Chapter 101: A Date
April swallowed hard, her mind frantically running through her current inventory to find a suitable bribe. "I can... give you another high-tier reading. Free of charge. Consider it an operational compensation package."
"A reading?" Nat snickered, his breath warm against her cheek. "Nah. You already owe me the details of that ’big bang’ for the two-billion-dollar rock I bought you. Try again."
April looked over at Xavier for assistance, but the tycoon merely leaned back, watching the interaction with a dark, quietly entertained gaze.
He wasn’t going to bail her out of this one; she was entirely on her own.
"Fine," April flatly stated, forcing her deadpan mask back onto her face despite the lingering blush of sheer mortification on her cheeks.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and tapped the screen. "I will authorize a direct transfer of one million dollars for the property damage and the cleaning fees. Let me go."
Nat burst into a loud, delighted bark of a laugh, finally straightening up and releasing his grip on her chair. "A million bucks?" Nat burst into a loud, delighted bark of a laugh, finally straightening up and releasing his grip on her chair. "Man, you really are a corporate shark now, aren’t you?"
Before she could pull away, he leaned down even further, his massive hand coming down over hers to firmly push her phone screen down.
"Since you’re having trouble coming up with a suitable bribe," he purred, his chaotic eyes gleaming behind his dark shades, "let me say exactly what I want."
April went completely silent, her throat tightening as she swallowed hard. A cold prickle of apprehension shot down her spine. Given his unpredictable, highly volatile nature, she could only pray it wasn’t something entirely unhinged or something that would put her off completely.
"A date," Nat said flatly.
April blinked, her deadpan expression momentarily slipping. "A what?"
"That’s what they call these things, right?" Nat shrugged, a lazy, lopsided grin splitting his face as he stepped back, flaring his hands wide. "You, me, hanging out. It’s a date."
April blinked twice and then looked over at Xavier, who seemed to be subtly taken aback by the sudden proposition as well, his dark eyes narrowing slightly.
She turned her focus back to the red-haired warlord, trying to process the word.
A date. It felt completely foreign, a luxury concept from a peaceful world that she had no time to understand.
"Do you mean a date before or after the world ends?" she asked dryly.
Nat clicked his tongue, shaking his head. "Come on, don’t be that way, sweetheart. It’s a simple date."
"In that case... Can we postpone it for now?" April muttered, resting her hands back in her lap. "I really need to clear my head."
"Yeah, and I need to hear in precise detail exactly what is going on with this ’big bang’ you mentioned last night," Xavier interjected, finally setting his coffee mug down on the marble table with a sharp, resonant click.
His amused expression vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating intensity. "Miss April... do I have to pay as much as Nat Collins before I can hear the whole thing properly?"
"You better," Nat hissed, sliding back into his seat and folding his arms across his bare chest. "That’s a two-billion-dollar entry fee. I’m sure your life is worth more than that, Reed."
"Certainly," Xavier replied without a single second of hesitation, his posture rigid. He was fully prepared to authorize whatever sum it took if it guaranteed his survival.
April stared at him, her brow furrowing. "Wait... you’re just going to agree to a two-billion-dollar price tag just like that? You aren’t even going to question it?"
Xavier looked at her as if she were the strange one for even doubting his compliance. "You have never given me a faulty prediction, Miss April. Questioning you at this stage would be a severe operational error."
Before she could respond, the heavy glass doors of the terrace slid open. Samuel walked onto the pavilion, followed closely by Alexander Greels.
Samuel had crossed paths with the heir at the estate gates, and the two had marched up together.
Sensing the heavily charged, suffocating atmosphere hanging over the marble table, Alexander paused, his eyes darting between the three of them.
"Yo, boy," Nat called out loudly, a wicked, testing grin spreading across his face as he looked at Alexander. "Are you ready to drop two billion to secure your life? The real show is about to start. You just gotta say if you’re in or out."
Alexander stood frozen for a second, completely taken aback by the sudden, staggering number. But as his eyes drifted to April’s grave, completely unmoving expression, he quickly caught on to the gravity of the situation.
"Of course," Alexander stated firmly, his boyish demeanor completely hardening. "Count me in. I can authorize that much capital immediately if it means keeping myself and my grandfather safe."
"Wait, hold on," Nat cackled, a mocking edge to his voice as he leaned back. "If he’s covering his grandfather too, doesn’t that mean he has to pay four billion?"
Alexander visibly flinched at the number, his knuckles turning slightly white. "Hey, hold one a sec—"
"It’s fine. Two billion," April interrupted flatly, her voice cutting through Nat’s mockery like a blade. "Now that everyone’s here, I’ll start."
She turned her gaze toward Samuel. The assistant wasn’t her official client, but just as Robert Greels was automatically covered under Alexander’s contract, Samuel was safely nested under the protection of the Reed empire. They were her circle now.
"I am going to say this exactly once, and I will not repeat it," April announced, her voice dropping into a freezing, steady baseline that made everyone at the terrace instantly lock their focus onto her. "Soon, the apocalypse is going to hit."
She paused, waiting for the inevitable panic, the denial, or the laughter. But the air remained dead silent. The terrifying predictions she had screamed out while heavily intoxicated the night before had already broken their skepticism so she continued.
"It’s a zombie apocalypse," she stated bluntly. "And anyone who gets bitten, turns into a zombie."
