Since they had been acting all jumpy and restless, Brody knew that they had something they wanted to ask for but he decided to ignore till they were ready to speak up. He turned around and looked at Mariah who had stepped forward- looking like she was about to face an all-time deadly monster.
"I don't have too much time to spare." he said coldly.
"Uhm- sir, we- uhm... we need salary increments." she said the last part in a rush while keeping her eyes tightly shut.
"The payment here is twice that of any other boutique you can work for." he responded.
"We know that, sir. Miss Mira said you had cut our payment to one-third of the original due to... incompetence. And I swear, sir, we've been at our best even if we weren't performing well before. We've chan-"
"Who's Mira?"
"Uh- sir, that's the Manager."
"I see. But I didn't cut your salaries."
"Pardon?" Mariah asked with wide eyes.
"I don't like to repeat myself."
"Sorry sir, but... but-"
"That issue is from the Manager and not me. I send all the payments to her directly 'cause I don't have the time to pay you individually."
"D- Does that means she's been lying to us? And even stealing from us?" Mariah said with wide eyes, blood almost draining from her face completely as realization hit her hard.
Brody was heartless, not evil. He knew how much their salary meant to them. They help and feed their families with the money they earn. Even he would never condone stealing or deceit.
"Rest assured, I'll take care of the situation." he said with a straight face.
'What exactly is he even thinking? Did he even consider this situation worthy of intervention. He doesn't look bothered at all like what I'm saying is meaningless. But that's how he always is. I just hope he does something.' Mariah thought.
"Thank you so much sir." She smiled and walked back to her coworkers to share the news.
"He said he'll do something about it." she said looking down after reaching them.
"Then that's good news." one of them said.
"He's expression was unreadable. I don't even know whether he takes me seriously or not." Mariah complained.
"Come on, don't sweat it. Once the boss says he'll do something about it, then he definitely will." Another one said.
"True, true but still... I hope it happens fast. He has a lot of work and responsibilities he might forget us." Mariah said.
"...."
The bell of the shop rang and they saw Brody enter. "Did you see the girl I came here with?" They heard their boss say.
"Uhh... no sir. No one's entered here since you left."
After speaking with Mariah, he got into the car but realized that he was the only one there. Adrian had texted him earlier when they were almost done shopping;
"I'm gonna be out for a sec. I need to go get ice cream."
And when Mariah came to speak with him, he was certain Evie had entered the car. 'Did someone take her when I was not looking?' he thought.
"Is everything okay, sir." One of the workers asked.
"Fuck!" he said under his breath and walked out of the boutique. He took his phone out and dialed Adrian's number.
"Come on, pick up." he said impartiality.
"Hello my dearest Alpha."
"I can't find Evie."
"What? Really?" He said as if he was shocked. It was nothing surprising to him that he didn't find Evie because...
*FIFTEEN MINUTES EARLIER*
Evie got into the car after which Brody opened the door for her. She saw him turn away from her direction and thought; 'This is my only chance to escape. Once we're back to the pack house, I'll never get a chance like this.' She opened the door and squatted so that he wouldn't see her. She kept moving like that past all the vehicles in the parking lot.
Once she saw that she was out of sight, she started running as fast as she could. She took several turns and kept running. She slowed down a bit after running for five minutes but still kept running. She was sure she was far enough from him but she couldn't let her guard down and just stay still.
'Now that I'm away from him, where do I go? It doesn't matter. I'll think of that later.'
All of a sudden she hit something which made her fall on her behind. She saw a shoe in front of her and her sight slowly travelled up to the person's face.
'(Gasp) of all the people to bump into in this area...'
"Oh, hello Evie." Adrian said nonchalantly while holding a cone of ice cream, despite catching her in the act. "Care to tell me why you're running when no one's chasing you? Or is Brody chasing you?" he said looking around like a curious child. After getting no response from her, a smirk appeared on his face and Evie didn't miss it. "Come on, let's go in to get you some ice cream. You must be tired from all that running."