Caspian was woken up by a familiar face, he froze for a moment as he stared at the maid who did the same.
"I didn’t give you out, come eat dinner before it gets cold." She gruffly said.
He gratefully got off the bed at that, he didn’t think he would see the maid again.
Especially not after his first night here when he had done the exact opposite of what she told him to and tried to escape, he hadn’t seen her again.
He didn’t know if he should be relieved or not that she decided to keep his secret, deciding to just pretend like it didn’t exist.
A different maid came to clear out the dishes, saying not even a single word to him and nervously avoiding him.
Caspian had a feeling that Jael had something to do with that but as long as it kept him from Nikolai, he had no dissensions.
He sat on the couch and put the television on to fill the room with ambient sounds, his gaze constantly drifting to the door, expecting Asher to return soon.
Caspian wasn’t sure how long he spent waiting but when he woke up the next morning, he was on the bed and Asher was gone.
The longer the charade dragged out, the more exhausted he got, and it wasn’t just from keeping his secret from Asher.
Asher scowled as he sat behind his desk, already halfway through another bottle. It was barely noon and he still had the rest of the day ahead of him.
Jael’s sharp gaze settled on him, "Something the matter?"
"No." He gritted out.
Jael looked unconvinced, "Worried about the quarterly meeting today?"
Asher cursed mentally, he had completely forgotten about that, his thoughts occupied by a certain sultry Omega.
It meant that he wouldn’t be able to return early tonight.
"Not at all," And this time he wasn’t lying.
He planned to settle the matter with Nikolai tonight. Violence was outlawed during their meetings, unfortunately, because he had several things to say to the other Alpha, with his gun.
"Have a plan?" Jael asked curiously.
He had made the mansion impenetrable, keeping tabs on everyone allowed past the gates.
He had also found out that the maid in question had sold out her Mafia King for a bit of extra cash, and he dealt with her like traitors were dealt with.
A bullet to the skull.
The men working with her also shared the same fate, disloyalty was a great sin.
He had stayed up the night before thinking about how easy it had been for Nikolai to get a mole in, and he had exposed his cards just for a few minutes with Caspian.
It meant that moles weren’t important to the Mafia King, he didn’t even use them to get any useful information, he had just wanted Caspian.
Jael knew that Mafia King Nikolai was a dangerous man, and previously, all he had with Asher were squabbles. This was the first time he was experiencing a bit of what it would be like to go to war with Nikolai.
"Yeah, I’ll take out that bastard’s teeth." Asher lazily replied.
Jael wasn’t surprised that his boss wasn’t taking this seriously, "That’s outlawed."
"Davian would understand," Asher poured another shot into his glass.
Jael doubted that, Davian was a monk. And he didn’t mean that the Mafia King had morals, he just didn’t fuck.
"Right," Jael said dryly, "I feel like you’re not focusing on this conversation."
Asher slowly dragged his distant gaze over to him, multi-tasking by tapping his foot on the ground while throwing back shots of neat whiskey.
"What makes you think that?"
Jael just snagged the almost empty bottle, keeping it out of reach. "I think you should take the rest of the day off."
Asher’s hazel-gold stare trailed after the bottle in Jael’s hand, "Yeah, I think the fuck not."
He was stretched taut like a spring ready to snap, and he knew the reason why... He was sexually frustrated.
It was all his fault too, he could take the Omega any time but he wanted Caspian to be the one to give in first.
It was kind of stupid but he didn’t want to accept that he had no self-control and that was why he crumbled first.
He had barely gotten a wink of sleep the night before, and after a few hours of lying beside Caspian, he had shot to his feet and gone on a midnight stroll.
He didn’t return to his bedroom, preferring to spend the rest of the night in a guest room.
Asher would rather not go back to the mansion right now, there would be no stopping him from losing at his own game.
Jael gave him an odd look, "You still haven’t told Caspian you know?" He hit the nail on the head.
When Asher had said nothing would be changing, he had no idea that it involved that as well.
"That’s none of your fucking business," Asher deadpanned, feeling the effects of all the alcohol he had drunk. "Don’t you have better things to do than sit and chat?"
Jael rose to his feet with a gesture of surrender, he had come in because the rest of the men were too intimidated by Asher’s shit mood to stay in his office with him.
"Someone has to stop you from getting shit-faced in public." He walked closer to offer Asher his hand.
Asher eyed up the appendage, "Just cancel the rest of my appointments for today," He reluctantly gave in, ignoring the Beta’s hand.
"And the quarterly meeting?"
It was a meeting of all three Mafia Kings, Asher couldn’t ditch it even if he wanted to, and he didn’t.
It was the first time he would be looking forward to the boring meetings that he always insisted could have been emails.
"So you’ll go home?" Jael pushed, dropping his hand.
"Fuck no," Asher rose to his feet, stumbling a bit. "It’s a club, I can get shit-faced here just fine."