Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 101: INVITATIONS*

What a great time for her to send these invitations.

However, putting the invitation and the contemptible feelings it stirred up aside, Ari and I still looked straight at each other and we could also see what Andrei was doing from the corner of our eyes. Ari's smirk soon disappeared and I suddenly felt nauseatingly nervous that he was staring at me so much while I was in this position.

"Since you've come all the way here, why don't you make yourself useful? Let's see, I don't want you to get involved with the main targets and ruin my mission, but surely, you can get information from one of his associates, can't you?"

"Why do I need to help you with your mission?"

"Oh, you don't need to, since you can't do anything without a certain person's help," she said while leaning her head in Andrei's direction. "If you've just come here to be a distraction, I will have you shipped back to your apartment right now."

Andrei looked over at the woman speaking out of line with squinted eyes.

"And you're not being a distraction in that outfit?" I shook my head as I scoffed at the strings of cloth that barely hid her private areas.

"Can you ladies continue this argument after you've restored the circulation to my legs?"

He wasted no time in running away after we removed our legs off of him. Why was he allowing her to act that way? Was it just because it was a mission directly from the Japanese family? So, his relationship with the family was more important than standing up for me. Deep down, I felt that was true, but I don't know why I thought he would've acted differently. His actions were too unpredictable, or was I just spoiled by him?

No, it was a more simple reason than any of that. He enjoyed seeing me fight over him; he was on vacation after all.

"Forget it," Ari said as she turned to walk away. "Just don't get in my way this week."

This week? Did she say that intentionally? I was sure that this mission only lasted three days, so she had to have said that to get me to stay away from Andrei in the latter half of the week.

"Wait. I'll help you. If I get valuable information from the associate, then you'll promise to stay away from Andrei after the mission." I walked around the chair to face her and lowered my voice when I spoke to her.

She scoffed at my attempt to make a deal that would put her out of her misery. "Fine, you have a deal. Get me valuable information without Andrei's help and I'll leave him alone."

"Good." Since Kiran can help me instead.

Our no-touch deal was completed without any handshake and I briskly walked away from her before she could add any crazy stipulations. I left Ari standing by Andrei's pool chair as I went back to the hotel. I entered Kiran's room to see him holding his head with an expression I instantly recognized. He might have meant for it to be a look of concern, but instead it came across as one of sympathy and a warning that I would likely regret challenging her.

That may have been the case. However, there was something different about how she treated me versus how Michelle did. Like Michelle, Ari did not see me as a threat, but she had never belittled me. She had always treated me as an equal rival, but only in the case of stealing her beloved away from her. If I ever wanted to earn her full respect, I needed to surprise her. I needed to prove that I had some degree of dominance.

"And it's a good thing you're here to help." I returned a smile to Kiran, whose lips turned into a smile as he perceived my resolve.

"So, what's your plan?"

It was inevitably something that was drastically outside of my comfort zone. Why Kiran had a closet full of dresses, I did not know, but I changed into a dress that one might call alluring and made my way to the hotel's third most popular bar. We pondered for a long time whether I should also change my appearance for this mini-mission. I didn't want to wear black hair since it might affect my normal life as Leiya, and I didn't want to go as Melissa, since I was still hiding her from Ari.

For future's sake, I needed to keep Melissa hidden from Ari. Plus, looking at the bigger picture, it might be better to save this blonde-haired disguise for the rest of the week. That was what I thought until Kiran brought out a huge box that contained a myriad of wigs and hair extensions. Again, why and where did he get all of this? I remembered that he only brought one suitcase with him.

Without questioning my personal assistant's exemplary work, I looked through the box of wigs and I felt more at ease with my new options. I ended up wearing the blonde wig and left the others for later. Now that I had settled on a disguise, I walked through the bar slowly. My confidence in my appearance increased when I got several heads turning. Did I mention Kiran was also a makeup pro? Even though I wore the same blonde wig, my beauty stats were boosted several thousand-fold by Kiran's magic touch.

After seeing everyone's reactions, I confidently walked close to the associate who was sitting by himself a couple of seats from the corner of the long bar with a marbled countertop. He noticed my approach and hesitated before calling out to me as I pretended to look around and did not look in his direction. The second he looked back up at me, I made sure our eyes met 'by accident'. I followed up with a smile and he let out a light puff of air as he smiled and invited me to join him for a drink.

I must say, my first bar pickup went very well. However, boasting about that won't help me to prevail in this challenge. I needed valuable information that Ari would never have anticipated could change the scope of her mission, if such information existed.

"Weren't you the one fighting over that guy by the pool this evening?" Perfect. I knew he had seen me earlier and that was why I went with the blonde-haired disguise so that he would recognize me.

"Oh, you saw that?" I chuckled while I gracefully took a seat beside him.

"Didn't everybody?" he laughed as he put the glass to his mouth.

"Oh dear, that's awkward."

"Don't let it get to you. I admired your confidence. I think you deserved to win him."

"I thought so too, but it's fine. That girl's the type to go after every man that another girl is interested in, especially those with a lot of money. I hope you're not on her radar." If Ari expects me to screw up regardless, then I won't even hold back in this challenge. She's a pro after all; I'm sure she can handle a little trouble that comes her way.

"Certainly not me," he said while struggling to swallow that last drink as a worried look appeared on his face out of concern for his boss.

"Well, I'm glad we won't be interrupted here. Though, I must say, you look so stiff that you don't look like you're here to enjoy a vacation. Are you here on business?" That probably wasn't the best way to ask, but I don't think he'll find me suspicious.

"Sadly, it's a serious business. I don't think I'll be able to enjoy myself much apart from this drink. How about you?"

"I have no such obligations. I am here purely for relaxation."

"Should I reserve another room for you?" Kiran asked in the mic.

Why was he asking that? Does he think I want to sleep with this random stranger?

"I assumed so, since your conversation is steering that way." Kiran seemed to have the same ability to read my mind as he replied to my thoughts. "Do you see how he's looking at you right now?"

Kiran was right. There was a semi-seductive smile plastered on his face as he looked at me with leaned his head to the side, swirling the last of his drink. What should I do now? It might be an effective way to get information (from all the shows I've seen), but I did not want to do that myself.

I excused myself after a long conversation to freshen up and think of a way to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"When dealing with a target, you shouldn't ask them so many personal questions- not even their name," Kiran said to me after I entered the restroom.

"Why do you say that?" I thought asking personal questions got people to trust you.

"It helps people to trust you if you don't get attached and you're very adept at controlling people. Otherwise, it can cause problems on missions. In your case, I would be careful altogether since you're new to all of this and easily gets emotionally involved. You should know, since you've already experienced the repercussions of being taken advantage of like that."

"Really? When did that happen?"

"Do you want to dredge up old memories of the two women who brought a world of a headache down on you?"

"Are you referring to Michelle and Gillian? I get Michelle, but I didn't get that personal with Gillian. I'd say it was more Roshni that got too close to her."

"You might not think so, but you got quite close. Weren't you feeling protective of her at some point?"

"That's true. And what about Roshni?"

"In Roshni's case, that was intentional vulnerability, and it was part of the overall plan. Besides, you saw how she quickly took advantage of that."

She thought she took advantage of Roshni by letting him tell me false information, but that was intentional, to fool her into thinking that he was going to act according to those plans. Instead, Andrei had Roshni secretly tell me code blue2, so that I could enact the real agenda and it allowed me to trust Roshni again. In any case, Andrei was able to manipulate everyone so well because he saw exactly how the game would play out, even against Paladin's second-in-command, and was able to make certain moves in favor of his victory.

How could I do the same thing when I don't have any information? Which information is important to decide the outcome of the mission, in the first place? It was all so puzzling to me.

"Anyway, don't worry about it." Kiran said before I returned to my seat, "Just keep leading him. We shouldn't waste this opportunity."

And so, I did just that. I led him through a few more rounds of drinks, all on his tab, of course. While we laughed and had a good time, I led him to the elevator after he was sufficiently drunk, then to room 720, the new room Kiran reserved just an hour before. Mind you, I was still very worried about the outcome, but I trusted Kiran's plan.

A plan which ended with me dropping the drunken stranger, who started stripping his clothes, onto the scented sheets of the dark hotel room.