"No," I replied quickly. "I want to stay at Magnus a bit longer."
Sebastian tried to fix his clothes before pulling a charcoal grey necktie from his pockets. I watched him put on his necktie expertly and realized I like seeing him getting dressed up like this.
It's like watching reserved striptease.
Although a bit crumpled here and there, he still looked impeccable. Well, that's expected from CFO of Barclays Bank.
He looked every bit of a domineering executive.
"Then... see you on Saturday, Mr. Moran," I said politely before extending my hand to shake hand with him. He gazed at my outstretched hand before looking at me with a questioning look.
"To commence our agreement," I explained with my professional tone. It's a business deal between us after all.
"Ah. But I don't think that's appropriate, Miss Benson." He grinned devilishly before taking my hand and pulling me into his embrace.
Before I could react, Sebastian covered my mouth with his. I didn't have time to dwell or push him away because he kissed me deeply and passionately till I forgot what I was going to do.
When he finally pulled himself away from me, he stared at me with a satisfied smile grazing his beautiful mouth.
"I'm sorry, I thought a handshake would be unsuitable for this kind of arrangement," he muttered unapologetically.
"You... You..." I wanted to curse him but I ran out of words.
***
Sebastian left me in the care of his overly friendly manager. I needed almost an hour to shake him out of my hair until he finally left me in peace.
I think I already drank five glasses of those delicious Pina Colada and two shots of vodka. My head was buzzing pleasantly... and I need to pee badly.
I stood from the bar area and navigate my way to the toilet, stumbling a little when someone bumped into me accidentally.
Unlike the VIP toilet upstairs, the 'commoners' toilet on the first floor was crowded and noisy. But that darn manager was currently on the VIP floor and I wanted to avoid him.
I bet Sebastian ordered him to keep an eye on me all night.
I finished my business quickly and wobbling along the wall to get back to the bar. I should go home now. I must have gone crazy for getting drunk on a weeknight.
This was all Sebastian's fault. Damn him.
He gave me a taste of his magic card and I had no self-control when it came to freebies.
My legs stopped when a jolt of nauseous feeling surging in my stomach. "Urgh..." My hand flew to my mouth and I glanced back to the long line in front of the toilet.
There's no way I could make it to the toilet in this situation and I'd rather die than puking all over Sebastian's nightclub.
My eyes roamed the nightclub in panic. The main entrance was too far from here too.
With a stumble, I walked faster to the nearest 'staff only' door and slipped inside. The room felt brighter than the nightclub and somehow it intensified this nauseous feeling.
"Excuse me, you can't go in here."
I whipped my head and stared at a tall, lanky man. Probably one of this nightclub's staff. This place looked like the staff's locker room.
"Sorry," I mumbled weakly before covering my mouth again in panic.
He seemed to understand my urgent need to vomit. He lifted his hand and pointing to a door annoyedly.
"There's an alleyway next to that door. But please do it in the trash can."
I wanted to say thanks but bile started creeping up my throat. I ran to the door quickly and the cold night breeze hit me as soon as I got out of the door.
It felt good but I still need to empty my stomach. I searched for the biggest trash bin in this dark alleyway, the only source of light was from the dimly lit lamp near the door.
"Urrrgh..." I pulled my hair and threw up most of my dinner while hovering over the trash bin, feeling weak and pathetic at the same time.
My precious steak and fettuccine carbonara went inside the trash bin in such an unpleasant manner.
I still felt sick even after I threw up my organs and dinner out. This was my karma for being greedy for freebies. I closed my eyes, trembling slightly while leaning on the trash bin.
And that's when I heard a sultry moan coming from deep inside this dark alleyway.
I opened my eyes again weakly and those moans continued to echo all over this place.
"Ah!"
I was impressed. They must have heard me threw up disgustingly over this trash bin but still went on with their business.
"Please— Ah!"
I didn't mean to peep like a pervert but the corner of my eyes caught their silhouette wriggling around the wall near the door. No wonder I could hear their moans loudly, it turned out they were quite close to where I stood right now.
Well, time to get the hell out of here.
But I couldn't take a step further. My eyes had already get used to the darkness of this alleyway and when I accidentally gazed at that couple, my blood suddenly ran cold.
They were embracing each other, the woman's back was at me but the man— he was staring right at me while kissing his lover's neck.
I must be imagining things... because I saw blood trickling down from the corner of his lips while his lover hand grappling at him helplessly. Her moans still echoed on this alleyway.
I couldn't take my eyes away from the young man's empty strange black eyes.
"I must be still drunk," I whispered to myself before forcing myself to look away and walked back to the door.
Her moans followed me till I closed the door behind me. It sent a shiver down my spine.
***
The next morning I still received a Daisy bouquet.
I had a terrible headache, an editorial I worked on went messed up because an intern, and that blasted Daisies — those beautiful innocent Daisies would go to the trash right after I sent my report.
Sebastian's words last night came back in the middle of my headache.
Was he thinking about me this morning? There wasn't any note on the bouquet and funnily enough, I didn't have his number yet so I can't send my morning sermon to him.
We kissed, had a spectacular orgasm, had dinner, danced, made a deal to have sex on the weekend, and I just realized I didn't have his number.
I think we skipped a few steps in this relationship.
I gasped at my own thought. What relationship, you dumbass? It's strictly a business deal.
Damn him, now I thought about him too because he sent me Daisies.
I returned to my cubicle and stared at my computer screen for a moment before taking out my pen recorder from my bag. I've transferred the recorded file to my computer this morning.
I put on my headset and opened ten recorded files that my recorder managed to record. It had audio-sensors so it only recorded when there's sound in the room. But the downside was that each recording only lasted a maximum of ten to fifteen minutes.
Most of the files contained only Sebastian's voice talking to Magnus staff or calling his subordinates at Barclays Bank.
Although that night I also saw Nicholas Shaw at Magnus's nightclub, they didn't seem to be chatting in Sebastian's private office.
I popped a painkiller into my mouth before I play the next file.
Actually, I didn't need to listen to these files because Sebastian would provide me with credible evidence of Kovach's corruptions and his embezzlement.
But I went through so many unnecessary troubles for these files so I had to at least listen once.
I leaned my back on the chair as I continued to listen to Sebastian's voice speaking. His authoritative voice was kinda calming, I closed my eyes for a moment to enjoy it.
It almost felt like listening to ASMR but at the same time felt wrong because I could get into jail for these illegal records...
Suddenly an angry new voice emerged and my eyes flew open.
"Sebastian, have you lost your mind?" That new voice almost growled.
"I've been wasting my time traveling from Manhattan to San Francisco for the past eight months because you asked for my help. But you want to stop this Cancer Research Hospital and the blood bank project we had been planning for the last two years?!"
I sat straight in my chair.
"I'm not saying I'm going to stop our plan, I'm just getting rid of Bill," Sebastian replied calmly.
"You want to get rid of Bill, who by the way, I've been working so hard to clear his name from his corruption case..." continued the man in a low, angry voice. "...and then start our plan from zero again even though we almost get that fucking permit if Bill wins the election?"
For a while, there was only silence, I thought the recording was finished.
"Yes." Sebastian's voice resurfaced suddenly followed by his frustrated sigh.
"Give me one fucking reason," replied the other person furiously. "And then you're going to pay me all the expenses I have incurred to clear Bill's name... including my hourly rate. At full price."
"Nicholas, If I have to pay you then I don't need to tell you my reasons."
So that was Nicholas Shaw's voice.
The 'Nicholas Shaw'.
"Fuck you and your reason then," cursed Nicholas Shaw in threatening voice.
"I'm going to remind you that San Francisco is your responsibility. We need a blood bank to serves Volder. I don't care if you have to build a cancer research hospital or a funeral home."
Volder?
My forehead creased when I heard that foreign word.
I played the tape back, Nicholas Shaw's voice was still continuing the conversation.
"We can't allow the other Volders or worse... Leeches in this city drink human blood straight from the source just because they have trouble getting access to blood."
My body froze instantly. What were they talking about? Drinking human blood straight from the source?
"I understand. By the way, did you take care of that case in Detroit?" asked Sebastian.
"What do you think? Greg and I had to work a whole damn week to erase the memories of seventy-two people who witnessed it when Charles's new Leech bit a human," said Nicholas Shaw angrily.
Greg must be Gregory Shaw. Nicholas's brother and partner in his Law Firm.
But what's with Volder and Leeches? And who bit a human? Who's Charles? Were they in some kind of cult or something?
Maybe they were talking in codes. Damn, now I was super curious.
"What happened to the Leech?" Sebastian's voice replied again.
"I killed her of course. Charles ran away too, but Greg managed to find him. I wanted to kill Charles too if I remember the energy and time I have wasted on cleaning up his mess. Unfortunately, Alice was ahead of me—" Nicholas Shaw's sentence was interrupted because the record was already finished.
I just sat in my chair for five full minutes while my head tried to absorb what I just heard.
Were they involved in some kind of secret organization that sold organs and blood? I shudder at that probability.
I tried to search about 'Volder' and the incident in Detroit Nicholas Shaw talked about, but I've got no result.
Only one news emerged regarding the plan of Barclays Bank to build a cancer research hospital in San Francisco as a form of Corporate Social Responsibility.
No wonder they held children with cancer charity fundraising event at the Langham hotel.
Sebastian Moran and Nicholas Shaw were planning to build a new hospital in San Francisco, and they need Kovach to helped them with permits and its paperwork.
But now he threw away that plan to sleep with me...
"What are you up to, Sebastian?" I whispered to myself quietly.
I wrote a word that had been bothering me in my journal and underlined it several times.
'VOLDER.'