Her Corporate Takedown: Entangled with a Billionaire

*CHAPTER 23: BEAUTY UNDER THE MOONLIGHT*

My left ear tickled as he moved away from me. I grabbed my ear to stop the sensation from spreading but it didn't work. There was no time to think about that though. I needed to return to the others before they became worried over my prolonged absence. But before I returned to the group, we needed to carry out another plan.

According to Andrei, we would return and talk to Mr. Lango, but he didn't even tell me the main objective. All he said was that it was important. As he walked out from around the corner, I walked behind, hoping that none of my co-workers saw me. He then walked past a large column and I slipped behind it while he walked away in the opposite direction. A couple of seconds later, I briskly walked from behind the column and went around the corner that led to the rest room. Finally, I got a chance to breathe before having to face anyone again.

My break didn't last more than five minutes. After that, I left the restroom area from the other exit, which was right beside the doors to the courtyard. I entered the courtyard where I was supposed to find Mr. Lango. I spotted him speaking with a crowd of guests by the fountain. As I walked over to him, a hand pulled me over to the trees. 'This pulling again. Can't he just call me like a normal person?'

"Follow my lead," Andrei said. As we began walking slowly over to Mr. Lango, the crowd conveniently began to dissipate. We blended into the dispersed crowd as I walked over to the water fountain and Andrei approached Mr. Lango from behind. Andrei whispered something to him quickly as he firmly patted his shoulder. Then, he signalled for me to approach him.

"What beautiful company do you have here with you?" Mr. Lango said, raising his eyebrows as he looked upon Leiya basking in the moonlight.

"You must have met her earlier," Andrei replied. She came here representing Bolster after all.

"You're right. I've met so many people tonight, I can hardly keep track."

"She said that she was a new hire so I may not see her again. So I absolutely had to ask for a dance tonight."

"Hey, don't pounce on the new recruits. That's bad for business. Which department do you work in, young lady?"

"In sales and marketing, Mr. Lango," I replied as I handed him my business card and a card advertising the new Bolster VPN."

"Is Bolster upgrading their VPN?"

"Yes, sir. Would you like to sign up for the trial product? Our private network is superior to all others on the market," I quickly replied.

"Hmm," Mr. Lango looked at the card for a few seconds.

"I hear that this is just a trial product, but I'm sure he can set up a personalized network exclusively for your company. The Bolster triple-x defence system that will also be launched later will work well with the VPN to safeguard your network," Andrei pitched in.

'He is also trying to get him to sign up for Bolster defence.'

"I've been in business with Bolster for some time, but I should really take a good look at some of their other services."

"Leiya here will contact you regarding the VPN trial product but another team handles Bolster defence. She can have someone from that team contact you as well." Then Andrei turned to me and said, "Why don't you give him Leon's card?" while looking at my purse.

I carried a beige clutch purse with a strap that was sitting on my left shoulder. 'I don't have Leon's card with me,' I thought as I smoothly took up my purse to check. Perhaps Andrei was asking me to write Leon's info on my card and give it to Mr. Lango. I took up my small stack of business cards and Leon's card was there right at the top. I thought this man was a cyber-espionage; should he need to learn slight-of-hand tricks?

I gave Mr. Lango Leon's business card, then he gave me a number for his secretary.

"Thank you, Mr. Lango. I'll be sure to give him a call," I said as I gave him a firm handshake.

"Appreciate your business as always," Andrei said with a smile as he shook his hand, then we walked back inside the hall.

I separated from Andrei to find Richard and Leon, who were probably worried about me. I found them standing in the centre of the grand hall talking. I tried to slip into their conversation without drawing attention to my absence but failed. Before I could say a word, Richard ran over to me with a worried expression and kept asking me if I was okay. He came so close to my face that I almost fell as I tried to lean back away from him.

At that moment, the chills had returned even stronger than when I was dancing with Richard. He was still in the hall watching me. This man was going to make me sick, literally. With no other way to appease his jealousy, I called out to his strange telepathic senses and told him to back off or I wouldn't come to his room later. In the meantime, I reassured Richard that I was fine and got him to back away from me too. The chills disappeared and I regained my personal space and felt more comfortable. Honestly, I just wanted to go home now, but I kind of owe Andrei for helping me to land my first client. Ten minutes had passed since Andrei told me to go upstairs; I would need another excuse to leave again.

Ten more minutes passed while the group stood there talking. Jeremy then came over to us and said that we could all leave for the night. We strolled outside and said goodbye as we walked to our cars. I sat in my car for five minutes while the others left and then drove my car to an empty space closer to the entrance. I then walked back into the hotel and went up to the first floor.

When I got off the elevator, I wasn't sure where to go next. When I looked to my left, the doors had normal hotel room numbers on them. Then I looked to my right and at the end of the corridor there was a door labelled 'No access'. If Andrei had told me to come to the VIP room, then he might have slipped in my bag a key, along with Leon's business card. I searched my purse again, and behold, there was a golden key card present. I held it up to the door, its red signal changed to a green one, then it opened.

I treaded carefully into unknown territory. It was certainly as grand of a section as you would expect from the VIP area. I imagined that Andrei invited me here on some kind of date or that was maybe what I was hoping for. But, if he tries to get me to spend the night here, I might probably snap at a guy for the first time in my life.

I looked around for room 1. The doors were few and far between, indicating large rooms. The corridors were T-shaped and I continued walking straight, following the corridor directly in front of me. Then the door on the left opened and a hand beckoned me to come inside. Did they think I was going to follow such a suspicious person? Looking closer, the person's nails were polished red. Was it Ari? Then a head popped from behind the door frame. It was Shelli. She waved to me and called me to come inside.

I looked at the door and there was no label on it, so I wasn't sure if it was room 1. I didn't want to ask Shelli either, just in case she wasn't supposed to know Andrei was here. But given the timing, she likely already knew that. Perhaps it wasn't going to be a date after all. I felt both relieved and disappointed, then mad at myself for being so indecisive about my feelings. A couple of seconds later, I put away my inner thoughts and tried to figure out what was going on and why I was called here. Shelli and I were in this room alone.

As I was about to ask her what the situation was, she put her finger to her lips to prevent me from speaking. She then walked to the back of the room where there was a thin wooden partition. It conveniently had holes in it, just small enough that I could see into the other room. Sitting in the chair was Andrei, disguised as Bryan Walker, and Ari, disguised as Krystin Lowes, was standing beside him. A minute later, I heard a knock on the door to their room and they entered at Andrei's request.

Mr. Lango entered the room, followed by Jeremy, with a starved look on his face. Bryan asked Mr. Lango to sit on the chair in front of him; however, he paid no attention to Jeremy.

"Sorry to have to make you come up here, Mr. Lango," Bryan said while Ari opened a new champagne bottle and poured two glasses.

"I don't mind at all. I believe you already know what I want," Mr Lango replied as he took the glass from Ari.

"Of course, consider it done."

"By the way, this young lad here," Mr. Lango said, pointing at Jeremy, "wants to try his hand at the reinforcements we were talking about earlier."

"Oh," Bryan replied, still not acknowledging Jeremy's existence.

"Mr. Walker, my team and I would like the honour of performing the security reinforcement upgrades for Mantra. I promise we won't disappoint you."

"Why don't you give him a chance to prove himself?" Mr. Lango said, amused at the proposition.

"Very well. You have 2 weeks to show me your program. If you can create a program superior to mine, we'll have Mr. Lango use it. How does that sound?" Bryan replied, but from the tone of voice I could tell he wasn't the slightest amused.

"Thank you sir," Jeremy replied as he left the room with Mr. Lango.

When they left, Ari locked the door. Andrei removed his disguise and slid the wooden partition open where Shelli and I were still standing.

"I see you've met Talia," Andrei said.

'Talia? Oh, Shelli's public name.'

"Ah, yes," I replied. Then I whispered to Shelli "Doesn't he know your real name?"

She nodded.

"Whose real name?" he asked. "Did you get proof that she is who she says she is?"

I looked at him, unable to answer. I forgot that he mentioned something about getting proof. I sighed while thinking that I wasn't going to get used to my new complicated life anytime soon.

"How would I even get proof?"

"You can't. So don't believe anyone."

"Wait, but she said she got my phone's code from you."

"She could have hacked your phone."

"Really? Hack a device I got from you, the king of programming." I scoffed.

After a short pause, Andrei said haughtily, "You're right. My devices aren't hackable."

"See."

"But there's always a 0.00000001% chance."

Shelli laughed while walking over to Andrei. "I can't believe you gave an outsider one of your phones. You must really trust her," she said while prancing around him.

"I certainly do," he replied.

Shelli covered her mouth while she looked at Andrei with sparkles in her eyes. "Well, I hope things go well for you," she said again.

I wondered what things she was hoping would go well. Clearly she was talking about marriage but I paid no mind to their inside conversation.

"Why did you call me here?" I asked him, ready to leave.

"I need to brief you about the newcomer's party tomorrow. I will also be attending, but not as the CEO. The only people in Bolster that know that I am the CEO are the people in this room. To everyone else, Bryan Walker is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO)."

'Great. More convolutions to this story.'

"Then were you talking to Jeremy as the CTO just now?"

"Yea," he replied while sighing. "Jeremy also manages a team in the IT department and is hungry for achievements. With the backing of one of the senior executives, he got Mr. Lango to agree to try his program."

"But there's no way he can create a program better than yours."

"Well, there are those who will try to do whatever it takes to get ahead."

"Okay, see you tomorrow then."

We all left the room after Ari finished cleaning up and the elevator took us to the basement level. Ari and Shelli walked out to go to their cars but before I could leave the elevator, Andrei pressed the button for the tenth floor and closed the door.