#THE_SACRIFICE
EPISODE 99
©Sir Zach
*pri-vate Room*
“So what’s the problem?” Jake asked the moment Blake led him into the room.
“I think you should take a look at this” Blake said wh!pping out a tab from God knows where.
“What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?” Jake asked peering at the codes running on the screen.
“Wait” Blake said holding out the tab for them, both their eyes focused on it. Jake was irritated with the waiting. He wasn’t comfortable leaving Jade with those sick bastards. He rather be there with her than here staring at nothing but the codes for his newly invented software.
“There!” Blake exclaimed when a sudden glitch appeared on the screen.
“What was that?” Jake asked snatching the tab away from Blake’s hold.
“I don’t know” Blake shrugged.
“Then how did it get to your attention?” Jake asked, his eyes now duly focused on the screen to see if what he saw was going to happen again.
“I got this” He said wh!pping out his phone from his pocket.
Jake took the phone from him, and he saw a text message…it re-ad
‘Be warned PG rated’
“What does this mean?” Jake asked, looking at Blake.
“I didn’t know at first. I thought it was some stupid text which was mistakenly s£nt to my phone, but the letters PG kept looping in my mind till I realized it might be ProGuard. I just randomly decided to check the codes and I noticed the glitch. Though it’s minor but i thought it best to bring it to your attention. I hurried home to tell you but you were alre-ady gone. What do you think this means? Do you think someone is intentionally trying to mess with the system”
Jake looked at the tab one more time, before looking at the phone.
“When you mean mess, do you mean like someone is trying to hack ProGuard?” Jake asked quietly.
“I don’t know” Blake shrugged in response. “Nothing is certain”
“I worked on those firewalls myself. The app was on the hack black market for weeks, and it was still impene-trable. But I don’t know why something like this could happen, most especially now” Jake sighed. This was the company’s biggest project so far. The company stocks has increa-sed by hundred percent since ProGuard hit the market. If there were to be any problem right now, the damages would be big and the company would be affected.
“It could be a mere coincidence” Blake said gaining Jake’s attention as he turned to him with c0cked brows.
“I mean the glitch and the text. And this could be that a bug must have corrupted the software, so you don’t nee-d to ponder much on it. A slight fix and upgrade would fix the problem” Blake said when he noticed the pensive and serious look forming on Jake’s face. He didn’t know if be was encouraging himself or his brother. Jake was the one in a precarious position.
“I would like to think of this as a mere coincidence and something really minor, just like you said. But I want this thing fixed by Monday.I can’t have a bug infested software before the board meeting by monday” Jake said pas-sing the gadgets back to Blake.
“Okay”
“And don’t worry it’s probably something very minor like you said” Jake said patting Blake on his shoulder. It was now his turn to comfort his brother.
“Yeah” Blake nodded. He couldn’t really describe how tensed he felt when he noticed this. This was Jake’s personal and first project since he bec@m£ the CEO of Acrosoft, and any mishap with it would put him on a bad sp©t and he would be labelled as an incapable usurper, especially those vying for his position. He didn’t want that for his brother.
“Let’s get back to this p@rty. I want it to end as soon as possible” Jake said as he smoothened his suit with his hand.
“Sure” Blake replied.
…..
“What’s amusing you?” c@m£ Jake’s voice as he returned back to them. Jade turned to look at him with concerned eyes.
“Everything okay?” She asked.
“Yeah” He replied, as he wra-pped his hand around her w@!st.
After calming himself down, Daniel turned to Jake who was staring at them most especially at his two stunned friends.
“Your girlfriend is pure evil” Daniel said to Jake, ma-king him c0cka brow as he looked at her. Jade shrugged when Jake looked at her questioningly.
“I didn’t do anything. I was just telling them how much of a good boy you are” She said innocently.
“You’re a good boy right?” She asked with innocent eyes, almost as if she was asking him for some reas-surance.
Jake nodded his head, a smile arching hisl-ips as he placed a k!sson her forehead. “Only for you”
“Okay don’t feed me with dog feed. My wife is abs£nt so I don’t nee-d anything that will make me miss her tonight” Daniel snapped while glaring at Jake who was slowly turning into a girlfriend slave.
Mike and Rick got another wave of shock when Jade acted like an innocent puppy. Wasn’t she the one who was saying her b©yfri£ndwas ha-rd core evil? So when did he turn into a good boy? This girl is a psycho!
“What’s wrong with you two?” Jake couldn’t help but ask. Their gaze was beginning to annoy him.
“Dude this girl is dangerous” Mike snapped.
“You better run for your life” Rick quic-kly added, before pu-lling Mike by his collar so they could run away from Jake and his psychopathic girlfriend.
“Next time I don’t think you have to be worried about her with those lunatics. She looks after herself very well. You’re lucky man, I guess she loves you even with all your craziness.” Daniel patted Jake on the shoulders before walking away too.
Jake turned Jade to look at him, and looked at her with suspicious eyes.
“Babe?” Jake called slowly.
“Hmm” Jade answered as she looked up at him.
“Tell me, what did you do?” He asked, his eyes heavily focused on her.
“And don’t try lying, because I know Rick and Mike would not run away like that, especially when they had come here to sabotage me”
Jade looked at him and shook her head, “I really didn’t do anything. They only said you were bad and you like to do some BDS….” She shook her head when she didn’t remember the term they used. “I don’t know, but they said it was some fetish stuff” Jake frowned when he heard that. He knew what she was trying to say. Why would they say such kind of things to her? Were they so bent on trying to ruin his relationsh!p? He didn’t do such things.
“But I told them I liked bad guys, most especially….you” She said as she lowered her head. She was too shy to look into his eyes and say she liked his bad boy nature. Well he wasn’t literally a bad boy, he just had a bad lifestyle which he had promised to change.
Jake looked at her amusedly. His girl was ma-king him proud. He was worried that they were going to bully her, little did he that she was the bully.
“So you love me being bad?” He asked tea-singly as he pu-ll-ed her closer. A smile curving hisl-ips.
“No Mr Jake. I just said that. With me, you have to be a good boy” She said, placing her hand on his che-st.
“Yes ma’am”
Jade looked around when Jake held her so closely against himself. For Pete’s sake they were in a public place where he was supposed to pl@yhost. This was a charity ball being hosted by his company, and here he was messing around with her with little or no care for his invited guest.
“Jake”
“Hmmm”
“Don’t you think you’re being too close?” She asked him.
“No” He shook his head.
“But I think we are. I think you should let go” Jade said as she tried to wriggle away from his embr@ce.
Jake pu-ll-ed back to look at her face “What? Am I supposed to have a measurement for how close I’m supposed to be with my girlfriend? You don’t want me to be clingy? ” He asked in confusion.
“No! I like the clingy you, but we’re in a p@rty right now. And as the CEO of the company you’re supposed to be in your best behaviour. Aren’t you supposed to go on greeting rounds? I’m sure your guest must be waiting and looking for you.” She c0cked a brow at him.
Jake looked over her head and he caught sight of some people looking at him. At one glance he knew the kind of look they were shooting at him, and it was the one that showed they were dying to talk to him, and if his guess is right it would probably be about some business proposals or contract deals. He wasn’t interested in all that tonight. As a matter these were the reasons why he didn’t want to attend the p@rty. But unfortunately he had changed his mind because he wanted to be with Jade. What a d!¢k move!
Only if he had known she’d agree to be his girlfriend, then he would sticked to his original plan of not coming.
Tonight all he wanted was to be in the company of his girlfriend, holding her hands and looking at her beautiful face, and not leaving her alone, not even for a moment. Tonight was just for them.
They had just tonight and the rest of the weekend to be together, and then it’ll be Monday again, and he’ll have to spend long hours without seeing her.
He’ll give a closing speech later, then the others can see him and hear him talk, but for now this was where he wanted to be, with her.
“I guess one of the perks of being a CEO is that I can do whatever I want. And right now I just want you by my side at least till the p@rty is over” He told her, k!ss!ngher forehead again.
“Come on Jake, you go do what you’re supposed to do. I might not know alot about company leadersh!p, but I know it comes with a lot of responsibility, which you’ve been handling fine, so don’t slack off now on my account. I like it when my b©yfri£ndis in control and duly respected, like the day i saw you at your office.”
“So why do I have the feeling that one of the reasons why you like me it’s because I occu-py a big position at the company, Babe is that it?” He raised a suspicious brow at her, and a teasing smile split his face.
Jade shrugged, “As a matter of fact, you’re right. Who wouldn’t want to be a boss lady? It gives me prestige knowing I’m d@t!ngsuch a powerful man. So you better do your best and remain there, or else i might begin to lose interest” She said with teasing smile on her face. Of course she wouldn’t lose interest in him. She just wanted him to do what was right, and didn’t want to be a bother to him, because she knew she was the reason he didn’t want to do anything else, because she wasn’t familiar with anyb©dy there.
“Oh I see that’s the case. If my girlfriend likes me because I’m rich and powerful then I guess I have to work ha-rder” He said tou-ching the ti-p of her nose, ma-king her giggle.
“Of course you should. So run along and do the nee-dful. I’ll be fine on my own” Jade as-sured him.
“Are you sure?” Jake asked worriedly.
“Hmm, very sure” She nodded her head.
“Okay I’ll be back after exchanging some few plea-santries. Be a good girl okay”
“Of course” She said with an as-suring smile, as she nudged him to run along.
She looked around, and sighed de-eply. She didn’t know a soul there. If only Amy had agreed to come with her. Then things would have been better.
WATCHOUT FOR EPISODE 100