A Wounded Tigress

ELENA

I stepped into my office only to receive a call from one of my father's friends. I was surprised to see his name on the caller ID. I swiped the green button on the screen and placed the phone on my ear while taking a seat in my chair.

"Good mornin-"

"Elena!"

I was instantly on alert. He sounded panicked.

"Hello? Hello? I am here. Hello?"

"Elena, listen to me carefully. I cannot talk for long but you have to get at the factory. As soon as possible! Mr Sanders... he..."

"What has he done? Hello? Hell-" But the line was already cut. "Damn it!" I sprang up from my chair and dashed straight out of the cabin.

"Joanna? Steve? Guys assemble, hurry!"

Within the next twenty seconds, all the staff on the third floor was assembled in the middle, facing me.

"We have an emergency here. I just received a piece of news that Devon Sanders is on something... most probably crazy shit. We have to go to the factory. Gather all the volunteers, and inform the police and the townspeople.

Bring as many people as you can to the factory. We must stop that madman from doing anything that would not be in our great interest. Is that clear?"

"Yes Boss!"

"Come on move, quick!" I clapped my hands, and the group dispersed to get on with their assigned work.

"Joanna, Steve, come with me." I called before running to the stairs.

I jumped down the stairs two at a time and blessed dad for sending flat shoes instead of heels. The three of us got in the car, and I took the driver's seat.

Joanna took the shotgun, and Steve slid into the backseat. Before they fasten their seatbelts, they felt a jolt as I reversed my car. We were already on the road, exceeding the speed limit on the smaller road of Swindon.

My hand was constantly on the horn to alert the pedestrians before they crossed the road and the other vehicles who dared to come in my way.

"Elena! Please slow down! Do you want our deadbodies to reach the factory for Mr Sanders to dig up our graves there?"

"Shut up, Joanna! I am stressed!"

"And I am about to wet my pants. Please Boss, slow down a bit. You are scaring the shit out of everyone!" Steve pleaded from the back.

Irritated by their distraction, I changed the gear and hit hard on the accelerator. I needed to reach that factory before that grasshopper created another trouble for me.

We completed the twenty-five minutes of drive in just thirteen minutes and forty-nine seconds. And as I saw the closed gate of the factory ahead of me, I again began honking loudly.

Every single worker at the site knew better than not opening the gates for my white Chevrolet, but what I saw today made me come down on the breaks hard.

The car screeched to a stop with a large cloud of dust around it. I just hope the tyres were good. I had no money to get new ones.

I heard Joanna's harsh breaths and Steve's murmurs of prayer. About twenty seconds later, the two of them got a grip on themselves and looked ahead to what I was watching with a clenched jaws.

A wall of muscular hulks stood guarding the entire security wall around the damn factory.

"What the hell!"

"Elena... Elena stop. Elena!"

I was already out of the car, ignoring Joanna's call. I was fuming with anger as I marched straight to the burly man standing at the gates. I saw from the corners of my eyes how those men dressed in black pants and black t-shirts flexing their swelled muscles getting on alert.

"Open the gate." I ordered without wasting my time.

The six feet, two inches tall man with a ponytail at the back of his head, looked down at my five feet five inches frame with such worthlessness as if I was a piece of dirt on his shoes.

He didn't say anything and then turned his head up to stare past me. I waited... and waited until the bunds of my patience broke.

I snapped my fingers, raising my hand in his face. "Hey! You, megalithic dinosour, look here! Open that god damned gate or I will fucking ramned my car in it!"

His heady eyes dropped down on me lazily before he crossed his hands under his chest, maybe to show off or maybe to intimidate me.

He scoffed, "You are welcome!"

"Elena... Elena no Elena. Your car is barely holding onto life so don't you- ELENA! Oh god!" Joanna chased after me, but I was already in the car.

"Steve... Steve do something!" She yelled at the man, who stood there like a confused rabbit.

"But what?"

Joanna threw a heated glare his way before she ran to the door. Hitting on the window, she tried to talk me out of it, but it was too late for now.

That barbie face shouldn't have challenged Elena Bell!

I turn on the ignition and changed the gear. The car reversed back before it stopped. My eyes were locked with that hulk in the challenge, but his eyes were filled with nothing but amusement.

A wicked smirk formed on my lips, and I saw a slight flicker of expressions on his big face. Changing the gear again, I made the car rev up loudly. His pawns gathered around him in worry.

And that worry soon morphed into pure horror, when I hit the accelerator. My car was crossing the distance between it and the gate at an alarming speed. And the only obstacle between them was the hefty guy. At least his buddies were smart enough to stand out of my way.

He waited for me to stop, but when I was only a few metres away from him, he jumped out of my way, and the car went to crash directly into the gates.

*

*

*

DEVON

I was instructing the workers on what they should do next when a loud crashing sound interrupted me. The sound was so loud that I thought it was one of the machines breaking or something worse.

But when I saw the same beaten-up white Chevrolet ramming into everything that came it's way, my mood changed for way worse than I had imagined.

"Satan!" I heard Christine exclaiming behind me.

The car showed no signs of stopping as it raced directly in my way. People jumped out of her way, screaming and yelling, but nobody and by nobody I mean, not a single soul cursed at her.

What kind of power did she hold over them?

I stood rooted in my place, refusing to move. Slipping my hands in my pants pockets, I waited for her to do what she aimed to do.

"Sir...Sir... move... move..." I heard Smith's panic cries. The man sounded as if he was hanging on a bridge, afraid of falling down in the deep valley.

But I didn't budge. I felt a tight grip around my arm, long nails digging into my skin through my blazer and shirt before Christine's head pressed against my back. I sighed.

Why that woman couldn't let me face even death alone?

"Mummaaaa!" She screamed as the car screeched to a sudden halt.

It stopped right in front of me with only ten inches of a gap in between.

People sighed in relief, dabbing their foreheads before gathering cautiously around us again. I saw the bouncers and two clowns of TGF racing through the gates, too late to do anything from my peripheral vision.

But I refused to move my gaze from the woman who glared at me with her big honey-coloured eyes.

The door was opened and she stepped out of the car in a dark blue dress that didn't really suit her style. Though I must admit that she still aced it.

She shut the door with such force that I wondered how it didn't come off its fringes. Stalking like a tigress, she came to stand in front of me with shoulders rolled back and a tipped chin. Ready to wage a war!

"Eight thousand two hundred and fifty eight dollars!"

She blinked.

"The cost of making a new gate. You are lucky that I am being generous enough to not add other expenses. Should I get the cheque in the name of TGF or are you going to use your personal account?"

I enjoyed how her nostrils flared, and she closed her eyes momentarily. When she opened them, instead of locking them with mine, she looked behind me. Her gaze lingered on my arm, which was still suffering from Christine's deadly clutch for a moment longer before she blinked.

And whatever that was building in those watery orbs disappeared as if it was not there in the first place.

She finally met my composed gaze with her aggravated one.

"What is happening here, Mr Sanders?" Her voice surprisingly came out calmer than she looked.

"A madwoman just broke into my property, causing me the loss of thousands of dollars, was about to run over me but then changed her mind at the last moment only to interrogate me in the meanest way when she has no right of doing so.

Other than that...I am trying to run my business. That's all, Miss Bell!"

If I thought she looked like a tigress before, then now she looked like a wounded one!