Keeping Faye ||UNDER MAJOR EDITING||

CHAPTER 22

||Hide & Seek: The Game Begins||

[Larson's Southville Manor
Around 8:00pm
Study's room, third floor.]

3rd POV (Eric)

The sound of the pendulum chiming on the wall and the constant ringing of unanswered phone were the only sound in the room.

"Damn it!"

With force, the phone broke into pieces after hitting the wall. He slumped back, feeling headache and fatigue he poured on himself for the last few days. A form of distraction.

"Easy boss," A smooth voice of a man greeted his ears and a tsked sounded from the door. The footsteps stopped. Perhaps, the person taking in the mess around; the stacks of papers, ripped envelopes and the bottles of wines scattered on the floor.

"Martha said you break, what, four phones this week?" The man chuckled lowly, shoes stepping on the carpeted floor.

Silence.

Walking to the cooler where the alcoholic beverages were stocked, Eric sighed and his long fingers picked the bourbon, opening the lid, he sat back again without taking a glass.

"So, lover's quarrel?"

He glared at the figure standing in middle of the room. Same body mass and height, Eric is only inch taller than him.

Chugging the drink, bedewing the thirst for something pungent in his throat. He coughed and turned to the unwanted visitor.

"What are you doing here, Marco!" he growled.

I need to be alone.

The man shrugged and sat at the sofa across the table, mounting his long legs at the coffee table. The man knew exactly how to get to his nerve.

Wearing his signature black leather jacket and matching pants, a white tee underneath. Marco's fingers tapped the arm rest, eyes looked pass into him.

Marco 'Smoke' Renante. The name always ring a bell in the black market.

The Boogey man.

When Marco Renante shows up in his porch, its bad news. The man has been his personal messenger in different business and every damn time, when his shadow emerge, something is happening and its not rainbow and butterflies.

Eric cracked his shoulders as a tension was slowly building up in his spine.

For five years, Marco's work has been precise and reliable right man. Clean as sheet, loyal like a dog. His commands is equal to the boss. They think alike, act alike the reason why the two bonded like blood brothers.

The man three years older than him,  earned his trust. Loyalty lies exactly where it should be.

Him alone.

Talk!" Eric demanded, sick of this deafening silence between them.

Green eyes looked straight to his cocoa brown eyes, suddenly became serious and cold.

" I think you need to get back, boss." The words were carefully said.

Eric gaze mauled him.

"What happened?"

Back straightened. Stiff.

"The boys were thinking you're going to abandon the chair." Marco combed his hair. "I'm afraid, some of them are rebelling against the Chain. You need to get back to settle the stir."