Taunting you, taunting me
Taunting you, taunting me
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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or the wonderful characters used in this story and there is no self-profit attached to it, it's purely for my enjoyement and that of others.
The moon was shining just
right, no clouds, no stars. No restrictions, no obligations...
It was the perfect night.
Two leather clad figures
jumped off the main roof of the Zanarkadian Museum of Spiran
History. The only sound heard as they landed on the second roof was that of two
pair of high heels tapping on stone. One of them stood up right and looked
around her, checking for potential trouble. The other crunched next to the
window of the roof.
“We have ten minutes to get
in. Emerald, you receive me?”
Tapping on her ear
receptor, she looked at her partner, waiting for instructions.
“Roger, Amber. You guys got
30 seconds before the guard comes to check up. The sphere is right underneath
the window… but it’s going to be a tricky one.” Emerald answered from an
apartment a block away from the museum. “But those infrared lenses Ruby gave
you should be enough.”
“Roger.” Amber whispered, nodding towards her partner. “Let’s go.”
Making his last round of the night, a museum guard paid extra attention
to the alarm system surrounding their newest acquisition: The Sphere of
protected by a metal box foreseen of small glass windows on each of the six
surfaces so people could look at it. The metal cube was an alarm system on its
own. A magnetic system was relied to it so that any metallic object, like say a
glass perforator, in a six meter range made the alarm go off.
Before the thief got to the actual box, he still had the invisible alarm
system to pass. This was a complicated maze of infrared laser beams. After the
beams, if they were to fail, was the temperature controller.
The room was kept at a constant temperature of 36 °C any change with a range
above the 2°C would cause the immediate closure of all exit routes: the window
in the ceiling, the five entrances and the four windows around the object. A
steal blind would cover every one of them.
Smiling to himself at the very thought of someone being stupid enough to
try and steal the sphere, the guard turned himself around and finished his
round, whistling merrily to himself.
Just above him, outside the ceiling window, were two mismatched eyes
closely watching him.
“Be sure to be in and out in less than 2 minutes, so the temperature sensor
doesn’t go off, Sapphire.” Emerald said in her ear. “I will guide you all the
way.”
“Go bring the beauty in, sis.” Amber whispered, winking.
“This is going to be fun.”
Sapphire whispered, smiling back. “I love the challenge. I’m ready, Emerald.”
Amber opened the small
window and watched as her sister prepared herself to make a 10 meter fall.
“Make sure everything is in place.”
“Don’t worry.” Sapphire
said back with a grin, “You know how much I love this!”
“I know,
that’s why we can’t risk you neglecting anything. Azure will pay us good money
for this one; I don’t want to take any risks.”
Sapphire just checked her
equipment again while sighing. She knew her sister was right though, even if it
wasn’t really for the money that they did it. At least she personally didn’t.
It was just for the kick of it.
“Emerald, I’m going in.”
She said with one hand on her ear receptor and winking towards Amber.
“Good luck.” She mouthed.
“Let’s see if my four years of ballet will prove me to be of any good
for this one.” Sapphire grinned, jumping inside.
teeth as yellow as ripe corn; ‘Hey baby, see something you like?’ Guess what he
did next? He smiled at me in his, I suppose, most seductive way… I’m telling
you, I’m never going to that club again!”
The small group of girls on
the terrace in front of a café in Zanarkand laughed heartily. They were all
there; the sisters DeLucci, Yuna and Lenne, their cousin; Rikku
“To me all men are the same.
They’re only after one thing and after that you might as well take a dog if you
want attention.” Lenne said, taking a sip of her coffee and crossing her legs
underneath the table. “You simply can’t trust them. I told you not to go to
that club, Yu, but did you listen?”
Rikku smiled, “But surely
there must be some good guys left in this city good enough for us?” She said,
raising her shoulders innocently.
Yuna was pouting, “You’re
only saying that because you already found your future husband!”
“But did you really think
you’d find yours in that club?” Paine smirked, taking a sip of her espresso.
“Shows how desperate you really are.”
The brunette groaned, “It
does, doesn’t it?”
“Let’s face it sis, you desperately
need to get laid.” Lenne chuckled, throwing her long brown hair back and
reaching beside her seat for her purse. “Love is so overrated.”
Yuna just looked at her
older sister and felt bad for her; it was no wonder that she was sounding so
bitter. She just broke up with her fiancée… caught him cheating with one of her
secretaries at work. “Don’t give up on love, Lennie…”
Lenne shook her head and
waved her away with an irritated look on her face as she searched through her
purse for her portable. “Your oh so precious ‘love’ has caused me enough of
problems and I seriously doubt that I ever want to rely on it again.” She took
out the device and dialled the number of her office. “DeLucci here, I’ll be
there in 45 minutes. If Fabian arrives, tell him to wait for me in the lobby.”
She hung up and finished her coffee. “It was nice having lunch with you,
girls.” She stood up and bent over to hug her friends. “I need to get back to
work; I got a big deal to seal.”
“With
Fabian?
eyebrow.
“I thought you hated that
guy.” Paine said, cocking her head to the side.
“Wait… your ex-husband,
Seymour?” Yuna asked, sipping from her iced tea.
Lenne sighed and took her
car keys out of her purse before swinging it around her shoulder, “As much as I
hate the guy, I need to get on good terms with him because he will soon be my
associate. Our companies are about to fuse with each other.”
“What!” Yuna said, raising
her eyebrows in pure astonishment, “But DeLucci Inc. is an Auction/Antiques
Company. Fabian is a jeweller! I don’t see why you would want to work with
him.”
“Hum,” Paine said,
squinting, “Diamonds are a woman’s best friend.”
Lenne said nothing but just
smiled. “I really need to go. Ask Lorenzo to look at those ancient runes that
came in this morning, Yu. I don’t know when, but I’ll be at the Lounge tonight,
so don’t wait up for me girls. Ciao.”
After they had watched her
black Land Rover disappear into the traffic, Rikku turned her head to her right
side to look at Paine with a questioning expression. “What did you mean with
‘Diamonds are a woman’s best friend’?”
Paine just lay back in her
chair, “It just all doesn’t feel right, that’s all. I have a bad feeling about
it.”
Yuna shook her head, “Okay,
they don’t like each other, but that’s no reason to get all suspicious, Paine.
And I think that Lenne wouldn’t have got accepted to fuse if she had had her
doubts about it. I mean, she wouldn’t deliberately lead the company into danger
now would she? She knows what she’s doing. And besides, just because she
doesn’t like him, doesn’t give us a reason to not like him too.” She could feel
the icy glares of her friends piercing through her, “I mean, he is not that
bad-looking…” she said then, smiling shyly and looking into her glass of tea.
Rikku raised an eyebrow, “I
will just pretend to not have heard that… seriously, Yu.” She whispered and
rolled her eyes.
Paine just shook her head
and said nothing.
“Fabian has an
internationally renowned company and he has enough money to buy half of the
globe! I really wonder why he wanted to fuse with DeLucci Inc. It’s not like he
needs it. And Lenne wouldn’t have got accepted if there hadn’t been something
there for the company, I mean, the fusion will give DeLucci good publicity.”
The blonde pondered, trying to figure out the motives for Lenne’s
decision concerning the company.
“It’s the Companies who are
fusing, NOT Lenne and Seymour -again- right? It’s important to separate
business from private life.” Yuna wisely said, pointing with one finger in the
air.
“Maybe…” Paine whispered,
deep in thought, “I just hope she knows how to deal with Fabian. He is no good,
I can tell.”
“Yeah, the tabloids don’t
really praise him…” Rikku said nodding, “But his business is really good. They
earn a little bit over the 250 million each year and he seems be the…”
“Argh…
enough already, are we going to grow old bones here or are we still going
shopping?” Yuna said standing up. The two other girls soon followed her lead.
“I’m telling you,” she then whispered in a low tone, “Amber knows exactly what
she is doing. Just wait until Azure finds out.”
The three girls nodded and
took their belongings to exit the café.
hope it wasn’t a long wait?”
Lenne walked up to the tall,
blue haired man with the stunning grey eyes and held out her hand. He smiled
and shook it briefly.
“Not at
all, Miss DeLucci.
I arrived merrily 2 minutes before you. Shall we seal the contract? I have an
agenda full of rendezvous for this afternoon, so if you don’t mind.” He smiled
again at her and she felt the urge knock his teeth out. If it wasn’t for all
the benefits her company would receive with the fusion… That sick bastard.
“Of
course.” She
said, nodding and smiling, “Let’s go into my office.” She led the way to the
grand wooden doors at the end of the lobby and could feel his eyes undressing
her from the back. She shivered internally and took a deep breath as she opened
her doors.
“I see you have a splendid
view of
will see more of scenery like this… I’m really looking forward to working with
you... in a professional way.”
He was standing in front of
the large windows surrounding the round office, admiring the view from the 45th
floor with his hands in his pockets.
“We are all looking forward
to working with your company as well.” Lenne said, taking the documents from
the upper drawer of her desk. “You are a renowned businessman, Mister Fabian,
and we are a nationally well-known company. I hope that our joining will mean
the start of a long-term, professional co-operation.”
She displayed the documents
on her desk and took a pen out of the pen-holder and laid it beside the papers
to sign.
He chuckled and took his
hands out of his pockets and walked over to her desk. “There is no need to give
me that much praise, Miss DeLucci. You are one of the most talented
businesswomen in your category.” He stopped in front of her, close enough for
her to see three diamonds in his left ear. “But I’m sure that a beautiful woman
as you has a large range of expertise…”
Lenne averted her gaze and
walked around him, “Let’s get this over with and keep it PROFESSIONAL, shall
we?” she said, taking seat in her leather chair.
A small smirk formed itself
on his lips, but it went unnoticed by the brunette. “Where do I sign?”
“Here, here… and here.” She
pointed at the spots foreseen for this and watched him swiftly sign in a rather
curly handwriting. He then looked up at her when he finished and seemed to
enjoy the fact that she had been staring at him. Lenne gulped and took the pen
he was offering her.
“There. Now it’s your
turn.”
She quickly signed the
forms and placed them back into the drawer. “That’s handled. I think that
tomorrow we will go make it official?”
“Yes, at my office with the
people of the assurance, registrars and others…” He whispered, still standing
in front of her.
Lenne nodded and wished
that he would just stop staring at her. It’s for the company… for the
company… “Good. Then I will see you tomorrow. Still at
“Precisely.”
again.
he could lean in a little. “Miss DeLucci.?”
“Yes?” Lenne said, crossing
her legs in her chair and leaning back, “Was there something else you wanted to
discuss with me, Mister Fabian?”
He waved a hand and shook
his head, “Please,
business partners now, no need to be so formal.”
The way he just said that
made her feel filthy, but she just clenched her teeth and smiled, “Alright,
Was there something?”
“Yes. I was thinking to go
celebrate this fusion with a dinner.” He said nonchalantly, “Tonight.”
“Oh, well…” She was taken
off guard, but quickly took her agenda to check her appointments for the rest
of the day hoping to find an important meeting she could go to. “I have a staff
meeting at
apologetically, putting the small black book away.
“I shall wait for you at
7.30 in “La Godiva”. Don’t be late, so we can talk
about the future of our joined companies.” He said, smiling again. His eyes had
a mocking glow in them and she could feel a searing anger taking hold of her.
Without another word he turned
around and left her office.
She pushed herself away
from her desk with anger and stood up, putting a hand on her forehead to calm
herself.
“That’s so typically him… unnerving me when he knows that I have no
choice… If I didn’t need him that much for the survival of my
company… God, how I hate him.”
To be continued...
style='mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>-Diamant Noir-