39 Master Of The House!

That night, while sitting on the living room sofa, Archer made countless calls to contacts he never thought that he would use and people he thought he would never talk to again since his goal from a young age had been to live a 'common life'.

He always believed that his brother would be the one to run Reign and then his son would take over after him; this cruel twist of fate was unexpected to say the least.

To say that the people who got his calls were shocked would be an understatement, but most of them were people who knew Archer from when they were young, some of them went to school together so they didn't turn down his request for help and for those who didn't know him very well, they at least knew Trooper or his father so they didn't blatantly turn him away.

After making enough appointments, promises to meet up and drink and rekindle old relations to keep him busy for the next couple of months, it was already midnight and although all he had done was move his fingers and talk, Archer was exhausted. But, he believed that after tonight, Reign would finally start moving in the direction that he wanted it to go, after all, he was the boss, the master of the house, the one calling the shots...

"Large and in charge..." Archer laughed then, throwing his head back to stare at the ceiling then he glanced over at the stairs and sighed.

He didn't want to go, he really didn't want to leave but he needed to, he couldn't stay. If he wanted to achieve the goal he set for himself and live the life that he wanted he needed to act as soon as possible, tonight, now.

Picking up the cellphone he had tossed off to the side, Archer made two more calls that night as he left the house. The first was to make sure that 'Ruby' was taken care of and the second was to Uncle Sam.

As the steward of the Ryan household, there were a lot of things that he couldn't do without Samuel's help, especially since he was still relatively new to the system, so Archer had no choice but to call him.

When he received Archer's call at such an ungodly hour, Samuel's first move was to scold him mercilessly and it was only after a good quarter hour of tongue lashing that the elderly man calmed down to hear what his young master had to say.

"What did you say?!"

"I want to clean the board, as soon as possible. I've thought this since I took over the office, but big brother was too soft hearted in his business matters, there are too many leeches latching on to Reign and I intend to drop the extra baggage; they'll only be a burden moving forward. Uncle Sam, what do you think?"

"That..." Samuel was speechless. He knew that his second young master had an excellent eye for business and that the young man had been skirting around the important matters in the company because he had the mind of not destroying what his brother had built, waiting for Trooper to return and see everything as he left it, but it seemed that he had changed his mind?

Samuel didn't know what the reason for his sudden change of mind was, but he was grateful.

"I understand, I will do as the Master orders."

Hearing the form of address that Samuel used to call him, Archer who was sitting in the back seat of a taxi froze and his hold on the cellphone in his hand tightened. Well, there was no going back now.

"Good. I'll call when I have further instructions."

"Yes."

Samuel was radiating absolute joy right now as he sat on the side of his bed in his pajamas with the phone close to his ear.

Suddenly, Archer's tone of voice deepened.

"Uncle Sam, how is Zac?"

"The Little Master?" Samuel stilled for a second, but then when he recalled the boy's interaction with that little beauty earlier in the day, he positively beamed. "You need not worry Master; the Little Master will be fine. I'll go to the agency tomorrow and file an application for a new nanny and oversee the selection myself."

Samuel had already fired that useless woman from before. Such trash weren't needed in the Ryan household, but it was also because of sympathy. With how much Archer valued Zac as his brother's only child, if the matter were left for him to deal with, the woman certainly wouldn't end well.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you then."

"Please do. And Master..."

"Yes, what is it?"

"Please be careful out there."

Archer felt warmth spread in his chest from the elderly man's concern and the stern expression that he was sporting softented slightly.

"Mmm. I'll be careful."

Shortly after he ended the call, the cab arrived at its location and Archer paid the driver before getting out and he stared into the alley before him that was lit by a single red light, giving off an earie vibe.

Looking back to cast a glance over the still and deserted South Market, he them put his hands in his pockets, taking long and even strides forward.

Arriving at Kiss of Death's front door, Archer pushed it open and stepped inside, startling the bartender who was sitting behind the counter, flipping through a porno magazine.

Walking forward, he didn't even spare the embarrassed young man a glance as he veered off to the left of the room and standing under the winding staircase that led up to the overhanging balcony, knocked on the wall.

There were two reasons that Archer came back here tonight; the first was to retrieve his car which was left behind since he went off with some crazy cat earlier and the second was to find out the identity of said cat.

It might seem ridiculous considering that they had only know each other for a few hours without even actually knowing anything about each other, but Archer had really and truly set his heart on 'Ruby' that night and he was determined that as long as she would have him, she would be his.

Thinking about the woman he left fast asleep in his bed, a tender smile couldn't help but curve the corner of Archer's mouth as his steely grey eyes became mellow and gentle. This was the expression that greeted Israel when he opened the door. He almost pissed himself.

When the hell could his cousin make an expression like that ah?! This guy was all gloom and doom, sarcasm and sadism. Gentleness? Tenderness? What were those? Could he eat them?

"Sage, what are you doing here?"

Calling him by his middle name as they had done from since childhood, Israel rubbed his sleepy eyes while leaning against the door frame.

"Am I interrupting?"

Raising his brow at the countless dark marks littering the younger man's bare upper body, Archer questioned rhetorically.

"In fact. What do you want?"

Seeing a bit of irritation flash in his cousin's jade green eyes as he raked a hand through his short blonde hair, Archer knew that if he took too long he'd have to wait until tomorrow evening when the short tempered, lazy scamp woke up to get what he wanted, so he quickly stated his business.

"I want you to look up somebody for me."

At that moment, Isabel who was fast asleep had no idea that a predator had locked onto her with a burning desire to conquer.

#_*_#_*_#_*_#_*_#_*_#_*_#_*_#

At the Ryan family's ancestral home, after receiving Archer's call, Samuel was too excited to go back to sleep so the middle aged man was going down to the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea.

As people who had served at the right hand of the Ryan family for generations, the well being of the Kooke family was inevitably tied to the prosperity of the Ryan family and even if it wasn't so, considering that he had been raised side by side with Archer and Trooper's father like brothers since young and he watched the two grow up like an uncle, Samuel wanted only what was best for them.

Ever since the days when Steve Ryan was lying on his death bed, battling terminal cancer, Samuel knew that those board executives were up to no good and committing shady dealings in the dark, but as only a steward, he wasn't the one to make the choices and could only offer advice, the decision was for the Master of the house to make and it seemed that Archer was finally choosing to step up to the position.

It wasn't that Samuel was condemning Trooper, but it was just a fact that the first young master was never really suited for business, however, in the entire history of the Ryan family, it had always been the first born who inherited the position of CEO. A situation where the eldest was alive and well and the second child inherited the company was unprecedented, so although it was evident to everyone from a young age that the second young master would have definitely been the better fit for the position, there was nothing that could be done.

As he was approaching the top of the staircase, Samuel suddenly noticed that a door further down the hall in the east wing was open and the light was on inside.

Puzzled as to why there was still a light on when they had all been switched off when he made his final rounds before going to bed earlier, Samuel turned down the hall and peeked in only to find his Little Master curled up on a chair, his head resting on top of his hands on the arm rest as he gazed at the abstract portrait resting against the window.

In bright splashes of red, yellow, purple and blue, a picture of a woman was painted, her eyes like two golden suns as she smiled. The woman was upside down, and many would believe that the portrait was flipped, but the artist, Zac himself, said that was the way it was supposed to be.

In his hand, Samuel could see that Zac was holding on to the cellphone he had bought him earlier today and he smiled before knocking on the door to alert the boy of his presence.

Zac jumped when he heard the knock then turned around. "U- Uncle Sam."

"Can't sleep?"

With an embarrassed blush on his face, Zac shook his head. No.

"When is Uncle coming home?"

"I'm sorry Little Master, but he won't be coming back tonight."

"I see."

Seeing his disheartened little look, Samuel suppressed the urge to sigh. This child was too pitiful.

"Come, you should go to bed, you'll be visiting your grandmother in the morning."

Samuel attempted to take Zac's hand but the little boy pulled away, his eyes wide in evident fright and panic.

"Little Master, what's wrong?"

"Ah." Realizing that he had done something that would make Samuel worry, Zac quickly bowed his head. "I- it's nothing, I'm sorry."

It pained Samuel's heart to see the boy like this, but if Zac didn't want to talk, there was really nothing he could do. Smiling helplessly, he stretched out his hands to the boy again. "Come." And this time Zac obediently allowed himself to be lifted up and taken back to his room.

After he had tucked him in well, Samuel touched the boy's head then got up and left the room.

Lying in the dark with only the standard night light on the night stand to keep him company, Zac still couldn't sleep so he got up and moved over to the night stand where he picked up his new cellphone and opened the phone book.

There were only four contacts on the list so far; the first was 'Uncle Sam', then 'Uncle Archer', 'Nana' and the last one was 'Aunty Isabel'.

Tapping on the identification photo next to the last contact number, what popped up was a picture of the painting he had just been staring at in the next room.

Placing the cellphone high on the pillow, Zac laid at a lower angle where he tilted his head up to gaze at that upside down face, his purple eyes shining in the dark with light like they contained an entire galaxy; and he gazed at it until he didn't even know when he fell asleep.