Felice and Primrose were everything he expected them to be. Beautiful, composed, cautious and surprisingly not very aggressive considering they killed for a living. They had a good grip on their emotions, or rather their expressions. He was delighted that his earpiece has already proven to be of good use. He and Sasha had arrived five minutes early and had set up a flash grenade under the table as soon as they arrived. It could be activated with a voice command. He's not paranoid, just vigilant. That was what he thought anyway.

If there comes the situation where it would be required for him to use it, he could just pass it off to the authorities as an assassination attempt on his life. That wouldn't be new. 'So nice to be loved.' He thought sarcastically to himself. 'Maybe I should start apologizing more often.'

He supposed the new world was quite difficult to adjust to, especially for oil tycoons. And mining companies as well. Not his fault they weren't smart enough to take his side and join the ride. Instead, they insisted on being money-leeching and narrow-minded so he had no choice but to bankrupt them. Pity. Oh well, it was for the greater good.

That plus the fact that he still couldn't comprehend why anyone would refuse a business deal with Flynt industries.

-----

A quick x-ray scan right after the girls had gotten off the Limo had shown them to be carrying some concealed weapons. He would be a hypocrite to loiter on that subject any further so he didn't.

Felice was clad in green just as expected, in a pleasing silk dark green dress where the slit skirt that reached just below her ankle covered the pistol strapped on her thigh. Her heels were black, tall and looks almost as painful as pointe shoes. She didn't wear any sort of jewellery and her short red hair was arranged into a handsome bob cut. She didn't wear any makeup either and if his guess was correct, her purse chains could be pulled out into nunchucks. He was quite certain he saw that combination disguise somewhere, in a music video he had been forced to watch by Wattanak. Yes, he recalled it was in a song by the artist named Taylor Swift. He reckon they had more in common than they knew.

Green and black with odd colored hair, they were undeniably matching. He acknowledged her good tastes in fashion, maybe after this whole ordeal blows over they could become good friends. It was rare to find anyone tasteful nowadays.

It was curious how her coffee-brown eyes alaway darted around ever since she entered. To check for escape routes surely, and maybe some weapons as well but it was a shame she was never going to notice the key one. That is, if you don't consider Sasha a formidable weapon already. She put on a persuasive facade of confidence with loud clicks of her heels and puffed chest with shoulders rolled back and even though she seemed quited used of this posture, her heart was beating rather quickly, pulse increasing the nearer she trod. He was sure they only needed to talk for a little while until she let loose and showed her real confidence. He was here to bargain with Sia Felice and he wanted to talk to the woman who lead a skilled group of killers not some nervous shell.

Primrose's style was more masculine and casual, outfit black with so much leather. Without a doubt, real leather, he internally grimaced. From his seat at the corner, he could see her glaring at him as she approaches. He imagined she wasn't all fond of their last brush where his ruse included but wasn't limited to humanoid robots that can mimic faces and a gas that produced the effects of drunkenness. He had a video recording of that, high quality and all. To be fair, she had jumped him at one of his more entertaining underwater lairs and to compliment her managing to even get that close, he decided to let her play with his newest toys. It seemed a good idea at the time.

He hadn't yet planned this rendezvous then. Maybe he should show some good graces and say sorry. But that would ruin the flow of the meeting. He contemplated and figured it good to ignore their animosity for now. Primrose had a big storm coming and he didn't want to upset her further by bring up that fiasco.

Anyhow, she had daggers in her boots, again, leather, and her hairpin was a taser. He would know, he designed it and sold it anonymously on the black market. He really felt bad now, not only did her terrorize her, he even took her money.

But all in all, he regretted nothing.

-----

When they have finally arrived, five minutes late, he ignored the urge to spout a snarky comment about their tardiness and greeted them like he would greet any socialite he met at a charity party. He let the manners ingrained into him by his grandmother guide him through the introduction he while further examined the two. He knows Sasha is assessing them as well, as he did with everyone. He saw, or rather heard the reaction people usually have when they saw his face. He didn't give it much thought. It's human nature to appreciate things they find attractive and it would be crude of him to grow smug over such shallow attention. In fact, he took advantage of his looks, dressed up nicely to make good impressions. It has always worked in his favor so far but he had a feeling this time the effect he usually had on people wouldn't last that long.

And for that he was glad. For he can't let his looks overshadow his sharp wit now can he? That's right. He can't.

Ah. It would seem Felice did take notice of his glasses after all. No worries, she was about to forget all about them in just a moment.

And so he revealed the fact that he knew Primrose's real name. Really, offhandedly.

There were two reasons to explain this action. Or justify it.

It was a major secret, no matter how good Primrose was at acting like it didn't affect her at all. Her heart was hammering in her chest and he had expected a worse response. Instead, she calmed her expression and kept everything in her head. Perhaps she cared for her boss's mental state enough to do this or because she didn't want to show him weakness. Whatever it was, he deemed it as a good outcome.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Truth be told, it wasn't just her name that he knew. To discover that name in the first place, her whole background was researched so basically he was telling her he knew her name and the entire sob story that follows. He knew he must have been bringing up a lot of bad memories.

So yes, he had two reasons to do what he did. One was to break the ice and to say that statement proved how excessive he was is an understatement. It gave the table something to discuss aside from the elephant in the room which was the two parties' history. The second reason was to get it out of the way, which he did tell them. He wanted to give Primrose as much time to adjust as possible before diving into the discussion which will include a lot about her history. He just hoped she was ready.

-----

"I invited you here today, to propose a deal." Flynt stated and his expression turned serious which made him look much older than he was. The mask dropped and in place was a handsome young face that looked like it had been dealing with stress for years. He moved his foot under the table to slide his briefcase out from under before picking it up and placing it on the table. It was black and made of metal, it looked strong and durable despite how light it was when he picked it up. Sia estimated the thing can survive a nuclear bomb.

He placed his right palm on the smooth surface and it lit up like a screen, the other sides remained dull. On the surface now displayed a circle which was divided into five slices which looked identical. Sia was entranced.

Flynt placed his finger on one of the slices and dragged it away from the centre and it followed. The slice then divided into many shapes which floated away slowly from the source and each other. He dragged some of them and flicked them back into the empty place in the chart and then left some to flow to the edge and disappear. The pie chart now had four full slices and one that managed to only fill up half of the space. He did all of that in less than five seconds.

After that all hell broke loose and the slices all divided and floated away leaving only the lines that divided their boundaries in place. Flynt's fingers was back on the screen and danced furiously yet effortlessly in the quest of selecting random pieces and letting go of some to drag them back in the chart. The shapes seem to liquidize as they sorted themselves to fit between the lines that make up the triangular slices. After the last of the small pieces ran off the screen, a circle was left and even though it was smaller than before, all the slices ended at the same size making it a perfectly even circle.

Well that was fun. Sia snapped out of her stupor and lifted her head to look at Flynt questioningly. He was still staring at the screen so she looked around only to find that they were the only people left on this floor. She saw the waitress standing at a respectable distance away from them and wondered why she hadn't come and taken their order yet. She began to feel uneasy. She took a glance at Primrose and was even more shocked that her companion didn't seem to notice and was staring at the screen absentmindedly, lost in her own thoughts.

Her face turned cold as she reached into the slit of her skirt subtly and left her hand there, ready to retrieve the pistol as soon as anything strikes. She used her foot to gently nudge at Primrose as she took her eyes off her to silently demand an explanation from Flynt.

Her brown eyes meet with vibrant green ones directly and she was surprised to see that he had been staring at her, waiting for her to finally pay attention. He blinked and ignored her inquiries.

He looked back at the screen, directing her eyes towards it and she saw a phrase in Arabic. She knew some languages but she hasn't yet gotten to learn Arabic. Perhaps that came easier to Flynt since his mother was Egyptian.

"Aftah" She heard him say. She couldn't understand it but the case popped open and the screen turned to dull metal once again so she could only guess something along the lines of Open. She couldn't hold her anxiety in any longer so she flatly said her intentions.

"Explain." She couldn't keep the growl out of her voice.

He looked at her knowingly while slowly and gently opened the briefcase but he decided not to satisfy her worry infused curiosity.

"That was my password." He answered plainly without the purpose of actually explaining. The grip on her pistol tightened and she caught a heated gaze directed at her. Sasha. He locked his gaze onto hers and pointedly looked at the tense muscles on her arm. His gaze was cold and he already had a hand on Flynt's shoulder, ready to push him out of harm's way. She did some breathing exercises to calm down. She had too many experiences with Flynt and she knows it is not wise to underestimate him. If he wanted to hurt them, he would've done so.

Breathe, stay calm. Her refined survival instincts are kicking in and she was doing her best to not let that cloud her rationality. She decided to ask again. Flynt didn't seem the type to lash out and kill people, if their past experiences have proven anything.

"Why are we the only ones left here?" She might just be silly but she has survived this far and on many occasions, she had nearly been killed when odd things like this had happened. Now she had the attention of the whole table. Primrose's consciousness has finally split through the crack of her memories and into the predicament of real life. Flynt, who was sorting through some papers he had retrieved from the case, looked up at her again while his hands were still elegantly flipping the pages. And Sasha was still glaring at her with one hand on his charge and the other reaching under the table slowly and if she hadn't been paying attention, she might've missed it. A gun under the table... She should've guessed.

"With the oddities happening here, I thought it wise to make sure nothing makes the news tomorrow. As you no doubt already know this, I'm quite the influential figure." Flynt finally responded. He paused and squinted a little as if to contemplate. "Or maybe I'm just famous but either way, it is for the best that we are in private company during our ordeal."

"You couldn't have just invited us to a private location the the first place then?"

"If I had done so, you would bring a nuclear weapon instead of a pistol. Which you are currently very close to utilizing. I'd appreciate it if you'd consider changing your decision on doing so." Is Flynt countering her defences with dry humour? Or is he always so formally informal? "Or you might just deem it too suspicious to attend at all. And I wouldn't blame you, our past relations weren't exactly congenial by any stretch of the imagination. Still, that is the unwanted outcome if I wanted to successfully execute my plan which I very much do. So I had to find a way however mendacious it might be. I hope you still heed my promise of a civilised discussion. Like I said, keep an open mind. I like to keep things practical and I see no harm in a little white lie."

She supposed it's reasonable. She just wanted to be informed of the development before she had to ask. Her and Primrose's safety isn't the easiest subject to maintain so it's easy for her to get a little jumpy. In the back of her mind however, she was curious if all sixteen year old spoke this way. She herself didn't have that big a vocabulary. She would rather focus her attention and efforts on things that were more relevant, especially in her line of work.

"I would like you to keep me in the loop about any other surprises." She said with emphasis and restraint while retrieving her hand and crossing her arms. She shared an identical look of vigilance and relief with Primrose as they both payed attention again to the case.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Flynt assured but he dragged his words like he wanted to add 'Your highnesses' at the end while rolling his eyes. Thankfully, in favor of professional modus operandi, he kept it terse and dismissed her qualms.

So much bad blood and the evening was nowhere to reaching its climax. Sia sighed internally. This was going to be a long night.