(BL) Mafia Love; He who falls the hardest loses-Chapter 141: Returned
As he stepped into the living room and turned on the lights, he paused and stared around. The scene along with a familiar nagging feeling told him the owner of the apartment was not home.
Things were not the way it was when he left. The room was neat without a speck or amiss. The housekeeper must have come in to clean up the place. He walked into the room and sat on the bed.
The mattress sank under his weight and he leaned backwards until his back touched the softness of the covers. He could not smell that man’s scent in the covers.
Many thoughts went through his mind as he lay on the bed with his eyes closed. He took in deep breaths, but without the familiar scent he had found subconsciously soothing, his eyes remained open even as the minute hand of his gold wristwatch glided half a circle.
He sighed and finally rose up from the bed. He stretched and walked into the bathroom. He could feel the fatigue of jet lag, but he had chosen to come to the man’s house to see him, not to stare at the empty room that smelled too much of fabric softener than he wanted.
He showered and changed into something more comfortable. Without throwing a jacket on the comfortable casual shirt, he walked out of the house with the key to one of Hiroshi’s cars.
Stepping out of the elevator, he paused when he noticed Hiroshi’s cars all packed. Either Hiroshi bought a new car which would have been a very spontaneous purchase or Hiroshi went away without his car.
Where would he go for a couple of days without any of his cars? He had no answer to that but with the thought of the hospital being so busy that Hiroshi would be unable to return home, he walked to the car and opened the door.
He drove to the hospital and went to the man’s office. The door of the office was locked as he turned the handle and tried to push it open.
"Dr Yamamoto hasn’t been to work for almost a week now," one of the doctors who recognised him stopped to tell him when he asked for Hiroshi.
Haruki’s eyes narrowed. None of that made sense. Why was the man absent from work? Where had he gone without any of his cars? Without informing him before leaving?
They communicated every night for the first few days before he couldn’t contact the man anymore. That was one of the reasons he rushed back home even when he wasn’t done with the things that came up for him to handle in one of their European branches.
He left them to Satomi to handle before rushing back. That intuition telling him everything was wrong pushed him to the office of the hospital’s chairman. The door was also locked. When he asked, he got the same response as earlier.
Neither Hiroshi nor his father have been to work for almost a week. What were they all doing? Where did they all go? He called Aki when he could not contact any of them. Aki was equally unreachable.
He sat in the car and could not bring himself to start the engine of the car. He rested his head against the steering wheel and thought of what was happening. He tried to connect all the dots but none of it made sense.
Without making any progress, he decided to head back home. He could easily get Kiyoshi to investigate it. He would get an answer he could understand.
***
Ren’s gaze met the green eyes of the gaijin before him. A foreigner trying to get involved in his family’s business. This was not the first time but everytime, it pisses him off as he was always left with a mess to clean.
"Let him go while you go through this, he needs health care," Hiroshi’s lawyer met the intense gaze of the man at the other end of the table fearlessly as he demanded.
"Without confirming the credibility of your evidence, I can’t let him go."
"You can just kidnap him the way you did previously if you feel deceived by this evidence. For now, he needs to get treated and cared for at the hospital."
Ren knew he could not let that doctor out of his sight. There was more to the story than they could see. He wanted to investigate until he was certain he wasn’t getting played.
"Fine. Let his father in to treat him," Hiroshi’s lawyer finally gave in with a tired sigh.
Ren met the man’s gaze. There was no harm in giving in a bit so he nodded and glanced at the doctor who looked like he had suddenly become old and hunched forward. The man had dark circles around his eyes as though he had not slept for days.
Dr Yamamoto didn’t meet his gaze as he bowed deeply. For the past few days, the old man had been trying hard to get him to let him in even waiting for hours hoping Ren would change his mind but Ren felt no need to.
With a new piece of evidence that could prevent him from taking any action against the younger doctor, he knew he had to act carefully. He picked up the file and opened it as he rose up. He walked to Kiyoshi and handed it over to him.
"Go through it, I will be back," Ren told him before walking away as soon as Kiyoshi took the file from him.
Kiyoshi glared at Ren as he walked away. With a sigh, he pulled out the documents in the file while Dr Yamamoto followed Ren out.
"I know you don’t believe Hiroshi was behind the leaked audios," Hiroshi’s lawyer suddenly said halfway through going through the reports.
"What I believe doesn’t matter without evidence to back it up," Kiyoshi responded sincerely.
"Overly obvious evidence only someone dumb would leave," the lawyer refuted. "Why would someone as smart as Hiroshi leave such traces that could ensnare him?"
"If someone trapped him, we need evidence to prove that. For now, all the evidence we have points to him. You could also patiently wait for my boss to arrive, perhaps he will share the same thoughts with you."
"When does your boss arrive?" Hiroshi’s lawyer hearing Kiyoshi mention Haruki sat up and leaned forward.
"In two days," Kiyoshi replied.
"In two days? What do you think is Hiroshi’s chance of survival by then?"
"Ren won’t kill him," Kiyoshi said certainly.
"Because he wants other people to do it for him? He exposed that Hiroshi was behind the leaked audio which connected him with the cyberattack. Many people would want to get him punished for the losses they suffered. He just made him an enemy to a bunch of very angry men."
"But at least he won’t die here," Kiyoshi said seriously. If Hiroshi were released alive, then they could handle it properly and protect him from those who were determined to punish him.
The lawyer picked up his phone and focused on it to end the conversation. The only thing stopping him from fighting a full-fledged war was the fact that Haruki was Hiroshi’s employer and lover. It made things too complicated for him to get involved.
A knock came on the door. Kiyoshi glanced at the door from the paper he held, his frown deepened at the sudden disturbance but he invited the person in. A young man bowed deeply and approached Kiyoshi.
"The boss’s approaching the gate." The report caused Kiyoshi’s eyes to widen. The focused frown now replaced by a surprised look, caught the attention of Hiroshi’s lawyer.
Slowly the surprise turned to an even deeper frown. Haruki should still be in Europe. He returned to the country and was moving on his own without a guard. That could make him a very easy target and that was dangerous.
He rose up thinking of several ways he could scold his boss respectfully but the thought of the man locked up in the basement stopped his movements.
He swallowed and rose up. His hands trembled slightly as he placed the papers back into the brown envelope. He would have been very calm if he had not just read through the documents the man brought him.
Hiroshi was used as a decoy for something larger, something darker and dangerous. The more he thought of how deep it could run and how wide it might have gotten, he found himself wishing it was all Hiroshi playing games to make his lover pitiful to the public.
That made things easier, which would mean less work and everything ending with the death or the punishment of Hiroshi. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
When they investigated, he could see traces of something wider but they had a suspect in mind which might have restrained their investigative freedom.
"What is wrong?" the foreign lawyer asked.
"My boss is back," Kiyoshi replied.
Hearing these words, the lawyer rose up along with Kiyoshi. Perhaps he saw this as a chance to get his client out of their basement but the worry in the man’s eyes indicated the man must be scared.
Haruki had the final say. In his absence, perhaps Hiroshi stood a chance to leave alive but Haruki was back, he was the only one who could make the final decision which means he could still choose the doctor’s death.
