His Little Secret

9. New Friends in the town

“Hannah! Do not drink it, your drink is spiked!”

Emilia screamed on top of her lungs, making everyone in the club turned towards her.

Hearing her name being called out in a place where she was sure that no one would see her, Hannah paused. Her martini glass only a few inches away from her mouth.

And hearing Emilia’s words, the waiter who had Hannah’s drink spiked, panicked, since Igor was looking at him, after the words echoed out loud and fell in to his ear.

The waiter turned to leave and run for his life but it was too late for him as Igor shouted out, doing nothing to hide his thick Russian accent.

“Get that bastard.”

With one call from Igor, the guards pounded down on the waiter and held him down, putting cuffs on his wrists, behind his back and picking him up once they were done beating him good, finally dragging him to one of the backrooms, where Emilia could only imagine what they were going to do to him.

“s**t!”

She mumbled to her own self, once she realized what she had ended up doing.

She threw her head down and looked away, trying to disperse in to the crowd as everyone else in the club went back to their regular business and Emilia tried to blend in but Hannah was quicker than Emilia would expect her to be.

She immediately walked up towards the railing of the VIP section, from where she could see everything that was happening in the club.

Igor sensed that something was bothering his girl, he walked up to stand next to Hannah and patted her back gently.

“What happened baby? Don’t get too stressed, I will shut the whole place down right away and…”

“No! someone called my name! no one who is supposed to know me, is to see me with you.” She told Igor, expressing her concern and Igor also realized that Hannah had a completely different life of her own and what she had with Igor was a dark secret of hers.

“Oh! Wait! I will send my man and have them see to it, who it was. I don’t think they wanted to hurt you because they just saved your life and…”

“It was some girl.” Hannah pointed out, still trying to figuring out the words that she had heard, since the sound that called her out was quite thin and feminine and sounded that of a woman’s.

“It has to be. It sounded like a girl and…” she spun her eyes throughout the entire club, trying to get the bird’s view and see who it could be in the club that she could recognize or spot.

“There!” she pointed towards the door, as her eyes finally landed on Emilia, whom she spotted like a hawking eagle, out to spot its prey.

“I know her. Those red hairs. I have seen her somewhere before.” She told Igor, who turned around and signaled at his guard, to go and get Emilia.

He nodded and immediately rushed towards the staircase where he called the bouncers by the bottom of the stairway and the bouncers stepped ahead just in time to stop Emilia from quietly, attempting at trying to escape from the club.

Emilia held her urge back to cry as she looked at the two bouncers, stepped in her way and holding her arms out at her to stop.

They simply opened up the velvet ropes and gestured her to step in to the VIP zone.

Emilia whimpered in a plea, her eyes filled with plead and her lips frowned low, looking at the two men in front of her.

But her silent cries were definitely not going to have any effect on the two men, who once again bobbed their head at her to step in but Emilia remained adamant.

Standing on the balcony, Hannah right away recognized Emilia.

“She’s an intern at my office.” She gasped in horror, horrified that Emilia might slip out Hannah’s little secret to everyone in the office, if she was to get out of that club without having a little talk with her intimidating mafia boyfriend.

“Don’t worry! I have got it under control.” Igor tried to calm Hannah and then turned back towards his guard who stood by the top of the staircase, grunting at him angrily to get Emilia to him quickly before she escaped the club.

The guard rolled his eyes in exhaustion, disappointed at the bouncers who were unable to get a single girl and bring her up stairs.

He stepped down and at the same time, one of the two bouncers got behind Emilia and pushed her ahead.

“You were dying to get up there a few minutes ago.” He retorted at her and Emilia hissed back at him.

“You were literally going to kill me, if I stepped ahead a few minutes ago.”

Igor’s guard made his way down the stairs and immediately grabbed Emilia’s arm, pulling her up with him.

“Ouch! Stop! This is practically a violation of my rights and…”

She began complaining as the guard dragged her up and finally brought her to stand right in front of Hannah and Igor.

Hannah held her head up and high, not showing any signs of remorse of getting caught with her biggest and most twisted secret, something that she should be afraid of while Igor on the other hand, simply looked between his confident girlfriend and the poor wimpy, girl who was definitely scared and intimidated by Igor and the guards around him.

“How did you know that the drink was spiked?” Igor rose the question and just in time, one of the guards stepped out from the back room, where Emilia could hear the poor waiter’s muffled screams and through the small slit of the opened door, she could see the other guards beating up the man pretty harshly, which made Emilia squirm in fear, wondering if that could be her future as well.

The guard took the drink that Hannah had received and walked back in to the backroom and Emilia’s eyes widened a bit, as she sensed what the goons were going to do with a roofied drink and the waiter who had it spiked.

“I asked you something.” Igor stepped in to Emilia’s sight, making her shake her head and look at him.

A voice at the back of her head, scolded her to focus on the situation at hand and handle Igor and Hannah, who gave her a quite skimming look and scrutinizing her. She needed to take care of the two in order to avoid the situation that was happening to the waiter inside the back room.

“Are you following me? What are you even doing here?” Hannah stepped ahead, ready to tear Emilia down for an interrogation but she held her hands up in the air.

“Hey! Easy. I came here for a date but got stood up.”

Being a nonchalant liar, was finally going to pay Emilia off.

“What?” Igor questioned and Emilia tried to go in with the lie that she came up with, that was going to make her look pathetic but she knew that people who are not afraid to share their pathetic and pitiable side, are always considered weak and vulnerable and nobody ever doubts someone who is weak.

She just had to make the two believe that they were in charge and in power and she was weak and could never do anything to hurt a single person. That’s why she played the role of a loser intern, who gets stood up at clubs.

“Ugh! Online dating. Some guy I met online, said he would meet me here after work but he didn’t show up or even if he did, anyways…” she lowered her tone, trying her best to sound heart broken and dejected, “… I was in the back alley, feeling all alone and depressed when I saw that waiter carry that drink out to someone and that person added something in the drink, I was just concern and I didn’t even know you were here…” she pointed towards Hannah, “… I just came in to help whoever it would be having that drink and most of the times, women are the ones getting their drinks roofied so, I just came in to help a woman.”

“Why were you trying to run away then, once you saw me.” Hannah pointed out, still not completely convinced by Emilia lie.

The woman acted completely casual, trying her best to sound oblivious and thick headed, a dumb girl, who cared about nothing but her pathetic love life and getting stood up on dates.

“Because you are like my big boss and I realized that you were on a date and it was not appropriate of me to try and bring work when you looked like you were having some private time.”

“He could’ve been my brother.” Hannah pointed out, not dropping down any single suspicion that rose in her heart.

“Come on, Hannah.”

Finally, Igor stepped in and Hannah shook her head, looking away from Camila.

“Listen, we appreciate your help and concern and you did save my Hannah today. Is there anything, that I can do to repay you?” he asked, trying his best to act polite, something that Hannah didn’t like. She somehow, wanted to find a reason to have Emilia in the same situation like the waiter so that Emilia would not get to open her mouth in the office to anyone.

“Well, can I borrow one of your guards to dance with? Just so, you know I don’t feel bad about getting stood up.” She snorted a lousy laugh, sounding lame and love sick by every passing second.

“Umm well…” Igor shrugged, not knowing if it would be right of him to lend a guard to some woman, who sounded desperate for a d**k.

“I am just kidding.” Emilia shrugged with another loud laughter, “But if they would like to hurt someone, I can give them the office address of the man who stood me up.” She waved her hands in the air, sounding even more doleful and crazy.

“Anyways, it was nice running in to you…” she pointed at Hannah, “… and you too! Though, I still don’t know who you are…” she told Igor, putting up a perfect impermeable act that wasn’t even the slightest see through and no one was able to tell that Emilia could be a girl with investigate tendencies.

“Have a nice evening!”

She stated, turning away to leave but stopped when Hannah called her out.

“Wait!”

Emilia’s expressions wavered as she feared that Hannah might once again ask her another question regarding her little lie.

Emilia turned back towards Hannah, keeping a very stern and confident look over her face.

“Yes?”

“I don’t want any trouble for you, so if I were you, I would avoid discussing what you saw today at the office.” Hannah gave a stern warning that only made Emilia scoff.

“Please, I am of the firm believe that women need to support each other and the last thing that office needs after gossiping about every single celebrity’s love life is discussing an office celebrity’s love life.”

“What? I am like a celebrity at the office?” Hannah inquired, feeling quite flattered by Emilia’s words.

“Of course you are but you don’t have to worry, nobody at the office likes me or talks to me, so whatever you have going in your personal life, should not be projected on your professional life as you are a queen when it comes to your job.”

“Well…” Hannah shrugged, feeling quite proud of herself, as Emilia continued raising bridges of her praises.

“Why does nobody like you?” Igor asked, quite intrigued to know why everyone in and out of office, ignore Emilia.

“Well…” Emilia didn’t know how to answer the question but Hannah did.

“Oh, remember I told you, the other day at a meeting a girl ripped her skirt off? Well, that’s your reason for why nobody you know….” She stated, laughing out loud at once, making Igor laugh as well.

Oh wow! So I am famous as a skirt ripper now!

Emilia felt like a cold sword of humiliation piercing right through her heart but she kept her face intact, laughing along with Hannah, since she didn’t want to end up being beaten by the guards in the back room.

“Hey! I say we were alone anyways, why don’t you come and sit and have some drinks with us.” Igor offered and looked at Hannah, who suddenly seemed to be in a much better mood.

“Yeah sure! I would actually like to know you more. Since, it is very rare to find someone at The Monger, who actually hates gossiping.” She stated and took a seat on the double seaters couch, with Igor, whilst Emilia sat down right angled to them over at the single seat.

She had felt like her risk had finally paid off and since it was her only shot, she was going to try her best to get close to them, to find out as much as she could about Igor and his business, through Hannah, as she planned on getting some information on him and using that to get the job that Jason had tempted her with.

And her thoughts just brought her in to answer Hannah’s question.

“Well, I actually never wanted to work for The Monger. Sorry, don’t mind and I know this is stupid, saying in front of you, since you are my boss; but I kind of wanted to work for news networks that have much more complex news research. The Monger is great and as an intern I am getting medical insurance but just…”

Emilia grunted in agony, finally letting Hannah in a little on her truth, knowing that it was going to pay off one way or the other.

“Hmm, interesting.” Hannah kept a straight face and didn’t give in much to Emilia.

Well… not at least her fifth drink, by which she slammed her glass down on the table in front of her and laughed out loud.

“You know what Emilia, you are funny.” Hannah stated and Emilia smiled back at her, stirring the thin straw in her still first mojito. “I had such a hard time maintaining a straight face when you ripped your skirt but I laughed so loud when I came back and was alone in my office. You should’ve seen that Henry’s face. I hate him so much. That smug asshole. It was my time to finally be the CEO but no! that old hag, who was the previous CEO, had to sell the company out they put that non serious dickward Henry in charge. That guy doesn’t even know what CEO stands for. Can you believe that? That office just bites me in the soul and I hate it. But you Emilia, you make it much fun now.”

“I don’t try to be funny. I am just miserable and I guess people just find misery to be comical.” She shrugged and Hannah laughed even louder.

“Well, ladies if you don’t mind, I think I should be a gentleman take Hannah home and Emilia, if you don’t have a ride, we can drop you home.”

“No! I am fine.” she acted bothered for taking a favor but Hannah held her hand and pressed it gently.

“No! let us drop you home. You have made me laughed so hard in such a long while. That is the least I can do for you.”

“Well, if I am not a bother than okay. Let’s do it.”

The three got out of the club, surrounded by protocol of guards who encircled them and led Hannah and Emilia in to the car, with Hannah taking the front passenger seat and Emilia sitting in the back, while Igor was taking care of the waiter that they had caught before.

Hannah was quite a bit tipsy and mystified, having no idea about what was happening around her but she felt good, as she had been laughing by poking fun of Emilia for the past thirty minutes and Emilia was only tolerating all of that, in the hopes that she would give her something to grasp out of Hannah’s situation and get closer to Igor and know more about his businesses, that she was dying to expose him for.

“You know Emilia, back inside the club when you said that you hated working for the Monger?”

Emilia hummed back to the drunken woman’s question.

“I can relate to that.”

“Really? You hate working for the magazine too?” she asked, actually confused and concerned. She had seen Hannah put her soul in to the job, so her words did seem a little confusing.

“No! I don’t hate the magazine. You telling me you hate the job, felt like you were sharing this deep and dark secret and I also have my own secrets that have bothered me so much and I have never been able to share them with anyone because look at everyone around me, they all dwell and prey on people’s personal life. Hell, I am the chief editor of a magazine that makes money by letting out people’s personal secrets. And tonight when I first saw you, I was afraid but then seeing how open and fun you are and letting you see me with Igor, felt the right thing. And you just saved my life, how can I even forget that? It felt like a huge burden was lifted off my heart. I don’t know if it is weird of not but I really want to be friends with you.”

She turned around and offered her little finger for Emilia to cross with her little one.

“Huh?” she looked at Hannah’s gesture with a bit confusion.

“Promise to be my good friend, whom I can bring around my boyfriend and be okay with it?”

Emilia softly smiled at Hannah and crossed the drunken woman’s finger with hers.

“I promise.”

“I am so happy to finally have found a great friend like you!” Hannah chimed, smiling cheerily and turning ahead and on the other hand, Emilia looked out of the window, smirking to her own self.

She was finally successful and played her cards rights. She pretended to be vulnerable and Hannah considered her weak and finally let in.

It was going to be a hell of a ride for Emilia by being Hannah’s new friend and she was going to make sure to make the most of it and get to know more about Igor and his businesses.

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