Page 30 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
It was all so surreal to her now as she sat at that computer pounding, not the pavement, but her keyboard. It all felt like a waste of time. It all seemed as if she went to sleep one day as an in-demand, beautiful sister about to set the world on fire, and then she woke up collecting dust on a shelf. All in the name of her profession. A profession that never took her any further than executive secretary because she loved her job and didn’t see the point of trying to advance out of it. A thankless profession she mistakenly took as a career. A lowly profession she now no longer even had.
She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, rolling her head around and around to beat back the strain in her muscles. She wanted to blot it all out, but she knew she couldn’t. It was the reality of her situation and she had better get used to it.
But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. It scorched her. She gave the best years of her life to The House of Drakos and this was how they treated her? Like an enemy? Like a lay-about who never did an honest day’s work in her life? Like a castoff thief who had to be escorted off of their property? It was so insulting that she still couldn’t believe it. And she was still convinced that Niko would not have allowed it. That Niko knew nothing about her firing.
But was that misguided too? She wondered lately if she played the fool all those years with that devotion she had for her job. And for Niko. She wondered if she was no better than a hapless servant who believed when the master of the house toldher that she was a member of the family. “You’re family to us,” he would say. Forget that she was a family member who always had to enter through the back door. A family member who had a special cup and plate and utensil that she was ordered to use whenever she ate or drank at the family home. A family member whom the head of the family wouldn’t even acknowledge if he was with friends and saw her in public. But they were family. Yeah right!
And it made her come to terms with the truth of her situation. She was no better than that servant when she kept insisting that Niko’s company fired her, but he didn’t. After the way he spoke to her on that phone call, how pathetic did that sound?
She opened her eyes and leaned her head back. After she left Drakos Aeronautics earlier that day she’d been pounding the pavement looking for any job she could find, and was on the computer all evening looking even harder. Now she was tired. She’d never admit it out loud to a living soul, but she was scared to death. Once her savings dwindled and she remained unemployed, how was she going to make it? She applied for unemployment benefits, but that wasn’t going to pay even half of the rent on her apartment. And if she walked away from her lease, it would ruin her credit and she’d be relegated to renting only places in the worst of areas. At her age, that would be like walking backwards when she’d been there and done that and wasn’t trying to do that again.
But she never dreamed she’d be out of work either. Hard as she worked? Not in a million years. They could have knocked her over with a feather had somebody told her, just three weeks ago, that she would be in such an undeniably horrible state.
But then her phone began ringing. Which was actually unusual. When she was employed, she was getting calls all through the night whenever some crisis erupted, or somebodyneeded to know what they should do about some major issue the couldn’t deal with. But now nobody would dare to phone her for anything. She was out. And they didn’t want her reminding them that they could be out soon too.
She picked up her cell phone from the side of her desk and looked at the Caller ID. It was Tyla, the only person who outside of her job ever bothered to phone her. She didn’t want to be bothered with Tyla and herI told you soboastfulness either, but on the other hand she needed somebody to talk to. Not knowing if you would have a roof over your head in another month at her age was a scary proposition. She’d never been in this position before. She might need Tyla’s help.
“Hey.”
“Well hello Miss Savannah. What you doing?”
“What I’m always doing: job search.”
“Still no luck with all your experience?”
“I was fired from that experience, remember? And I know Alberto will be more than happy to tell them I was fired and was fired based on job performance, although he knows that’s not true.”
“You can sue his ass,” said Tyla. “He can’t tell potential employers lies about you. That’s illegal. Sue him.”
“And it drags out in court for years? How is that going to help me now? I need a job, I don’t need a court case.”
Her doorbell rang. “Anyway, let me see who’s at my door.”
“Somebody’s actually coming to see you?” Tyla had surprise in her voice.
“I know right? But I’ll call you back, Ty,” she said, ended the call, and got up and went to her front window.
When she looked out and saw Niko’s brother standing at her door with another man standing behind him, it seemed oddly familiar to her. She could tell the other guy was hisbodyguard, and he was looking around as if there might be some threat. Which caused Savannah’s heart to drop. Was Niko okay? Was that why his brother was on her doorstep? She quickly went over and opened the door. “Is he okay?” she asked anxiously.
Olivier had a look on his face that told her he wasn’t. “No,” he said. “Could you come with me? Pop wants to see you.”
Savannah was shocked. “Pop?”
“Our father.”
Savannah looked past Olivier. She could see two SUVs parked in front of her house, which seemed like overkill, but maybe that was how the Drakos family rolled. But she knew then whatever happened was a big deal. And the fact that he was sending for her? After what happened eight years ago? Something horrific had apparently happened to Niko or he would not have summoned her. For Niko’s sake, she knew she had to help any way she could.
“I’ll get my keys,” she said. She was wearing bike shorts and a Chicago Bulls t-shirt, but she didn’t care. She was who she was and that rich man could take her or leave her. She was doing him a favor.
She came back to the door with her phone and keys and a few dollars stuffed down her bra in case she had to get back home on her own, and locked up and followed Olivier. His bodyguard opened the back passenger door and they got inside of the first SUV. Then the bodyguard got in on the front passenger seat himself and both SUVs took off. Savannah felt like stars had to feel whenever they were in chauffeured-driven cars.
She looked over at Olivier. He was a man in his thirties but always seemed to have the weight of the world on his face. Not exactly handsome with Niko or Kalayna’s great looks, or his father’s great looks, but he had a charm about him that was allhis own. A decency about him. “Can you at least tell me if he’s okay?” she asked him.
Olivier always admired how much Savannah cared for his brother. A concern, he felt, that a man as self-centered and temperamental as Niko didn’t deserve. “He hasn’t been physically harmed,” he said.
That wasn’t exactly the answer her inquisitive mind was hoping to hear. “He’s not physically harmed,” she asked, “but he’s also not okay?”
She could see Olivier was distressed. But he wouldn’t answer that question.
