Redacted [h.s]

43

— XO Lounge Presents: GLOW

ZARA

A chill flows through my hand as Zayn passes me a crystal glass occupied with a generous refill of whiskey before propping back up on the arm of the chair that I'm sitting in.

"Vazquez," I continue, "again, what happened at the warehouse was a setback but we can assure you that it won't happen again. We were preemptive on relocating our inventory prior to the raid and since have upped our security measures. Multi-millions of dollars worth of inventory remains safe."

The liquor burns a lot more as Vazquez and Liz watch me speak from the other side of the table. We've been discussing this partnership, the huge upcoming inventory shipment and more for the past hour or so.

"I'm aware. I'm also aware that things have been a little shaky for the past few months. Have you found out who is responsible?" He asks, not taking his eyes from me.

Zayn shifts beside me but remains cool with a clearing of his throat, jumping in to continue. "We haven't yet but we're working on it. You and Liz are very powerful people that have individually made a lot of enemies through the years and even more so now that we've partnered up. Signs are pointing to Ray but it could be anyone, honestly."

"These two..." Vazquez starts with a slight chuckle, "Liz has quite the pair in you two."

"Yeah... they're something." Liz agrees in her own weird way, blank eyes never straying away.

"Liz thinks that there's been someone on the inside involved. And I'm certainly not opposed to the possibility. Rhea," he singles me out again for the umpteenth time tonight, "what do you think? Do you have an idea of who's responsible for causing chaos within your business?"

It doesn't take an idiot to understand what he's asking: if I'm involved. Now, I have to defend myself yet again. That's all I've been doing and I'm fucking tired of it.

"As Zayn said, we haven't figured out who is responsible. But I can assure you, just as I've assured Liz and Zayn many times, because I can get a sense of what you're hinting at, that I have no involvement whatsoever. I'm sure that if it were me involved, I wouldn't be sitting here with you right now. Liz would have killed me herself, months ago. Also, I'd be foolish to even show my face around here, if I thought about betraying the people that have become my family these past few years. All of this started in the summer when some very sensitive business information was leaked: our partners, locations, distributors, formulas, future business moves. We contained most of it. Though, it caused a hiccup and a massive headache, for sure. And since then there's been inventory stolen, shipments destroyed, warehouses raided, we've had our competition invade our space and our people tracked down and murdered. But we've gotten stronger and those very competitors are no longer around. So, I am telling you and Liz again, that my loyalty is with this business. This business is a part of me so much that I've nearly died a couple of times defending it."