The Billionaire and His Intern (A Christian Romance)

Chapter 31: The Conviction

Arielle sat in the office that felt as though it was shrinking in size the longer they were there. The guard appeared bored in his plain, crisp uniform. His neat attire announced that he was ready for another day's work, but his plain countenance declared his readiness to depart his job altogether.

Arielle couldn't blame him for his boredom, but she also didn't quite understand a job like his.

How does one apply for such a job? She wondered. Are they tricked into kidnapping unsuspecting people or do they list it boldly on their resume? Her lips pouted as she pondered the random question. The fringe of curls that draped near her eyes constantly proved to be a distraction as one curl, and then two would fall into her line of vision, sometimes hitting her eye in its descent.

Arielle blew another away another curl that fell and entangled itself with her lashes. A steady sigh fell from her mouth as she turned her gaze back over to Lorenzo. She felt rather perplexed by his strange behavior. She studied his hands as they typed endlessly, furiously even, on the keyboard of his laptop, only to pause to chug a large dark soda beside him.

Who would have thought a man like him would order takeout amid a hostage scenario, but he ordered takeout not once, but twice. It was an odd and unique combination of donuts from a small nearby pastry shop and a platter of Chinese food from a Chinese restaurant that she had not heard of until then.

Yet what Arielle found the most bizarre wasn't his desire for takeout nor the combination of takeout- instead it was the matter in which he chugged his soda as if he had never sipped anything before in his life. And he would grab an unhinged amount of mini donuts, shoving them in his face. Not one by one, but group by group. If Arielle didn't know any better, it would seem as if the man behind the mayhem was having a panic attack or something similar.

One would think that he had to be suffering from dehydration, but she had a sneaking suspicion that he was dealing more with anxiety and fear rather than mere thirst.

It was just another reason why Arielle knew to never judge a book by its cover. Lorenzo looked fairly healthy, but his current diet said otherwise.

She turned her attention out the window again. Almost perfectly fitting the sullen demeanor of the building she was in, she was met with the view of a near-empty and filthy street. Litter covered the sidewalk and poured into the edge of the road. Despite being surrounded by various buildings and seeing where Lorenzo had ordered from, Arielle still didn't recognize where Lorenzo's building was located.

She lived in New York all of her life, but she didn't live in the Big Apple all of her life. Commuting for work was something many New Yorkers like herself did and living in a dorm kept her mostly on campus or in the places closest to her campus. Yet the building she sat in now was likely one she had never seen with her own eyes before this.

It didn't help that a lot of the roads appeared similar to one another in New York City. At least in her opinion. The buildings were tall, the roads were full, and the people were busy. She didn't have a reason to know it all, but now she wished that she did. She sighed quietly, leaning her head back against her seat. There wasn't much she could think to do.

Julia would have known. She thought to herself.

Julia loved everything about NYC. She loved the skyscrapers, the artists and their pieces, the pizzerias, and especially the street food. Julia's enjoyment of a variety of people and food led her to love New York even more than the average visitor that Arielle knew. She would travel through different blocks in wonder of what she would find there.

Arielle's eyes glanced back over to Lorenzo who had begun typing rapidly on his laptop. She was becoming increasingly concerned for the man. There was a vein popping out of his forehead and his face was taking on a strange hue of red.