| Chapter 5 "Get out of my bed lady." I stared at him. He HAD to be kidding. Just where did he think I was going to sleep?! The friggin' floor!? He glared at me menacingly. I glared back with slitted eyes. We stayed like that for god knows how long. I'm guessing he's as stubborn as me. And that's saying something. "Get. Out. Of. My. Bed." That tone wasn't good. But I was sleepy. There was no way I was getting out of that bed. Especially after the potatoes in a sack way he's been treating me. Hm...I still don't know the damn guy's name. "What's your name?" He rubbed his brow. I get this reaction quite a lot actually. "Didn't we already cover this pointless subject? Look, duchess, my name doesn't matter to you. Hell, it doesn't even matter what your damn name is. I just want to know where the damn diamonds are, and for you to get out of my bed." I crossed my arms and legs on the mattress. "I have no idea who you're looking for pretty boy, but it sure as hell isn't me. And there is no way I'm moving from this mattress short of an bus running me over." Cold green eyes suddenly glinted dangerously. The next thing I knew, a gun was pointed at my head. "Move." Gulp. "Point taken." I scrambled off. "I see you still have some sense in that female brain of yours." He went over to a closet, and nicely enough, brought out a futon, spreading it on the floor for me. I swear, that gun comes out of nowhere. "So who are you looking for?" I settled on the futon, gripping my bag behind my back. "Give me the bag." He held his hand out for it. "Er....no." His eyes flashed dangerously. "Are you going to refuse everything I say? I did save your pathetic little life you know." "So? You aren't getting my bag. I've got stuff in there no man should ever see, especially one I know nothing about and just about kidnapped me." I bluffed. Really, I only carry junk, plus a wallet. He sighed tiredly. Fast as lightning, the bag was out of my hands. "HEY!!!" I went after him, grabbing it off just as he opened the zipper. "Will you give me the bag woman!?" He growled. I stepped back, wide eyed. Okay, so I'm just a tad naive. He shook his head. "Look, I will be trading you to the triads tomorrow, if you don't have the jewels, I will let you go." I looked sideways. "And...if I do?" He looked at me for half a minute. "Then I hand you in." He said simply. I blinked, gripping my bag tighter. "And then?" "And then it's triad business. I don't ask, I don't tell." I glanced at the door. He looked at me. "Do you have them?" "Er....what if I just give them to you and you let me go? That sounds good to me, what about you?" I said nervously. He just gave me a look. "I can't do that. It's true they want that diamonds real bad, but the deal was the diamond and a girl. Give me your bag." Killed now, or killed later. If I keep the bag, he can't do anything to me. If I give him the bag, I'm still pretty much screwed, but keeping the bag will give me something to bargain with. I mean 20 mil in diamonds was a lot. Not that I know how to bargain any ways, I wasn't Dana. But it was a plan. Bad, and most probably get me killed plan, but a plan nevertheless. I looked at him. I looked at the bag. I looked at the futon. "Goodnight." I took a dive under the blankets, putting the bag securely under my shirt so that the only way to get it out was to reach under there. I could hear a exasperated growl behind me before the bed creaked as someone plopped down on it. I waited a few minutes before I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Sunlight blinded my eyes irritatingly. Don't you hate it when that happens? It took me a few minutes to gather my surroundings and a few more to figure out what woke me. It was damned hard sleeping with that bag under my shirt, and a that combined with a cranky morning personality wasn't a good thing. "Get up woman." The male voice growled in Chinese. I mumbled, glaring up at him against the sunlight. And nope, he still looked damn dangerous in the daylight. Though it did make him look even more annoyingly gorgeous. Green eyes glinted under dark locks of hair. His lips scowling at me. "It's too early." I said tiredly. There wasn't a thing on earth to get me outta bed THIS early. What was it? 5 AM or something? "It's 10 o'clock." said the big man in black leather in plain English. Wha? Then, he actually KICKED me. Lightly of course. I whimpered in pain, sitting up and glaring. He smirked and walked away. "I hate men." If I wasn't about to be traded like some piece of cloth, I would take serious action into being a nuisance. Damn I miss my computer. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "WILL YOU SLOW THE FUCK DOWN?!?!?!" I screamed, my voice muffled by the helmet as I clung on for dear life. Cling for dear life to HIM, which made it even worse. He remained silent, going even faster between the honking and FAST traffic of Hong Kong streets. I growled. It was bad enough he carried me over a shoulder, made me get on the bike and was now attempting suicide with us BOTH, but the damn motorcycle was going too fast for me to jump out. Nothing looked familiar anyway. "We're here." With that we hurtled through a few hundred cars and skidded to a halt in front of a building. I needed a few minutes to remember the art of breathing. Unerringly graceful, he tried to slide off the bike, only to drop back down. "Let go of me." I yelped as I realised my arms were still locked around his waist, quickly making them move and almost dislocating my shoulder in the process. Silently, he slid off the helmet, running a hand through thick, black, short hair as he lifted himself off. I sat there like a rock. Rolling his eyes, Mr Talkative picked me up bodily and pulled me off the seat. "Follow." I hate people who order me around. I saw the gun hidden within easy reach inside his jacket. Within easy reach for him that is. Sometimes, circumstances like these needs a little subtlety...and I have a lot of that.... Yeah. So like a little grumpy puppy I followed him in the building, not bothering to read the HUGE Chinese symbols since, I can't read my own language. Plus, I needed my glasses if I was to see the small, tiny lettering under the huge symbols that were written in English. I took in the bland office surroundings. Full of...computers. Wait a sec... Screw plan A, on to plan B. This might actually work... "This way." Unless of course you're dragged away from the lovely computers and into a white TOTALLY sterile hallway. I growled, shaking out of his grip. "I can walk." He looked at me suspiciously before leading me through large double doors, up two elevators, down three identical white marble hallways, through ten offices or so, through another three sets of double doors by which time, I was totally lost. "Here." He shoved me into the next double door, which, I noticed, was more ornate than the others. More bigger too. A lone, distinguished looking Chinese man sat behind a sleek black marble desk, with only a black, thick writing pad infront of him. Just what is the Chinese fascination with marble? And wood? It's EVERYWHERE!!! "You're here." The man spoke in Chinese. His eyes roamed over to me...and my JAG bag. "Your money will be arriving soon." Mystery man didn't look at me. "I want it now." Old guy looked at me again. The look sent shivers up my spine. Ew....perverted old men radar up!!! "Follow me." The old man stood, walking to the door. He was short. Really short. Shorter than me. Damn that is short. Smurf dude didn't look behind as he walked out of the door. A hand gripped my hand. "Don't move. Just so you know, there are multiple guards all over this building, all armed with neat little weapons called guns and if you so much as STEP out of this office, your body parts will be splattered all the way 80 stories down." Tall, dark and stick up his ass hissed at me. I twitched, nodding. "Give me the bag." Green eyes flashed dangerously. "Er..." Quicker than possible, it was out of my hands with a rough tug. He was walking to the door after the old man before I could blink. The sound of a heavy lock behind them echoed in the empty office. The empty office. With no cameras...since there was nothing THERE. Of course, in such a panicky situation, I started to swear in Japanese as usual. "Now what?" Taking a deep breath, I looked around, eyes centering on the only object in the room beside a large wing-back chair, the marble desk. Darting glances at the door, I pulled on the drawers. Only one opened. The others were locked. And that only had stationary, though I give credit to expensive looking stationary. Well guess that's what comes with only having a writing pad. Geez, has this guy heard of a compu... I look again at the writing pad. It was thick. A little too thick. And solid. Skimming my fingers along the sides, I found a small switch embedded in the side. The marble infront of me slid back with a silent hiss, making me jump in fright. Gracefully, a lit screen rose from the marble, sleek and very modern, matching the black writing pad that suddenly lit into the familiar keys of a keyboard. Damn. Why can't I have a computer like this? A printer and scanner slid out from the side of the desk. The logo on the screen read 'Hong Kong Bank-Head Office.' Now...if you were a naturally smart person, you wouldn't leave a computer even in the range of a normal person. Much less one that is already turned on. Even stupider is to leave a computer in the hands of a hacker such as moi. I was in my element. Evil laughter crept in my throat. My fingers started flashing over the keys decoding passwords and annihilating fire walls as I went. Light, off the screen flashed over my eyes. I didn't have much time. Plan C was in action. I always wanted to hack into a bank. It's so much easier if you are on the inside of one...and the CEO or whatever, thinks you're a useless little mandarin girl. A little fund moving here...a old account changing passwords and name...more funds moving... The good thing about companies is...everything is linked or networked. The joy of Cable. So much easier for people like me. And the thing about banks is the handy key card making machine. And of course the paranoid security system. I drew up and printed the plans for the building. Tinkling with the security cameras to show old digitized photos with a change in date for necessity, I memorised the location where my new key card would be hot off the presses. Binary code flew across the screen as I messed with the system so it gradually gave funds from every account into my new one or...old one that now belongs to me. So far so good. The door handle started to turn. Shit! Typing even faster, while cursing in a variety of languages, I shut everything down just in time, making the alarms for fire and theft to trigger in a 10 minutes. I stuffed the plans clumsily down my bra. Flicking the switch just in time to put the cool set back into the table and skidding off the chair just as the door opened. The old man narrowed his eyes suspiciously on me, the person that was currently not in the best position on the floor. I stood, dusting myself off, getting unnerved by his eyes. Even more so with the limited time I have. "How are you Grace?" He spoke smoothly in Mandarin. I could only barely understand the basics in the language and he expects me to answer? I just kept my mouth shut. "Our friend said to give you your foreign bag back." He carried on in Cantonese, probably thinking that this is too difficult for this 'Grace'. He threw my bag at me. I caught it none too gracefully in both my arms. "The diamonds are safe. Don't worry." he walked towards me with a weird glint in his eyes. His hand reached to cup my chin. Get it off! Get it off!!! "You are a very beautiful young lady. You will fetch a high price with your daddy." He said. I almost shuddered with disgust. At the very moment the alarms began to ring. "REEEAAAREEEAAAREEEAAAA...!!!" Like a hoard of ambulances had just charged into the building. He looked angry, pushing me aside and reaching for a cell phone. "What is going on!?" He screamed in it in canto. Two men suddenly burst into the room. "Boss! There's a fire in the building and someone just stole from the safe!!!" They looked at me before dismissing me just as quickly. The alarms continued to blare. "Grab her!!!" The old man pointed at me. I barely had time to sling my bag over my shoulder's before I was pulled forcibly from the room. It was then that the system decided to turn on the sprinklers to get rid of so called 'fire', clouding everything in barely visible mist. And drenching me completely in a few seconds. The grip on my arm was suddenly released as the two big guys collided in the almost flooding water, setting me free. I ran like mad. Okay, sprinklers not part of plan, but it was effective. I must've looked pretty ridiculous running in the chaos with a hand groping my chest to get at the map. END CHAPTER 5 |