Ch21. Visitor

'I have... A visitor?' Johan thought, perplexed. 'Who would visit me here?' But he did as he was told.

Staring at the wall, Johan waited for several seconds, until he heard the loud click of the magnetic lock on the door of his solitary confinement.

A few moments later, Johan heard delicate but loud footsteps, probably from a high-heeled stiletto, and then the guard's voice echoed into the solitary confinement.

"Turn around."

When Johan turned around, however, his heart skipped a beat.

Lana Baker, Erick Vaughn's secretary, was there.

However, she looked very different from when he had seen her after the trip, and even at dinner.

There, she wore a simple, but very well-cut dress, with a slight cleavage on the leg, heeled sandals, and light make-up.

There, in solitary confinement, however, Lana wore a black business suit, with a white silk shirt open to just above her lap.

Her shapely legs were slightly on show, thanks to the pencil skirt that accentuated the curves of her hips.

Her hair was tied up in a ponytail that made her red mane look slightly more behaved, and her green eyes were framed by extremely subtle black eyeliner.

Even her lips were redder than usual, covered in a generous layer of blood-colored lipstick.

Johan had to try very hard not to literally lose his breath at the sight.

"Uh... To what... To what do I owe this visit, Miss Baker...?" He asked, doing everything in his power to keep his jaw in place.

"First of all, call me Lana, Mr. Vaughn..."

The tone of Lana's speech had something behind it that Johan couldn't describe at first, apart from the strange whispering that seemed so natural to everyone in the room, which made it sound completely out of place to Lana.

When Lana finished speaking, however, Johan understood exactly what that tone meant.

"... Second..." She approached Johan, getting so close that he could almost feel the minty breath on her lips.

Once he understood what was behind Lana's tone of voice, Johan's world fell apart.

"... How about we stop playing games, Mr. Johan Reed?" Lana's arm moved so fluidly and smoothly that Johan could barely understand what was happening, before he was taken by the strength - by the technique - of the young red-haired woman, pinning him against the wall and trapping him by the throat.

She was shorter than Johan, but had much more technique even than Mason, which meant that Johan had little choice but to follow her movements so as not to be choked.

"Where's Erick Vaughn?" She asked.

Johan knew that this would probably be everyone's reaction if they found out.

But Lana had something indescribable in her eyes when she asked the question.

Johan lingered for a moment before answering.

"How did you find out...?" Johan immediately felt his throat being squeezed tighter by Lana's forearm. "Okay, okay! All right..." Johan gave up. "Erick is fine, he's alive. He's... Living my life..."

Lana frowned, tilting her head slightly.

"What... Living his... What?"

Johan let out a giggle, but Lana's forearm made the giggle choke in his throat.

"No more jokes! What did you do to Erick? And how... How do you look so much like him...?"

Johan raised his arms in surrender.

"Look, since you've found out, I have no reason to hide anything from you, so I'll answer your questions with pleasure, really. But... Could you, if you're so kind, stop trying to strangle me? It's uncomfortable..."

Lana hesitated for a moment, then said.

"If you try anything funny, you'll be a dead man."

"We're in jail... Lana." Johan rolled his eyes very slightly. "I'll be a dead man if I try anything."

Lana sniffled, collecting her forearm.

Johan held his own throat, breathing freely at last.

"Now talk, how come you look so much like Erick? What did you do to him?"

"Right... But I'll tell you, it's going to sound like a story out of a movie." Johan said, looking into Lana's eyes, who just nodded positively, waiting for him to continue.

"All right, it all started when I saw Erick being chased by three bad-looking guys, he'd been stabbed, and, I'll be quite honest with you... I thought that, with the clothes he was wearing, saving him might guarantee me a good enough reward that I wouldn't have to sleep on the street for a long time..."

Johan continued telling the story, and from the point where the story had begun, to the point where Lana had come to visit him, there in that solitary confinement, the beautiful redhead's expression changed several times.

From disbelief to shock, then amazement, understanding, and back to total disbelief.

"You're right, this has got to be something out of a movie. I never thought something like that could happen in real life. But... It kind of makes sense. You not remembering where your room was... Erick's room, and then the way you just walked into the kitchen and talked to Grandma Alma as if she were just like you. How you put Claudius in his place after he mistreated her..." Lana pondered for a few moments, but before continuing, Johan interrupted her.

"Wait... How do you know all this?"

Lana giggled, tucking an unruly lock of that red mane behind her ear, almost making Johan lose his train of thought for a moment.

"Grandma Alma told me. She was spying on you through the kitchen door after Claudius came and abused her."

Johan raised an eyebrow.

"Right..."

"What I don't understand, really, is why Erick made that offer to you. He's definitely not the type who would give up everything he has just to have a different experience..."

"Oh, that..." Johan sighed heavily. "He already knew he'd be betrayed by Clifford, and was looking for some way to escape the situation. Coincidentally, he bumped into someone identical to him, and here we are..."

"You calculating bastard..." Lana said, making Johan's eyes widen.

"Wait, aren't you his secretary...? How can you swear at him like that?"

"Does that stop me from hating his guts?" Lana smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Look, I don't think you're lying, and I don't think you're a murderer either. We don't have time for me to tell you how I found out who you are, but I will tell you one thing. I trust you because of the way you treated Grandma Alma, now... I have bad news and worse news. Which one do you want to hear first?"