Defying the Lycan King (Kira and Derek) novel Chapter 309

Chapter 309: Bye Bye Job

The report landed on Kai’s desk at nine in the morning, which was six hours earlier than his head felt ready for anything at all.

He was having a headache, a dull, persistent thumping at the base of his skull that promised to make every single moment of this day feel like punishment. He deserved it. He knew he deserved it, but that didn’t make it any easier to tolerate.

He had woken up at half five with the taste of an entire bar in his mouth, no clear memory of getting home, and a black hole where most of last night should have been. He remembered the bar. He remembered talking at Dennis about footage. Tan’s voice in his bedroom. After that, nothing but fragments that would not hold still.

It didn’t matter. What mattered was the report waiting for him when he finally hauled himself into the office, dark glasses pressed to his face like armour.

"Unauthorised activity," his head of security said, standing too close and speaking too loudly. "Coming from one of the restaurant terminals. The ground floor."

Kai winced. "Do you have to shout?"

The man blinked. "I’m not shouting, sir."

"Then do you have to exist so loudly?" Kai pressed two fingers to his temple. "What kind of activity?"

"Someone accessed the administrative interface using shared credentials."

Any other week, Kai would have glanced at it, said "IT can handle it," and gone back to other things. But not this week, not after what had happened at the shopping centre, which he and his team were still currently working on.

"I’ll go myself." Kai was already rising from his chair, the sunglasses still on, looking like a man about to ruin someone’s morning. "Get Dennis. And bring two men from security."

"Sir, your head of security can easily handle—"

"Did I ask what my head of security can easily handle?" Kai snapped, and the pain in his skull spiked in protest. "I’ll handle this personally."

The man slapped his mouth shut.

Kai buttoned his white jacket, walked out of his office, and got into the lift.

Meanwhile, forty floors up, Alicia Westwood was trapped inside a prison of her own making. She had been pacing her office since eight.

She had made it as far as her own door four separate times. Four times she had put her hand on the handle, and four times she had turned round and gone back to her desk and sat down and immediately stood up again.

There were papers he needed. She had to see him. It was literally her job to see him.

She simply could not make her body walk down that corridor.

Because of last night. Because of what she had done.

He would not remember. She was fairly certain of that. He had been so far gone that whatever he retained of the evening would be hazy at best, a smear of bar and car and stairs. He might not even know she had been there.

But she knew.

"Oh, for goodness sake," she muttered, and grabbed the file and went before she could stop herself.

She was almost to Kai’s office when one of the junior staff members nearly collided with her.

"Oh, Miss Westwood. I’m sorry." The woman hesitated, looking uncertain. "I don’t think the Chairman is in his office."

Alicia stopped. "Where is he?"

"Someone said he went down to the restaurant. Something about suspicious activity in the security systems."

Everything in Alicia’s body went cold at once.

"The restaurant?" Alicia heard her own voice from a distance. "He went to the restaurant? Now?"

"Yes, ma’am." The staff member looked startled by her reaction. "I think he went personally. The Chairman—"

Alicia didn’t wait for the rest. She turned and went down that corridor at a speed her shoes were never designed for, one heel twisting under her so badly that she nearly went over into a plant pot, and she did not stop, she simply hopped once, swore, and kept going.

Her mind was screaming a single word over and over, like an alarm that wouldn’t stop.

No. No. No.

She hit the lift button four times in rapid succession as though violence might make it come faster, got in, jabbed at the restaurant floor, and stood there with her heart going like a drum while the numbers descended with what felt like deliberate, personal spite.

Don’t let him see her. Please. Just don’t let him see her.

***

Jessica had woken up thirty-five minutes late, which was, in her professional opinion, the worst possible amount of late.

Five minutes late, you can jog. An hour late, you may as well ring in and admit defeat. Thirty-five minutes was the exact quantity of late that meant sprinting for a bus while putting your shoes on.

She came in through the back so nobody would see her, shot into the changing room, and started dragging on her uniform at speed, muttering apologies to Gloria in advance under her breath.

That was when she heard a man’s voice, low and hard, rolling through the restaurant like a gathering storm. She paused with one arm in her sleeve.

She finished dressing, tied her hair back, and edged out to peer round the doorway.

Every single member of restaurant staff was standing absolutely still in the dining area. Gloria was among them, hands clasped in front of her, wearing an expression Jessica had never seen on her before.

In the middle of it all stood a man with his back to her, in a white suit so immaculate it looked like it had never met weather. Blond. Tall. And in front of him, an older man in a Jescore polo shirt was going a very unhappy shade of grey.

Jessica did not need anybody to make an introduction.

Almighty Chairman.

Wonderful, she thought grimly. I’ve finally seen the famous Chairman in the wild, and apparently he eats employees for breakfast. Good to know.

"Gloria. Gloria, no." Jessica put both hands up. "Please don’t send me to that man. Did you see the way he just treated that employee? He’ll eat me alive and use my bones for office supplies."

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