Noah and Lilith went through the house, soon reaching the table where breakfast was ready.
"Yo, Noah, you in a hurry?" Carlos asked as he saw Noah down a glass of juice, before taking a few toasts and putting them in his plate swiftly.
"Yeah, I'm kinda late. Why the heck did I nod to meet him at nine even though it was that late already... I should've asked him to meet after lunch or something," Noah murmured his regret, as he qucikly ate, Lilith taking an empty chair by his side, and looking around.
"The kids are still sleeping, do you have any idea how long it'll take you there?" he asked, as Noah swiftly finished whatever he'd put on his plate.
"Don't know, I'll go to the bank and retrieve the rewards too. There's a lot of stuff in my trunk, including things for you and Maggie. I'll go over those with the two of you later when I come back, but I'm sure both of you will like it very much. Also," Noah took a pause, looking at Lilith and the table, before continuing. "I made a lot of money overnight. I'll want your help to get some investments going. By the way, I saw a lot of money got into my account out of nowhere why's that?" he asked blankly, but Carlos already knew his friend well, and could read his expression a lot better than most.
"Oh, those two million? That was your part on the contracts we got during and right after your fight. I went through the extra length of not only making imps more expensive, but introducing upfront costs for reservations for later dates. You using them made the rich people go insane over it," Noah saw a glint in Carlos' eyes, as he talked about how much money they were now making. Noah was very happy for him, since he knew Carlos always dreamed of being successful without any help from his family. Though Noah had felt for a long time it was just a dumb way of denying his parents' accomplishments, he now kind of understood why he felt that way, especially after remembering Sha's story.
"Ah, by the way, I forgot to tell you, the number of Imps has gone down to a bit over a hundred," Noah absentmindedly dropped a bomb as he stood up and turned towards the door, with Lilith following along, her mouth full of fruit.
"Wait! Wait! How did you do it! You mean I can more than triple the clients overnight?! Do you realize this could make the price drop?! Hey, asshole! Tell me more about it! Noah! Fuck! I'll wait for you to come back and explain things to me properly you asshat!" Noah completely ignored Carlos' voice as he walked out of the house.
"Is it ok for you to ignore him like that? Isn't he gonna get angry or something?" Lilith asked, as Noah and her walked towards his car.
"Nah, he's not really angry at me or anything, and he knows it's not an urgent matter. If not, he would've chased after us until we got into the car," Noah said, while waving at one of the workers, planning on having him take the essence to the house for safekeeping. But as the man walked towards him, a sharp sense of oddity peaked.
'Noah, this guy...' Lilith whispered to him through their telepathy.
'I know, he feels odd. Could it be that he is a spy of some kind? Why wouldn've sent one of these into his house? Maybe he's behind some sort of corporate espionage because of the car business...' Noah thought, relaying this to Lilith as he went. 'It'd be better if we told this to Carlos as soon as we got back... For now, let's just leave.' With his thoughts in place, Noah hopped into the car, opening the opposite door for Lilith to get in.
"Damn... You not being able to just come coiled around my hand or neck like usual sure is a pain," he said, as he stared down at the snake that was sliding into his car. 'That guy is still watching us from afar...' he relayed her, watching the guy with the edge of his field of vision.
'Noah... I don't think he's here for Carlos or his parents' business...' Lilith warned him, prompting him to close the door as soon as she hopped in.
"Yeah... I'll call him now," Noah said, turning turning the car on and smoothly accelerating out of the house. By the time they left the main gates, his phone was already ringing.
[What is it? Did you forget something?] Carlos' voice seemed a little confused and annoyed, but since he'd left him standing behind, Noah knew this was only natural.
"No. Rather, something happened as I was leaving. There was this one man outside the house, dressed like one of your employees. But he was staring at me and Lilith weirdly, you should poke around your parents for information about him," he said, as he set the destination on the infotainment system for that of the main building from which the Khan Family operated.
[You sure it wasn't just you being paranoid? What did Lilith say?]
"She warned me aswell. That guy is up to no good. I was going to leave Maggie's gift behind, but I didn't trust that guy at all, so I brought it with me. I'll make sure to give it when I get back, though," Noah turned his head towards the rearview mirror, as he saw something strange happening behind them. "I'll talk to you later. We're being followed."
[What?!]
"Are you serious?"
Carlos' and Lilith's voices rang at the same time, prompting Noah to shut off the call and stare more closely behind.
"Damn it! Who are these?" Noah cursed aloud, seeing a pair of shaded black cars weaving through traffic. "Lilith, hold tight, I'mma lose them."
"Huh? Oh, sure!" Lilith quickly coiled herself around the seat, and Noah turned back to face the road, flooring the gas. "Any idea who those might be?" she asked him, looking at the side mirrors and seeing the cars grow smaller.
"No, but it was too fast. They are definitely related to that guy at Carlos' place. They were waiting for me to leave... Fuck!" he punched the steering wheel, focusing his attention back on the road ahead, since traffic was getting worse. "I'll take the next exit, even if it takes a little longer to arrive..." he muttered, as he one handedly ran through his contacts on the car's console and dialed Marcel, who quickly picked up.
[Where are you, there's some people waiting for you here... Wait, why is your car this loud?] Marcel's voice sounded worried, so Noah decided to tell him the whole thing.
"We're being tailed by someone. They are probably up to no good. There was a guy waiting for me to leave at my friend's place. I'm almost losing them on the interstate, but I'll probably take a couple more minutes to get to where you are," he said, looking back on the rearview mirror.
[Wait, did you say waiting for you? Noah, this is dangerous, you have to]
A loud explosion followed by the sound of knocking rubber startled him, as Noah struggled to control the car.
[What was that?! I'll send some people your way with the location from your app,] Marcel asked, quickly following it up.
"I think my tire blew up! Fuck..." Noah slowly pulled the car to the right lane. "I'll share my real time location with you, make sure they come fast. I won't stop until they arrive," Noah said, looking back to see the tailing cars slowly grow in size.
[Send me the images from your car's cameras of their cars, but I'm pretty sure this is the Hyu Family again. Those guys never give up... I'll hang up now.]
"Fine, it's sharing," Noah sent him real time location, while navigating the panels to find the recordings and share those aswell. "Damn it!" he cursed, tanking the first exit off the express lane. "This car's probably gonna be trashed," he said, as he heard the front bumper scrape the asphalt on the curve, the sound of the rim grinding against the road getting very uncomfortable.
Taking a sharp turn as soon as he got out of the avenue, Noah heard the other cars honk at him as he quickly pulled a bootleg turn, driving opposite.
"I hope this'll buy us a few seconds," he said, taking a right turn into a garage building, driving through it and out on the opposite road.
"You think we lost them?" Lilith asked, a bit nervous.
"Not sure... Maybe, but I doubt it," Noah accelerated through the crossing, narrowly avoiding running a red light by a fraction of a second, the large sparks caused by the scraping rim making a lot of people notice there was something going on. "Come on... this is a five minute drive from the main building, how long before the guys Marcel sent arrive here?" he complained to nobody, as he drove around. "Shit!" he cursed, as he saw a car exactly like the ones that were tailing him appear around the corner.
"What now?" Lilith asked, seeing the car turn towards them.
"Let's hope they miss..." he said, as he saw the car accelerate towards him, invading the oncoming lane, and he too accelerated towards him, the motor roaring, and his car veering hard to the left.. 'I hope this bet pays off.'