Aura Finley

Upon entering The Lotus Heritage, the five-star hotel I was asked to meet in by the caller Rian Mackay, the first thing that hit me was the cool air of the centralized air-conditioner, which gave my sweaty and heat-agitated self a partial relief. The scorching sun outside could melt a walking human.

Now, standing in the hotel lobby, I couldn't help but admire the elegance of the impressive architecture, and the beauty of the finest antique articles that must have cost fortunes. The grand space filled with an unnatural floral aroma could recharge a miserable soul and soothe the senses. The hotel lobby was illuminated with the soft welcoming light as if it were morning sunshine in delicate yellow hues.

The involvement of golden color in choosing the material to give the hotel a luxury finish had me raise a factual question: What's with the five-star hotels and their obsession with golden color?

Taking my mind off the attractiveness of the hotel exhibited to allure the customers, I asked for Rian Mackay at the reception desk, then, almost immediately I was directed to the table where my client had been waiting for me. Thanking the staff member who led me to the area, I clutched the strap of my sling bag and made my way towards the table where a lady whose back faced me was sitting alone.

With slow yet determined steps, I approached her and cleared my throat. "Excuse me." As soon as I gained her attention, I was left awestruck by her beauty. She was a stunning and polished young girl, maybe around my age, who wore the sophisticated designer, expensive bodycon dress. In short, she looked gorgeous.

Her eyes sparkled upon seeing me. "Aura Finley?" She asked as she stood up from the chair. I responded with a light smile while nodding my head.

"Rian Mackay." She extended her hand for a handshake. I grabbed the hand and responded politely. "Nice to meet you, Miss Mackay."

"Oh, call me Rian and please, have a seat." She waved her hand and gestured for me to sit.

Removing my sling bag from the shoulder, I sat and placed it on my lap. "So, what's that something you needed my help with?" I fired the question without beating around the bush.

She chuckled showing her bright white teeth, "Believe me, I am much more eager than you are, but we'll begin our conversation when the other person I invited for the talk has arrived. Till then why don't you order something for yourself?" She waved her hand for the waiter, who, in a blink of an eye, appeared at our table.

I would have denied ordering, but my dry throat was shouting for something chilled, so I ended up ordering strawberry lemonade. Rian, on the other hand, ordered hot coffee which had me wondering how could she drink the hot liquid in this burning summer.

Just when the waiter left, an oddly familiar voice alerted my senses making the sirens play inside my head.

"I apologize for my lateness; had to drive through heavy traffic."

Good god, not him. Not him!

"Oh, that's fine, you aren't that late." Rian stood up again and I too raised my head to look at him.

Had Rian been waiting for him? Or could he have been following me?

He smiled at Rian when she introduced herself to him. "Well, I'd be glad to have a gorgeous client like you."

Client?

Rian, who seemed to be a trained compliment acceptor, giggled. "Aren't you a charmer?"

"I have been told that a few times." He winked at her and when his gaze landed on me, his smile broadened as if he had received an early Christmas gift.

"You again?!" I tilted my head in disbelief.

"Oh, you two know each other?" Rian asked while looking between us.

"Uh, kind of, but we haven't been introduced officially. I believe this is the right time. Let me have the honor of introducing myself to you" He dramatically bowed slightly. I knew his trick; he wanted me to introduce myself to him. That cunning jerk!

"Well, hello, the name's Kian Turner." He bowed again, deliberately bringing his face closer to mine. "What's yours, beautiful?"

Wicked bastard. He was getting back at me for not introducing myself to him at the diner.

My teeth began to grind while my brain formulated the plan to vanish him from the face of the earth without landing myself in prison.
I had always been scared of prisons; give the credit to movies or overly exaggerated childhood stories created by none other than kids themselves. When I was younger—maybe eleven or so, my younger brother and I would have a special scary chat session based on what we heard in school from other kids, where we would talk about ghosts, goons, police, and their tortures inflicted on innocent people. I would have sleepless nights after every chat session. I grew up; matured; changed my theories about ghosts. Police and prison, however, remained my vulnerable spot.

The mere thought of having to spend even a minute in four-walled tiny hell almost gave me a mini claustrophobic attack.

"Well...?" His voice broke my day trance and had me look at him, his silly smirk not faltering a bit.

Guess I had no choice left. I lazily stood up from the chair I had been sitting on, my fingertips drumming on the table.

"Aura Finley." I found myself speaking casually.

"Beautiful name for a beautiful girl." I rolled my eyes at the age-old flirting line. Couldn't he come up with something new?
Wait—why did I even bring that thought up?

"Well, now that the introduction is over, shall we being with the business?" Rian spoke up.

Kian took that chance to quickly drag a chair near me and sat on it diagonally, wiggling his eyebrows at me. "See, it wasn't that difficult to get you to introduce yourself to me."

"It was the need of the moment. Don't get high on your ego." I muttered with gritted teeth to which he chuckled amusingly.

God, this infuriating guy! I needed to have something chilled to cool down my bubbling irritation. Even my order hadn't arrived yet. Just how much time does it take to make a glass of strawberry lemonade?

"Kian, would you like to order something?" Rian got our attention by saying that. Kian replied in positive and ordered himself an iced oat milk brown sugar espresso.

"Shall we begin now?" She added while drumming her manicured multicolored nails on the table.

"Sure," I muttered skeptically, still wondering what that jerk had to do with our talk.

"Of course," Kian said enthusiastically while placing his sculpted forearms on the table, from which I couldn't take my eyes off for a few seconds. He appeared to be a gym freak. 

"So, uh, where shall I begin from?" Rian chuckled nervously to herself, which had me doubtful of her action because she didn't seem to be a girl who would hesitate to say anything.

"I— okay," She took a deep breath with closed eyes. "I want both of you to plan an escape for me."

"Both?!" Kian and I shrieked in unison in astonishment. Why would she want a thief to help her out?

"Oh dear, your super surprised expressions tell me that both of you do not know that you both help people escape."

Rian's concern about introducing us was ignored as now Kian and I had eyes on each other with our jaws hung law.

"You are not a child snatcher?"

"You are not a thief?"

We both asked different questions at the same time, however, his sounded more absurd than mine.

"Child snatcher? Where did you get that absurd idea from?" I shrieked.

"No, I am not!" He shot back, his dense eyebrows curled into a frown.

"Then why would you jump the wall instead of going through the normal exit? You even drove your motorbike as if someone was following you." I questioned, ignoring my own question.

"If you were so observant then you must have seen a guy running with me. Yeah?" He questioned back, frown still not leaving his face. I nodded my head, recalling the image of him and the guy speeding away on the motorbike.

"He was the supposed groom whom I helped escape."

My eyes turned wide the moment I heard him. "You helped him flee his own wedding? Had you ever thought about what the bride would go through? What humiliation she'd have to face after that?" I couldn't help but chastise him.

He narrowed his eyes at me. "The work we do always leaves someone broken-hearted, may it be family, friend, boyfriend, girlfriend, or whosoever. We are supposed to only care about our clients and their escape. I believe you'd agree on that."

I couldn't form any words. He was partly right on that. Partly because I cared about the afterlife of my client and never actually thought of the people that person had left behind. It didn't even matter.

I straightened myself in the chair and brushed away the wild, tiny strands of my hair tingling my forehead. "I apologize for calling you a thief." I was sincere with my apology.

The frown he had on his face disappeared and a sexy smile graced his lips. "You are forgiven."

"But hey, I too am not what you think I am." I frowned.

He then replied, seeming embarrassed. "Oh, you are not? Err, my mistake. I sincerely apologize." His apology sounded more of mockery than sincere.

"Well, that was interesting. I should've taken responsibility to formally introduce you to each other." Rian caught our attention by saying that.

The waiter chose the moment to serve our order and I, within a blink of an eye, picked up my glass of strawberry lemonade, took out the straw, and gulped a mouthful of it from the glass itself. The chilled drink went down my throat and sent refreshing calmness to my head, and helped me assimilate what I had heard.

"So, if your misunderstandings are over, would you help me?" Rian asked after taking a sip of her hot coffee. I couldn't miss the desperation in her voice.

"That's what I am here for." Kian chirped enthusiastically.

He was ready but I wasn't, yet. "Rian, I don't know about him." I bobbed my head in Kian's direction. "But I work under certain rules. For me to help you, I'd require complete details as to why you want to run away."

Rian bit the corner of her lower lip while tapping her nails on the table as her gaze fixed on them, then she took a deep breath and looked at me. "I completely understand you. I'll give you my reason."

Nodding my head, I took another sip of my lemonade when my gaze flicked to Kian who was now seated relaxed in his chair, sipping his drink through a glass with the straw aside. I looked at my straw as well which was now lying on the table and it made me wonder why don't restaurants ask their customers if they want a straw? It would reduce tons of landfills that are polluting the planet.

"Have you heard of James Mackay?" Rian asked.

"The owner of the telecom company, Kay telecom?" Kian jumped in intriguingly.

"Yeah, he's my father." She smiled at Kian. His father was a prominent businessman, I had heard about him.

"Dang! You're loaded!" Kian exclaimed to which Rian laughed heartily.

"Perks of being a billionaire's daughter." She winked at him. And I sat there, gawking at them flirting with each other. I had already interpreted that Kian was a complete flirt, but what I didn't know was that Rian was the same. They seemed to be lost in their flirty conversation forgetting that I had also been sitting there.

"Shall we continue with the main conversation?" I butted in exasperatedly, however, I didn't let it surface on my face.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Rian chuckled sheepishly and Kian faced me just to pass an annoying grin.

"So, the thing is my elder sister is getting married in two weeks to the love of her life, and after that, she'd leave for good to stay with her husband in Auckland, New Zealand, which means she'd leave everything behind including the position she holds in dad's company."

Rian paused for a while to see my reaction—because Kian was ready either way.

I gave a nod of understanding. "I don't see any problem here," I muttered.

"Because I haven't mentioned the main problem yet." She responded.

"Let her complete, cheesesteak." Kian interrupted and earned an icy glare from me.

"Do not call me that." I hissed, maintaining the pitch of my voice, and took another angry sip of my lemonade to cool myself down.

"Oops, sorry, I forgot that now I know your name, Aura." He beamed at me, his eyes glistening with mirth. Mentally rolling my eyes, I ignored him and focused on Rian who surprisingly had a strange smirk playing on her lips as she witnessed our bickering.

"Ahem, Rian, please continue." Though my eyes were on Rian, I could feel Kian's amused gaze on me. What's his problem, ugh! I wish I could spam him from my life!

"Kian, it'd be better if you focused on what I'm about to say as I won't repeat it," Rian said to him as she tapped her finger on his arm which was resting on the edge of the table.

"I can never lose my focus on a hot and sexy girl like you, Rian...not even in my dreams." He winked at her, giving her an impish smile.

She laughed. "Aren't you a flatterer?"

"I am. That's why girls die to lay flat beneath me."

Eww! What kind of cringe-worthy flirting that is?
Flirtatious Jerk!

"You sure are an interesting guy, Kian." She shook her head while chuckling and here I was gagging at their interaction.

"So, where was I? Oh yeah, my sister." She slid her coffee cup aside and placed her forearms on the table. "So, her leaving for good is a problem for me as I'd be looked at or rather forced to join the company, which means my freedom will be taken away from me. And I don't want that. That's why I need both of your help to run away as soon as the wedding ends."

My jaw hung low as I gaped at her. Did she consider that a serious problem? Her wealthy dad would practically be giving her his company and she wanted to run away? Who in the right state of mind does that?! Oh, yeah, brats like her, who else?

I momentarily looked at Kian only to find him sitting unfazed as if what she said hadn't affected him at all whereas I was shaken to the core. What sort of absurd game had she been playing?

"I'm sorry to say, but I don't consider this a problem." My blatant reply had left both Kian and Rian shocked.

Rian's expressions changed to horrid ones as if she hadn't expected I'd deny helping her. She tried to say something but no words came out of her mouth, then she averted her eyes what seemed to be in exasperation.

She sighed and spoke. "Why don't you see this as a problem? Because it surely is a matter of life and death for me. Besides, why'd you care about the issue when all you have to do is work for me in return for money. I'll pay you twenty-five thousand dollars each."

Twenty-five thousand dollars! That's a huge amount. The offer sounded extremely tempting and gave me hope of having money to pay my debt quickly. I'd be free from Ben's claws and would still be left with seven thousand dollars. But how could I break my own rules now when I hadn't done it before? I could look for other ways to arrange money to pay my debt. It wasn't the last option, or was it?

"I do not just work for money, Rian. As I said before I have some set of rules when it comes to working." I stated. "Besides, why would you need my—our help when you could run away on your own? You have got money, you can always run to wherever in the world you want to." I reasoned out the fact.

She sighed, her brows creased. "Had it been that easy as you put it, I'd have fled a long ago. You don't understand my situation. I have bodyguards tailing me twenty-four seven and they give every single information to my father. It's not easy for me to get away from their sharp eyes."

"They are not here, are they?" I pointed out as I roamed my eyes here and there to look for some uniformed guys—only if they were wearing a uniform.

"I told you they never leave me alone. They are just outside. Just to trick them, I came here with my friend who had invited her date so that I could talk with you two. She's sitting over there." She pointed behind me and I followed the direction of her finger. I found a couple conversing lovingly.

"So, now do you believe me?" She asked hopefully.

"I..." I sighed, contemplating what to answer her because I still hadn't found her reason genuine. "I am sorry to say, Rian, but I can't."

Money aside, her father was a powerful person and if he ever gets a slight hint that I helped his daughter escape, he'd surely throw me into prison.

Rian all of a sudden stood up from her chair and dragged it near me, and held my hands. "Please, please, Aura, please help me out. It's just two weeks, you and I will be free in two weeks." She pleaded.

I couldn't say anything. Her pleading almost led me to the verge of agreeing to help her, but I knew better. Helping her would be the riskiest task I had ever done.

Kian, who had been leisurely sipping the espresso he had ordered, chose the moment to interfere.

"Forget her, Rian. I am more than enough to help you escape "

Rian smiled warily at him. "I appreciate, Kian, but no. I can't take a single risk of being caught. You have no clue how many people I'm always surrounded with. That's why I need both of you to help me. Two is always better than one."

Kian scrutinized me with his gaze. There was something in his eyes that brought my senses to alert mode. And when he opened his mouth to speak, I found myself already falling into a bottomless pit of problems.

"Rian, if you don't mind I'd like to have a word with her in private."

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