Chapter33 Turning the Tables
No one dared say another word.
After a long silence, the office eerily returned to normal. The surveillance came back online. A janitor came in with a broom and cleaned up the mess until everything was spotless.
All afternoon, no one dared provoke her again.
But Linnea knew this was far from over.
In the evening, Emily returned from her business trip.
Linnea was called to her office. Emily was her supervisor, directly assigning her work, so Linnea had no reason to refuse. Of course, Linnea knew that whatever task she gave her tonight would probably be big trouble.
She pushed open the office door, feeling exhausted, and couldn't help complaining internally.
Caius was such a jerk. How could he not know about the filth in his company? But he did nothing. He let these vicious people form cliques, bully others, drive away timid newcomers, and now they were even picking on her.
"Linnea, what are you standing there for? Come in."
"What do you need me for?"
"I need you to attend a business dinner tonight."
Linnea immediately said, "Sorry Emily, I'm not available tonight."
"You don't get to be unavailable." Emily smiled at her, her expression cold. "Tonight, Mr. Drake specifically asked for you by name. He wants you there to discuss business with them. As a regular assistant, do you really want to disrespect Mr. Drake?"
Drake was a young CEO she'd briefly worked with when she was still an intern secretary. He'd invited Linnea to dinner twice, but she naturally had no interest in him and didn't even give him her contact information. After her job transfer, she'd had no contact with Drake.
Hearing this, she froze for a moment.
She couldn't help but laugh internally. No way, right?
She'd just appeased that possessive tyrant Caius, and now someone wanted to push her toward another man?
If Caius lost it again this time, it couldn't be blamed on her, right?
But... she glanced meaningfully at Emily, a scheme forming in her mind.
"Okay," she said. "I'll go."
Refuse? No way.
Emily had been hostile toward her from the start. Even if she avoided it this time, there would be a next time.
Rather than constantly backing down, she might as well blow this thing up. She wanted to see what Caius's reaction would be when this got to him.
The only question was, with Caius in a bad mood... she couldn't be sure of his attitude.
Maybe he'd deliberately watch her suffer, forcing her to give in again?
Linnea's thoughts were a bit chaotic. She couldn't figure out Caius now, couldn't tell how much he actually cared about her.
In the evening, before leaving, she went to knock on the CEO's office door.
A subordinate came out, and before she could speak, he said, "Please leave. Boss didn't summon you."
"But I wanted to see him..."
"Please show some self-respect, miss."
"Fine." Linnea immediately put on a hurt expression. But she left quickly.
After the subordinate closed the door, Caius asked, "What did she say?"
"Miss Linnea didn't say anything. She came to see you, we refused, and she left."
Caius sneered.
Seems like she didn't really want to see him about anything. She just wanted to provoke him, make him care about her... like a bad cat about to knock a glass off the table. Even when doing something bad, she had to inform the owner first. Arrogant to the extreme.
What scheme did she have now? He was actually a bit curious.
"Tonight, have her come to the beach apartment."
A stubborn cat just needed a good fuck to straighten out.
But the subordinate said, "Miss Linnea has been assigned to a business dinner by Emily tonight."
"Emily?"
"She's your chief secretary. She and Miss Linnea had some conflict. Do you need the details?"
Caius smiled, noncommittal.
The subordinate quietly withdrew.
Meanwhile, Linnea arrived at the hotel private room.
As soon as she entered, everyone was there. Several pairs of eyes glowing with green light stuck to her body. These were all business partners the Thorne Group regularly dealt with. Though not particularly important, as an ordinary secretary, she couldn't offend them.
Drake sat in the center. "Miss Linnea, I regret to inform you that you're an hour late."
Emily had lied about the dinner time.
This was within Linnea's expectations, but she still decided to step into this trap.
"Sorry." Linnea smiled gracefully. "Ran into a small situation on the way."
Someone beside Drake asked, "That's it?"
"What would you like me to do to apologize?" Linnea looked steadily at Drake.
Drake exhaled a smoke ring, tapped his ash, and looked up at her with narrow eyes. "Linnea, how long has it been since we last saw each other?"
"Since the last job ended." Linnea said distantly. "I'm honored to serve Mr. Drake again."
Drake chuckled softly. "You're still so pretentiously aloof."
He pointed to a glass of liquid on the table. "Drink that, and we'll call it an apology."
"Sorry, I'm allergic to alcohol."
Drake showed a knowing smile. "Oh, that's orange juice."
Orange juice?
Linnea picked up the glass and sniffed it lightly.
That strange fragrance was extremely faint, but still captured by her keen sense of smell. Damn it... what kind of morally corrupt people was Caius doing business with? Another man trying to capture her with drugs.
Linnea put down the orange juice. "Please don't make this difficult for me."
Drake frowned. "You think you're in a position to negotiate with me?"
"Oh, no..." Linnea said calmly. "I'm afraid of upsetting my partner."
The atmosphere immediately stiffened.
Emily's face darkened. "Linnea, what are you saying?!"
Drake's expression suddenly fell. "Your husband?"
"Boyfriend."
Emily was going crazy. She was completely lying! She didn't have any boyfriend! It was just her audacious fantasy and slander about Caius. If word got out, Caius would definitely have her severely punished!
"No, Mr. Drake, she's just lying..."
"Ha..." But Drake relaxed again. He ignored Emily's words and shook his head at Linnea with a smile. "I think if your boyfriend, maybe some fresh graduate kid, knew what benefits this glass of orange juice could bring you, he'd urge you to drink it without hesitation."
"What benefits?"
"Let you skip all the hard work, rise to the top in one step, be protected..."
"Wait." Linnea interrupted him. She looked around at everyone, including Emily with that smirking smile at the corner of her mouth, then asked him, "Mr. Drake, so you're discussing this kind of dirty business with me at a business meeting between the Thorne Group and your company?"
"Why not?" Drake smiled lazily. "Linnea, who do you think you are? You're just a piece of entertainment at this dinner party."
Linnea looked at Drake and said softly, "However, what you just said, including yourself, holds no appeal for me whatsoever."
As everyone was shocked that she, an ordinary secretary, had dared to anger a CEO of a publicly traded company, Linnea raised her arm and threw the full glass of "orange juice" spiked with a strong sedative in Drake's face!
"Hey!"
Drake's carefully constructed mature man facade finally crumbled. His entire eyebrow curled up as he pointed at her and shouted to his bodyguard, "Grab her!"
Then he said to Emily, "For this deal, I'll agree to give up some profit, but what I want in return... is her!"
Immediately, bodyguards rushed forward.
Linnea ran into the bathroom inside the private room, pressing hard against the door, pulled out her phone, and called that number she rarely dialed but knew by heart. "Caius!"
"Linnea? Did I give you permission to call me..."
"Stop pretending!" Linnea shouted, interrupting him. "Caius, I'm telling you, if you don't come save me, tomorrow I'm going to publicly report to all the media that the great Thorne Group actually profits by selling the bodies of its executive assistants!"