Still Hooked on You

Chapter 8 - Armed Intruders

Soon after their time in the jacuzzi, both Scarlett and Adam had decided to get themselves ready for bed. Tomorrow was yet another day filled with a mounting list of tasks which the couple would have to tend to.

After having his shower, Adam was now sitting upright in the large bed with the thick blanket covering him from his legs down.

Typing away at his laptop, he was wearing nothing but a pair of long white pyjama pants which hung tantalisingly low around his hips, revealing his tanned v-cut abs.

His incredibly ripped chest was out on full display, muscular and still visibly drenched with tiny droplets of water which sparkled in the room’s dim lighting.

At that very moment, Adam’s chocolate brown eyes were staring intently at the eighteen-inch screen laptop positioned over his legs as he worked on it in silence.

It appeared that his piling list of emails had only grown in number since the last time he had the chance to check them.

His dark wet hair was carelessly tousled about messily at the top of his head, not that he seemed to care.

For now, he was focused entirely on the screen. He had work to do.

After spending so much time away from his family’s company, Adam knew that he had to catch up on some of his work sooner rather than later. In the back of his mind, he knew that ignoring his duties as future CEO would probably cause his father to have a conniption.

And with Eugene’s already failing health, that was the last thing Adam wanted.

Scarlett suddenly surprised Adam, causing him to lift his eyes up from his screen as she came strolling around the corner. Her hips swayed seductively as she made her way towards the massive ensuite.

Adam’s eyes were hooded as he watched her, knowing full well what she was doing to him with this provocative display of her nakedness.

He growled deeply with warning.

Scarlett giggled in response; a mischievous grin now spread wide across her face as she finally reached the doorway and peered over her shoulder for one last glance at him.

Indeed, she was toying with him… and Adam knew it.

His chocolate shaded eyes narrowed further as he bit his bottom lip.

A pointless effort to restrain himself, though he tried it anyway.

“Care to join me, Mr. Cunningham?” she cooed seductively.

“There’s plenty of room in the shower… for both of us.”

“f**k…”

He softly cursed under his breath before replying loud enough for her to hear. His voice had now become much deeper and surprisingly husky.

“Don’t tempt me woman.”

Normally he would take her up on the offer for another round, or another three. But Adam knew that there were still several emails which needed to be sent off urgently before tomorrow. Like it or not, there were still deadlines that had to be met.

He’d already been away from his work a lot recently, focusing everything on Scarlett and her safety. And the handover was in less than a week’s time.

In one week Adam would officially become the CEO of Cunningham Investments, something he had been trained for his entire life… and his world would change entirely.

But was this what he actually wanted?

His thoughts were suddenly pulled back towards the here and now as the deviant Scarlett let out yet another playful giggle before finally disappearing into the bathroom and switching on the light. She purposely left the door wide open, just to add to her effort of teasing him.

Adam could hear the shower running soon after and he laid back against the pillows letting out a long sigh of relief mixed with exhaustion and confusion.

He had some difficult choices to make in the not-too-distant future.

And Scarlett definitely wasn’t making it any easier on him, that’s for sure!

-

At that exact moment, several darkly dressed men wearing pristine suits were standing together in the fancy elevator, currently on their way up towards the Penthouse Suite.

Gabrielle stood in the centre of the brooding group as several of the others were focusing on checking their guns and loading them. Diego stood off to his left, casually chewing on gum as all six of the men stared blankly ahead, waiting for the top floor to arrive.

“This goes down smoothly, yeah?” Gabrielle turned his head off to the side as he spoke directly to his underling, Diego.

Nodding his head and smiling, Diego replied.

“Yeah boss. We all know the drill. Get in, grab ‘em, get out.” he proudly admitted.

“No f**k ups, yeah?” Gabrielle reiterated, raising his voice for the others now, “That goes for all of you. No one lays a hand on the girl. Got it?”

“Yeah boss.” the others replied in unison.

“Anyone does, they explain themselves directly to the boss.” Gabrielle added with a stern expression of warning.

“What about the guy?” one of the henchmen standing in back asked.

Gabrielle shrugged.

“Do what you need to, but he comes in alive.”

After making his point precise and clear to each of his men, Gabrielle returned his attention towards the elevator doors as they promptly ‘pinged’, alerting them of their arrival.

Gabrielle twirled the room key card between his large fingers as the doors to the elevator slowly slid open.

All six of the suited men then proceeded to march on through, making their way down the long hallway leading towards the Penthouse Suite.

It was time for a little reunion…

-

Using the key card, Gabrielle pulled out his black silencer glock and silently signalled with a wave of his hand for his men to sneak inside and start their sweep of the suite.

One by one armed gunmen tiptoed inside, their eyes fixated and searching for signs of movement as they began scanning the rooms in silence.

Gabrielle stopped beside one of the many desks after sighting a small black leather book lying open on it. Focusing on the page’s contents, he realised that the book was an organiser of some sort. There were various dates and names scribed down onto the pages in blue ink.

Reaching for it, he flipped through some of the pages and realised just who this organiser had belonged to; one of their targets, Adam Cunningham. It was his work organiser.

The organiser had names, numbers and important dates inside of it.

Deeming it to be useful somehow, Gabrielle quickly pocketed it before he turned continued on with his sweep.

The sound of the running shower could be heard along with a soft, feminine humming that echoed out throughout the large spacious suite and two of the newer henchmen looked to one another, grinning with intrigue at the thought.

Together they followed the sound, sneaking into the master bedroom and peering around.

The room appeared to be empty, but the bed appeared unmade, signalling that the couple were indeed here, somewhere.

As the humming continued innocently, the taller henchman’s expression suddenly became sinister as he slowly crept in towards the ensuite and stepped in through the doorway.

The other shook his head as he walked across to where the laptop sat on the mattress, still open as if someone had been working on it recently. Placing his hand on the back of the laptop, he could feel the heat radiating from it.

Yes, someone had been on it only moments earlier.

Before he got the chance to question who, he turned his head and was surprised with a ‘smash’ to the left-hand side of his head.

The black ceramic vase shattered into smaller pieces at the very moment it connected with the henchman’s head, sending him down towards the ground with a soft ‘thump’.

Adam stood over his still body panting heavily, his eyes wide with panic as he noticed the gun lying on the ground beside his intruder.

He suddenly realised just who these men really were.

And that meant only one thing; they were both in serious danger!

Glancing upwards he noticed the dark shadow now entering the ensuite and panicked.

His voice was barely a whisper as he called out with fear.

“s**t, Scarlett…”