Chapter 114 Who Is the Boss?

Chapter 114 Who Is the Boss?

Leah tensed up at the sight of the people in front of her. She hadn't expected to find four strikingly beautiful women sitting on the couch.

And the way they looked at Ethan — definitely not how normal tenants look at their landlord.

"Listen, girls..." Ethan cleared his throat, about to explain who Leah was.

"We've got a new arrival." Mia set down her coffee cup, padded barefoot across the carpet, and walked straight toward Leah.

Leah instinctively stepped half a step behind Ethan.

But Mia grabbed her hand. "Relax, honey. We don't bite. Are you another stray Ethan picked up?"

Ethan rubbed his temple in resignation.

"Her name's Leah. She's Harry's daughter. She ran into some trouble — a bunch of guys in black robes nearly kicked her apartment door down. So she'll be staying here from now on."

"Those rats from the sewer are causing trouble again?"

Grace stopped playing with her lighter, stood up, and walked over to Leah, her voice gentle. "Welcome to the safe zone. At least here, you're safe."

Leah was stunned. She'd braced herself to be picked on by these beautiful women, but it was the complete opposite.

"A new member of the household — that's amazing!"

Clara grabbed Hailey and jumped up from the couch, clapping excitedly.

"Ethan, we were actually just talking about something. Mia's been all alone here and it's too boring. We need to spend more time with her."

"Wait, you mean..." Ethan had a bad feeling about where this was going.

Clara walked right up to him and draped her arms around his neck, her red lips parting slightly.

"Look, handsome. The old crowd at my place has been driving me crazy and I don't want to go anywhere right now. So I'm moving in here too. You wouldn't really throw me out on the street, would you?"

Mia chimed in, "Exactly! Hailey and I are staying too! This place is basically a castle — plenty of rooms, right?"

Watching the women present a united front, Ethan smiled helplessly.

He knew he had no room to say no — and besides, having them all under his roof would make it a lot easier for Noah to manage security.

"Alright, girls, you win." Ethan threw up both hands in surrender. "Pick any empty room on the second or third floor. Just don't tear my house apart."

Mia immediately took Leah by the hand and headed upstairs, enthusiastically helping her choose a room.

Dinner that evening was surprisingly warm. The girls even opened a bottle of expensive red wine, chatting about fashion brands over drinks. Leah finally let her guard down and laughed for the first time in a long while.

Late that night.

Ethan lay on his back in the master bedroom after his shower, staring at the ceiling.

He wasn't sleepy. His mind was running through the company's next moves.

The Aeterna Causality was picking up speed — they'd even reached into the core research lab.

He'd brought Hunter on board today, but relying on Hunter alone wasn't enough to hold off those genetically modified monsters.

The fastest and most effective way to build a real defense was to put together a team of gene-enhanced fighters who answered only to him.

The perfected gene serum wasn't finalized yet, but the groundwork had to start now.

With that thought, Ethan grabbed his phone from the nightstand and sent Noah an encrypted message.

"Noah, pick the twenty most loyal and physically elite people from the security team. Have them ready. I'll be administering the first batch of trial serum soon. I want people who follow orders without question — no one with too many ideas of their own."

He hit send, tossed the phone aside, and let out a long breath.

"Alright. Time to actually sleep." He muttered, reaching over to turn off the bedside lamp.

But the moment his hand touched the switch, the bedroom door quietly pushed open.

Then a warm body, smelling strongly of vanilla body wash, slipped under his covers and pressed naturally against his chest.

Ethan went rigid and looked down.

Mia poked her head out from under the blanket. She was wearing nothing but a thin, nearly sheer silk slip, her warm skin pressed flush against his.

"Are you out of your mind, Mia?" Ethan kept his voice low, his hand automatically settling on her slender waist.

"There are people in this house right now — your good friends. Clara's room is right next door. Even the slightest noise and they'll hear everything. If they see..."

Mia pressed a finger gently to his lips.

She draped one leg over him and leaned up to his ear.

"Listen, boss... the fact that they're all out there is exactly what makes this more fun, don't you think? I bet your heart is racing right now."

Ethan looked at her, then flipped her onto her back and pinned her down. "You asked for this. Don't blame me when it gets out of hand."

......

Early the next morning.

Ethan was up on time. He got ready and headed straight to company headquarters.

He had more important things to deal with today.

The gene-enhancement team was only the first step in security. He knew it well — a massive business empire with a shaky foundation couldn't be protected by high walls alone.

The company currently had seven major subsidiaries, each controlling a critical piece of the group's operations across different sectors.

But since he'd taken over the company left behind by Anson, the only person who'd truly committed to following him was Lyle, the head of Vanguard Innovations Group.

The other six subsidiary heads treated Ethan like he didn't exist.

He'd let it slide before because he wanted to get the full picture first.

But now The Aeterna Causality had come knocking, and the situation was too urgent for him to keep playing it slow.

Those six idiots controlled enormous amounts of capital and resources. He needed to bring all of it under his control as fast as possible.

When he reached the top-floor office, Ethan pressed the intercom on his desk.

"Noah, send a mandatory summons to the heads of all seven subsidiaries right now. Ten o'clock this morning, top-floor conference room. I want every single one of them in their seats on time. Anyone who's even a minute late doesn't need to bother coming back — ever."

"Understood, boss. I'll handle it." Noah's voice was as no-nonsense as always.

Time ticked by.

In the top-floor conference room, only one person sat at the table.

Lyle.

Lyle's hands were folded on the table as he looked at the six empty chairs across from him and shook his head slowly.

He picked up his black coffee and took a sip, almost talking to himself.

"What a hopeless bunch of idiots. You have no idea what kind of man is sitting at the head of that table."

And then, at that very moment —

The conference room door was kicked open from the outside.