Page 50 of The Cat's Mausy

O’Hare looked around the room with a frown as Issac disappeared into the crowd, his shoulders drooping slightly before turning his attention back to Lucio and the man with him.

Very curious indeed,Felinus thought, writing down a large bid on a plant he’d rather like in his garden and walking out of the room.

He assumed with the information Issac had given about his dad and the Clovers that Maus’s relationship with O’Hare had been more distant, like how his men knew the Don. But O’Hare had said Issac looked like a friend. Everything about O’Hare’s reaction made it clear that it had not been an acquaintanceship or business only. Lukas Maus and Fergus O’Hare had known each other well enough that O’Hare could still recognize Lukas’s features in his son. Without finding out who had killed Lukas and his wife and under whose orders, Felinus only had more questions with this information. Did O’Hare know that Lukas and his wife were dead? Did he think Issac had been killed with his parents? He wouldn’t have been the first person to eliminate an entire family so he wouldn’t fear revenge.

The rest of the night passed fairly easily. Felinus had already paid for a plus one long before Issac came into his life, a plate that would have gone to Brutus or Bat if he hadn’t found himself in a relationship. Snake had said multiple times that he’d sooner set himself on fire than stand awkwardly behind Felinus making nice and Tiger just laughed for a solid minute and said “Nein” when Felinus had asked if he wanted to go to previous events. This meant Issac was back at his side for the meal.

Dimitri and Adrian had somehow gotten themselves placed at his table, no doubt their father’s and the Don’s doing, and he hated to admit it but conversation with them wasn’t awful. Adrian might have preferred louder cars than Felinus did but they did find a common ground after coffee yesterday that didn’t involve their business dealings. O’Hare and other Clovers didn’t attempt to approach their table as they ate, either due to their fear of Felinus and Adrian or because of Dimitri’s presence.

Issac got quieter and quieter as time went on; by the time they started announcing the auction winners, his eyes were staying closed longer each time.

“Come on, baby boy,” he said, leaning over and resting his hand on the back of Issac’s neck. Those dark eyes opened and glanced at him. “Let’s go.”

“Can we go,” Issac murmured back to him, glancing at the stage where a man was holding up the sculpture Lucio had been looking at. “Didn’t you bid on a few of these?”

“Lucio outbid me on my plant,” Felinus told him, smiling and getting to his feet, gently tugging Issac to his. “Everything else was just good faith bids to drive up the prices. Just walk quietly.”

Adrian’s head twitched in their direction as they got up, a small nod to Felinus before fixing his eyes forward.

Issac fit against his side as the two of them slipped out of the hotel and to the valet to have the car brought around. After watching him at the side of another man all night, Felinus held him a little tighter while they waited. Neither of them spoke as Felinus drove away, not until he was about to turn onto his road.

“Pull into the garage,” Issac said quietly.

Felinus’s eyes flicked towards Issac to see him still slumped back in the seat with his eyes closed. “Why?”

“Because we need to talk and I never know who is waiting for us in the apartment,” Issac said, his eyes still closed

“And what do we have to talk about that it would matter who is there,” Felinus asked, thinking of a great many things he had wanted to say throughout the night but none of them necessarily to Issac.

“Felinus, please,” he murmured.

Dammit.

The parking garage was technically for the whole building but Felinus had it so that his, Brutus’s, Bat’s, and Tiger’s cars were all on their own level- limited access to give them both the privacy and security to come and go outside the notice of the other tenants and soldiers assigned to the back lobby. He wondered if Brutus had told Issac about it the morning he had taken him to school. Brutus didn’t like valet services, no matter who was actually taking his car.

Silence stretched as Felinus put the car into park but left the engine running. Issac was the one who had asked for the talk, after all. He could be the one to start talking.

“Okay,” he sighed, opening his eyes. “I’ll ask a question then you ask a question and we’ll go back and forth.”

Felinus raised an eyebrow, staring forward at his windshield. “Why are we playing a first date game?”

“Because I’m not used to being honest about anything, so if we push this too far too fast, I might give in to the little voice in my head that’s been telling me to run as far and fast as I can go all night.” He took another deep breath. “Why did you text Dimitri?”

Felinus sighed in frustration, leaning back. Fine, if he wants to play games. “Because he was the only person who could interrupt the Big Three and move you away without any of them finding a reason to be insulted,” he said. There was a pause. “How did you like talking to all the people he introduced you to?”

Issac frowned. “It was more talking than I’m used to,” he said carefully. “Honestly, it was exhausting. Why didn’t you come back around before it was time to sit down?”

“Because you were networking. With your career path, you needed to make those connections,” Felinus said, glancing at Issac. “What did you talk about with all of them?”

Issac didn’t answer, staring forward, then sighed as he unbuckled his seat belt.

Felinus started to reach for the door when Issac surprised him. Instead of getting out of the car as he had thought, Issac’s narrow frame slid over the gear shifter and fit his knees on either side of Felinus’s hips.

“That isn’t what you wanted to ask me about,” he said quietly, his hands resting against the seat on either side of Felinus’s head. “Ask me, Felinus, about before Dimitri showed up.”

He stared at Issac, how his eyes seemed to quiver as he stared back at him and the way his mouth twisted as his lips pressed together. His hands found Issac’s thighs, holding him closer. “Was Fergus O’Hare a friend of your dad’s?”

Issac nodded, breathing out a shudder.

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