City of Blind ✓

What went down in the dark

So this is the last update in Alex's POV for now and in this chapter, a lot of things that were happening in background will be revealed.

I hope you enjoy it :)

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"Whoa! Whoa! People, you have to see this!" Liam exclaimed and everyone huddled around him and Xavier.

"Found something?" I said breathlessly.

"Yeah. A lot." Xavier looked at the screen incredulously. "We hacked into Neal's and Ryder's accounts and gathered a lot of personal data. We snooped around the records and look what we found."

"Ryder Lange isn't related to Kovorelle in anyway, he is involved in this shit because his dad owed Neal." Liam explained. "According to Neal's bank records, a transaction of $50,000 was made from his account to Ryder's dad."

"What for?"

"Some illegal shit. Neal saved him from some Mexican mafia 2 year ago when he was knee deep in debt. Ryder was a liability to them."

Liz looked away in hurt and Crystal squeezed her shoulder.

"This isn't all." Xavier passed a hand through his hair. "After this transaction, Ryder's family shifted here for relocation."

"Tell me, Aiden, Asher, when did you first meet Ryder?" Liam asked.

"Uh..."

"I know!" Asher exclaimed. "We saw him at his first day at work-"

"-He remembers him because Ryder was the first guy Astrid pointed and called cute."

Asher rolled his eyes and gagged.

"But we didn't personally know him until a week later when he waited our table. He was painfully awkward and we thought that he was trying to flirt with Astrid but it was just too much fun to watch him squirm when he dropped our orders. Astrid is too kind. She asked manager to let him off the hook and even made Ryder eat with us. They became friends soon."

"And since when were you two together, Liz?"

"We met online a year before he moved here. I actually believed him when he told me that his family chose Boston because he wanted to be with me."

Liz's fists clenched tightly and Aiden grabbed her fists as he stroked it open.

Liam looked at Xavier smugly and he rolled his eyes.

"What?" I asked.

"Ryder wasn't awkward because it was his new job, he was a waiter before moving here, too and he was definitely not flirting with Astrid because he was already in relationship with Liz. He was ordered to interact with Astrid."

"Why?"

"According to a mail between Neal and him, Neal attached a screenshot from Ryder's Instagram. There is another photo that is a zoomed version. Astrid was in background, talking to both of you."

"Your point being?" Felix furrowed his eyebrows and Xavier rolled his eyes.

"He was panicking while writing and that is obvious by the number of grammatical errors-"

"Just get to the point already!" Crystal exclaimed. Xavier opened his mouth but Liam slapped it close.

"In the nutshell, he blackmailed Ryder into befriending Astrid and digging as much information as possible. Ryder didn't even know who he was spying until the very last."

"Neal who is basically a slave to his own father, has done a lot of effort in keeping Astrid's identity away from Cross Clan. He deliberately provided the information of Astrid's false death to a Law loyal so that it reaches you, if you are alive. Which worked as you came here for her. The people you were following in alley that day for her information, were none other than Neal's people."

"So, thank Astrid for getting lost that day. If she wasn't, then you would have fallen in trap and that would have been the day of your kidnaps. They were deliberately leading you on so that they can get you. But suddenly, Astrid was there too and Neal's first guess was that she is there to help you find them but she didn't recognise you and that confused Neal because apparently, Ryder didn't know about Astrid's condition. Also, what Neal expected was a sibling bonding instead of you putting a gun on her forehead-"

"Whoa! Not my fault. I thought she was one of them. I couldn't see her eyes in dark until I was close to her."

"Whatever, he also thought that you were after her life because of this little incident and that made him join our school after you joined. He wanted to make sure that Astrid stays with him. The dumbass actually thought that you wanted to kill her too. His suspicion on you for being Cedric, never solidified as you had grey eyes and you weren't the only guy who got close to her in that interval. I and Felix got close to her too. He didn't know who exactly Cedric was and he couldn't just blame on anyone without warning the real Cedric. Why you didn't try to background check Neal is beyond me."

"Hey! We did background check him. He was a student of Pete Knight high since the beginning. I just didn't think that he will hack and change the information or he will join school for her. I joined school to be close to my sister and protect her better."

"He did change the records to keep his cover but he was here to remind Astrid of her truth as he was the one who requested Ms Walker into giving us the case study on Kovorelle. He was trying hard to figure Cedric out too but thanks to all the alpha males around her, he couldn't. Every single one of us was overprotective of her and obviously that didn't help his observation."

"The final conformation for him was when you and Rose deliberately edited the photo shoot in black and white to hide Astrid's eyes from the world. He didn't even try to stall the shoot because he knew that Cedric will do that for her and you did. That's when he attacked her. You were supposed to be attacked too that day but due to Xavier's unexpected entry, attack on you was cancelled. Astrid's security was increased after that and Neal was waiting for everything to cool down before his next attack."

"Damn!" I passed a frustrated hand through my hair.

"That was a lot to take in." Asher mumbled.

"Tell me about it."

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Next chapter is Astrid's POV. How excited are you for that?

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