Black Box

This was not his lucky week, on Monday when he was about to have lunch on one of the restaurant near his office, a motorcycle almost struck him when he crossed the street.

Xander managed to dodge in time, the driver crashed the roadblock and topple over near construction site, no one was harm by the accident and the drunk driver was arrested.

The next day, a man rushed down the stairs of his front office building, bumped into him, and almost knocked him down if he didn't have a good balance.

His arm hurts like he just got slashed, looked down and found blood stained his suit.

"Hey!" Xander called out at that man.

The man glanced back at him for a second, a penknife in his hand, he wore a black cap and black clothes with tall and good posture. He smirked a little at him.

Daniel Rodriguez!

Xander ran after him who was running across the street, avoiding several cars that almost hit him. Drivers honked their horns in anger, had to slammed their brakes in time before their vehicles struck these two men.

The sidewalks were crowded with pedestrians, Daniel bumped into them to make way without care, turned to the left, and disappeared from his vision.

Xander clutched his arm, leaned on the wall and punched a call to his guards, "Daniel Rodriguez is in town, last seen with black baseball cap and black clothes. All of you search for him on every road connected to Orchard Road, check the surveillance cameras, right now!"

He was confused why Daniel appeared just to gave him a little scratch, he tended the wound alone in his office room. When he walked to his desk, there was a box there.

A simple black box.

He punched a call to his secretary, "Who give this box on my desk?"

Linda, his 45 years old secretary answered, "He said he is your friend, looks disappointed to know you're not here and left a gift for you."

Xander cursed, that motherfucker walked in his office without him knowing.

"What is he wearing?"

Linda said smoothly, "He wore a grey suit, very good looking and tall. But I've never seen his face before."

"Go to the security room and have it printed, right now." He barked. "And never accept anything without my permission from now on."

Her secretary has never been yelled at before, jumped up. "Yes, Mr. X."

Xander slammed the phone, angry because that motherfucker turned out to be so close, but none of his guys, including him, knew.

The black box was light, he untied the ribbon and cursed when he found what was inside.

A dead mouse.

There was a card inside.

— Next is your little mouse —

He felt dread knot in his stomach and called for Noah.

"Are they okay?"

"Yes, everything is fine here. You don't need to worry, Mr.X. There were guards surrounding this mansion."

Xander couldn't believe anyone anymore. How could he know that nickname he gave to Clara?

"Double check their backgrounds, if you find something amiss, pull them out of there. Reset the security in the mansion, he might have hacked into our system."

Xander finally told him everything when Noah was in confusion by his order.

For the next few days, police and his men were on hunt, the surveillance cameras catch him entered an abandoned building near downtown.

They searched the whole building but found nothing. Once again, he disappeared like a ghost. But there might be a secret tunnel, and Daniel was hiding below so he stationed men near the site secretly.

On Friday, he couldn't refuse the invitation of his business friends to play tennis. They haven't met up in a long time, since Xander brought Clara to the mansion.

"How about you, Xander? You never visited the club anymore." William asked.

"Xander always spent his summer holiday at his mansion, Will. You'll see him soon holding a new girl." Mason winked his blue eyes, and served the ball to Xander.

Xander hit it back. "I don't have time for woman right now."

The matches were played between two players, so William just stood at the side of the rectangular hard court surface, watching the two men hitting the ball to each other.

"Really? It's not like you to say that, Mr. X the rake." William teased.

"Maybe it's your time to settle down, Xander." Mason added while he ran backward to return the shot.

"I don't want to rush." He answered, focusing his gaze on the ball and the opponent across him.

"Hmm, of course you would choose the best to expand your empire. She would not be an ordinary girl, for sure." William concluded.

"Enough talking about my life, you two!" He strike and scored a point.

They continued to play until he won the first set and the second set began.

"You know where I spent my summer holiday? At Blue Box Club! It's true what they said that the club offered a spectacular stripping performance with beautiful women. We have to go there together sometime, you won't regret it."

Xander smirked, they didn't know that he owned the club.

"Huh? I know about that club too, eventhough I never set my foot there. But I'll wait until the brunette came back, she is the one every man waiting for." Mason said breathlessly, his opponent's ball was hard to take.

"Oh, you heard about her too? She is even more famous since her absence.." William was thinking hard. "What is her name? The brunette with angelic face?"

Mason had just hit the ball to Xander and shouted out, "Clara!"

At the same time Xander jumped, he saw a spot his opponent couldn't reach and attacked there when he heard her name.

"Shit!" Xander scored a point but he sprained his ankle.

He hasn't played tennis for weeks or maybe it was because Mason shout that woman's name. In the end, they had to stop the game because of his injury.

On saturday, a black car arrived at the mansion and Xander stepped out of his vehicle wearing a walking boot.