The music was loud and the lights were flashing. People were dancing and drinking, and the air was thick with the smell of smoke and perfume. It was a typical Friday night at the club.
In one corner of the club, two men stood adjacent to each other.
''I do not want you to miss a single detail,'' the man with a tall muscular built spoke up, grabbing a glass of whiskey from the counter as he downed it and leaned back against the chair. As the lights flashed, his hazel eyes reflected a coldness.
The other man, comparatively, had a much delicate stature, and feminine features. If one gazed at him for too long, they would find him too beautiful to be a man. He looked at the man who had spoken.
Ryle Harper. The man he worked for. The world knew Ryle Harper as the CEO of Harper Societies. But was that all that his identity was?
Dexter, his secretary, had always had this doubt. There was more to this man than he let people in on.
And having such doubt was not baseless. The current situation they were in proved that there was some truth to Dexter's doubts.
Because the CEO of a security company had no reason to be in the nightclub at this hour of the night, waiting for men that were directly or indirectly involved in mafia.
''Weird…'' Dexter mumbled.
''What?" Ryle narrowed his eyes.
''The environment is weird,'' Dexter swiftly changed the topic, ''I have looked into the people you asked me to but there is no guarantee that they will be here today.''
''Even if there is a small chance, I want you to be successful. I have never doubted your capabilities, Dexter. You do what I have told you to,'' Ryle pushed himself to his feet, a devilish smile crept on his face as he downed another glass of whiskey, ''Meanwhile, my day was pretty tiring. I need blow it off.''
''You mean you need a blowjob…''
Ryle tilted his head just in time as Dexter closed his mouth, ''Accurate. You are so tiny yet always so smart,'' the man flicked Dexter's forehead as he walked away.
Dexter pursed his lips and watched the man approaching the flock of women who had been eyeing him for quiet some time but had not approached him because of his intimidating aura. With every step Ryle took, he shed off the bloodthirst that was emanating off him a few minutes ago, looking like nothing but a harmlessly charming womanizer.
''He gets to be a manwhore and I have to look for these drug dealers who can murder me in the witching hour of the night. Fair enough,'' Dexter's face turned cold as he shot Ryle another look.
But just as he was about to walk away, a familiar face caught his attention in the crowd.
Dexter looked at a certain bearded man who was sitting with two young boys and having drinks.
Without any hesitation, Dexter pulled out his phone and checked the profiles that were displayed on it. The man they were looking for was the head of a underworld drug dealing business.
And this bearded man was listed as one of his underlings.
Dexter's cold face remained unmoved but his eyes glowed subtly. This task that he thought was going to be as hard as finding a needle in the haystack somehow became so convenient by some miracle.
Without any hesitation, Dexter strode towards the man, not knowing where those steps were going to lead him to and how they would forever alter his life's course.
The next morning.
It was barely 5 am in the morning and the weather was enveloped in a layer of gloom.
Inside a luxurious hotel room, a woman was laying splayed on the bed. Her long raven hair covered her face and chest like a beautiful drapery.
The room was pitch black with the curtains drawn close.
The sound of running water softly echoed in the huge room. After a few moments, the sound stopped and the door to the bathroom opened with a soft 'click'.
The faint silhouette of a man could be seen in the darkness of the room. As he approached the bed, he glanced at the woman's naked back, his palm clutching the side of his head.
A soft groan escaped his mouth as if he was in pain.
After standing there for a few moments, he dropped something on the bedside table and left.
Three hours later, the woman on the bed moved.
'Hiss' She sucked in a cold breath as her body trembled because of the pain and coldness that enveloped it.
Through the gaps between the thick dark curtains, faint sunrays invaded inside the initially dark room.
The woman opened her eyes. A pair of dark eyes stared at the ceiling in a daze.
A cold gust of air seemed to have passed by, making her shiver.
Her hands instinctively reached out to touch her body, only to realize that she was naked. And as she moved her palm up, she felt the bulge on her chest.
Her eyes widened. She sat up on the bed and looked at her breasts that graced her vision in all their glory.
Disbelief coursed through her entire body. She rushed down the bed, almost falling in the process as she ran to the windows and drew the curtains open.
As lights invaded inside the previously dark room, her eyes roamed around, constantly searching for something until she spotted her clothes in a corner of the room.
She rushed towards her garments and picked them up. In the process, a corset fell on the floor along with a wig of ash blonde hair.
She tilted her head and glanced at her reflection in the mirror in the adjacent wall. The woman in the reflection looked beyond recognizable. There were marks strewn all over her body, garish fingerprints were imprinted over several parts of her body, bloodshot eyes, swollen lips, a pale face and her long hair seemed to have been mishandled beyond the point of recognition.
After a long moment of contemplation, she started putting the wig on her head. By the time she was completely dressed, the person in the mirror was no longer the woman from before.
If Ryle Harper was there, he would have recognized the man as Dexter, his very own capable secretary.