Chapter 36: Matter concerning Marbella I

"He hasn't done anything bad yet." Mar hummed back. "So leave him be."

"Alright." Liam buried his face in his best friend's hair. He took in the soft scent of vetiver and the generic vanilla shampoo they both used.

Slender fingers expertly typed on his keyboard, the screen light casting on both of them in the dark room. Blue eyes tried to keep up with the words moving on Mar's laptop screen, but Liam is always a second too short. He noticed that the flashdrive is still in his best friend's hand while he typed.

Then, the platinum blond alpha realized that Mar was disabling the wi-fi, disconnecting his device from the house. What he did a moment ago was transferring all his data to a private server that he owns, and now he's resetting the laptop back to its pure and clean factory setting. The black haired alpha went further by disabling the laptop's routers.

Liam didn't question it, instead he watched his companion work. Of course, Mar would want what's left of his mother to keep a secret because if anyone finds out, let's say one of his other siblings, the news will inevitably reach Mr. Aster. If it reaches Mr. Aster, who knows what he'll do? The Aster family patriarch had gone lengths to ensure that no trace of Marbella can be found anywhere except a photo that's private to the family and a gravestone. Mar's father has done it once, and he will do it again.

After checking his laptop one last time, Mar finally plugged in the flashdrive.

It didn't fit.

"Fuck..." The black haired alpha cursed as he flipped the flashdrive around and tried again.

It still didn't fit.

"Aaah, maybe it just needs some encouragement." Liam mumbled to his best friend. "That thing is ancient."

He doesn't know about technology that's not in his field of study, but flashdrive has been outdated for at least a decade now. Everyone sends stuff wirelessly nowadays, and as long as someone sends something to someone, another unwelcomed person can open it up. Thus, Mar would rather disconnect his laptop from any source that will connect him to the worldwide web.

The flashdrive was flipped at least ten times before it fit, and Mar gave it a good slam with his hands to make it enter its port. As soon as a window popped up on his screen, the black haired alpha immediately clicked on it.

Holy shit.

Blue eyes squinted at the numbers on screen, hoping to get a better look. Is he reading it right?

6.66 terabyte worth of stuff is in that tiny flashdrive. Where did Rex even get a flashdrive like that? According to the pop up window, it's 6.66/7TB. Is this a prank or something?

The taller alpha wishes it was, because when Mar clicked opened the first folder in a long line of folders, it takes them to more folders. A sigh was heard from the black haired alpha underneath him, but Mar kept clicking the first folder until he reached a file.

The display bar showed: [ Marbella Silverin > Year 1 > January > Case 12 > W4 Street Part I > Journal Day 1]

A long article showed up when Mar clicked on |Journal Day 1|, and like the fast reader he is, it didn't take the black haired alpha long to get to the bottom of the page where a lot of images were attached.

It seemed to be a diary of some sort, of how the author was interpreting what's going on in a political rally that they were at and pointing out the fact that they were inexperienced in dealing with this type of thing in their job.

What job exactly? From the little information Liam had of Mar's mother, he could see that the job was journalism? After quickly skimming through the article, the platinum blond alpha got the idea that Marbella was reporting about a political rally that happened almost three decades ago. The pictures showed something different, however. They're mostly blurry photos of a crowd of people holding signs. The words written on the signs weren't clear, but they're sort of readable, and they're clearly protesting on the street. Then, his blue eyes landed on a familiar figure on a building, in the very last picture, which just happens to be the least pixelated one.

"Mar..." The taller alpha pointed at the figure, and his companion nodded slightly before zooming in on it. Despite its age, the picture was clear.

Petrov.

Even three decades ago, the head butler was bald and had a very calm face. Sure, he had less wrinkles and was wearing a black hoodie completed with a headset, but his identity was obvious.

Now that brings up the question of why was Petrov holding a sniper gun — possibly reloading — in a building overlooking a bunch of protesters?

"Petrov had another job before he's a butler."

Liam couldn't help but laugh at what his best friend said. A hint of amusement was present in his voice as Mar continued talking. "Now we know what it is."

"Your mother was a great writer." The platinum blond alpha smiled a little. Even though he met her once, he should at least try to compliment her on that.

"Yeah..." His companion mumbled back before he went out of the article and opened the one below it. It's the same event, but it's by another reporter by the name of Nicky Patrikovsky.

Patrikovsky? Have he heard that before? That's right, that asshole Vijay Patrikovsky "Rex" Aster. Is this a coincidence? Or not, they can be related. Liam never got to learn about Rex besides the fact that he's a bully, and he's a walking encyclopedia of dinosaurs.

Maybe the world would be a better place if Rex hadn't joined the military. Maybe he'd be less if an asshole if he followed his dreams of being an evolutionary biologist...

Anyways, back to the article, the author also attached a picture of the protest, with Petrov being seen in the same building from another angle. Also, whoever Nicky Patrikovsky was, they're definitely an omega since they're complaining about heat. Well, the weather could be hot, but given the context, it's not about the weather.

"Bro..." Mar's fingers tapped on Liam's to let him go so that he could put the laptop down on the coffee table in front of them.

The screen light was enough for the black haired alpha to reach for a packet of chocolate sauce and two mini croissants. Slender fingers handed one to Liam, and the platinum blond alpha took it gratefully. To be honest, he kinda forgot about the dessert they tried so hard to hoard. His physique be damned; excessive calories and sugar is a problem for his tomorrow self to worry about. Plus, it's a vacation, they deserve a break.

"They deserve a break" was being used loosely here because after three hours and half of the dessert bowl was gone, they were still on the couch reading. The cheese cake was gone a while ago, but Mar was still chewing on his fork which he used to eat the cheesecake.

The platinum blond alpha didn't tell his companion that he was bored out of respect. It's his mother's documents after all, and even though Liam was better off not learning that Petrov was a skilled hitman who was being hunted down by a team of journalists consisting of Mar's mother and two omegas, Liam was still staying up for his best friend.

Why? Because he felt guilty when Rex said he's just a friend that Mr. Aster gave to his youngest son Mar to forget about Marbella's death.

"What are you thinking about?" A slender finger tapped on Liam's lower lip, and the taller alpha's eyes snapped open. Purple eyes softly stared at him from the seat beside him. "I know that face. You're not sleeping, Liam. You're thinking."

Blue eyes closed once more as he let out a deep breath. "Just thinking about stuff."

"What stuff?" The black haired alpha's hand cupped his cheeks, and Liam yelped a little when his face was pulled lower.

As soon as they made eye contact, the platinum blond alpha spilled, "Stuff about your father paid to be your friend so that you'd forget about your mother."

A slight smile came on those plush lips, and Mar let go of the taller alpha's face.

"I'm glad he did." Mar's eyes went back to his laptop. This time, he's copying everything from the flashdrive into the laptop. Without commenting on how much time the copying will take, Mar simply put his laptop to the side.