The Story of Blood and Roses

"Not going after Anthony, anymore?" She might have made a remark about my intelligence but didn't want to acknowledge her implications with a reply.

"Aw, don't be jealous, Cee," someone said. This was slowly becoming a regular occurrence for us. She tried to publicly humiliate me and it, in turn, made me more popular with all these people. These people loved a good catfight and especially one where one had their claws drawn and the other literally kicked them down, cold. Obviously, Cienna losing her fight was entertaining to them and I was their personal hero (for the moment).

Looking at the people who crowed the room, I wondered how long it would take me to get to know and extract information from each one of them. It would take years, I calculated and those years would be worth it.

Then I saw Sean seated between two boys who looked a bit older than him. He grinned at me before giving me a mock, two-fingered salute and then going back to the conversation. There was no space left in the room, so I promptly went up to the empty stool that Cienna had vacated and placed myself on it.

They stared at my audacity at first, but then they leaned back, going back to their respective conversations. Cienna would have burst out in rage if Anthony hadn't entered the room at that moment. The room grew silent as they saw him enter. They shot up to their feet as if by reflex. Even I found myself springing to my feet. They made space for him to move about. They gave him the throne, the central seat at the bar. He sat down and leaned back, spreading his legs a bit. It must have seemed inviting because Cienna just went up to him and slithered into his lap.

I decided that rolling my eyes would become an awful habit by the time I finished my mission. At the rate she was demonstrating her stupidity it would be a challenge to not pick up the habit.

His arms snaked around her waist and I could feel the curious eyes shifting from me to them from time to time. I felt a sudden loss of power, but put up a smile on my face, nonetheless.

She might have winked to aggravate me. It had the exact opposite effect on me. I felt the feeling of loss of power leaving me. She was weak enough to pull these stunts just so that she could prove her superiority.

Anthony, on the other hand, had his eyes fixed on me. Well, it was actually the protective jacket that I had pulled on when I entered the mansion behind Ethan. He definitely had a jacket fetish. He gave me a slow, lazy smile when he saw that I had caught him looking at me.

He brushed her off his lap and got up to his feet with his hands shoved inside the pockets of his jeans.

"You guys ready?" His voice was loud and clear. His dismissal of Cienna was lost in the excitement of getting to know what would happen next. "So, we're celebrating the signing of a new contract. We might be in a tight spot, but we're going to trash the other team." The crowd chortled and cheered in enthusiasm. "And that brings us to the beginning of the celebrations."

"What's the prize, Boss?" someone from the back of the crowd asked.

"Ten grand for winning the race," he answered in a light voice.

"You get to choose your partner. You ride the bike and they navigate you. We ride to LaGuardia where we start the race. We race back to the mansion, park the bike and the one sitting behind runs around the house trying to find the cash." The crowd broke out in laughter.

"A treasure hunt?" someone asked, hesitantly. Anthony shrugged.

"Go ahead, my toddlers. Let the games begin!" he backed away.

"Are you participating?" I asked. He nodded. He pulled out something from his pocket and signaled me to extend my hand. I did so and he dropped and keychain in it. I smiled.

The room filled out. I followed Anthony out of the mansion to the garage where he pointed at a wicked white beauty that was hidden behind his cars. I took it out to see him going to another one. Sleek, fast and powerful was what I'd thought of his bike.

I towed the bike out to see the others already moving out of the gates. Sean was waiting for me, I hoped. I mounted the bike and waited for Sean to do the same. He hopped onto the bike, bursting with enthusiasm. The bike buckled under his jerky movements as he kept talking.

"Shut up, Sean," I told him. He did stop talking but his enthusiasm did not fade anytime soon. I wondered what the cause of such hype was. I asked him as much, and he told me that he wanted the money. I remained amused until I saw Cienna's claws on Anthony as she wound herself around him like a snake.

.

I planned on warming the little demon of a bike when I heard it purr as it was brought to life. The demon bent to my will, smoothly rolling across the streets, almost making love to the asphalt. I could feel Sean gripping the bar at the back to balance himself.

"Why are you going so slowly?" I snorted at his question. He laughed as I increased the speed just a bit.

"You're enjoying the wind against your skin, kid. Don't make me drive like a maniac and get you wound up enough to leave you disoriented during the last phase of the race."

"The real reason, please?" He asked, screaming at the top of his lungs so that I could hear him over the whooshing sound of the wind. I increased the speed further, feeling him leaning forward, going for my waist to keep from falling off.

"I'm warming it up so I can work it to maximum capacity during the real race." I didn't hear a reply but continued to voice my question. "With Anthony participating in the race, don't you think it's a little unfair for the others? Who hid the damn cash, anyway?"

"Ethan. That dude won't open his mouth even if you torture him for days, and he's been through that. He was a war prisoner, of sorts. He's the perfect secret-keeper." Still shouting, Sean leaned in closer to speak in my ears. The whoosh of the wind was slowly turning into a loud roar as the speed increased.

"What happened to warm up and saving energy for the race?" he screamed.

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