"Goddamn girl, you look ravishing in that vid!"
Orca opened a semi swollen red eye, took the phone away from her ear and squinted at the screen, and glaring at the brightness she croaked into the call again, "You called me at the ass crack of dawn to tell me that?"
"Yeah, well, it is important, like damn! The way your figure—"
"On my work phone, that to?"
"Well it's not my fault that your personal phone's never in reach and—wait, you were asleep?!"
"Yeah well that's what normal people do when the sun does not shine," the words were muffled in a yawn.
"But, but—whoa…of course you don't know! Mr. Kim's out in the fields sowing seeds of love, no shit, well I hate to be the bearer of bad news…"
"Ayisha Knightly, I swear to whatever lord you think there is, I WILL fly all the way back to New York and punch you into your afterlife if you don't get to the point right now!"
"Ha...Ha…" there was a girlish chuckle, "Well, I totally don't doubt any threats coming for you. True. But still, go check the news. You're viral."
As if being electrocuted, all the life in Orca resumed. Jolting up from her bed she minimized the call and checked the news and suddenly, her heart lurched in her gut and her entire body broke into cold sweat.
'THE OWNER OF ORCA INDUSTRIES NOW ON THE VERGE OF A MILLION DOLLAR LOSS!"
'FROM RICHES TO RAGS! PARKER EMPIRE CLAIMED A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE CEO OF ORCA INDUSTRIES!!'
'COMPANIES PULLING THEIR SHARES FROM ORC IND. DUE TO ILL REPUTATION!!'
'AMERICA'S YOUNGEST CEO NOW THE FACE OF A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR SCAM!'
'HOW WILL ORCA INDUSTRIES SURVIVE AFTER IT'S CEO'S VIOLENT TENDENCIES GO VIRAL ON INTERNET?'
God help. She slept for one night without Sir Kim to keep her company in check and this happened?!
Not feeling any better, Orca whispered in the call, checking if her friend was still patiently waiting, "A-Ayisha?"
Her voice broke. Ayisha's heart gave a little squeeze.
"Awwww, baby, don't be sad! It's gonna be fine! I swear! Is there something you need? Tell me girl, I'll do it…"
"After all that happened, all you needed to say to me was about my ravishing looks?"
The voice was cold again and Ayisha nervously chuckled. Dammit, Orca being Orca.
"Well, you know I'm Bi, and what's hot needs to be appreciated!"
"You mo**********g, b***h a**, why the f***k would you—"
And Ayisha hung up.
"You could have at least let me complete my sleep!" Orca shouted at the blank screen of phone. When it did not respond (as if it was supposed to) she smashed it against the wall.
It was a Samsung, it survived.
Enraged and out of her mind, she paced around the room, trying to figure something out. Anything. But all her brain was coming up with nothing but panicky scenarios. Where would she find shelter? Where would she find help? What is she supposed to do now?! Sir Kim must be in some wilderness by now; detached from all human and worldly connections, happy to celebrate his daughter's wedding. It would be dumb of her to ruin it for him…
Rushing back to the phone, that was now lying behind a sofa with a cracked screen, Orca fished it out and switched it on again. Scrolling through the NEWS TODAY page, she tried to find the first article that was published on her.
It was sometime near 1 o'clock in the morning.
"That means Julian went out right after me…it takes an hour long drive from Sana's home to the Parker Empire…but he took a turn to find an appropriate news station, what did he even, wait!—"
Cutting through her murmurings, her eyes widened as she switched on the TV in her room. Her teeth constantly biting on her lower lip and feet tapping the ground. "Please don't do anything dumb Julian, Please don't do anything dumb…" she kept on chanting as the anchor spoke.
"From a statement by Julian Parker, the sole heir of the Parker Empire, and a close friend of the CEO of Orca Industries, we gather the fact that the face of America's youngest CEO was backed by a Drug Lord. Her business was first financed by—" the news anchor could not complete her statement as Orca's doorbell rang, the TV remote slipped out of her hands and hit mute after touching the ground.
She panicked, mind running a mile per second, trying to figure out what to do. Where to go, where to hide? The bell rang again and Orca ran up to her window, her building was swarming with reporters, shouting like hungry wild animals waiting for Orca to maul her. A chill ran down her spine.
"No, No, No," Orca picked up her handbag, slipped in a pair of sneakers, took out a pair of oversized shades. There was banging on the door now. Her heart dropped. She stuffed her hair inside a beanie.
"Hello! Anybody home? This is CPD! Open the door on the count of three or I break in!" the voice behind the door shouted, all too familiar to Orca's ears. While running inside her kitchen, her footing faltered. "Why the fuck was HE assigned this case?!" Orca cried to herself and climbed the kitchen counter.
"One!" the voice shouted from behind the door.
Orca unlocked the chimney above the stove. Its inner greasy walls and metal handles fixed on one side came into view. "Time to be Santa, I guess," she whispered to herself as soon as the voice outside shouted, "Two!"
Orca pulled the chimney door up, bolted it shut, then climbed as fast as she could. The last thing she heard was her door being broken open and people swarming in like flies, buzzing.
The chimney was Sir Kim's idea, though rarely used; it was specially designed as a route to enter inside Orca's home, undetected by the paparazzi. Orca called bullshit the moment Sir Kim showed it to her claiming that she would never be able to fit her fat luscious ass in such a cramped space. Now, she couldn't be more grateful.
The chimney was constructed inside the walls, with only small air vents for breathing. It directly connected her home with Sir Kim's property.
So that's where she expected to end up when she finally stopped crawling inside the walls and started climbing down. Only to her misfortune, the other side was locked because it connected to Sir Kim's fireplace and he did not want Orca to someday surprise the life out of him and give him a heck of a heart attack.
Cursing to all the Gods there are, Orca, while standing on the metal trap, skimmed through her purse to find something that could help. "Common handbag, I know you have something, cough it up, I don't expect you to be filled with girly trash…" she muttered in a sing-song voice.
All she got were metal chopsticks.
Well something is better than nothing….right?
So she managed to pass the sleek chopstick from the air gap and push it through the lock handle. Then she kept a foot on the chopstick as leverage and pressed weight until there was a harsh metallic click and she swiftly descended down and straight on Sir Kim's log wood stack. She hit bull's-eye!
Oh, Lord have pity on her private parts!
"For Fuck's sake…ugh," Orca cursed, crawling away from the wood logs, pulling her bag as well. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" She cried to no one in particular as the areas around her groin lit up with a painful sensation.
Her cell phone rang again. Cursing her fate, she saw Ayisha's number flash and picked it up. Ayisha's frantic voice stuffed her ears.
"Oh Thank Merlin! I thought they got you! They are showing your house on TV, very pretty lingerie you got there; I like the lacy white. Oh, never mind I deflected from the topic, my love, where are you? Did you manage to escape?"
"Who's Merlin?" Orca asked in return and the momentary pause on Ayisha's side had Orca confirmed that she was rolling her eyes. HA! Sweet revenge.
"That's all you got from my 'I-am-hella-worried-for-you' rant?" Ayisha asked swiftly as Orca finally managed the guts to stand up. With weak knees, she bolted the Sir Kim's end of the fireplace vent.
"Yeah well, what you don't know, you should always ask, right?" Orca replied sourly.
Ayisha gave a bitter chuckle, "Funny. I guess you made it out. I'll hang—"
"No, wait!" Orca cut in sharply, trying to find something to eat.
"Yes, what is it?" Ayisha asked calmly.
"Why did you pull your shares? Glass Enterprises is listed as one of the companies that pulled their deals from ours. Why did you do that?"
"Darling, I cannot be caught dead investing in a drowning company. It won't do any good to my reputation. Plus—"
"But you are my friend, aren't you?" there was a feeble vulnerability to Orca's question that had Ayisha smiling genuinely.
"Of course I am love, that's why I will be helping you in all the ways I can. Of course I cannot help you while you are in Chicago, I have no influence there, but if you manage to fly out here, I can do all that I can. Friend or not, you know how the Board of Directors react when you do a clumsy investment. Though my Board consists of only one stranger, Mr. Stark, and he too will do anything his son says and his son is obsessed with me, so—"
"So, don't you believe that I was backed up by a Drug Lord?" Orca bit her lip nervously, still trying to find something to eat. Sir Kim usually stayed at her place, so there was no meaning of buying extra food and storing it in his place. Still, clinging onto the faintest ray of hope is what Orca always did.
"My love, we've both started businesses and turned them into huge successes, but people fail to recognize the struggle we have in our first stage. When our business is still young and new, like a baby, we need to cherish it and provide for it, and if we cannot make the ends meet, it will die out. At that stage, finance from any side, any line, any place is welcomed. Truth be told, Glass Enterprises was half financed by my uncle and half by a tobacco company banned in a few nations. So, I'm sure every businessman understands this. But the people don't, they only see our glorified success, not the struggle behind it. It's a sad truth."
"Are you sure you are allowed to say all that on phone? If someone is tapping my phone then—"
"Oh no worries, both ends are encrypted in this call. Adrian coded an application for me to talk about private business deals without the fear of leaking anything out. You know how Adrian is, always with his head buried in some new software. I swear this man will one day date wires or something and we wouldn't be surprised."
Orca chuckled and Ayisha smiled hearing Orca's eased tone. Orca opened another cabinet and a Bourbon bottle presented itself to her. Clinging onto the faintest of hopes is something her mother counted on, before cancer consumed her. Orca respected that; it always played better for her if she kept an optimistic approach.
Something in her mind clicked. Bourbon!
"Hey Ayisha, can you do me a favor and track a number? I think I have someone who can help me here--!"
"Oh! Who? Who is it?"
"He's a rich man with whom I had a one night stand in the sub-urbs," Orca grinned at the bottle then popped its cap open and chugged it down, the warm, bitter and unpleasant taste overpowered her throat and she grinned.
"OOOOO! Erotic! I love where the plot is going!" Ayisha exclaimed excitedly, eyes already having stars in them. preparing another plot, maybe?
"Yeah but this story will go nowhere if I get caught, so hurry the fuck up!" Orca shouted in mock annoyance and Ayisha bade her, a hurried, good-bye, while promising her to call back in 15.
Orca jumped on the sofa in front of the fireplace, relaxed herself in it, and then waited in all her doom and gloom.
>-------------<3
"You sure this is the right address? Because instead of a rich mansion, I've been led to a rickety, old, excuse of a house, cabin in the middle of slums."
Orca gave out an annoyed whine, stomping her feet childishly.
"Then I think someone must have stole your phone after you went away," Ayisha supplied crisply, sounding a tad distracted. Orca felt guilty.
"Hey, I'm not disturbing your work—am I?" Orca sounded almost unsure and Ayisha scoffed. "No Silly, Daphne just gave me a few papers to sign; I was searching for a pen that I had strangled in my hair. Silly me, continue," Ayisha explained then Orca nodded. A loud rustle of papers and Ayisha's series of flying curses made Orca think otherwise.
"Okay…whatever you say…" Orca dragged out, then hung up. She knew that Ayisha was busy, it was a business day after all, and the last thing Orca wanted to be was a liability. She had a plan, and she would accomplish it alone.
Ayisha said that any businessman would understand, so she could only hope that Leonic Strauss would understand. She half wished that he took her phone away with him, but no…fate was playing some twisted game with her.
"Guess I'll just have to threaten the information out of this thief," Orca whispered to herself then knocked on the door because a bell would be too much of a luxury to afford for whosoever lived inside that cabin.
"Yes, be there in a moment!" came a thick voice laced with an accent. Orca's brows tightened as her fingers involuntarily clutched tighter on her handbag. The cold September wind blew, raising goose bumps all over her body when she realized she was still in her dark silk night dress. No wonder people were giving her weird stares. Dressed in a silk short dress, maroon beanie, white sneakers and grey handbag.
She looked like a walking fashion disaster!!
"Are you here for the delivery?"
Before Orca could over-think this fashion emergency, the smooth voice cut in her thoughts. Orca frowned to herself, then cleared her throat and spoke up, "Yes, I am!"
"Just a minute, will you? The sodding tap won't give me water and I have soap all over my body!" the voice spoke again and Orca's face contoured in amusement.
What kind of a thief rambles personal information to random strangers on door?!
And why was his voice so close?! Was his bathroom somewhere near his door?!
For the first time, Orca's eyes turned to take in the cabin and landed on a semi-opened window beside the door.
'Should I take a peek? He'd never know…'
'No! I cannot! That is invasion of privacy at its max!'
'But he's a thief….'
'No Orca Curzon, you were raised better than to stoop low to the level of a thief! Stop thinking right there!'
And before some twisted side of Orca could counter that statement, the metal excuse of a door creaked open with a long, escalated, groaning noise. At first Orca's ears shuddered, then her eyes, then her whole body because GODDAMN! There was the Holy Grail, right in front of her eyes. Those well defined six pack abs that could slice her in six pieces and she would still die with a smile. Only a towel wrapped around his waist as those lean but strong muscle arms held a 10 dollar bill and a shiny wallet, shaking the note his nipples, Good Lord Orca could—
"You! What in the name of Queen are you doing here?!" the thick British accent brought her back to the realm of the living.
It took Orca three milliseconds to calibrate before focusing on the strangers face and getting another heart attack. "Wait! You! What the fuck?! Aren't you supposed to be fucking filthy rich or something?!" Orca shouted out loud and Leonic visibly cringed at the vulgarity of her words.
"Excuse me, mind your language, will you?" Leonic snapped, crossing his hands against his chest, blocking Orca's views of his chest in turn. She huffed, eyes landing on his divinely sculpted face and those lush lips that spewed words in a hot British accent.
God, something was clearly wrong with her brain…
"Well I apologize that you have the tolerance level of a goldfish's memory," she raised her hands in surrender then took a step inside. Leonic blocked her way and leaned against the doorframe. His 6 foot body easily blocking the small door.
"You aren't the delivery man," he stated with narrowed eyes and Orca huffed in annoyance.
"Great observation Sherlock, want me to present you with an award of I'm the Captain Aye-Aye-Obvious?" she snapped as Leonic rolled his eyes.
"State your business here. Why have you come? How did you even come? Do you know me?" He asked, suddenly leaning down to her eye level. His deep ocean eyes momentarily still her heart from beating. That stupid sod!
"No I don't. You just happened to steal my phone and I'm here to track and report. It was a business phone, you see," Orca regained her poise, standing straight up to his eye level and lying. Leonic gave her a charming, boyish grin.
"Not it wasn't. It was your personal phone with two contacts and eight photographs. You live a sad life Miss Coral," Leonic pressed his lips in a pout and spoke her middle name. Orca scowled menacingly.
"Then it's even worse that you invaded my privacy! Plus my name is not Coral, that's just something I use as my fake ID," Orca huffed out, folding her hands against her chest, stance now matching Leonic's.
"Lady, you had 123456 as your password! What privacy are you insinuating at? And your name isn't coral…no wonder I couldn't find you in my system. What's your name even?" Leonic asked, putting the five dollar bill back inside the wallet.
"It's Orca Curzon!" Orca proudly declared and suddenly Leonic was on the ground, his wallet fallen, money scattered as he laughed out loud.
"O-O-O-Or-ca! ORCA! HER NAME IS ORCA!" He cackled out loud.
Horrified and insulted by his barbaric behavior, Orca scowled, bent down and pulled his towel from his waist, rolled it in a ball and threw it across the road. Leonic paused in an instant, cursing out loud as hands frantically tried to save his decency. Orca flipped him off, crossed his threshold, and then walked inside, closing the door behind her.
A horn tooted outside and the delivery man was there.
Orca smirked, watching from the window, as Leonic sputtered for words, flustered by it all.
"Yo man, it's all chill. Its 2020, be a nudist if you want to be!" the guy on the scooter grinned at Leonic, giving him a big thumbs up.
Traumatized for his life, Leonic shut off all human emotions he could, then walked towards the towel with his knees joint and teeth chattering in cold.
"Nice ass man," the delivery guy winked when Leonic turned to him with a red face.
"T-t-the money is r-ri-ight there," Leonic pointed somewhere near his now closed door.
"I give you a discount for flashing, it's on the house, thanks for being a regular customer. I'll get going now!" the delivery guy winked again, kept the pizza down on his doorstep and left.
Leonic felt his soul leave his body when he found his towel and wrapped it around his waist, sighing, he sat down on the ground to catch his breath.
An old woman crossed the road and stared at Leonic with disgust, "This is what the youth is doing nowadays, wanking in public these exhibitionists, no wonder Trump is President! You gave him your vote, didn't you?!" she seethed at him then got going.
Leonic rolled his eyes and muttered a reply, "I am the property of my Queen, thank you very much," he dusted the dirt off his towel after getting up.
"Kinky," Orca grinned from his door. Leonic charged at her, but she took the pizza in and closed it again.
"Oh the misery this woman inflicts on me…she will be the doom in my gloom!!!"
>------------<3