chapter ten

Chapter ten.

Regan dressed for work earlier than usual. The plan was to make Elena move into his house by any means possible. If she did, Connor would surely come after him and that way he would be concerned directly with the case. And the video id the drive had enough proof to put the Irish imp into police custody.

He called Elena into the office and told her that she would be taking the job of being his personal chef.

"My answer I no. I never asked for a promotion and besides I am content with the one I have." Elena said stubbornly.

"Defiant aren't you?" He replied with a cunning smile. "You see darling, that is the point. You never asked for a promotion and I didn't ask if you would like to be my personal chef." He said, swivelling in his chair from left to right.

Elena's brows drew together in confusion as to what he had said.

"I wasn't making a suggestion, Ellie. You will be my personal chef. Max will come with you immediately after work to help move your things into my house." Regan stated with finality.

"You both behave alike. It seems the both of you will get along just fine." Elena spat, "Dweebs."

"It hurts to know that you are comparing me to that Irish imp when all I want is your well-being. Do you defend every other person that hurts you as well?" he asked with a lazy smile upon his thin pale rouge lips.

"That is a very sensitive question." She crossed her arms around her chest making her mounds stretch and bulge against the soft chiffon shirt that she wore. A feast for Regan's eyes "You're talking about wellbeing? Well-being my foot. Pft. You're not showing any respect to my decision and you're being very overbearing right now." She retorted. She wanted to be cold to him so that he would stay away but clearly, that wasn't working. They looked like two bickering children.

"Your decision? The only decision you made was to leave your father's house and start a new, simple life and for the overbearing part, you leave me no choice. I would rather have you under my roof than to let that oat lay his uncouth hands on you."

Elena was surprised. She had never disclosed her father's identity tom anyone unless he had gotten that from the CV. How stupid of her to think that Gennadios was a common name.

"Don't worry darling. Your family and mine go a long way back." Her face was always expressive and it was easy to tell what she was thinking. "So what is it going to be, my way or Connor's way?"

After a minute of thought she asked, "How sure am I that you won't turn out like him?" her trust issues ran deep.

She had met Connor while she was in college studying business administration. He had seemed like a very nice and polite person and she fell for him so hard that she had moved in with him and had even made plans for the future with him. After a few months of living together, she had realized that he was a psychopath. He was bipolar and was not taking his meds. He started to hit her and molested her and even raped her. She had tried to run away once but he had dragged her back to him telling her that he would kill her friend if she continued to stay with her. And he mentioned that if she ever sought help or reported to the police, he would kill her and kill himself. One time, Connor had seen her hug a boy and had gotten enraged. Later that night, Connor had told her that he was going to hang out with his friends. She got bored and decided to take a stroll. On the way, she had heard people fighting and when she reached there she was shocked to see Connor and his friends. He was standing over the boy while his friends held the boy down as Connor emptied bullets into the boy's body. She ran back to their apartment and emptied her dinner in the toilet. When Connor returned, she had acted like she hadn't seen anything for her own safety. She endured all these things till her graduation and made a mad dash for home immediately after that. She had taken her time to detach herself completely from people and now that her life was going perfectly, he showed up from nowhere and messed up everything that she had worked hard for.

"That question cannot be answered by words. Let me show you instead."

"At least give me something to hold on to."

"We both know that we are alone in this office right now. And we have been alone a couple of times before and I haven't touched you inappropriately." Regan said. On the outside, he sounded stand-offish but on the inside he was praying and hoping against all hope that she would agree to come with him.

Elena's face frowned as she remembered the day that she had seen Connor and had a panic attack. Regan had hugged her without her consent. She enjoyed it but it still counted.

As if reading her mind, Regan said, "If that counts then in my defence I was only helping you. I didn't touch you inappropriately. It could pass for a hug."

"A hug that I did not consent to."

"Would you have prepared it if I left you alone then?"

"You know what," she placed a fist on the table, "I'll take the job."

Regan almost literally jumped for joy. He blew out an inaudible breath and asked, "Were you like this with Connor too?"

She stiffened for a moment before standing up and heading to the door to take her leave, "Dweebs." She slammed it shut.

A big smile bloomed on Regan's face. He mentally ticked off an item on his to-do list. Sooner or later she would come to know their plans for Connor. In the meantime, he had to get as close to her as possible.

….

As said Max had followed Elena to her apartment to mover her things. She fumbled with her keys and she heard a very familiar voice ask someone behind her, "What are you doing here?" she hurried inside and locked the door. She hurriedly packed her clothes into her box. As she approached the door, she paled in fear.