"I'm going to keep this one short and sweet for you, no anecdotes, no sarcastic comments. The Mafia. I'll just wait for that to settle in before I continue...
Are we done?
The Mafia. The Mafia? The. Mafia. How? Honestly, your guess is probably as good as mine at this point."
"Elise you've got a lot of explaining to do," Zhao Yingyue hissed at the PA as she pulled on an oversized black trenchcoat and hugged the flapping material around her slim frame, tying the belt tighter around her waist as if the act of doing so would protect herself from the unknown. The white door from under the shutters looked past it's prime and needed a new lick of paint. The corners had been chipped and worn down over time leaving very obvious cracks and holes in the bottom. The door creaked open and a man who seemed to be made up of a solid mass of muscle, dwarfing the two women in front of him. His stern gaze faltered when he saw Elise and he glared at Yingyue, "who's the little one?"
"She's your new big boss, Ross, show some respect."
"No way, this wee 'un?" The burly man muttered, staring at the girl in front of him. "She's a wee mite, no way!"
"Ross, I understand your concerns, I hope to one day in the near future prove to you that I am just as capable as my father was. In the meantime, may we pass?" Yingyue tried her best to keep her voice steady and maintain eye contact with the giant in front of her. For the most part, she was succeeding, however, towards the end, her voice wobbled uncontrollably and she felt her cheeks flaming beet red.
"Aye, in you go, they're expecting you," he replied shuffling to there was a small crack where the two women ducked through and they shuffled along a narrow corridor before walking into the open plan of a nearly empty warehouse.
The room was dimly lit with only a few hanging lamps across the entire place, casting long shadows that danced and jolted across the floor every time the slightest of breezes swept through the chilly warehouse. There were a few non-descript, tatty boxes piled up here and there and a dusty mini forklift machine sitting forlornly in the far corner. Two men stood, arms crossed and their faces impassive, as still as if they had been carved from marble, near the back of the room. Had they not looked so intimidating, Yingyue would have voluntarily gone to introduce herself. The man on the left was taller, with cropped bleach blonde hair and a small scar that cut through his eyebrow. The shorter of the two, the man on the right had touseled brown hair with a red tinge and an earring in his left ear. Both men were tall and fairly muscular, both towering over Yingyue in her heels and Elise in her flats and looked deathly pale in the sickly orange glow that illuminated the room. Yingyue's teeth let out an involuntary chatter as an icy breeze shot down her spine and they walked to what felt like her doom, closer to the two men.
"Marcus, James," Elise smiled wryly, "meet Selena Yingyue Zhao, the new acting CEO of Zhao Hai industries and a face you should probably get you used to."
"Good morning gentlemen," Yingyue inclined her head. "Can I just ask, which one of you is Marcus, which is James?"
"Marcus is the sensible one, Mr. Stoneface over there, I'm James," the one with the earring stepped forward in a motion to kiss Yingyue's cheek but she stepped back and offered up a hand with a shy smile for a handshake.
"Elle, are you sure you didn't bring her as jailbait? She's can't be what, over seventeen, is that even legal?" James smirked as he shook her hand, "she's so... small." James quipped as his intense stare drove the goosebumps to rise up Yingyue's arms and legs. She ducked away from his gaze and pulled her coat tighter around her shoulders, ignoring the biting of the metal that dug uncomfortably into her skin. Unconciously her fingers started to drum against her palm in the pattern that her fingers would have been placed had she been playing her beloved violin instead of in some dingy non-descript warehouse where she may or may not die at the hands of the Mafia.
"James, I'm sure Marcus knows where the electric chair is if we ever do find the need for it, especially if your mind doesn't drag itself out of the gutter anytime soon." Elise snapped back with a no-nonsense glare that wiped the smirk off of James' face immediately.
Yingyue remained silent and instead offered her hand out to Marcus who shook her hand silently and his lip twitched, as his her was about to say something and then thought better of it.
"In any case, would any of you like to tell me what the hell is going on? I say this with the utmost respect and all but why on earth am I even here? Also, who are you?"
Her questions were met with silence.
"I mean it, who the hell are you?"
"Little girl, you're not going to like the answer to that one, stop prodding where your nose doesn't belong," Marcus all but growled.
"Marcus," Elise snapped. She turned to Yingyue and sighed. "I'm not too certain where to start, your father has quite obviously never told you anything about the underworld side of his business, makes everything a little harder now. No matter." Elise took a deep breath and carried on in a breathy voice as if she was about to pass out."As your father's PA I will of course not know everything about his comings and goings but I've escorted enough people here to know that your father was not a bad man."
"Very funny," Yingyue muttered under her breath.
"I am being deadly serious, he was never involved as far as I knew in the underworld's dealings, their comings and goings were very much your uncle's expertise, your father cut off and visible ties when his business really took off into the charts."
"My uncle? I don't have an uncle. My father's always told me he was an only child?"
"Well, it seems that your father has certainly left me a fair few questions to answer and an awful lot of explaining to do." Elise raked a hand through her hair, tucking the wispy bangs behind her ear. "Gentlemen, if you have other commitments then you can go, send my apologies to Carter if I kept him waiting, we'll have to reschedule to see the Uncle."
The two men nodded respectfully and left quietly, James throwing a wink back at the two women.