If Jael was wary about the stranger before, now his alarms were full on blaring. His gun was pointed right at the other steadily, "Who are you?"
"No one important," The Alpha smiled in that disturbing way that belied how much he really knew. "I heard from a little bird that you were here yesterday, maybe you could help me."
"Yeah, no," Jael refused bluntly, already making a move to hightail it out of there. He might have been more reckless if it were just him but he had dragged Rosie out here, he would hate for her to get hurt.
"I also heard you bumped into Mafia King Nikolai... was that just a coincidence?" The Alpha went on like he hadn’t heard Jael’s words.
"If you’ve heard so much, why do you still need to ask me?" Jael asked tightly, teeth gritted. They couldn’t just turn around and leave, that would be presenting their backs to the dangerous man in front of them, and he would rather things didn’t escalate.
"You’re right," The man agreed much to his surprise. He started walking towards them, his steps measured. "I’d love to stay and chat but I have somewhere to be." He said politely as he walked past them. "We’ll definitely see again."
Jael didn’t let up, his gun following the other closely as he walked a little too close to Rosie to be polite.
Rosie had a look of obvious disgust at the look in those dark eyes, inching even closer to Jael.
Nothing was said until the other Alpha was completely out of sight, and even then Jael didn’t relax. "Stay close to me," He spoke quietly, scouting the place.
Rosie nodded seriously, sticking right to him, the last thing she wanted was to be alone with the creepy Alpha they had just met. "Who was that?"
"No clue," Jael replied grimly, "But I plan to find out."
Rosie didn’t ask further, she really didn’t want to know more, she would honestly be happy if she never met him again.
"Starting to think you should have taken me up on that movie?" Rosie didn’t hesitate to take a jab when they were safely away from the church.
"Why watch a thriller when you can experience it in person?" Jael replied without missing a beat. "Do you want to come over for dinner?"
Rosie was quick to forget what had just happened, lured in by the offer of food. "Do I?" She repeated rhetorically, a smile starting.
Jael was uncharacteristically quieter on the drive back, he wasn’t bothered by the fact that the Alpha had known who he was, he was basically as well known as Asher.
And going on that limb, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Alpha also knew who Rosie was. He had been considering asking Rosie to stay at the mansion until he sorted things out but maybe the Alpha knowing who she was meant that he would keep his distance.
"What do you think about staying at the mansion? For a few days... or hell until Lake and Davian comes back." He blurted out, not about to take any chances.
Rosie looked like she was about to say something witty but then her expression turned grave and she nodded. "He asked about Mafia King Nikolai, maybe he would know who he is."
Jael had already made plans to chase that lead but he nodded, he could instinctively tell that whoever that was, was going to pose an issue to them, they needed to be on their guard.
As soon as they got to the mansion, Jael went off to report to Asher, he had to give his Mafia King an update before hitting up Nikolai. He had already told Asher about Nikolai’s heads up concerning the High Council’s spies so this wasn’t a great follow-up report.
"Think he has something to do with the High Council?" Asher asked, seated behind his desk. They had moved to the study for this.
"Let’s hope the fuck not," Jael muttered, the Alpha was already pretty dangerous on his own, if he had the backing of the High Council that would be pretty concerning.
Jael didn’t often ring up Nikolai’s private line, he would have just driven down to the other Mafia King’s casino but he wanted to make sure that the Mafia King had useful information for him.
After lunch, Nikolai watched Angelo choose a couch all the way across the room from him, still sulking about the pancakes. He smiled at the assassin’s antics but was also disappointed.
He had been looking forward to watching cartoons on the same couch, and after a while Angelo would grow sleepy and rest against his shoulder.
His phone rang then, interrupting his fantasizing. He was about to hang up on whoever it was when the name caught his attention. What was Jael doing calling him? Had they already found a spy so soon?
"Make it quick," He said lazily as soon as he picked, making up his mind. If Angelo was going to sit away from him, he would just go to the assassin.
"Had someone asking for you, he knew you were at the church yesterday," Jael went right into it. "He looked pretty dangerous, enough to have me looking into who he is."
"You said he was asking about me?" Nikolai repeated, all the laziness gone from his voice.
"Yeah. Know why a dangerous individual would be asking about you?" Jael asked bluntly.
Nikolai’s expression eased into a cold smile, "I might." As he spoke, he rose to his feet and headed out the door. Angelo was too engrossed in his show to pay attention to him but he wasn’t taking chances.
"Who?" Jael asked patiently.
"Luis Caddel. I asked about him first." He said little evasively. "You don’t have to worry about him."
"I find that hard to believe," Jael muttered darkly.
"I’m not going to change your mind," Nikolai hung up, uninterested in playing word games.
It didn’t matter if Jael found out who Luis Caddel was or not, he planned to make sure that the bastard didn’t survive their first meeting.
Nikolai’s smile widened, Luis Caddel was making his job easier by walking right into the palm of his hand. It might be better to keep Angelo hidden for a while, he didn’t want them to meet if he could help it.