Aurelié walked in with her men and marched upstairs to the VIP room. She had been informed earlier by Fréderick that victor, one of her father's most valuable partner wanted to see her.
"Let's get this over with as fast as possible." Aurelié commanded Fréderick as they entered the room. She cat walked in and sat down on her chair, staring at victor face to face
"Aurelié Stéphane." Aurelié sharply said and extended her hand towards victor. Victor took her hand and placed a soft kiss on it then looked her straight in the eyes.
"It's nice to finally meet you miss Aurelié."
"State your business! I want this to be concluded quickly."
Victor smirked, he really liked the way Aurelié went straight to business. If they had met in a different scenario, maybe he would have been more intimate, but right now, it was strictly business.
"Well that depends solely on you." Victor stood up from his chair opposite Aurelié and went towards the huge blinded window by their left. He pulled the blinds apart and enjoyed the view for some seconds before talking.
"Exactly a week ago, I received a van which was supposed to be filled with my cocaine empty. Three days ago, I failed to receive the package I had been promised to be given as a repayment for the glitch that happened last week."
He walked back to his chair, lit his cigarette, took a sip and continued what he was saying.
"I've been doing business with your father for years now, and never, not even once, has something of this sort happened. To some extent, I can say I trust him but I can't say that about you. I had accepted your father's decision to deal with you instead of him as the head of Venezuela's dealings because of the past I have with your father but there's a limit to which I can be patient.
Aurelié thought for a second. She didn't want to loose her temper else, she might end up with more enemies than she thought was necessary. " My father never fails to deliver, neither do I and neither do my men. I wasn't informed of this problem earlier, if not I would have taken care if it personally."
Aurelié gave Fréderick a dirty look then continued where she had left of. "I'm sure the empty van wasn't from our side because no one would dare mess with me, plus I trust my people. It's clear that it must have been someone from your side."
She took out her favourite pocket knife, and started toying with it - a habit she was forced to cultivate in order to cool off when she felt threatened. With her other hand on her forehead, she kept calm and waited for Victor's response.
Victor tossed his cigarette on the floor and stepped on it before taking his seat. He wasn't happy with was being said. If he heard Aurelié right, she was blaming his men, he couldn't help but feel stupid and suspicious, something he had never felt before. He jerked Aurelié's knife from her hand and smirked.
"I'm not a fool Miss Aurelié," He picked a piece of her hair with the knife. "My guesses are that one of your men took my package and you were pretty aware of it, but tried covering it up. Look, I know what your family is capable of and I hope you know what I'm capable of too. I would hate to see a long - lasted partnership between your father and I to be ruined all because of a flimsy reason as this one. Your father wouldn't be too happy to know you were the cause, don't you think?" Victor added.
Aurelié grabbed her knife from victors hand and placed it in between Victor's fingers that were on the table. Victor didn't expect what she did, he looked at her then at his hand, and then readjusted himself on his chair.
"My father very well knows my capabilities and that's why I'm sitting here, not him. And like I said earlier, the problem couldn't have been from our side, but I'll find the people behind this and bring them to you dead, not alive." Aurelié removed her knife from the table and stood up. She went close to Victor and bent her head till she reached his level.
"My father wouldn't be unhappy because your partnership with him would be destroyed, no no no. On the contrary," She sighed and gave a fake worried face.
"He would be sad because he would have lost a partner and gained an enemy." She inched her face closer to his.
"Trust me, if you're not my partner, you would hate being my enemy." Aurelié got up and walked straight for the door only to stop half way.
"Expect those 'heads' on your table tomorrow." Aurelié smiled and cat walked out of the room.
Victor looked at her as she walked out. He licked his lower lip then used his forefinger to wipe it.
"What a feisty one, isn't she?" He asked his men.
**************
"Fréderick!" Aurelié called as she entered her office.
"Yes?"
"Whoever is behind this, I need them before me at dusk, alive!" She commanded then started filling some documents she had left undone earlier in order to attend to victor.
Fréderick nodded and was about leaving when he remembered he had news for Aurelié.
"Mr Stéphane called earlier."
"Call back."
"Okay."
Fréderick used her personal phone and called her father because he knew he would only answer her call. Mr Stéphane picked up within seconds, then Fréderick handed the phone to Aurelié.
"You called."
"Yes I did. I barely have time to spare so I'll make this quick."
"Okay?"
"I just had a meeting with a Davis. It ended better than I expected."
"A Davis?" Aurelié was surprised. She wondered what her father was up to this time.
"I'd like to see you. I can't tell you our discussion over the phone. Come to Paris tomorrow, then we'll talk."
"What exactly did you discuss with a Davis that's so important, I have to come meet you?"
"Nothing you should be bothered about."
"Well tomorrow won't be possible. I have some things I need to fix first. Will Friday be OK?"
"What things? What happened?"
"Nothing you should be bothered about."
Mr Stéphane chuckled. He found her statement funny.
"Everything you do there is my business. If there's a problem, I should be bothered."
"I'll take care of everything here OK?"
"We'll see on Friday then." Mr Stéphane answered before he ended the call.
Aurelié sighed - a recent habit of hers - then handed the phone to Fréderick.
She wondered why her father had called because of a mere meeting he had with a Davis. He had hardly called over the past two years after he sent her here, that's why it was a shock to her that he called out of the blue. She suspected something was off somewhere, and she was bent on finding out what it was, soon.
One of her men walked in with news about the new shipment braking her chains of thoughts.
"Boss the new shipment."
"Call Ave and Carlos." She ordered the man as she arranged the files on her desk. One of these days she was definitely going to get someone who would do the filing but as for now, she had more pressing work to focus on.
The two men she sent for came in with the guy she had sent and stood in front of her waiting for instructions.
"I need the shipment from Nigeria to be distributed accordingly; Ave, you deal with the Germans. Carlos?"
"Yes."
"You deal with the Chinese and the locals. I expect everything to have been dusted by Saturday. And yes I want my money those old local dealers owe. Carlos you also deal with that. I don't expect you back here without my money. Dismiss."
They were about leaving when she called Adriano back.
"What have you gotten in the missing shipment case, I'm sure Fréderick put you in charge?"
" Yes he did. We're still working on it but so far, we've gotten a suspect."
"A suspect?" Aurelié said with an eyebrow up. "Bring him in!"