Hollywood Zenith

Meanwhile, Samuel arrived at Kate's bar to see that something was off about it. The sun was beginning to set so there should be more customers but for some reason the place looked deserted. It was a quiet little place from what he could tell and with a long history they bound to have some regular customers.

Last time, he had seen people arriving first thing in the morning to have their Irish coffee, that was before the holiday. The place should be crawling with customer in this holiday season. He parked the car and saw few that looked too expensive to belong to the staff.

Maybe they had a prior arrangement that he didn't know about? He walked inside to hear mellow music playing in the background but there were no rowdiness of customers to accompany it. He spotted couple of guys sitting in the corner quietly drinking water? They also saw him coming in.

Samuel felt like they were about to say something when one of the staff came to take him away. She pushed him through the service door inside the kitchen.

" Mr. Samuel! Thank god you came!" She said crying tears of joy.

" Are you the one that answered the phone?" He recognized her voice. She did sound tense over the phone but he brushed it off of them being busy or something but it seemed like she wanted him to be here.

" Yes! The thing is..."

" What the hell is going on? Who is he?" The same men entered the door and began asking question. Samuel could see from their build and the choice of clothing that they were guards in disguise.

" N-nothing sir. He is one of our food supplier, here to make a delivery." The girl came forward and said in flattering tone.

" Supplier? Why didn't you mention before if you had a prior arrangement? Beside, since when these suppliers started wearing such expensive clothes?" One of the guard could recognize that Samuel was not a normal person.

" That-" Samuel came forward lifting his hand to stop her from saying anything else. Discover more stories at m v l e mpyr

" Who are you to meddle in their business?" He glared sharply at them. They instantly took a step back feeling a sense of danger.

" Why should we when our boss owns this business? You said you were a supplier right? you don't need to deliver things here from now on. Now, go back before I break your fucking legs!" The bigger one among them came forward. He couldn't believe he was scarred off by a young man!

" Ho? So you are the new owner of this place? But as far as I know, this building doesn't belong to you."

" How would you know?"

" I know the owner that's why. I don't think he would forcefully move a well established bar like this." Hearing him say it, they looked at each other. They were debating whether to indulge him or not.

" You are right..but our company is in process of procuring the rights to this place. Sooner or later, this whole place would fall under our company's control." Samuel was puzzled seeing their confident smile.

He was the one that brought up this place so there was no way he would sell it to them for any amount of money. There was only one explanation for their callousness, they were willing to offer either astronomical or bully their way to make a deal.

But before that he wanted to know who dared to be so bold in front of him," What's the name of your contractor? As a merchant, I could offer high class goods at discounted prices as a welcoming gift." He said with a polite expression. They were surprised to see his change of attitude but it was not out of ordinary for businessman to be weak against money.

They would flip sides at a heartbeat if it meant they could gain some profit!

" Hahaha, I thought you were doing something reckless but you only care about your profits. I can see how you can afford such nice things."

" Since, you asked nicely I will tell you. The Green family will be taking-"

" Green? So it was that bastard huh?" Samuel's expression changed again. Before they could say anything they fell to the ground while foaming foaming from their mouth. A sliver of his aura was enough to make them faint.

" W-what?" Unfortunately she also felt it despite being out of range. Her legs were shaking as she tried hard to regain her balance. It was hard to comprehend what happened because it happened too fast!

" When did these bastards start coming here?" Samuel grabbed them by their collar and started dragging them outside. By now other people also heard the commotion but they were shocked to see Samuel dragging two large bodies out of the door effortlessly.

Since the girl seemed too scared to follow him, he decided to ask others. As he expected, Brett must have found out that Kate was still in London and using his connection, sending his people here to disrupt her business. It happened right after he met Kate and got beat up by Samuel.

Samuel sighed, he thought Brett would get his message but like a dog's tail that refused to uncurl, he came right back to exact his revenge. From the looks of it, he still hadn't connected the dot about Samuel's identity otherwise, he wouldn't be so daring.

There was also the problem that no one knew where ' Sam Able' lived and what he did in his spare times. He must be trying to get back at him by harassing Kate again. That's right Kate?

" Where is she?"

" Upstairs, she has been beating herself up for two days trying to find a solution."

" That dumb bit..." Samuel almost cursed her. When did they ever learn to rely on him? He couldn't understand why she would keep him in dark about such a serious issue when it was his fault to begin with!

He walked upstairs angrily ready to scold her but as he opened the door violently, he saw her disheveled face. Her employee weren't kidding when they said she was mulling over it all day because she had clear signs of fatigue and sleeplessness.

" S-sami?" Kate stood up abruptly didn't know if she was dreaming. She tried her best not to ask for his help but he had been on her mind constantly. Maybe she was manifesting her desires through hallucinations? But he question was immediately answered as he smacked her on the head.

" When will you learn to ask for help? Do you think I am playing around or my feeling are not sincere? How could you not tell me when there are thugs running around the bar threatening your customers?" Samuel yelled out. It was rare to see him angry but she knew he was angry for her.

" I-i was asking the authorities for help. I didn't think it would come to this." She hung her head feeling distraught. If she ran back to his protection everytime they faced a problem, wouldn't it be akin to taking advantage of their relationship? She had been running this place for years, as the owner, it was her responsibility to look after her business.

" What did they say? ' We will look into it ma'am?' ' If they are not obstructing the business there is no basis for investigation?' or ' These things take time?' " Samuel repeated the common phases at it actively matched with what the police reported to her.

She looked at him with utter shock almost believe he was spying on her. He stared at her exhausted expression, there were large dark circles under her eyes and from the looks of her clothes, she must be staying her nights in her office.

" That's what they do when they don't want to offend someone important. There are some people that could bend the rules because of how much sway they have over these officials. You will not be getting any assistance from them anytime soon. They are only waiting for your business to go into red before swooping in to buy it."

" What? Do you know who is behind this?"

" You don't know?" What the hell was she even doing up to this point?

" They never said anything. I rushed here when I received a call from the staff members. They said someone was disrupting the business by scaring away all the customers. I tried to talk to them but they would say anything only telling me to sell this place to them. I vehemently refused them but they were literally camping outside so that no one dared to come inside."

" Is that even possible?" Samuel shook his head.

" That's what I think too, they will go away seeing that I will not sell it to them but it's been two days and police refused to come and evict these bastards!" She exclaimed feeling frustrated about it.

" That's because it's him. I think he found you."

" He?.....Brett."