Chapter 31 Sisters
LISA
I swallowed as the man entered the cafe and I nearly ducked to hide myself before it dawned on me how ridiculous that would have been.
Why was I hiding?
I mean, why would I hide? It's not like I did anything wrong. And he probably doesn't even know, he probably wouldn't recognize me even though I've spent every few minutes of my adult life reading about his achievements and accolades.
But come to think about it, he might actually just know me. His relationship was Axel was well known all over the underground and if there was someone Axel would have asked to dig up on me the first time he met me, it'd have been him so maybe he actually knows me.
The guy I was almost fidgeting about didn't even glance in our direction, he walked over to the counter to place his orders and he busied himself with pressing his phone while they get his orders ready.
"Is he someone you know?" Tricia's voice jolted me out of my reverie and I jerked back to look at her. She was looking at me, eyes narrowed.
"Not really, he's just someone I've seen in passing a few times."
"Ohhh," she muttered, flickering her head back to look at him, "he's so good looking though, he looks like a man I'd have loved to hang out with if I wasn't this person."
Tricia wasn't lying, he really looked nice in his two piece suit, black shoes, wristwatch, and expensive-looking cufflinks. He exuded power and control that even just standing there, leaning against the counter and typing away at his phone, his aura was screaming don't fuck with me or I'll mess you up.
"Don't worry about that, Tricia, I'm sure you'll get a better suitor than him."
She chuckled mirthlessly, "we both know that's the farthest thing from possible."
"Come on, you can never be so sure."
I tried to distract myself with the small talk and drinking my smoothie but my eyes kept getting involuntarily drawn to Prince Chen and when he finally collected his orders and turned back to leave, I released a breath I didn't know I was holding.
Except that my relief was short-lived because he paused not so casually in his strides and he turned towards my direction. His eyes met mine and actually settled on my face, there was no flicker of recognition or anything in his dark eyes but they lingered on me for longer than normal, confirming the fact that he really knew me.
From the corners of my eyes, I saw Tricia's guys reaching into the gun holsters from where they were seated strategically in the cafe. Of course, they'd have recognized him and they'd have realized that it was suspicious that he was staring at me like that but did they really have to reach for their guns?
We were in public for christ's sake and he couldn't even be up to anything.
Prince's eyes finally flickered away from me to rest on Tricia and something flickered in his eyes, something unrecognizable and dark. His eyes still remained unreadable but there was something different about them when he saw Tricia. And Tricia was just oblivious to everything, she just continued eating her cake and ice cream with a reckless abandon.
Then Prince blinked and he was out of the cafeteria as if the past 40 seconds didn't happen. I relaxed against my chair and I saw the guards relax too, their hands leaving their holsters. He was out now and I was relieved but I still couldn't help but think about what had happened.
I couldn't explain it but there had been something different with the way he stared at Tricia as if he knew something about her which I doubted except they were planning something sinister.
Or maybe it was just my mind working in overdrive.
"Lisa, what do you think of these designs?"
I snapped my eyes back to Tricia and she was sliding a sketch pad toward me on the table. I took it before it could slide off the table and my eyes widened when I saw the designs.
My eyes kept widening as I turned the pages at the intricate details of the surreal designs.
"Wow, what's this? They're absolutely beautiful."
"Really?" she beamed, "you think they're beautiful?"
"I know they're beautiful," I countered, "just look at them, they look like something worthy of Met Gala Red Carpet and all those big fashion magazines."
Her beam deepened as I continued to admire the designs until it dawned on me and my head jerked up to look at her.
"You sketched all these?"
"Yes, of course," she replied in a proud and somewhat shy tone.
"Wow, that's... This is really impressive, really really impressive but how? How did you manage to get this good? The last time I checked, you had no interest in designing, and now, you're this good
with it."
"Yeah, I never thought I'd have interest in it but I just came across a tutorial page on Im one day and I watched a couple of videos and I realized I might have a flair for designing."
"Wow, that's incredulous, so you mean you became this good from watching videos online?"
"Yes," she beamed.
"Oh God! I'm so proud, I feel like a proud sister right now."
"Aww, don't make me blush," she actually blushed but her expression sobered almost immediately, "it's all a waste, it's not like I'm ever going to use it for anything worthwhile."
"You can actually use it for something worthwhile," her eyes widened with hope, "I mean you can design your clothes and mine and maybe Angel's too if she doesn't mind." Her shoulders slumped again, "is that possible? Dad would never allow me to get a sewing machine."
"Not if I talk to him on your behalf. I could talk to him, make him see reasons and I'm sure he'll allow you to get one, it's not like it's going to cause any harm to anyone, you'll just use it while away and you'll be able to spend more time indoors as he has always wanted."
Hope crept into her eyes and voice again, "really? Are you sure about that?"
"Of course, I am, I'll come over this weekend and convince him."
"Yes, you're the best sis, I love you."
She practically flung herself over the table to hug me and I couldn't help but feel giddy. I couldn't help but feel like a good elder sister.
"Thank you so much, Lisa, you have no idea how much this means to me."
I smiled back at her, "I'm just glad I'm able to make you happy."
"Of course, you always do it every single time."
After an hour or so of talking and catching up, we finally parted ways and I didn't leave the cafeteria until her cars had disappeared completely from my view.
I walked back to the campus because I didn't have a school ride and I felt completely naked during my walk.
Naked because I hardly ever walk anywhere without my gun but now, for the past five days, I've been walking around the school without my gun. I could easily get another one by picking up one at home but there's no way I'd do that without Angel finding out and she'd make a big deal out of me losing my gun and the last thing I wanted to do was to entertain her, I disliked her so much I can't even stand arguing with her.
The most logical thing to do, which is not so logical was to phone Axel and ask him to bring it over for me which is an irony on its own because I got my brain fucked out by an enemy in his house and as if that wasn't enough, I left my only source of protection in his house.
I mean, can I lose guard more than I've already lost it?
I was putting myself in a vulnerable position, prone to attack from any external force without anything to defend myself. I knew my identity was well hidden from the people I've crossed but we were in the world of mad technology, I wouldn't put it past them to actually dig deep and find me out.
But still, that did not make me call or seek out Axel and besides, he wasn't even in school, the last time I saw him was that night in his house, he didn't show up to do the second presentation and my pride would not allow me to call and check up on why he was absent from school.
And then, I learned that a group of Russians had attacked one of their cargos on water and I knew he had probably gone there to kill and take back what was his.
I could only hope he doesn't get killed while at it.
I paused my line of thought, I didn't care if he got killed or not, in fact, I was hoping he'd get killed.
Okay, maybe he shouldn't get killed because I don't give a fuck whether he gets killed or not.
I stepped into the main gate of the female hostel and headed straight to the main entrance at the same time my phone vibrated in my pocket and I brought it out.
My heart skipped a beat I didn't want to acknowledge and relief washed over me when I saw who was calling.
I felt that before I felt a rush of annoyance and I dragged a long hiss under my breath.
How dare he call me out of the blues when he ghosted me like that?
I shoved my phone angrily into my pocket before resuming my mini walk to the hostel only to stop in my tracks when I noticed a black Venza packed in front of the hostel and the man leaning against
it.
Axel Ivanov.
He raised the hand that was holding his phone in a little wave with his lips stretching into that sensual smile of his and my annoyance spiked.
"Xup Red."