Amelia grabbed a bunch of keys before they strode through the hallways.
"What are you bringing that long for?" Evelyn asked.
"Thought I'd grab some files from the locker room real quick."
Liam found several things interesting on the way. Things like the carpet till the lights, everything looked great. But both the women ahead of him seemed to only care about finding his friends, so he couldn't take extra time to look at the various decorations. After 10 minutes of walking through the hallways that seemed endless,
"There he is," Evelyn spoke, looking down at Ian leaning onto a door, fast asleep. "You could've told me if you were tired. Now wake up." She flicks at Ian's forehead, making him jolt in his place, waking up.
"Huh? Who-" He looked up to find Evelyn and the other two standing before him, "Finally, another person." He got up on his feet before stretching and turned to the door behind him, "Dude, Lucas, you dead yet?" He said, knocking on it.
"He's in there? The others are looking for him all over the place." Evelyn said and the other nodded.
Amelia opened the door with the keys she had in hand which revealed a sobbing Lucas holding an open book in his hands.
"Are you okay?" Ian walked to the sniffling man.
"I'm fine, it's just that-" He continued to sob.
Amelia reached down to take a look at the book Lucas held.
"You're crying over this thing?" She said, "I bet 'The Remains Of The Day' has a better ending to cry at."
"Yeah, but the fact that the rude doctor saved Paige at the end.." He sniffled.
"Jeez, how emotional could a person be?"
They all walked back down after Amelia stopped by the locker room and met with the others in the living room.
"Now that we're all here, let's talk about what happened earlier today." Amelia sat down in the armchair. "I'm as confused as the rest of you." She admitted, "The smoke attack must be Victor's doing. That bastard's never got the guts to show up in person." She clicked her tongue, looking to her side.
"As if he's ever showed up on the spot. He's been sneaky with every damn move." Evelyn added.
"So what has this guy got to do with the two of you anyway?" James asked.
"Here's the thing, our company has always been on bad terms with his- before we were even born that is. His father was mysteriously murdered years ago and since the conflict between both our cooperations was unfortunately official, everyone including himself suspected that his death had something to do with both our fathers. And according to him, our fathers took away his only family, so he takes theirs." Amelia explained.
"Makes sense," Vincent commented.
"Let me be honest here, this is too much to take in." Ian spoke, "So we've got our necks on the line along with the two of you in this 'mess'- as what you like to call it- just because you got into the wrong van that day? How's that our fault?"
"Exactly. And that is why we're helping you out." Evelyn stated.
The situation got a bit too tense for all of them so Amelia decided to calm them down.
"I guess that's enough surprises for a day for you all. Why don't y'all go choose your rooms? Rest for a bit, and then we'll think about how to get this sorted out."
The men were convinced but couldn't stop worrying.
"What about our management?" Patrick spoke up.
"How could I forget?" Lucas ran his fingers through the locks of his hair.
He heaved out a sigh in frustration, "We're so dead if they get to know this. I bet it ain't gonna be easy to make them understand the situation."
"I'll take care of that. It's a piece of cake." Amelia gave them a reassuring smile.
Liam's phone went off, drawing everyone's attention to him. He checked it to see it was from Nicholas.
"I'm so not answering that." He said, staring at the screen.
"Then let me." Evelyn grabbed the phone from Liam and walked away from the group.
"Where is she going?" Liam asked.
"There's no need to worry. She's better at words compared to me. She'll get it taken care of." Amelia replied, "We've been thought to handle these things."
Evelyn returned after a few minutes, "There," She handed the phone back to its owner, "All set. He's a nice guy."
Liam took his phone and glanced at the notifications to see a text that said:
~~
๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ:
๐ฌ'๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ณ๐ฒ. ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ ๐น๐ถ๐ธ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ.
๐'๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ ๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฒ.
~~
"Tell me if there's anything else, I'll have Lauren take care of it," Amelia said and Evelyn rolled her eyes at the other.
"I told you, I've got this."
"Now that all that's settled, let's get moving." Amelia lead them toward the rooms.
"Where do you think you're going?"Evelyn pulled Ian by his collar, "I haven't shown off my collection yet."
"Ouch, you don't have to be so harsh with that," Ian rubbed his nape that slightly burned from the pull. He turned around, "Pat, pick a good one." He said, and the latter nodded.
Evelyn and Ian took off to the basement.
"Why ask him to pick one for you? We can look for one once you get back." Evelyn asked.
"We just share rooms," Ian spoke, "And we got used to it."
"You're not lying, are you?"
"What's there to lie here?" Ian said and they walked in silence for the next few minutes, "Just curious, what was with your expression earlier? When your friend mentioned someone."
"That's nothing. Just a secretary of hers I don't feel so comfortable about" She said, "And here we are." She turned the lights on to which Ian's eyes widen by seeing the whole hall of motorbikes.
He walked from one vehicle to the other, excited like a kid at an amusement park.
"Don't tell me this is an Icon Sheene."
"It sure is."
"Oh, my- Harley Davidson Cosmic Starship?!"
"Yep."
"MTT Turbine Streetfighterโฆ" He mumbled, running his hands through the leather seat.
"That one belongs to Amy. It's been a while since she rode it."
Ian looked around him naming every bike he saw, "No way..."
"That right there is the Legen-"
"Legendary British Vintage!"
"That's right."
"I can live here." He turned around from his place, "Can I ride the MV Agusta?" He pleaded.
"Nope, not on my watch."
"Oh come one, lemme have fun while I can. Just once, please?"
________________
"This makes no sense!" Amelia hung up and dialed Evelyn, "Get here at once."
After a while, Evelyn and Ian arrived in the kitchen.
"What's wrong? You sound tensed." Evelyn asked.
"Seems like things didn't go well in the meeting hosted yesterday. The lower officials made an issue about us not being well-aware about the industry and stuff."
Evelyn slammed her fist on the side table, "What the hell?! Tell me who it is and I'll get his teeth knocked out."
"That's not the worst part." Amelia spoke, "Nothing went well and I don't know how, but they came up with one bullshit of a decision."
"It better not be so-"
"We'll need to attend one year of college."