The Boss

Chapter 22

**this ones for C.C. the maid/librarian. Hope you enjoy**

I watched Claire storm off to the elevators, the tension in the room escalating tenfold. My gaze swung back to Jason as he pinched his lips together and closed his eyes.

I could see the tortured emotions running across his face as he tried to collect himself. He breathed deeply before turning back to Jace and Bellamy.

"She needed you, hell all of us needed you. You should have kept in touch," Jace told him the pain of Jason's reappearance evident in his steely gaze.

Jason's face closed into an unreadable mask, as he stared at Jace who simply shook his head before following after Claire with an angry Bellamy hot on his heels.

I didn't know what to think as I replayed the last few minutes in my mind. Jason wasn't who I had thought he was, no wonder he had told me to stay away from this place, to stay away from them. He knew them, how they operated, he was part of them.

"I have the stuff you requested. If you would lead me to your room I'll show you." Jason sighed, his eyes not meeting mine.

Clenching my jaw, I walked to the elevator and in silence we made our way to my room. Swiping the key card and making our way inside. I kicked the door shut before staring at a kid that I thought I had known all this time, only to find out he was a virtually a stranger.

"Why?" I questioned him, my voice low.

He stayed silent as he dropped his computer bag on the table before slipping into one of the chairs. Exhaustion radiating off of him as he clasped his hands in front of him and rested his elbows on the table.

"You don't understand the way life was for us, the things we saw, the things we had to do.." he trailed off his eyes open as he stared down at the table.

"I wanted to leave that life behind and start a new one. I figured if no one knew who I was, they wouldn't be able to use me against them." He whispered. His eyes never met mine as he dropped his head in defeat.

"I couldn't risk anyone knowing I had escaped, you don't know how many times I had wanted to reach out and contact them. How many times I wished that I had stayed. How many times I had wished I had taken them with me." His voice low and broken.

"You could have told me," I told him. "You warned me to stay away but you never said why, is this why?"

"No," he ground out his eyes looking up to meet mine. "These people are my family, my blood but I also know what they were into. I may have never contacted them but I did keep tabs on them all."

"You what?" I asked frowning at him.

"Just because I left them behind, didn't mean I didn't still care for them. I still wanted to be in their lives, even if it meant pretending." He whispered as his eyes dropped to the floor.

"I warned you away because of the danger that they all live in. This life," he waved his hand around. "This life, this world, the enemies that come knocking." His voice cracking.

"You don't know how many people I've watched die because of a lie, because of false accusations or just because they didn't like someone looking at them the wrong way."

"What you do is dangerous but you help people too," he stated his eyes met mine, never blinking, never wavering. "They weren't the same thing, they can kill without thought. Torture innocent people if it benefits them, it's what they were trained to do."

"I never wanted this, I wanted to continue to live as I was. Helping you. I never let you take a job without doing my research. if the person you guarded or killed wasn't a bad person. I never even told you about the request, if the threat was warranted I let you go." He pushed the words out with force. There were no lies in his words and I knew about the jobs he never told me about, that's why I let him handle most of cases.

"They are not like you, I told you to stay away because I knew that they would use you, change you and make you into something you wouldn't be proud of." Breaking eye contact he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, "Your a man of honor, I know this life isn't just a job to you, it's personal."

"Your talking about your family, about Claire, your sister." I told him crossing my arms over my chest.

"Claire, isn't like the rest of them, she never was." He whispered looking out the small crack in the drapes covering the window.

"Things are different, the rules but the enemies are the same. The longer you stay here the more of a threat you are to the outside. Their enemies will become your enemies, they will hunt you, that life on the run? Well you will have it, always looking over your shoulder. Never feeling safe." He whispered.

"You don't know that," I told him some of my anger dissipating.

"I do, that big gorilla that caused us to meet? He hated my family, hated who and what we were. He knew immediately who I was when I happened to show up at that bar. If you hadn't have showed up when you did, my body would have been scattered across their front door." He told me as his gaze swung to mine, sadness creeping into them.

"If you hadn't have been there and I some how managed to escape, someone else would have seen me. Someone else would have done the job and I wouldn't have had the skills to fight back. I wouldn't have the backing of the family, the money to hide."

"You still should have told me, I would have understood." I told him, understanding the picture he had described. Knowing it would have been only a matter of time before someone had finally taken him out.

"I was scared, if you knew who I was you would have left me there. I was as dependant on you as you were me." He stated softly. "You were the older brother that I wanted, the protector. It would have been only a matter of time before another enemy found me, if you had tossed me out." His words echoing exactly what was in my own thoughts.

"There was no where I could go, they have connections and enemies all over the world, you offered me a job under protection. A job and life that I desperately needed, one I wanted."

"I still wish you would have told me," I told him softly. I knew he was right even though I still wish I had known, I would have walked away from him and I wouldn't have had the confidant that I have right now.

"I'm sorry, I never told you the truth." He whispered. I wanted to be mad at him and curse him but in truth he was a second little brother to me. No matter how much I wanted to be, I just couldnt. He had his reasons, even if I didn't agree.

We all have our secrets, some we are ashamed of, some that we are afraid of and others that we want to treasure. I had my secrets and couldn't blame him for keeping some of his own.

I watched him silently processing everything. "What do you have for me?" I asked changing the subject.

His tortured eyes watched me for a few moments before closing, when they opened is eyes were all business.

"Of all the people on that list only 10 are questionable. The rest were so squeeky clean it was disgusting, I actually think one of the girls here is a virgin." He said as he pulled out a stack of papers from his bag.

"These men and this girl here, I would watch closely. Up until 3 years ago there was no record of them, I called in some favors and was able to uncover that these two," he threw out some photos onto the table. "Were in prison for murder."

"That's understandable considering their jobs." I told him as I moved towards the photos.

"No that's not why I'm concerned," he stated as he pulled up some information on his computer. "They were put in prison for hit jobs, jobs this man hired them to do," he finished as he turned the computer towards me.

"Who is he?" I asked as I stared at a balding man in his early fifties.

"Stephano Baldini, a mafia warlord that ordered the hit that killed the prior boss of this ring."