Chapter34 Her Reward
"Linnea, explain yourself."
But the phone quickly went to a busy signal.
In the top floor presidential suite, Caius crushed the wine bottle in his hand and tossed it aside. Wine and glass shards splattered across the floor.
"Do you need bandaging..."
"Get out." Caius stood up. "Going downstairs now."
Inside the private room, the pounding on the door grew more violent. Drake sneered loudly outside. "Trying to call your partner? You're way too naive, Linnea. He's definitely not going to help you..."
The bathroom door was forced open. Linnea had no choice but to come out, gritting her teeth.
Probably feeling confident of victory, Drake smiled hypocritically again. He glanced at several exotic dancers. "Can't you see Miss Linnea is scared? Go use the 'drink' on the table to comfort her properly. If you screw this up, you're done."
Their faces full of guilt, they still rushed forward, working together to restrain Linnea. They were also being forced. Linnea didn't want to be rough with them, so she could only shout, "Drake! You'll get what's coming to you!"
"Haha, I'm really looking forward to it."
Pushing and shoving, the bottle was pressed to Linnea's lips. To witness her being drugged firsthand, Drake bent down in front of her. "Linnea, give up resisting. You'll need to save your energy for what's happening in bed later..."
Just then.
"Bang!"
Instantly, Drake collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Everyone hurriedly looked over. It was Linnea who had smashed his head with the bottle!
Then came the sound of the main door being broken down.
Linnea was holding the broken bottle neck, still panting, when she met Caius's emerald green eyes. Her heart stopped for a beat.
In the eyes of Caius, who always put profit first, all these disputes tonight were nothing but petty squabbles. He might punish Emily for pushing her to someone else because of his need for control, but he would never easily move against his business partner.
But now, she had smashed through Drake's skull!
Linnea's fingers began to tremble.
Caius lifted his eyelids, and upon seeing Drake lying in a pool of blood, showed perfectly measured surprise and concern.
"My God, who did this? Where are Drake's people? Are you all idiots? Call a doctor already. We can't let our Mr. Drake die!"
Only then did the people around spring into action.
In Linnea's view, the man walked slowly toward her, his footsteps like a death knell. He came before her and wrapped his hand around hers that was trembling while gripping the bottle. "Linnea, why are you shaking?"
Linnea didn't dare breathe.
Caius pried open her fingers, pulled out the half bottle, and smashed it violently on the ground.
The shattering sound almost burst her eardrums, and Caius's interrogation immediately followed.
"Oh... my little cat, why are you holding the weapon that injured Mr. Drake? Could it be that this assault was caused by you? You've gotten me in trouble again when I wasn't paying attention?"
No, how could this be her fault!
Everyone had forced her into this!
But Caius continued speaking.
"Little cat, I have to remind you. If the law operates normally, even if Drake is seriously injured, you'd be judged as acting in self defense. But if I, as the person in control of the Thorne Group, intervene in the judgment to give Drake's family an explanation... do you know what the consequences would be for you?"
When Caius was serious, his demeanor was intimidating enough that Emily overlooked his excessively intimate posture with Linnea. She quickly chimed in, slandering Linnea.
"Mr. Caius, Linnea is completely out of line! Mr. Drake was just interested in her and wanted to chat with her a bit, and she had a paranoid episode and viciously attacked Drake!"
Other secretaries chimed in.
"Linnea is terrifying! This afternoon, she publicly slapped a colleague and kicked her until she broke bones!"
"She's scarier than someone with a rage disorder!"
"Please, Boss, you must punish her severely!"
The surroundings became noisy, and Linnea gradually couldn't hear clearly.
Only Caius's deep voice remained.
Caius looked down at her.
"You see, even your colleagues and my chief secretary are saying this. Linnea, what excuse do you have?"
"But this isn't my fault at all!" Pushed to her limit, Linnea shouted back. "It was Emily and those secretaries, working with Drake and those scumbags, trying to share my body! If I didn't fight back, the one who'd end up screwed into rags and lying in a pool of blood would be me!"
Everyone suddenly froze.
They couldn't believe Linnea still dared to challenge Caius's authority.
But Caius paused, looking down at her.
There was fear in her eyes, apprehension, even tears. But notably absent was any sense of grievance.
She firmly believed he wouldn't back her up, so she tried her best to argue for herself rather than acting cute with him or seeking forgiveness.
He smiled slightly.
Well, honestly, of course he wouldn't unconditionally help and support her. If she touched his core interests, at least for now, abandoning this little cat would be the inevitable choice.
This was a vigilant, smart little cat.
Caius was very satisfied with her performance. He decided to give her a little reward.
"Even if you'll commit a crime, go to prison, ruin your entire life... you don't regret it?"
"Of course not." Linnea bit her lip tightly and said in a tone like an oath, "Even if I end up in prison, I will never submit to any slander..."
Because she was so agitated, her body was burning hot, trembling violently.
Caius was silent for a few seconds.
Linnea thought sadly that her revenge plan might fail right here. But what could she do? Once again, she was being slandered by everyone...
The next second, however, she fell into an even hotter embrace.
"Shh, don't talk." It was Caius's low laughter. "Close your eyes and hold on to me."
Linnea froze.
Instantly, she completely lost the ability to think and could only let him pull her deeper into his arms, holding her tightly.
A familiar palm covered the back of her head. This was a person's most vulnerable spot, but that palm was large and hot, gently rubbing through her hair, surprisingly bringing her a sense of security.
"Hide in my arms and leave everything for me to handle, okay?"
Her vision went completely dark.
The muffled sounds of fists and flesh in combat rang out, viscous liquid spraying onto the ground. The smell of blood entered her nostrils, quickly covered by the man's cold scent.
Linnea had never imagined this situation.
When she was about to be driven crazy, the man who had applied all the pressure on her actually pulled her into his arms...
"Know what's happening now? It's bodyguards sent by Drake's family. To keep you from being taken by them, I had to have my bodyguards 'spar' with them a bit."
In extreme chaos, Linnea finally showed her most primal fear. "Drake, is he dead?"
"He should be being treated at the hospital, right?"
"I don't want to go to prison..."
"Scared now?" Caius became pleased. "If you knew you'd cause this much trouble, why didn't you let me handle it for you earlier? You had to take the risk yourself, get pushed to the point where you could only ask me for help, almost kill someone, before you were satisfied?"
Linnea's hand tightened on his shirt.
Caius had once again seen through her thoughts...
"I..." Linnea said carefully, "I was afraid you wouldn't help me. This might violate your interests."
Caius scoffed.
The sounds of fighting around them gradually weakened.
He held Linnea and came before a man with a subtle expression, Drake's father.
"Mr. Caius, I'm very sorry that my son caused such a mess and displeased you, but this woman..."
"Oh?" Caius shrugged, interrupting him. "I am indeed very angry."
The man suddenly fell silent.
"My woman, who's usually as timid as a cat, was just now pushed by your boy Drake to lose her temper at me... Sir, can you understand how heartbroken I was just now?"
The man's attitude changed rapidly. "Yes, I understand, I'm sorry..."
"So, I hope you'll control your son and prevent this kind of thing from happening again, can you do that?"
"Otherwise, I don't mind terminating all business dealings with your family and personally 'disciplining' your good son myself."
"Yes, yes..."
After doing all this, Caius lowered his head and met Linnea's shocked, speechless gaze, pinching her pale face.
"Now, still think I won't help you?"
"Smile, okay? Stop making that face at me."