𝐋𝐢𝐚

I was feeling better the day after I found out how popular I had become with the release of the trailer of Children of Blood and Oil. I was exceptionally excited to start messing with Max, my stomach actually fluttered at the idea. I was disappointed when Luc called to say he wouldn't make it because he had a photo shoot with Gucci especially knowing he would be with Serena. I wanted to be with them too, but I put my disappointment aside knowing he would only be delayed by one day. I would see him tomorrow anyway. I didn't have much to do so when Max called to apologize and invite me for a drink that evening, I accepted. I figured it would help to keep me occupied, and assess his head space from our last conversation.

They say hindsight is twenty-twenty, my father says the first impression of a bad person is the personality you should use to judge them. Well, I miscalculated.

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𝐌𝐚𝐱
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She came. Her bodyguard walking beside her in black cargo pants, a black t-shirt, a black jacket and black sneakers. All in black.

Did he think he was going to a funeral? I thought, fighting the urge to sneer.

When I called Lia this afternoon inviting her for a drink as friends in the evening, I was sceptical she would agree.

But she did.

We were sitted side by side, making sure I was a little far from touching her, respectively interacting with her without making innuendos of any kind. I wanted her trust, and it worked because I had managed to somehow persuade her into taking a sip of my drink. I didn't take much, just a tiny sip to convince her it was harmless, while she took a mouthful of the beer after the first sip.

"I have a brother who prefers beer to any other alcoholic drink.

"Yeah," I prompted, watching her closely while feigning interest in whatever she was saying. I was fuming, anger surrounded me like a thick blanket the more her dark eyes sparked when she spoke of the family. I hated that I called her. ThatI swallowed my pride to initiate this date after she turned me down the first time.

I was going to make her regret it.

"Her bodyguard returned into a seat beside Lia, part of his arm touching her shoulder. She didn't seem to mind, they had a different relationship, I could tell with the way she would turn to whisper something in his ear. Not sexual, but close nonetheless.

"Why don't you tell your watchdog to leave you alone for a fucking second?"

Lia turns to face me, her delicate brow lift, amusement in her gaze, "I have a watchdog?" I feel like she is laughing at me. I detest feeling as if someone is mocking me, like I was some sort of entertainment for her.

"Him," I nod towards where her bodyguard is seated nursing a glass of a small amount of whiskey.

He narrows his eyes at me, his stare becoming intense with every second it remained on my face that it starts to make me uncomfortable. Lia, damn her, doesn't say a word until I break the stare by clearing my throat and pretending to take another sip of my beer.

"Oh, him?" she point at the man, grinning at him first and then at me.

"He wouldn't leave even if I told him to." she respond. I'm not sure whether she sounded relieved or regretful.

"Why the hell not?"

She let's out a beautiful small laugh, then shakes her head.

"I'm not his boss." She mumbles. I mutter a curse, glaring at her, confused at her reply.

"You pay him, don't you?"

She shakes her head again, and then adds, "his boss pays him."

I move my eyes from one to the other thinking they were probably messing with me.

She is messing with me. I detested this side of her, the way she turns her mouth up at the corner like she is enjoying an inside joke at my expense.

I had arranged this night for retribution against Lia—revenge for not calling me back, for not wanting me back. I do not care that I sound like a maniac, a narcissistic

"How have you been?" such a mundane question. I almost roll my eyes, but I have to admit it gives me time to gauge her demeanour around me.

She is wearing another of her favourite white shirt opened at the throat, but this one is off-shoulder, which shows her smooth skin I almost bend over to taste her. One side is tucked into a pair of mom jeans and red block heels at her feet, giving her just the best height.

"I'm okay. Can't complain. Are you still looking forward to the launch party?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm excited. Its my first." The smile she gives me is sweet, innocent, genuine. I wonder if this evasive innocence she portrays sometimes is the reason I can't stop wanting her.

"They are absolutely fun." I tell her, giving her one of those grins my fans call pant-dropping. Lia doesn't react to it though. Nothing I do seems to impress her. In a way, I feel like I want her as much as I seem to loath her.

My phone rang, I take it from the table where I had placed it facedown. Glancing at the caller, I quickly excuse myself, walking out of the private lounge.

I'm excited and alarmed at the same time. I've never had to go through such length for a woman, another thing I blamed on Lia. Driving me insane with wanting. Why the hell couldn't she just want me like every other woman I was attracted to?

"Hi. Is everything ready?" I ask the person on the other end of my call.

"Yes. It's in motion. I throw a look at Lia, she is still in her full faculties, chatting and laughing with her bodyguard.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Though the bodyguard had a small amount of whiskey, but I have managed to mess up his water. "

I surreptitiously rest my eyes on the duo to find the drug has started working, and for a second I'm paralyzed in place,trying to convince myself to abort the mission. But I don't.

I wedge myself through people to get to her. Once I'm near I see Lia's eyes are glassy, but there is a tiny awareness in them, but before she could have time to act, one of my guys kicks the bodyguard on the head, luckily, we are in a private lounge, no one can see us from here.

Lia is wasted so I have to carry her out. My driver is ready when we exit the club, carrying Lia in a way that hides her face to protect her and me if she ever decides to report me.

I was banking on her wanting to protect her privacy, plus I was ready to blackmail her with the threat of outing her drug use even though I was responsible for administering it.

"Go," I tell the driver. We arrive at my favourite hideaway. It wasn't my place, one of my dealers owned it. A tall, lean full-body tattooed guy with an Italian accent. I liked him, he doesn't bat an eyes no matter what I do. I think there is nothing he hasn't seen. Perhaps he has seen more outrageous iniquities than I could ever comprehend that me bringing women, introducing them to drugs and recording a sex tape with them was nothing.

My driver opens the door for me, Lia is still out, but her breathing is steady.

"You brought another bitch in my place?" he gives me a side look, glancing at the woman in my arms for a second before going back to smoking, a glass of brandy in his other hand. "You've got to stop this soon, you know?"

"Why when I enjoy it so much?"

He chortles, then coughs, but he doesn't say anything until I uncover Lia.

"How many redheads do you know?" he asks in an amused tone.

"Just a few, but I've only wanted this one," I respond in a drifting voice. I'm kneeling beside Lia who is lying on a couch which Chris, my bodyguard had unfolded to make a bed. I touch her hair, then place a finger beneath her nose to check if she is still breathing.

The room is quiet, but suddenly there is a scraping of a chair on the floor which has me shouting a cuss out loud.

"Get a carpet dude, " that annoying, unnecessary noise will turn us deaf in no time.

"What the fuck have you done?" I thought he was talking on the phone because I hadn't done anything from ordinary, but he forcefully grabs my hand and pulls me up.

"What the fuck have you done?" This time I don't mistake the anger and fear in his voice and eyes.

My eyes narrow with confusion, and Chris is trying to pull Dino from my hand.

"What are you doing, man?" I ask, gripping his hand with my free one.

"He let out a desperate Italian cuss, then covers his face with both hands as if he was in a predicament he didn't know how to get out of.

"Do you know who that is?" he points at Lia. I smirk, relieved that whatever I had done wasn't a big deal.

"That's Lia. She is my co-star in the new season of Children of Blood and Oil."

He throws me an irate look and I don't understand why Lia is the only one that invokes this side of him.

"Are you jealous, is that it? Do you have a crush on her or something?"

"Oh, my God! What have you done? Do you have any fucking idea what you've done? Where is her phone?"

"Come down! She is just an actress." Dino turns grabs me again, pushing me against the wall. His amber eyes are shimmering with so much anger it scared me.

Two of Dino's friends standing over Lia do not say a word nor do they interfere in our altercation, but Chris holds me up when Dino throws me away from him.

"Whay did you give her?"

I don't say a word.

"  Rohypnol," I answer quickly when he glares at me.

"How much of it?"

"A pinch."

"How much is a pinch."

"Just a little to knock her out." I defend, my eyes resting on her peaceful body.

"Oh, my God. What do I do now?" Dino is pacing so much I almost feel dizzy from looking at him.

"Did you touch her?"

"What ?"

"Have you fucked her?"

I feel annoyed and irritated. "Not yet,"

"Keep it that way."

"I don't understand why you're so freaked out about an actress people just found out about like a day ago."

"You think I'm freaked out" his tone is fierce, angry when he looked at me.

"I wouldn't give two cents fuck about your teen drama. I'm terrified. I have known of her existence since the day she was born. God, where the fuck is her phone. We need to switch it off before we can come up with a plan."

"A plan for what?" I blink at Dino, momentarily confused at what he had just said. "I kneel beside Lia, checking for her phone in her pocket jeans.

I find it, and I hand it over. "Why do I even bother? She probably has a GPRS chip under her skin"

"Can you please tell me what the fuck is going on?"

"What is going on is that you've just kidnapped Lia Boselli." One of Dino's friends tells me.

"Yeah, and I am Maxwelll Vanderbilt. I'm a bigger deal."

He lets out a mocking laugh. "Trust me when I tell you, you ain't shit compared to her. "

"What did you do with Dev?" Dino asks, he is still toying with the idea of either switching her phone off or keeping it on.

"Who is Dev?"

"Her bodyguard." he snaps at me.

"She couldn't lose him when I asked. She said something about not being his boss but she was lying, she just didn't want to be left alone with me."

"She wasn't lying you dumb fuck, her father is his boss."

"Dont call me names," I was beginning to get angry too.

"I will call you whatever I damn well please. You brought what might be a ticket to my death to my house."

"I need to call my grandfather. He might know what to do." Even in my clouded haze of incomprehensible anger, I started to somehow understand that Lia held a denoting bomb against all of us, but I didn't know how. Dino entertaining the idea of calling his evil grandfather, from what I had gathered from him in recent years we had been acquaintances suggested this was huge.

I take a look at Lia, this girl that I had wanted from the moment I saw her. Who the hell was she?

Why would Dino think she had a GPRS chip under her skin?

"I have stayed under the radar of her family for the last thirty-one years I've been alive, but you've just fucked that up in one night. "

"C'mon, Dino. It's not that bad. Nobody saw us."

Dino didn't seem to hear, nor did I have a chance to reassure him because out of nowhere, four men in dark suits smashed down the door, waving guns at us while Lia's bodyguard ran toward her, putting a finger on her neck to feel her pulse.

I could see the moment he realized she was alive. Visible relief shook his whole body.