Page 15 of Marcellus: House of Drakos

As the Drakos family was getting onto the elevator, and as the press outside were packing up and moving on to other angles of the story, Savannah walked into the lobby and headed for the reception desk.

Just walking into Drakos Aeronautics Corporate Headquarters building was daunting enough.

Almost as tall as Saint Regis, there was a richness and elegance to it that immediately made her feel out of place.

If she didn’t care about Niko so much, and was just that worried about him, she would do as Tyla suggested and forget about it too.

Thanks to his fashion director, who fired her, she had her own problems to deal with.

But she knew Niko. They’d worked hand-in-hand for over a decade. Everything within her was telling her something was wrong. She couldn’t ignore it any longer. Olivier wouldn’t do anything, and his other siblings didn’t know her from Adam. She had to take it higher.

“Hi. May I help you?”

The receptionist was kind and cheerful. That helped.

Savannah was a working girl all her life and never made any major money.

But working at a fashion house all those years made her sophisticated.

She had to deal with all kinds, from the richest to the poorest. She knew how to handle herself.

“Yes, hi. My name is Savannah Richardson. I work for Nikolas Drakos. I’m here to see Mr. Drakos please. ”

She quickly picked up the phone. “Which one, ma’am?”

“Excuse me?”

“Which one are you here to see? Mr. Olivier Drakos, Mr. Fredrick Drakos, or Mr. Scotford Drakos?”

“Oh. No. Not his siblings. I’m here to see Mr. Marcellus Drakos. Their father.”

The receptionist was about to press a button that would transfer her call to one of the three brothers’ secretaries. But when Savannah said that name, she stopped on the spot and looked at her. “Mr. Marcellus Drakos?”

Savannah knew then that it was a fool’s errand. “Yes. His father. I need to see his father.”

The receptionist hung back up her desk phone. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but I have to see him.”

“Why would you have to see him?”

She didn’t want to be so melodramatic, but she knew she had to be to stand any chance of getting any audience with the man. “I think his son is in grave danger.”

When she said those words, the woman stared at her as if she was wondering if this was some kind of hoax. “Why would you think he’s in danger?”

“I’m his secretary and I haven’t heard from him in weeks. I know it’s going to sound crazy, but I know in my gut something is terribly wrong. Please let me at least notify his father. I don’t think he even knows he’s missing.”

Savannah apparently had enough concern and sincerity in her eyes that the receptionist took her seriously. “I don’t have the authority to contact even his secretary directly, but I can contact one of his brothers’ secretaries as I was about to do.”

It wasn’t what Savannah wanted to hear, and she knew Olivier would dismiss her again.

“Could you contact Miss Kalayna Drakos’s secretary then?

” Savannah knew she was a black woman too.

Maybe she wouldn’t be as dismissive as Olivier had been with her.

Maybe she would actually give her a chance.

Besides, Niko always said she was their father’s favorite.

Perhaps he would be more inclined to take it seriously if it came from Kalayna.

Savannah could tell that the receptionist viewed Kalayna Drakos as an odd choice, since she was the Chief Financial Officer of the company and not directly involved in the day to day the way Olivier as CEO, and Fredrick as COO, would have been.

But to Savannah’s relief, she picked up the phone again and pressed the button to the office of Kalayna Drakos’s secretary. She didn’t hesitate.