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“I’m not here,” Snake said, pulling the headphones back over his ears. “I’m sleeping at Dog’s as soon as I finish protecting Issac’s stuff and no one is disturbing me until noon.”
Felinus smirked and pressed Issac back into motion. “Those four are my lieutenants,” he said as they walked into the hall. “You’ll see Brutus the most and Snake probably the least but we all eat together often. Snake doesn’t live in the building. Claims he likes his privacy and we all have no boundaries.”
“Is this normal for a Capo and his men,” Issac asked, more curious how non-Italians had gotten so high in Felinus’s ranks than their normal eating habits.
Felinus shrugged. “For some but not others. My uncle hosts all of his men, regardless of rank, twice a year but he has more soldiers and associates than I do. Mine is more… specialized. This is yours,” he added, opening a door to the right.
The room was the same gray color as the rest of the apartment, with the floor-to-ceiling windows that had been in the front room looking out over the city. An oversized bed was against a wall towards the middle of the room, two doors on the opposite wall that Issac could just see the tiled floor of a bathroom through one and a small stack of boxes in the other that he assumed must be a closet. A third door sat near the corner and he frowned at it, sure that the hall had ended with the room.
“What’s-” he started but Felinus beat him to the question, opening the door and waving at him to follow.
A greenhouse or maybe a sunroom greeted them, stretching from one side of the apartment to the other and all the way to the edge of the building with a domed ceiling. A personal garden that made Issac stop breathing for a moment as he looked around the darkness only broken by city lights.
Felinus’s arms slipped back around Issac’s waist as he pressed his chest to Issac’s back. “My room is across the hall,” he breathed. “But we both have access to this space. A little bit of nature in the middle of a city.”
Issac swallowed. “Not a lot of privacy, with all the windows.”
Felinus laughed softly. “We’re the tallest point in a three-block radius,” he pointed out, turning them around so Issac had to look at the closest buildings below them. “No one else has access to the roof. Anyone who could see in here would have to use a telescope, and if they are working that hard,” his hand slipped under Issac’s shirt and his thumb passed just inside of the waistband of his jeans, “why not give them a show?”
Issac breathed in slowly, feeling the stirring all over again. He could just imagine the sort of show Felinus could give, both with a partner and on his own-
“But not tonight,” Felinus said, his hands suddenly gone though he didn’t move away- which was good because Issac wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he fell backwards onto his ass. “You need sleep and I have work to finish up. I’ll take you to school in the morning after breakfast.”
“I don’t have my duffle bag,” Issac said, shifting forward and turning around.
“I would have tossed it if you had it,” Felinus replied, smirking as Issac glared at him. “You don’t need anything that’s in there. Your bathroom has all the basics and if you want anything going forward, just tell me and I’ll get it for you.” Leaning forward, he kissed Issac’s forehead. “Go to bed, baby boy.”
* * *
“Honestly didn’t think you would be back out here so fast,” Snake said, pulling his headphones down again as Felinus walked back into the room, heavy metal playing from his neck. “From the chatter, you two couldn’t keep your hands off each other.”
“What chat- Shut up, Snake,” Felinus said, when the man grinned at him. “Are you done with those yet?”
“I’m good, Boss, but I’m not a miracle worker,” Snake said, typing into his own laptop. “Set up takes time, particularly with all the spyware you want to track anything he does on both devices.” He glanced up at Felinus. “What draws you to him, anyway?”
Felinus opened the fridge and looked inside. Usually, he had simple things in his kitchen. Eggs, milk, lunch meats and cheese, a leftover or two. Now his fridge was absolutely bursting with single-serve bottles of various juices, yogurts, takeaway containers from Ma’s Kitchen, little bottles of soy and regular milk, eggs, bacon, sausages, and more fruits and vegetables than Felinus knew what to do with. “I just have a good feeling about this one,” he said simply, closing the door again without taking anything. “Something tells me he’s going to be someone to watch.”
Snake shrugged. “If you say so. I haven’t gotten those records unsealed yet. Whoever did it really put a ton of layer work to make sure that unwrapping it would be time-consuming as fuck.”
“Well, if anyone can get it done, it’s you, Snake,” Felinus said, smirking at him. “But don’t feel too rushed. Get some sleep. I might need you for other things relating to this soon.”
“Because of the Russians? Lucio called,” he added when Felinus raised an eyebrow at him. “He said he was at No-Man’s with a few of his soldiers when they saw you with a, and I quote, ‘tiny twink with the scariest glare I’ve ever seen’ being trailed by three Russians sneaking pictures. He put three on the Russians as backup in case you needed it but figured if we wanted help you’d ask.”
“What else did he say,” Felinus asked.
“That he saw one hell of a show in front of the ice cream stand,” Snake said, grinning broadly then raised his hands when Felinus scowled at him. “I’m just repeating what I heard. What’s with the Russians?”
Felinus sighed. “Issac’s a long-time classmate of Little Volkov. Knowing the two of them were in the same class would have been good information to have.”
“You just asked for his history,” Snake pointed out. “Not every person he had contact with. Little Volkov has no digital connections and I had no reason to look at the enrollment for the whole college.” He sighed and waved a hand when Felinus narrowed his eyes at him. “Fine, I was more interested in his past than his present and didn’t connect the Dimitri Volkov in his previous classes to Little Volkov. After all, the Russians have gone through a lot of trouble to keep his real name as an unknown, and out of courtesy I didn’t give his name a second glance. Are they going to be an issue?”
“I doubt it. Not a real one, anyway,” Felinus said, sitting in the chair at the head of the table. “Little Volkov might try to throw a fit but I’m not worried. Adrian is smart enough to realize that I’m not stupid enough to poach, so, he won’t cause issues. He called off the Russians before we left No-Man’s.”
“If you say so.” Snake nodded his head. “I’ll make sure we have the work history to show Issac playing jump rope with the Italian-Russian borders at least.”
“Look and see if you can find proof of him doing the same thing for the shelters,” Felinus said, tapping his fingers against the table. “People work in different areas than they live all the time. If the Russians decide to make an issue of this, proving that he skips borders with the shelters just as much as he does with work can only do us favors.”
“Sure, I’ll start writing a program to search for sign-in sheets tomorrow,” Snake said, rubbing at the back of his neck. “If I try to stare at code tonight, I’m going to see it in my sleep.”
“The Great and Powerful Snake, King of the Hackers, doesn’t dream of code anyway,” Felinus teased, smirking at the man.
“No, sometimes I dream of actually having a social life outside of you people and a steady partner,” Snake said, tapping at the new computer. “Or a phone full of friends with benefits.”
“You’ll find someone someday, Seong,” Felinus reassured him getting to his feet with a groan. “I’ll move his things into the new bag. You keep working on that.”
