Chapter 1
"Fear is the brains way of saying that there is something important for you to overcome."
-Rachel Huber-
***
Phoebe's P.O.V
If only life isn't so hard, then maybe I will have a better thing to do than walking around and standing behind the desk in this five-star hotel and making sure that all of the guests here are satisfied. It's not like I hate my job or anything, but doing it has never been my dream, in fact, it's a pure coincidence that I even end up here, but even so, I guess I'm pretty grateful because at least I don't have to work on street to feed myself.
And things in life just simply don't go as accordingly, and sometimes, you just have to do whatever you can to survive, that is something I learned a long time ago, it's my principal in life.
My name is Phoebe Rousseau, a pure French lady who speaks fluent English in a less thick French accent, and because of that ability of mine, I was accepted into this well-known five-star hotel in Paris as a receptionist.
And how did I get in here without even studying in hoteling major?
"Bonjour, Phoebe." (Hello Phoebe)
A 6'0" man with dark brown hair, blue eyes, and slight shaven beard approach me as he gives me a flirty smile, which I absolutely hate, but can't really express it. Other female employees say that he is really handsome, but I just don't see it, you know.
"Bonjour, M. Moreau." (Hello, Mr Moreau)
"Comment ça va?" (How is it going?)
"Comme d'habitude." (as usual)
This man is Henri Moreau, unlike his name that resemble an artist from the past, this man has no artistic taste at all. He is an only son, which makes him pretty spoiled by his parents, and that result in him being a snobby person.
I bet if he wasn't that good looking, people would just hate him for his personality.
And I know that he has a thing for me.
He always starts off with trying to do a simple talk with me, but believe me when I say, this guy always ends up trying to flirt with me, which I find very inappropriate considering he is my boss here.
It's true that it was because of him that I can work here, since his parents own this hotel to begin with, and they were nice enough to let me work with them, and Henri, well, but that's because our parents were friends back in the old days and that's all to it, and it's not like I'm a close friend to him or anything, in fact, I barely knew him back then.
Until my parents passed away a few years ago, and his family began taking care of me and my older sister, that's when I began to know him, and well, I would say I'm not very fond of him. It slightly sucks because he prefers to hang around me more than he does to my sister, considering they are the same age, and when my sister left me, that's when he tried to really get close to me.
"Now, don't be so cold, Phoebe, and secondly, you can just call me Henri."
He says as he tries to put his hand on mine, which makes me immediately pulls it off.
"Playing it hard as always, huh? Anyway, we have a party tonight as scheduled, and why don't you take a little break and changed shift with Susanne, I'll see you later."
He chuckles and give me a wink, which makes me feel really disgusted, but I try to hide it with a fake smile.
***
Soon enough, there are many guests coming and I can tell that these are the guests of the party tonight because they are wearing such fancy clothes, and I bet they are the kind of upper class people.
Working at a place like this gets me used to all of these kind of hype, and sometimes, all I have to do is just smile, and move on.
"Phoebe, M.Moreau asks me to replace you tonight."
Susanne comes in fully dressed in the uniform. Her brunette hair is tied in a bun and her brown eyes are staring at me as if she is saying "you're so lucky".
I smile at her and thank her for taking her time. And she just tells me to not mind it, and she begins taking over the recipient desk for me.
I walk to the staff area and Henri is already waiting there like a creep.
"Get changed into this, Phoebe, you'll look so pretty." He says as he smiles meaningfully.
I silently take the dress from him and enter the staff changing room, and I have no other option but to wear what he handed me and it turned out to be a white backless dress with flows bottom.
And somehow, it really compliments my natural wavy reddish hair and pale blue eyes. And the white doesn't wash off my light cool tones complexion which is fortunate.
Apparently, I have the rarest combination in the world, ginger hair + blue eyes? You don't see that every day.
I get out from the room and turns my head to see Henri flirting with another blonde woman, before he hears me closing the door and walks toward me.
"You look pretty, Phoebe, now, let's enter the party, shall we?" He offers his hand which I heavy heartedly accept, and he brings me into the party room.
Being the owner of the hotel gives you free pass to all the parties, and most of the time, he takes me with him, despite knowing who hold it, and Sometimes I feel bad for my co-workers because they must have seen the way he treats me and it makes me feel uncomfortable.
I don't know if that's even allowed, professionally wise.
But this time, the party seems to be bigger than usual, and even the way the decor it and all, the person who owns this party must be a very important person.
"Well, I'll get a wine for both of us." he says before leaving me all alone in the crowd.
And I get pretty dizzy with all these people around so I decide that I should just move aside to the corner or something, and that's what I do.
I remain in there for a few minutes, before my eyes lock with a pair of gray eyes. Those eyes look very serious and they belong to a really muscular and tall man with a slightly longer dark blonde hair and I can feel those eyes staring at me back.
The man is fairly handsome, but it doesn't look like he is a friendly person. In fact, he looks a bit intimidating.
He stares at me for a while, before one of his friend who stand beside him pat his shoulder and say something to him, which makes him stop staring at me.
He turns his head away from mine, and walks away, followed by two other men behind him who looked like his friends.
Well, that is kind of weird.
Henri finally comes back and hand over a wine to me, while my eyes are still watching the men walks away.
"Tu vas bien?" (Are you okay?)
He asks all of a sudden which makes me realize what I have been doing. Staring at a random stranger, great.
"Je vais bien" (I'm fine) I reply shortly.
***
The party goes on pretty normally, and in the middle of it, a Middle Aged guy comes to the stage to gives a thank you or something. He speaks in French and English.
"This man is the host of this party, his name is Quentin Blanc Durand, a great man who owns a massive company working in the food industry, he has a great personality too from what I've heard, this man is loved by the media"
Henri begins explaining about this man which I really don't know and care about, because who he is, is none of my business.
In the middle of the speech, suddenly there is a scream from the crowd and people begin looking at the direction of the voice, and I get curious too, but that curiosity disappear the moment I realize that there is a dead body on the floor.
A man just got shot, right in the head.
And the gunshot noise wasn't heard, which makes people wonder about who can do something so horrible as this.
"What the-" one of the man speaks before he's silenced by a shot that hit his stomach.
Everyone is panicking now and they begin looking around to see where the shots are coming from, and some guests are terrified and frozen still while others are just trying to leave as soon as possible.
"How can this happens?" Henri says as he pulls out his phone and he calls the security team and he calls the staff as well to make sure that they are safe, which is very different of him.
The security team has been called and now they are checking all over the place for any clues.
And then, there is one more shot.
The man on the stage, who gave the speech, Mr Durand, falls lifelessly to the ground.
And by then, there is a brief silence.
"Gosh, no." I put my hand on my own mouth because I couldn't believe what just happened. Three people just died, within half an hour.
My mind cannot take this any longer, and I feel kind of nauseous, so I reflexively runs out from the room, and I make my way toward the staff room, which is pretty far away from the party room.
And as I thought, the way there is very quiet. No one is here, and not even the guards or any other staff.
I try to move my leg, which already feels very heavy plus walking in heels quickly make my feet ache. But somehow, I need to get out from this place.
I hate witnessing such a horrible thing like that, and I need to leave.
When I'm half way there, I see five guys standing on the hallway, and my eyes immediately recognize one of them.
The man with the gray eyes.
He is standing there as he holds a phone and it seems like he is calling someone, and on his other hand he is holding... a gun! And two of his friends near him are holding the same kind of guns as well!!!
Oh my gosh, who are they?
I am about to run away from there when my eyes meet the gray eyes and his eyes widen, and he signals something to his friends that are noticing me as well now.
Oh crap!
I try to move my legs as hard as possible, but two of the men quickly run toward my way and they hold my arms as tight as possible, making me unable to run.
Slowly, the man with the gray eyes walk toward me and he stares at me with a frown, and then he says something to his men in Russian, which makes me unable to understand what he is saying.
But then he turns his attention toward me again and say in a husky tone.
"You're coming with me."