Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Phoenix Sterling

"Stop looking at your phone, Phoenix. You're looking at it every 2 seconds." Chance said and I immediately put my phone away.

"I bet she's doing fine, she's a grown woman." Dean said as he looked down the window and sipped his wine.

"She's constantly getting drunk these days." I said and glared at Adrian who happened to be one of the person who she hung out with. Adrian laughed and he continued eating his steak.

"Let her be, she's not your real wife anyway." Adrian said.

"You say that because you like her." I hissed and glared at him hard. Dean turned to Adrian and raised his eyebrows wanting explanation what's going on.

"Dean, you will like her too. She's our type." Adrian said and I threw a pillow straight to his face.

"So you want to settle down?" Dean suddenly asked me and I shook my head. "No, I'm not going to settle down." I said and Dean chuckled.

"You already did." Chance said.

"It's based on a contract, Chance. How many times do I have to tell you?" I hissed and Dean put his wine glass down. He turned his body facing me and he smirked.

"I've been paying attention to you lately, my friend. I found out that you're really stepping up your game." Dean said and I looked at him confused.

"What? I'm not doing anything."

"I'm not stupid and you know that." Dean said as he leaned back to his seat and I sighed. Chance chuckled all of the sudden and I glared at him.

"What did he do?" Adrian asked.

"Care to tell, Phoenix?" Dean smirked pretending not to know. I turned my head away not wanting to answer anything about what I did.

"He's been digging about his favorite employee's information. He's been planning to ruin that woman's career once he found more evidence to throw her in jail." Dean said in a sarcastic tone.

"What will you get out of this? I thought you never cared about other people's business?" Chance asked curiously and that became a question for myself.

"You supposed to sue her, not marrying her!" Dean said angrily and I looked down not liking the situation here.

"You like her, don't you?" I turned to Adrian who was still busy cutting his steak.

"I'm not." I said.

"Then stop using our team to find out about Julie, let her settle her own problems. If you really like this girl then tell us but you know the consequences. Let her handle Julie herself and I know she's capable of doing it herself since she's a step ahead from you." I turned to Dean and he got up from his seat.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked as my alert went off.

"I suggest you leave her alone, Phoenix. You're not the Phoenix I know after you secretly got married and I don't like it a bit. You're an ILLICIT and you should act like one!" He said in a cold tone and then he left the room. I turned to Chance and he sighed.

"Divorce her and besides your parents won't say a word about your relationship." Chance said and he walked out from the room. Chance and Dean will always stand on the same page. They both have the same view in life.

"Don't listen to them." Adrian said and I was surprised to hear him saying that. I turned to him and he put his knife and fork down.

"She's a really nice woman, if you like her then show it. You're acting like it already and a little suggestion for you mate.. she's not that difficult, you're just making it difficult for yourself because you keep denying it." He said as he got up from his seat. He patted my shoulder and walked out from the room.

I let out a long sigh and I sat down on the sofa. I was frustrated and slowly going crazy. It's been 5 days since Lana ignoring me and I'm already losing sleep since day one. I kept asking my team to observe her and she never even came out from the hotel room.

I'm actually worried about her.

What's wrong with her? Did something happen between her and her father? Or maybe about Julie? What did Dean mean about her being a step ahead?

I ran my hands through my hair completely frustrated. I want to know more and Lana just couldn't let me in. I want to know more about what happen to her. I walked out from the room and went down to the lobby. I left the Illicit headquarters alone with my car and drove to the Four Season hotel.

I need to check on Lana and make sure that she's okay. My phone rang and I answered it through the screen on my car.

"You're coming tomorrow to the tech exhibition right?" Angelo asked and I wondered why he didn't come to the headquarters earlier.

"Yeah, why?"

"Just want to make sure because I want to discuss with you some new technologies that we might buy for our headquarters." He said in an exciting tone.

"Yeah, meet you there." I said and ended the call.

As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I let the valet chauffer take over my car. I walked in and walked straight to the lift. I was expecting to see Lana in her room but just walked out from the lift.

"Where are you going?" I asked and she flinched in shock. She didn't expect to see me and she looked around to see some people already looking at us.

"I'm going to Greece, I have bring some products for Finn." She said as I walked beside her.

"Oh now you're seeing Finn again?" I asked and I just realized that my words came out really weird. She stopped walking and turned to me.

"I don't have time to argue with you, I'm already late." She said and I stopped her by holding onto her upper arm.

"I'm coming with you." I said and she pushed my hand away.

"I can manage it." She gave me a smile and walked towards her car. I followed her and got into the car with her.

"What the hell?!" She hissed.

"I'm coming with you."