Heirs To The City: The Quartet

Chapter Thirty Five

Nicholas Harrington

When lunch break arrived at quarter after two and I watched everyone stand before Adrian seemed almost bored with his movements. I'd always known him to be uncaring, like his choices in life weren't always as calculated as a nuclear bomb. He could probably commit to the same amount of damage as one too.

Pulling my jacket closed I felt the button slip through the slit and brace the fabric before turning and walking away towards the doors my shoes tapping the polished flooring, only disturbed and broken by the overlapping sounds of other shoes. I'd noticed the shadow though, and the only real distinguished part of him was his height over everyone else around him.

He'd not spoken a word all of yesterday about what he'd planned for the trial in how he would direct the lawyers to approach the case, but he had mentioned that none of us were going to be on the losing side one way or another. The problem with that was that one of the Executives had been shot outside of the townhouse all of them were supposed to be in protective custody. How one man got past numerous armed guards I hadn't wanted to learn. However Adrian had alluded to it being apart of a way to get Demetri Flanne in contact with her, and the fact his body was found, and ruled as a suicide was one small marker that would inevitably come back and end up on Olivia and Adrian's front doorstep. I wasn't against Adrian's motives or plans. The way he could make everything seem so logical, and planned even if it was complete chaos was a skill I'd only ever seen from him.

I also fear the day he passes that trait on.

He was a very different person from the boy I knew who partied every friday, and was through a girl each night. A harsh reality that he kept away from Olivia for the first year of their relationship, and if I had to guess it was out of shame. His choices to manipulate the elites of the world, and events however he couldn't ever seem to give a single fuck about, and since he was at least moral no one would ever say a single thing about it.

Stopping just outside the doors I waited for him to round the corner but instead I felt the twist in the middle of my back of fabric bunching.

"Harrington," Adrian's deep timbre bore through the air next to me.

"What is digging into my L-three and four vertebrae?" I ask just as calm as my closest friend spoke.

"It's my fist. I'm also slipping a slip involving information about what the opposing lawyers dug up about your family, you should review it and get your lawyers to come up with a defense, especially now that the placement of legal funds has arrived for the eleven. They will want to try and shift focus on us, throw off the prosecution," Adrian remarks as we began to move out of the hall.

Passing my keys to Kate she accepted them, and whispered something to Olivia who nodded and exchanged a look with Adrian who flashed only a smile she'd see. The two of our pairings walked out and luckily security had cleared the reporters from the steps and allowed all of us to leave for break.

Unlocking the P1, I rounded Adrian's car and only because Kate owned McLaren's did I manage to open the door and climbed inside the low car. Pulling the door shut he started the car and pulled away from the curb before speeding through New York traffic. It was odd, most people followed traffic laws and yet Adrian in his multimillion dollar sports car he couldn't have cared less.

Driving through the city he eventually slowed to a stop outside of Per Se. Parking Adrian pushed open the door and buttoned the front of the Dormeuil suit he wore, and I couldn't fully picture him in much else even if I knew he had dozens of leather jackets. Climbing out of his matte carbon fiber car I pushed the door shut and followed after him into the restaurant which no one seemed to say so much as a word before a waitress gestured for us to follow her and we did though I could tell Adrian seemed completely disinterested in her even if she made the effort to sway her hips in front of him.

Celebacy had to be a fucking gift to him from God.

Hanging his jacket he then sat and set the cufflinks of his suit in the inside pocket of his jacket and carefully rolled up his sleeves so he didn't crease the fabric.

No etiquette class could have taught someone that, or even how Adrian knew himself to be from the old guard of New York elites. He didn't act it at one time, but now I saw it in almost everything my closest friend did. It was control and sophistication. Pain and traumas were a part of him that he'd caged and set out to be a better person after experiencing them. It was like watching my older brother break out of a phase he was trapped in, and do better for everyone around him.

When we were presented with the options for courses, Adrian barely glanced at it and ordered a five course meal for the two of us, before listing off a bottle of something I'd never heard of though since he and I were in a courtroom I had my doubts that it would contain any alcohol. Hunter would have ordered an alcohol for lunch regardless of situation.

Adrian then pulled out his phone and within a few seconds my phone pinged and I found a file which was totally encrypted and required a password to get into which he typed in a clearance override and I was granted access to the file which detailed everything that the defendants were working on, and how the hired lawyers were going to pick them apart. It was all planned out from start to finish, Adrian had the whole thing figured out to a point and it worried me since even one small detail could slip up and the plan wouldn't work in a traditional sense but when it came to the man across from me I'd learned that there was always about two dozen plans for any default in a plan.

"This is the rest of the trial," I state raising my eyebrows.

"It is, I want you to know that you, Hunter, and Riley will never have to worry about being an opponent to me. I made this reputation to protect all of you, even if you all can defend yourselves, I know well enough that I don't need too," Adrian says and his expression shifts at something but he doesn't make any comment about it though his eyes kept meeting something across the room.

"You're watching someone, and I don't want to know why?" I say as the waitress returned gaining both of our attentions all while she poured our drinks and walked off.

"I have been thinking that everything fit together too well over these past few weeks. Demetri is found, a stalker is present to follow Olivia, the people who know anything are gone. Then there is this court case. It feel like a distraction," Adrian says before he lifts his glass to his lips and leans back into his chair.

"So you think someone else is pulling the strings?" I ask wondering who could have been smart enough to do so, though if Adrian suspected something like that he was playing them believing they were playing us.

"I know someone is Nico, that's why we're at the most expensive restaurant in New York, the suspect is here, and so is someone I recognize as being connected to certain influential people," he says and I had to stifle the smile that tried to break onto my face.

In all the years I'd known Adrian he could play any role he needed to in order to control someone. Manipulation was something he almost seemed to be a master at and it made me wonder just how often he did it in normal scenarios.

"Always playing a game where you're four steps ahead," I remark and he hums.

"Five but yes, I am always ahead. It's how I ensure I'm always the one who comes out on top. How all of us come out on top," he says and mere minutes after our meal arrives and we resort to plain conversation avoiding the topics of the case, and who Adrian suspected. Both would result in a cycled conversation and were also things I knew he wouldn't want to talk about, he and I were secretive, and it was what often bound us, what had always bound us.
    
    
Okay so that is this chapter, I'm going out in three hours so I do now need to get ready and actually eat something to hold me over until then. Comment, vote, and share. Anyways I appreciate all of you.

Peace✌