CHAPTER 14

"Son," Darius called, peeping from his office door. "Can I see you in my office?"

From where he stood, he could see Callie, who sat in the lounge on her phone. She shook her head, telling him she did not know what the summon was about.

"Close the door behind you." Darius said as he sat behind his desk.

"Everything okay dad?" Hiram inquired walking to the desk.

His father didn't reply, he just pushed him a brown folder and continued to work on his MacBook. Hiram had a quizzical look on his face as he picked up the folder. "What is this?"

"Read it." Darius instructed him.

He sat on one of the two chairs in front of the desk and went through the contents. It was a report outline the crisis facing the New York firm. Hiram raised his eyes from the folder and found his father staring at him.

"Go on." His father urged, and he obliged.

Inside, there were emails, crisis reports, impact analysis reports, stakeholder statements, risk assessment reports and appendices.

"Damn!" He exclaimed. "I didn't realize it was this bad."

"Why didn't you come to me?" Darius asked looking his son straight in the eye.

"Pardon me?"

"Don't play dumb with me Hiram!" Darius snapped to Hiram's surprise. "Gwen called me, told me about your request on the New York firm."

"I just wanted to know how bad things real-" Darius cut in.

"You didn't think of coming to me first?"

"I asked you about it earlier today and you didn't seem like you wanted to share." Hiram protested.

"Did it occur to you that I had a good reason for that?" Darius threw at him.

"And what reason might that be dad?" Hiram was almost losing it too. He was very slow anger on normal circumstances but in the current situation he felt like it was justified for him to be mad. He felt like he was over reacting for nothing.

"I don't have to explain myself to you-"

"I am the reason you are in this mess in the first place, the least you can do is give me an-"

"Watch your tongue young man!" Darius warned.

Hiram fell silent, took a deep breath before he spoke. "I was just trying to help dad."

"By going behind my back? Hiram this is a very delicate matter, only a few people know about this." He paused pulling the folder to his side of the desk. "You are lucky Gwen is loyal to me, I'd hate to imagine what would happen-"

"Why are you always ready to assume the worse dad?" Hiram threw at him.

"Because this is business damn it! One wrong move and you lose everything. Who knows what can happen if other branches know find out about this?" He threw at him. It was a rhetorical question. "We could lose so many investors, people would flee from the company-" Hiram cut n again. This time, more relaxed.

"But we didn't. I now know the risk of what I did, and I'm sorry."

Darius didn't comment, he looked at his son for a long while before speaking. "Always come to me son, whatever it may be." He finished, leaning forward to his MacBook.

Hiram gave a nod as he stood, "It'll all work out dad." He said softly and walked out.

Callie quickly got to his feet when she saw his brother step out of the office. "What was that about?" Knowing her brother, she went on. "And don't tell me nothing because it sounded pretty heated."

Hiram stopped and turned, "Stuff to do with the New York firm, I went to his assistant to get more info and he didn't like that very much."

He didn't let Callie reply, just turned and walked the remaining steps then shut his bedroom door.

Ten minutes later, he stepped out with his car keys in hand, having thrown on a navy-blue jacket. Callie had an idea where he was headed at this odd hour.

Outside the bar in Malibu, he spotted an empty parking space where he carefully parked the car and stepped into the bar. He quickly noted that nothing had changed since the last time he had been there. He made his way through the crowd and sat on the usual stool. He spotted Ammika on the other end of the counter, she seemed busy. The excitement on her face when she turned and saw him made him smile. "One minute." She mouthed to him giving a wave.

A minute passed, then two, almost three. Hiram looked up, the minute she had promised was taking a little bit longer than he thought. Something wasn't right, he could tell from her face. The guy she was serving held her hand, firmly that she would have appreciated. He was leaning towards her, whispering something to her. Hiram could tell she was very uncomfortable, trying to pull her hand free from this man's grip. He quickly got to his feet, feeling a sudden urge to save her from the claws of this stranger. Before he could take a step in that direction, a male bartender walked up to the man and rescued her, leading the man out of the bar.

Hiram slowly sat back down, his gaze still on her. He had no idea what he had done if she had gone there, all he knew was he wanted to save her from him. She placed the bottle under the counter and walked to Hiram who quickly broke his stare.

"Hi," she began softly, a little flushed from his stare a couple of seconds ago.

"Hey." He replied, trying hard not to smile.

"He lives!" She mocked and they laughed softly.

"I have been busy," he drawled.

"I guessed as much." She paused for a second. "I missed you."

His eyes shot up and met hers, what had she just said? He didn't know how to reply to that and even if he did, he was too dumbfounded to speak.

"I hope that's not a weird thing to say." She added a nervous laugh.

"Why would you think thar? I missed you too, a lot actually."

Her face dropped as she shifted her gaze from his eyes, trying to hide her smile from him.

"What was that guy's deal? Are you okay?"

"It's part of the job, some drunk bastard will make a pass at you and get physical and violent when you turn them down. But I am okay. Thank you. What can I get you?"

He studied the drinks arranged in racks behind her, his eyes rushing from right to left.

"Can I get a hard soda?"

She seemed surprised for a second but chose not to ask about it.

They spent the following couple of minutes talking about him and how he had been since they last spoke. "What was it like meeting the great Victoria Lane?" She asked, filled with enthusiasm.

"Not you too," he cried.

"Come one, she's probably one of the biggest names in Hollywood right now, don't tell me you didn't feel anything."

He sighed and leaned back on the stool's backrest. "I mean of course it was nice and all. She just ha this aura about her that you can't really explain but she's just another human being."

She wasn't convinced, surely there had to be more. "Is that all?" She pressed.

"You don't meet someone like Victoria Lane every day, it was genuinely an amazing moment. She is an incredible person with an amazing personality." He took a sip of his drink. "But enough about me, lets talk about you, how are you."

There was some hesitation from her, he saw the sadness that washed over her face for a millisecond before she feigned a smile. "Nothing much, just the usual ups and downs."

He knew that was a lie, he could tell something was wrong. Before he could make up his mind on whether to ask about it or not, she spoke again. "I gotta go give Klara a hand, enjoy your drink."

He watched her walk away, wondering what could possibly be the problem. He knew the 'I gotta go give Klara a hand' was just an excuse to walk away from the conversation.

She had walked away because she knew he was going to ask more about it and she hated lying to him. She had already lied once and she'd hate to do it again. By walking away, she was protecting herself from lying to him and protecting him from being dragged into her life troubles.

He sunk into his phone as the night faired on, taking small sips of his soda. It was Klara's voice that distracted him from his phone. 'Oh, hey, sorry I didn't see you there." He said to her looking around at the empty bar.

"You've been absorbed on that phone for ages. Everything okay?" She inquired picking up the empty bottle and placing it under the counter.

"Yeah, it's just Ammika that I'm worried about. I asked how she's doing and the next thing I know she's avoiding me."

"I don't think she is; she has lots going on. Just give her time." She advised. "Anyway, I just passed to say goodnight."

"Goodnight to you too Klara."

Two minutes later, Ammika came in from the back and almost jumped on seeing him. "You're still here."

"You seemed shocked." He pointed out.

"I didn't expect anyone to still be here this late."

"Are you done back there?" He asked looking the entrance to the backroom.

"Not yet, I still have these to clean," she picked up. Three glasses from the counter.

"I'll wait for you."

"You don't have t-"

'I want to." He interrupted her.

She disappeared into the back once again. After a while, everything fell silent, too silent.

"Ammika," he called but received no answer. "Ammie," he called again, a little worried. "Ammika!" Still no answer. What in the world could have happened back there?