Love Comes To Me
Chapter 1042: Caught in the act

Earlene ate her breakfast and went straight to the hotel to replace Pierce.

"Mr Pierce, I'm interested in that virus."

As soon as they met, she stated her purpose bluntly.

Pierce raised an eyebrow, "So this is your agreement to join SA's research team?"

"No." Earlene shook her head, "I am trying to work with you."

"What do you mean?" Pierce didn't understand what she meant.

Earlene smiled, "The Bartram Group also has its own research institute that I head and I think we could work together."

Pierce shook his head, "Miss Earlene, I think I should make it clear that the SA Group's research team needs you, and only you."

He deliberately put a strong emphasis on the word "only".

"Mr Pierce, wouldn't it be better to work together?" Earlene was certainly not going to give up.

Pierce was silent for a moment before speaking, "I said straight away that this involves the interests of the SA Group, and there is no way to share it with anyone else." In other words, the research on the virus could only be done by the SA Group, no one else.

Earlene laughed out loud, "Mr Pierce, you're really straightforward. Fine then, I'll pretend I wasn't here today."

She said as she stood up and made a move to leave.

"Wait." Pierce hurried to stop her, "Miss Earlene, you haven't told me yet, would you like to join our research team?"

"I'm sorry, I don't want to." Earlene declined simply.

"The SA Group's institute is not the best in the world, but it's better than the one you're in now. And whatever you want, just ask, I'll try to meet it."

"Thank you for your favours, but right now I don't want to be a gigolo, I just want to concentrate on the research I want to do."

Pierce was direct, and so was Earlene.

She had come on this trip today to talk about collaboration.

Since she couldn't negotiate a collaboration, she could forget about it, she had the virus samples in hand anyway, and she could do her own research.

"When you get to SA's institute, you can also do your own research." Pierce said.

Earlene didn't want to waste any more time, smiled and said, "I'm going back, I'll buy you dinner some time."

With those words, without waiting for Pierce's reaction, he turned and left.

"Damn it!"

Pierce picked up the glass on the table and smashed it hard against the floor, luckily the floor was carpeted and the glass didn't break but rolled around a few times and came to rest right at Raimunda's feet. As soon as they had finished talking, Raimunda came out and witnessed Pierce's temper tantrum.

She knelt down and picked up the cup, holding it in her hands for a moment before slowly walking over to Pierce. "Did something happen?" Raimunda asked, concerned.

Pierce gave her a sidelong glance before sitting down, "That Earlene doesn't want to join the SA's research team." "Why, did the terms not work out?" Raimunda sat down beside him.

"No. What she wants is collaboration."

Raimunda frowned, "Collaboration?"

"Well, she is indeed interested in the virus, but more so in the benefits that come with it."

At this point Pierce became a little annoyed and turned to Raimunda, "Make me a cup of coffee, strong, no sugar." "Good."

Raimunda got up and went to the bar to make him coffee.

As she poured the coffee powder, she glanced back at Pierce sitting in the living room and her eyes flashed slightly. She withdrew her gaze and waited for the coffee to finish.

"Is it ready?"

Pierce asked a short while later.

"Yes, it's ready." Earlene took the coffee as she pulled a small pill from her jacket pocket and dropped it into the cup.

And then, shaking it gently, it was delivered to Pierce's hand.

Pierce was too preoccupied with the conversation he had just had with Earlene to pay much attention to it, so he took it and drank it.

Seeing him drink his coffee, the corners of Raimunda's mouth slowly curled up.

"Raimunda, the coffee is too bitter today." Pierce said with a frown.

"I'll go and add some sugar to the cube for you then."

Raimunda turned to head for the bar when there was a sudden thud behind her.

She turned around to see Pierce on the floor.

It was done!

Raimunda couldn't control the curve of her mouth anymore and went to kick Pierce, who didn't respond at all.

With the amount of medicine she had just given, Pierce should have been asleep for hours.

She looked up to Pierce's room, her eyes narrowing slightly, what Manzanares wanted was in there.

...

Manzanares' eyelids had been throbbing since the morning and they were bothering him to no end.

"What do you guys think is going on with these eyelids of mine? It's been throbbing for hours and it's still throbbing!" Manzanares complained to Rosero, who came over to see him. Rosero said in an unperturbed voice: "The left eye is jumping for money, the right eye for disaster."

Manzanares jumped at this, "Oh no, I'm jumping in my right eye. And it's jumping so hard, there's not going to be some disaster happening to me, is there?"

"You're thinking too much." Rosero glanced at him coolly, "Actually the eyelid jumping is because you didn't get enough rest, where did you wander off to last night again?" "No, I was at home." Manzanares sat down again and he raised his hand to rub his eyelids.

Rosero changed the subject and asked, "What happened to the job Mr Hector asked you to do?"

"The results will be in today."

No sooner had Manzanares said that than his phone suddenly rang.

It was Raimunda.

He rushed to pick it up and before he could say anything, Raimunda's breathy voice came over the line, "The stuff is in the usual place."

"Raimunda, what's wrong with you, what's happened?" Manzanares asked anxiously, hearing that she didn't sound right.

"It's been discovered."

Raimunda said this and the phone hung up.

Manzanares rushed to call back.

"Hello, the number you have called is temporarily unavailable ..."

Rosero saw his face turn instantly ugly and asked worriedly, "Is Raimunda alright?"

"She's been spotted." Manzanares turned his head to look at him.

"How?" Rosero was amazed, "How could Raimunda, who is so cautious, have been discovered?"

Manzanares thought about it and thought it was strange too, he said, "No, I have to go and replace her."

With that, he ran out.

Rosero tried to stop it too late and had to go after him.

Raimunda thought the mission would go smoothly, but little did she know that Pierce's men would come in and replace not only Pierce on the floor, but also that she was stealing secrets from Pierce's computer. Thankfully, though, the files finished transferring just in time for the second they were discovered.

She unplugged the USB stick, turned and opened the window and jumped out.

It happened so suddenly that the other party didn't even have time to react, and by the time they did, Raimunda had already fled.

"After them!"

With a command, Pierce's men started to go after Raimunda.

She thought she could get away, but when she reached the ground floor of the hotel, she ran right into them and Raimunda had to run away from them, trying to lose them.

In the meantime, she hid the flash drive in a place only she and Manzanares knew about, when they weren't looking.

But while on the phone, she was caught by the other side.