The Intimidation Game (Game Series Book 1) Read online

  “Oh Damo, I’m so sorry,” I say as I burst into tears.

  “Nikki what happened last night?”

  “I don’t know. I woke up in some guy’s bed this morning. I don’t even know who he is. I totally fucked up Damo. I’m sorry.”

  “Stop apologising. I’m coming over okay. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Will you be okay till I get there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hang in there, Miss Nikki.”

  We hang up and I lie down on the couch sobbing in shame.

  The incessant knocking on the door and the constant ringing of the doorbell is not doing my delicate head any favours. As soon as I open the door and see Damo standing there, I break down again. He comes in and shuts the door and wraps me in a warm hug. “Hey, it’s okay your bestie is here, and I’ve got the best hangover cure right here in this bag.” He leans back from me and holds up a white plastic bag. I nod, swipe my tears from my face and we walk into the kitchen. Damo starts to empty the bag onto the kitchen counter. There’s a large plastic bottle of transparent bright orange liquid. The label says Irn Bru. We had one called Iron Brew in South Africa, it may be a knock off of this. Ours looks more like cola though. I’ve heard of this one but I’m not sure what its healing properties may be. There are also two white bags filled with food, I’m guessing, since there are little spots of grease on the bags.

  “What is this?”

  “Irn Bru. The national drink of Scotland.”

  “I thought that was whisky?”

  “Well, it is but this is a close contender. Although, for a hangover it has to be full sugar. None of that diet crap.”

  “Okay and this?” I point to the white bags.

  “Ah…these are Scotland’s national food.”

  “Oh, Damo I’ve tried haggis, I don’t like it.”

  Damo laughs. “Not haggis, I hate that stuff it’s just plain nasty. This my little darling is a roll and square sausage.”

  My mood is lifting with his enthusiasm and I smile. “My mum has talked about this. I’ve never tried it though.”

  “Well, prepare to be blown away. Where are your glasses?”

  I point to the cupboard above the sink. The whoosh of the carbon dioxide as he opens the lid echoes in the quiet apartment. He pours us both a large glass and I take a seat on the couch with my orange elixir and food.

  “Get stuck in, then we can talk about last night.”

  His words send a shiver up my spine. I take a bite of the roll and find that it’s actually comfortingly tasty. The Irn Bru tastes like nothing I’ve ever had in my life. I expected it to taste like orange, but I just can’t put my finger on the flavour. We eat and drink in silence and Damo is right, this is a good cure. Obviously, it is the combination of grease and sugar, but it has done the trick. I don’t feel like I want to puke everywhere now.

  “Feel better?” Damo smiles at me.

  “Yeah.”

  “Right, what the hell happened last night?”

  I bow my head in utter shame. “I honestly don’t know. The last thing I can remember was being out in the corridor with Dan. After he left and I came back to get you I don’t remember anything else.”

  “You don’t remember getting us thrown out of the club?”

  “Oh hell. What?”

  “Well you tried to get up on the bar to dance and the bouncers threw us out. Sorry they threw you out, but I couldn’t leave you on your own obviously, so I left with you.”

  “Where did we go?”

  “I took you to a late-night coffee shop to get you sobered up a bit. You were seriously out of it. I went to the toilet after the coffees were made and when I came back you were gone. You hadn’t even touched your drink. I tried phoning and texting you but got no reply. I even came here to see if you had come home. I swear if you hadn’t called me this morning I was going to the police.”

  “I honestly don’t remember any of this Damo. This is so bad. I know I had a lot to drink but I’ve had more and still remembered the night before. God anything could have happened to me.”

  “I think your drink might have been spiked.”

  The thought makes me want to be sick. “Oh no.” I put my head in my hands. “How will I know?”

  “The club opens at noon so we could go and speak to the manager and ask if we can have a look at the security footage. They take this sort of thing very seriously, so they’ll want to know if it has happened.”

  “You know what this means though? If I don’t remember anything, how could I have made a rational decision to go with the guy I ended up with?”

  “Do you think you had sex with him?”

  “Well, I woke up fully clothed in bed beside him so I don’t know if something happened or if I passed out before it could.”

  “Are you on the pill?”

  “God Damo, I met you less than a week ago. This is not a conversation I thought I’d be having with you.”

  He rubs my arm. “Look, I like you Miss Nikki. I like you a lot. I know this is the most embarrassing thing that could probably have happened. Believe me I feel entirely responsible for this. If I hadn’t taken you out last night, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “I don’t blame you Damo. Yes, I’m on the pill.”

  “I suggest you get tested for STD’s just to be safe but, by the sound of things you may have dodged a bullet. We’ll check the cam footage at the club then you can put this all behind you.”

  “God, I feel like a stupid teenager. I’ve never done anything like this before. I think the whole thing with Dan has fucked with my brain.”

  “What thing with Dan?”

  “Well, when we were in the corridor of the club there was… a… moment.”

  “Oh God Nikki. We’ll fix this, I’ll be here for you I promise.”

  “You’re a good friend Damo. Can I trust you to keep this to yourself? I couldn’t bear it if anyone found out.”

  He crosses his heart. “I promise.”

  The club is quiet since it’s only just after twelve noon. The manager has been more than obliging when we told him what we think happened last night. Right now, we are sitting in an office at the back of the club and the manager is flicking through all of the footage from last night.

  “This looks promising. Is that you?” He asks.

  I look closely at the screen and see Damo and I dancing. Then I see myself heading to the bar and then Dan taking me out to the corridor. “Yeah that’s us.”

  “Where was your drink?”

  “At our table. We were sitting at a booth on the other side of the bar.”

  “Okay here’s the footage from that side.”

  We watch our table which shows Damo and I leaving, obviously to go and dance. Jamie and Sandy turn their backs to the table to talk to people behind them. I am gobsmacked when I see a female come to the table and drop something into my glass. When she turns to leave the table, I am in shock. It’s Astrid.

  “What the fuck. Damo.”

  “I see her Nikki. My God that horrible cow. I’m going to the police about this.”

  “No.” I say it almost too quickly, but I know Dan needs her to be able to prove what she and Jed are up to. “I’ll deal with it.”

  The manager shakes his head. “Eh…darling if you know her, I have to call the police.”

  “No, I saw her earlier in the night, but I don’t know her,” I lie.

  Damo shakes his head. “No, we don’t know her.” There is hurt in his eyes and I feel incredibly guilty that I’ve made him lie. The manager takes a screen shot of Astrid’s face. “I’ll circulate this to my door staff and if she comes back here, I’ll report her to the police.”

  “Thanks for your help.” We shake the manager’s hand and head out into the sunny afternoon.

  I lean against the wall and sigh.

  “Are you going to tell me what just happened Nikki?”

  “I can’t.”

  “I thought we were friends.”

 
; “Damo we are. I’m sorry.”

  “Oh, Miss Nikki, I sure hope you know what you’re doing.” He takes my hand and rubs my knuckles.

  I hate lying to him. He really has been a good friend to me. “I do and I’ll be fine.” My voice seems to do pretty well at hiding my inner turmoil.

  Chapter Eight

  My sister and I look absolutely amazing in our fifties style light pink bridesmaid dresses. They sit just below the knee and are sleeveless. We look like two peas in a pod with our long blonde hair and blue eyes.

  “These are the dresses,” Gina says holding up her champagne flute filled with sparkling grape juice. This will be the fourth she’s had; we have been all over Glasgow in different bridal shops looking for the perfect dresses. “Now I have my colour scheme.”

  My sister’s best friend is such a beautiful person inside and out. She’s been through so much in a short space of time and it’s only right that she should finally be happy. It must have been awful to be widowed so young.

  “They are perfect. And they fit.” Charlie does a twirl and the tulle and chiffon skirt of her dress fans out then wraps itself round her legs. “Oh, I feel so elegant. And that’s not happened in a long time.”

  My niece decides to let us know she’s still here by letting out the loudest glass-shattering cry I’ve ever heard. We all jump and laugh.

  “I’ll get her. You two get changed and we can pay for these dresses.” Gina lifts Georgie out of her pram and cradles her against her chest. She’s going to be such a good mum.

  Charlie and I get changed and head back out to find Gina. Before we get out of the dressing room Charlie stops me.

  “Are you okay Nikki?”

  “I’m fine. I’ve just got a lot on my mind with this new job. Honestly, it’s nothing for you to worry about sis.”

  She looks at me in that way of hers that lets me know she doesn’t believe me but that she’s willing to let me off the hook. “Okay, but you know where I am if you need me. Don’t be getting too stressed out at work it’s not worth it.”

  Oh, if only you knew Charlie. “I’m not. It’s actually really interesting.” I can’t even begin to tell her about Friday. She’d have a shit fit and I’d be promptly moved to Edinburgh.

  “Are you guys ready?” Gina’s voice echoes down the short corridor.

  “Coming honey,” Charlie shouts back.

  We hand the dresses to the assistant who proceeds to package them carefully into garment boxes filled with tissue paper.

  The assistant looks at us. “Okay that will be…” she stops as Gina waves her hand.

  “I’m paying for these.”

  My sister tries to protest but Gina is having none of it. “Steven said I can buy whatever I want for this wedding and I want these.”

  Charlie shakes her head and laughs. She takes Georgie from Gina and straps her back into her pram. “You’ll be the death of me, you rich bitch.”

  It still sounds strange to hear my sister’s accent. She left Glasgow aged four, so she had a Scottish accent when she got to South Africa. Over time she developed a more local accent but as soon as she came back here the Scottish twang returned. Now it’s a mixture of the two and it’s quite funny sometimes. We leave the bridal boutique and Gina’s driver, Gerry, is waiting at the kerb in a beautiful black Range Rover just like the ones the Royal Family drive around in. We put our dress boxes in the back so that Gina can take them home and I help Charlie get Georgie’s pram folded.

  “Do you want a lift home Nikki?”

  “Thanks Gina but I’m going to do a little bit of food shopping before I go home. All my fridge has in it is a bottle of wine and some milk that’s gone off.”

  We say our goodbyes and I head in the direction of the main shopping area wondering what my day will be like at SecuriSoft tomorrow.

  I can’t seem to function today. I’m still reeling from learning Astrid spiked my drink on Friday. Damo was right when he said I had dodged a bullet. Who knows what might have happened had it been anyone other than that nice student guy? I’ll call him a nice guy since I woke up fully clothed although I’m sure that was probably only because I passed out before anything could happen. I take a seat on a backless bench facing the River Clyde. The SecuriSoft building looms over me from behind. I honestly don’t know why I’ve come down here on a Sunday but here I am. My pitiful shopping trip managed to get me a pre-packed tasteless sandwich and a bottle of water. Since it’s already almost five in the evening I suppose it’ll do for dinner. The breeze coming off the water is chilly and I’m thankful for the warm jacket and scarf I have on. April was never this cold in South Africa and it’s taking a little bit of adjusting. Watching the river flow, I contemplate how much my life has changed since I got to the UK.

  I stayed in London for four weeks with my parents until it was time for me to fly the nest. My dad is doing a four-year stint at the foreign office in London and then he can retire on an amazing pension and mum can get her husband back. I love my dad and I know he loves us dearly, but he’s always been married to his work. I remember once listening to him and mum having an argument about it and she said something that has stuck with me all these years later. “You’re never here. Even when you’re home, you’re never here.” His job was, and still is, extremely important and we all knew that. I think that’s why he got away with it. I know my dad thinks this move was his decision, but I have a sneaking suspicion that mum had been planting the seeds for a long time. As soon as this job opportunity came up, he jumped at it and I know it was a huge relief to mum. She always wanted to come back home and if London was as close as she could get, that would do.

  Deciding I should really get off this cold bench I swing my legs over the other side so that I’m now facing the SecuriSoft building. My heart falls into my feet as I see two very familiar people leaving through the front doors. I quickly pull my hood up and put my scarf over my face. I watch as Dan turns to Astrid and touches her arm in a way that looks more familiar than a working relationship. As they walk off in opposite directions, I turn to face the water again. I’m left with the horrible feeling that I’ve been used. That I’ve intentionally been put in danger, for what gain I have no idea, I just know that tomorrow may be my last day working there.

  Chapter Nine

  The radio host on my alarm clock sounds far too happy for my mood this morning. I reach my hand out and almost smash the thing putting it on snooze. I lie staring into space for the nine minutes it takes to sound again. This time I turn it off and decide I really need to get up. I’m going to need to start this day as strong as I can.

  My sleep was extremely restless. My dreams took me on a strange tour of all my insecurities. I let my guard down with Dan and he used it to his advantage. I don’t honestly know what my purpose is in this little game he’s got going on but I sure as hell won’t have my life put at risk for it. I decide to do a bit of job hunting before I get ready. At least I will if this piece of shit laptop will ever connect to the WiFi. The MacBook I used to have had been part of my job, so I had to hand it back when I left. This antiquated thing I am using is one of my dad’s old ones. As soon as I can afford it, I’ll be buying myself a new one. Although I may end up homeless first, if I don’t find another job.

  There’s not a lot on offer in my sector in Glasgow, in Scotland for that matter. Dan has very much cornered the market here, which explains why he is one of only a handful of billionaires in Scotland, albeit the poorest one. It makes me feel a little uneasy when I realise I don’t know much about this man. I grabbed this job as soon as it was offered to me, probably before it was offered, no questions asked, because I was in a bad place and it was my way out. I had control over that decision; it was mine to make. I should have made the decision sooner. But now I’m in the middle of something I have no control over, and it’s already cost me too much. Dan King can get some other patsy to piss all over.

  The building is quiet since it is only ten past eight in the morning. I take the
elevator to the third floor and when I get off, I stop to take in the office. My heart pains at the thought of leaving this job. I thought this was going to be where I would find my fit. As much as my first week was filled with drama, I was really looking forward to hitting the ground running with this project, but I can’t stay. I know it’s not in my best interest and I’ve done too much of putting other people first or taking other people’s crap because I thought I wasn’t worth anything better. Taking a deep breath, I head for my desk and start clearing out the little bits and pieces I have managed to accumulate over the last week. I almost want to die inside when I look at what is in the box on the desk. Two pens, ones my dad gave me, a mug that my sister gave me with a Superman logo on it and a welcome card that Damo gave me. That’s it. That’s what my week has been. It’s pathetic.

  I know what needs to be done today and there’s no point holding it off any longer. I know Dan is in, I saw his car outside, so before I can overthink things I get back in the lift and push the button for the twelfth floor with more confidence than I’m feeling. The higher the car goes the less sure I am of myself and by the time it reaches its destination I’m all but ready to give in and take whatever shit they want to throw at me. The doors opening startles me slightly. I step out and find the floor empty. Dan’s secretary isn’t at her desk and the place is eerily quiet.

  I take a look around the place. Everything is pristine and shiny. I didn’t really take it in the last time I was up here. Dan’s office walls are made of windows and I’m pretty sure when I was here before they were opaque. Now they are transparent, and I can see why he has his office up here. The view is to die for. I peek my head in his office door and find it empty, so I venture in. His space is lovely and bright and airy. The art on the walls are bursts of colour but not overpowering. They are a cross between Picasso and Jackson Pollock. Very surreal. The white leather sofa and chairs are luxurious but don’t look like they’ve been used.