by Newbiel
"Glad to be of assistance and glad to meet you Mister Lyndon." She answers, shaking his hand.
"Okay now that it's done, Me and Miss Lombardi need to talk outside alone. Grandpa, Scott is going to stay by your side to protect you while I'm away. I know what happened between you two while I was sleeping so I need you to put that on the side. He's extremely competent and dedicated to his work and that of all things should be something you respect."
"I don't recall the time when you became my boss." He said frowning.
"I'm not but in this particular instance I'm more competent than you so you should follow my lead, like I do when you are giving me advice on my new company. I'm going now, Amal I'm counting on you to make sure everyone plays nice alright?"
"Yes sir, you can count on me." Amal nodded.
"Good man. Jean take care." Nathaniel said, smiling and putting his hand on Amal's shoulder before exiting the room with Valentina.
Exchanging a few words with Scott to let him know what he needed to do in Nathaniel's absence, he walked with Valentina until they were alone.
"So how is everything going?" Nathaniel asked.
"For the most part, it's good. Since the police found a lot of incriminating evidence in the Head of the Police home, the Mayor and the government were too busy trying to sweep all of it under the rug rather than trying to find the people who really did it. They now know that it was not the Cosa Nostra who were responsible for the attack but can't launch an official investigation when they are trying to hide that a significant number of police officers were corrupt and collaborated with terrorists."
"Good, that was what I was hoping would happen. Do you have information on the man I told you to look into?"
When Scott, Amal and Nathaniel had broken into Khalid Rahal's home and taken down his whole family, they took all the files that he had on a variety of topics, one of them was the people they had in various countries to help them find the target to kidnap. Here in Italy, that person was the assistant of the economic adviser, that was also him that put the now deceased head of the Rome Police and Khalid in contact.
"Yes, I have. He did not come to work this morning and his place in Rome was put on sale. I'm guessing he left after learning of the two explosions in Riyadh. He also emptied his bank account before leaving, he's on the run." Valentina said, giving him a file.
"Thanks, this is going to help immensely into finding him." Nathaniel said, smiling after having looked at the file in question.
"Don't forget, we have a date scheduled for tonight, don't be late."
"You still want to go through with this?" He sighed.
"We made a deal, I continue to work with you and ignore your vigilante side and in exchange you are taking me on a date in the best restaurant in the city. Are you going back on your word now?" She frowned.
"I give you my word and I will keep it. I will be there tonight and on time. I'm just surprised that you would go to such lengths to just eat with me when I'm guessing many people would beg to only have the chance of taking you out for a night so why me?"
"I would tell you tonight if you are playing your cards right." She smiles enchantingly before leaving.
Shaking his head, smiling, Nathaniel looked at her walking away from him until he shook himself out of it. There was still one person that needed to be hunted and if Nathaniel was anything, he was a hunter.
*****
New York, Lyndon Tower. 12/12/2012. 14:00.
In the CEO office, Diane Lyndon, her daughter Mary and Lina Campbell were having a meeting. Since they had learned that the mission of Nathaniel was a success the mood of Diane and Mary had improved greatly but that did not mean everything was alright here either. The board was making more demands and was demanding to see Robert soon or they were going to invalidate his presidency.
It was no secret that the person behind that move was Bryan Bones. Even if the imagination of Lina made him suffer a setback in his plan, he had quickly recovered and launched a new and more legal offensive to be made president of the board.
"Why are they not coming right back? We need Robert here, what is Nathaniel thinking?" Diane said exasperated.
"He said he had one more thing to take care of in Rome before coming back. He would not delay if it was not an important matter, mom. He told me they will be back tomorrow, we just have to schedule a meeting with the board for tomorrow and once they will see dad in the flesh, this whole mascarade is going to end." Mary answers.
"Yes, that may be but I want Bryan to suffer a little before I go back home and Robert takes back his rightful place." She said angrily, she knew that it was because she had come back that Bryan attacked her like that, there was a lot of bad blood between the two of them.
"Yes, I understand mom but what do you have in mind?"
"I don't know but I want him to pay."
At that moment Lina said something in an unintelligible voice that made Diane and Mary turn in her direction.
"What did you say Lina?" Mary asked.
"I killed him." She said a little stronger making the two others womens in the room eyes wide.
"What did you say? You killed him?" Diane asked dumbfounded.
Looking at the reaction her words provoqued, Lina was lost until an alarmed expression painted on her face.
"No! Not that, not physically! I killed him on paper! As of today, Bryan Bones is dead for the IRS, banks, credit score institution, administration. Even a couple of local newspapers announce his death. He's going to have a hard time getting back his life. I just put him in an administrative hole." Lina said, smirking.
.
Looking amazed at the girl in front of them, the Lyndon pair started to laugh out loud until tears came out of their eyes and they were clutching their stomach in laughter.
"Oh my god. He will never see it coming." Mary continued laughing.
"Where did you have the idea to do something like that?" Diane asked after her fit of laughing subside but they were still a huge smile on her face.
"Nathaniel gave me strict instruction to make every person who would want to take advantage of you while he was away pay. I saw it in a movie a long time ago. Hackers do something like that and I always wanted to try it. I found it quite fun even if that was extremely difficult to achieve." She smiled.
"Well, I hope you have nothing planned for this afternoon, you are going to come with us and do some shopping." Diane said getting to her feet.
"What?" Lina asked, surprised.
"You are coming with us Lina, you deserve to have a little bit of fun for what you just did." Mary said, ushering the girl by the door. "Let's go on a shopping spree." She shouted joyfully.
Chapter 144: :
Italy, Ladispoli. 12/12/2012. 18:00.
Ladispoli was a little coastal town an hour away drive from Rome. With a population a little higher than forty five thousand people, it was a pretty calm town mostly inhabited outside of summer time. Piero Manaty knew this little town very well as it was where he was born and still today his grandparents were still leaving here even if they were not in contact anymore.
Having taken residence in one of the crappiest hotels in the city, Piero did not have a great view by the window as it was blocked by another building. Situated at the seventh floor of the hotel, Piero's room consists of an old bedroom with sheets that were white at one point in time but now where looking more brown than anything. There was also a tiny bathroom and an old kitchen who did not look like it was clean since a decade ago.
He had money of course, his dealing with the Crooked Moon and the corrupt cops made him a lot of money over the years, not even mentioning the contract that he had witnessed as an assistant for the Italian economic adviser and could divulge in exchange for money. Right now he had a bag of around two hundred thousand euros near his bed. It was enough money to buy a nicer place than here but he knew that he needed to go underground for the heat to die down and that crappy hotel with no internet was the perfect place for t
hat.
For the previous four hours the event that took place the last two days were turning inside of his head, trying to figure out what the hell exactly happened. Learning of the meeting between his boss and the CEO of the Lyndon label, he had communicated that information to Khalid and then shared the contact of one of his associates who was the boss of the Rome Police.
The kidnapping happened like it was planned even if the security details of the Lyndon guy were more effective than expected and a couple of officers died as a result. And then everything starts to go to shit. More cops belonging to his friend organization in the Police were found dead over the next day, like someone was hunting them one by one. After that his friend was found dead in his bed from an heart attack based on the coroner result but Piero knew it was bullshit, the timing was too suspicious to be anything other than a murder.
And then this morning he watched the news and learned about the two explosions that shook the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Trying to call his contact, no one was responding anymore so he decided it was time for him to disappear. He could not comprehend who could have that type of skill and influence to hit in two different countries not even days but hours apart. Obviously, they had picked the wrong target and someone was hunting them to make them pay.
Throwing his shirt soaked in cold sweat, Piero could not endure being locked inside this crappy room any longer, he needed to go out. Putting on a new shirt and making sure that his appearance did not gather attention outside by examining himself in the mirror, he exited the room. Locking his door, he goes in the direction of the elevator. Piero always was thin without doing any sport and taking the staircase never even came to his mind.
Luckily he did not have to wait as the elevator was already on his floor. Entering the cabin and pressing the button to the ground floor, the door closed and then he heard the sound of cable snapping above him and the cabin started to free fall at a terrifying speed.
When the cabin hit the ground a thunderous crash echoed in the entire building and even outside of it. People were already converging to the elevator and the people outside of the building were trying to figure out what the noise was. Already many people had their phone out and were calling the police, worried that it was a terrorist attack. In that tense atmosphere, nobody in the crowd noticed the young blond teenager walking away from the hotel with a carefree attitude.
*******
An hour and a half later, Nathaniel had come back to Rome and was getting out of the shower still wet and wearing only underwear. He wanted to sleep but his mind was too worked up for that, it was okay, he could sleep when he would be home. In the meantime, he still had a lot of files he needed to look into from the one he took from Khalid home.
Unfortunately, someone was not in this opinion as he heard knocking on his door. Thinking of the last time when he opened to Valentina in underwear, he hastily put on sweat pants and shirt before opening the door. Except this time it was not a ravishingly beautiful woman but a sixty years old man with anger issues.
"We need to talk." Robert demanded.
"How did you know I was back?"
"I ask one of my men to let me know when you would be back."
Nathaniel sighed. He had made sure that his grandfather would be in the room next door in case of danger but it was turning into a nightmare. Passing his head to look at the highway, Nathaniel looked at Jason who was guarding the door of his grandfather when he got back earlier.
"Jason, you and I are going to spar when we get back to New York, be sure of that." Jason tries and fails to hide a grim expression to fill his face. Nathaniel let his grandfather enter before closing the door.
"So, what do you want to talk about loving grandpa?" Nathaniel asks, slumping on the couch.
"You know what I want to know!" He shouted. "Tell me how the hell you could do what you did to get me back! I want to know everything and now!"
Not surprised in the slightest, Nathaniel made a show of thinking intensely before answering bluntly.
"Nope."
"I'm not asking." He said, his eyes shrinking dangerously.
"I know, this is one of the reasons I told you nope. The other is because I already promised to grandma that I will wait for her to be here before saying everything. Now, you can go back to your room and rest or you can try to fight with me in order to force me into telling you everything, I don't advise you to go down this path." Nathaniel said, his eyes turning cold.
Robert stopped himself but barely into taking a step back. He recognized the way his eyes turned icy and that was the same thing that happened before he started killing terrorists. In his mind, each time he was thinking about his grandson, he was seeing only a young teenager without any experience and was forgetting all the things that he saw him do. Robert knew that he needed to change the way that they were interacting with each other or it could turn very bad for their relationship in the future.
"You are going to tell everything when we are home then?" He asks to be sure.
"Yes grandpa, I have given my word to grandma and I keep my word, always." Nathaniel answers.
"Good, this is our pride as Lyndon. We can be tough and ruthless but we keep our word, always." Robert said in a more calm voice.
"I know grandpa, grandma told me already."
"Alright, I'm going back to my room. I expect we are leaving first light tomorrow morning?" He asked.
"Yes, this is scheduled that way."
"Good." Robert said, exiting the room without adding anything else making Nathaniel sighed again before diving in the files that were on his coffee table.
Chapter 145: :
Italy, Rome. 12/12/2012. 20:20.
Walking inside the opulent restaurant where he had reserved the day before, Nathaniel could see it was not very big, only a dozen of tables but the people inside were all wealthy. It was not surprising considering the price of the dish here. Spotting him, a hostess came to him.
"Lyndon, table for two." He said before she had to say anything.
Nodding, the woman wearing a black dress walked behind the counter and checked on the computer to make sure a reservation was at that name. Finding him on her computer, she walks back to him.
"Yes, Welcome Mister Lyndon, please follow me. Your plus one is already there and she's waiting for you." She said in flawless english.
"Thank you."
Going to his table, he spotted Valentina easily and he took everything he had to stop himself for drooling openly. She was wearing a fitting cocktail red dress displaying her amazing form for everyone to see. Her dress had slit on the side of her chest and leg, giving him an amazing view from where he was standing. Her usually long blond hair was tied in a skillful bun showing her neckline beautifully. Nathaniel was suddenly feeling wholly inadequate with the suit he picked up when he was coming back from Ladispoli earlier.
Spotting him coming her way, Valentina smiles enchantingly before going to her feet. Coming to her, Nathaniel took her hand and made a bow kissing the back of her hand making her giggle at the outdated move. Taking her chair, Nathaniel waited for her to sit back before pushing it under her and took his place, taking the menu in passing that the hostess was giving him.
"Can I say right now that you are looking simply 'WOW'?" Nathaniel smiles admiringly.
"Thank you, you also look very dashing." Valentina answers with a smile.
"This is not even remotely the same. I took this suit quickly in a high end shop, shower, and dressed my hair and I was good to go. I don't even want to know how many times you took to put that dress on. You are spoiling me." Nathaniel shook his head.
"This is not a competition, I like the way you look in that suit and based on what your mouth and eyes says, you also like the way I look. This is the only thing that matters."
Thinking about it, Nathaniel realised she was right, the rest really did not matter. After that the discussion was more carefree and they were talking freely without any dullness. The food was amazing and t
he atmosphere inside the restaurant prone to talk without having to care about being heard.
"So, why me? Why did you come back after you realised the truth about me?" Nathaniel asked after they had taken a pause in their talk to eat.
"I was wondering when you would ask that." She laughed lightly. "To tell you the truth, four days ago, before you even barged into my life, Me and my two best friends and I went to watch a movie who just got out. Care to guess the name of the movie in question?" She smiled.
"Now you see me?" He said, starting to understand.
"Yes, we like the movie and we like you even more in it. I won't repeat a lot of what was said that night about you but suffice to say that we were really surprised when we learned that you were only sixteen at that time. That was one of the reasons that I accepted your case so quickly when your mother called but I did not expect you to be like that in a million years. I came back when I realised that you were right, I would do anything for my family or my friends even if I couldn't go to the lengths you did. He did not help also that when you were handsome before, when you called me on my bullshit you became even more hot than before. There is nothing more sexy than a man on a mission." She finished, a tinge of red on her cheek.
"Is that so?" He asks, smiling.
"Oh yes."
"Too bad I'm not anymore, the mission is over now." He laughed.
"Really?" She said surprised. "But what about the one who got away?"
"Tragic accident, I'm afraid. I was home when I learned on the news that there was an elevator accident in a city called Ladispoli, with one person inside of the cabin when it crashed on the ground. What a pity." Nathaniel said, shaking his head in mock sadness.
"But, how…?" She asked dumbfounded. "How did you find him so fast?"
"We talked about this Valentina, I'm not only a pretty face. We should talk about something a little less morbide, I don't want to ruin this night with you."
"Alright, but I will find out the truth about you one day Mister Lyndon. After all, I'm pretty good at this."
