Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 100: DOMINANCE*

The next morning, there was a lively breakfast feast at Shelli's place before I left.

"Did you sleep well?" I wasn't surprised to find Andrei waiting for me at the apartment after the conversation we had last night. That was the most awkward topic we'd probably discussed to date, but as usual he showed no signs of nervousness around me.

"I slept very well, thanks for asking."

"I was worried about whether you were bothered by my bedtime story, but I guess my last answer was reassuring enough."

I had dreaded Andrei's answer about Michelle the moment I thought of it. I could not, for the life of me, imagine a day where Andrei and Michelle looked lovingly into each other's eyes and held hands, and potentially locking lips. My mind tried to prepare for an answer of which I could not possibly forgive him, but with these uncontrollable thoughts rapidly racing through my mind, I felt as though I was going hurl on Shelli's expensive, intricately embroidered quilt.

Without time to steel myself, he replied, "Before the start of the experiments, there was an anonymous meeting between the heirs. They don't say that it's a meeting between heirs but I knew who she was even though she wore a disguise. I also wore a disguise when I met her at that time, so she didn't know who I was. Since the result of our anonymous meeting was unparalleled revulsion for each other, our experiment did not progress beyond that anonymous meeting. The reason for that, was if two heirs felt so strongly averse to each other, then they would avoid showing the others' true faces to prevent future discord. That is why she still didn't recognize me at the engagement party."

After that, I gave the phone to Jayelle, who tried her best not to show any of those lost feelings she once had as she spoke briefly with him. It was more than obvious to the rest of us, however, that she did fall in love with him, whether it was for the sake of her family or herself. Sadly, regardless of the reason, once those feelings take hold of you, you can't ever shake them off. I understood that well, since I, myself, was also guilty of being unable to break completely free from my feelings for Daniel. I just thought it was very sad that she wasn't given the freedom to choose whether to fall in love.

"I was very satisfied with your answer," I replied to Andrei back at the apartment this morning. "I wasn't going to forgive you if you ever dated Michelle, but I'm okay with Jayelle since she's a babe."

"She certainly is."

"You didn't actually need to comment on that-"

I stopped after I realized it wasn't Andrei who said that and I looked around the apartment for the source of the foreign voice. Why is someone else here? I thought this was our private space. Then, I looked back at Andrei in confusion and for answers.

"Looking for me," said someone as they exited our room.

"Why are you here?" I shouted back.

"It's okay. He's my most trusted aide," Andrei said. "I trust no one more than him, and actually, from today onwards, he'll be your personal assistant as well. If you ever need anything or you can't get in touch with me, he should be your first point of contact. I also thought it would be good for him to know about this apartment, but, unlike me, he can't get inside without our permission."

"He's going to be my personal assistant?...But Kiran is your cousin. Isn't he part of the main family. Why is he doing this kind of job?"

"I understand your sentiments, but no one is forcing him to do this. He said he wanted to, so I let him, and as long as he wants to, then I'm grateful he's by my side. Like I said, apart from you and my parents, I don't trust anyone more than I trust him."

"Compared to Ari, I don't have that kind of servitude relationship with him. It's simply an honor to be able to use my skills to help Andrei run the family. I hope you'll allow me to be of service to you as well."

"Speaking of which, we're packing our bags to head to the hotel this evening. You should probably go pack any highly feminine items that you plan to bring before Kiran starts going through your closet and drawers."

"I've got that covered, Kiran."

"Well, I'm here if you need help."

"Thanks. Should we do the ritual?" I asked while taking out my black phone.

"I already sent Kiran's number to your phone," Andrei said.

" OK, great."

"Remember to pack enough things for the week," Andrei shouted as I entered the room.

"I thought the mission was only three days."

"Yes, but did you forget we're also on vacation until Sunday?"

"I have to go to Merz on Friday."

"I already told Michelle you wouldn't be going in this Friday."

"Why, thanks for asking my opinion."

"You're welcome," he said before I shut the door to his sarcastic reply.

After I finished packing, we left for the hotel in the afternoon. After landing in Hawaii, we rented a car and drove to one of the most exclusive and luxurious hotel chains in the world, which also made the top ten list of most ginormous hotels in America.

In keeping with Andrei's duties to maintain a good relationship with the Japanese Undercode family, he accompanied Ari on one of her top secret missions that was assigned to her by the family. In keeping with my promise to keep Ari's sleazy hands off him, I accompanied Andrei on his mission to help Ari with her mission. Lastly, we had an unforeseen tag along, Kiran, who was just assigned to be my personal assistant. It seemed he was only here to help me with my mission, to help Andrei during his mission of helping Ari with her mission.

All convolutions aside, I mentally prepared myself for yet another week of migraines, since that is all I have been dealing with in my current life. I just wanted to at least enjoy myself enough to cure the side effects of dealing with Ari. I am on vacation after all.

After checking in to the hotel, we were greeted by a chaperone who escorted us to the top floor of the hotel, then to a massive suite at the end of the hall. I heard pieces of Kiran's conversation at the front desk about our reservations. Apparently, they didn't take credit cards to hold one's reservation. This ultra-grand deluxe suite was so expensive that you needed to purchase a special hotel card, which had to be backed by investments or checking accounts of a certain value. I could barely wrap my head around the reservation process for one of those suites, so imagine my surprise to hear Kiran asking for keys to three separate suites. I wondered if the Japanese family was going to write this all off as a business expense.

I said nothing while we were in the lobby lest I spoil my image as a high-class, refined lady deserving of staying in such a suite, to all the eyes that were on us as butlers appeared out of nowhere and took our bags from us. I finally understood the reason Kiran forced me to wear these clothes rather than the scrumpy normal vacation outfit I initially planned. What's worse was that I was forced to wear a disguise instead of coming as plain old Leiya, so I went with the blonde girl I used on the car racing mission.

The suite that we entered at the end of the hall was Andrei's. His corner suite had large windows and an amazing view of the ocean.

"If you ever want to wake up to this view, feel free to come by during the night."

I ignored his comments while we walked to my suite. At some point, Kiran also disappeared, since he wasn't there when I turned to leave Andrei's room. My suite was also large, but didn't have as much of a view as Andrei's suite, which was probably assigned that way on purpose. The butler left us after I dropped off my bags but handed each of us a portable waterproof smartphone to call him if we needed anything.

Andrei dropped me off at our last stop at Kiran's suite. He told me to stay with Kiran until he finished his meeting with Ari. Before he left, he handed me a duplicate key to his room, followed by another cheeky invitation to come to his room tonight. He said that Kiran had duplicate keys to my room and Andrei's room in case of an emergency.

Andrei was then handed duplicate keys to Ari's suite and the meeting suite as soon as he sat across from her at the table in the meeting suite. Wait, did he also hand Ari a duplicate key to his room? That was the only thing I could assume after watching her bite on a key that randomly appeared in her hand while flashing a girly smile at him with the eyes of a predator.

"Why couldn't I join their meeting?" I felt frustrated just watching the crystal clear surveillance footage in Kiran's room.

"The purpose of our being here is to ensure Ari doesn't cross her boundaries. More interaction than necessary can interfere with the mission, or do you want to give the Japanese family more reason to hate you?"

"I would rather not."

"Also, remember that I'm only here to support you. So, don't let Ari figure out that I'm here."

"What about Andrei?"

"Only if absolutely necessary, but I doubt he'll need my help."

For the next hour, they discussed the details of the mission and went through their checklist of equipment and materials they planned to use. I noticed a few questionable items that hardly seemed relevant to the case. I simply deemed them unimportant, but I would soon learn that this mission was of a far grander scale than I originally thought.

Based on their conversation, it sounded like Ari was sent here to stop the transfer of certain goods to the target. The target had a point of contact here who had acquired the goods from Japan and was in the process of getting them sent to New York. They didn't go into detail about what the goods were, but it was important that they did not leave this hotel with the target.

The mission would span three days starting tomorrow, since that was the target's best window of opportunity to obtain the goods. The final piece of this oversimplified outline (as I know from experience) was to exchange the real goods with fake ones prepared by the Japanese family so as not to draw suspicion to any missing items and disturb public peace.

"Now that we've run through the plan, shall we enjoy an evening by the pool?" Ari brazenly asked him.

"I'll meet you there," he replied unexpectedly.

I thought he would, at least, avoid putting himself in the position of being toyed with by Ari, but at the same time, he was the kind of person to let her put her hands on him intentionally, just so I would have to make an appearance. Where in the world did he develop such a disgusting trait?

I changed into one of the swimsuits I brought just in case I had to go downstairs. I kept watch on the laptop with the surveillance footage that Kiran gave me to carry back to my suite. Kiran and Andrei were on the same line as my mic, so I could hear what was going on while I watched Andrei walk to the pool. Andrei also had another mic that was connected to Ari, so it was easy to hear their conversation as well.

"Well? Do you have eyes on anyone?" he asked her.

"I've got eyes on the contact suspected of conducting the trade with the target," she replied.

"How does he look?"

"As sleazy as you could imagine."

You're one to talk.

"He seems to think he can get girls to look at him with that huge beer belly of his. Why don't you come and show him how it's done? At worst he'll punch you for stealing the women away from him. At best, he'll befriend you and ask you to be his new wingman."

"Neither option sounds exciting."

"Yet, you're still coming anyway."

He was?!

I had a clear view of Andrei walking in the direction of the large pool. As I watched the scene that unfolded, I immediately foresaw that this week was going to be an extremely chaotic week.

Most of Andrei's life that I've witnessed to date was that of him laying low, remaining unnoticed and living in the shadows. For that reason, my perception of reality has been dulled. When such a person as the hottest guy I've ever met in my life stepped out of the shadows into the realm of the normal world, what awaited was chaos like I had never seen before.

In nothing but a simple white buttoned shirt and black swim trunks, a perfect ten had graced the women of the daylight with his presence. Eyes brightened, jaws dropped, sunglasses were removed to get better visuals, and glasses shattered as their hands became too slippery to hold their glasses. People pinched their faces and their thighs to convince themselves that they were looking at a real human and not an ethereal creature. Once they were sure this was reality, a swarm of the romantically desperate was drawn towards him and fights broke out regarding who was his type and not his type, as well as who was deserving and not deserving of him.

To think I had severely underestimated the magnitude of the turmoil that I would face this week. We hadn't been here for a full evening and I was already facing an unprecedented crisis. And yet, amidst all of the chaos that unfolded, he was smiling. How can he be smiling like that?

"Leiya, I'm coming inside."

"Kiran? What's wrong?"

"Pardon me, but I need you to change your clothes."

"What's going on?"

"Look outside."

I looked back out the window to see the masses surrounding Andrei frozen in place. All heads turned to look at the person he walked towards on the other side of the crowd. The crowd of women then immediately parted down the middle to make way for the incoming half-naked, half-Japanese beauty of whom they instinctively knew they were no match for. I heard agonal gasps of defeat as the crowd stared at the unrivalled beauty as she walked up to whisk her prize away.

As she wrapped one hand around the back of his neck, a gentle breeze blew his shirt up. The view of his lower abs and back muscles were accompanied by a choir of squeals and chokes as the ladies continuously fawned over the man they could no longer put their hands on.

"Will you join me for a drink?" Ari dared to ask while flirting with him.

"Sure." His reply sounded low-key dry and uninterested, but I was probably the only one who picked up on that.

He got two glasses and they both made their way over to a pool chair that was close to the suspected point of contact they were scouting.

Ari took one glass from him as he sat down and stretched out his legs on the chair. She walked around so that she could face the target, but where was she planning to sit? Unabashed, she leaned towards Andrei as she rested her left hand on the back of his chair, while supporting herself as she proceeded to sit down on his lap.

Unfortunately, for her, that position was already taken and her backside collided with the uncomfortable feeling of a knee that had taken its rightful place on his lap. Andrei looked up at the owner of the knee and took a sip of his drink as he prepared to be entertained once again.

Having been blocked from sitting on Andrei's lap, the vixen stood up slowly and turned around to face the contemptuous look of the knee's owner looking down on her.

"I thought you would never show your face," she said with a smug look on her beautiful face. "It sure didn't take long to draw you out."

I see. It was no wonder Andrei, who could see ten steps ahead of anyone's plan, was smiling. He knew what Ari's intentions were from the very beginning and he was smiling because…he knew I would have come down because of it. Now, that I was conscious of that fact, I became more aware of Andrei's eyes that were peeled to me, slowly gazing up and down at my outfit.

With my right knee still exerting its dominance over a portion of his lap, Ari fearlessly plopped her right knee beside mine and leaned in closer to me while her knee kept digging into Andrei's thigh.

"I'm glad you decided to grace us with your presence. But are you sure you can keep up with us?"

As the evening came to a close on our confrontation, a wave of vibrations echoed in our midst. We all paused to check our phones for the reason all three of us received notifications simultaneously.

What more glorious news could one want to get with the fabulous start of our lovely Sunday evening, other than a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to Michelle and Daniel's wedding?!