Once his phone was placed on the table, with the wallpaper facing up at the butler, the tension in the room was beginning to be suffocating, but Arkham let out a sigh.
His gloved hands eventually picked up Liam's phone, carefully scrolling to find his pretend sister's number.
Honestly, the platinum blond alpha volunteered to hand out his phone in the first place because he had nothing to hide. Unless Arkham is interested in a seven hundred and fifty pages of organic chemistry textbook that Liam is working on with his father in his parents' shared drive, or the stupidly large homework folder in his gallery, then the alpha has nothing to hide.
Additionally, there's no reason for Mr. Aster to tap into his friend's son's phone because as far as Liam knows, the first time that his parents brought him and his sister to the mansion, his parents made it very clear that to the Aster family that the Velison children would all grow up to be mini Dr. Velisons, so their loyalty lies with the Asters. There's nothing to see when invading their digital privacy except documents upon documents of some seemingly useless studies.
They're right in some way. The homework folder in Liam's phone is actually made for homework, nothing dubious. It was divided into five subjects, and each subjects had their own subfolders for each semester. He downloaded everything just in case he needed them. The platinum blond alpha only had to use the "just in case" reason once. How his phone is still not reaching its storage limit? He would never know.
"Can I call her?" Arkham finally talked, pulling Liam out of his head.
Instead of answering the butler, the black haired alpha looked at his companion. The taller alpha nodded back before he gave Arkham a thumbs up.
"Just don't do anything stupid like record the call or take twenty five pictures at once." Liam shrugged. He then laid his head on the couch cushions, trying his best to feel a bit more comfortable.
For some reason, Arkham put the call on speaker. He didn't have to put it on speaker, but maybe that's for the best in this situation.
The dialing tone was as normal as can be, and the platinum blond alpha could see the sweat rolling down Arkham's cheeks. Poor guy was probably being bullied by his omega boss, and now he has to deal with two very spoiled young masters.
Even though Liam hates calling himself a young master, it is his title in the butler's list. On that same line of thought, who came up with the great idea to call them young masters? Can't the butlers just use everyone's first names?
Before his train of random thoughts could go any further, and extremely cheerful voice sang from his phone.
"Hello, Liam! I never expected you to call so soon. What's up?" Ruby's familiar voice was all too happy to talk to them.
Now the platinum blond alpha wondered how much of it was faked and how much was actual genuine feelings when she hung out with the two alphas. Probably mostly faked because it's her job.
"Hi, hi, Ruby." The butler answered, voice a bit smaller than usual.
A hung up click from the phone was louder than it had any right to be. It told them all they needed to know: Ruby abandoned Arkham.
Or she could be retreating, who knows. Hell, she might not even be working for Tian Jun.
Either way, Liam shook his head lightly before he landed out his hand for the butler to give him back his phone. Meanwhile, his best friend and love of his life was pacing around the room.
Vetiver started seeping through the room, and Liam couldn't help but be on edge. His best friend is giving out pheromones, but instead of being territorial or angry, he's upset.
"You can go. Let us know if you need anything." The platinum blond alpha looked at the butler, who nodded at his order. "And Arkham, buddy, don't die, ok?"
"No promises." The brunette man bowed a little bit before he took a few steps backwards.
Magenta eyes were looking at him from across the room, and eventually Mar let out a sigh.
Just like that, the butler left.
_______
For the next few days, things were rather uneventful as it could be at the mansion. Liam hasn't talked to his best friend about the entire situation with Arkham and Tian Jun.
Talking about Tian Jun, the omega male seemed to be avoiding them.
Key word is "seemed" because they ate at the same table for dinner, but also Tian Jun didn't look at them directly. Most of the time, Liam wouldn't even bother with this.
So why does he care now?
The platinum blond alpha looked up from his phone to glance at the black haired alpha furiously trying on his other laptop. Their legs were entangled on the bed as they sat and minded their own business. Liam decided to catch up on social media just enough to seem like a normal human being while Mar was bent on telling another person what happened. Baby Blue was on the other end of the chatroom with Mar. The best part? They're using a dress up game's chat room to communicate.
The platinum blond alpha couldn't believe he's admitting this... While the little omega and the black haired alpha were furiously typing on their keyboards to communicate, Liam found peace in whatever Rex was doing with Blue's reptiles. There were new posts of Rex petting Roger; the fucker's face wasn't in the picture, but his hand could be recognized easily.
For the past two days, his best friend had been restless, which was understandable considering their butler's situation. The last thing they wanted was another person went mission inside the walls of the beach house. Whenever the restlessness got too bad, Liam wouldn't hesitate to drag his companion outside of their room. Sometimes, they visit the gym, and sometimes they terrorize the town to look look for Ruby Arkham again, but there was no luck if they didn't let her know.
As soon as Mar slammed his laptop shut, the taller alpha grabbed the device and put it on the coffee table.
"Let's go for a run." Liam smiled lightly at his lover, who responded with a chuckle.
In no time, each of them put on a hoodie, ready for the journey. The sun had long set on the horizon, but it never stopped them from going out to the beach.