Chapter 15: Tampered LaptopsAlena Fleur "Do you think they will come in here?""Maybe."We were both trying to catch our breaths after making a dash from the food court on the third floor to the men's bathroom on the ground floor. We were going to run out of the mall at once, but the security guard, who noticed us, had already informed the others to block the main and back exits, so we were stuck now.The bathroom seemed to be the best option, so we hid in here. Thank goodness, there were no other men at that time, otherwise, I might have gotten traumatized for life.When I finally managed to regulate my breathing, I noticed how close the two of us were standing.The situation seemed really funny, actually. Just a week ago, I couldn't have pictured in my wildest dreams that I would be hiding in a shopping mall's public men's toilet with my boss.Elian seemed to have noticed my expression. However, he didn't ask me anything and only tried to suppress his own chuckle. Was he thinking
Chapter 16: Split Personality Alena Fleur"Damn, there's nothing in them," said Jace Quentin, another of Elian's best friends and consigliere of his gang."You mean, everything has been deleted?" I asked dreadfully.Jace nodded. He was called here to crack the new passwords of Elian and my laptops. He was successful, of course, but our laptops were completely clean. There was not a single file or document.All my hard work and saved files were now… gone. I hoped whoever did this hit their pinky toe on the table corner many times."Can't you retrieve them?" Elian asked."I will try, but it might take some time," Jace replied."Good luck," Ashton mumbled, cleaning up the dishes from our dinner. He had ended up not only making lunch for us but also dinner because Elian and I were both incompetent in the cooking division."Ashton, don't do the dishes. It's Elian's turn tonight," I hollered as Ashton put the dishes in the sink."It's fine. Ash is happy to do it for me," Elian responded, a
Chapter 17: Like Home Alena FleurI opened my eyes to the familiar black ceiling. My head was throbbing, so I tried to reach out my hand to massage my forehead, only to feel a weight on it.I glanced down to find Elian holding onto my hand while he talked over the phone in whispers."—I don't want to take any risks, Dr. Hopkins. She is—" Elian paused when he realized I was awake. "I will call you later. She's awake." He put down his phone and brought his face to hover over me. "How do you feel right now, Alena?"I tried to get up, and he helped me. "Get up slowly," he instructed.When I was sitting up, I said, "I feel okay now.""What happened? Did your blood pressure drop or something?" Elian inquired."I don't know. Did I faint in the gym?" I asked.He nodded and asked, "Do you remember what happened?"I tried to recall, but I just remembered walking away from Elian at the ab crunch machine. "I don't remember.""Nothing at all?" I shook my head. "Nothing that woman said?""What wom
Chapter 18: PeriodsAlena FleurThe next day, when I woke up on the couch with a blanket on top of me, I vaguely remembered hearing Elian saying something before I fell asleep, but I assumed it was my imagination and went to get ready to go to the gym.Just then, I realized I got my periods. Shit.And I had no tampons. Double shit.But thankfully, there was no stain on the couch. If there had been, Lance would have surely poisoned me next time.I quickly made my way to my temporary room and grabbed a ton of tissues to make do for now. For some strange reason, I felt stubborn not to take help from Elian. I could have easily asked him to buy some tampons for me, but I didn't want to.He would do it for me, no doubt, but it felt inappropriate to ask my boss to buy my tampons for me. I was taking advantage of him, but obviously, there was a limit to it.Plus, I had dealt with this situation a few times before since I lived alone in my apartment and I sometimes forgot to stock up on tampon
Chapter 19: Acceptance Alena FleurHow could I like Elian? He was a freaking murderer! He was a mafia leader! He was my rude boss!No way, it was absolutely impossible.My heart definitely didn't flutter when he handed me my espresso every morning. It most definitely didn't race whenever we were alone and he was close to me. It surely also didn't skip a beat when he smiled. I obviously didn't ogle his body when he worked out in the gym. I certainly didn't stare at his lips in the middle of conversations. I clearly didn't want him to stay longer with me anytime we had to part.Those were just delusions my periods caused.Now, after five days, my periods were over, and I wasn't going to care a single bit about Elian—"Ouch!"I ran to the kitchen to find Elian hissing in pain. "What happened?""I touched the bowl without wearing gloves," he said, motioning at the microwave where he was supposed to be heating up our lunch."You're only clumsy when you're stressed out, so tell me, Elian,
Chapter 20: Perfect Chance Alena Fleur Later that night, Elian got a call from Jace that he managed to retrieve all of our files in our laptops and that he was sending them over with Ashton. When Ashton arrived, he informed, "Guys, I think we discovered who is behind all of it." "Which company?" Elian asked. "Not a company. It's a gang. Remember the XS gang?" Ashton asked. Elian clenched his jaw as he spat out, "Yes, what about it?" "XS gang leader's son, Xavier, joined the Blacklist gang and took control over it, and now, he's seeking revenge from you." I was totally lost in the conversation, but I at least wanted to understand a little bit of it, so I asked, "Why does Xavier want revenge from Elian?" Ashton shot a wary glance at Elian before replying, "Because he annihilated the entire XS gang." "Why did you do that?" I asked Elian. His jaw hardened as he spoke, "They started it first. They hurt my—" He closed his eyes as if he was recalling something horrible, and I place
Chapter 21: The TruthAlena FleurI blanked out for a long moment before I realized I had to say something.But my voice wouldn't come out like there was a big lump stuck in my throat, and my eyes were stinging like if I looked at Elian once more I would cry.Speak, Alena! Or move! Do something, at least! Don’t be pathetic!I force myself up from the chair and turn around, managed to say, "Yes, um, I, uh, I get it. I'm sorry.""Alena," Elian murmured, his voice giving away that he had something more to say. But I didn’t want to listen right and made my way straight for the main door.I wasn’t in the best mood to stay in a room that used to belong to the person who just rejected me or stay under the same roof as him at the moment. I decided to let my feet guide me somewhere far away from him.Once I stepped outside the apartment complex, my tears started falling freely.I knew that Elian had every right to reject me, especially when he didn't return my feelings, but it still hurt. And
Chapter 22: Being ChasedAlena FleurI was being dragged through the parking lot of the apartment complex by three men.I had opened the door after texting Elian that I was in trouble and tried to stall as much as time I could without those men blowing off the innocent delivery girl's head. They let go after I came out.Now, they were taking me to their van.I had tucked in the gun that Elian left for me just in case. If worse came to worst, I had to shoot. Though I really hoped I didn't have to.I needed to stall for more time for any help to get here."Hey, mister, why are you trying to kidnap me?" I questioned.