Chapter 95 – An Unbreakable Vow with the Heartless Tycoon

“I’m no good with names,” Leilani retorts.

“Well then, what’s yours?”

“Felicity Winter,” Leilani says.

She doesn’t want him to know her real name—she hopes to never see him again as soon as she leaves the bathroom.

“Felicity Winter? I like that,” he says with a smile.

He reaches into his pocket and removes a bullet etched with the letters AC.

“I owe you,” he says, raising his hand to silence Leilani’s denial, “And I can make it up to you…with s.e.x.”

Leilani recalls his tempting but licentious sound. She regards him coolly as he tilts his head to give her a seductive look. He’s used to getting any woman he wants. Men like him disgust her.

“I used Waylen Bamford’s name to save your life just now, so you owe him—not me,” she says, “I’ll be sure to let him know that you’d like to pay him back with s.e.x.”

He’s almost as attractive as Waylen and she has to admit that the image of the two of them together is something. Andrew presses his lips together and slowly drags the bullet across her collarbone. With an almost careless gesture, he releases it, and Leilani feels something chilly slipping between her b.r.e.a.s.ts.

“You!” Leilani hisses with outrage.

“Remember me now, okay?” Andrew laughs perfunctorily and opens the door, “I hope we can meet soon so I can pay back what I owe you.”

“F.u.c.k off!” Leilani shouts.

Leilani slams the door behind him in a rage. She removes the bullet from her cleavage and examines it carefully.

“So he’s the famous Andrew Clifford,” she thinks, “How arrogant to put his initials on a bullet? More than arrogant it’s just plain stupid. If he shoots anyone, the bullet can easily be traced back to him. Doesn’t he realize how easy that makes it for someone to frame him?”

Leilani fumes, disgusted by his arrogance and his overtures. She feels frazzled. She doesn’t want to go back to the private room to deal with insinuations and satire all night, but she doesn’t want to risk running into Andrew again either. She gathers her dress and prepares to walk back to her dormitory room.

…

The atmosphere is still strange in Waylen’s private room. After a long, tense silence, a murmur suddenly rises from the audience, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. The private room has three normal walls and one wall made of a special glass that allows those inside the room to see the stage without allowing anyone on the stage or outside of the room to see inside.

The stripper on the stage takes off her bra, inducing whistles and cheers from the other private rooms.

“How about some company?” Lisa asks approaching Waylen.

Waylen has been gulping whiskey since Leilani left for the toilet. He knows that Leilani isn’t the woman she used to be, the woman who loved him. The thought sends physical pain radiating from his heart.

“Damn it!” he thinks, “How can she just leave me to these other women so casually? She treats me like I’m a dress she’s taken off and discarded. Unworthy of even a second glance.”

The feeling of being despised and abandoned gives him unbearable pain. He finds that the whiskey helps to numb it. Lisa approaches Waylen again encouraged by the lively atmosphere and the cheering outside the room.

“Leave me alone!” Waylen orders coldly.

Lisa’s perfume is revolting and he can’t help wondering where Leilani is.

Suddenly the door opens and Robert enters with a worried expression, “Sir, Mrs. Bamford isn’t in the restroom.”

“Staff dormitory?” Waylen asks.

“She’s not there either,” Robert replies.

The glass in Waylen’s hand shatters. Blood mixes with the whiskey and drips to the floor.

“Go find her!” he shouts.

Almost as soon as Robert leaves the room a hush falls over the stage. Dozens of strip dancers take off their bras in a grand finale, and then a black curtain falls over the stage. The crowd goes silent, but then the curtain rises again revealing a beast in a giant iron cage. The animal raises its head and roars toward the sky, shocking the guests with its ferocity. It is a live lion.

The cage is as tall as the first floor of a building and wide as well. The lion has plenty of space to move about. The guests seem to slowly awaken from the intoxicating temptation of the strippers, and gasped with surprise. One of the strippers throws a living white rabbit into the cage and the guests watch in horror and fascination as the lion pounces and kill it.

Some fragile women in private rooms start screaming. Some men begin to shout for more, almost as if they can already guess what will happen next.

“A goddess!” shouts one excited voice from the crowd.

A woman in a white gauze dress gradually descends from the top of the high ceiling. She is wearing a mask that covers half her face and her long hair cascades down her back. The mask is decorated with tiny diamonds that twinkle in the light. She has wires around her waist and her fair skin shines like a beacon. She looks like an angel.

Though she is beautiful, she is limp. She looks almost boneless and her eyes are closed.

The woman’s soft body hangs from the wires and her eyes remain closed in spite of the imminent danger.

“What the hell?” whisper members of the crowd, “Is she in a coma?”

“Are they going to use her to feed the lion?” the horrified women ask.

The lion senses the excitement of the crowd and it becomes agitated; it begins to pace its cage, roaring angrily. The cage does not have a top, so the woman descends without any hindrance.

“Wow, what is this?” asks a man sarcastically, “Beauty and the beast?”

Waylen isn’t in the mood to watch the show, but the frenzied discussions draw his attention. He looks up at the white figure slowly lowering into the stage. Suddenly, he leaps to his feet.

“Sir, the woman looks like Mrs. Bamford,” Robert observes.

Although the woman is wearing a mask that covers half her face, Waylen is confident that he would recognize that figure and that hair anywhere.

“But what is she doing up there?” he wonders in amazement.

“Stop that thing!” he yells.

Waylen yells, drawing the attention of the women in the room. He quickly realizes that all the yelling in the world is useless—his room is completely private. The soundproofing prevents noise from getting out and the one-way glass blocks everyone on the outside from seeing what goes on inside the room. Without a moment’s hesitation, Robert runs towards the control room.

“Leilani has been caught to feed the lion!” he thinks, “No wonder I couldn’t find her anywhere.”

He races to the control room to stop Leilani from being put in the cage, but he’s too late. The smell of Leilani has gotten the lion wound up; though Leilani isn’t yet in the cage, the lion is already jumping for her. The guests all shout out in amazement.

Lisa watches with the confusion that quickly becomes excitement. Based on Waylen’s shouting, the woman being lowered into the cage is Leilani. Lisa can’t believe her good luck.

Leilani opens her eyes with difficulty. The light is dazzling and she feels countless spotlights on her face. She subconsciously raises her hand to block the light but realizes there is something around her waist that makes her movement painful. She feels something hot at her feet and smells the faint reek of blood.

She forces herself to look down and sees something furry leaping at her feet. Her eyes fly open instantly.

“Damn!” she thinks, “Why the hell is there a lion below me?”

She subconsciously pulls her legs up. She does so just in time: the lion’s teeth tear a scrap of fabric from the bottom of her dress. The thunderous sound of cheering fills the room.

Leilani takes a look around. Guests in the private rooms have started to converge on the balconies outside the rooms to watch the show. She peeks up at the VIP rooms. Though she can’t see through the glass, she seems to sense a worrying look coming from two of the different rooms.

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