Chapter 8

In the aftermath of the attack, New Eden Enterprises is swiftly back on track. The authorities became involved and have successfully invaded the building, questioning everybody from basic personnel up to Beatrix Eden.

Beatrix isn’t sitting idly by in any of this. Since the attack, she has employed a number of outside investigators, fixers and mercenaries to investigate, spy and most importantly protect her employees. Money is not an issue. She treats the situation as not only an attack on her but one on her corporation, on her city. And that attack, plus the police investigation, has prompted Beatrix to perform an internal investigation of her own.

Her office has become an even more central hub of passing information. Being CEO always has its pros and cons, its responsibilities, but Beatrix has stepped into a larger role than before. But one thing has her concerned in the wake of the attack: Where is Danyelle?

Fortunately, the woman doesn’t have to go on wondering or waiting, because it isn’t long before her young lover makes an appearance. Beatrix is impatiently expecting for Danyelle to arrive at her office. She fought the urge to go rushing down to the floor the girl was on but ultimately decided to just wait. She has concerns and she doesn’t want to mix feelings with them. And as soon as she hears the knock to the office door, Beatrix is springing from the chair.

“Please hold all my calls and appointments,” Beatrix order s her secretary. She waits until the door closes behind her before showing Danyelle any attention. “Where in the hell have you been?” she asks and checks her girl from top to bottom, acting more motherly than girlfriend.

“I’ve been consoling workers,” Danyelle answers in her defense.

“I’ve got people specifically on the payroll for that,” Beatrix counters.

The girl is at a loss for words. She just stands there starring, totally unsure on what to say next.

“Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” Beatrix asks, her words coming out far more harshly than intended. Or did she intend it that way? Worry for Danyelle was mixing with worry her girlfriend had something to do with what happened.

The silence hanging in the air between the two is as cold as a crypt. The tears start to flow over Danyelle’s face, breaking the tension, anxiety and most importantly mistrust. “I did it because I was afraid,” she says. “I didn’t want to talk to a shrink so I talked to normal people, afraid like I was.”

Beatrix quickly drops her suspicions and that motherly role sets right back in as she wraps her arms around her girl. “I was so worried,” she says comfortingly. “There is so much going on and with our fights and the words...”

“Let’s not fight anymore,” Danyelle abruptly says. “Let’s work on whatever it is we need to, to make it work between us. Like before all this ... insanity.”

“I’m sorry if it felt like I was interrogating you,” Beatrix says, pulling her girl in closer. “This has just been a crazy shock. I never expected Naraphim to do something like this.”

Danyelle forces herself gently away. “So you believe he is real now?”

“Who else could it be?” the CEO questions. “He’s our biggest threat and after my press release, he couldn’t have been too happy.”

“I saw the thing,” Danyelle says, dropping her voice to a whisper. “It looked so much like our alien.”

“I think it was,” Beatrix agrees. “Or at least a piece of it.”

“You don’t think we have a thief, do you?” the girl asks incredulously.

“I do and I intend to find out whom,” the blonde replies. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I need food and a break from all of this.”

For the first time since stepping into the office Danyelle smiles and says, “Me, too.”

“This isn’t a restaurant,” Danyelle complains as they pull up in front of a bar and grill.

“It is, too, Dani,” Beatrix says smartly, putting the car into park. “Well, it’s not one of our usual haunts, but I’m sure the food is hot.”

“Is this why you cancelled the driver, so that we could sneak off to some bullshit hole-in-the-wall joint?” the girl argues.

“Get off your high horse,” Beatrix says with a frown, trying to suppress the urge to slap her girlfriend. “Not everything we do has to come with a hefty price tag.”

“I agree,” Danyelle says. “But we also don’t need to come to a dump like this.”

“The least you can do is check it out,” Beatrix counters. “I know you never got to see the inside of a place like this because of your parents.”

“You’re absolutely correct,” she says, this time it’s Danyelle replying smartly. “Mom and Dad would give an arm or leg to avoid eating here.”

“Well, do what you want,” Beatrix says and exits the car. Her knee-high, black leather boots clack on the asphalt. “You can stay here, but I’m going to go there and enjoy myself.”

“You should have really gone into sales instead of running a company, Beatrix,” the girl says sarcastically. “You’re a natural.”

Beatrix rolls her eyes, brushing off the girl’s childish attitude. She shrugs off her leather jacket and throws it over the headrest. The chill in the night air bites at the skin she is baring, but she can handle it.

“Yee-haw!” Danyelle shouts at the sight of a man dressed like a cowboy, her voice echoing over the empty expanse of pavement.

“Cool it, Dani,” Beatrix says affectionately. She understands the girl’s exuberance; she was her age once, too. Besides, she wouldn’t know what to do without the girl in her life. Then Danyelle does the unexpected and loops her arm through Beatrix’s and drags the woman forward.

The place is more bar than grill. There is a stage on one side and a long bar on the other. Between the two the floor is shared by tables and a dance area. The second they step inside, the pounding rhythm of music assaults them from the cover band on the stage. As soon as the song begins to fade out, the band is rolling right into the next.

“I’ll grab us a table. You get us a couple drinks,” Beatrix instructs, motioning with her head toward the bar. “This place is busy, so it might be some time before a waitress comes.”

Danyelle nods and cuts through the collection of bodies already waiting at the bar to be served. Beatrix watches as the bartender, a strikingly handsome man, immediately ignores everyone else to take her order. She leans over the bar, no doubt pushing up the cleavage that is barely concealed in her white tank top. His eyes drop and so does his jaw.

By the time the girl gets back, Beatrix has found a table. The waitress hasn’t made it to them, just as she predicted, but with cold drinks in hand it hardly matters. With the crowd of people gather in front of the stage, Beatrix remembers the days when she came to places like this. She grew up wealthy like Danyelle, but unlike her girlfriend she frequented places like this one. Beatrix always preferred to hang out with the poorer, more normal kids than her supposed peers.

Next to Beatrix, Danyelle seems to have faded into her own little world. Granted she doesn’t want to be here, because this place is nothing like the ones she favors and knows. What the fuck is Beatrix thinking? She has to fight the urge to just get up and storm out of the place, but that is before the singer of the band catches her attention.

The singer sure looks the part of a lead singer. Her head is half shaven with long pink hair. She has torn jeans, a black tank top and a spiked belt that is heavy enough to weigh her pants down dangerously low on her hips. She struts around the stage, occasionally hiking the belt up so that she doesn’t give the crowd more of a show than expected. All of this makes her look pretty badass. Instinctively, Danyelle’s tongue darts out to wet her lips.

As the song comes to an end, the singer holds out the mic to the crowd while they sing the final line. Her sweat-soaked shirt rides up, giving Danyelle a peek at the lean muscles underneath. When she pulls the mic back, her eyes meet Danyelle’s, no doubt catching the girl’s ravenous stare. She smirks, still looking at Dani, lifts the hem of the shirt and uses it to mop up the sweat dripping from her face. Danyelle swallows hard. Next the punk woman removes the shirt completely, revealing a dark grey sport bra holding down one of the nicest sets of breasts the girl has ever seen.

Danyelle feels incredible with the heat rushing through, the wetness seeping between her legs and the painful throbbing in her clit. The throbbing isn’t the normal feeling a woman gets, but something else. The first time she felt it was several weeks ago in a place much like this, but fancier of course...

Danyelle had spent much of the evening flirting with the waitress while the band played softly in the background. The restaurant and bar was aimed at the city’s upper crust, the perfect place for those that wanted to mingle with others of their stature. The bartender and waitresses were unfortunately not upper class. Of course, to serve such a position was not for those like Danyelle.

The girl always hangs around like-minded and wealthy people like her, but she usually prefers those lower than her. Unlike Beatrix, who feels superior to everyone equally because of her high intelligence, Danyelle thinks her social inferiors to be more fun. She may not have the intellect of her girlfriend, but she can easily see just how stuck up the rich could be.

So, after spending much of the evening passing back and forth flirtatious comments, Danyelle slipped a piece of paper onto the tray of the waitress. The act reminded her of the notes she often passed in school, and she was feeling giddy like a school girl. The waitress, Danika, smiled and grabbed the neatly folded piece of paper and walked away.

Danyelle had written simple message that read follow me. As soon as she saw a smile spread across the worker’s face, Danyelle’s libido kicked into high gear. She hopped off the stool and headed for a large set of double doors. Danika waited a full minute, then turned to see if anyone was watching before opening the heavy door to join her. Once inside, the door swinging shut behind her, Danika leans into it to support her trembling body.

Many things were running through Danika’s head at that moment. But what caught her attention the most was that Danyelle wasn’t in the room, at least not that she could see. She moved forward a few feet to take in her surroundings. The room was one of the off-limits rooms for the waiting staff. It wasn’t as spacious as the main room, and a good chunk of space was already taken up by an oval-shaped bar that stood in the middle of the floor. There was also a small dance floor on a slightly raised platform pressed against the wall at the back that housed a floor to ceiling mirror. The gold pole in the middle of the platform was a bit curious, making Danika wonder if there had once been strip shows put on in the place she worked.