authors note - In case you didn't read the title, this chapter is in the POV of Alexander Marcello, NOT Ellie Taylor. We'll get back to her in a minute. Bye, angels! Hope you enjoy!
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Fuck my life.
My alarm blames through my room, making me groan and hit it on my way up, stretching my back that no doubt will feel horrible the whole day. Great.
I make my way downstairs, not a sign of my two idiot friends anywhere as usual. Enzo is probably downstairs in the renovated gym, doing laps to clear his head. Vince is most likely at the office or in the gym as well. How both of them could work out at 7 in the morning is beyond my understanding.
After getting dressed in a sweater and some trousers, I put on my brown coat, grab my briefcase, and head out. I know I should've probably eaten breakfast, but I can't in the morning, I just feel too sick.
These days I just always feel sick. It's the same boring routine over and over again. I have the money to travel, and I do it often, but there's always something missing from my life. Call it whatever you want, but I know there's something keeping me from feeling alive, and I'm afraid I'm never gonna find it.
I make my way to the local University, ready to teach different levels of psychology classes. I'm 28, and only a couple of years ago I got my doctorate in developmental psychology, so normally a university wouldn't have me teach shit, but seeing as I'm the A in the A.V.E Foundation, they've been so inclined to offer me the position.
A.V.E, or The AVE Foundation, is an organization founded by me and my two best friends, Enzo and Vincent. The Foundation takes on many activities, but its main focus would be hotel real estate, as in AVE Hotels, and art exhibitions. My friends and I live in the largest AVE building on the west coast at the very top two levels, which we demolished the interior of and made into a sort of penthouse.
When I tell people that I live with both of them in the same apartment, they always ask me how I don't go crazy. Truth is, we don't really see each other a lot. We hold the same general office space, but for a while, we've just been so bored that we can't take a lot of joy in one another's company without feeling miserable. We're all different people as well, with very different schedules, so that doesn't help. We try to have dinner and go clubbing together every so often, but it's hard when there isn't anything new to talk about.
Anyways, seeing as how the AVE Foundation is labeled as a Fortune 500 company, the university reached out to me to see if I'd like to teach a couple of psych classes during my downtime. I accepted their offer, mainly because I needed something new in my life, and teaching has been a surprising escape. I teach some odd classes, but it's worth it. Today should be a good day actually, because Enzo and Vince are coming in to have lunch with me in my office, and they're bringing Chinese take-out.
I fucking love Chinese food.
They aren't coming in just to talk to me though. They wanted to discuss another client for our other business. It's called AVE Security (I know, so original) and we deal with serious security measures for people in immediate danger. We go in, either secure the person or people in their home or take them to one of our many off-site locations. We've never had a client get hurt under our care, and it's a part of the business that Vince really prides himself on. He's not a big art guy, and although his family was the ones that originally owned a couple of hotels, he was never into it. Thank goodness for Enzo and me, otherwise, we'd never be legitimate business owners.
Oh, did I not mention that AVE Security is slightly illegal?
The actual business model isn't illegal of course. We even do business with multiple government agencies, and even protected the President's kid one time. But, if you're in immediate danger and you call us, you probably did something to get into that level of danger. In our business, we ignore the illegal part of our clients, and our money is often brought in through offshore accounts. Anybody who knows anybody in the business world knows about what we do, but most just tend to ignore it. They figured that if we can protect people, we could probably hurt people as well.
They wouldn't be wrong about that.
As I finish up my last class for the day, I sigh and slide into my chair, and finally hear Enzo and Vince walk in. Those bastards are always punctual to the second, but this time it doesn't irritate me. I want my fucking Chinese food.
They slide over my orange chicken, and I groan in relief. Enzo and Vince pull up chairs and start digging into their own food. I'm sure we all look a little weird, two out of three of us in formal business attire eating take-out in an empty classroom, but I'm grateful for this. Did I mention how much I love Chinese food?
"I don't think we should take on the new client," Enzo says, cutting through the silence.
"I thought Ms. Thwarton was clean? And since when did we care about who our clients were? She's filthy rich," I say, tapping my fingers on the desk rhythmically.
"We're filthy rich, Xander," Vince says, rolling his eyes. "She's looking for a month's protection, 8 guys, military-grade weapons, 700k for the whole job. No way is she clean. And besides, Mr. Anton requested more guys."
"More? He already has 15." I ask questioningly. Mr. Anton is a semi-new big client of ours. He works for "I Diavoli", the Italian-American mafia based in California, basically right in our backdoor. He's one of the higher-ups, but he's made a lot of enemies recently and doesn't trust anyone in his own mafia. Enzo's from that whole world, and knows Clyde Anton personally, and said that we should take the job with caution. Clyde is a tricky son of a bitch apparently, and asking for more guys isn't giving me a stamp of approval.
"I talked to some old friends, and he's made some Russians very unhappy. Well, more unhappy than they usually are." Enzo says, a grimace on his face. "They sent him a message with his wife's sister's head a couple of nights ago and now he's a nervous bitch about it. He's asking for 10 more guys for a few more months."
"That's gotta be millions." I widen my eyes. I knew Clyde had some serious money, it's the fucking mafia after all, but even for him, this is a lot to spend in a couple of months just on security. He's gotta be scared shitless.
Vince clears his throat, already done with his food. "I'm gonna go to Sacramento for a couple of days to speak with him, I should be back by Friday, I'll leave tomorrow morning around noon. Something's not right about him, and I'd rather not take on any more clients till I know we can handle him." Enzo and I agree, and we stand up and leave the room, grabbing my briefcase as we start to make our way to our office building.
We're heading across campus with our umbrellas, the rain coming down heavy, when a girl no taller than 5 feet knocks into all of us one by one, like a bowling pin bouncing off the others. I get slightly annoyed, but when I look at her, all the anger in me immediately dissipates into a foreign feeling.
She's beautiful, in a pink and white dress that ends a little above her knees, her hair and body completely drenched without an umbrella, her phone shaking in her hands.
She's like I said, extremely short, with some small freckles on her cheeks, which are super red, probably because of the cold weather. She's not wearing any noticeable makeup, and her hair is down, with two small braids at the very front to push her hair away from her face. The braids are pulled together by two pink rubber bands. Her hair is light brown, with some dark brown strands, though her hair color looks natural. Her eyes though, that's what gets me stuck. They're the most beautiful shade of colors I've ever seen. Blue is the main color I think, but there's so much green and brown in there that I honestly can't tell for sure.
Why doesn't she have an umbrella? And where's her jacket? It's fucking freezing.
Before I even realize she made me drop my briefcase, she bends down and hands it to me, saying, "I'm sorry for bumping into you, my mistake!" She tries to look at us, but can't because of the heavy rain. But we can see her, and she's just perfect, even in horrible weather. Who is this girl?
Before I can think of offering her a ride to wherever she's going, she darts off quickly in the opposite direction of us, muttering a "have a nice day, sirs" as she leaves, leaving us stunned.
"Was that a student?" Vince asks me, but I don't even hear it for another few seconds.
"No idea."
YOU ARE READING
Control
Romance"Just let me take care of you," Alexander says as his hand moves across my thigh, his legs holding me in place on the couch. "I can't, it's too much-" I go to move his hand, but another set of hands stop mine. The rings and veins make it obvious wh...
