The Disharmony Effect |Book II|

2|. NOAH: Tick, Tick, Tick, Boom ||pt.2||

"Let's make this quick since I have somewhere to be." I start, and lean against a wooden column in his office. 

Sitting back in his chair, Ace inhales his newly lit cigarette with confidence. "A man getting right down to business now, are ya?" He chuckles. "I remember a time when you would've just come in here and put a gun to my Father's head to bargain for whatever you wanted."

"This way ensures I have loyalty from the ones who claim not to pick sides."

"And he was murdered." His smile weakens. "That's a factor as well."

I clasp my hands in front of me. "So is me, my Father, and 15 Rite men spending ten months with your family tracking down the fucker who did it."

"And you found him." He grins with a glint in his eye and rests his elbows on the surface with semi-interlocked fingers. "Tell me again what happened. It's a great ending."

My jaw aches as I recall the act of many that still causes me to have trouble sleeping. "His house was set on fire."

"With his wife and three daughters still inside." Ace shakes his head and shuts his eyes; breathing deeply. "That's the man I remember. One who takes charge."

"As a terrified 14-year-old longing to be accepted by his Father and the world he ran in, I was only doing what I was told."

"I'd describe you as a lot of things back then, Grim, and "terrified" ain't one of them. Besides, I remember the meetings." He snakes in with a point of his cigarette. "Of all the shit we discussed, settin' them on fire wasn't one of them."

"I didn't give a shit about any of that. I was told I'd be enhancing my own family name and making them proud, not getting vengeance for yours, so I naturally thought they were useless."

"Either way, the honor in both of our families was restored thanks your unsighted determination, so I say we count it." He chuckles wickedly. "Where's the kid you guys pinned it on? Didn't those Manelli fucks put him in the ground?"

"Ace." I stiffen. "If you want to continue down memory lane, I'd be happy to pop a bottle of whiskey with you and talk through the details of how we found your Father naked, tied up, and with his boy toy's cock in his mouth along with a bullet in both their heads; but I don't know if you want to do all that."

Letting his cigarette burn, his eyes flash over with anger.

"I came to talk business, not fond times of our youth. Can we do that, or do I need to find one of your rivals to sell me a dream? Because I honestly came to you first out of respect."

After a second, his thin line of content swifts into a smile and the water in his eyes disappear. "Of course not." Stumping out his cigarette, he stands. "This is Paradise and I'm the captain."

Rounding his desk to the right, Ace approaches a bookshelf and knocks over the miniature standing figurine of three monkeys covering their eyes, mouths, and ears. With a push of the shelf to the right, it lifts onto it's own track and slides to reveal a reinforced steel door behind it.

"Watch the 007 bullshit I have to do to get into this thing." He sneers as he puts his face to a scanner and closes his left eye. After a beep goes off, he puts a thumb to the same screen where another beeping takes off and the door finally cracks open.

"See?" He laughs distastefully and pulls it open further; beckoning me to follow him inside.

Cocky idiot. With a taste for attention like that, he'll get himself killed one day.

"Step into paradise, Reaper." He sings.

Doing as I'm told, I head in and absorb the sight of heavy assault rifles crowded by the dozen on the left wall in a neat stack, with cameras of all various shapes and sizes spread across the stone barrier  in front of me.