Arabella

Chapter 3

    The man on the bench sat and waited.  When a black limo pulled up, he perked up a little. A limo around here was not too unusual, but most of the people who worked here were overworked and underpaid. 

    When he saw people in business suits step out, he slowly looked back to his newspaper.  Out of the corner of his eye, he caught someone who looks familiar. “Oh s**t! You’ve got to be kidding me.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone and dialed the only number in the phone. “I need to talk to him. Now!” he told the voice on the other end, “Because you are not going to believe who is here.”

    The phone call was quick, but a decision had been made. He was to sit outside and wait. He didn’t like this plan. His instincts were telling him to rush inside, grab Arabella, and leave the city. But that would blow his cover. He knew this was always a possibility, but he didn’t think she would be ready for this. No one could ever be ready for what was in store for her.It was his job to make it as painless for her as possible.

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    Inside, Jake was waiting for one of the biggest asses ever to walk the planet to come into his office.  Mr. Blue, the man was called, at least in the supernatural world. Many humans chose to have separate identities for protection, although he didn’t know why Mr. Blue bothered. Everyone already knew who he was since he tended to be on the front page of every newspaper.

    Mr. Blue has his finger in every national and international company that he could buy his way into. He had been trying to buy into Nero’s for the last two years, but there was no way he was going to allow that to happen. The man was like the plague and once he got into a company, he killed it from the inside out. 

He had called Arabella in so she could do some checking up on him. He was convinced Mr. Blue was into some very bad magic. He just needed to prove it and Arabella was the best shot at that. She would be able to do some snooping and keep it a secret. Oddly, she was one of the few people he trusted.  And he believed that she trusted him. That in itself was a feat.

    When he first started at Nero’s he had set up meetings to meet all the employees. She had flat-out refused. The only communication she had with the company was by email. When they had a job for her, she received an email, and the money would be placed in her bank account. He had to freeze her funds just to get her into the office and even that had taken two months before she came in. She had been mad as hell and set some papers on his desk on fire. He hadn’t expected that but since it had just become a joke between them, but he now kept a small extinguisher inside his desk. Just in case.

The door opened and Jake stood up to greet Mr. Blue and his thug of the week.