"Let's go," I smiled at him.

"Where?" Christopher furrowed his brows in confusion.

"I have a mission to carry out," I smirked at him.

He grew even more confused, "What are you talking about? You stopped the assassins. What more is there to do?"

"Are you sure you know your father? He won't give up, I am positive he knows those assassins are done for. He will figure something else out, he has to get this thing done in this ball," I explained.

Christopher nodded in understanding, "But you have to stay away. Got it?" I told him.

"Are you serious? I am not 'staying away'," he scoffed.

I squinted my eyes at him and poked my pointer finger in his muscled chest while talking, "Damien is not gonna do anything if you are around. I heard the assassins talking and your father doesn't want you to see anything. My guess is, he thinks you'll figure out what crap he wants to carry out."

Christopher faced changed into one of realisation and in the meantime, I fixed my appearance and switched on the comms. I was about to walk out when he questioned, "Where are you going?"

"To get myself a new date." And with that, I confidently walked out of the room catching the attention of those around me.

I made my way to the bar, got myself a drink, knowing very well someone apart from Christopher or Alex was intently watching me.

I acted obliviously to their gaze as if I am not at all concerned and peacefully sipped my wine. Someone leaned on the counter beside me and ordered a drink.

I turned towards the blue-eyed, brown-haired, well- built young man looking at me and smiled at him.

(Sean O'Donnell as Aaron Hathaway)

He flashed me his pearly white teeth and greeted me with a 'Hi'. I smiled at him and replied, "Hey."

"I don't think we have met before, I would've remembered a beautiful face like yours," he flirted.

I chuckled and put my hand forward for him to shake, "My name is Ashley."
He placed a small kiss on the back of my hand and introduced himself, "I am Aaron Hathaway. The owner of Hathaway Corporations."

"Liking the party thrown for me?" he boastedly questioned while subtly moving closer to me.

I raised my eyebrow in question,"Thrown for you? Did I miss something?"

He laughed and tucked my hair behind my ear, "Sweetheart, this party was thrown for the Gray Industries' shareholders. I fund 35% of this company's manufacturing."

"Really? Well, I'd love a man with some power," I flirted back.

'What the hell are you doing?' Christopher angrily muttered through the comms. I just ignored him and focused on getting some information from Aaron.

Aaron laughed heartily and wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close, "Is that so?"

I nodded and laughed along with him. "Didn't you have a date? I can't see him around here," he curiously questioned.

'Thank god I am not there Aaron. I would've punched your ego out by now,' Christopher fussed.

"Oh, Christopher? Yeah, take my word for it, he is a jackass. Probably why I slapped him," I further tried to anger Christopher. The cursing I heard and Alex's laughs proved I succeeded.

Aaron chuckled, "Yeah, I saw that. Feisty, aren't you?"

I just smiled at him and drank some more of my wine, "He had it coming his way. Trust me, he very well deserved it."

"Typical Gray," Aaron sipped his drink.

'Oh, I'll show you what a typical Gray can do. I swear I am gonna bash his face,' Christopher angrily states.

"Calm down," I blurted out. Aaron gave me a weird look and I gave him a fake smile trying to cover up, "I was talking about your drink, must be strong."

Aaron just smiled at me, "I'll be fine." In the meantime, Christopher continued his rants, 'Calm down? No, I can't do that. And that idiot won't be fine once he and I have a talk.'

In the entire part of me having a conversation with two guys simultaneously one of which was extremely violent, Alex couldn't control his laughs. I could imagine him bending over and loudly laughing. Of course, he'd laugh at my situation.

"You know you are quite young to be this successful, Mr Hathaway," I put my hand on his chest and smiled flirtily.

"Good, it got a beautiful lady like yourself to talk to me," he smirked.

I just faked a laugh while throwing my head back, "Drool-worthy looks, power, influence and a good sense of humour. Perfect, aren't we?"

He smugly smiled and continued to sip his drink, "I think Mr Gray is about to make a toast," he observed.

I swiftly turned around to see Damien Gray holding a mic in one hand and a drink in another.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you are enjoying yourselves. Perhaps, I am about to address the main reason for me to host this event. Behind my company's success is not only my hard work and money along with my employees but also a number of people who saw potential in my business idea and invested in my firm. As for all the rumours of a new owner, its true, I will be stepping down from my position and handing over my responsibilities to my son, Christopher Gray."

Loud gasps were heard all around the room due to shock and confusion. I myself was not expecting this, he did not hand over his position yet but he did announce it to the world.

I could hear Christopher angrily cursing and grumbling about the words uttered by his father.

Suddenly, loud cheers erupted from the crowd and everybody started clapping and cheering for what had been said.

Aaron chuckled beside me, "He finally accepted and addressed his retirement."

"Do you have somewhere to be or can we have some fun?" I questioned while trailing my finger from his chest to his abs feeling hard muscle underneath his crisp grey shirt after I saw him read a text and tuck his phone back in his pocket.

Aaron lost his amused and humorous look and looked at me with his dilated ocean blue eyes. He brought his face close to mine such that our breaths were intervened and so were our lips.

When we parted with swollen lips, he grabbed my hand and proceeded to take me to the halls with empty suites.

He pushed me into a room and stepped forward to mould our lips together. As he did so I reached my hand behind his head and his eyes drooped as I injected him with a tranquillizer veil.

His entire body weight dropped onto me and I pushed his form on the king-sized bed.

"Where are you guys?" I questioned my partners in crime through the comms.

"What? Did you get bored of your boy-toy?" Christopher spits.

"Just meet me outside room number 112 on the second floor," I replied, annoyed.

As I heard a knock on the door, I first checked who it was outside and upon seeing two familiar faces, I opened the door wide enough for them to enter.

Alex and Christopher entered with amused and angered expressions respectively. When the saw Aaron's unmoving body on the bed, they stopped in their tracks.

"You killed him??" Alex questioned with a look of disbelief.

"What? No. Have you lost your mind? Why would I stop someone from killing him and then kill him?" I gave him a weird look.

"Well, then what is wrong with him? Trust me, I wouldn't mind him dead but why is he laying there unmoving?" Christopher grits out.

"Ever heard of tranquillizers?"

The realisation struck them and their faces formed an expression of understanding.

"Now that we have that out of the way, why I did that? Well, I saw him reading a text on his phone and it wasn't exactly a friendly message," I sighed.

"And that means?" Christopher urged trying to get me not to beat around the bush.

"It was a threat," I winched out.

I stepped forward towards his unconscious body and patted his pockets looking for his cellphone and when I found it, I grumbled annoyed at the passcode required to unlock it.

I connected it with my Bluetooth and just broke through all useless security which took me two minutes to hack. As I unlocked the phone, I wish I hadn't. There were a number of texts sent from a private number, all of them being threats to Aaron's life.

I passed the device to the two boys and watched them read through it and sigh.

The reason I bought Aaron to this isolated area and got him unconscious was so that I could prevent him from getting assassinated. Apparently, Damien wasn't interested in anybody else as much as the owner of Hathaway Corporations. As Aaron had already mentioned, he did fund 35% of the production.

"Killing Aaron Hathaway will lead to the downfall of Hathaway Corporations and the decrease in its value which will then make it possible for Damien Gray to buy this firm and expand his business. No offence Christopher, but your father is a gruesome asshole," I concluded.

"Tell me about it," Christopher scoffed.

Alex's ringtone flooded all our ears and he answered his phone. After a couple of minutes, he hung up looking slightly relieved.

"What?" I and Christopher simultaneously questioned.

"I got intel from an inside source that everyone outside is safe."

"How? " I questioned.

"When you stopped those assassins, you stopped the assassination. Damien couldn't find someone to do it at the last moment," he explained.

"Well, obviously you can't get assassins at your disposal all the time," I chuckled.

"Wait a minute, this means Aaron is still in danger," I muttered after a minute of silent thinking.

Both Christopher and Alex whipped their heads towards me and waited for me to explain my theory.

"Aaron is the main target, as of now. He is funding Damien more than anyone else and is richer than other shareholders. To assassinate a single person, your father does not need a crew of assassins or even host a fancy event, he could do it anytime, anywhere," I continued.

"Which means this guy is in danger more than anyone else and every minute he spends out of protection, Damien is getting closer to killing him," Alex sighed.

"Why do I feel like this means that he is coming with us?" Christopher blankly asked.

Alex and I shared a look, "Look, Chris, we understand you are not fond of him but this has to be done," Alex tried to convince him.

"Well, I don't like him or even your idea to 'protect him'," he muttered.

I was getting annoyed by his tantrums and so I decided to step in, "Can you stop behaving like a kid and actually think like a grown-up? If your father succeeds and buys Hathaway Industries, all of this is over. The fifty million transaction he was gonna heist, he won't do it anymore because he could easily get that money from Aaron's firm."

"Fine," Christopher narrowed his eyes at me and scowled.

"Great, then let's go," Alex jumped in preventing any fights to go down.

I started walking out of the room when Christopher called me back from behind, "Aren't you gonna help us carrying him?"

I turned around a smirked, "Do you want me to have my hands all over his body, even more than before?"

Alex stifled a laugh and Christopher just grumbled, annoyed.

"Aw, jealous much?" I laughed.

Christopher turned around and narrowed his eyes at me, "Don't push it and start walking."

I just raised my hands up in defence and started walking ahead of them towards the back door of the venue.