Love Gone Viral

Chapter Two

Her doorbell rang again, her heart raced faster.

“Open up” the voice echoed through the walls. Lena stood still, the voice seemed somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t place it yet. The doorbell rang again, this time louder and the voice came again.

“Hey Lena, open up” the vice came again a second time. The tension seemed to subside a little as she breathed a huge sigh of relief, knowing fully well who it was. She wondered what he could be doing at her house by this time of the evening.

Reaching for her door handle, she let it open and met Brown her co-worker at the café.

“what are you doing here Brown?” Lena asked abruptly

“I haven’t seen you at work for two days now and you haven’t been answering your phone, I was just driving by and saw you, so I decided to follow you, get to know your place and enquire how you’re doing” Brown said. Seeing the unpleasant look on Lena’s face, Brown explained more that he wasn’t been curious as usual, and that he was just been worried about her.

Lena let him in, she was a bit more relaxed now, but her mind went back to the silver Chevrolet.

“I didn’t know you have a car” Lena said

“Nah, that’s my uncle’s car, he travelled and I just wanted to use it while he is away”.

Lena knew the police were after a silver Chevrolet and the car parking outside her house didn’t give her so much comfort. She wondered why the cruiser didn’t stop Brown, but she knew there was no way all the cops in California would be aware of a criminal chase few hours ago. Yet she felt somewhat uncomfortable. She conversed a bit with Brown and told him she wanted to go get something. Brown knew she loved her space a lot and quickly headed out.

Lena walked into a grocery store along her street, she watched as Brown zoomed off. She has already memorised the plate number and was going to do some background checks, even though she felt it was an unusual coincidence. She walked casually into the store, as she didn’t have anything in mind to get, she strolled admiring the lighting on the store, she had this unusual admiration for lighting and effects. Just then a tall muscular guy walked past her almost brushing her shoulders, one of his items dropped and Lena called his attention to it.

“Thank you” he said smiling broadly, picking up his item and walking towards the other end of the store. Lena got some beverages and she made her way out of the store, she met the same guy towards the exit. Their eyes met and she felt her pulse quickened, he smiled broadly at her as he walked past her into his car, both hands occupied with items he had gotten from the store. He was accompanied with a young lady in a blue convertible. The car reeled of ostentatious living, quite flashy and luxurious just like the lady in it. It had an aesthetic appeal and a sporty look. He dropped the items at the backseat while he went on to the driver’s seat. The young lady smiled romantically at him with excitement and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek as he zoomed off, she curled her long blonde hair backwards as she adjusted her body in slow rhythmic movement dancing to the tune of country music blasting in their car.

“cute lovers” Lena muttered to herself as she watched the car fade away in the distance. She wondered why her pulse quickened, the guy was quite handsome and good looking, but had she not seen other good-looking guys? She had a thing for handsome men. Growing up, she was obese and lacked confidence in her body, and she admired cute guys a lot. As the years passed, she had grown into a curvy slim beautiful lady with tons of admirers, growing from that little child who was not confident in her looks to a super sexy attractive female, but her admiration for cute men never changed.

“I feel like partying tonight” Dylan said, I’m just in the mood for it.

“Why tonight?” Kathy asked.

“I don’t know, I just feel like it, and Randy just got back, he is the fun type and I am sure he will be at ‘NOOK’ tonight. Dylan noticed that Kathy wasn’t so happy like her normal self who didn’t need a second invitation to party.

“you don’t seem so excited” Dylan said

“our wedding is in a week’s time, you shouldn’t be out partying alone” came Kathy’s voice.

“Party alone?” Dylan asked rather surprised, he swerved taking a right turn, tires screeching almost losing traction momentarily causing the two lovebirds to jolt, their bodies stretching the elastic band of their seatbelt a little and binding them back to their seats. He regained traction and continued to accelerate his blue BMW convertible

“why would I party alone, when I have you with me, the gorgeous and most scintillating woman on earth” Dylan continued trying to sweet talk his lover.

“you do have your way with sweet words” Kathy remarked.

“sweet words for a sweet soul like you” Dylan continued

“But where you seem to get lost is with remembrance” Kathy said giving Dylan a cold stare.

“How? I don’t understand” Dylan asked genuinely lost.

Kathy shook her head in disappointment, she knew Dylan was good with memory, and she wondered why he had been easily forgetting things about them of recent. she thought it could be the wedding planning process. Well, there was no cause for concern, in a week’s time she will be married to the love of her life, son of billionaire mogul and the heir to the Westbrook empire. How lucky she was she thought to herself, as the disappointment on her face faded abruptly.

“I can’t party with you tonight because I am going to a gala with my dad, I told you already”

“oh, it skipped my memory” Dylan said snapping his fingers.

“But then, where are we headed to?” Kathy asked seeing that Dylan had taken a right turn.

“To the ‘NOOK’, but since you have to be with your dad tonight, I can drive you back home”

“Don’t worry, I’ll call my driver to come pick me up”.

Dylan drove to the NOOK, while Kathy’s driver came to drive her back home.

The ‘NOOK’ was a lounge, a bar, a nightclub and anything fun related. It is co-owned by Frazer and Aaron, Dylan’s father and god- father respectively, it’s a hub where lots of young guys come to party and have fun, another section of it had a night club where the big shots come to chill off, stripers and escorts were made available for the viewing pleasure of the guests, there was an inner chamber where the VIP was, only few persons had access there. Generally, it was a fun place, but what was most outstanding about the nook was that it allowed for all classes of persons, the rich and mighty and the lower class, all had their own place at the ‘NOOK’.

Dylan drove in and instantly made way to the VIP section.

At the alley; a section of the nook mostly for young persons where they party, play games and chill off, several young guys were seen outside, dressed in trendy wears, long flashy chains cascading down from their neck to their lower chest region, resting their bodies against the cars parked outside. The place never lacked girls, as it was a hub for the city girls. A group of girls walked in dressed scantily, exposing the upper part of their bodies, cleavages popping out from the tight material, their dresses were quite short their entire laps was almost visible. This was not a sore sight at the alley, it was a regular sight. Just then a girl walked in wearing a bikini.

“who comes to the alley wearing bikinis?” one of the guys said pleasantly surprised.

“Maybe someone who knows that there is a pool party” a voice came in the distance, walking towards them.

“Ricky motherfucking Ray” the guys echoed as they saw Rick walk in on them. They seemed so excited seeing him.

Rick was the main guy in the area, they called him the manager of the NOOK, not because he was the manager or had a special position, but he seemed to know a lot, he knew the top guys who were into drugs, he knew all the hot girls in town, and he was mostly used to arrange girls for the big shots. He is the organiser of the alley and there was never a dull moment with him on board. He had been away for some time and the guys there evidently missed him.

“where the f**k have you been man?” one of the guys ask

“Just been away running some s**t, you know man gats to strategize, organise, harmonize” and the boys just cut him short, they knew he loved to play with rhymes.

“Americanize, patronize, galvanize, humanize, improvise”. They all erupted with laughter. There was this vibe with Rick, he knew how to lit up a place, he had a very contagious energy, everyone gets happy and lively whenever he is around.

“But seriously where have you been man” one of the guys ask

“well, I went to L.A, had a couple gigs there, but I’m fully back, back to base, straight up running shits, strong feats, and making hits.

“That’s my main man yo, Rick motherfucking Ray, manager extraordinaire” The boys hailed him.

“you said there’s a pool party” one of the guys said.

“Yeah there is” Rick said gesturing to the lady in bikini to come closer. Other ladies are seen trooping in, all dressed to party. The guys knew that this was Rick’s doing. They hailed him more and moved towards the pool side.

When Lena got home, she took a quick shower, and glanced carefully through the complimentary card on her hand. Dylan had dropped it on the floor together with the other item. Lena didn’t bother giving him back the complimentary card, moreover it was meant to be given to clients she thought. But the name on card wasn’t a masculine name ‘Kathy Yates’ Real estate agent. She was somewhat disappointed that it wasn’t a masculine name. maybe she was hoping that Dylan’s number would be on the card. Was she already liking him? She felt an uneasy rush of blood through her veins, a rage of excitement and glee as she remembered their brief meeting. No, no way, she couldn’t be falling for a guy she just met minutes ago. Yes, she loved cute guys, but she shouldn’t be feeling this way for this guy. What was even special abut him she thought, but as she tried to supress the feeling, it involuntarily grew more. She took a look at the card again and decided to see who was behind the name “Katy Yates”.

But why was she doing this, she queried herself, to what end?

Maybe she had stopped been Riley, but then she wasn’t Lena, she had switched to her other self-Aria the anonymous hacker.

Using a combination of phishing emails and malware, she created a fake software update disguised as a security patch to the email on the complimentary card. She knew the user was going to click on it and she would have access to their personal information.

Aria was a super smart hacker, too good to be human, in few hours she had gotten what she wanted. But as she went through the personal information, she was much more surprised by the details in it.

She was going to do something about it.

Was she doing this out of jealousy or because she felt it was the right thing to do, she couldn’t say, but then she knew she was going to act.

She dialled the number, she paused as she heard his voice over the phone. She gave out a deep breath.

“My name is Lena Campbell and I have something you would love to see”.