The cold CEO and her Musician

Chapter 3

The next couple weeks are just about the same for Kaya and she moves through work as usual.  Her date with Gavin is planned for the last week of the month since they are both so busy and he is going to cook for her at his place since she wanted to have a more private first date and have the paparazzi turn it into a s**t show. When she is at work she gets a text on her personal line from an unknown number that says: pity things never work out and history can repeat itself. Kaya stares at the number that simply says unknown and shows it to Bernard when he walks over having heard he stop typing. He gets on the phone to get someone to try to track the text but with no luck since it leads to a burner number. She lets Bernard take care of it while she handles a call that came through her office phone from her brother to talk about the contracts and forgets about the message. The next day she gets to the office and finds that she has so many emails and missed calls on her work line from media outlets that are bombarding her with questions about her and Gavin.  Katie comes in and gives her the messages that she has gotten and has already sent her the emails that are about work and not about her and Gavin. When Katie leaves Bernard brings over her coffee and her brother comes in and sits across her in the chairs in front of her desk. 

Bernard gives Tyler a coffee and then Tyler speaks up breaking the deafening silence, “so when do we get to meet him?” Kaya rolls her eyes, “never I have a group of nut jobs for family.” She starts going through the emails and one catches her eye with the simple heading always watching. She opens it and there they are the pictures that everyone else has seen but she still hadn’t till this moment. She went through the pictures and studied them before saying anything, “Ty, Berny, these pictures look like someone was following me. I had security teams all around us that night. Plus, I didn’t know Gavin’s last name until I asked him for it. I also got that text, so someone is watching me. We need to figure out who it is that is watching me.” Tyler looks at her and takes a sip of his coffee before responding, “well if that is the case then it has to be someone with power and either not afraid of you or stupid to go after a Grayson family member. What are you going to do about this guy?” Kaya motions his for Bernard and Tyler walk around her desk and look at the pictures. They are in color and clear shots of her entering the hotel with the girls and Gavin in the first couple catching them while they were chatting and then the pictures of them kissing. The pictures of them kissing were zoomed in and taken clearly so that their faces could be seen clearly. She feels her personal phones vibrate and pulls it but stop herself from answering it when she sees the caller id that says: Mother of Dragons. Tyler puts a hand on her shoulder, “I would answer that, if I were you kiddo you know that mom won’t stop until she talks to you.”

Kaya drops her head knowing that her brother is right and lets out a loud sigh before answering it on speaker, “hey mom.” Her mother screeches into the phone which makes her put the phone down away from their ears, “how could you do this? Are you trying to kill me? My heart! I can’t believe that my daughter would start dating without telling me!” Kaya let out a long sigh, “mom I’m not dating anyone right now you would be the first to know if I was so that I could avoid this. Please calm down.” Her mother goes on loudly, “WHAT ARE THESE PICTURES IF YOU AREN’T DATING?” Kaya rolls her eyes and Tyler shakes his head, “they were taken when I was out with the girls, and he was just a guy I met at the club that walked ups back to the hotel then we kissed and said goodnight. Now will you relax?” Her mother took a few breaths on the other side of the line, “Okay I’m sorry that I was being so dramatic, but you have to understand sweetheart that you haven’t been seen with anyone since Lucas. You are so careful not to be seen when you go out.” Kaya was starting to get a headache now, so she started to rub her left temple with her hand, “I know mom. It looks like someone was following me we are going to work on who it was.” Her mom let out a loud sigh, “well this is a problem.” Kaya froze mid breath and then closed her eyes, “please tell me you didn’t start telling people that I was dating.” Her mother lets out a nervous laugh, “No, of course not sweetheart.” Kaya makes a fist against her head, “mom who have you told?” Her mother lets out a huff, “well I only told family, you like your father and sister-in-law and…” Kaya gets annoyed, “Mom!” She huffs again, “okay, okay I told your grandfather and…albie.” Bernard lets out an annoyed sigh and kaya calms herself, “fine then go back and repeat to them what I just said to you please I don’t have time today to field a family Q & A session. Oh, mom have you gotten any more letters to the office or the house?” 

Her mom lets out a sigh, “fine I will go now and no we haven’t gotten anything new. Also do we have to stick with the strict security, and do you think this is all connected?” Kaya lets out a sigh, “I think it might be, but I need time to figure it out. I have to get on damage control on this stupid ass media storm.” They said their goodbyes and then Kaya turned to her brother and Bernard who were now sitting on the couches, “Berny I need you to find out everything you can about Gavin Ashford and anything you can find out about how these pictures got leaked and then have Katie set up a press interview. I already sent out a text to Gavin so hopefully he gets back to me.” Tyler cleared his throat, “what about the board meeting today what are we doing with that? And have you gotten any new information on the death threats? We also need a press conference for that as well.” Kaya nods, “yeah I know that one is scheduled for tomorrow and the information that I have I already sent it to you but when I get home I will make a call for now let’s get to the board meeting and then I’ll got the club house and see what the girls have.” Tyler nods and they head to their board meeting which goes on without a problem so they can get all the contracts taken care of. After the meeting Kaya heads to one of the luxury apartment buildings in the downtown and heads up to the top penthouse apartment through the private elevator. Once up there the doors open to a white marble floor and white walls throughout an open floor plan penthouse that takes up the entire top floor. She walks in and past the hallway that leads to the four bedrooms and heads to the kitchen that has nothing but stainless-steel top of the line appliances and face the living room with a 60’’ flat screen and black couches in front of a wraparound balcony and view of the ocean and city. Once she passes that she comes to a set of French doors that sit in between the kitchen and the living room and opens it. They lead into a game room with full bar, pool table, dart board, full gaming system with another 60’’ tv on the wall, and door to the area that leads to the cigar lounge that the girls had built on the roof.

She sees the girls playing pool and drops her blazer on one of the lounge chairs surrounding the couch then walks over to the bar. 

Mallory is already there when she sits on the first stool she comes to, “so I take it you want something with some kick to it?” Kaya nods and Mallory hands her a glass on the rocks of a 70-year-old scotch. Kaya takes a drink, “so you saw the news then?” Mallory nods, “Pay sent it to me in the morning.” Kaya looks over at Payton one of her friends playing pool with Casey and losing severely. She smirks as she thinks to herself how Payton has always been when it comes to playing pool. She takes another drink, “Pay where did you see it?” Payton takes a shot, “I saw it while I was on the elliptical this morning after my workout you made it to the breaking news level, so I sent it to Mal. We got a kick out of it. How did auntie Leah take the news?” A chuckle comes from Mallory, “yeah is she planning your wedding now?” Kaya rolls her eyes and undoes the top button on her black silk shirt giving her a more relaxed attractive demeanor, “yeah she was screaming it from the rooftops; she even told Albie.” Casey who was taking a drink nearly spits it out, “she didn’t.” Kaya nods and Casey lets out a sigh, “Damn kai you are going get the s**t end of that one when you get home. No wonder you came here, and I am assuming you sent Berny home first to help take care of Albie first.” Kaya nods her head as she looks down at her glass, “yeah well he does know how to pacify his husband, so he won’t give me so much grief.” Mallory walks around from behind the bar, “I guess being the Cold CEO Death the horsemen has now caught up with you. Albie is going to be hurt that you ended up meeting someone and didn’t say anything. After he was the one that pulled you out of your alcohol driven pastime when Luc passed.” Kaya nods, “He saw some pretty ugly parts of me and since I’m like a daughter to him he is going to be upset but hopefully not try to kill me.” Casey takes a shot and makes it, “how was the board meeting?” Kaya shrugs, “it went as planned but Simmons was MIA so that helped.” Case takes another shot, “well that still helps. What about any more death threats on your end?” Kaya takes a swig, “they stopped for now but I’m pretty sure that they will show up again until this deal is signed and put through. What do we know?” 

Payton misses her next shot, “we know that you are the target and that your car crash last fall wasn’t an accident. The breaks were messed with, so they wanted it to look like an accident.” Mallory speaks up, “the botched kidnapping on Lex was also part of it but how you manage to keep that one from being successful without getting yourself killed I am still at a loss for words.” Kaya smirks, “come on Mal I have my ways. I’m a Grayson.” Mal chuckles, “well that’s true. I also made sure that the people who tried to take her was examined and they seemed to be on some really crazy form of heroin and Kai…it was the same strain that was found in Luc’s blood when he died.” Kaya stops mid drink, “what do you mean?” Mallory takes a drink, “the same type of drug was found in his blood stream, but it seems like it has now been perfected. Whoever is dealing it has gone global. I am getting cases left and right at work to look over and it has gone from killing people to turn them into zombies that can be trained. Take enough and you can make someone your slave without question.” Kaya takes another drink, “if they went after Lex and got her do you think they would have hurt her?” Mallory nods and kaya lets out a sigh. Mallory goes on, “they just kept saying the same thing in the reports she was to be tossed out after they had their fun.” Kaya grips her glass now, “bullshit they get anyone of my family or friends. Did you send me the files?” Mallory nods and Kaya continues, “Mal find me the formula and in the meantime I have to make a call in the office I’ll be right back to kick Case’s ass for you Pay.” The girls start to laugh, and Kaya walks out to the hallway leading to the rooms and turns to a locked door with a pin pad and fingerprint scanner. The door clicks open, and she walks in and closes the door. When she faces the room there is rows of black wooden shelves lining both side of the white walls and a wall of glass that looks out on the ocean behind a black wooden desk. She walks past all the pictures and trophies that line the shelves of the things that the girls are all most proud of. She stops in front of a picture that shows her in an army uniform with another woman smiling that has long black hair and dark olive skin with brown eyes in the same uniform. She grabs the picture off the shelf and whispers, “Marie.” The returns the picture and gets behind the desk and sits in the black leather chair. She presses down on the top of the desk and there is a slight click that reveals a trap door to the lift the center of the desk to reveal a sat phone. She takes her cell phone and hooks it up the sat phone and then hits 1 and the dial button. The line rings and then after a few moments it’s picked up without a word, so she states what she has to say, “I need you to keep watch over me and only intervein if you think necessary. I have a standing plane ticket to San Diego in Spain for you under the name Abby Fuller. Just make sure you aren’t seen by anyone we don’t want to scare them off.” There is the sound of a person hitting a button on the phone and then the line going dead. Kaya gets up and puts everything away heading back to the game room to play pool with the girls. 

After a long game of pool, jokes, and drinks the girls all call for their staff and tell them they are staying at the clubhouse for the night. That night Kaya gets a call from Bernard saying that Gavin was in a bad car accident. He tells her that Gavin is alright but unconscious. She gets out of bed and heads to the office to set up security for Gavin and the hospital and has a team investigate his accident. Mallory walks into the office and asks what’s going on, “Kai what is it you are making so much noise at 4 in the morning?” She hands her a cup of coffee and Kaya takes a drink, “Gavin has been in an accident which is great timing seeing as how the pictures just came out 24 hours ago. I am setting up a team for the hospital and can you have your best doctors check him out. Also make sure they are all cleared with my teams you know the deal.” Mallory nods now suddenly awake and grabs her phone and makes a few calls before responding, “do you have someone working on the accident?” Kaya nod and Mallory goes on, “okay medical is taken care of, and I told them to send me the bill.” Kaya nods, “I had a feeling things weren’t over when the death threats stopped,” she lets out a sigh and leans back in the chair as Payton and Casey walk in and Mallory quickly fills them in, “Pay can you make sure that you have one of your staff members prepare the food for him and his family while they are there and Case can you make them comfortable also I will need you to prepare the apartment floor below mine just in case with things the guys are going to need I sent you all the files. I’m going to take a shower and get dressed Berny is on his way here. He is bringing breakfast.” The girls all nod and head to their own rooms to do the same while Bernard gets to the apartment. After breakfast he and Kaya head to the hospital while she goes over the files that he sent her about the accident, and she sends them to the girls. Once they get there the security team is already beating back the media so they can let them through and when they get in there they head to the floor that she has set aside for him and his family and band mates.