§§Kyle
"I have never seen you this out of breath." I gave him a hand.
"He is escaping." He tried saying, but what came out were rugged breaths.
"I know I have him chased. Good thing you set up those cameras as last minute." He eyed me suspiciously.
"What fucking took you so long? I would have gotten killed."
"But you are still alive huh?" I walked past him into the halls, the warm air settling on my skin. I heard him behind me. "You are willing to deny me when it come to food?"
We both took the stairs, even though he was still staggering with his breathing. I looked at a broken vase, two actually. "That is coming out of your salary."
He shrugged and walked past me. "Hell of you touch my money. And yes to your earlier question, I will deny you for food, you give me enough troubles as it is."
We reached the last floor under seven minutes. "Not bad for the morning, yesterday was fifteen." He stopped in front of me.
Out of breath he said. "Most men go for hot sex, a long jog or good fuck, but your best way of remaining fit is climbing the stairs. Who are you?"
"And that my friend is the reason I am able to last longer than you in bed."
I watched from the corner of my eyes as he mimicked me. "Oh yeah and how do you know you last longer than me? It is not as if you were there while I fucked the last pussy I had access to."
"Noreen? I hope you don't break her heart."
"As it appears I seem to have already broken it." I stopped and looked at him dumbfounded.
"Just letting you know Pamela will skin you alive." He shrugged his shoulder.
"She is good in bed, really beautiful and has a body of a goddess but I guess I am only into the good sex she gives I don't want more."
"And she wants more?" I asked.
He pulled out another sweet treat from the insides of his pockets. I rolled my eyes. "She gives me mixed feelings and I think we are reading each other wrongly." He unwrapped the soft bun.
"That my friend is evidence enough to show that I last longer in bed while you don't."
I pushed open the office door to find three ladies, two of which were under my employ and another I was fortunate to have as a sister. Pamela's death glare was what I first noticed, but she didn't send to me, it was directed towards a smiling Nile.
He seemed to have realised his mistake as the smile dropped from his face. He looked at the walkie talkie in his hand, the other pair on the table. They must have heard everything.
"In my defence it was always meant to happen."
She rolled her sleeves and marched towards him, grabbing him by his shirt she pulled him into the bathroom and slammed the door shut, the words that came out next were inappropriate.
Skylark held Noreen's hands, her eyes shone hatred but for once in my life I was all but thankful I was not the receiving party. Noreen on the other hand looked hurt, with her teary eyes downcast.
"Why not take the day off." I said, Trying to lightening the mood, I was feeling bad, no one deserved to be used like that. She shook her head no but remained quiet.
I looked at the bathroom door, Pamela's voice rose more than three octaves high, I was pitying Nile, he did deserve what he was getting, after all he confessed himself.
A smile lit my lips, as I imagined Pamela standing up for me like that. How would it feel like? Well I knew how it felt like. Nile did that too often, even back in school. But just thinking of Pamela fight for me, like at the house. It brought butterflies to my stomach, which of course were my nerves acting in anticipation.
The door swung open and out stormed Pamela, surprisingly she came to stand by my side and not at her best friend's. Nile took the longer route and sat down on the furthest sofa from Noreen. Skylark glared at him, but the corners of her mouth lifted so slightly at the red that stained his cheeks. I was brought back to reality as I felt her soft hand on my shoulder.
"We already know who broke in. But what we want to know is why, we also know who sent him."
I looked at the newly pipped message in my phone, great the sucker had been caught. But it still puzzled me Donna was in the hospital, that wasn't news I wanted to hear, not that it affected me. I had Pamela and I felt like I had everything.
"Yeah, and his end price was Donna's hand, which I believe he won't get due to the smile on Kyle's face." Skylark said. Everyone had their eyes on me, even Noreen's watery ones looked at me with curiosity.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I stared back at the woman I called my half sister. She sighed and took a seat on the couch, setting herself deeper onto the soft folds of cushions.
"Being pregnant is not easy." She waved her hand around and we all got the point. "You dear brother of mine will make sure he ends up in jail or something and won't get Donna so all his efforts would be in vain."
I nodded.
"But that doesn't mean Ian will stop. He has his father by his side, he can easily do anything and get away with it. Let us not forget he is into politics, a few strings and the world falls at his feet." Nile spoke, and ever so slowly his eyes would dart to Noreen.
"That will be solved at a different time, what we need to know is what Ian is after, try to protect it and also keep Kyle safe. He pulled off his first move a terrorist attack-"
I cut Pamela short. "One we have not yet been able to fully prove was his doing."
She nodded slowly unable to say anything, even I felt disappointed that I didn't have evidence against him.
"Back to the earlier question, what might you have that Ian is after?" Skylark's voice filled the empty space. I looked at each one of them. Was I willing to share what I had that he wanted? I doubted.
"We don't need to know that. As a matter of fact, there could be anything in this room that still has him connected to what is going on here-"
"What is that?" Pamela let out a frustrated growl a Noreen interpreted her.
We all looked towards the direction. Noreen moved for it. "Don't it could be dangerous." Nile said.
Noreen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right I am scared of a small box. It might as well blow me up to pieces seeing that my heart is shattered." She walked past him and picked the object. I raised my brows.
"Where had that come from?"
"Oh no." Pamela said and stepped back. She placed her hand on her chest. "The blackmailer."
I was by her side in a moment, she looked like she was about to faint, though I doubted.
"What about him?" I asked.
She looked at us in turn, her eyes settling on Skylark before they locked on mine.
"Ian paid Matt for the file. That day while we were in the office and he bumped in, he placed the box on the table over there, but we were a little um, occupied at the moment,"
She left the sentence hanging.
"That means Ian is the blackmailer, he is blackmailing Skylark as well as us."
"You guys are being blackmailed? Just when you think it won't get any worse, something else pops up."
We ignored him.
"But how does Skylark fit into all this?"
"I am right here by the way, in case you have forgotten."
I looked at her eyes, I could see the tears surface up, I pulled her into a hug. My hand aching to strangle something, no someone, Ian.
I looked back at Skylark. She didn't seem as affected as Pamela was. I raised my brows at her.
"What?" She asked. "He crossed my mind but I brushed it off, now I can bloody say I have devils for a family."
"Ouch! That hurt!"
She smiled. "I know, it did."
An uncomfortable silence filled the room, but for once I didn't want to have to say something. I had someone in my arms, and she was more important, though the thought of that fucker watching the video irritated me.
"Maybe," Noreen cleared her throat again. Pamela pulled out from me but I didn't let go, the pleading look I gave her told her I needed her more than her best friend did.
"Maybe he has something against Skylark, or the video just happened?" Noreen said.
"How could it? She said so herself, she had gone to his house, and they had sex. Jake must have known Skylark was coming and he must have set the cameras." Pamela responded.
"But if Jake did so then how is it that Ian is responsible for blackmailing her?" I asked.
"Jake didn't have anything to do with Ian."
"Well-" Skylark started.
"Or unless it was put there to catch him, and it indeed did, and the blackmailer isn't exactly Ian but someone else." Pamela said, her soft head snuggling deeper into my chest, my heart ached, I wanted more intimacy with her, but damn society and its manners.
"But the file had been dropped here in the day Matt bumped into the office." Nile said.
"The thing is, if you would just listen-"
"Even if they had had sex a month or a year ago and the damned thing had been recorded, there is still a very high chance that the tape would leak out and a blackmailer would extract money from them." Noreen said not so sweetly. She did have a death glare directed towards Nile.
He flinched back. "I should be asking. Did you also record our intimate moments for your pleasure?" He took a step back, a horrid expression on his face.
"Hell I would never do such, I could never, I swear."
She nodded she still looked hurt.
"So, I guess I might speak?" Skylark spoke from her seated position. We looked at her. "So, the thing is, Jake actually worked for Ian, illegally as I heard once or twice." She bit her lips as she saw the irritated look that crossed my features.
"I kind of lied, well I found him attractive and I was a woman in need my vibrator wasn't helping matters. I was growing into a grumpy winey child. I had overheard them speak about illegal matters, drugs, guns, some terrorist attack or some sort."
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "One night he had come over and had a settled matter with Ian. I went to his room half naked since he was staying there for a night, and told him I wanted him to sex me, to worship me like a goddess, I guess I didn't think things through and I didn't use any protection."
She looked up at me. "I had forgotten about the cameras all over the house. Ian had found out about it, though it didn't cause an issue, as a matter of fact it worked to my advantage as I was engaged at the time being forced into a marriage I didn't want. I used the pregnancy and evidence of the video to work my way out and got into a fight with Ian about his smuggling issues and threatened to report him to the rest of the world."
She took in a breath. "Guess I created an enemy."