SPA Day

Scarlett's POV

I arrived at the hotel and went to the SPA’s reception area. I checked in and was firstly ushered to a massage room. The staff were extremely polite, and it didn't take long for me to start relaxing.

I started experiencing a little pain as the massage progressed, especially in areas where the muscles were most tense, but when the massage was completed, I felt much better.

The next item on the agenda for the day was a full-body skin cleansing, where they had you soak in a wine tub into which various spices were added. It was a great treatment, except for wanting to drink the wine, which appeared to be normal behaviour as they brought me a glass of wine to drink while soaking.

After an hour of wine-soaking, I exited the tub and was led to a shower. Once I was done in the shower someone took me through to the salon where the manicures and pedicures were done. As soon as I entered, I recognised a few of the patrons, but the one who caught my attention the most was Alicia. She looked better, and she was surrounded by her friends. As soon as she saw me, all the color drained from her face, but I just smiled and acknowledged her by giving a brief nod in her direction. She had already paid the price for her misdemeanours and appeared to have learned her lesson. Seeing as I was at the SPA to relax, I avoided a possible toxic environment by leaving and opting to do something different.

Since I had just taken a shower, I chose to visit the relaxation room. As soon as I entered, I went to one of the small rooms, lay down on the bed, and turned the sound to that of a forest, which also had the sounds of various forest animals mixed into it. It didn't take long before my mind switched off and I fell asleep.

I woke up in the afternoon. No one disturbed my sleep. Roman was standing outside the door of the relaxation room as I exited. He was fiddling with his phone but stopped as soon as he saw me.

"Did you sleep well?" Roman asked.

"Yes, thank you... I really needed a day like this," I said as I smiled at him and stretched.

"There's a room for you to order something for lunch if you like," Roman advised.

"What time is it?" I asked curiously.

"It’s almost 4 in the afternoon," Roman replied.

I was completely stunned for a moment; I slept for a good couple of hours.

"Yes, you were putting too much pressure on yourself, working late and waking up very early,” It sounded as if Roman was chastising me.

I smiled slightly; it was the truth.

"Have you thought about that?" Roman asked worriedly.

"Yes, I have, but for now, I don't have a solution yet... You know that there aren't many people I can trust and rely on," I replied.

"Well, what do you think of Cristine? She seems like an intelligent person, and you've already managed to get a good part of her family out of the Black Claw pack, so I think she would be a great option," Roman suggested.

"Hmm... I hadn't thought of her. Cristine is still involved in the community," I replied sincerely.

I stopped walking and yawned, taking a deep breath. Cristine and John, two complicated people with a very dark past that, if exposed, could cause problems for my company.

Nothing I wouldn't be able to handle though, but to make her my partner, I would need to get her out of the community once and for all, which will cost me another source of information.

"I'll talk to her about this opportunity, " I told him.

The main goal was to get assistance so that I could rest. Keeping up the routine I currently had would only make me sick. So I decided that, for the sake of my health, it would be better for me to speed this process up, and was confident that Cristine wouldn't oppose to leaving the community sooner.

We soon arrived at another room, which had a round table in the center, four chairs, and yellow ambient lighting. A waiter was stationed near the door, and as soon as I sat down, he came forward and handed me a menu. I quickly chose a lighter meal since I had only eaten in the morning and didn't want to feel sick by having something heavy, but it was still a balanced meal, which contained meat.

I took my phone from my bag and sent a message to Cristine, scheduling to meet her tonight. The sooner I get this matter dealt with, the better. After that, I also sent a message to Liam just to let him know that I was fine.

I took a deep breath; my relationship with Liam was solid, but the way Klaus acted yesterday and this morning, left me confused. What did he want? Was it just to try to compensate for our disagreement?

"You seem to be deep in thought," Roman observed and I sighed.

"What's up with Klaus? He was very strange yesterday. And this morning too," I looked up to see if Roman knew anything.

"You know him better than I do," Roman replied. "But I agree, from the few times we've interacted, he was acting differently."

I ran my hand through my hair.

'Is he thinking of ending it?'

The thought of him ending our weird relationship wasn’t new to me, but it was definitely something I didn’t want... Before I could think about it more, the door opened and the waiter came in with my lunch. Once I finished, I went back to the salon to have my hair, nails, and facial done.

This time, the place was almost empty, and Alicia was no longer there. I sat in one of the chairs. It was pleasant as I maintained light conversation with the attendants while they worked. I took the opportunity to dye my hair a more reddish hue, resulting in a brown with a red undertone. This meant that my hair would give off a reddish glow whenever I'm in the sun. It wasn’t a drastic change, but since I like to change my hair every now and then, it felt that it turned out well.

I left the SPA almost at the time of my meeting with Cristine and sent a message advising her that I was running a little late. Gabriel and Roman were talking about how rude and snobbish some of the women at the SPA was, as well as those who went for treatments, and how the attendants were very polite and patient through everything.

"It's hard for me to throw a tantrum like that," I commented and smiled. "But I think most of them are like that because they weren't well-educated and must be very spoiled."

"That's for sure. One of them tried to hit on Roman, and when he didn't want to, she almost caused a scene, saying she could pay any amount of money and could be with anyone she wanted to without having to act all high and mighty. Since he's just a security guard," Gabriel recounted.

I laughed softly, just imagining the scene. It must have been hilarious.

"That type of woman doesn't affect me, they attract me, and I don't pay attention to them. Why should I care? They aren’t worth it," Roman said.

"That's definitely very you, Roman," I said and looked out the window. "I keep wondering what kind of person you'd be attracted to."

"Now you want to find someone for me too, huh?" Roman commented, laughing.

"Look, I managed to match Jasmine and Keenan... So I'm sure I could find someone for you too."

"Besides being a designer, you're now in the matchmaking business too?"

"Hahaha! Only with some people." I laughed.

We finally arrived at the chosen location, a place further away from the Black Claw pack’s border. It was an Airbnb I quickly located and chose. As soon as we arrived, Cristine came to greet me. She prepared a lovely dinner of spaghetti with red sauce.

"So, since you're almost separating from the community, I want to propose that you become my partner at the Studio and the store," I said right after we finished dinner.

Cristine looked at me seriously. I knew that she would be worried.

"Are you sure?" She asked me.

"Yes. I've thought about my current situation and workload and I have a lot of accumulated work in the last few weeks and I need a partner. You're one of the very few people I can trust. It's much better to have you by my side to help me," I explained.

I saw my friend sigh and then smile happily.

"Finally! I'll be able to get out of that place!" She said excitedly.

"Yes, you will. I'll transfer the rest of the money to you and include an extra amount for you to pay off your debts. Tomorrow night, Gabriel will pick you up at the scheduled place, and I'll have an apartment close to me, prepared for you, so that it will be easier for us to work together," I said.

I was overwhelmed with joy to see my friend so happy. She must have been absolutely elated and relieved to be able to leave the Black Claw Pack for good. It;s been a dream of hers since childhood..

"Thank you, Scarlett!" She said as she hugged me so tightly that I could hardly breathe.

"Don't thank me yet.  We need to work really quickly because we still need to get John and Vivian out of there too," I said, but I returned the hug just as tightly.

Cristine stepped back and looked at me sadly.

"With Vivian it's going to be difficult. She caught Bullet's eye at a dance we went to this past weekend, as we always do. It was a less crowded dance and more suitable to enable us to get the information we needed, but when we got there, we noticed that Bullet was there collecting his dues. He noticed Vivian, and now she's in his sights. Since her family is indebted to him too, it seems he's using that to keep Vivian in line."

Hearing this wasn't easy for me simply because Vivian wasn’t as strong as we were. She always had this innocent air about her and always got into trouble because she was so soft-hearted and compassionate. Despite everything she endured in her life, and things that had happened to her, Vivian always tried to find the best in life and people alike.

"I wanted to get her out of there before this happened!" I said angrily. "But the problem was her parents... I've already managed to pay for her mother's medical treatments... But the debt her father made before starting the treatment wasn’t something that I could just pay off in one go."

This posed a huge problem for us and was something I desperately needed to get rid of as soon as possible.

"He'll use any and all tricks he could possibly have up his sleeves... In the end, there might not even be anything left of Vivian. He will do the same to her as he had done with all the other girls." I took another deep breath, trying to keep my anger under control.

Bullet was very well known for taking the most innocent girls and breaking them, turning them into nothing, breaking them, and then discarding them like garbage. He took so much pleasure in destroying these young women and then bragged about it for all the world to know. Everyone knew the type of  monster Bullet was, being just as cruel and powerful. He had many allies who benefitted from all the kinds of so-called business he was involved in. How else would they get to have sex with young girls who looked like dolls if it wasn’t for him?

I would probably get into serious trouble, but I couldn’t allow Bullet to get close to Vivian. If I had to send her family to a different country to save her, I wouldn’t hesitate. I picked up my phone and called Oliver; the phone only rang twice before he answered.

"Scarlett, are you okay?" Oliver asked.

"I was, but not anymore... There are two people who I need to get out of the Black Claw pack very urgently. I couldn’t think of anyone else to call who would be able to assist me with the issue," I said seriously.

I was feeling tired; I could do this slowly, as I've been doing all the time until now, but I refused to risk my friends' lives or put them in any more danger than they already were. Knowing that Vivian was in Bullet's hands was the last straw and jolted me into the reality of understanding that things didn’t work this way.

"What happened?" Oliver asked in a more serious tone of voice.

"Bullet is interested in Vivian," I replied and looked at Cristine, who nodded again. "Cris just told me... Bullet noticed her at a party over the weekend, and now he wants her." I informed him.

Oliver turned quiet on the other end of the line, but I could hear his breathing become heavier. Oliver had a very strong dislike for Bullet and Bullet didn’t like him either.

"Vivian and John, is that it?" Oliver asked just to be sure.

"Just them." I confirmed.