Chapter 122
“Why does it feel like someone is following us?” Antonio muttered under his breath as he kept driving, heaving a sigh of relief when he saw the car taking another turn.
Maybe it was just his paranoia. He thought, staying alert nonetheless, his gaze moving to Elara, who opened her eyes because of her phone ringing.
“Miss Elara, did you receive my message?” Elara heard as soon as she picked up the phone.
“Yeah, I read it. What do you want me to do about it?” Elara asked, playing with Alen, and the man nearly shot up from his chair, if not for the devil’s gaze that flickered to him.
“Who are you talking to?” Daniel’s cold voice resonated, and Alen quickly excused himself, saying his friend had called.
Elara, who heard everything, suppressed the urge to scoff.
“I don’t know, lady boss. The executives and assistants are sweating under his cold gaze. One of us will definitely lose their job today because they are asking for reports that were due by the end of the week. Only you can save us,” Alen pleaded with Elara.
Elara, who was sitting inside the car, tapped on Antonio’s shoulder to let him know he should stop the vehicle near the flower shop.
Antonio turned around after stopping to confirm if he had to stop, and once Elara nodded, he stepped out to open the door for her.
Elara looked at him strangely, and the man chuckled, knowing she didn’t treat him like a bodyguard or want him to do such things.
“Miss Elara, I don’t know what has gotten into Sir. He was fine when he arrived. But he saw a video from Kenneth, and he has been acting like this,” Alen said.
Elara bit her bottom lip, knowing what it was probably all about.
She was well aware that Daniel’s man followed her from time to time, more prominently now that she made a stage appearance.
“End the call; I’ll talk to him,” Elara said, and Alen breathed a sigh of relief before ending the call.
She quickly dialed Daniel’s number, and the man, who was in the middle of a meeting, raised his hand for the executive assistant to stop the PPT.
“Hello?” He said while everyone held their breaths, not wanting to anger him more.
Elara smiled at the cold tone, a little softer only for her.
“Will you go hiking with me?” She asked.
Daniel, who hadn’t expected her to ask him out for an outing out of the blue, paused.
“Are you asking me on a date?” He asked, twisting the words, and Elara felt heat rising to her cheeks.
She cleared her throat before taking a deep breath.
“Well, I just had hiking in mind, but if you want to call it a date, ahem, okay. Let’s go,” Elara said, her face burning from shyness.
It has been so long since she used such words for a man.
“What time?” The man spoke after a drawn-out pause, and Elara looked at the watch on her wrist.
“How about in twenty-five minutes? I am on my way to your company. I’ll be allowed to enter, right?” She asked jokingly.
“The company’s owner is yours; the company naturally comes to you. Who will dare to stop you?” Daniel asked, playing with the pen, his demeanor much more relaxed than earlier, when he heard her soft voice.
“Uh-huh, don’t forget what you said. I’ll hold you accountable,” Elara mused before she ended the call.
Daniel looked at the girl’s profile photo on the caller ID, his lips lifting slightly.
The people who were sweating profusely in terror almost felt their eyes bulging out. Was their boss really smiling while looking at his phone and not a dead body? They wondered.
“Meeting adjourned,” Daniel said before leaving the boardroom, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
“Assistant Alen, you really saved our lives today. We definitely owe you one. Who did you call who had such an influence on our boss?” The manager, whose turn was next to present the report, held Alen’s hand.
Alen looked at the female before clearing his throat.
“I called a power higher than our boss himself,” Alen said.
Everyone looked at him, surprised.
Was there a power higher than him? They wondered.
“What do you mean?” They all asked collectively, and seeing them looking at him with such eagerness, the man cleared his throat.
“Our boss’s obsession,” Alen smirked before he excused himself to leave the room.
Once out, he quickly crafted a message expressing his gratitude before sending it to Elara.
“Can you please wrap those up into a jive bouquet?” Elara asked as she pointed to the blue roses before she walked further into the large showroom, which had a variety of gifts for men and women.
“Antonio, can you get me a cold coffee from the cafe while I look for a gift? I am suddenly craving it,” Elara said.
“Can’t it wait? I don’t particularly like it here and find it safe, Miss Elara. I will get you one—” Antonio opened his mouth to argue about how he didn’t want to leave her side, but when he looked at Elara’s big pleading eyes, he shook his head, defeated.
“Don’t come out of this showroom alone.” He said sternly, his gaze flickering to all the CCTV cameras. No one in their right mind would try to do anything in a place like this.
Once the man left, Elara looked at her phone when she heard it ping and smiled at the message.
She shook her head and chose a lovely tie pin for the man before walking to the counter to have it gift-wrapped.
Seeing it would take a few minutes, she thought of how to kill time and looked out the door, where she saw a man peeking into their car parked across the street.
She walked outside with furrowed brows.
“Hey!!” She shouted to get the man’s attention when she saw him try to open the door.
“Hey, you!!” Elara shouted.
However, no matter how many times she shouted, the man didn’t seem to be hearing her.
From the way he was moving, he looked rather drunk.
Elara’s pupils dilated when the man picked a rock from the side.
“What the fuck?” She muttered under her breath before she looked left and right to cross the road.
“Hey, stop right there!” Elara rushed to the car and quickly grabbed the man’s hand that he was about to smash the car’s window with.
“Are you insane—” Elara stopped when she saw the man’s eyes.
She paused for a second. The man before her wasn’t intoxicated. There were no signs of any illness at all.
And if that wasn’t the case, it meant the reason he was acting like that was to p>
Elara let go of his hand and stepped back.
She was about to run in the direction of the flower shop when the man held her hand to stop her.
Elara swallowed hard before she twisted his hand and pushed him away. However, before she could move, another man stepped out from behind her car and quickly held her hands.
The shop owner, who had wrapped her gifts, walked out to call her when he saw what was happening, wide-eyed.
“Miss!” He shouted before looking around.
“Someone help the lady,” he shouted while trying to cross the road himself, but it was too late.
The second man pulled out the handkerchief he had already soaked in chloroform and placed it over Elara’s face.
“Let go of me! Antonio! Mmmm! Mmmm p>
Elara, who was struggling to free herself, began to feel dizzy, black spots dancing in her vision as her limbs grew heavy.
“Quick,” she heard one of the men say, and the last thing she heard was the sound of tires screeching and a car stopping before she was pushed into the back seat.
“Drive!” one of them instructed, and the car sped away just like that.
“No!” The shop owner shouted, Almost there.
The other people who heard him shouting rushed to see what was happening, only to see a black SUV speeding away.
“What happened?” One of the men asked, and the shop owner narrated the entire story.
Antonio, who had gone inside the cafe and couldn’t come out because a lady spilled her mocha on him, walked out with the cold coffee in his hand, still muttering curses while wiping his wet shirt.
As he walked towards the shop, his heart skipped a beat when he saw a crowd gathered outside it.
The people were murmuring different things.
“That car was black in color p>
“Did anyone see the number p>
“I saw it. It was MV 09 W980 p>
“No. It was MU 08 W890 p>
People were arguing with each other. Antonio shook his head and was about to turn to the shop when the owner rushed to him.
“You. You were with that lady in the yellow top, right? Where did you go? Why would you leave her alone? A few people came and took her away in that black SUV. I wanted to save p>
Antonio couldn’t concentrate on the rest of the words, the cup of cold coffee falling from his hands.
“Which direction?” He asked urgently, and as soon as the man pointed to the left, he didn’t waste a second in rushing to the car to follow whoever took Miss Elara.