If you go hunting a tiger...

- 2 -

Ajax, thanks for the preliminary reading!

His words almost made my legs buckle, and I grabbed the railing of the stairs.

"Does this savage asshole want to kill my granny?!" I yelled. "Is she in the hospital or hostage?"

The convoyers synchronously, as if on command, rolled their eyes and sighed. And Raoul said:

"A noble dame never shouts. Moreover, she doesn't say such words!"

"You don't like these words?" I instantly boiled. "And how do you like «Kidnapping a human committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy»? Or «Unlawful restriction of the freedom of a person who is in a helpless state, associated with a threat to one's health and life»? Are these words to your taste?"

[Marta, Carlita, Niccolo, Fatima,] I thought wistfully, [you should be on social networks by now! Raise the alarm quickly!]

Raul, Marco and James looked at Helmut.

"Fräulein, you should..." he began, but I interrupted: "Mx Kelvin! I'm not a whore from an old porn movie."

"Newly invented honorifics are prohibited in the domain of Herr Terrent, " Helmut became so cold and puffed up that he was like a turkey made of snow.

I snorted contemptuously.

"If Herr Terrent doesn't urgently change his habits, then he will go to prison in the Republic of Alnorria. Or one goes broke on compensation payments."

"Only very select people are allowed to communicate with Herr Terrent," Helmut answered arrogantly. "And it's very difficult for aspirants to get an audience, let alone get a position on the Herr Terrent's staff."

"The little detail, my baby: Herr Terren needs me, but I don't need him."

The convoyers nearly smoked with anger. And James said: "Your grandmother is seriously ill. Treatment is very expensive."

"Money isn't a problem that I can't handle. I'll mortgage a candy shop, put on a show with sweets on the Internet and ask for donations... I'll find a second job. There are plenty of options."

Helmut moved his jaws and hissed: "You should hurry. Lateness doesn't adorn a businesswoman."

"But I didn't arrange any meeting with anyone."

"Madame," Raoul interjected, "why don't you address claims to your grandfather for a change? The sooner you sort this situation out with him, the better for you."

I raised an eyebrow. Wow, he recollected decency. 1:0 in my favor. The tiny win, but it's better than nothing.

"Signora Alex," Marco smiled slightly, and, contrary to everything before, I admired his huge black eyes and sensual lips, magnificent sharp cheekbones and beautifully defined chin. His figure is a very tasty morsel too. "We should have told you not to interrupt Signor Terrent under any circumstances, not to come closer than three meters to him, and even more so not to try to hug him. And that you should call him «sir» and you must answer him that you will follow all his orders. But now I will only say one thing: please don't kill Signor Terrent at this meeting. And then we will do everything so that you do not intersect with your grandfather until you yourself want to talk to him."

"Let's go," I said. I really have a lot of urgent questions for the old shiter, and the first one will be about my granny.

But the first thing I asked when I saw Dave Terrent was: "Are you sure I'm your granddaughter?"

His snout... Oh. I, of course, will not pull on the queen of a beauty contest, but I'm very pretty. There's no way I could have genes in common with this... hmm... a human. And it's not about old age. There are a lot of cute old men among my neighbors. Dave Terrent was ugly even in his youth. I don't think he would have bred if he didn't have so much money. And then, probably, he jerked off into a glass, and his wife used a cooking syringe. I can't imagine a woman who wants to fuck with Dave Terrent.