Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 24

On Monday morning, Francie wasn’t in the conference room. No one said anything to her about why. Other than Uri, Natalia saw no one she could even ask. She knew to do her job. No one bothered her, except for Ravi who paced up and down the hall a number of times. Right before lunch, he stopped in.

“Where’s Francie today?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

She didn’t even have any sort of excuse to offer.

“Keep up the good work,” he said, and he left.

Uri arrived a few minutes later.

“Lunch?” he said.

“Coopers?”

“Of course.”

“Let’s go.”

They were in the limo before Uri engaged in conversation.

“Was Ravi pacing the hallway?”

“Yes. He stopped in and asked about Francie a few minutes before you came to get me for lunch.”

“He’s very distracted. I’ve had to cover for him a number of times.”

“Bad for him. Good for you.”

He nodded, but he looked a little concerned.

“This isn’t a good time,” he said.

“Want me to tell Sherri?”

“I already have. She told me to mind my own business.”

Natalia looked at him carefully because of the tone of his voice.

“You’re pissed off,” she said, surprised to see him so since he was always so calm and collected.

“The bank is my business,” he said in a serious voice.

“Is she supposed to stick her nose in everyone’s business?” Natalia said.

“No. When she lost out last year being Council head, everyone thought it would ease up. Not happening. Mirren can’t control her.”

“Can anyone control a Viperian woman?”

Uri smiled and brushed her cheek with his hand.

“The one person who should be on the Council is Tia. I would actually pull my candidacy if she had run.”

“Can’t have three family members on the Council?”

“No, although, she and Mirren aren’t family.”

“But they are family to you.”

“Yes.”

“Between the bank and me, I can’t see you having much time for the Council.”

“That has been discussed,” he said.

The limo pulled up to Coopers.

As usual, they bypassed the line and were seated immediately.

“I actually want the soup and sandwich special today,” she said. “Ham and swiss sounds good.”

The waiter brought three glasses of sanguine tea. Before Natalia could ask why, Moralis scooted in beside Uri.

“We have to talk,” Moralis said.

“Where?”

“Can I pick you up tonight?”

“You okay going home alone?” Uri said, looking at her.

“Yes, no problem.”

“What’s the topic?’ Uri said to Moralis.

“We’ll talk tonight.”

“Okay.”

“So what is up with your President? He missed our meeting,” Moralis said.

He picked up his tea and drained it. As soon as he put the glass down, the waiter brought in iced tea for all three of them.

“Someone’s been messing with him.”

“Nattie. You have Uri,” Moralis said, but there was a playful tone to his voice.

She laughed.

“Not me.”

“Sherri,” Uri said under his breath.

“Good topic for tonight,” Moralis said. “Have you seen Grazie lately?”

“Yes. He was over last week for knife throwing lessons.”

Uri nodded at her.

“You any good?” Moralis said, looking at her.

“Just don’t stand in front of her,” Uri said.

“I can hit the target,” she said.

The waiter came with their lunch and the conversation stopped. They all dug into their lunches. Both Uri and Moralis were done with their lunches before her. Now that her appetite was back to normal, she liked eating slower.

“Do you work for the bank, Moralis?” she said.

“No and yes. I work at Major Mortgage Financial. We do a lot of the underwriting for loans that the bank puts together.”

“Doesn’t mean much to me,” she said. “I don’t know all of banking, yet.”

“Banks can’t do it all. We help and make it look like the bank does it all,” he said.

“They’re on the twelfth floor. He might as well work for the bank,” Uri said.

“Mortgage company pays better,” Moralis said with a smile.

“I have billions at my fingertips,” Uri said.

“Speaking of billions, was that auditor problem due to… Sherri?”

He mouthed her name, hiding his lips with his hand.

“No. That was actually the work of Sophie.”

“Damn. Don’t piss her off.”

“Hell, no.”

Moralis chuckled as if Uri had told a joke.

Uri chuckled as well.

Natalia rolled her eyes at the vague reference to Hell.

“Not a fun place,” she said.

“You took her to Hell?” Moralis said, showing astonishment.

“I don’t control where I’m sent. Seems of late I get sent to who knows where whenever Nattie is with me.”

“And she still hangs around you? Dedicated woman.”

“Lunch is over,” Uri said, sliding over and bumping Moralis to have him move. “I have to go find a President.”

They all rose.

“Can I ride back with you?” Moralis said. “I walked here. Had to get out for a bit.”

“Sure.”

Traffic was moving slow past the restaurant making them have to wait a few minutes for the limo to pull up.

“Who’s your driver these days?” Moralis said once they were in the limo.

“Bonnie.”

“Shit. Don’t piss her off either.”

He looked back with a grin. Natalia couldn’t feel any vibration, but from his reaction, he had gotten a response back from Bonnie.

“She’s the best driver I’ve had,” Uri said.

“Anyone who’ll go to Hell and back with you is the best,” Moralis said.

He was totally serious.

The limo pulled up to the bank. As a group, the entered the building and stepped onto the same elevator, but Moralis got off on the twelfth floor.

“See ya, later,” Moralis said.

Uri just nodded.

Natalia returned to the conference room and continued her work. It was a lot slower without Francie’s help and not as much fun. Time seemed to slow down. Ravi passed the conference room a few more times after lunch, then he stopped coming. She didn’t see him or anyone else.

Natalia found she actually had to watch the clock. No one was going to tell her it was time to go home.

“I should put an alarm on my phone,” she said to herself, but she didn’t.

It was actually the guard who paced by that reminded her. It was a few minutes after five. She packed up her satchel and headed out. The guard locked up behind her. Uri’s office was dark, and his door was shut. She assumed it was probably locked.

Natalia felt strange getting into the limo by herself. She felt like a lot of people were watching because Bonnie had opened the door for her. They were probably really thinking she was an auditor with that kind of treatment.

“Thank you,” she said to Bonnie.

“You’re welcome.”

She had always thanked the servants when she was growing up, despite her mother never did. Most of the servants were nicer to her than her mother.

“No reason to stop,” she said under her breath.

She watched out the window, now knowing every turn and every street name. There seemed to be a little static in the air as if there was a radio on, but she ignored it as road noise from the limo tires.

Once home, Bonnie pulled into the garage and shut the garage door. Natalia knew to wait until the door was closed.

Bonnie left her seat to hurry around to open the door for her.

“Thanks. Have a good night, Bonnie.”

Bonnie nodded and headed toward the guest house. Natalia headed toward the door to the house. Uri had pulled ahead more than usual when he last parked his car. She paused to see the best way around it. There was more room if she went around the rear, but she was already at the front so she slowly edged around it.

Before she got to the house door, the light on the garage door opener blinked out. There were no other lights on in the garage.

Natalia stopped. She knew how many steps she had to take to get to the door so she really didn’t need any light to find her way there. However, the garage didn’t seem as dark as it should have been. She did a slow spin around. When the limo came in to view, she stopped. Despite, she had seen the limo a number of times at night, this was the first night, she saw the symbol. There was a glowing red V on the side of it. Uri’s sports car also had a red V.

“So Viperians always know what or who is Viperian,” she said to herself. “Everything is marked.”