"What about the CTO?" I inadvertently jumped at the sound of the voice behind me. "I'll be more than happy to indulge her." I could hear the smirk and double meaning in her voice.

I stared ahead and saw the jaws tightening on the other executives. They were clearly not happy about the person's offer. I'm guessing they had no interest in accepting Jelena's demand, but they couldn't refute it anymore since someone had offered to be assigned to me.

"Well, at least one of you is smart." Jelena snapped. "I'll leave you with Nicole since she'll be starting right now."

Wait, seriously?! When did she plan this?! I wasn't prepared at all! I swear it's almost like Jelena wants me to fail. The others were all too eager to send Jelena out the room. Taemin opened the door and escorted them out.

"So, are you going to turn around so I can see your pretty face or am I just going to have to admire your gorgeous back?" I jumped at the voice next to my ear.

I stood up and whipped around. I was ready to tell her off, but my words got caught in my throat. Her dark brown hair fell in wavy curls. Her features were sharp, but it was her green eyes that rooted me in place. She seemed stunned as well since we both kept staring at each other.

My eyes drank in her goddess like appearance. Scratch that. She was waaaaaay more beautiful than a goddess. She was honestly the most beautiful woman or person or being that I've ever laid eyes on. And I've laid my eyes on a lot of people in my line of work. I'm not sure why I felt this way, but I felt connected to her. Like I had just found the missing pieces to my soul or something. My mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish. I couldn't find my words.

I ripped my gaze from her when I heard a cough. I turned to see the man remove his hand from his face. The executives were watching us with an unreadable expression. I turned to see the gorgeous brunette watching me with a curious expression.

"Well, we should introduce ourselves, shouldn't we?" The blond clapped to get our attention. "I'm Hailey." She motioned for the man to go next.

"Mr. SangPure." Okay, so he really does have a power trip.

"Mrs. SangPure." I expected nothing less from the CEO.

I rose my brow in confusion as Hailey stared behind me. I glanced behind to see the green eyed beauty staring at me with newfound interest. I think Hailey let out a cough, breaking the girl from her trance.

"Lara." She smiled widely and took my hand in hers. I was surprised by how frigid her hand was. It was literally ice cold, maybe even colder than ice.

"Am-Nicole." I quickly stuttered, but she only smiled in return.

I inwardly cursed myself for almost revealing my true name. I'm hoping none of them picked up on my blunder. I glanced around, but they were still staring at me with an unreadable expression. I looked forward, seeing that Lara was still holding my hand with a smile.

"Perhaps." Mrs. Sangpure loudly spoke, snapping Lara from her trance. Lara quickly released my hand and walked towards the empty chair. "Perhaps, we should have Alexis give her a welcoming spiel. We do have much to discuss." He directed his last comment at Lara.

"Umm... sure." I looked around to see if I had missed anyone.

"Lexi." Lara spoke.

A cute girl entered. Her curly brown hair was long and fell near her butt. She smiled at me and ushered me to follow her. With one last look at the executives, I saw them start to talk except for Lara. Her eyes were focused on me. I saw a smile on her face just as the door closed.

"Hi, I'm Alexis. You can call me Alex, Lexa, Alexa like the Bluetooth speaker, Lexi-"

"So anything." I concluded. She laughed. "I'm Nicole." I offered a smile.

"Oh, I know."

"How'd you know? You weren't in the room." Her features momentarily froze, but she quickly covered it up with a hum.

"Facial recognition software is all throughout the building. We scanned you and your partners when you entered." I knew she was lying, but chose not to comment. If they really did that, then their system was shit since they couldn't figure out who I really was.

"So, are you to give me a tour?" I wiggled my brows.

"Yep and give you a rundown of the company even though you probably know all about it already." She stopped at a lab. "This is where all the drug trials are performed. Basically, it's our clinical trial space."

"Clinical trials space? Right, this is a biotech company. I sometimes forget it involves pharmaceuticals. I always think of this company as software, weapons, and aerospace type research." I carefully added in the weapons to gauge a reaction from her, but she showed nothing.

"Yeah, we do all of that in different sections throughout the company. We're currently on the biotech side of the company since Alena is here. Her and Alec's specialty are in pharma. Lara is more on the other side of the company." So Lara is involved in the weaponry then.

"Wait, Alena and Alec?" I asked confused because I think I missed those two people.

"Oh, right. Silly me." She facepalmed. "Mr and Mrs. SangPure. They prefer to be spoken to formally."

"Well, you seem to know them in an informal way." I paused. "How's that?" I glanced to see her stiffened features.

"Uh, I guess I've rubbed off on them. But, you shouldn't follow my bad habits. It won't get you anywhere." She spoke so quickly that I could detect an accent that she was desperately trying to hide. It sounded French, but I wasn't sure since she consciously made an effort to showcase her American accent.

I stopped grilling her and we spent the rest of the day exploring the company. I'm not going to lie. It was exhausting walking around and memorizing the different pathways while also absorbing the amount of information. Alex was literally a human encyclopedia. I have no idea how she's able to memorize all these minute facts. She must've spent decades studying to be able to recite stuff off the top of her head.

"So what are you?" She stiffened again in panic. Why does she keep doing that?

"What do you mean?" She nervously played with her fingers.

"Like what's your role? What do you do here? Lara called and you answered, though I'm not sure how you heard her since the door was closed and she didn't raise her voice.

"Ahhh! Years of practice and knowing her schedule and things." She nervously blurted out. "Umm... I guess you could say I'm her assistant. Taemin, the guy who escorted you upstairs, is Ale- Mr. SangPure's assistant."

"Ahh, that makes sense. So, you're her right hand?"

"In one way or another." She chuckled. She stopped chuckling and looked off into space, as if she was listening to someone. I took a moment to observe her, but didn't see an earpiece anywhere. She snapped out of it and looked at me with a smile. "It was a pleasure showing you around today. Look forward to seeing you next week Monday." She waved and ascended the elevator.

I waved and exited the building. Okay, something is seriously weird here. And not the "oh they're involved in illegal business deals or drugs." It's more like something is off about them. I gazed at some of the employees. They looked normal enough, so it was just the executives that were giving off a weird vibe. Hmm... I know it's not a part of my mission, but I'm determined to find out what's their deal.