The next day, six newly hired bodyguards arrived with Martin and Rey. During the test, among the six of them, Nikolai topped it all. Since he was the best among the rest, he was assigned to look after Cayenne and the kids, though the kids only came secondary to her safety.
Nikolai, although he looked intimidating, he was the kind of person who doesn't follow someone blindly. He has opinion of his own and he would really speak the words in his mind. Surprisingly, he wasn't asking about the benefits of working for Cayenne and Stefan like others did in the past.
He was just mostly concerned of his day off and the restrictions that came with it.
Then, Cayenne remembered the special identity of this person. Money was irrelevant to him. "If you have other concerns, just let me know. I'm not really busy. It would be great to get clarifications now instead of making some mistakes due to ignorance. My husband isn't very forgiving when it comes to safety measures."
"I don't have questions for now, but I will certainly ask if there is one in the future," said one of the bodyguards who sat next to Nikolai.
"I do have a question unrelated to work, though. Maybe you have answers to them, too."
"What is the history of this place?" Nikolai asked which bewildered Cayenne. Her first impression of Nikolai took a drastic change. She never thought that a man like him would be so interested in history.
Cayenne was unsure what he meant and it was obvious on her face. "Did you mean the history of this mansion? Or this city?"
"Ah! I mean the city. I heard this was once part of a kingdom."
Cayenne thought about it and tried to recall the information she learned from her history class in the past. Thankfully, there were a lot of people present at this moment. They answered Nikolai's inquiry without any hesitations because they thought it was just out of curiosity.
They talked for almost an hour, before Stefan called them for another conference meeting.
Aside from the arrival of the new bodyguards, today was also Latticia's birthday which was the reason why a lot of people were gathering in Cayenne's home. The Sugo family were there to celebrate this day with the only daughter in the family, though they couldn't tell the truth to Ferdinand since his son just died not long ago. At the same time, Stefan didn't want to miss his mother's birthday.
It was her first birthday that he got to celebrate with her.
In the kitchen, Jessie and Stanley were cooking food for lunch with the helpers and they made sure to cook a lot of Latticia's favorite food. It's been a while since she came back to A City and with her son's connections and Dr. Albert's monitoring, she could now move quite a lot and she could talk properly as well.
However, she would easily exhaust herself, so she was still forbidden to do house chores.
"Happy birthday, Auntie," Luiz greeted Latticia when he arrived with David. They just dropped by for lunch since he still needed to attend class in the afternoon. "I got you something. It's not much, but I hope that you will like it."
Latticia immediately opened the gift that Luiz gave her and her eyes sparkled in astonishment. It was a black insulated tumbler with sunflower design. It was lovely and given the fact that Latticia loved sunflowers, it was no wonder that she liked the gift so much.
"Thank you, Luiz. I like it so much."
"I'm glad you do," Luiz said as he sat next to his sister. David also brought his own gift, but he told Latticia to open it once she returns to the cabin. Everyone got curious of what his gift was, but David was tight-lipped and Latticia promised to open it later in the cabin as well.
"Since this is a family gathering, why don't we play a little game," Kyle suggested and they all agreed because they love prizes.
"What kind of game? We can't be too boisterous for the sake of Mr. Dumrique," Dr. Albert responded in respect to the man who just lost his son. "Let's play boardgames instead."
"That should be fine," Cayenne said in agreement.
So, those who wanted to participate played the boardgame with simple elimination round so it won't take so much time. Cayenne was just watching on the side with the kids inside the crib. Most of the participants were helpers and some of the bodyguards who weren't called by Stefan.
"Hey," Dominic poked Kyle's shoulder with his finger and spoke in whisper, "Why do you think the new bodyguard was interested with the city's history? He even inquired about La Granja when he arrived in the city."
"How did you know that?"
"Well, I heard it from Martin and Rey."
Kyle frowned while pinching his chin as he thought about Dominic's word. "Maybe he was just...you know... genuinely curious about the city since this is the first time that he set his foot here."
"He said that he was interested in farming, but he never asked anything about Hacienda Amore that Travis Madrigal owned."
"Are you suspecting him?"
"I'm just being cautious. I don't want his actions to affect my cousin and your sister."
"Don't worry. Your dear cousin is someone who can't be messed with."
Unknown to them, Cayenne was already standing right behind them and heard a little bit of their conversation. She quickly wrapped her arms around their necks that startled both men.
"God!" Kyle exclaimed with his hand on his chest. "Don't startle me like that."
"You won't be startled if you weren't being secretive over here. What are you guys talking about?" Cayenne inquired and let go of them. "You seemed really interested about Nikolai."
"We're just wondering why he was curious about the history of the city and La Granja," Dominic answered on behalf of Kyle. "We're not really against him. We're just worried that he would do some and put you in danger."
"Don't think too much about it. My dear husband won't just bring someone into our home without considering all possibilities."
"I said the same thing to him," Kyle added and sighed. "Anyway, let's forget we have this conversation."
"I agree on that," Cayenne said, so Dominic didn't pursue this matter anymore.
Inside the study room, Stefan was sitting on his swivel chair while some of the bodyguards stood in different locations to maximize their security measure in guarding him, and others were sitting on the couch.
"My dad died in an accident. However, I already received information that someone was actually planning to kill him. My grandfather was also part of that plan. Currently, my grandpa is staying with us in this mansion but that doesn't mean he is safe. I will be assigning a secondary task to all of you."
"Are going to guard your father?" asked Rey who was standing near the window.
"No, you are going to monitor Julia and Celestine. They're my auntie and cousin," Stefan answered before pressing a file that Tristan sent him. It showed them a map of the entire A City as well as the location of the rented mansion. "Celestine rented a place and that's the one highlighted in red. So far, all of her activities were within the city and it was the same for Julia.
Tomorrow, Tristan will be installing a remote tracker in your device so you would see Julia and Celestine's movement."
Nikolai looked down on the floor and smiled. Stefan was very similar to him in conduct, but unlike him, Stefan made it his priority to protect his loved ones. [Is it the difference in era? Or is it because I wasn't capable enough which was the reason, I kept losing her?]
At this moment, they all thought that Nikolai was listening attentively. They had no idea that he was lost in his own little world.