“Come with me,” a voice hissed into her ear from behind, sending shivers down her spine.
Liam.
She knew it was him without even turning her head as he grabbed her hand roughly and pulled her into the corridors of the yacht. Like a fool, she allowed him to drag her, even though every pore of her body screamed for her to run for her life. But she couldn’t, and like a slave, she went with him – all the way to a deserted VIP suite at the far end of the yacht.
“Amber my dear,” Liam smiled slyly as he closed the door behind them, finally letting go of her wrist. It hurt where he had grabbed her and she nursed it gently. She made a mental note of him not locking the door. That was a good sign.
The VIP suite was much larger than the normal suites and had a built-in jacuzzi in the middle of the room. The warm bubbling water was lit up in bright blue hues by its submerged lights.
His manner was arrogant as he stepped forward and he forced her t
She recoiled at his words, silently screaming, Don’t touch me! And as if the heavens heard her plea, the door to the cabin blasted open. “Liam! There you are…oh..” It was Madam Cecil. Amber almost let out a sob of relief when she saw the woman walking in. “What are you two doing?” she eyed them suspiciously as Liam let got of Amber. “We were just getting up close and personal,” Liam smile slyly, getting up. “You never know, I might just bid for her next.” Madam Cecil ignored him and quickly went over to help Amber up. With trembling hands, Amber grabbed hold of Madam Cecil as if she was her lifeline. And in a way, she was. She had shown up like an angel in one of the darkest moments of Amber’s life and brought her back to safety. “You’d better head back to the stage..everyone’s looking for you. They want to see the real thing, not the PowerPoint presentation,” Madam Cecil said flatly. All trace of friendliness in her voice was
The night had been brutal and Amber wanted nothing more than to leave everything and run away. To disappear into the shadows of the night and never return. It was a tempting thought. A very dangerous thought. All this wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t set foot at the La Fire Club, she blamed herself, a flash of anger skirting across her face. So what if she had to continue working three to four jobs a day? At least she and Anson would have been able to lead a normal semblance of life. But now, here she was, standing alone in her bedroom. No, this is not my bedroom. This is Fabian’s guest room, she corrected herself bitterly and her gaze fell upon the little black handbag that lay innocently on the bed where the coin-like device lay hidden inside. I’m going to do the bidding of a man who might very well be the killer. What blasphemy is this? She bit her lips and fisted her palm. The thought of running to the police was very
Back in the tiny apartment where the Banks siblings stayed, Anson paced back and forth in front of his window sill.What next? he wondered, biting at his fingernails nervously. He had found the source of the scent. It was a unisex perfume called Suede Pony.Anson had spent the past few days scouring over every perfume shop he could find and inhaling so many scents that his nose suffered from temporary anosmia. But in the end, a kind sales lady who stuffed the coffee beans in front of his nose finally found what he was looking for.“Oh! You have a fine taste,” she exclaimed in her heavily accented voice. “Suede Pony is a very unique scent. It takes a certain man to be able to carry the scent well. We’ve only managed to match the scent to three customers so far. And we’re the only one selling this brand!”Three customers…that massively narrowed down his search. It was an astronomical find for him. But the
Amber expected the blueprint to smell of ammonia; after all, didn’t blueprints stink of urine? Her late father had a few copies of his company’s blueprints and she remembered pinching her nose at the stench.Time flies, she thought. They’re using laser printing for their drawings now. She really needed to brush up on her knowledge of today’s technology. Her lack of education was made even more obvious when her eyes fell on the drawing itself. It was alien to her. With all its odd abbreviations, numbers and geometries, Amber could only rely on the product name at the very bottom right of the drawing to confirm that it was in fact the VX2 blueprint.Carefully, she placed the A3 paper on the cool wooden floorboards, soothed it out evenly and positioned her phone over the paper.SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! And that was it.It is done, she blinked, surprising herself. She had taken photos of the blueprint. But strangely, the heav
Fabian got up from the edge of the bed where he was sitting and was just about to head to the study when Amber flashed into view with a look of anxiety. “Fabian, I need to head back to Margaret’s for some fresh cream. There’s none in the kitchen.” He narrowed his eyes, what was the woman talking about? As if sensing his confusion, Amber pointed downstairs, “I’m baking a cake. It needs icing. I need to get it from Margaret’s.” Fabian frowned, cocking his head. One would have thought it was a matter of life or death from the way she was talking. He raised two hands offering a solution, “We could buy online?” She shook her head furiously and a few strands of her flaming curls sprung free from her bun, tumbling down the nape of her neck, “No, no, no…you don’t understand.” Damn right I don’t, he thought. Was she trying to stop him from going to the study? She placed her hands on her hips in exasperation, “Margaret’s icing i
Amber had never held a man’s hand before, let alone enjoy a long car ride with one. It was a wonderful feeling, having a gentle warm hand envelope her own as the car cruised on auto-drive all the way to Margaret's.Sitting next to Fabian gave her a fuzzy warm feeling, like how one would feel stepping into the sun after a long winter’s night. It was a drive she would remember for a long long time.“Here, it’s for you,” Fabian broke the silence, surprising her with a white rectangular box with his free hand. She unclasped his hand unwillingly and accepted the box.“Open it,” he nodded in her direction, suppressing a smile.Slowly, she pried open the box and what lay before her made her gasp. It was a brand new phone!But it’s not even my birthday, her mouth dropped open.“Your phone’s old,” he said frankly.“But it still works…” her voice trail
“Margaret?”Amber walked into the bakery to find the place cleaned up and remembered that Margaret usually closed early around this time of the year. A little girl of three years sat on top of the counter with a rainbow-coloured lollipop in her mouth. Amber knew the little girl well for she often came with her mother for Margaret’s buns and pastries. She could hear Margaret talking to the girl’s mother in the kitchen behind a swing door.“Hello Darcy,” Amber smiled and ruffled at the little girl’s head. Darcy smiled back, swinging her legs back and forth as she sat atop the counter playing with an origami.“Waiting for your mummy?”Darcy nodded licking at her lollipop, her tongue was a mixture of purple, green and pink as she swooped her origami in the air mimicking the flight of a bird. Amber’s heart skipped a beat.A paper crane.It struck Amber as odd that the folding of
It was late in the afternoon by the time they got back to Fabian’s place. The sun had gone into hiding behind the brewing dark clouds. Lunch at Margaret’s had been wonderful and peppered with light but meaningful conversation. Fabian cupped his chin as he sat at the kitchen table smiling away at the memory of the older woman making a fuss over him. She reminded him more and more of his own mother.Not that he could remember his own mother’s face. He had been too young when she left and memories of her face had become a blur over the years. Still, he felt that his mother would probably look a bit like Margaret. They were roughly about the same age too. He liked her, a lot. And it wasn't something that happened to him often.He found it amusing that the older woman nagged at him to finish his meal and scolded him for touching dirty dishes in the sink. He chuckled.“What are you laughing at?” Amber asked. She was busy cleaning up the m