Chapter 8 Best thing

Andrew's POV:

I returned back to my chair and sat down. Jacob returned back to the couch, sat down in a relaxed position; one leg over the other but his eyes sternly on our enemies. Luca and Alan took scats in front of my desk, and immediately, Luca lifted his legs and rested them on my table, crossing them at the ankles, his soles straight in my sight of the line.

Just the sight of this compelled me to flip the oak desk, seize him from the collar and tighten his tie for as long as his face turned bright red, eyes pop out from their sockets, and blood pool out from his mouth. The image was so fascinating that I want nothing more than to do exactly what I was thinking, but I knew very clearly that acting cool and nonchalant at the moment was the best thing.

Alan on the other hand bent his head and laughed at Luca's act. I might know nothing about Luca but I very well knew everything about Alan. This bastard was never interested in playing childish games. Resting

legs on my table just showed how insecure Luca felt about himself and Alan knew that acknowledging one's insecurity in front of an enemy was dangerous. Never make your enemy see that you have everything figured out.

"We were informed of the arrival of Luca Jacobs. I can see that you brought an uninvited guest with you," We all turned to face Jacob, the owner of the voice. He was not nervous at all, in fact, he was angry but was trying hard to handle it as coolly as possible, because he knew that the sight of Alan would be so shocking to me that I may not be able to proceed nonchalantly.

That's why he stepped in.

I his concern, but I was not a kid. I did hate Alan with all my might but I also knew the strategies while facing the enemies. I might be burning and turning into ashes on the inside, but from the outside, I was as cool as I needed to be.

"We are here to meet you," he pointed at me.

"Ok. Then, enlighten me with your reason for asking to meet us." I replied, raising my eyebrow.

"First of all, meet my partner and friend, Alan Roberts," said

Luca.

Before this meeting even started, I already knew that Luca asked to meet me not for some business purposes, but his sole reason was to show me that he had shaken hands with my worst enemy, Alan. He came here just to show me his accomplice.

"Ohh, I see. Hi, Mr. Roberts," I said and continued before Alan had the chance to reply to me, "Now what, Luca? Do you have something important to say? Or did you just come here to play dollhouse games with us?"This time, it was Alan who barked, "We came here with some business deal."

At that, Jacob spoke up, "And who told you that we are interested in some kind of bloody business with

Alan lifted his hand in the midsentence and said, "We came here to meet the real boss here."

That infuriated me even more. I could not explain how I was controlling myself from exploding.

Jacob replied casually but I could see how disturbed he was, "You do know that I have 30% shares in this business? And that Andrew and I are partners?"

"But we all know who the real boss is, Mr. Jacob," said Luca, with a wicked smile on his face.

I stood up abruptly, "I think that's enough for now. Luca, I understood your real purpose of being here," I spared a glance to Alan for the first time since his arrival. "So, you may leave now."

Luca made a low laugh at that, stood up, and stared me in the eye, "Just know who you are going to mess with. Don't ever think about doing anything to my casino. If

you lay as much as a finger on it, I am going to burn this place down."

With that, he turned and started for the door.

Next, Alan said, "Look you around kiddo. Goodbye for now," he winked and left my cabin.

I could not control my anger, I was feeling so restless, I wanted to scream out my anger. I looked here and there, then went to my desk and swiped my arms over it, toppling all the things on the desk. The moment there was a clinking sound of my consequences, Jacob shot up from the couch. He poured me a glass of water and offered that to me. I knocked it out of his hand and that too met with the floor in the tiny sharp shards.

What I was feeling was quite similar to it. I too was feeling like tiny sharp shards were punctured into my skin. Jacob rubbed my back in an effort to soothe me. But I was way too much to be calmed down this early. I looked at Jacob and hissed at his face, "That bastard literally played me."

Before he could reply, there was a loud knock at the door which I chose to ignore, but then the door opened, and there came Ms. Aurora Jenning. Again, without knocking. She turned her gaze around my cabin, took in all the destruction, and her eyes went wide

I looked at the state of the floor, all the papers are out of their stacks, scattered over the floor and my glass pen holder shattered there. But this little destruction did not satisfy me. I glanced at Aurora, her face was full of shock. She was gawking at me like I needed to explain something. I closed the distance between us in two long strides, grabbed her wrist in my hand, and hissed, "Didn't I tell you not to enter into my cabin without knocking?" I was staring death in her eyes.

"WTH? I came after a loud crashing sound. I was worried if anyone is hurt." She looked over at Jacob to make sure he was in one piccc

"Whatever happens in this office is none of your fucking business," I shouted at her face.

She opened her mouth to say something but then chose not to. She wriggled her wrist, trying to get it out of my hold. I hold it even tighter. I knew that she was hurting but she didn't utter any other word. She would never admit that I was hurting her or causing her any kind of distress. She kept struggling against my hold and I kept making my fist tighter and tighter around her wrist.

I sensed Jacob moving in my peripheral vision. He came over and put one hand over my shoulder and the other on my hand holding hers. He tried to calm me down, "Let her go, Andrew. She is not to blame for what happened, don't let your anger out on her," he tried to release my fist.

I kept looking into Aurora's eyes, and she kept staring into mine. And that was when I thought that no matter how much tighter I would hold her hand, she would never ask me to stop hurting her. Why? Because she was the most stubborn bitch gifted to mankind.

That only solidified my determination to teach her a lesson. I pulled up the corners of my mouth into a devilish smirk and released her wrist instantly. She did not even bother to check

her wrist for any damage, not willing to acknowledge her wounds in front of anyone else. She stared into my eyes for a moment and then walked away towards the

door.

As she was about to leave the cabin, I turned my head and saw four bright red lines snaking her wrist.

I was bruising her. That was not enough. I wanted to break her.

Jacob pulled out a chilled bottle from the mini-fridge placed at one corner of the office. I took a sip, then a second, and put it on the desk. Jacob called for Mary and asked her to call someone from the cleaning staff to sort out the mess. Jacob suggested that while the cabin is being cleaned up, we should go to the conference room and relax a bit. We went out of the cabin and I saw her. She was behind the reception desk, assisting a client and showing him some paperwork. She must have sensed my arrival but didn't glance at me. My sight fell on her wrist, the four red marks that I bestowed her would be turned into blue marks soon, but still would hurt her less than a punch. I ignored her and went to the conference room.

There, we were seated in our chairs, but there was silence in the air. I could hear the whooshing sound of the air-conditioner. This silence felt kind of uncomfortable. I rested my hands on the table, looked over at Jacob who was staring at a bare wall. I decided to break the silence, "Do you know why they came here?"

"Of course, I know. They wanted to show us that they have joined hands and became accomplices," said Jacob flatly.

"No Jacob. I mean... that too. But there was one other purpose of their visit," I replied calmly.

I was aware that he was disturbed or might even be hurt by that 'who is the boss here' comment of Luca. But, I didn't know if he could see what I saw there. So, I wanted assurance.

"They both know that we are equals. If I have more shareholders here or if I run this company then you also look after our casino business. Couldn't you see Jacob? They were literally trying to break us apart or make you dubious about our positions or roles."

Jacob and I have never talked about this matter like that. We never saw it from that point of view. We were sticking together and going with the flow, achieving one thing after another, making new goals, working on them, and earning whatever we wanted. We never stopped to ponder over the fact that who is the bloody boss here.

When our casino business got stabled, I thought of establishing the investment company, not because of money, we had plenty of that by that time. But because of power. I was obsessed with power, but power comes with money. So, I thought of a new way to make money to get power by establishing this company. Jacob was never much interested in the idea. Sure, he helped me a lot in building it but never invested his time in it. So, technically this company was mine, but I suggested Jacob be a 30% shareholder, to which he agreed. It was simple math, not some rocket science.

After a moment of silence, Jacob continued, "I don't give a shit about what they think, Andrew. But I do give a shit or two about what is going in that head of yours."

I asked confusingly, "What? What does that mean?""Do you really think that I will ever listen to the filth their mouths produce? I don't care who the boss is. Even come to think of it, I don't even want to be the boss. Too much responsibility and too little time to chill out," he winked at that.

I felt relief filling my insides. But there was also a nagging thought at the back of my mind; what if Jacob fell in their trap later? He was too innocent not to, but he was also too loyal to fall for their dirty tricks.

For now, I trusted Jacob with all of my heart. So, I dug a grave in my mind and buried that ugly thought inside that.

"Hey, by the way, last time when I saw Luca, he was 5 months but this time he was like a full-on 9-month pregnant man."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. The belly was really fat tho.