Who Are You?

Arc 1.9 - Alex McGuire

Opening the door, there he was.

Dressed in a suit without a tie.  His blazer being black, fit him perfectly. The top two buttons of his dark blue dress shirt were unbuttoned. His black dress pant was without a single wrinkle to be seen.

Alex leaned against the half opened door to his apartment. Checking him out from top to bottom, he finally looked into the mans eyes. Unreadable and cold, but enticing.

Side stepping, opening the door wider, Alex gestured him inside. The man went in, no one spoke until Alex closed the entrance door.

"Your exactly on time, right on the dot too. I'm almost finished cooking dinner, make yourself at home." Eric glanced around the apartment.

Entering into a hallway, there two set of doors on each side. Which would most likely be the first storage rooms and a bathroom. Immediately after coming out of the short hallway, you see two steps leading down and surrounding the living room. In front of the living room was a floor to ceiling windows, stretching out to the whole apartment, revealing the night view of the downtown city. A modern kitchen to the right with a dining table further up. On the left, a long set of stairs leading to the second floor, to the left side the wall where the TV was mounted.

The apartment had an looked more like a penthouse, as there was enough room on the main floor to be the size of two apartments. Overall, everything looked black and white, aesthetically pleasing to Eric's taste

Alex walked over to the dinner table with the beef 'n' rice enchiladas and the creamy roasted red pepper tomato soup in his hands. Setting them down he looked at Eric who in turn looked at Alex.

Smirking, "Dinner served."

Eric walked over to the dining table as he kept his eyes on Alex. He felt that there's so much more to this person than he appears to be. Who exactly is he? How did he know about his gang? How much more does he know?

Standing right in front of each other, the atmosphere suddenly got weird. Alex looking at Eric with a smiling face, Eric looking at Alex with cold suspicion, until Alex stepped in closer and put his hand inside Eric's blazer.

Eric narrowed his eyes, "What do you think your doing?"

Alex leaned in on his ear and whispered, "No weapons at the dinner table, hot stuff."

Eric frowned, he had no choice but to put up with this man and let him take his gun. After all, Sherry asked him to become closer to Alex not to kill him off.

Taking the gun off it's holster, Alex put in on the kitchen counter and the gestured towards the dining table. They sat in silence, until Eric became irritated by the lack of explanation as Alex calmly put a portion of the food on his plate and begun eating as if nothing was wrong.

"Oh! Want some wine?" He got up before Eric could respond. Grabbing the bottle of wine from the wine rack, he was about to turn around and get some wine glasses. But suddenly his body was pinned to the wall, and the wine bottle shattered on the ground

Eric had a scowl on his face as he held the man against the wall, quite roughly. "What do you want exactly?"

"Ah, how feisty," Alex began chuckling, "such a waste of wine too."

"Cut the crap!"

"Didn't I tell you this morning? The Roland Enterprise has a secret project that they want to invest in. They had me be in charge of it and I want your help with it."

"You sure it's the company that wants to invest in this project and not you?"

A smirk slowly stretched out into Alex's mouth. This man was right on point, Alex's scheme was caught.

"So, are you going to help me?"

"Depends on what you want exactly."

Eric let him go and sat back in his chair, neglecting the mess he made on the floor. Sighing, Alex got the mop to clean the wine and shattered glass.

After 5 minutes, the two were sitting in front of each other, Alex was explaining this so called 'project' he wanted done.

"There's going to be a man in town all I want from the mafia leader to one of the most dangerous gang in this country is to kidnap this man. His name is Leo White, I'm sure you must be familiar with him."

Leo White is no other than Sherry Whites drug-addicted brother, the very one who overdosed and died a year after the main leads got married and had 'their' baby.

"Why should I help you kidnap my friends brother?"

"I have my reasons. So, what'd you think?."

Eric frowned, contemplating on this matter. The woman he loves want him to become closer to Alex McGuire to help convince him to gather some better benefits from the company. On the other hand, the man he needs to get close to approached him to help kidnap the brother of the woman he loves...

There would be two options he could choose from. 1, follow this man with kidnapping Sherry's brother, with no idea whether Alex will hit Leo or worse and become closer to him in partnership or 2, refuse to kidnap Sherry's brother and go back on his word he promised Sherry herself to get closer to Alex.

In the end, he chose the 3rd option.

"I'm willing to do so, but only under my conditions. First, Leo White will be kidnapped without being hurt in anyway whatsoever. Second, you give The Versal Company more benefits and involvement in the Roland Enterprises projects, shares and total investment value. Third, stop calling me... 'hot stuff', my name is Eric Quincy. And lastly, you will tell me everything you know about me and how you got this information. Do you understand Mr. McGuire?"

"Of course. Eric." Sipping some more wine, he hid a smile and continued, "I never intended to hurt Leo White in the first place. As for your second condition... hmm, well, depending on how the Versal company show their capabilities and value to the partnership, they shall have better opportunities, even with me interfering nothing can be certain. And as for the last condition, let's keep that as a 'mission-complete' reward for this 'project'."

After a long hard stare from Eric, he was about to start talking when Alex said, "you're here for dinner, right? The food might go cold soon, you haven't even put any on your plate."

Looking at the beef 'n' rice enchiladas, he put some on his plate and poured some soup in a bowl beside his plate. He took a bite and immediately stared at Alex. Eric was secretly shocked, he didn't expect Alex's food to taste superb. It could almost be comparable to his families chef. But it was noticeably different, otherworldly almost.

Like this, they ate until everything was consumed. Alex got up to get another bottle of wine, just as he was about to pour more for the man in front of him, he was stopped by a hand.

"I'd rather not have anymore, otherwise I won't be able to drive."

Just as he finished that sentence, their phones were conveniently alarmed with an Emergency Alert text message.

———————————————————————
⚠️ Emergency Alerts

Tornado Warning in this area till 6:45 AM.
Take shelter now. Check local media. -NSW
———————————————————————

"Well then...I guess that's no longer a problem," He still poured it in Eric's glass.

Frowning, Eric got up and walked down to the living room, trying to contact someone. However, cell service was temporarily shut down due to the tornado. They were basically sitting ducks. "This is troublesome."

Alex silently walked behind the man before whispering in his ear, "you might as well stay the night. With me. In my room"

This suddenness brought chills down Eric's spine. He somehow felt this was planned, but couldn't figure out how.