Chapter 15 – Freeing Anna Kent – part 1
When Aniya’s Uber ride left her near a side street where a line of taxis was waiting for customers, Aniya rushed to the first car in the line. After giving the driver the address of her company, Aniya turned on her phone, which had been off ever since she left Lisa’s house the previous day.
The phone buzzed continuously with messages and missed calls. During the ride, Aniya checked the messages. A bunch were from her followers on ‘aniya_rossi_official’, her I.nstagra.m account, a few messages from Anna, her faithful assistant, and a bunch of missed calls from her mother.
Aniya frowned and made a call. “Lisa? How is everything with you?”
“Oh, the usual, cleaning the mess in my room. You? Nothing different?”
Aniya grinned, “Not much. I went through a scary change, always in control, and I made Nick snap out of it as well, and we went for a nice midnight run. I was thinking if you want to come to my place today, maybe I can do the same to you?”
Lisa’s voice came out weird as if she was gasping for air, “No freaking way… Pick me up! I am so there! My Queen, I will be your loyal servant forever!”
“After work, I will meet you. Bring a set of clothes for you to change. Can you be a dear and buy clothes for Nick? Sneakers, I think size forty-three, trousers maybe forty-eight, underwear, shirts and sweaters size XL? He kind of ruined his clothes and had to wear some of mine. He looked darn funny in lycra shorts and a size M shirt this morning.”
“Oh, you naughty girl! I want to know all the details! I am going shopping then! Do you need something for you?”
Aniya took a quick look at her I.nstagra.m account on ‘aniya_rossi_official’ and sent Lisa a couple of pictures. Her voice came from the other side, excited. “Oh! This looks nice! This is from the new Calvin Klein collection and from Dior? I saw these on your account!”
“Yes. Put it on my tab, will you? Maddie can help you with this.”
“On it, boss! I mean, my Queen! Sorry, my Queen! Hehehe!”
Aniya disconnected with a smile. She then looked at the bunch of missed calls from her mother again and sighed before pressing the icon on the screen. “Good morning, mother. Sorry, I had my phone turned off. Is something wrong?”
“Your father was very upset about you hanging around with Lisa last night! Did something… you know… happen?”
Aniya noticed a slight nervousness in her mother’s voice, together with a whisper nearby. Her father was most likely listening in on everything.
“Not really. We fooled around as usual, and we may or we may not have drunk a bit too much and went to sleep early.”
Suddenly, Dan Rossi’s voice came from the phone, shouting, “Are you nuts, Aniya? After I showed you what your friend is?”
“And what is she, father, despite my childhood friend that loves the smell of the pretty wolf’s bane flowers her father has in his office?”
A gasp from the phone, followed by Aniya’s father asking in a low tone, “She loves what? Explain that very well to me, because that’s not possible! We have several reports about her. There is no way our sources could be wrong!”
“Well, if your sources are so wrong about Lisa, I wonder what else they might have mistaken. Perhaps they erroneously condemned someone else? Or worse, forged evidence to frame an innocent person for God knows what purpose?”
Dan Rossi’s voice came out cold as ice, “We don’t do that, Aniya. Come home as soon as you finish work, and I will take you to one meeting to meet some people. You will see how honourable we are, just in case you have any doubts.”
“I can’t today, father. Maybe tomorrow? I have already told Lisa’s father I would be there for dinner. He wants to celebrate an important date with his wife and wants to surprise her. Knowing Lisa, she won’t let me leave, and I will probably sleep there as well.”
Aniya wondered why there was whispering on the other side, and then her mother’s voice spoke, sounding hesitant, “At least leave your phone on, dear, we may need to call you for something.”
“For what, my dear mother? To check my GPS location to be sure I am where I said I would be? You keep on forgetting that I am not a little kid anymore, and if I don’t want to tell you or have you find out where I am at all times, you, of all people, should understand that. Or being a mere administrative for father’s side job broke your spine so much that having an independent daughter annoys you so much?”
Before her mother had time to say one more word, Aniya disconnected the call and checked her messages. The taxi driver looked at her from the rear mirror and asked with a grin under his absurdly large moustache and dark eyes, framed by a round face and short dark brown hair, “Troubles with parents, young lady?”
Without even stopping looking at her phone, Aniya’s voice made the driver look forward and become silent again. “What about you concentrating more on your driving and less on my personal life? Or do you know me from somewhere? Because I have an excellent memory and I remember everyone that worked or still works for me, and I don’t recall ever meeting you.”
For the rest of the ride, Aniya kept checking her messages and thinking about what she had to do for the day. A quick message to her faithful assistant, and she put the phone in her purse again, staring at the side window next, and remembering the feelings from last night during her free run.
When the taxi stopped near the main entrance of Aniya’s company, Anna Kent was there, waiting.
She quickly opened the door for Aniya and greeted her with a nervous smile, “Miss Aniya, I thought you would never answer my messages and phone calls! We have-“
Aniya signalled with her head to the curious taxi driver and spoke as she was going to the main entrance, “Pay the man, and we will speak inside, Anna.”
As Anna was checking the amount in the taximeter, the driver asked, “Miss, who is that young lady? Is she someone important?”
“She is the company owner. And you really should stop making questions about your clients, you know? Miss Aniya is very faithful and kind to the ones that do their job without too much fuss. She may have her reasons for using your taxi instead of her personal driver, and she may need your services again if, and only if, you keep your mouth shut. Understood?”
The taxi driver vigorously nodded while moving his thumb and index finger over his lips, as if he was closing a zipper, and Anna paid him with an extra, after one last line, “Do you have a card, just in case Miss Aniya needs a trustworthy taxi driver again?”
She stared at the card that the driver eagerly handed over. “I will give her this. As for you, no babbling about where you picked her up or where you brought her, understood? Miss Aniya values her privacy, and she absolutely hates any sort of scandal.”
The driver put the money in a purse under the taximeter, handed over a receipt, and left while Anna Kent was going through the main door of the tall building. The taxi driver looked in the rearview mirror as he mumbled, “All that is that young lady’s building? She might be filthy rich! I sure hope she calls me one day because the tip that girl gave me made my entire week!”
In the hallway, Aniya was looking at the several televisions behind the front reception counter, and as Anna Kent joined her, Aniya asked, “Is that a new advertisement?”
“Yes, Miss Aniya. Our marketing team was working on that for a few months, but the former director of the Marketing Department vetted it. Since he was fired yesterday, and we now have a very capable new director who was moved yesterday from the photocopies department, her first decision was to approve this new campaign. You… don’t like it?”
“It’s actually very good. I remember seeing a few photos and market studies about this, and I wondered why it wasn’t approved. It seems the pervert wanted something more from his new trainee in exchange for his approval. I am glad that she didn’t bend to his wishes.”
Anna Kent spoke in a low voice as they were heading to the elevator. “According to what she told me last time I spoke to her, bending over was what he asked of her. Right before she knee-kicked his groins and stormed out of his office, shouting ‘pervert’ to anyone that could hear her. She went straight to Human Resources to file a complaint, but the person who handled her case convinced her to lay low and accept a change to another department, implying that she wouldn’t ever be able to find another job because her reputation would be tainted if she tried to go against such a company like this.”
Aniya felt her anger piling up, and her assistant immediately explained, “The woman in the Human Resources department was fired as well. No need to worry, Miss Aniya! Her name was also on that list I gave you, remember?”
When the elevator doors opened, Aniya entered, followed by her nervous assistant. When the doors closed, Aniya took a slow sniff. She felt something different near her, something that she felt the moment she left the taxi and her assistant spoke.
Aniya stared at her assistant and noticed that she looked way more nervous than usual. She remembered that, aside from a few days every month, Anna Kent was always calm and undisturbed, and not even Aniya’s sudden explosions and mood swings could make her act differently. Except on those days. Aniya approached her surprised assistant and sniffed her very close to her left shoulder.
“What… is the matter… Miss Aniya?”
“There is something different about you, Anna… I don’t know... Are you in your period, perhaps?”
Anna Kent turned bright red while under Aniya’s serious gaze, “No… only almost two weeks from now… why…”
Aniya’s next words made her suddenly freeze and turn pale. “Second night after the full moon. Are you feeling wild today, Anna?”
“I-I d-don’t know what you are talking about, Miss Aniya…”
Surprisingly, Aniya could hear her assistant’s heart rhythm increasing in speed each minute. She could see the small drops of sweat forming on her forehead and smell her fear. Aniya backed away a little and spoke in a low voice, “I do hope you are taking proper measures, Anna, because if I ever find out that you ate someone in your beast form, I will detach your head from your body.”
“I-I swear, I d-don’t understand what-“
When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Aniya nuzzled her assistant to walk in front of her, and they both headed to Aniya’s office at the end of the corridor. When Aniya crossed the door, she whispered, “Lock the door and close the blinds, Anna.”
Since she didn’t move, Aniya glanced at her, and Anna jumped straight to the door, locking it and running to close the blinds as ordered. She then dragged herself to Aniya’s desk and sat in the empty chair in front of the serious CEO, who kept on staring at her in complete silence.
Aniya made a slight smile and spoke in a low voice, “Do you have a safe place to lock yourself tonight, Anna? Because you are more nervous today than you used to be. I noticed that at least three days every month, you are more nervous and prone to errors than usual, but today, you are exceptionally nervous. Did something happen?”
Since Anna trembled and her eyes suddenly became wet, Aniya slowly leaned forward. “Anna… Did the Hunters come for you yesterday?”