CHAPTER TWO

The restaurant was well-decorated and elegant in an old-fashioned way. Kaia silently thought while she handed her coat over and informed the polite hostess that she was there to meet Eton Domino. The woman smiled before leading her to a table in the secluded corner of the restaurant.

And surprisingly, he was already seated at the table, his body language relaxed, almost bored. The pictures didn’t do him justice, Kaia thought. They failed to capture the intensity of his presence, and those eyes were actually more unsettling in person.

It took every bit of her self-control not to blush and fidget as the guy studied her coolly.

“Good evening. My father was unable to attend and sent me in his stead,” Kaia said, extending her hand for a handshake. “Kaia Kennedy.”

Eton Domino didn’t even move an inch, his pale blue eyes boring into her.

Eton wanted to actually laugh out loud when he saw her step inside the restaurant. Of course she knew her. Had seen her and even remembered all the details about her. He had studied everything about Arthur Kennedy that he already memorized every single detail about him. And that also applies to his only child. Kaia Kenndy, 25. A graduate from Harvard. Had been in a dozen relationships ever since she got in college. And also very frustrated to her young looking face.

He had their family investigated not because he was interested in partnering with Arthur Kennedy. But because he wanted to settled a grudge against him. He hated that man and he'll do anything just to make him pay from all those things he did in the past...

But first thing first he needed this girl.. However, taking the initiative to be a nice man to her, there's no fucking way he could act like that..

Eton grasp his palm under the table, growing frustrated with himself.  “Is this a joke?” he said instead his accent non-existent. His low, cultured tone was impeccable by any standards.

“Not at all,” She said, taking the seat opposite him and trying not to let it show how nervous she actually was. “My father is currently in London. He’s in the middle of an important negotiations. He can’t leave on such a short notice, so he sent me in his stead.”

The man remained as still and seemingly relaxed as he had been before. But Kaia was pretty good at reading people. She didn’t miss the slight narrowing of those blue eyes.

Eton took his wine and took a sip very slowly, his eyes still trained on her. “I don’t do business with children. You can’t be older than sixteen, maybe seventeen.”

Kaia felt a blush color her cheeks. She’d known it would be an issue. At times like this, she seriously considering a plastic surgery to fix her ridiculous face. “I’m not a child,” she grounded out.

But before she could say anything more to try to save this disastrous meeting from getting any worse, Eton pinned her with a look that could probably freeze lava.

Kaia couldn’t breathe, caught in that gaze and unable to look away.

“If your father couldn’t be bothered to show up, the least he could do was warn me so that I didn’t waste my time, either. Because if he's a busy man, my time is also precious..” Eton stood up. “Go home, little girl.”

And then he was gone, two silent bodyguards joining him on his way out.

At once, other sounds rushed in—soft piano music, hushed voices of other patrons—as if Kaia had been in some sort of sound bubble, as if the sheer force of his personality had muted everything else in his presence.

And then Kaia realized what that man had called him condescendingly. A little girl. Her, a little girl?! That bastard???!

She glared at the vacated seat, a fresh flush of humiliation washing over her. She had the strong urge to get up and leave, but she fought it. She hadn’t eaten anything since this morning. And she's starving. She might as well eat.

Kaia signaled the closest waiter. And order her food.

The food was delicious, but she could barely taste it with the disappointment and humiliation still churning in her stomach.

There was also a great deal of apprehension. Instead of forwarding the email to her father, as she probably should have, she had acted on her own and failed. Mr. Domino had been pissed off by her father’s no-show. The ramifications of that were…uncertain at this point.

Kaia knew nothing about the man to predict his reactions. She had no idea what the her wanted from her father, in hindsight, maybe she shouldn’t have poked her nose where it clearly didn’t belong, but she had been sick and tired of being kept in the dark and attending pointless events. She just wanted to know what her father was up to. 

Maybe it had been stupid to go blind into this, but she had always been confident in her own ability. Until that Italian tycoon with creepy eyes reduced her into a blushing, self-conscious kid.

It was already late by the time she finished eating and left the restaurant.

Kaia shivered slightly and hugged herself when a cold wind blew by. Ugh. Why it's so cold tonight??

Looking around and noticing a cab parked nearby, Kaia smiled in relief and strode to it briskly. For the first time that day luck seemed to be on her side.

She got into the car, told the driver the hotel’s address, and closed her eyes, her thoughts turning back to her first disastrous meeting with Eton Domino. There was no point kicking herself. It wasn’t her fault that the guy was a narrow-minded dick who thought it was beneath him to do business with someone who just happened to look very young. It was his mistake, not her. Kaia was nowhere as young and inexperienced as she looked.

However, plastic surgery seemed increasingly tempting by the minute. One day, she was going to inherit her father’s business empire, and she couldn’t afford not to be taken seriously only because she looked like a pouting teenager.

Kaia pulled a face at the thought. When she had been younger, she hoped her looks would mature with age, but by now she had pretty much given up on that hope. Well her body was different matter altogether, she silently thought when she looked at chest area and almost shout out loud when she saw that her breast wasnalmost about to burst out. God, surely she didn't looked like this when that asshole was talking to her. Secretly looking up at the driver she tidy herself a bit and made sure that her jacket were covering her properly this time. She's proud of her body but she's not that shameless.

Kaia was suddenly pulled out of her thoughts when the car started accelerating.

She looked straight ahead and frowned. “Hey, you sure it’s safe…” Her words trailed off as she turn and get a good looked outside the window. Wherever they were, they weren’t in the center of the city  anymore. How long had she been daydreaming? “Sir, I’m pretty sure the hotel isn’t in this part of the city.”

There was no reaction from the driver

“Sir can you get back at the main road,” Kai said slowly enuciating the words carefully.

The man said nothing. The car kept accelerating. It didn’t even seem like they were in the city anymore.

Her heart pounding, Kaia bit her lip. Surely it wasn’t what it looked like, but it was better safe than sorry, right? Slowly, she slipped her hand into the right pocket of her coat, where she kept her phone. And cold sweat appeared on Arriane's forehead when her hand found nothing.

Her breathing elevated as she searched her other pockets. And still there's nothing.

Oh God...

Kaiaķķ forced herself to stop panicking and started thinking. She met the driver’s eyes in the mirror.

“Look, you don’t want to do it,” she said, trying to keep her voice calm and authoritative. “My father isn’t someone you want to piss off.”

“Shut up,” the driver barked out.

There was also the unmistakable sound of the safety being taken off of a gun.

Kaia took a deep trembling breath. There was no point panicking. Panicking was worthless and stupid. Think. Leysnrn

She looked back. It was dark outside, but she could see two black SUVs following them. So the driver wasn’t working alone. It wasn’t an ordinary robbing. They knew who she was.

Kaia wished she was more surprised, but she wasn’t. She was the only daughter of a billionaire. Her father had many enemies.

“Whatever they’re paying you, I’ll pay you five times that much,” she said.

The driver laughed shortly. “Dead men don’t need money, zhenshcina,” he said.

A shiver ran up Kaia's spine at the implications of the guy’s words. Her stomach sank. The driver was too scared of the person who had hired him to betray them, no matter what she offered him. Fear was a powerful motivation.

Which basically meant Kaia was screwed.

Now she could only hope that, whoever was behind this, they just wanted a ransom.

Nothing more.

Nothing worse.

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