Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 114: CLOSING THE DEAL*

We arrived at a stylish cafe for our meeting with Gwen, the owner of the wedding planning company, Flourish in White. She loved the pool video that Kiran got on his 4k camera. Andrei skilfully changed our faces when he edited the video so that I could use it to promote the new feature on my social media pages. I was taken in by her exuberant energy after she watched the video that excited us about the new potential our partnership would bring, so much so that we didn't catch a breath as we discussed the details for over an hour.

Gwen had already prepared a post on Xoro announcing the official launch of our new style of digital immersion weddings as well as the start of our partnership. After we all reviewed it, she posted it to her page and linked Soaress' social media handles in the post. I uploaded the promotional video on Soaress' Xoro page to advertise our digital immersion services and I tagged Gwen to announce our partnership with Flourish in White.

We were all smiles after the uploads and we nervously refreshed the pages for five minutes afterwards. I couldn't believe how many views my posts received in the first five minutes alone. It was over fifty thousand! Never could I imagine this sort of progress so soon after starting my company. There was also a new flood of requests and bookings for many of the other events on my website, and requests for digital immersion services at events other than weddings. Andrei was right - I would need an assistant or two to handle the new workload.

The response to Gwen's posts was even more insane than mine. She got two hundred thousand views in minutes along with rapid reposting on other sites. The requests came in droves, at which point we decided that we should probably leave before we felt overwhelmed. I told Gwen that I could not attend all customer meetings in person and to expect that my assistants (which I planned to recruit immediately) would also mediate on my behalf.

Once everything was settled and contracts were signed, we exchanged hugs and handshakes over coffee to celebrate the new collaboration. It wasn't the strict business meeting I expected and I was pleasantly surprised about that. I left feeling cheerful and ready to take on the world. That feeling may have been stronger since I had been on vacation and hadn't been productive in the normal world for some time.

After we left the cafe, Andrei drove some distance on the highway before pulling over to a rest stop. I got out of the car and stretched my legs, then he told me to follow him across the park. He led me to a large white RV bus that was parked among several others.

Inside, the RV was fancier than a celebrity's. Kiran was lying on the couch as he waited for us, then got up to help us prepare for the next meeting. I thought we were crunching a deadline, but we apparently had enough time to play a weird game before we got ready.

After fooling around for an hour, we finally got changed and I still had no idea who we were meeting with. Kiran brought out his handy bag of crazy wigs that he had at the hotel so that I could choose a completely different wig from any that I had worn before. Since this was a one-off disguise, I went with a new look, starring an ash-blonde wig with heavy streaks of bright lavender highlights. I wore a simple white blouse and black skater skirt, then polished up the look with a violet peacoat and white ankle boots.

I pulled the curtain separating the bedroom area where I changed from the living room area where Andrei changed. I caught myself before I almost screamed, thinking that there was an intruder in the bus. He didn't miss the moment I looked at him like he was an abhorrent criminal worse than filth, but he didn't lash out when he came over to me.

"Nice outfit. I didn't think you'd pull off the look with that wig."

"Thanks. You look unrecognizable yourself." He chuckled at my reply.

"Thanks, but I regret missing the opportunity to scare you. I would have made it a more frightening experience if I'd known you would've been that afraid."

"I wasn't afraid of you," I pushed back in vain. My words instantly evaporated like steam the moment I spoke them to this person who saw right through me.

"Sure you weren't."

"Why are you even dressed like a mafia anyway?"

"The tougher you look, the better. That's the kind of place we're going to."

"Is that why you need all of those?" I asked while pointing to the stash of illegal items on the table that I had wished I had never seen.

Andrei was now disguised as a long-haired, Japanese mafia, in a full black suit and silver accessories. In the time I had taken to change, Kiran had masterfully plastered several distorted scars on his face and neck using special effects makeup. With his black hair in a ponytail, he suited up with a box of cigarettes in his pocket and the other unspeakable items on the table.

Kiran started the bus and told us to wait on standby. I thought we were going back to the car parked outside, but when I looked it had disappeared from the parking spot. Andrei then called me to the back of the bus while Kiran got back on the freeway.

One thing I found weird was how short the interior felt compared to how long the bus looked from the outside. I got my answer when Andrei opened a sliding door at the back of the bus to reveal a car port. The space was cramped so we had to step back for the car door to open fully. He got inside the driver's seat and closed the door, and while I wondered how I was going to get inside, the car swivelled around to the other side and the door opened for me.

I got inside the compact, yet obviously luxurious Porsche, and fixed my hair bangs while Andrei started the car. When I couldn't take the suspense any longer, I sliced through the deafening silence with a question that had been searing my mind.

"So, were the Japanese Undercode family members actually part of the yakuza? Was that the inspiration for this outfit?"

"Oh, you know about that."

"You can learn a lot from movies."

"Well, I'm sure the Japanese family was not part of the yakuza."

"Then, where'd you learn to look like that?"

"You can learn a lot from missions too."

"I think that infiltrating a crime syndicate sounds like a mission too dangerous for a child."

"Ha! Try telling my parents that."

"Yea…I won't."

"Sorry to interrupt your bonding session, but we're T minus thirty seconds to the drop point," said Kiran over the car speakers.

"Will I finally get to know what's going on in thirty seconds?"

"Don't I always tell you what's going on?" Andrei asked sarcastically.

"No, you don't!" I replied anyway.

"I'm spreading the net," Kiran announced.

"What net?" My question evaporated unanswered.

"T minus five minutes to the drop point."

"Again, where are we going?"

"To make one of your favorite overpriced memories full of intricate schemes and ulterior motives."

"Oh joy! Don't forget to add 'dangerous' to that description!" I reminded him, but he just drowned out my anxious words with the loud revving of the engine.

"Are you guys even focused?" Kiran interrupted.

The door clicked behind us and I watched the door slide up behind the car. While the bus was still driving, Andrei had one hand on the steering wheel, his other hand on the gear stick and his foot on the gas pedal revving the engine harder as the door opened. I reached up to hold tightly on to the handle on the roof of the car, since I knew this was not going to be a safe and normal exit. I held my breath in anticipation of the moment of danger.

As soon as the door was completely open, Kiran yelled, "Clear!", after which Andrei shifted the gear into reverse and the car slid down a ramp onto the road. He let the car reverse some distance away from the bus. After the electronic ramp retracted into the bus and the door closed, Kiran sped away from us. Andrei then shifted the small Porsche into drive and pressed hard on the gas pedal.

The tires screeched as they switched into drive, then darted ahead, taking the corner smoothly as we came off the main road. We took the next right turn after coming off the bus onto a small road. The road led uphill and became progressively covered in dense foliage as we drove further uphill.

At the end of the long road, Andrei pulled off onto a smooth unpaved road and continued driving uphill. Tree branches hovered over us and blocked the view ahead. Eventually, they parted ways to reveal a classic, stylish red and gold Chinese building that looked like a temple tucked away in the valley.

Andrei parked behind the historic building that appeared to have been erected 200 years ago. As we made our way inside, I noticed how immaculate the building was despite being secluded in the forest. We were welcomed by Chinese hosts wearing traditional clothes, who escorted us to a small private room on the first floor after Andrei had presented two letters to them.

I followed quietly so as not to attract attention, although my bold choice of a wig made a different impression. Everyone I walked past, from staff to guests, looked at me keenly. I also noticed that, though there were few guests, they all behaved like high-profile personnel. That thought was no doubt reinforced by the types of cars that were parked alongside our miniature Porsche.

Before long, I stood outside of a door at the end of a long corridor, still with no clue of our agenda here. Was this a restaurant? I heard the faint clanking of silverware in the minimal background noise. The escort carefully slid open the wooden door, then stepped to the side to allow us to enter.

Inside, was a large, but low, wooden table with a woman sitting at one end of it. Andrei sat across from her, and I sat on the cushion at the side of the table facing the door. She smiled when we entered the room, but said nothing to us, not even a greeting. The waitresses trickled in and lay a simple Chinese dish in front of each of us also without saying anything, and without checking what we wanted to eat. I assumed that this was part of the experience.

It felt grossly uncomfortable to watch Andrei and the pink-haired woman, who hadn't introduced herself, stare at each other instead of touching their meals. It felt uncomfortable to the point where I also couldn't touch my food and just stared at the empty space in front of me. When I grew bored, I looked down at my plate to prepare myself to enjoy a fine Chinese delicacy.

Except, there was something odd about this. Why did this food look familiar? I spent the next minute racking my brain, then I finally remembered about the game we had just played on the bus. This was exactly like the pictures on the cards they had shown me.

Was that related to this meeting? If this meeting was about to play out exactly as the 'game' we played on the bus, I knew that I was in for yet another traumatic experience. Andrei smiled when he saw that I connected the dots and the other woman at our table closed her eyes, then reopened them with a look of affirmation to begin the new game.

The two nutcases sitting on either side of me smirked excitedly at one another, while I let out a small, painful exasperation in the hopes that I would survive this meeting without succumbing to this poisonous death game.