't know."
Kael gave him a disappointed look. "Dude, you're getting rusty," he commented, half joking. "The infamous intelligence gatherer isn't so intelligent anymore."
Pissed, Tairon picked an ice cube from the bucket and threw it at Kael, who avoided it while laughing, still making fun of him.
"Your mouth, really. What if someone's listening?" He warned.
The Omega gave him a disbelieving look. "You think I'm dumb? I know you already took care of that." Tairon was known for his meticulous personality. He always checked his surroundings for hidden bugs and cameras, even in non-confidential situations.
A long silence enveloped the whole room. "You must stay on guard," Tairon broke the silence, earning a look from Kael. "I know what happened this morning. That wouldn't be the last of it since the target was the Alpha. So, can you please stop being stubborn and stay where you can be safe?"
Kael wasn't even shocked that Tairon knew. "I can handle it just fine."
"As if it's that simple."
"What do you mean?" He was asking that to distract Tairon, not really interested, as he secretly pressed the room alarm, which was connected to the club services.
"The Alpha is also your foe. He despises Kaisen, and since you're taking his place, that would mean he despises you too."
Yeah, he had a first hand experience in that aspect. Looking back, he remembered something. "Who says I'm taking someone's place? Ah! That reminds me, I tried looking my twin up on social media but no data was available except the fact that he is a son of a CEO of some sort of a company."
Tairon leaned back on the sofa. "Figures. After your twin's engagement with Zenon Acosta, the Acostas cleared everything related to that incident to avoid the media."
"What incident?"
A knock surprised them both. Kael had called a waiter through the alarm. He ordered another two bottles of alcohol and waited until they arrived.
Popping the cap open and pouring into his and Tairon's cups, he asked again. "What incident?"
"Aren't you drinking too much? You were shot just this morning."
"Alcohol heals all wounds, didn't you know that? Now proceed about the incident."
Tairon could only sigh in defeat. This friend of his had drunk almost two bottles already since they shared the second bottle. Although he hadn't shown any signs of getting drunk, he worried it might affect the wound recovery. If only he didn't have any important thing to do in that bar, he wouldn't have told Kael to meet with him there since he was pretty much acquainted with how heavy a drinker this guy was.
"It was exactly five years ago when Kaisen was still in the modeling industry—."
"Whoa, he's modeling?" Kael interrupted, shocked at the same time feeling proud. "I wonder how he was back then."
Tairon stared at him with a blank face. "He was a rising star, and so was this Cassian Everhart. She was an Omega from a rich foreign family. Both being Omegas, people saw them as rivals in the modeling industry as well as in love. If things aren't already worse, they happen to like the same Alpha."
"Cringe," Kael couldn't help but comment.
"No further interruptions, K. So, Cassian became Zenon's girlfriend, after a few months, his fiancé. A few days after the announcement of their wedding, Cassian got into a car accident."
"Oh, how unfortunate."
"Yeah? What's more unfortunate was the fact that the mass didn't believe it, hunching that what happened was a set up."
"And they think my twin was a suspect?"
"There was no evidence that Kaisen actually did it. He wasn't found guilty. But those on Cassian's side, her supporters, friends, most importantly, Zenon, didn't believe that. Before the incident, Cassian and Kaisen got into a heated conversation, which someone took a picture of." Tairon slipped out a photo and slid it across the table.