Lykos ✓

Twenty Four | Champagne

The benefits of living for such a long time was having your fingers in many different pots. Rafael had no issue obtaining a master key when he entered the hotel. The address that Tally had given him had been one of the many investments the Lykos had made. It was an expensive, 5-star hotel, who only accepted certain cliental and turned the heads the other way when corruption took place. It was the perfect place to hunt down his pray.

Rafael knew exactly which room to go to. The journey to Erai's room was empty as less witnesses was the best policy. He walked into the room to find a complimentary bottle of champagne worth thousands of dollars and decided to help himself to a glass. After all, it was perfect time to celebrate good news.

With Erai's arriving into the country, it meant that Rafael didn't have to plan an extraction mission to get him out of his home in Japan. There was still the problem with the unknown drug as Micah had mentioned to him on his way out so unfortunately, he couldn't kill the man on sight.

The grief of fast death for one man, was another man's saviour.

The champagne opened with a pop. Rafael generously poured it into a tulip glass. He took a sip of the frizzy drink, enjoying the taste and found himself sitting down in a comfortable chair near the balcony door. The chair had a high-back so no one would be able to see him when they walked into the room. The perfect place to relax and wait for his prey.

The door opened just 15 minutes before Erai was expected to arrive. Rafael checked him phone for live updated from Tally. He didn't move from his place as Erai's bodyguards half-heartedly swept the room for threats. The merely glanced in each room, waving a gun around, expecting someone to jump out, but Rafael didn't move. They didn't even notice the open bottle of champagne. He waited patiently for those fools to deem the room secure so he could get to his real prey.

No point in straying from the big prize, for stupid ones.

Erai arrived just as Tally had predicted. Rafael could hear him giving instructions to those fools to keep an eye out for any threats. They couldn't find the biggest threat right under their nose, so how would they even act when faced with one. Men like those relied way too much on reputation and not enough on actually doing their job. Men like those died quickly in the Lykos organisation.

"Fucking shit room service," Erai muttered in Japanese as he noticed the opened champagne bottle. He assumed that someone had opened the bottle from room service since he seemed to trust his bodyguards a little too much.

It was show time.

Rafael stood up, with his glass. He needed a refill anyway. As usual, no one was happy for unexpected guests in his world. Erai had his back to him and only noticed him after a few seconds. His guard had been lowered due to jetlag and Rafael was ready to exploit any weakness.

Erai pointed his gun at Rafael, "Who are you?"

"You don't know who I am?" Rafael was amused. This man had done his best to get on his radar, but he didn't even know who he was dealing with. Most people in the organisation didn't know what he looked at but to be a head of a mafia family and run around trying to make the most allies to overthrow him, only to not gain any description of Rafael, made him pathetic.

"You must be no one of importance," Erai dismissed. However, he didn't put down the gun. He kept it steady, aiming to harm but not kill Rafael. Rafael ignored him; bullets wouldn't kill him.

"I must be important to you since you wanted to steal from me," Rafael hinted. He loved to play games and loved to talk riddles, it was just a shame as time passed, people became more and more stupid.

"Steal from you? You have nothing I want." Erai eyed Rafael up and down, trying to place him. He was too busy looking down on him, that if he tried to look up then maybe Rafael would've given him better hints.

"How funny. A man doesn't even know his enemies, but he wants to further his position in the world." Rafael had seen like men like him before. They loved to prey on the weak and were all bark no bite. Rafael preferred to bite now, bark later.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with," Erai threatened, trying to change his tactics.

"Shut the fuck up, Erai." Rafael was bored now. He hadn't figured out who he was. He was close enough to Erai to make a move as he had been slowly edging forward while talking.

"Don't fucking disrespect-" But his words were cut off when Rafael's hand curled around his throat. He pushed Erai against the wall hard enough effectively to knock him out, not kill him.

There was plenty of time for death later.

~*~

Sandra had returned to Lykos Estate later that day after Rafael had left to retrieve Erai. She had come to check up on Aiko after the incident. So far, she had decided not to dive in headfirst with Micah but rather concentrate on the more important of Aiko's health and her safety. Someone was brewing and her involvement meant that she could have another target added to her back that wasn't for Rafael. It became clear that the Lykos men had enemies that she probably couldn't even imagine.

Aiko had let slip to Sandra that the new girl on the block was working in security for Rafael. Sandra knew better than to judge a girl by her appearance but also better than to ask any questions. She accepted the small pieces of information.

Micah wasn't very difficult to track down since she had been trying to look for him as well.

"We need to talk," Micah said. The threats and danger were a common theme in Micah's life. He wanted to talk about them.

"Yes, we do," Sandra replied. However, her agender was far from his.

"You can go first," Micah offered.

"Well first, I want to talk about my safety. Yesterday there was an attack here and I'm always here so am I in danger?"

Micah saw an opportunity and took it.

"You should move into the Estate and take some leave from work. I wanted to talk to you about that too. Otherwise, I'll organise security too." Micah told a partial lie. Sandra would be the safest here, but he hadn't wanted to make the decision for her. Even though it would help his plight in win her heart again.

"Ok, I'll move in for a while, until the threat is permanently removed," Sandra agreed. She trusted Micah enough to keep her alive and she would use that to her advantage.

Micah held back his smile. He shouldn't be happy that there was a threat over their head but if it brought them closer, who was he to deny the smallest of bliss.

"Anything else?"

"There's one more thing about Aiko-" Sandra was cut out by Rafael's shouting for Micah like he had brought him home a present. It was always Rafael.

"I have to go," Micah said, his attention was now on Rafael.

Before he could walk away, Sandra grabbed him arm and left him with a few parting words.

"You may call him your brother, but all he sees you is as a pawn."

~*~

Erai is an idiot. Who was expecting it?